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From the Other Corner: Hurricanes vs. VA Tech, 26 Sep. 2009

Discussion in 'College Sports' started by NaboCane, Sep 27, 2009.

  1. NaboCane

    NaboCane Banned

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    I’ll start with a rant—quelle surprise

    Why, in this age of high technology and high definition, am I stuck watching my Hurricanes in fuzzy standard definition?

    I’m in the Pacific Northwest and recognize the reality* of my situation: that it’s a cold day in hell when the local stations carry ANY Miami sports. In fact, there’s a decided bias against ANY east coast games in local broadcast media, no matter how attractive the matchup.

    (*This is how lame local stations are: They don’t broadcast the early (9:00 AM here) games on Saturdays because of some misguided philosophy that has them only airing children’s programming in that window.

    Excuse me?! Don’t children have several WHOLE CHANNELS dedicated to airing their nasty, subversive talking sponges and loud, obnoxious Boobahs?!

    ****ing Seattle hippies.)

    Anyway…so when the listing showed either Illinois-Ohio State or Miami-Virginia Tech in HD, I knew right away to set the DVR to record Miami on its Gameplan channel; unfortunately, on that channel the game was not in HD.

    Which means to me that although the feed was in HD, for some reason on Gameplan it was shown in standard def.

    To add insult to injury, it rained heavily throughout the game, making the already stone-age standard def even fuzzier. Even on a 50” plasma, the high-camera view was like watching an episode from the last season of Moonlighting.

    It drives me INSANE that we have few-to-zero choices, too; with ABC owning ESPN, there’s no competition and no incentive to improve even the simplest issues, such as broadcasting an HD feed IN HD!!!

    Mega-Corporate America is ruining the world—slowly, maddeningly and one little bit at a time—but inexorably.

    On to the game itself…

    Miami looks sluggish; why? I understand that the conditions weren’t ideal, but they looked slow compared to Tech…and I know that Miami has more team speed than Tech.

    One of the talking heads commented that the Hurricanes practice and play in rain all the time; but while it’s true that it rains every afternoon in Miami during the Summer and early Fall, I don’t believe that Randy Shannon’s team practices in it routinely—and I think it probably has a lot to do with the lightning which usually accompanies Miami’s Summer afternoon rainstorms. No way they practice under that daily threat of incineration…and rightfully so.

    But more to the point: the Hurricanes show no evidence of being well-versed in handling wet footballs; yet Tech, which should at least not have an advantage in this area, didn’t seem to have any trouble whatsoever.

    Vexing.

    Oy vey; the kicking game:rolleyes:

    Matt Bosher, apparently caught in a slow-motion time warp while punting @4:47/2nd—making everyone around him look like they’re in a Blink 182 video—
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1gSSE2M8rA"]YouTube - Blink 182 - All The Small Things [Fast Motion][/ame]
    —has it blocked.

    And not one Hurricane is around the ball AT ALL—which must be another reason it was blocked (in addition to Bosher’s sleepwalking); also why, after batting the ball around among three Tech players for an hour or so, they finally walked it in untouched for the score.

    Tech, 21-0.

    Can someone please explain to me why Bosher is so highly thought of?

    Last game against Georgia Tech he left 6 points on the field with two missed field goals, in addition to having been demoted off of kickoffs because he could barely get to the 20. Today it’s the total lack of recognition of pressure on the blocked punt, leading directly to 7 points for Tech.

    Going back to last season, it has been my observation that he makes at least one bonehead mistake every couple games—sometimes many more than that; is that a star Kicker?

    A bright spot continues to be Leonard Hankerson; the kid is for real. Despite a drop earlier, that catch @10:16/4th on 4th down was MONEY.

    And THAT’s clutch.

    Graig Cooper—wow. Just WOW. What a TALENT, and what a great player who does all the little things right.

    He impresses me more every week.

    Jacory Harris is a big-time talent with all the tools, but this game showed he has some growing to do.

    Tech messed with his head all day and seemed to know everything he was going to do before he did it; all day he failed to recognize blitzes and coverages, and he could easily had 3-4 balls intercepted today.

    His two fumbles are uncharacteristic of the way he has comported himself this season, and are further evidence that he was trying to do too much—something that a veteran Quarterback with the Receiving corps he has would not do.

    He will be fine, of that I have no doubt. But expectations of him this season were obviously elevated beyond his experience, and it was bound to show against great teams…or teams with great Coaches like Frank Beamer.

    The Miami Defense had a rough day. ROUGH.

    Granted, they were put in a terrible position by the various failures of Miami’s Offense and Special Teams today, which resulted in great field position for Tech to start a couple of drives; But the D got gouged by Tech’s running game all day from the opening drive, and seemed simply outmatched at the line of scrimmage as well as in the Secondary.

    I would go back and re-watch this game on DVR to make some more observations, but I’m too beaten down at this point to watch that debacle again.

    I’m just thankful that Javarris James was able to get in for our only score to avert the unmitigated disaster that a shutout would have been.

    What a small mercy for which to be grateful.

    And now…random thoughts:


    • No Fairy Princess Award today. I’m simply too heartbroken, and no one actually embarrassed himself more than anyone else in the morass of poor play that made up this game.

    • Again with the Ref’s mic not working! Am I onto a trend…or a CONSPIRACY???!!!

    • Just kidding. It is true, though, that in every game that I watch the Ref’s mic doesn’t work at some point, usually to begin the game; although today it’s just before the half.

    • Another note on technology: I’ve been using Rain-X for about 30 years, and now there’s a product called Aqua-Pel, which is light-years better; so why are the field-level cameras’ lenses covered in droplets from the constant rain in this game? Hey, ESPN—should I have thrown in an extra five bucks when I paid for my Gameplan subscription? Seriously, join the 20th Century…we’ll wait, I guess. :rolleyes: Seeing as how we don’t have ANY choice, and all.

    • Who would have predicted that Tech would go up 14-0 in the 1st quarter? And with still 4:46 left…ugh.

    • 21-0 Tech at the half…double-ugh.

    • And who could have predicted that Miami’s Defense would wet the bed this badly against a previously-unremarkable Tech Offense?

    • Kudos to the Hokies’ D, though; they did not allow Miami to get a running game going until the 3rd quarter, when they started defending their commanding lead instead of clogging the LOS like they did in the 1st half. They obviously scoured tape of Miami’s Offense and Jacory Harris in particular; DBs were jumping routes all game long, and they obviously knew Harris’ tendencies well.

    • The Jimmy Graham Experiment took a big hit in this game, with Graham doing his best Ted Ginn imitation and dropping two passes in his hands—leaving two first downs on the ground in a key drive for Miami @±9:00/3rd.

    • NOT clutch.

    • How key a drive? So much so that, down 21-0, Miami went for it on 4th and 13 after that.

    • They didn’t make it.

    • But what separates Graham from a guy like Ginn is that Graham will always have size on his side, while Ginn is a delicate little flower who—amazingly—has played football since he was a toddler.

    • Also: this is Graham’s first season EVER playing football after playing basketball all his life; as long as he continues to improve, at worst he can be a nice blocking Tight End in the pros after this, his final year of eligibility; at 6’8” and 260 now, he’ll probably come into the NFL around 270-280. It’ll be like having an extra Tackle on the field at any given time; an eligible Tackle.

    • In fact, I won’t be surprised to see him become a high-risk/high-reward Tackle project in the 2010 draft. Late in the 2010 draft.

    • I love Mark Whipple, but @9:00/4th, what was he thinking calling a statue of liberty play when the passing O was working well on that drive? Brainfart.

    • Penn State had a day similar to Miami’s today—just on a dry field. Dreadful day for the Nittany Lions in terms of taking care of the ball.

    • God, Florida State looked dismally bad today against South Florida.

    • Is USF this good?

    • Thank goodness Georgia Tech beat North Carolina handily, or the ‘Canes would take an even bigger hit in the polls after losing so badly, and with FSU getting dominated by a small-conference school—even if that school was USF.

    • Tim Tebow was taken to the hospital in an ambulance with concussion-like symptoms this afternoon after a vicious, if inadvertent, kick in the head by one of his own Linemen; hope it turns out to be nothing serious and he’s OK. Late reports say he’s being held overnight at the University of Kentucky’s Medical Center, though.

    • Tebow’s first question upon regaining consciousness? “Did I hang on to the ball?”

    • And the legend grows…

    • This is how awful a conference the Pac-10 is: Oregon CREAMED #6-ranked Cal today, 42-3.

    • It’s not that the Ducks aren’t that good—it’s about how the hell the Golden Bears could have been ranked #6 to begin with, given how ****ty-weak this conference is, year-in and year-out?!

    • I’ve always agreed somewhat with those who say that there should be NO rankings before the 4th-5th week of the season…now I’m solidly in their camp.

    • Speaking of which…bye-bye, Washington. :chuckle: I’m sure it was nice for you to be ranked, albeit at 24. Now it’s back to reality.

    • ESPN’s commercials have consistently been among the funniest on TV since the network’s humble beginnings.

    • That one with Ditka and Snoop made me laugh for a while.

    • Just saw Junior Seau as a rodeo clown or some such thing. **** me. Time to start wrapping it up.

    • Ozzie Guillen’s rant after his White Sox lost to the Detroit Tigers today was priceless—Nabo-worthy, even. Try to catch it if you have a chance.

    • I haven’t heard that many f-bombs since Dick Cheney slithered away from public life.

    • Yeah, I went there…baseball. Live with it. :tongue:

    • Alright, it’s official: I will now retire the Ray Lewis Hurricanes jersey until next season. :no:

    • Next week: Bernie Kosar’s #20. :yes:
     
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  2. alen1

    alen1 New Member

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    Jimmy Graham played football in high school.

    Javarris James annoys me. Very soft player who can easily be taken down by the ankles. There were a few play to open that game where if it was Cooper, it would have been a lot more yards picked up.

    We were missing Andrew Smith, Olivier Vernon, Adewale Ojomo and Marcus Forston from the defensive line. That's why we got beat as well as undisciplined.

    Randy Phillips is a very up and down player.

    That call on Vaughn Telemaque of pass interference on third down was a poor one. As well as the one down field on Brandon Harris I believe where the ball wasn't even catchable.

    Did DeMarcus Van Dyke actually make a play in that game? I think he had a nice bat away early in the game. I was surprised to see him on the field. What a unfortunate flop he's been for us.

    Sean Spence is a helluva talent but man, this has not been a great season for him. He needs to put on weight; he's probably 210 soaking wet right now. He can't disengage off of blockers and he's struggling with shoulder blocks at his feet.

    Sam Shields I thought had a few nice plays in the game. Didn't give Marcus Vick, I mean Tyrod Taylor, the angle on the run on the flats in the first quarter and then came back with a nice bat away down the right sideline. Sadly he's probably a better tackler than most of our cornerbacks outside of Brandon Harris and Shields was a WR last year.

    Random fact I picked up in the game is that Sam Shields is our fastest timed player at a 4.24 forty. Guess who's number two? Travis Benjamin. 4.25.
     
  3. Stitches

    Stitches ThePhin's Biggest Killjoy Luxury Box

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    Just for the record, it was not at all a dry field.
     
  4. NaboCane

    NaboCane Banned

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    Hmm...didn't know Shields was that fast. I knew Benjamin had clocked a sub-4.3 forty, but hearing that Shields is faster is a true surprise.

    Why on earth did he fail as a Receiver? Why is he not used as a Returner?

    Could his hands possibly be ANY worse than his coverage skills? Doubt it.

    He is what you say he is though, Alen: one of the surest tacklers on a Secondary apparently coached by Sam Madison.

    Yeah, Spence is still in his high school body. He really needs to follow Colin McCarthy's example and hit the weight room HARD; listed at 6'0" and 211, he won't get far like that.

    Van Dyke is an enigma; 6'1 and a Junior, yet still only 182 pounds...insufficient cover skills for a Corner, too thin for Safety.

    Those PI calls were horse****.
     
  5. alen1

    alen1 New Member

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    I think it's because he's not mentally sound. He has concentration issues IMO. He's used as a gunner on ST's and he does well there.

    I think his hands are fine, it's just that he's not good with concentration IMO.

    Yeah. I doubt he's actually 211; he came in at 202 and he looks no different to me. If I remember correctly though, Jonathan Vilma was about the same weight at Miami.

    I'm at a loss for words to describe what's happened to him. I thought it may have been that he didn't fit into the defense but I don't understand how he can't play Cover 2. It's what we run from what I've seen and I don't know how he has so much issues.

    Also, I brought this up last week and I'll do so again but where the hell is Arthur Brown? Jordan Futch is getting more playing time than him and Brown was the top LB coming out. He needs to learn the playbook and get the game to slow down for him.
     
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  6. NaboCane

    NaboCane Banned

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    How Spence is playing as a true Freshman and Brown is not is beyond my understanding.
     
  7. Section126

    Section126 We are better than you. Luxury Box

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    That game turned on those two dropped passes by graham.

    They make it 21-14....Va. Tech craps the bed and folds.

    I cannot blieve that Turd taylor played that well. he is god awful. it was obviosu that the canes were not ready for the weather.

    From the changes to the O-lines cleats, to the Jacory harris equipment changes ...etc....

    dissapointing.


    I will say this...NOT winning the ACC this year is UNACCEPTABLE.
     
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