After taking in the season’s first Saturday of college football, here’s an alphabetic-style breeze through Saturday's games with Spencer Hall. 

A is for ACCident: As in the debacle that was this weekend for the ACC, a maligned conference going into the year that handed in a resume written in crayon for week one. Virginia Tech lost to Eastern Carolina, Virginia was humiliated by USC, Clemson flopped in Atlanta, N.C. State was shut out by South Carolina.

Even the victories looked bad for the ACC: Maryland squeaked by the Blue Hens 14-7, UNC had to hold off McNeese State, and Boston College had as lackluster a 21-0 showing against Kent State one could have. Only Wake Forest and Duke took care of matters decisively in their openers, and just typing that statement caused four people’s heads to explode in the state of North Carolina. (We apologize for that.)

Does this opening weekend faceplant by the ACC tell us, the college football viewing public, anything dramatically different than what we thought about the conference going into the season? No, not really, other than the creeping suspicion that the Paul Johnson experiment at Tech, given the neighborhood it’s moving into, might hit ramming speed sooner than one might think.

B is for Bubb Rubb: The internet superstar made his appearance -- a brief but knowing cameo -- in an NCAA 2009 commercial. Odds on Scott Van Pelt or Rece Davis announcing a touchdown with the phrase “Whistle tips got that woo-WOO!” in the next three weeks: 4:1.

C is for Chris Rainey. Florida’s sophomore runner looked bigger, shiftier, and dare we say faster, than he did a year ago, showing that if Percy Harvin can’t go against Miami and Tennessee, there’s a reasonable Harvin facsimile waiting right behind him. RB Jeffrey Demps kinda sorta had a nice 38 yard rushing average, too: 2 carries for 76 yards.

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Alabama played Clemson in the Georgia Dome. It almost made Nick Saban pull his lips over his teeth in a non-threatening matter known as a smile--almost. Spencer Hall was there.



Can we dirty up the dome with some local color? Answer: yes. Watching games at the Georgia Dome can, for a college fan used to being bombarded with the unique sights, sounds, and smells of the college game can be a bit antiseptic. (Examples: Baton Rouge: the odor of frying oil; West Virginia, whiskey) Fortunately, the Clemson and Alabama fan bases both skipped taking their medication today. The combo of the two fan bases were enough to rattle the ears; the combo of the two fan bases’ color schemes—apricot orange and deep crimson—make it look as if a huge pumpkin bled to death in the Georgia Dome.

There are advantages, of course. The Georgia Dome being a grown-up type facility, Tide and Tiger fans are free not just to drink beer outside the stadium, but to purchase and consume inside, as well. Alabama and Clemson fans both exercised this right responsibly by pouring only one plastic cup of beer into their mouths at a time.

He’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and doggone it, people like him. So the Alabama plan was this: Run the daylights out of the ball, keep John Parker Wilson safe and prevent him from becoming the steak to the pit bulls of Clemson’s defensive line. Read the rest of this entry »

Why was Pitt ranked? Was it the 5-7 record last season? Big name Dave Wannstedt's 16-19 record with the Panthers? Overheated expectations after a late upset of West Virginia last year? Whatever the case, it looks foolish as Pitt fell to Bowling Green 27-17 at home.

This is awful for Wannstedt's job security, if the first recap filed by Pittsburgh Post- Gazette scribe Paul Zeise mere moments after the final horn is to be believed. (Also, if common sense is to be believed.)

The beginning of the end of the Dave Wannstedt era at Pitt may have taken place this afternoon at Heinz Field as Mid-American Conference opponent Bowling Green upset No. 25 Pitt, 27-17, before a crowd of 45,063.

If we're going to be perfectly correct, the beginning of the end of Wannstedt came when Wannstedt began at Pitt, being that he's not a very good football coach. The cat really didn't have a decent NFL coaching career, either.

That begs the question: has Wannstedt's 'stache saved him? You'd assume he only still has a job because of his "big name" -- an anonymous longtime assistant would have been canned two years ago. Wannstedt's coaching reputation has been built on his iffy record of performance and his awe- drawing mustache. Without it (the mustache), he's Joe Bugel. And if Bugel coached as poorly at Pitt as Wannstedt had, he'd be unemployed.

So Pitt fans seeking liberty: replace Coach Dave's facial cleanser with Nair. Or something.

Late this week, Virginia Tech announced sophomore QB Tyrod Taylor would red-shirt the season, handing the starting job to senior Sean Glennon. Taylor played his tail off last year, beating Clemson in Death Valley, among other good feats for a true freshman. But Frank Beamer decided it'd be best for the program to avoid a platoon, give Taylor an extra year as unquestioned starter, and see what Glennon (not bad last year himself) could do with a young but experienced unit that lost only one starter.

Today, Glennon was simply mediocre, tossing two crucial picks against unranked East Carolina. Virginia Tech looked like they'd hold on to avoid the upset ... until, with two minutes left in the game and Va Tech up two, ECU's T.J. Lee returned a blocked punt for a TD. Glennon gained three total yards on the final Hokie desperation drive. Va Tech loses.

At this point, Beamer would seem to have no choice but to renege Taylor's red-shirt status. It's the worst of both worlds: you lose the benefits of that extra year of eligibility, you lose what should have been a fairly sure W, and you lose any confidence your second-best QB (Glennon) had.

Beamer is all about high-risk, high-reward football. It was surely a risky gambit to sit Taylor. It took only one week to blow up spectacularly. Beamerball ... not off to a good start this season.

Alright Nancy, take off the pads and turn in your jersey. Why? There are no girls allowed in football. Lady kicker Kacy Stuart got booted from her private school team after Georgia authorities ruled females aren't allowed to play high school football in the state's private-school association, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

It sounds as if Stuart will move in with her dad elsewhere in the state in order to attend a public school and play football. That girls are allowed in public-school competition makes the private-school official who barred Stuart look even more ridiculous, which is pretty difficult.

Really, this fellow -- Georgia Football League chairman Hank St. Denis -- is simply an idiot. In this day, how can he not expect a tremendous reaction to his poor logic? The media loves stories like this, and St. Denis is going to be roasted alive if he doesn't immediately change course. And come on, she's a kicker. She'd probably receive less hazing as a female high school kicker than the usual versions would (in my HS career, the South American soccer ace and the diminituive son of an assistant coach).