Week 1 Picks

Okay everybody, this is it!  Time for me to make the first batch of picks for the 2008 season.  The teams I have chosen to win are listed in ALL CAPS.

THURSDAY NIGHT GAMES:

• Jacksonville State @ GEORGIA TECH
• Charleston Southern @ MIAMI
• N.C. State @ SOUTH CAROLINA
• WAKE FOREST @ Baylor

SATURDAY GAMES:

• VIRGINIA TECH vs. East Carolina (Charlotte)
• USC @ Virginia
• Delaware @ MARYLAND
• McNeese State @ NORTH CAROLINA
• James Madison @ DUKE
• BOSTON COLLEGE vs. Kent State (Cleveland)

GAME OF THE WEEK:  CLEMSON vs. Alabama (Atlanta)

Florida State is idle and does not begin its season until next week.

Worth Noting:

• This weekend marks a number of firsts:
  • First game for new coaches David Cutcliffe at Duke and Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech.
  • First home game for The U in their new digs, Dolphin Stadium.
  • First time in ACC history there will be four games being played on Thursday night, with the NCSU-South Carolina contest the only one of them to air on ESPN.
• The BC-Kent State contest should lend an air of familiarity.  BC’s Jeff Jagodzinski and Kent State’s Doug Martin both worked together as assistant coaches at East Carolina under Steve Logan, now the Eagles’ offensive coordinator.  Hmmm, wonder if he had anything to do with this …
• Virginia’s opener against highly-ranked USC should be quite a doozy.  Not exactly the right way to start off the season, given the Cavs have lost 5 of their last 8 openers, including two in a row – Pitt in 2006 and Wyoming in 2007.
• Eat mor chikin? Okay, so there won’t be an army of cows on the field to stop the Clemson-Alabama game being played inside the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.  Chick-Fil-A (who else?) is sponsoring the contest, and ESPN Game Day will broadcast from Centennial Olympic Park.  However, both downtown landmarks did suffer damage from a tornado that ran through there last March.  Both have been repaired and are fully operational.
• The last time NCSU and South Carolina squared off in 1999, both teams had to deal with heavy rain and wind associated with the remnants of Hurricane Dennis.  That storm set the stage for the massive destruction and flooding that Hurricane Floyd brought to Eastern NC days later.  The latter storm caused widespread destruction to the ECU campus in Greenville, forcing one of their home games to be moved to Carter-Finley Stadium.
• I honestly do hope that Blue Devil fans will heed the word of David Cutcliffe and fill up Wallace Wade this Saturday.  It’s quite a challenge for the former Ole Miss head coach and Tennessee assistant, but he is determined to change the culture of the moribund program.
• Traffic tip – Anyone heading towards downtown Atlanta this weekend should avoid taking I-75 & I-85 southbound due to heavy constuction and multiple lane closures in the area.  Alternate routes and other transportation arrangements, including mass transit, are highly recommended.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you ahead of time.

Are you ready?

Well, the time has almost come.  Check back here beginning THIS WEDNESDAY for the first batch of picks for the upcoming ACC college football season!  Can ya dig it?

All-Day Preview Show

If you happen to live in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, don’t forget to tune in to 99.9 the Fan this Thursday for their rather extensive ACC Preview Show.  Basically, it’s a collection of their regular programming, which include The Fanatics in the mornings, The Insiders in the afternoons and early evenings, and their nightly show Inside the ACC.  In addition, they’ll be offering a AD’s roundtable show during the mid-day as well.  So, if you’ve got nothing else better to listen to on the radio or your iPod while at work that day, tune into 99.9 on Thursday to hear just about everything that is ACC football.

No vote for Duke

Well, the preseason USA Today Top 25 Coaches’ Poll was released over the weekend.  Only three schools got ranked – Clemson was ranked #9, Virginia Tech #15, and Wake Forest #23 (a first for the school), while a few others did receive votes (including UNC, which is a bit surprising).  Even though the ACC wasn’t as highly represented as the SEC, Big Ten, or Big XII, at least there’s one school that isn’t getting its obligatory mention this year.  South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier opted not to give the Blue Devils the #25 on his ballot, simply because he was asked to.   Apparently, his homage to the school that gave him a break two decades ago was becoming running joke of sorts, given the Blue Devils’ abysmal performance as of late.

I read that the head of the AFCA was responsible for making The ‘Ol Ball Coach nip his tribute in the bud.  Then again, it could be because former Tennessee assistant and Ole Miss head coach David Cutcliffe is at the helm for Duke.  Both paths have been known to cross each other at one point or another during their careers, so I suspect that may be why the Devils were given the short shrift this time around.   After all, Spurrier did get under Cutcliffe’s superior during his days at Florida by joking “You can’t spell Citrus without UT“, in reference to the bowl game where the #2 team of the SEC went at the time.

Hmmm, I wonder if Coach Cutcliffe would remember that remark as he tries to rebuild the Blue Devils to their former glory.

That time of year – it’s almost here

Hard to believe yet another college football season is upon us. Which reminds me of a little blog series I did last year, when I picked the winners of each game involving teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Sure, the ACC itself may not be as big as the SEC or the Big Ten when it comes to glory and tradition. But at least the games itself do lend a certain aura of excitement and mystery. Granted, as much as I love ACC basketball during the doldrums of winter (and most anybody I know can certainly attest to that 🙂 ), nothing can compare to a Saturday afternoon in the fall being surrounded by thousands of screaming fans in the great outdoors. The kind of passion that stokes school spirit among young and old, rich and poor, diehard and casual fans alike.

Which is why I am premiering this “brother” blog, as I like to call it. Every week during the regular season, including Championship Week and the postseason, I will wax poetic on the teams I strongly believe have a chance to win. For now, I see this as merely a work in progress, which I will tweak from time to time until the season begins. I do plan on presenting my selections every Thursday evening (or Wednesday if there’s a weeknight game on ESPN). While my last experiment was a moderate success – I was right about 65% of the time, by the way – I do hope to see if I can top that mark this year.

Only time will tell if I surpass that benchmark, indeed.