Monday Mailbag 10/21

Yea or Nay? Football: October: Breast Cancer Awareness: Pink.

Everyone has their own opinion on Breast Cancer Awareness and the "pinkwashing" that comes with it, but let me offer a slightly different perspective. I take issue not with the fact that this is OK and promoted, but the fact that it's mysteriously not OK for Brandon Marshall to wear green shoes to raise awareness for borderline personality disorder, a disorder that he suffers from personally. By fining him and reprimanding him for raising awareness for another style of illness, the NFL said that it's not OK to support "awareness" causes beyond breast cancer. By doing that, they bring on a lot of questions as to why that is, and in doing so, the real reason behind their actions becomes very apparent.

If we were to pull off an upset who would it most likely be? Clemson? Georgia? Whoever we play in a bowl game?

If we're talking upsets, those are the three candidates at this point, pending the bowl game opponent. If I'm to pick one of those, it's probably Clemson, for a few reasons. First, I'm not sure how they're going to respond to this downright shellacking they took from Florida State this weekend. I feel like their hopes were riding so high into that game, and that taking a beatdown like that in front of their home crowd on national television will be extremely discouraging down the stretch. Second, their rushing defense is ranked surprisingly low nationally given their level of competition. Sure, they played uga (with Gurley and Marshall), and they just played Florida State, but in between they played South Carolina State, NC State, Wake Forest, Syracuse, and Boston College -- none of which are real powerhouses at running the ball. Third, based on what I saw this weekend, our offense might be running at a considerably higher level by then than what we've seen thus far. Fourth and finally, we always play Clemson tough, even when we have no business hanging with them. This is a game that we will ALWAYS have a chance in, however slight.

Besides Godhigh, who is your favorite A-back and why? Yes, I am going to keep asking this question. And you know why.

You know the obvious here. I'll give you something a little less obvious. I think the guy who has a chance to really step up and become a star this year is Deon Hill. The guy was sorely missed earlier this season. He blocks extremely well, is great in the passing game, and isn't a bad ballcarrier either. We need him next year after the departure of Robert Godhigh.

Recruiting Update? How are things going? Anyone get stolen? Are we on the verge of getting anymore? If so who?

To start, nobody's been stolen and I'm not hearing anything about any of our guys even being pressured. We've got guys all over the stovetop right now, but I don't think they're really pushing anyone. A lot of guys are in the middle of their cycle of taking official visits, and so nobody's going to go commit somewhere before seeing everywhere else. That said, a few names you need to know are...

DL Jamiyus Pittman -- 3-star guy committed to Ole Miss, but a guy they don't seem particularly attached to and we would be capable of flipping.

AB/BB Mike Rogers -- Currently a UCF commit, but a 3-star guy who's garnering a ton of attention from some big-time programs. He could play either AB or BB for us and will be having an official visit with us in the coming weeks.

AB/DB Myles Autry -- This guy's stock is plummeting with teams all over because of how bad he's been coming back from his knee injury. It's not even an issue of the knee not healing properly -- apparently he's been a bit lazy and just playing the whole "recovery" game very poorly. Not sure where this stands.

RB Shai McKenzie -- Probably a goner at this point, so don't get your hopes up.

WR/OLB Jimmy Bayes -- 4-star kid who's currently a USF commit, but another guy we could probably flip if we turned up the heat.

DB Darious Latimore -- He committed to Virginia today, but I'm not sure this one is over.

What are your power rankings for the ACC?

Ah, good call. I've slacked on this for the past month. Let's see...

1) Florida State -- Looking downright dominant right now.
2) Miami -- Could this actually be the year?
3) Clemson -- Tough loss, they're better than that.
4) Virginia Tech -- I really don't understand how they've failed to lose since Alabama.

(Note: Considerable drop from 4 to 5 here.)

5) Georgia Tech -- Perhaps surprising to you, but yes, this is actually how I see it right now. There's nobody below that's really having a better year.
6) Wake Forest -- Not a good team, I think they've benefitted from a weak schedule so far.
7) Pittsburgh -- Also not very good, lacking a decent win so far and won 35-24 against Old Dominion on Saturday...
8) Maryland -- I still believe they were completely overrated, they should have lost all 3 conference games but got lucky against Virginia.
9) Syracuse -- Bad loss this week, I really think they're a better team than they looked to be.
10) Duke -- Great win against Virginia, they really needed that.
11) Boston College -- They have a pulse...sometimes.
12) North Carolina -- Huge close call against Miami, but once again they came up short. They've played a lot of strong teams thus far though.
13) North Carolina State -- They haven't had a close call against a decent team, unless you include Clemson.
14) Virginia -- Yet to look decent against a conference opponent, and only afloat right now because of a weird win over BYU.

Also, has CTR been coaching from the booth all season? If not, why the move?

I saw that on the highlights and it didn't strike me as odd, but now that you mention it I think he's been on the sidelines all season and I have no clue as to why that switch would have happened. Sometimes D-Coordinators see things a little better from up there, or maybe he wanted to get guys like McCollum and Walkosky on the sidelines.

I'm now convinced Heather Dinich applied to GT and couldn't get in (or her boyfriend did). I want her to date Dabo so she will keep hating on GT. That said, my question is: do we get more or less respect nationally than in Atlanta media?

You might be surprised to hear this, but I'd say we get more attention/respect nationally relative to the amount we get in Atlanta, and it's purely based on our unique offense. Around here, we're "the other local team". Nationally, we're "that team that runs the triple option". (Gag.) Also consider that so much of the local media went to journalism school in Athens or otherwise have a bias against STEM-focused schools, and it makes sense that a bunch of journalists with no affiliation either way would want something to talk about, such as our offense.