Dec
29
2019
Did you know Ohio State has never beat Clemson in their history as a college football program? 0-4. This one kind of summarizes the conspiracy theories. My favorite officiating conspiracy theories from last night: SEC officials wanted a Southern team in the title game. LSU/Burrow didn’t want to play Ohio State, called in a favor. …
Dec
29
2019
Give author @MattZemek a twitter follow and check out his musings on college sports at https://www.patreon.com/Zemek. Harry Houdini is known as the original (or one of the original) escape artist stunt performers, who gave rise to David Copperfield and David Blaine in subsequent decades. To “pull a Houdini” is a term which might not be instantly recognizable to …
Dec
28
2019
DURHAM – Two looks at Duke without Tre Jones in late December have offered contrasting views of the Blue Devils’ depth and balance. Those qualities, coach Mike Krzyzewski believes, are the key to the No. 4-ranked Blue Devils winning an ACC and/or national championship Duke (11-1) appeared to miss Jones’ presence more in its 75-50 …
Dec
27
2019
Wake Forest has graduated from where 7 or 8 win seasons are considered really good seasons. Three straight bowl wins and three straight seasons of 7-8 wins had Wake Forest ready in 2019 to have that special 9-10 win top 25 season. At 7-1 and ranked in the top 20, that special season was right …
Dec
27
2019
Mack Brown inherited a UNC team that won 5 games the last two years, and just 2 ACC wins. Fast forward to the 2019 season, and the Tar Heels doubled their ACC win total, and finished the season with 3 straight wins. The final record was a modest 7-6 (4-4) record, but the …
Dec
27
2019
Pitt entered the Quick Lane Bowl as a double digit bowl favorite vs an Eastern Michigan team that hadn’t won bowl game in over 30 years. Eastern Michigan went 6-6 and 3-5 in the MAC this year. Is was arguably the best matchup any ACC team had in their bowl game this year. For Eastern …
Dec
26
2019
Manny Diaz has been at Miami for one season, and he enters the 2020 already in trouble. Don’t think for a minute he’s safe either. When Arkansas and Florida State fired their coaches Chad Morris and Willie Taggart less than 2 years into their tenures, there no reason Miami may not do the same. …
Dec
24
2019
Thanks to the Charlotte Touchdown Club for its “Defender of the Nation Award.” College football needs a “throwback award” and that’s what the Charlotte’s award has represented since instituted in 2016. The 2019 recipient was Air Force senior linebacker Kyle Johnson, who leads No. 24-ranked Air Force (10-2) into the Cheez-It Bowl against Washington State …
Dec
24
2019
@Hokiesmash_ASD and I (@TalkinACCSports ) review the ACC Football regular season and preview ACC Bowl season with @mattzemek. We really appreciate college football writer @mattzemek for joining us. He contributes to this site as well as several others! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rwradios-acc-weekly-podcast/id831843856?t=2. We are also now available on Stitcher! http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/httpwwwtalkshoecomtalkshoewebtalkcastjspmasterid130024cmdtc/the-acc-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr0 We are also now available on PodBean! https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/p573j-6e69d/The-ACC-Weekly-Podcast To …
Dec
22
2019
Give author @MattZemek a twitter follow and check out his musings on college sports at https://www.patreon.com/Zemek. QUESTION: Are Dabo Swinney’s claims of disrespect toward Clemson real? Whenever Dabo Swinney or Nick Saban — the two coaches who have ruled over college football the past five years — open their mouths and say anything which carries the scent of …
Dec
21
2019
Nearly the entire BCS era was a disaster for ACC football. So much so, that it nearly broke the conference apart at the beginning of the decade. Then the upward football trend started during the 4-2 2012 Bowl season where Florida State won an Orange Bowl, Clemson beat a top 10 LSU team, and Georgia …
Dec
20
2019
DURHAM – Imagine Duke basketball this year without point guard Tre Jones. Well, the No. 4-ranked Blue Devils faced finding out the hard way when Duke announced prior to its home game against Wofford that Jones would sit out with a “minor injury.” Nevertheless, the Blue Devils (10-1) routed Wofford (7-5) with an 86-57 victory …
Dec
18
2019
With the early signing day on December 18, more than 80% of a program’s class will get signed this Wednesday. Recruiting rankings aren’t the ultimate decider of how a team will do in the future, but if you don’t think they matter then you haven’t followed college football. The best teams far more often than …
Dec
17
2019
Part of Dabo Swinney’s coaching repertoire is his ability to motivate. He’ll use any perceived slight to his Clemson program as a motivational tool. Clemson fans will call it genius, his critics will call it overdone and annoying. Whatever it is, it works. This week Swinney gained several more motivational slights that he can use …
Dec
16
2019
@Hokiesmash_ASD and I (@TalkinACCSports ) review the ACC Football regular season and preview ACC Bowl season with @TerryPJohnson. We really appreciate college football writer @TerryPJohnson for joining us. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rwradios-acc-weekly-podcast/id831843856?t=2. We are also now available on Stitcher! http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/httpwwwtalkshoecomtalkshoewebtalkcastjspmasterid130024cmdtc/the-acc-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr0 We are also now available on PodBean! https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/p573j-6e69d/The-ACC-Weekly-Podcast To listen go here – https://www.talkshoe.com/episode/7942931 In this order, these …
Dec
15
2019
Give author @MattZemek a twitter follow and check out his musings on college sports at https://www.patreon.com/Zemek. QUESTION: What the 3 most interesting ACC bowl games? When Cam Akers of Florida State announced that he would not play in the Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl, the Seminoles’ game against Arizona State lost some of its luster and value. That …