Football Notes

Georgia Tech vs Clemson was another amazing game in the rivalry. When Tech got up 24-0, the game should have been over. But this is Tech-Clemson and we have to play a close game. Lots of credit goes to the Tigers for not backing down and quitting. Good game, glad we came out on top.

Tech's 30-27 win continues a long streak of close and exciting games. Clemson did blow Tech out 39-3 in 2003 and 31-7 in 2006, but here are the margins of victory in the series since 1996: 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 (OT in 2001), 5, 36 in '03, 4, 1, the 24 debacle in 2006, 10, 4, 3.

Besides 2003, 06 and 07, 11 of the 14 games have been decided by less than 5 points. The total margin of victory in those 11 games was 35 points. Let me say that again, 11 games decided by a combined 35 points. If there is a series that has been tighter and more exciting that Tech-Clemson in the past 15 years, I want to see it.

It's always the game I circle on my calendar, I would have gone if it were not a Thursday nighter. Last year, after we left with an ugly 4 point victory, my friend Paul said anytime Tech leaves Clemson with a win is a good day. Same for last Thursday, I'll take it.

Scott Blair was the hero of the game with this great play call and later the game winning field goal. Watch it if you haven't seen it:


Read my Tech-Clemson blog entries from last year:

Clemson
Death Valley Memories
Georgia Tech-Clemson

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I think I am going to try out for the Panther's quarterback job. The travesty is that Carolina extended Jake Delhomme's contract and did not bring in a bonifide challenger to force Delhomme to be better or be benched. Three quarterbacks-- Jason Campbell (Redskins), Kerry Collins (Titans) and Chad Pennington (Dolphins)-- had fewer turnovers in a SEASON starting EVERY game for their team last year than Delhomme's 9 in his last two games. [Thanks to Peter King for that tidbit of informtaion]

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Who would you rather quarterback your team: Jake Delhomme or Univ or Tennessee's Jonathan Crompton?
Combined stats this weekend: 20/43, 172 yds, 0 TD, 7 INT, 1 fumble lost.
New Orleans Saint Drew Brees stats (all by himself): 26/34, 358 yds, 6 TD, 1 INT.

It's like asking which leg would you rather cut off or which of your children is prettier? You can't win either way.

Gameday Kickoff

At long last, college football has arrived. What a great weekend. My friend Paul was driving home from the Georgia Tech-Jacksonville State game and, since I could not make the game, was giving me his take. Well, he took a wrong turn and ended up downtown. There were a lot of people there for both the Alabama-Virginia Tech game and the 2009 version of Dragon*con.

"It's a real freak show down here", Paul said over the phone. My mind started racing as I processed what was the freak show:

Dragon*con-


Virginia Tech-


Alabama-


I vote Alabama fans. And I'm not changing my vote.

Other college football observations:

- I hate it for Sam Bradford. Good kid who came back to school rather than be a top 10 NFL Draft pick. Hope he heals quickly.

- NC State-South Carolina made me want to gouge my eyes out. Miami-Florida State had me glued to the screen.

- I was very impressed by the quarterback from Baylor, Robert Griffin.

- I hope Boise State and BYU both go undefeated.

- I still think they are the best team and should be ranked #1, but Florida's nonconference schedule includes the likes of Charleston Southern, Troy, Florida International (and Florida State). I used to diss Virginia Tech for their easy out of conference schedule, but now they are scheduling Alabama and Nebraska. Come on Gators, play some real schools.

- Georgia Tech is good, but we are going to need to be really, really good and at the top of our game every week to beat Clemson, Miami, UNC, Virginia Tech, Florida State and Georgia. Despite their mediocre showing last week, the ACC has several good teams (and a few really, really bad ones).

Observations and Reflections

School has started. Great first week. I think I am going to have great classes (again!). Here's how I know I've been teaching for a very long time:

I have my 4th Diaz sibling (there's like 9 of them).
I have my 4th Vera sibling (out of 4).
I have my 3rd (and last) Harris brother.
I am also teaching another Anders, Campbell, Dalton, Kampfen, Maciejewski, Sims, and Yoo.

And dear Jessica is taking my class for the 3rd time. She also took it at least once, maybe twice, with other World History teachers.

North football is 2-0 for the first time since 2003. Volleyball is 5-0. Soccer is 4-1, I think. Catie Byrd won the Invite Race at the WNC Cross Country Carnival, with a time of 20:41.06 on a course that's tough to run fast on (though 3 girls did break 19:10 in the Championship Race and 3 boys went under 16:00).

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"We should be ministers of righteousness, ministers of hope,
ministers of something other than condemnation."

Josiah Bancroft, from his sermon this morning at Grace.
Sermon topic: relationships.

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So I'm at church this morning, just doing my thing and I look down and see:




Does the above picture mean:

A) Heang needs to separate his Salomons.
B) Heang has too many Salomons.
C) Heang should wake up earlier so he does not have to rush to church.
D) Heang is quite the trendsetter.

Have a great week, friends. Be sure to check your feet before you head out the door...

Things Temporal

Will it last? That's what I've been asking of my surroundings the last few days.

A few days ago, English teacher Mr. Loving came into my room and looked at my poster from the First Emperor exhibit at Atlanta's High Museum of Art and asked if I saw the show? We talked about how cool it was that Qin Shihuangdi's entire tomb and the Terra Cotta army laid buried and forgotten for over 2200 years.

It was not until 1974, while digging a well, that some farmers stumbled upon the remains of the first and perhaps greatest emperor of China. The legacy of one of the richest men (and most brutal tyrants) in history laid forgotten for millinea. Except for the Great Wall, which was begun during his reign, his army of clay and opulent tomb were little more that myth and lore.

Coach Loving, who I call Dr. Loving because he's one of the most intelligent people I know, has been to China several time and actually met one of the farmers that discovered the artifacts. We both marveled at how this king, who is now believed to have amassed wealth comparable or surpassing to the Egyptian pharaohs and Roman Caesars, became a mere afterthought. Everything he built, but for an accident, was forgotten.

Babylon was the greatest city of it's time. No place on earth could compare to Babylon's wealth, prestige and might. Babylon was New York, London and Tokyo rolled into one mighty city ruled by great kings such as Sargon, Hammurabi and Nebuchnezzar. When the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah prophesized that Babylon would stumble and fall and not be raised up (Jeremiah 50), the people of the time mocked him in the same way that we would consider crazy a man standing in Times Square predicting that New York would disappear off the map.


Like Qin's treasures, Babylon became buried by dust and time. The city that boasted the Ishtar Gate and the Hanging Gardens was reduced to legend and tales. Even the site of the great city of Nebuchanezzar and where the Old Testament book of Daniel was set was unknown for centuries. How did such a great city, the center of Chaldean and later Persian culture and the site of Alexander the Great's death, just vanish? It was not until the late 19th century that archaeologists located the ruins of mighty Babylon buried in the sands of modern Iraq.

Qin and Babylon were incomparable in their time. And they were both lost or forgotten. What are the great things of our time? Which of those will last and endure?

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
- II Corinthians 4:18

Confessions

Sometimes, you don't tell you friends things because you don't want them to make fun of you. For example, I'm a closet Kelly Clarkson fan. Admit it, you also turn up the radio when she sings.

The other confession is that I am slowly becoming an Ochocinco fan. If you don't know, Chad Ochocinco is the wide receiver for the lowly Cincinnati Bengals. He's known for his cockiness and on field antics after touchdowns. He also legally changed his name from Chad Johnson to Chad Ochocinco (he wears number 81).

I used to think he was a self absorbed loser. I still think he likes himself, but unlike Terrell Owens, Ochocinco also likes his team. And the fans. Chad has personality and humor. Here's Sports Illustrated's Peter King, talking to Chad Johnson.

Peter King: "I'm having a lot of trouble calling you, 'Chad Ochocinco,''' I said.

Chad Ochocinco: "Just call me 'Ocho, that's not hard.''

And he can kick. He got to kick a point after in the Bengal's preseason game on Friday because the one kicker on the roster was injured. And Ocho did it well. And the ensuing kickoff was very good too, all the way to the 9 yard line. That's not bad for a wide receiver moonlighting as a kicker.

After the game, Ochocinco was pleading with the Bengals to let him handle all kicking duties. Wisely, to reduce the potential for injury to their star receiver, the Bengals said no. They signed former Wake Forest kicker Sam Swank. Asked about Swank's signing by Peter King, Ocho relied, "Totally unncecessary."

Yeah, I like this guy.

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Speaking of kicking a field goal, it might be one of the hardest thing to do in team sports. A good snap needs to get to a holder who then must place the ball upright ("Laces out!" Ray Finkle is yelling) and while the kicker boots it through uprights. All this must be done in less than 2 seconds while the other 8 guys are madly blocking a rush of defenders trying to block the kick. And it's not always the kicker's fault (though in Ace Ventura, it was).


What's the gutsiest thing to do in football? Return punts. I don't mean fair catch. I mean catching, holding on to and running with the football while being covered by guys who want to knock your head off.

The most difficult thing in football? Man coverage by a cornerback. You are defensive back lined up across from Calvin Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald or Randy Moss. You must backpedal and defend a guy who is 6-4 and runs a 4.4 Forty with no help. All the rules in football favor the offense too. Your job is an uphill battle. Which is why Deion Sanders was so good. Best cover corner ever. Also best ego ever, but that's another post.

Top 10

Less than two weeks from College Football season kicking off. Here is MY preseason top ten:

1) Florida - Defending BCS Champions. Returns 19 or 22 starters, including their entire 2 deep on defense. Oh, and they got that Tebow guy.
2) Oklahoma - Sam Bradford is Mel Kiper's number 1 draft prospect for next year. He'll take the Sooners far if they can beat...
3) Texas - Big 12 will be fun to watch on offense again. Yes, they have Heisman candidate Colt McCoy, but Texas's defense might be the difference maker in this conference.
4) Southern California - Another year, another talent laden team and another top 5 for Coach Pete Carroll and the USC Trojans.
5) Ohio State - This might be a little high for the Buckeyes, but Tyrelle Pryor will have better grasp of the offense in year 2 (even if I don't believe he ran a 4.3 Forty). Will players step on defense to replace the lost All-Americans?
6) Alabama - Nick Saban is still Satan, but he can coach. As a team, I like them more than I like Ole Miss.
7) Oklahoma State - In the shadows of Austin, Norman and even Lubbock, Coach Mike Gundy has quietly assembled a Top 10 team in Stillwater.
8) Boise State - Blue field plays mind tricks on teams. Plus, they are the best non-BCS conference school this year.
9) Virginia Tech - Darren Evans going down hurts this team, but they are loaded at running back anyway. Plus, Beamerball will keep them in games.
10) Oregon - The Ducks are looking to upend the Trojans for the PAC10. Cal might have a word here also, but I like the potential for success in Eugene.

And where are my beloved Jackets? I'd say Top 15 right now. Let's see where we are at the end of the season. Hopefully playing in Jacksonville in December and then somewhere warm January.

What we can learn from Montana

I was in Montana the same day that President Obama held his town hall in Belgrade (pop 5,728- 2000 Census), right outside of Bozeman. I took a break from listening to "This American Life" podcasts and stumbled upon a live broadcast of the town hall on AM Radio.

The highlight of the meeting was a sharp question by a Randy Rathie, who was obviously passionate about his beliefs (though I chuckled that he got his news from cable outlets because he didn't like the spin of the networks). He called Obama out and wanted to know from the President how we can pay for this without raising taxes. It was blunt and sincere.

It wasn't the question that impress me. It was the way he asked it. It was a question pointed at the president that was asked in a respectful manner. He didn't yell, kick and scream or bury his head in the sand. He asked a question and listened.

In the rhetoric on health care, the biggest loser is all us who are not privy to dialogue and debate because of ranting, baiting and fanaticism. I cannot think of many things more "Un-America" than the supression of of debate. We must have dialogue.

Health Care has to be reformed. We spend more than any other nation, but our care is not as efficient. It's an travesty that in the wealthiest nation on earth, over 15 million go uninsured. No one should have to decide between taking a sick child to the doctor or buying groceries for the week. How do we streamline health care and cut costs (cheaper does not mean worse-- an Accord is cheaper than a Jaguar, but the Jag will be in the shop most of it's life) while still providing quality services and encouraging medical companies to innovate, research and discover? These are the things we need to be talking about and working towards.

Maybe Obama's plan isn't the one. Perhaps it will die much like Clinton's did. Before it does, I would like to see us to talk about the way we insure, care for and treat ourselves in this country. An honest debate is what we need and is what we should get. Anything less would be a disservice to all Americans.