On Saturday the eleventh-ranked Virginia Tech Hokies scalped the twentieth-ranked Florida State Seminoles by a final score of 44 to 33 in Charlotte to win the ACC Championship.
The Hokies have now won 4 ACC Championships out of the 7 years that they have been in the conference. That's right, Tech has won over half (57%) of the ACC Football Championships since joining the conference in 2004. I guess you could say we like being in the ACC.
This game was a re-match of the inaugural ACC Championship in 2005, where a lowly 7 and 4 Florida State team upset the 5th-ranked Hokies by a final of 27 to 22. The Noles have always been a thorn in Tech's side, especially in the last decade. They dashed our hopes in the 2000 National Championship game, they beat us in the '02 Gator Bowl, they undeservedly upset us in the '05 ACC Championship, they handed us a road loss in '08, they have the most annoying chant in all of college football. All I can say is REVENGE IS SWEET.
The Hokies came into this one with a decade of motivation on their mind, and they smacked the war paint right off the Noles' faces. I'm talking they beat the spots off of FSU's dalmation horse.
Jeron Gouveia-Winslow started the beating when he picked off an E.J. Manuel pass, and took it to the house for six. It gave Tech an early 7 to 3 lead at the 8:05 mark in the first quarter, and it was a lead that the Hokies wouldn't relinquish. They just added some style points.
No one broke more spears (or ankles) in this game than...Tyrod Taylor. The Senior QB showed the Noles exactly why he was voted the ACC Player of the Year. Early on in the game Tyrod found a hole in the FSU defense's tee pee, and he ripped it right open. He finished the game 18 of 28 for 263 yards, and 3 touchdowns. Can you say torched defense? Taylor threw long passes, short passes, bullet passes, and even a high-arching rainbow pass to David Wilson for a TD, and the Noles couldn't stop any of them. He also did some damage on the ground, as he had the FSU defense running in circles...literally. Tyrod rushed for 24 yards and a TD off of 11 carries. His rushing touchdown was so embarrassing to FSU that it made Jimbo Fisher wish that Bobby Bowden was still the head coach, and that's pretty dad-gum bad. Tyrod looked like a magician on the play. He rolled out to the right, cut it back (thus leaving a defender on the ground), then he put on an invisibility cloak and danced across the nose of two more defenders into the endzone.
Once again, the Tech passing attack was Coale-powered...Danny Coale that is. He had a fantastic day receiving. Coale led all receivers in the game, as he reeled in 6 catches for 143 yards and a touchdown. The Noles defense couldn't cover him...heck they couldn't even find him. Time and time again Danny would go into stealth mode, run his traditional crossing pattern, and find himself wide open for a huge gain. It reminds me of the miraculous Nebraska come-back every time. I always have this sigh of relief when I see the ball going through the air, and Coale is the guy waiting at the other end for it. I just know he's going to catch it every time, and he does. It's a thing of beauty. He's our Mr. Reliable.
Tech's Three-Headed Monster rushing attack had the Noles' defense doing a rain dance in hopes that it would slow up the ground-gaining Gobblers. Too bad for them, the only rain in this game was their tears.
Darren Evans ",The Punisher," led all-rushers in the game. He finished with 69 yards and a touchdown off of just 6 carries. That's a staggering 11.5 yards-per-carry average. The Punisher got loose on a 51 yard ramble that set up Tech at the FSU 9 yardline. One play later he was in the endzone celebrating his lone touchdown of the night.
David Wilson continued his role as a dual threat. He rushed for 43 yards off of 14 carries, while racking up 42 yards and a touchdown receiving. Wilson has the speed and big-play potential to become a Reggie Bush/C.J. Spiller type player.
Ryan Williams rounded out the attack. He rushed for 45 yards off of 11 carries, and picked up a 5 yard grab on a pass from Tyrod. His contribution brought the trio's total to 157 yards and 2 TD's on the day.
The only flubs for Tech in this game was letting the Noles block an extra point and return it for 2 points, and of course they let them score a TD late in the fourth quarter. It kills me when the Hokies slack up late in the game, and let the other team add on a late score. It depreciates the magnitude of the whooping, and makes the game look closer than it actually was. So don't be fooled by the 11 point margin, this game wasn't close. Tech should have won by 21.
I really can't complain though. I'll take a win over the Noles any time, anywhere, and any way that I can get it. Whether it be by 1 point or 100, but just know that I would prefer it be by 100. I'll tell you what, it never gets old hearing another teams' fans mock the Seminole chant/chap. It's a thousand times better when those fans are Hokie fans, and that was the case on Saturday.
One final jab, I would just like to point out that Florida State's Seminole logo is screaming because he has hot bacon on his face.
Now not to be overlooked, this win marked Tech's 11th straight win after starting 0 and 2. It's a miraculous turn-around, and a huge accomplishment for Frank Beamer. Some teams would have laid down and died after having such high hopes and losing the first two games of the season. Frank made sure that his didn't. His team won 11 straight games, and their conference's championship. I think he is more than deserving of the coach of the year award.
The Hokies will now take on the 4th-ranked Stanford Cardinal in the Orange Bowl. Tech will have a whole lot more than just a silver bowl of oranges riding on the line. The Hokies will have the chance to do what no other team in Tech history has done before...win 12 games in a season. Tech's match-up with Stanford is also the first meeting between an ACC school and a Pac-10 school in the Orange Bowl. Here's to hoping the ACC goes up 1-0 in the series. In other news, the Hokies are looking for a big Christmas tree to put up in the Merryman Center. What's Stanford's mascot again? How convenient.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
A Duck + A Beaver=...A Platypus?
On Saturday the number one team in the nation, the Oregon Ducks, will travel to Corvallis to take on their arch-rivals the Oregon State Beavers in what is known to college football as "The Civil War."
The first Civil War rivalry game between the University of Oregon and Oregon Agricultural College (present-day Oregon State) was played in 1894, making it the fourth-oldest rivalry in Division 1 College Football and the seventh-oldest rivalry in all of College Football.
The rivalry's name,"The Civil War," couldn't be more appropriate for the annual showdown, as the game has proven to be just that...a war. Plenty of green/yellow and black/orange blood has been spilt on and off the field between these two universities. Fans pelting opposing fans with vegetables, brawls between the two sides, and even students "capturing" a student from the opposing school and parading them around their campus has been common ground in this war.
While the rivalry between Oregon and Oregon State is bitter, the reward to the winner of the annual game is sweet...really sweet.
Beginning in 1959, the winning team would receive a trophy for its victory on the battlefield. Not just any trophy, but one of the best rivalry trophies in college football and definitely the one that makes the most sense.
It's name: The Platypus Trophy. It's a 2-foot wide, 1.5-foot tall platypus sculpted out of pure maple wood. The Platypus was selected for the trophy because it contains features from each of the teams mascots. It has the bill of a Duck, and the tail of a Beaver. Pure genius is all I can say.
Oregon State won the inaugural trophy and took it to Corvallis with them in '59. The 1960 game ended in a tie, but Oregon students stole the trophy and took it with them to Eugene. Oregon State won the trophy back in 1961, and took it back to Corvallis...only to have it stolen back from those pesky U of O students again.
The trophy then disappeared in Eugene...until 1986. The Platypus was found in a trophy case at the University of Oregon's pool complex. It was being used as a trophy between the two schools' water polo teams. Talk about falling from grace. The trophy disappeared once again when the pool facility was ruled outdated, and demolished in 2000.
Four years later a sportswriter in Oregon wrote an article that sparked a search for the mysterious missing maple Platypus. The search proved a success. The old platty was found in a utility closet at the University of Oregon's basketball arena, McArthur Court (better known as "The Pit").
In 2007 the Alumni Associations of each school decided to take over the exchanging of the wooden masterpiece, as the trophy had a strange habit of going missing when the two football teams performed the exchange. So since '07 the winning school's Alumni Associations gets the fine pleasure of displaying the slippery souvenir.
This year the Ducks have a lot more riding on line than just the enchanting Platypus Trophy. If Oregon can defeat their unranked underdog rivals, they'll play in the National Championship game for the first time in school history.
Now this may sound like an easy task since the Ducks are the top-ranked team in the land, while the 5 and 6 Beavs are no where to be found in the polls. But I must say not so fast. In the past thirteen UO/OSU meetings, the home team has won 11 of those 13 games. Did I mention the game is in Corvallis this year?
The Ducks have the all-time lead in the series with a 57-46 record, with 10 ties between the two teams. We'll see if the Quack Attack can win their third straight over the Beavs, and more importantly make it to the National Championship Game and play for a crystal football to go with their wooden platypus.
The first Civil War rivalry game between the University of Oregon and Oregon Agricultural College (present-day Oregon State) was played in 1894, making it the fourth-oldest rivalry in Division 1 College Football and the seventh-oldest rivalry in all of College Football.
The rivalry's name,"The Civil War," couldn't be more appropriate for the annual showdown, as the game has proven to be just that...a war. Plenty of green/yellow and black/orange blood has been spilt on and off the field between these two universities. Fans pelting opposing fans with vegetables, brawls between the two sides, and even students "capturing" a student from the opposing school and parading them around their campus has been common ground in this war.
While the rivalry between Oregon and Oregon State is bitter, the reward to the winner of the annual game is sweet...really sweet.
Beginning in 1959, the winning team would receive a trophy for its victory on the battlefield. Not just any trophy, but one of the best rivalry trophies in college football and definitely the one that makes the most sense.
It's name: The Platypus Trophy. It's a 2-foot wide, 1.5-foot tall platypus sculpted out of pure maple wood. The Platypus was selected for the trophy because it contains features from each of the teams mascots. It has the bill of a Duck, and the tail of a Beaver. Pure genius is all I can say.
Oregon State won the inaugural trophy and took it to Corvallis with them in '59. The 1960 game ended in a tie, but Oregon students stole the trophy and took it with them to Eugene. Oregon State won the trophy back in 1961, and took it back to Corvallis...only to have it stolen back from those pesky U of O students again.
The trophy then disappeared in Eugene...until 1986. The Platypus was found in a trophy case at the University of Oregon's pool complex. It was being used as a trophy between the two schools' water polo teams. Talk about falling from grace. The trophy disappeared once again when the pool facility was ruled outdated, and demolished in 2000.
Four years later a sportswriter in Oregon wrote an article that sparked a search for the mysterious missing maple Platypus. The search proved a success. The old platty was found in a utility closet at the University of Oregon's basketball arena, McArthur Court (better known as "The Pit").
In 2007 the Alumni Associations of each school decided to take over the exchanging of the wooden masterpiece, as the trophy had a strange habit of going missing when the two football teams performed the exchange. So since '07 the winning school's Alumni Associations gets the fine pleasure of displaying the slippery souvenir.
This year the Ducks have a lot more riding on line than just the enchanting Platypus Trophy. If Oregon can defeat their unranked underdog rivals, they'll play in the National Championship game for the first time in school history.
Now this may sound like an easy task since the Ducks are the top-ranked team in the land, while the 5 and 6 Beavs are no where to be found in the polls. But I must say not so fast. In the past thirteen UO/OSU meetings, the home team has won 11 of those 13 games. Did I mention the game is in Corvallis this year?
The Ducks have the all-time lead in the series with a 57-46 record, with 10 ties between the two teams. We'll see if the Quack Attack can win their third straight over the Beavs, and more importantly make it to the National Championship Game and play for a crystal football to go with their wooden platypus.
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