SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- We got another conference victory and having a winning record both overall (5-4) and in the conference (3-2) for the first time this year after starts of 0-2 and 0-1. Florida State and Clemson are obviously the class of our division but think we are the best of the rest.
- Our task this season is to introduce ourselves to the ACC as a winning program- one where good recruits in the ACC footprint might want to play. We haven’t quite completed that but 6-6 and a bowl game would do it and we need only to win one of our last three games to achieve that, with a good chance of surpassing it.
- To use one of Coach Shafer’s favorite terms, “wipe off” that game in Atlanta, when we were trying to beat an unconventional offense with a trick defense and the Clemson game, when we were facing NFL talent. Our real defense is the group that held NC State, Wake Forest and Maryland to 13 points. I know those weren’t great teams but they are BCS level programs and our defense just strangled them. We took forever to put those games away but were never in serious jeopardy, either. The key was constant pressure on the other team’s backfield. We don’t have a Dwight Freeney but those offe4snes facing us in those games started to look like the offensive teams we saw in 2001 that looked punch-drunk by the end of the game, they’d taken so many hits. The backs and receivers played as if they were dreading contact. When they say that defenses win games, this is what they were talking about.
- And we can run the football. We had 242 yards rushing in this game, (to 81), 118 from Jerome Smith, who scored both touchdowns. Terrel Hunt ran for another 67 on only 7 carries and George Morris, subbing for the injured Prince-Tyson Gulley, had 50 in 7 carries. We averaged 5.4 yards per rush to 2.3 for the Terps. That’s winning football. This team reminds me more and more of a Schwartzwalder team.
- Terrell Hunt doesn’t remind me of Do9novan McNabb but he had a solid game today, completing 15 of 24 for 146 yards with one interception and running for those 67 yards. He directed the offense to 382 yards, (to 292) and 20 points (to 3). I’ll take it. I’m glad they are using him as a running threat more. It adds a much needed extra dimension to the offense.
- Jarrod West gets a lot of heart but that one-handed, one foot in bounds catch he made was one the best you’ll see all year, ESPY stuff. Da-Dah-Dum….Dah-Da-Dum!
- Ryan Norton is back in the coach’s good graces, especially since he kicked two field goals on a day when Maryland’s highly touted kicker bounced one off, not the upright but a flag pole way to the left on a very windy day.
5-4 with 3 (or 4) more
LET’S GO ORANGE!
- Our task this season is to introduce ourselves to the ACC as a winning program- one where good recruits in the ACC footprint might want to play. We haven’t quite completed that but 6-6 and a bowl game would do it and we need only to win one of our last three games to achieve that, with a good chance of surpassing it.
- To use one of Coach Shafer’s favorite terms, “wipe off” that game in Atlanta, when we were trying to beat an unconventional offense with a trick defense and the Clemson game, when we were facing NFL talent. Our real defense is the group that held NC State, Wake Forest and Maryland to 13 points. I know those weren’t great teams but they are BCS level programs and our defense just strangled them. We took forever to put those games away but were never in serious jeopardy, either. The key was constant pressure on the other team’s backfield. We don’t have a Dwight Freeney but those offe4snes facing us in those games started to look like the offensive teams we saw in 2001 that looked punch-drunk by the end of the game, they’d taken so many hits. The backs and receivers played as if they were dreading contact. When they say that defenses win games, this is what they were talking about.
- And we can run the football. We had 242 yards rushing in this game, (to 81), 118 from Jerome Smith, who scored both touchdowns. Terrel Hunt ran for another 67 on only 7 carries and George Morris, subbing for the injured Prince-Tyson Gulley, had 50 in 7 carries. We averaged 5.4 yards per rush to 2.3 for the Terps. That’s winning football. This team reminds me more and more of a Schwartzwalder team.
- Terrell Hunt doesn’t remind me of Do9novan McNabb but he had a solid game today, completing 15 of 24 for 146 yards with one interception and running for those 67 yards. He directed the offense to 382 yards, (to 292) and 20 points (to 3). I’ll take it. I’m glad they are using him as a running threat more. It adds a much needed extra dimension to the offense.
- Jarrod West gets a lot of heart but that one-handed, one foot in bounds catch he made was one the best you’ll see all year, ESPY stuff. Da-Dah-Dum….Dah-Da-Dum!
- Ryan Norton is back in the coach’s good graces, especially since he kicked two field goals on a day when Maryland’s highly touted kicker bounced one off, not the upright but a flag pole way to the left on a very windy day.
5-4 with 3 (or 4) more
LET’S GO ORANGE!
