ACC Week 1

clemson started off the season with a nice win over florida atlantic. after a few early game gitters by will proctor the offense got it going and was able to move the ball at will. the only setback from the game is the loss of anthony waters for the season with a torn acl... the fsu/miami game was a defensive slugfest. both teams have great defenses and we will have to wait and see in week 2 how there offenses will be for the season. the one thing that stood out in the game though was the speed of the fsu defense. this will cause problems for teams in the acc all season... boston college did not look good at all against central michigan. while they came out with a win they let it get close at the end when they should have put the game away... duke was just awful losing to 1-AA richmond. it will be another year of waiting for basketball season to start up in durham... north carolina decided they wanted to stay at the bottom of the acc this year by having an opening game loss to rutgers at home. its never good to lose to one of the bottom teams of the big east at home... ga tech looked good against notre dame. there defense is going to be stingy this year but the offense will struggle as teams double team calvin johnson and they are forced to go to other recievers. reggie ball's play this year will either carry gt or keep them down... maryland had a nice game against william and mary but nothing to write home about. more time will be needed to judge the team... nc state (see maryland above only with app state)... its going to be a long year for al groh and virginia. they had no offense in the loss to pitt and unless they turn it around quickly the acc schedule is going to eat them up... wake forest suffered a huge loss in the injury to ben mauck. he has been the leader on their team for the last couple of years so we will have to see how they react with a new qb under center.

You Don't Go To War Against Them, You Go To War For Them

mike lupica of the new york daily news wrote an article this weekend about how the san francisco chronicle writers who wrote game of shadows may be having to go to jail because they will not reveal their sources (article). he calls them heroes, and thats exactly what they are. the major sports, especially baseball had turned a blind eye to steroids and these two men brought it to the forefront. many americans had begun to have doubts in the back of their minds about all the inflated numbers and this book came out and told the truth. it allowed the public to have the backing for their latent outrage.

now that they are being threatened with going to jail some of the public has turned on them saying that they should go to jail for what they did. as far as we know they didnt go in and steal the grand jury testimony, it was given to them and they did what they thought was right. some have claimed that they were morally wrong for putting it into a book and made a profit. this argument is rediculous at best. they are reporters and writing is their jobs. they had been reporting on this for over two years in the san francisco chronicle who was their employer and thus paying them. if the papers sell more copies then there is the opertunity for its employees to make more money. all they did was collaborate their data and put it into a book form so that people all over the US could read it. if they had conceled all the information from the last two years and then put it into a book then i could see this argument but not with the timeline that actually progressed.

so there is a good chance they will be going to jail for a while. unless the prosocuters stand down the judge has no choice but to put them in jail and that will be a shame. two of the very best writers will no longer be able to investigate and do the dirty work for the american public and bring out more hidden truths of the steroid era.

More Rankings to Ponder

collegefootballnews.com has recently released their program rankings for the top 100 college programs. these rankings are a composite score of data from the last three years and include attendance, conference strength, student academic performance, wins, elite wins, and bad losses. in this formula clemson was ranked 24th while south carolina was 56th.

Clemson
Attn: 7.77
APR: 7
Draft: 7
Win: 22
Q. Win: 10
E. Win: 2
B. Loss: 1

USC
Attn: 8.04
APR: 3
Draft 9
Win: 18
Q. Win: 4
E. Win: 0
B. Loss: 0

the numbers there pretty much speak for themselves... the one comment that collegefootballnews.com did make was the amazingly low apr score for carolina (the one that measures student academics). its good to see that those carolina football players are getting a great education.

other thoughts to ponder with these rankings are the powerhouses that lie inbetween clemson and south carolina. southern miss, fresno st, toledo, memphis, ole miss (sec powerhouse), northwestern, n. illinois, arkansas, and navy all rank higher than carolina. but lets all not forget that they are "title contenders" every year.

25 Days

there are less than 25 days till the college football season starts... fall practice has started, students are beginning to come back to campus, the sports buzz is beginning to ramp up after the summer doldrums of baseball only on the sports pages. so fear not, football will soon be here with the glory of the weekend. until then all we can do is do our part for the preseason... start training for tailgating.

US Policy Shift

it was announced yesterday that the US would now abide by the geneva convention concerning the treatment of detainees. well its about damn time, its not as if the geneva convention hasnt been around since wwii. and who was more than likely a principle negotiator and deal maker during those conventions... the US. it never fails to amaze me what prez bush will try to get away with and then have to change his mind or shift his policy because the world is in outrage.

World Cup Final

well the world cup final has now been over for 24hrs so there has been adequate time for processing on the events that occured. one cannot make any comments regarding the final without first mentioning the amazing headbutt that zidane put on materazzi. i have never seen anything like that in any sport. i think the fact that zidane went for his chest showed that he was not attempting to injure materazzi just send him a message. while it has not been reported what was said between the two yet, one can only assume how serious the comments were as zidane was walking away then stopped and went forward with his attack.

the game itself was just as good as advertized. the play by both teams was superb and led to a truly exciting game deserving of the final. overall the officiating in the game was pretty good. the only down spot is the red card given to zidane, and while justified, the fourth official saw it on the replay screen. fifa is denying this but it is obvious what happened as no one had a clue until moments later after it had been shown multiple times in the stadium. the penalty shootout is no way to end a world cup, but it must be done in the interest of the players. many causal fans have said this is not the way to do it and that they should continue to play until someone scores. while this would likely happen after another overtime period or two it just cannot be done. soccer is not like other sports where there is free subbing, and unless fifa changes the sub rules there is no way that the players can play more than 120 mins. as soon as they do too many big name players will be injured and then everyone will be complaining about that. what the shootout showed is that the weakness for france was barthez as he was nowhere close any of the pks even when he guessed right. its not as if buffon made any saves either, he just got lucky that frances best three penalty takers were on the bench, zidane, henry, and vierra.

so this leaves us with italy as our world cup champions. personally i believe they are the least deserving of all the teams that made it to the final 4 and possibly the final 8. the fact that they put de rossi on at all was sickening after what he did in the US game. many italian fans wanted him kicked off the team. then you just have the fact that they are the biggest actors in the world cup. just look at materazzi when he was headbutted. you would have thought that he had been shot. he layed there and rolled for a good five mins. its time for him to man up and deal with it. i believe that the officiating this year just placated there diving style. fifa called the games so tight that players were diving all over the place trying to get calls. and to think if they hadnt gotten the pk in the last few seconds of injury time against australia they may have not made it out alive of that game as they were a man down and more than likely would have lost in overtime. hopefully in the next world cup the italians will get in the wieght room a bit and stop being little babies everytime a player breathes on them.

Here's to you North Korea

my tribute to north korea... here's to you north korea... you startle the world with your typeodog 2 missle... and then like a virgin you blow up in less than 45 seconds.... so north korea scientists, keep up the good work, maybe one day you will live up to the expectations that your gaming friends have given us.