FTRS hard at work
This week the ACC Bloggers decided to put the fate of the conference discussion in our hands. Whether that was a good idea or a bad idea, we will soon find out. Anyways, here is who participated in this week's roundtable:
From Old Virginia | Testudo Times | College Game Balls | Tomahawk Nation
Jim Young, ACC Sports Journall | Block-C | BCInterruption
Yet Another NCSU Blog | Tar Heel Mania | On the B.Rink | Gobbler Country
Be sure to click the link for all of their individual responses. And now to round up the roundtable! We asked the questions, and they responded.
1. Alright fellas, this is your turn to apologize to the Boston College Eagles who went to Hell and back and have now arrived as the 3rd team for the ACC (and only team in the Atlantic) to be bowl eligible. You know you were snickering in the preseason. Also, give a high five to Mark Herzlich for finishing his last treatment of chemo.
Alright, most of the apologies were not really apologies (bitter, bitter bloggers). However, there was a resounding agreement on the high fives for Herzlich. Furrer4heisman put it well, "Herzlich is going to destroy us next year. Just like I hoped he would." Congratulations, Mark.
2. An Orange Bowl victory over a Boise/TCU or an Orange Bowl victory over a Penn State/Cincy team - which means more for the conference? Is there even a difference?
Most of the bloggers agree that a win over a BCS conference team will give the ACC more positive feedback than a victory of a non-BCS team would. Specifically, a victory over the possible
team of Penn State and Cincinnati, though Yet Another NCSU Blog brings up a good point in Cincy still needs to play Pitt for a chance to the Orange Bowl so they shouldn't punch their ticket quite yet.
Brandon Rink of the ACC blog, OnTheB.Rink brought up a thought-provoking piece if the ACC victor takes on Boise State or TCU:
"There is a difference–but it depends on the opponent. A win over Penn State goes a much longer way than Cincy, but the ACC would be best served trying to defeat TCU for a third time or Boise State than a Big East team for national recognition–the ACC could do what BAMA couldn’t do last season."
Interesting point. ACC > SEC? If it was Utah, yes without a doubt especially if Tech is the ACC team. But let's not get ahead of ourselves....
3. Enough with the CJ Spillers, the Christian Ponders, and the Jacory Harrises. We wanna talk defense. Who is the defensive POTY thus far in the ACC?
As expected, the defensive player of the year was a crapshoot. Defensive Ends, Tackles and Safeties were all represented. Here's a cool graph that shows it all.How's that for some engineering and analysis skills?
Congratulations DeAndre McDaniel, you are so far the DPOTY, though cgb at CollegeGameBalls came to bat for the ACC himself:
I am, because every time I go to the bar and get into a drunken argument with some fuck-face SEC or Big 12 fan I defend the ACC. Count it.
4) Recently, Bird compared the Atlantic to the Big 12 North. Is this a fair comparison? The Coastal is currently 8-2 against the Atlantic. There are still 8 inte rdivision games left. Can the Atlantic redeem itself this season?
The remaining 8 games are:
BC-UVA
BC-UNC
Clemson-UVA
Md.-VT
NCSt.-UNC
NCSt.-VT
Wake-GT
Wake-Duke
The summary of the blogs says no, the Atlantic WILL NOT redeem itself this season through the regular season. The only way it can right itself is to upset the Coastal Division champion which would only show the world that the ACC is simply a huge chaotic clusterf*ck. So basically, the ACC is F'd in the A if the Atlantic decides to pick it up.
In comparing the Big 12 North to the ACC Atlantic, results are all over the board
. Brian from BC Interruption brings up a good arguing point:
Is the comparison between the Atlantic and the Big 12 North a fair one? No. I say this for a few reasons. For one, two teams have separated themselves from the rest in the Atlantic Division race in Clemson and Boston College with a third - Florida State - looking to win out and get some help from BC to force a 3-way tie for the title. When it is all said and done, two (or three) teams will separate themselves from the pack
at a respectable 6-2 or 5-3 mark. You can't say the same about the Big XII North. I think every team is mathematically alive and in contention to win the Big XII North and there is no clear cut clubhouse leader. Is it K-State? Nebraska? Or the four other teams that have 3 losses already? Only K-State and Nebraska can finish at 6-2, and both those scenarios are highly unlikely. It's more looking like 5 or even 4 wins will win you the Big 12 North.
Second, given that Georgia Tech is now the prohibitive favorite to win the Coastal Division, the big reason why the ACC Atlantic can't be compared to the Big 12 North is that no one is giving the Big 12 North champ any chance of winning their conference's Championship Game. Everyone is assuming that Texas will roll en route to a BCS National Championship Game appearance. With all due respect to this week's hosts, I don't think you can make the same claim with Georgia Tech, especially given that Florida State and Clemson both played Georgia Tech extremely close. Statistically speaking, Tech doesn't have nearly as good of a defense as they had a year ago. And their triple option offense is always prone to have an off-game. If Clemson or FSU makes it to Tampa to face Georgia Tech, the Jackets will have their hands full. I think the Atlantic could very well steal an ACC title away from the Coastal Division, and you would be hard-pressed to find anyone to say something like that about the Big 12 North.
Of course you could just throw out all numbers and team analysis and look at what our reader chrisinindy did for his reasoning:
"Looking at the losses, it would seem that the Big XII North is better. However, when I saw the below quote on the Big XII website, I changed my mind.The following should NOT be used in text when referencing the Big 12:
Big XII
Big TwelveAnyone who is that self-important is worse than anyone in the ACC, including Miami."
5) Tailgating is essential to all things football. In Atlanta, the tailgating game of choice is cornhole. What is your game of choice to pass the time?
Below you will see a pie chart that accurately depicts how the ACC Bloggers spend their tailgating time. Based on this analysis we can see that Cornhole is the game of choice.
Dane was this close to giving the disclaimer, "Drinking is a requirement, not a game". Of course, drinking is obviously the choice on gameday but what do the bloggers do while they drink and tailgate? The following pie chart illustrates how the ACC's respective blogger choose to spend their time before kickoff. Unfortunately for N.C. State, they are limited to what they are allowed to do because of an administration looking for the easy way out:
As the N.C. State representative, I feel obligated to speak out on the issue of tailgating restrictions, specifically those placed on our fanbase by the school's administration. For those unaware, a tragic shooting occurred in one of the parking lots adjacent to the stadium involving two persons who never had tickets nor planned on attending the game. In response, our administration instituted a four-hour tailgating restriction, a knee-jerk reaction if there ever was one given that it didn't address the core issue -- folks without tickets with no intention of going to the game showing up just to party. The way it should've been addressed is increased security patrolling the lots. But no, the administration took the easy, cheaper way out by punishing ALL game-goers by limiting the tailgating time. This response, of course, does NOTHING to limit binge drinking BEFORE folks hit the parking lots, nor does it improve the security presence in the parking lots.
6. Let's cut to the chase. There are two kinds of people: sheep and sharks. Sharks are winners and they don't look back 'cause they don't have necks. Necks are for sheep. Is your team full of sharks or is your team full of sheep?
Ugh. The ACC Bloggerati really whiffed at this one, with only Brian from BCI correctly answering this question.
"Spaz: Which one is the one people like to hug?
Steve: Gutsy question Spaz, you're a shark."
It's clear you've stuffed your TV gullet with as much Futurama as Dane has. Excellent choice. Willy Mac tried to one up us by referring to another show, Street Sharks, but instead offered the entire internet a glimpse into his childhood, one that was obviously littered with painful events like being the perennial last choice for dodgeball, taint shredding wedgies, and playground beatings due to wielding inferior mutant animal toys.
Santa must have really hated you if he never blessed you with Ninja Turtles. But we digress.
The best of the sheep answers, which we predicted would come from Virginia Tech's Gobbler Country, actually came from Testudo Times:
Sheep. There was a story, I don't know if it's true or not, that after the Duke loss - one of the worst losses in the Ralph Friedgen era and the marker that that era is finally coming to its end - all the guys were on the bus ride back and somebody cracked a joke, causing the entire team to start laughing. Friedgen stands up at the front of the bus and shouts "What's so funny?", throwing in a few expletives in for good measure. After a three second awkward silence, the bus erupts in laughter.
Yeah, we're sheep.
Picturing the Fridge locked into facing forward, fists and jaw clenched with a single tear running down the side of his face while braising in the laughter of the kids he is supposed to turn into monstrous killing machines is pathetically hilarious.
Continuing on with our Roundtable data analysis, here is a breakdown as to how all the ACC Bloggers responded:
7. And finally, create a cocktail in the spirit of your school and explain it to us. Non-edible ingredients are allowed and encouraged.
Finally, our favorite question of the week: your team's cocktail. In the words of Dane: "Our drink is 1 part rum or whiskey (drinker's choice) mixed with 2 parts nitroglycerin BECAUSE OUR OFFENSE IS F***ING EXPLOSIVE"
The best two answers published came from Yet Another N.C. State Sports Blog and Block-C. Their answers respectively:
Yet Another....
I gotta go with the Bloody Mary. They're red and nine times out of 10, they look like shit, taste like shit and smell like shit...but that 10th time, boy, everything comes together perfectly and it's the best tasting shit you've ever had. (41-10!)
Block-C:
This is a tail of two cocktails blogger friends. The first would be the Clemson cocktail of old; visualize if you will a tall, cool, frosty highball glass of delicious bourbon with a bit of water settled in over big lumpy rocks of ice. The amber grainy beverage reflects the sunlight of a perfect tailgating day. Looks amazing. You drink it down and as it slides down your gullet something isn’t quite right. The drink looked perfect, but man something just…. isn’t…………… riiiight..
*darkness*
- cut to night -
You awake confused, beaten, sort of uncomfortably damp. You reach up to your face and a tooth is missing. Also your pants are nowhere to be found. You just got Bowdened. Everything looked fucking fantastic until it wasn’t and then you maybe got raped.
Now there is a new kind of Clemson cocktail. Sticking with brown party liquor, it’s a humble plastic tumbler of Jack Daniels on ice with a little good ol Coca-Cola. Humble, and tries to be steady but with the capability of pain. A rusty nail is placed in the drank in lieu of a little umbrella, "COURTESY OF BROOKS & STEELE" is etched in tiny letters along the nail. I wanted to work in something corny here about CJ Spiller and Jacoby Ford-like speed but I couldn’t think of anything so maybe just chug the bastard.
Other notables:
Virginia Tech
A shot of Wild Turkey 101. Straight. No chaser, pussy.
Virginia
Aw, I'm no good at bartending and mixing drinks and what not. TJ was a voice of democracy, a man for the people. The Lawn was designed so that professors would mingle with students. Crack open a beer, there's your cocktail. No drink is more democratic than beer. Then drink it and crack open a whole bunch more, because we like to think that's what we do.
Boston College
Can't say I'm much of a cocktail guy, but if Boston College had a cocktail, it would probably taste like chowdah or lobster. Suffice it to say, it would probably taste terrible.
Georgia Tech (HT: chrisinindy)
GT has directions for making whisky in our fight song, so we will start with a *generous* portion of Maker's Mark. Freeze a little of this inside some ice cubes so that the flavor soaks in slowly, add in about four shots of this, and a squeeze of this. Just to make it better, use this as a coaster.
Florida State
In a chilled shotglass, pour half Goldschlager every time the offense scores a touchdown-- Every time the Defense allows a touchdown, fill the other half with Aftershock. Drink and repeat, and pray that you are 1) still standing by the end of the game, and b) that your last shot is only half full.
Maryland
There'd have to be Old Bay in it - this is Maryland after all, dammit.
Basically, just take a strong liquor - we're watching this team play football, remember - throw some Old Bay in there, a healthy dose of argument and inability to get shit done. Hey, you said non-edible, you never said it had to be tangible.
On The Brink
The ACC’s cocktail has the blood shooting out of Coach K’s eyes as Duke football is good, the tears of those who suffer through StinespringOffense, a bit of carbon from the burnt defenses at NC State/FSU/Georgia Tech/Maryland, and a little bit of oil dripping from the machine that is CPJ’s "wishbone"(/Davies’d) offense.
Jim Young, ACCSports Editor:
I’m not one of those fancy, schmancy cocktail guys. So instead I’ll go with the always suitable replacement … malt liquor. Sure the ACC doesn’t have the greatest rep, but by gosh it works for me.
And sure, maybe malt liquor isn’t haute couture, but it works every time.