ANK'S WEEK 3 GAME OF THE WEEK
(Walker) @ 
(VTrunNgun)This week we head down to ACC country where Coach Walker invades Atlanta with his bad boys from the beach to battle with VT and his Jackets! Both coaches are back at their respected schools and are looking to better their records from a very successful season. Both GT and Miami come from the Coastal Division in the ACC, so this could (I say will) be the game to determine the Coastal Champion.
When Georgia Tech has the ball
It's no secret, the Rambling Wreck are looking to run the ball...they have 3 featured RB's and a QB in Josh Nesbitt that can break it at anytime. The line is big and very athletic, this lets Nesbitt make his Option reads and pick and choose how he wants to dismantle the defense. Watch for Coach VT to try to establish Jonathon Dwyer up the middle early, if this is not successful, it will not matter. Coach VT is very persistent and will continue to feed his workhorse. If Dwyer don't get the ball on the FB read watch the corner, watch for most of the time for Nesbitt to keep the ball. Tech also will run a lot of misdirections to Dwyer and Jones. Not often will Nesbitt throw the ball, but when he does he is on target. Thomas is his go-to receiver he is a big wideout that will cause problems for the smaller Miami DB's.
The Canes will look to play assignment football, clog the middle and make Nesbitt beat them with his arm, not his legs.
Linebacker Sean Spence is the key to stopping Nesbitt and this confusing offense. Spence will probably be the guy Coach Walker assigns to shadow Nesbitt. You control Nesbitt you control Georgia Tech. The Canes front four is very young...watch for them to blow assignments and this will make the linebackers play out of position, which will open up the run even more. The secondary for Miami is also inexperienced. They must not bite on any play-fakes(which GT loves) or it will be an easy day for Josh Nesbitt.
When Miami has the ball
Coach Walker doesn’t have the privilege of a 3-headed monster in his backfield, but he does have Jr. RB Craig Cooper. Cooper is the key to this finely turned BMW we like to call the Miami ground attack. He is powerful, fast and very elusive. Watch for Coach Walker to establish the run game with Cooper very early. If the run is not working for Miami then So. QB Jacory Harris has the ability to carry the burden, though he is only a Soph. this young man is very wise and a great leader. The only problem is can Miami protect against Tech's front 7? Coach Run will bring many different looks on defense, he will blitz you from everywhere. Times will bring both safeties if Harris has time the middle of the field will be open for his Sr. TE Derrick Epps. Epps reminds me a lot of Mike Ditka, he is playing TE but has that defensive mentality. Watch for him to make a couple of big plays in this game.
For Tech to be successful they most stop Craig Cooper early. The more carries he gets the better he becomes. To me, GT must blitz the linebackers early and discourage Coach Walker away from the run. If Tech and Coach VT can force Miami into any 3rd and longs watch for Harris to make some costly mistakes.
On defense for Tech the player that will make or break this team will be CB Mario Butler...he should be matched up on Miami's #1 WR Aldarius Johnson and if he can handle him one on one this will let GT bring more pressure. This will help in both the run defense and of course getting pressure on a young QB.
Who has the Edge?
Quarterback--Miami
Im going with Jacory Harris from Miami; true Nesbitt will do more for his team, but I just believe Harris will be able to pass more effectively with the game on the line.
Running backs---Ga. Tech
The way Coach VT uses all 4 (QB also) I have to give the edge to Georgia Tech. Cooper of Miami might be the best back on the field...but he is not better then the 4 to 5 GT will throw at you combined.
Wide-Receivers--Miami
I love what Demy Thomas can do for you at GT, but face it he is under-used in this flexbone offense. Miami will bring the 5 wide...and well 5 is better then 1.
Offensive Line--Ga. Tech
Returns 4 of 5 starters from the ACC best ground attack and shit they have to be great to run this kind of offense successfully
Defense-Line---Push
Both D-Lines are inexperienced and young...I almost went with Georgia Techs just cause I feel the pressure is on Miami's to shut down this offense.
Line-Backers--Miami
Sean Spence...That’s all you need to know. He is a one man tackling machine. With the offense he is facing this weekend 20 tackles is not out of the question.
Defensive Backs---Georgia Tech
Butler and Tarrant are shut down corners. I think they can handle the Canes wideouts for the most part. For Miami this could be the worst unit, but will GT take advantage of them?
ANK'S PICK
Miami--27 Georgia Tech 23
Nesbitt throws a late pick inside the red zone and coach Walker gets the upset in Atlanta. Then Miami gets its Swagger back, and rides it to the National Championship Game!
Georgia Tech is 2-0, while Miami has yet to lace them up this season. It might take 3 weeks to get this game in, but when they do it should be a classic.
Player of the Game---Craig Cooper
COOPER BREAKS THE CENTURY MARK IN THIS GAME AND ADDS 2 TD'S
Good Luck to both.
Week 4 Game of the Week
South Carolina (2-0) (Bigry) @ #22 Mississippi (1-0) (Cnasty)
Week 4 lacks any obvious game of the week, but after looking I believe the Gamecocks vs. the Rebels is about as big a game as their is. South Carolina enters the game with a 2-0 record, with wins over Troy and knocked off #10 Georgia at home. Ole Miss is currently sitting at 1-0, its only win was a blowout over Miami (OH).
What to watch for when South Carolina has the ball: The Gamecock offense is very balanced thru the first week of the season. They are averaging 95 yards rushing (38th in the league) and 210 yards passing (ranked 42nd). Ole Miss's defense gave up over 300 yards passing in its only game this season, but did force 4 turnovers in the easy win.
What to watch for when Ole Miss has the ball: They favored the run in the opener, gaining 176 yards on the ground and gaining about 400 yards overall. A lot of those yards were the result of the big lead. The Gamecock defense hasn’t been overly impressive, but has picked off 5 passes and recorded 4 sacks. They are allowing 256 yards thru the air, and 325 yards overall.
Who has the edge?
Quarterback: Push - Stephen Garcia (SC) has 5 td's and 1 INT, Jevan Snead (Miss) has 3 td's and 0 int's.
Running back: Push - Eric Baker (SC) is averaging over 100 yards per game and 5 ypc. Enrique Davis (Miss) is averaging 9 ypc, but hasn't faced as tough as competition.
Wide Receivers: S. Carolina - Ole Miss has completed passes to 5 different receivers, D. McCluster caught 6 balls for 105 yards and 2 scores. For S. Carolina, they have 3 receivers with 7 or more catches and have all caught touchdowns. They are led by J. Barnes, 13 receptions, 118 yards and 2 scores.
Offensive Line: Push - Neither of the O-lines have allowed any sacks
Defensive Line: Ole Miss - Greg Hardy (Miss) had 6 tackles and 3 sacks in the only game this season. Also Defensive End, M. Tillman, scored a touchdown off an interception.
Linebackers: Push - Both teams are fairly even across the board early this season as far as linebacker statistics go.
Secondary: S. Carolina - SC's defensive backs have 5 INT's and 4 pass breakups. The Ole Miss secondary only has one INT so far.
Coach: Ole Miss Two seasoned coaches within the NDL. Coach Bigry has 136 career wins and one conference championship. Coach Cnasty has 171 career victories, including an impressive 4 undefeated regular seasons.
Player of the game:
Jevan Snead (Ole Miss) - Snead should put up some huge numbers against a suspect secondary. It'll be important to keep the interceptions down, most likely Snead will have to throw no more then one if he wants to lead his team to a win. Snead will finish with 3 td's and 1 int.
Prediction: Ole Miss 31 S. Carolina 23 - The Gamecocks will get down early and will face an uphill battle all game. They cut the lead to 28-23, before a late field goal seals the win for the Rebels.
ANKS UPSET OF THE WEEK!
This was a hard week to pick an upset, there were many that caught my eye. I liked Pitt over Penn State, UCF over S. Florida and Washington over USC. But the team I put on upset alert this week is the Tigers from LSU!
LSU and Coach Doddee travel up north to play the Bearcats of Cincinnati.
Watch for Bearcat QB Tony Pike to spread the ball to many different WR's, and keep LSU's defensive backs off balanced. A fun fact: When Coach Weiser and Pike complete passes to 7 or more wide-outs they an amazing 23-1.
Tony Pike is a savy leader.
LSU will make just enough mistakes in this game, and let Cincy feel they can play with them. Although the talent level is worlds apart, we all know what happens when teams get a glimmer of hope.
The Tigers will come in and try to intimidate the team from the Big East with its SEC muscle; this might work in Death Valley but not in Nippert Stadium.
Coach Weiser has said it many of times; No one comes to our house and disrespects Bearcat football!
Cincy's defense could be the difference maker in this game, the Cats will throw a couple of wrinkles in to keep young LSU QB, Jordan Jefferson from getting too comfortable in the pocket. He is not experienced enough to make the quick read and decision. I look for Coach Weiser's team to force 3 or more turnovers with just pressure on Jefferson alone.
The way for LSU and Coach Doddee to avoid the upset is pound the ball. Use them big backs to wear down Cincy's front 7. I'd even look for them to pop in Tenden Holiday a couple series after the big boys have bruised the ego of the Cincy defense. No team likes to tackle a shifty fast guy after being run over by a 270 pd back for a half.
LSU must protect Jefferson. This is the key to my upset, if Cincy can get pressure on Jefferson he is young and timid. Any pressure will force bad decisions from the young QB and this will leave Cincy foaming at the mouth.
I think Cincy pulls the upset by throwing the football and playing sound on defense. Watch for Weiser to pull out some tricks and just out coach Doddee in this one.
The Tigers are coming off a huge SEC win over Vanderbilt and Coach Feisty then after this game they get a much improved Miss. State team. This is a trap game and the bait is set to catch and tame a tiger!
Cincy 31 LSU 26
Star of the game
Cincy wideout Mardy Gilyard
Not Available.
This is just the 2nd edition this season, so a lot is yet to be determined. Many teams still haven't played a game, so I will just update my preseason top 5 and each week following I will do a little more research into the quarterbacks with the most attempts without an interception.
1.Sam Bradford (Oklahoma) - Already off the list. Team is off to a 1-1 start, threw an INT in Week 1 upset to Clemson.
2. Daryl Clark (Penn St.) - Also already done. Week 2 interception against OU, despite throwing for 388 yards.
3. Jake Locker (Washington) - No games played.
4. Jarrett Brown (West Virginia) - 2 int's and zero touchdowns in an 0-2 start against a couple of very tough teams.
5. Josh Nesbit (Georgia Tech) - An interception already.
So as you can see my top 5 is down to one. Let's see who can make it thru the first week and a half of the season until the next installment is released.
8. Oklahoma St. 2-0 : Tfan has this team running on all cylinders, and is currently the best team in Oklahoma once again, and has the leading rusher in the country.
7. South Carolina 2-0 : This is the team I was going to draft the whole way until Cal fell to me. Big win against Georgia has me thinking what could be been, and Big Rys team in the Flavorful 8 and currently on top the SEC EAST.
6. Georgia Tech 2-0 : VT and his chessed way with that Flex offense to a 2-0 start with strong wins against Michigan and Clemson.
5. Buffalo 2-0 : I like this team, and coach Trendon has the Bulls stampeding over the competition to a 2-0 start. Could he start making those 1st place votes become legit.
4. Texas 1-1 : Texas lands this spot for the sole purpose of ending the " THE YEAR OF THE NOLE"
3. Missouri 1-0 : How long will the coaches win streak last, currently we are at 15. Any Bets on how long this will last.
2. Texas Christian 2-0 : Well TCU is on a mission to prove they were no fluke, this season as they start the season off with a 2-0 record , 3-0 if you include the cup victory. Can TCU continue to win and bust the BCS a second straight year.
1. Louisiana Tech 1-0 : They earned this spot with their epic upset over Ohio St., while no one is sure how the hell they won, for this week they get the number 1 spot.
The first week in the season produced some major shake-ups in the Bottom 10. Quite a few teams picked up big wins to give themselves a few weeks off including Ball State Coach A. Jalves who equaled his win total from last year. This weeks Bottom 10 is brought to you by Chris Brown, a man that may be down now, but will be back on top soon; an inspiration to these coaches.
10. New Mexico State (0-2)- Superhuman: Iseem has lost two mildly close games but his opponents, Idaho and North Texas, are far from Superhuman or even decent. If he can’t beat them, he could be in for an 0-12 season. I wouldn’t bet on it though, he is a WAC team.
9. Air Force (0-1)- Crawl: Air Force’s running game was slowed to a crawl against Houston as he was 35’ed.
8. Ohio (0-1) - Say Goodbye: Jeff Daddy and Miami said goodbye to his lover Harderwith the win over ULaLa. Harder on the other hand managed little against Illinois to stay in the Bottom 10.
7. Army (0-2)- Wall to Wall: Beefy is back in the Bottom 10 with Army this year. He has only scored 10 points so far in two games this season and is a serious candidate to go wall to wall with 12 losses on the year.
6. Oregon State (0-2)- Forever: Losing by over 30 to Oklahoma State was bad, but losing to Florida Atlantic by 16 was even worse. He might be in for a long season here.
5. Ohio State (1-1)- Take You Down: Just how shocking was Ohio State’s loss to Louisiana Tech? Well Louisiana Tech coach Cnotes had been 0-12 in the NDL before that game in non-conference match-ups. He also won more games via sim (2) then play (1) last year with the Bulldogs.
4. UL-Pick'em(0-1)-With You: These two teams just don’t want to be separated. They only played once between them, but a loss to Jeffdaddy was enough to keep them in the 4 slot; still together.
3. Minnesota (0-2)- Run It!: Champdawg is giving up over 50 points a game on defense in his two losses. He needs to get back down to basics and start running the ball to control the clock to keep his defense off the field and give them time to rest.
2. Eastern Michigan (0-2)- Kiss Kiss: Eastern Michigan’s defense was put to bed early with a kiss goodnight in two games versus Arkansas State and South Florida. The new coach is putting up points but can’t seem to stop anyone.
1. SMU (0-1)- No Air: SMU is so bad, he doesn’t even deserve a Chris Brown song, just a Chris Brown cameo in a Jordin Sparks song. He was overwhelmed and 35’ed against Boise State and Dolemite looks dazed after the loss.
This rant goes out to Nick/Steam… but mostly Nick. I understand that you were probably high when you decided to ask for forgiveness but that’s no excuse. One of the prime rules of the NDL is keep problems with play private. You broke one of the cardinal rules of the NDL. Not only that but you decided to keep going. Even some of the shadier members of the NDL were scratching their heads after that one. I know AJ has a tendency to ride things out but he was forced to lock the topic after you were about to go public with whatever issue you had with Steam. It seems you put all that work into finally getting Oklahoma, a team of high quality, only to piss it away in the first week of the new season. Baring a championship game berth, none of us would be surprised to see them in the draft next year.
Heisman Hopefuls Season Issue 1
1. Kendall Hunter, Oklahoma St: Hunter has burst onto the scene this season with solid performances against Oregon St and Pitt. Currently Hunter leads the nation in rushing ( 333 yards) rushing atts (54) and is second in TDs (5) . He also leads his team in catches with 6. Can Hunter keep up his pace of 150 plus yards per game and 2.5 TDs. If he does he may see himself at the top of this list all season long.
2. Tim Tebow, Florida: The year of the Nole, ended pretty quickly this season, and with it seemed Tebows chances at a repeat Heisman winner. But think goodness for those C team talents as Tebow would bounce back to throw for over 300 hundred yards and 5 touchdowns. Tebow currently leads the nation in TD passes, good enough to land him second on this list.
3. John Clay, Wisconsin: Just as expected Clay was going to be the workhorse that drove the Badgers. In their only game of the Opening Stanza, Clay carried the ball 28 times for 164 yards and 2 TDs. In Whiskys opening cakewalk over North Texas.
4. Noel Devine, West Virginia: Noel Divine has taken part in two games but I only have one game of stats to go by. Devine ran for 135 yards and 2 tds on 30 carries against Nebraska and one can only assume he had the majority of the 181 rushing yards against VT. Putting him some where around 300 hundred or so. But if WV continues to under whelm in their OCC games, it could hurt his Heisman chances.
5. MD Jennings, Arkansas St: Jennings is already filling up the stat sheet but not on the offensive end, defensive end. Last year this DB had 8 touchdowns on the defensive side of the ball. This year he already has 2 . He also has 2 interceptions and 2 fumble recovers. It seems like every time this DB touches the ball in is bad news for the other team. You would think you would have this guy returning punts and kicks, with his big play ability.
Notables: Stull is no longer a Heisman hopeful as he was benched by the coach after 1 half. Wes Kemp has dropped out of the top 5 due to only 1 catch for 16 yards. Ponder has yet to play a game so the jury is still out there. And Beals lack luster performance against Cal and 3 fumbles already this season has him faltering.
The Ware Watch
By: Nick Wadden
#1. Daniel Raudabaugh - QB - Miami Ohio
After two games, Daniel Raudabaugh currently leads the rankings for The Wadden which is given to the best Non-BCS player in the nation. Coach JeffDaddy has utilized Raudabaugh perfectly so far this season as he has gone 41-76 (54%) for 625 yards with 6 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. If Raudabaugh can keep the interceptions low he will walk away our Ware winner!
#2. LaMar McPherson - HB - Temple
Second on the list and could easily attest for first is Temple's halfback LaMar McPherson. In one game this year, he has 150 rushing yards and SIX touchdowns. The early success is obviously expected to decrease but as long as he keeps the rushing numbers high, there is no reason that he won't surpass Raudabaugh in the upcoming weeks.
#3. Brett Hamlin - WR - Buffalo
The MAC dominates the early rankings as they have four of the five players on the list. The first of two Buffalo Bulls is Wide Receiver Brett Hamlin. Brett is having himself a solid beginning to the season as he has 7 catches for 253 yards (126.5 per game) with 2 touchdowns. With his early success, Hamlin has helped Coach Trendon and the Bulls start 2-0 for the first time in a while. Hamlin will have to increase his touchdowns if he wants to pass Raudabaugh and McPherson.
#4. Orlando Toussaint - DL - Buffalo
Third on the list and the second member of the Buffalo Bulls is defensive lineman Orlando Toussaint. Toussaint has been told to bring the pressure and so far in this young season he has. Toussaint has 11 tackles, 6 for loss, 5 sacks and a forced fumble in two games thus far. With the blitz happy philosophy that Coach Trendon preaches, expect these averages to stay consistent throughout the season as Orlando challenges for the Ware.
#5. Greg Alexander - QB - Hawaii
The second quarterback on our list is Greg Alexander from Hawaii. Alexander currently leads the league in pass completions (50) and attempts (95). He has thrown for 615 yards with 5 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Although the completions are great, Hawaii is a pass first offense so the high numbers are expected. Alexander needs to lower the amount of interceptions per game and remain consistent in all the other fields if he wants to make a run for the trophy.
One week later and the top 5 are completely different. That's all it takes when you are a Non-BCS player to make an impact to win The Ware.
, Surprised I didn't make it in the 1st go around. 10 INT's have killed my comebacks. But great work everyone, and keep it up.
