Friday: A lot to get to
NICE STORY BY ROBERT ANDERSON TODAY ON FORMER HOKIE ORION MARTIN, now a teacher and assistant coach at Franklin County after getting cut by two NFL teams and spending time as a Tech grad assistant. “I’m taking everything in,” Martin said. “The way they organize practice. The way they lift during the summer. The way they approach guys. The way they make decisions during the game. I’m just soaking it all in.” More here.
-Hokies get a commitment from D.J. Reid.
-Running back Tony Gregory won’t travel to the Cincy game because of an injury.
-Gregory won’t be the only one not going. David Teel of the Daily Press writes that officials are expecting a crowd in the “mid-40s” at FedEx on Saturday. (Link is here; subscription required to view).
The Washington crowd storms the field to celebrate an upset of No. 8 Stanford.
-Star Clemson wideout Sammy Watkins will not play against BC tomorrow. He has a virus.
-Tonight’s game is Hawaii at BYU (8 p.m., ESPN).
-Tomorrow’s TV games of note: Baylor at West Virginia (noon, FX), N.C. State at Miami (noon, ESPNU), Dukee at Wake Forest (12:30 p.m., CW5), Ohio State at Michigan State (3:30 p.m., WSET), Tennessee at Georgia (3:30 p.m., WDBJ), Clemson at BC (3:30 p.m., ESPN2), Virginia Tech vs. Cincy (3:30 p.m., ESPNU), La. Tech at Virginia (3:30 p.m., ESPN3.com), Florida State at South Florida (6 p.m., ESPN), Texas at Oklahoma State (7:30 p.m., WFXR), Wisconsin at Nebraska (9 p.m., WSET).
GOLF
-The Ryder Cup starts today at Medinah Country Club in Illinois. TV coverage began at 8 a.m. on ESPN.
BASEBALL
-Yankees fall 6-0 at Toronto and lead idle Baltimore in the AL East by one game with six to play. Yanks are still in Toronto tonight (7 p.m., MLB Network), while the O’s host Boston (7 p.m., MASN).
-Rays win their eighth straight and are two games back of Oakland for the second AL wildcard slot. The A’s lost to Texas yesterday.
-Angels see their five-game winning streak snapped with a loss to Seattle and remain two behind Oakland in the wildcard.
-That Rays win was over the White Sox, who drop to two back of Detroit in the AL Central. It’s division or bust for Chicago.
-Crushing loss for Milwaukee, which leads 1-0 with two outs and nobody on in the ninth before falling to the Reds 2-1. Brewers are four back in the NL wildcard.
-Dodgers gain a half game on St. Louis and are three back in the NL wildcard.
-Tigers pitcher Doug Fister sets an AL record by striking out nine straight Royals batters.
-Indians fire manager Manny Acta.
-R.A. Dickey wins his 20th game for the Mets; Gio Gonzalez wins No. 21 for the Nats. Will be interesting to see who gets the NL Cy Young. Matt Cain’s had a pretty awesome year, too, but has 16 wins.
NFL
-The Ravens hang on to beat Cleveland 23-16. Meanwhile, the returning refs get a standing ovation in Baltimore.
-Roger Goodell apologizes to fans for the whole ref thing.
NASCAR
-Floyd native and Virginia Tech grad Darian Grubb has bounced back nicely from being canned as Tony Stewart’s crew chief despite winning the Cup title. He’s meshing well with Denny Hamlin. “As many times as I’ve been in a hauler with him and they’ve talked about crew chief changes on the TV right here in front of him, I always think it is an awkward situation for him,” Hamlin said. “But he’s never brought up that, ‘I just want to beat him,’ or anything like that. It’s always focused on our team and what he needs to be better.” More here.
HIGH SCHOOLS
-Light area slate tonight, as about 40 percent of Timesland schools have a bye. Robert predicts the games that will be played and answers some questions about the playoffs here.
NAME THAT TUNE
Now the world don’t move to the beat of just one drum
What might be right for you, may not be right for some
A man is born, he’s a man of means
Then along come two, they got nothing but their jeans…
September 28, 2012 - 8:24 AM
A slow weekend for football at least college and high school. I would not be surprised to see Baylor give West Virginia a hard time. I was a little surprised to see West Virginia have to work so hard last weekend to put away Maryland. My vote for Cy Young would be Dickey. It was refreshing to see the regular refs back last night. Great to see a call made quickly and with confidence. Darian Grubb is the man and if he wins with Denny he will be the MVCC. Most Valuable Crew Chief. Aaron has any crew chief won back to back titles with different drivers? None come to mind and I have been a NASCAR fan since the mid 70′s.
It was a great day for the Tigers…Doug Fister had a really great outing, but possibly should have been pulled after 7, instead of allowing 3 runs in the 8th, given the pitch count after all those strikeouts. But, the walk-off RBI from Avila sealed the win, and former Tiger Fernando Rodney got the save for the Rays when they beat the Sox. Having a 2-game lead with 6 to go, I feel fairly good about their chances. If the Tigers go 4-2, the White Sox would have to go 6-0 just to tie, and given how badly they are reeling, and that the Rays are hot, I don’t see them sweeping the remaining games.
As for the VT-Cincy game tomorrow, I wish I could feel more confident about the Hokies right now, but I don’t. And given that Cincy is sort of an untested commodity at this point, it’s hard to know what they will bring. But I just don’t like the way they’ve played this year, and I would not be surprised if they came back from DC with a loss, though I also would not be surprised if they win. Given how they’ve played their first 4 games, they could easily lose 4 or more games this year, or they could just as easily win 10+, because they’ve shown flashes of both brilliance and bonheadedness.
Orion worked as a summer counselor this summer at the Greenridge Center where my kids attended. What a quality guy and great ambassador for VT. It was a sad day for the kids when he had to leave camp early to assume his coaching duties.
Did anyone else find it ironic in last night’s NFL game that after an early, very lengthy delay due to a player being knocked unconscious, that they then had to stop the game again to review the play to see if he had indeed fumbled? Wasn’t that one of the main complaints about the replacement refs?
Really hard to predict this VT game. The Bearcats have only played two games so far. The last game they had 6 turnovers. If they do that again they would get blown out. Not a big fan of so many open dates this early. Will the extra time pay off for preparation or will the Bearcats be rusty? Still liking Tech in this one.
The sports event of the weekend is the Ryder Cup. Last check had the Euros leading 3 of 4 matches, and Tiger Woods setting some records in his match. For distance his tee shots have missed the fairway. His first tee went so far left only the fence stopped it. His last tee shot went so far right it was estimated at 100 off the fairway.
What Fister did was amazing. Striking out 9 players in a game is a pretty good feat, but 9 in a row is incredible. That type of thing is up there with Orel Hersheiser’s consecutive scoreless innings. It is one of those things you just don’t see every day.
The VT game is not going to be quite as bad as some of the games at Temple, but it won’t be too far off. There is nothing worse than a half empty stadium. I dare say the actual butts in the seats won’t even pull it to half full. The ‘attendance,’ how it is counted will be along the lines of VT basketball and NASCAR – tickets sold and even given away. You have to wonder if this won’t impact future games like this. Snyder will still make money, he has a pretty low break-even point, but going forward it may have to be a marquee game for Tech to consider doing it again.
I think the pedestrian crowd will benefit Cincinnati. This won’t be that ‘home game’ type atmosphere many think Tech will have, and Tech might just play better in a true road environment. They seemed to have in the past.
But, OJ is right, this Tech team has a wide margin of error right now. They could very well finish 10-2, or 6-6.
I’d go with Dickey for the Cy Young, just to favor the old guy, but Gio probably deserves it. He’s had a great year, kind of hiding behind the whole Strasburg mess.
Hokies over Cincinnati 31-7.
I am glad Hokie fans are optimistic about this game. I say we have to prove we can win. Our perfromances to date do not fill me with confidence. My expectations for this season were way too high.
CR, I heard this morning that Tiger knocked someone in the gallery unconscious with one of his wayward drives yesterday, and after the guy was revived he was awarded an autographed glove from Woods. That had to be one heck of a goose egg on the noggin huh? I’m amazed that someone hasn’t been killed like that given the velocity and force of a golf ball when it comes off the club face.
Like the rest of you guys, I’m apprehensive about which Hokie team gets off the bus in DC especially on the defensive side of the ball. Will it be the one that played GT or the JV squad that showed up against Pitt? We will have that answer pretty quickly with a Cinci team that has great speed at the skill positions and likes to spread the field. No prediction out of me on that game as I’ve been way off on the guessing game that is Hokie Football this season. Want them to win badly, just not sure they will.
To provide an example of how bad the demand for the VT-Cincy game is…a friend of mine had 2 tickets he was trying to sell at face value, because his work schedule changed and he was going to be at the game running a camera rather than watching as a spectator. He may have finally gotten rid of them, but he was on facebook and Twitter trying to offload them for over 2 weeks before he got a taker.
When the season began, I figured VT for 9-3. I thought they’d lose one to either Cincy or Pitt, lose to GT, and lose one of the 3 against FSU, Miami, and Clemson. Well, they beat GT, but could very well lose to Cincy and if they don’t get better, lose that 3-game stretch as well. I don’t think they finish as bad as 6-6, but 7-5 or 8-4 are incredibly realistic and plausible at this point.
Aside from getting destroyed by a really darn good K-State team, Miami hasn’t played all that poorly and could pose a real challenge in the Coastal. UVA has real problems and I don’t think they’re as good as last year right now. GT already has 2 conference losses, so it’ll be tough for them to get back into the divisional mix. UNC can’t win it, and Duke is Duke. So now, I think it’s a race between the Canes and the Hokies…and the Canes are playing much better than their shellacking at KSU indicates. They put up yards and points, though their defense is porous. But given the ineptitude of VT’s offense to establish much of anything, I’m thinking this could be the year a team not ending with Tech represents the division in the ACCCG. But then again, we’ve been waiting for Miami to be ‘back’ for what seems like an eternity, and they usually manage to faceplant somewhere along the line in predictable fashion.
I can’t help but wonder if FSU is going to take USF seriously. I was reading an article at ESPN about the last time FSU played USF…they lost badly to USF, leading to the oust of Bowden. This time, it appears the players are taking USF seriously.
The only game of note I see is the Texas-Oklahoma game, always a biggie with those two schools, but pretty much a ho-hum weekend. Unless somebody upset somebody, I don’t think this weekend is an exciting slate.
Next month will be intriguing as conference races take shapes, and the prize for the championship will be on the line.
I’d say I was amazed that DL3 started Woods & Stricker this afternoon after Tiger was so pathetic & Stricker only mediocre this morning, but then, considering how Davis stuck with Furyk, I’m not really surprised. That loss could be what turns the entire Cup.
The stars thus far are the rookies. Jason Dufner even smiled. Twice.
You never know about a weekend like this. I don’t see it but could be a bunch of a crazy upsets out of nowhere.
Hokie fans are always optimistic about VT’s chances, just somewhat unrealistic when it comes to playing a serious contender. Bowling Green was not a test for them and they still messed up with their offense. I would not be surprised if Tech does not get a first down in the first half. The Hokies do not deal well with a spread offense like the Bearcats have, plus the Bearcats have a very “pursuing” defense and that is tough on VT. Final: Cincy 28 – VT 13.
YEah, Trevor, it is a ho-hum slate of games. Maybe it’s a good thing I’ll be working part of tomorrow and have a lot to do around the house. I’ll have 105.3 tuned in for VT-Cincy, but will probably not be watching any games over the weekend, college or pro. Baseball is on my brain through the World Series, with football the runner up. But it’s going to be a crappy winter if the NHL doesn’t get things going…which really bothers me because I was looking forward to getting NHL GameCenter Live streaming right to my TV so I could watch more…
The Orrie’s Ravens play 4 games in 18 days ..tough stretch ..
Huntersdad, I got nailed by a wayward tee shot years back in Orlando, at the Disney Pro-Am tournament. I’ll be the first to say, it hurts like hell. I took one on the forearm, and it was on its downward flight. No way would I want to get hit straight off of the tee.
What sucked was it was an amateur that nailed me that didn’t have the decency to even thank me for causing his ball to go in the fairway. He was some hack that had bought his way in, had no business being in it. He was scattering people with every shot he took.
cr, that’s a pretty bold prediction of 31-7. Not so much the 31 for Tech, but the 7. Munchie will put up more points than that by himself.
I tend to think Tech comes out on top, but more like 27-24.
The VT vs Cincy BCS Orange Bowl a couple of seasons ago didn’t sell tickets very well, so I don’t know why a non-bowl game with Cincy that’s not at home would be expected to sell a lot of tickets.
So there is the difference in 2000 Tiger Woods and 2012 Tiger Woods. Putting especially, and short game secondarily.
Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout Aaron? … Diff’rent Strokes theme. Lord I’ve watched way too much TV… I’m taking VT 21-14 defense makes the difference (1 INT for TD)