Where did all the games go?
I am not sure I have seen a week in the middle of the season where half the conference teams were on bye. That is the case this week with Wake Forest-Clemson being the big matchup in terms of shaking out the Atlantic Division and quite possibly the furture career of Tommy Bowden. UNC hosts Notre Dame in the only game that matters on Saturday because Miami and Georgia Tech will likely roll Gardner-Webb and Central Florida respectively while Virginia wakes up from what ever extended fantasy they were living last week to lost in Greenville. That is unless East Carolina has failed to put the wheels back on their wagon.
The Wake-Clemson game will provide the most drama mainly because it has the most riding on it. Tommy Bowden is perhaps in the most precarious position he has even been in. Clemson was favored to win the ACC but after being humiliated by Alabama and then inexplicably failing to exit the locker room for the 2nd half against Maryland, the Tigers are in danger of becoming a laughingstock for the 2008 season. A second Atlantic Division loss would most certainly end their hopes of making the title game and hand Wake temporary control of the division with two wins over the Bowden family. Bowden is looking out over the precipice at this point and I don’t care how big the buyout allegedly is, if Bowden fails to deliver even the division in a season he was supposed to have the team, I cannot imagine Clemson hanging on to him without risking a full blown fan rebellion.
UNC is playing for a name recognition win though Notre Dame is 4-1 and beating another team with a winning record only helps the cause. Should UNC win I am certain someone will be along to tell us how bad Notre Dame is this season and the win is worth as much as WaMu stock or detail the number of ways UNC making winning plays was actually Notre Dame screwing up.
On with the predictions:
Wake Forest 23 Clemson 17
UNC 31 Notre Dame 20
Georgia Tech 44 Gardner-Webb 10
Miami 28 Central Florida 25
ECU 18 UVa 13
Record Last Week: 4-2
Record This Season: 36-16
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ill take this week to get to next week. its one of two weeks all season where we get six conference games and they’re pretty sweet: vt at bc, gt at cu, wake at md, unc at uva and fsu and nc state. all should be pretty good games i think. except for your beat-down of the hoos.
So, after the Wake win last night, what are the odds we’ll have a completely Bowden-free ACC next season?
In terms of coaching story lines, I guess the annual State vs. Boston College game will have to replace Bowden Bowl. Butch vs. Miami doesn’t hold a candle to that match up.
Bobby is not going anywhere until Joe Paterno does. Bowden is currently one ahead of JoePa and Paterno’s health is really bad pointing to possible retirement at the end of this season or he could coach one more as a farewell tour. At any rate Bowden will stick around as long as he possibly can so he can secure that record. Besides that, FSU could still win the Atlantic and the ACC title thus validating Bowden hanging around.
While it’s certainly possible that FSU will play on December 6th, I’m gonna go out on a limb with 6 conference games to play and predict Wake and VaTech winning their divisions. They’re both ahead in the standings and have their nearest competition by the short hairs thanks to head-to-head tiebreakers. And of course, Tech wins that game the ugly way.
Bowden Senior can stay at FSU as long as he likes. IMO, the longer he’s there, the longer it takes them to recover to mid-’90s form after he leaves. Kind of like Chuck Amato at State, but on a grander scale.
I think you’re giving ND’s kicking game way too much credit if you think they’ll hit two. Or are you guessing that UNC will block an extra point? That probably makes more sense, given the way they’ve been performing on special teams in recent weeks.
Looking into next season, we are going to missing some great seniors and one of them is Brandon Tate. I know we have the 22nd best recruiting class in the nation coming in, but are we getting them in key spots that we need, and is it going to be enough to replenish what we have leaving in terms of talent and need?