Other People's Football (2015 edition)

[Olympic Fan]

Not a great showing for the ACC in our Power 5 matchups. Louisville, UVA, (and UNC) losing, and I'm not optimistic about VTech tomorrow. Hey maybe Northwestern will become ranked right before they come, and we can beat them.

The ACC is now 10-3 against OOC opponents.

That looks good, but seven of the wins were against FCS opponents.

Two wins were FBS wins against teams from the Sun Belt and one an FBS win from the AAC (which is a major conference in basketball, but not football).

The ACC was 0-3 against power five opponents.

The best ACC win so far? That would have to be FSU's lopsided victory over Texas State, which was 7-5 in the Sun Belt last season.

The next best -- either Duke's win over Tulane (3-9 in the AAC) or NC State's win over Troy (3-9 in the Sun Belt).

That's not a very impressive victory list.

Just hope Virginia Tech can save the weekend by beating the Buckeyes in Blacksburg ... hey, they beat OSU in Columbus a year ago, so anything's possible.

[Olympic Fan]

Did anybody see what happened at the end of the Colorado at Hawaii game? Probably not -- it ended at almost 5 a.m. Friday morning, Eastern time.

I just saw it myself.

Here's the deal -- Hawaii leads 28-20 with time running out, but Colorado is driving, completing a pass inside the Hawaii 10 with 14 seconds left. It's just short of the first down and Colorado has no time outs left. Still, they should have gotten at least one more play -- or a spike and a real play.

But the refs mishandle the ball -- at one point, a toss from the back judge to the referee hits a Hawaii player and bounces away. The point is, they never get the ball spotted and don't stop the clock, even though it's their own butterfingers that prevent a timely spot:

http://www.pacifictakes.com/colorado...rees-officials

Now, Colorado would have still had to score, then convert a 2-point conversion, then win in OT ... but they still should have had that chance.

[jimsumner]

Did anybody see what happened at the end of the Colorado at Hawaii game? Probably not -- it ended at almost 5 a.m. Friday morning, Eastern time.

I just saw it myself.

Here's the deal -- Hawaii leads 28-20 with time running out, but Colorado is driving, completing a pass inside the Hawaii 10 with 14 seconds left. It's just short of the first down and Colorado has no time outs left. Still, they should have gotten at least one more play -- or a spike and a real play.

But the refs mishandle the ball -- at one point, a toss from the back judge to the referee hits a Hawaii player and bounces away. The point is, they never get the ball spotted and don't stop the clock, even though it's their own butterfingers that prevent a timely spot:

http://www.pacifictakes.com/colorado...rees-officials

Now, Colorado would have still had to score, then convert a 2-point conversion, then win in OT ... but they still should have had that chance.

Was Bobby Petrino one of the officials?

[Olympic Fan]

To most of us (including me) the ACC had a lackluster first weekend of the season -- at least heading into tonight's Ohio State at VPI game.

But that's something that needs to be put into perspective. Did the ACC really do that poorly? Well, the ACC was 10-3 without a los to a non-power 5 team. No other conference was able to get through the first weekend without a non-power 5 loss.

Here's the breakdown:
1. SEC 12-1 ... but the one loss was Western Kentucky beating Vanderbilt
2. Big 12 8-2 ... but South Dakota State of the FCS beat Kansas
3. ACC 10-3
4. Pac 12 7-5 ... but Hawaii beat Colorado, Portland State beat Washington State and Boise State beat Washington (okay, the last one is not that bad)
5. Big 10 7-6 ... but Temple beat Penn State; BYU beat Nebraska and Marshall beat Purdue

The ACC might not have any signature wins at the moment, but it's the only power 5 conference without an embarrassing loss.

[wilson]

To most of us (including me) the ACC had a lackluster first weekend of the season -- at least heading into tonight's Ohio State at VPI game.

But that's something that needs to be put into perspective. Did the ACC really do that poorly? Well, the ACC was 10-3 without a los to a non-power 5 team. No other conference was able to get through the first weekend without a non-power 5 loss.

Here's the breakdown:
1. SEC 12-1 ... but the one loss was Western Kentucky beating Vanderbilt
2. Big 12 8-2 ... but South Dakota State of the FCS beat Kansas
3. ACC 10-3
4. Pac 12 7-5 ... but Hawaii beat Colorado, Portland State beat Washington State and Boise State beat Washington (okay, the last one is not that bad)
5. Big 10 7-6 ... but Temple beat Penn State; BYU beat Nebraska and Marshall beat Purdue

The ACC might not have any signature wins at the moment, but it's the only power 5 conference without an embarrassing loss.

Interesting numbers here. Overall, they seem to say that the other conferences' top ends are higher than the ACC, but the low ends are lower. Sounds about right to me.

[peloton]

Some bad news for Pitt football and the young man involved. Their ACC Player of the Year candidate and starting RB James Conner is out for the rest of the season due to upcoming surgery for a torn MCL in his right knee which happened during their game against Youngstown State. Very sorry to read this as he obviously has a lot of talent and will be hard to replace I imagine (I confess I know very little about Pitt's team though). Best of luck to him in his recovery and hopefully he'll continue to be a force to be reckoned with when he returns.

[OldPhiKap]

Some bad news for Pitt football and the young man involved. Their ACC Player of the Year candidate and starting RB James Conner is out for the rest of the season due to upcoming surgery for a torn MCL in his right knee which happened during their game against Youngstown State. Very sorry to read this as he obviously has a lot of talent and will be hard to replace I imagine (I confess I know very little about Pitt's team though). Best of luck to him in his recovery and hopefully he'll continue to be a force to be reckoned with when he returns.

Conner is an absolute beast. Very sorry to hear this, best wishes for a full and fast recovery.

[wilson]

Some bad news for Pitt football and the young man involved. Their ACC Player of the Year candidate and starting RB James Conner is out for the rest of the season due to upcoming surgery for a torn MCL in his right knee which happened during their game against Youngstown State. Very sorry to read this as he obviously has a lot of talent and will be hard to replace I imagine (I confess I know very little about Pitt's team though). Best of luck to him in his recovery and hopefully he'll continue to be a force to be reckoned with when he returns.

Conner is an absolute beast. Very sorry to hear this, best wishes for a full and fast recovery.

Definitely a bummer for that player and program. It's early, but Pitt could be setting up to be one of the ACC disappointments this season. Conner has been a bell cow for their offense pretty much since his arrival, especially last year, when he averaged nearly 150 yards a game with a pretty amazing 26 TDs (!). Even with Conner, Pitt really struggled with Youngstown State on Saturday. Conner's backup, Qadree Ollison, really stepped up (207 yds), but it still hurts to lose the reigning ACC Player of the Year.

[Olympic Fan]

Interesting numbers here. Overall, they seem to say that the other conferences' top ends are higher than the ACC, but the low ends are lower. Sounds about right to me.

I don't disagree, but let me suggest it's too early to make that suggestion.

After all, the ACC's "top end" teams all won easily against lesser competition Saturday. Clemson, Florida State and Georgia Tech all looked great ... the point is we have no clue at this point how good our top end teams are, except that over the last two years, our best teams have been better than most of the top end SEC or Big Ten teams.

At the same time, our low end teams all looked good against really bad competition. Wake Forest, probably the lowest rated ACC team at the moment, beat up on an Elon team that was 1-11 a year ago in the FCS. Syracuse beat up on another 1-11 FCS team. BC, which is rebuilding about a solid year, had to struggle past FCS Maine.

Our 0-3 BCS record probably isn't that bad -- unranked Louisville, picked third in the Atlantic Division preseason, took No. 6 Auburn to the wire before losing by a TD in Atlanta. Virginia, picked last in the Coastal Division did get blown out by No. 13 UCLA in LA. Only UNC's loss to South Carolina -- a midlevel ACC team against a midlevel South Carolina was anything close to a tossup. And if you watched the game, I think you'll agree that UNC was clearly the more talented team -- only the ineptitude of their senior QB and their head coach (why did he stop running Hood inside the 10 yard-line?) cost UNC that game.

My point is that it's to early to make sweeping judgments about the ACC -- or any other conference -- at this point.

Really bad news about Connor ... especially since the Pitt defense appeared to melt down against Youngstown State. Keep watching, but they made be in trouble.

Also, Syracuse QB Terrell Hunt was lost for the season in the opener against Rhode Island. And Clemson WR Mike Williams (a first-team preseason All-ACC pick) will miss at least six weeks with a broken neck (well, a cracked bone in his neck). Dabo said Sunday that the injury will be re-evaluated in six weeks:

http://www.tigernet.com/update/playe...k-injury-20271

[OldPhiKap]

The Ohio State University looking much better than VPI. But Hoakies leading 17-14 at half.

[IsInTheDetails]

The Ohio State University looking much better than VPI. But Hoakies leading 17-14 at half.

VPI is keeping this game tight - down only 4 late in the third quarter - with a rather stout-looking defense. Unfortunately, their talented senior QB, Michael Brewer, went down with what's being called a collarbone injury. Not clear if it's a broken collarbone or a separated AC joint, and the injury is to his non-throwing shoulder, but hard to imagine he won't miss at least a few weeks either way.

Tough week for injuries across college football and the ACC, especially Pitt's loss of James Conner.

[Merlindevildog91]

Isn't Ohio State's kicker Jack Wiloughby, our ex kickoff guy?

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Isn't Ohio State's kicker Jack Wiloughby, our ex kickoff guy?

Yes, indeed!

[dragoneye776]

Great effort by Virginia Tech! Led at the half 17-14 and showed everyone on national TV that a "middle of the pack" ACC team could hang with the #1 ranked team.

But it just went downhill after Michael Brewer went down... with a broken collarbone. http://espn.go.com/college-football/...houlder-injury

[luburch]

Great effort by Virginia Tech! Led at the half 17-14 and showed everyone on national TV that a "middle of the pack" ACC team could hang with the #1 ranked team.

But it just went downhill after Michael Brewer went down... with a broken collarbone. http://espn.go.com/college-football/...houlder-injury

To be fair they were extremely fortunate to be in the game at half. OSU muffed a punt that lead to a VT score. VT got a deflected diving interception.* Ohio State had a touchdown called back due to a penalty.


(Still not convinced that the DB actually picked that off. It was hard to tell either way even with 100 replays.)

[tux]

... OSU muffed a punt that lead to a VT score. VT got a deflected diving interception.* Ohio State had a touchdown called back due to a penalty.

But aren't you just describing plays in a normal football game.

I thought VT showed a lot of heart coming back from 14 down early. The crowd was electric -- a great atmosphere for a nationally televised game...

[Mike Corey]

Thought the Hokies played very well, and but for Braxton Miller being Braxton Miller, would have been closer in the end.

Hate to see any player go down with an injury, let alone their QB. That certainly did not help their cause.

Very excited for Northwestern, and its upcoming game with our Blue Devils. Stanford's on a downward trajectory, and the media will surely anoint the winner of the Duke-Northwestern game as the heir apparent of the "nerd bowl."

[tux]

Very excited for Northwestern, and its upcoming game with our Blue Devils. Stanford's on a downward trajectory, and the media will surely anoint the winner of the Duke-Northwestern game as the heir apparent of the "nerd bowl."

It's interesting. Was it Cut's second year that Stanford came to town with Andrew Luck and dominated Duke? And NW and Stanford are the programs that folks point to as models for Duke... If Duke beats NW in two weeks, it will serve as another reminder of how far Cut and his staff have taken the program.

[Olympic Fan]

It's interesting. Was it Cut's second year that Stanford came to town with Andrew Luck and dominated Duke? And NW and Stanford are the programs that folks point to as models for Duke... If Duke beats NW in two weeks, it will serve as another reminder of how far Cut and his staff have taken the program.

Cut's first loss at Duke -- in his second game -- was to Northwestern in Wade. It was a close game (as I recall Duke had the game-winning TD called back late by a penalty). Northwestern won 24-20.

The Stanford loss you're talking about was in 2011 (Cut's fourth year). Andrew Luck and company came to Durham and blitzed Duke 44-14. The next year, Duke went to Stanford and was beat up -- both physically and on the scoreboard -- in a 50-13 loss.

Agree that the Duke-Northwestern game will have a lot of importance. Not sure that I agree that Stanford is sliding that badly -- Kevin Hogan is a better quarterback than he looked at Northwestern. If he regains his form, the Cardinal will do alright.

[94duke]

Louisville just lost to Houston for another OOC loss.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/...meId=400756911