When I was a freshman at N.C. State, I quickly learned that I needed to know four words in the fight song above all others. I could be forgiven for not knowing the rest as long as I shouted “Go to Hell, Carolina!” at the top of my lungs. (The actual words to the song are “Come over the hill, Caroline,” but really, what fun is that?)
For Wolfpack fans, it’s crystal clear that North Carolina is their rival. But Sports Illustrated has a survey out that shows every fan base in the ACC doesn’t have the same clarity, at least when it comes to figuring out who’s their main in-conference rival.
The SI survey covered every I-A conference in the country. Andy Staples wrote a summary of its results, including this description of how it came about:
In October, we asked college football fans of all stripes to tell us about themselves. We received 33,144 responses to questions such as “What is your favorite team?” and “How closely do you follow recruiting?” We received responses from fans of all 120 schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and everyone’s answers counted the same — whether they came from Ohio State fans (the most, with 2,004 responses) or Florida Atlantic fans (the fewest, with four responses).
That last sentence tells me this wasn’t the most scientific survey, but that doesn’t make the data for the ACC any less interesting. Here’s how fans from each school answered the question “What is your biggest conference rival?”:
As is often the case with the holiday season, the last weekend of regular season ACC football seems a little anti-climactic.
Clemson clinched a spot in the conference title game last week, joining Georgia Tech for a rematch of their highly competitive game from week 2. Georgia Tech won the first half of that game, 24-0. Clemson took the second half, 27-6. The comeback wasn’t enough in a contest we’ll be revisiting next week.
Tech and Clemson take two final stabs at defending the ACC’s honor this week. The Yellow Jackets host nemesis Georgia, while Clemson travels to Columbia to play arch-rival South Carolina.
Elsewhere, the intraconference games largely match bottom- and middle-feeders. Duke and Wake Forest will meet in a matchup of two of the conference’s most prolific quarterbacks, eighth-year seniors Riley Skinner and Thaddeus Lewis. Maybe it only seems as though they’ve been playing college football that long.
Boston College seeks its second road win against Maryland.Virginia Tech seems likely to give Al Groh a rousing sendoff in what will probably be his last game coaching Virginia. Miami plays at South Florida in what may be the best matchup of the weekend.
Finally, we have the rotting husks of two rivalries: North Carolina plays at N.C. State, while Florida State travels to Gainesville to play Florida.
Closer to home, my lead in the IoT season standings is officially insurmountable. Jeremy and I differ on two games this week; sweeping them would only get Jeremy to within three games of me. I’d like to thank Boston College for nailing this one down for me by mailing in the Carolina game last week. At this time (midday) next week (Dec. 4), I’ll be getting ready to eat a steak in New York, courtesy of Jeremy. Or, chicken on a stick from a street vendor. Depends on my mood.
The IoT team had a bit of a long week, so we haven’t had much time to post. We’re planning to pick up the pace next week, but we couldn’t let this Saturday go by without getting our picks in.
Like the ACC Coastal Division, the IoT picks league is all over but the crying (for me, at least). Jimmy widened his lead by correctly picking North Carolina and Boston College last Saturday. My chances of catching up have gotten a lot slimmer, especially since we agree on just about everything this week, except the UNC-BC game. I get the feeling I’m going to hear a lot of gloating at the IoT summit in New York in two weeks.
Three weeks from now, Team IoT will meet face-to-face in New York City. One of us will be buying a grossly overpriced steak for the other.
This weekly picks column will determine whose wallet gets lighter in The Big Apple. Right now, I’m holding a two-game lead on Jeremy. As has become our custom, we differ on two games this week: Miami at North Carolina and Boston College at Virginia.
Four of six ACC games Saturday will occur in central North Carolina. The corpse of Florida State, beheaded last week by the needless loss of quarterback Christian Ponder, is traveling to Winston-Salem to play Wake Forest. Duke hosts Georgia Tech, the ACC’s last hope for national relevance. Miami visits Chapel Hill to play North Carolina. And N.C. State hosts C.J. Spiller and Clemson. A warning to the Wolfpack: I’ll be in the stands this week. State hasn’t won a game I’ve attended in five years.
A tangent: at Carter-Finley, I’ll be wearing my T.A. McLe … er, my Levar Fisher jersey. A funny story: at the last home game of the 2002 season, McLendon and Phil Rivers jerseys were both on sale for $20. “Why get a #17 that will only be useful for another year,” I thought. “You’ll be able to wear that 44 when Touchdown Anytime wins the Heisman in 2004! And hey, how about Kelly Rowland? Beyonce will rue the day she split with THAT hitmaker.” Way to be, Jimmy. Way to be.
Elsewhere, Virginia hosts Boston College, while Virginia Tech travels to College Park to play Maryland.
As a former student reporter once said about a student government meeting, there was an awful lot of motion in the ACC last weekend with very little movement in the IoT power rankings. Most of the top and bottom of the rankings stayed the same, with some slight changes in the mushy middle.
Meanwhile, we’re trying something a little different with the power rankings this week. Jimmy is tackling the Coastal Division (a.k.a. – the better half of the conference), while I take on the Atlantic. This arrangement works out rather nicely because it gives me the chance to do some gloating about a bit of a dispute we’ve been having. More on that later in the rankings — much later.
My good friend Matt Taylor, who writes the outstanding Roar from 34 blog on the Baltimore Orioles, sent me a link to this video earlier today. Keep an eye on Andre Branch, No. 40 for Clemson, about four seconds into the clip.
In case you missed what happened there, Branch pulls FSU guard David Spurlock’s head back and appears to try to gouge his eyes. Florida set the going rate for an attempted eye gouge in the SEC at a half-game suspension after Brandon Spikes dug his fingers into Georgia RB Washaun Ealey’s helmet. (To Spikes’ credit, he voluntarily lengthened his own suspension to a full game.) Wonder if Dabo Swinney will set the bar higher in the ACC.
Since Jeremy and I didn’t get any comments or emails over the Power Rankings’ absence last week, I can only assume you’re all capable of great restraint. Life has gotten busy around IoT headquarters lately; all apologies.
There’s been plenty of turnover at the top of the conference since we last checked in. Miami held first place for a week, only to yield to Georgia Tech after an overtime home loss to Clemson. After two straight losses, Virginia Tech is falling, but not freely enough to give anyone new a shot at the top three. Clemson is the first time all season to hold onto our fourth spot, defending it with a 49-3 win over Coastal Carolina.
As we come down to the last third of the college football season, just about every game on the ACC schedule this weekend has bowl implications. The only one that doesn’t is the game the IoT crew might be most interested in.
Jimmy and I have had a running debate over the last couple of weeks over who is the worst team in the conference — Maryland or N.C. State. (Check out our belated Power Rankings tomorrow to see how we came down on the question this time around.) Fortunately, we’ll finally get our answer on the field Saturday. While we’ve wasted quite a bit of time arguing this point, we both think the Wolfpack is going to come out on top at Carter-Finley Stadium (a.k.a. – the Un-fairgrounds).
Like the football season, we’re coming down to the end of our two-man IoT picks league. Last week, we split the two games we differed on, leaving me two back in the standings. I’ll get another chance to make up that ground Saturday.
One of the two games we’re divided on this week is Duke-North Carolina, which has some actual implications in the standings for once. Jimmy is predicting Duke’s three-game winning streak comes to an end, but I’m taking the Blue Devils to move one step closer to a bowl.
Our other head-to-head matchup is the (post-Tommy) Bowden Bowl. Florida State and Clemson have both suddenly gotten hot after disappointing starts. Jimmy likes the Seminoles and their high-scoring offense. Give me the home team that actually plays some defense.
Georgia Tech WR Demaryius Thomas is running away from the rest of the ACC. (Kevin C. Cox, Getty Images North America)
Writing about Demaryius Thomas is almost tedious.
The Georgia Tech junior is so clearly the Atlantic Coast Conference’s best receiver that pondering his greatness can get a little boring. Consider: Thomas’ 823 receiving yards place him 163 ahead of his nearest competitor, Duke wideout Donovan Varner. Varner gains about 82 yards per game; Thomas could take Georgia Tech’s next two games off and Varner would possibly catch him.
Thomas is first in the ACC in receiving yards, second in receiving touchdowns, second in yards per reception. He has 12 catches of 25 or more yards, four more than North Carolina and just as many as Maryland. Look out, Virginia and Virginia Tech (13 apiece).
If there’s a definitive Demaryius stat, it’s this one: Thomas has accounted for two-thirds of Georgia Tech’s total passing yards this season. No one in the country bears as great a share of his team’s passing burden as Thomas. Only 11 receivers are responsible for as much as 40 percent of their team’s passing this year:
J.J. learned how to build mics in his workshop class. They gave him the 2005 ACC Player of the Year Award and made it his last. (Thearen Henderson/Getty Images)
I had pretty much given up on hating J.J. Redick. After four years of on-court d-baggery as the ACC’s best-ever three-point shooter and Duke’s last big star, he’s become a totally irrelevant NBA player. Here are a few guards who played more minutes than Redick for the Orlando Magic since they drafted Redick in 2006: Keith Bogans, Carlos Arroyo, Keyon Dooling, Maurice Evans, Courtney Lee, Mickael Pietrus and Anthony Johnson. Redick’s lack of athleticism or ball-handling ability have rendered him virtually useless in the NBA. There’s no point in disliking him anymore.
Rather, there was no point in disliking him anymore. That all changed today, when news broke that Redick is working on a hip-hop album. Priceless.
Early predictions: J.J.’s effort will be less popular than Shaq’s, better than Kobe’s and gay-friendlier than Iverson’s. (Sidenote: Every time I try to be more sympathetic to AI, I remember epic gay-bash in that song and give up. Yikes.)
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