The Big East Is A Beast In The East

We have reached the eastern finals once again in football and for the 7th year in a row a team from the Big East or it's ancestor the NEW will be playing in the eastern Finals in football. Hard to deny that the Big East regardless of lack of state titles is the best football conference east of I-85. 2006 Rocky Mount was beaten in the third round of the playoffs by a team west of I-85. Every year since the Big East has had a team either in the 3-A or 3-AA Regional game title game. 2007 Rocky Mount lost to Western Alamance. 2008 Rocky Mount lost to West Craven. 2009 Southern Nash lost to South Johnston. 2010 Hunt lost to Northern Guilford. 2011 Hunt lost to Northern Guilford. 2012 Hunt lost to Northern Guilford. 2013 Hunt is back again representing the Big East. Seven straight years the Big East has run up front with the fast cars but as yet to cross the state title finish line in first. I do believe that if you run up front enough you will win at some point and the Big East tries once more tonight. Hunt 11-3 travels to Southern Durham 12-2: Power against speed. Who's will prevails. This one is a coin flip game. Hunt's defense controlled Byrd but Southern provides more flexibility in their offense. I am flipping the coin in the air and it it says Hunt wins 24-22. Duke 10-2 playing Florida State for Duke the Orange Bowl is in site but who can believe Duke can win. FSU is a 28.5 point favorite. I think FSU has too much speed for the Devils but I don't see this being a 55-0 game, more like 35-10 FSU. If Duke has several turnovers it could get ugly. All the talk of the ACC being just as good as the SEC. The ACC has to get to the point when their championship game is competitive like the SEC game was last year with Georgia and Alabama. Until that happens the ACC is still walking in the SEC shadow.

Numbers to Gander

Rocky Mount High travel to Hertford County on Tuesday winning 62-46. The girls were also winners. Northern Nash girls remain unbeaten beating Southern Wayne Tuesday 69-29 while the boys beat S Wayne 65-58. Last night the Lady knights beat South Central 59-45 while the boys lost 79-55. Beddingfield beat Southern Nash 50-38. Fike beat Rocky Mount Prep 60-25 so Prep after playing in the State Championship 1-A game last year has been drilled by more than 25 twice already this year. Faith christian lost to Arendell Parrott 53-50 North Edgecombe beat SE Halifax 42-36 Hunt beat Goldsboro 60-35. I thought Hunt was still playing football? What kind of chance does Duke have against FLorida State Saturday night. They are 0-18 lifetime against the Seminoles, Florida State is #1 in the BCS for the first time since last century. Florida State is a 28.5 point favorite over the Dukies. Mike Tomlin got a $100,000 fine for not getting out of the way Turkey night against the Ravens. Coach K's win in the ACC/Big ten Challenge was his 934th all time. Ties him for the most wins ever by a college man coach. Jim Grobe won 42 ACC conference football games while at Wake, second place has 14. This is 14th addition of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. What ever happened to the Big East challenge?. This is the first time that the challenge finished tied 6-6. Ohio State is 2nd in BCS poll and they haven't beaten a top 15 team in the last two years. Under the topic of never too late. Rocky Mount High school gave Donte Battle a Basketball during the last home game against South Central recognizing his scoring more than 1,000 points in his high school career. At that time 1,015 was the correct number. The Florida State's Attorneys office will have a news conference today at 2pm to announce their findings in the Jameis Winston Rape allegations. From the beginning this has had the smell of the Duke Lacrosse case. If they were going to charge him all they have to do is arrest him. Sounds to me like this case is over after today.

Build Another Dean Dome?

I remember the first time I ever walked into the Dean Dome it was the Eastern Regionals of what year I forget. But this year Duke was in the dome and I remember Rhode Island beat Derrick Coleman and Syracuse in one of the afternoon games. We had parked out at University Mall and road the bus and I remember I got chill bumps the first time I saw that majestic Building sitting on top of that hill. Rumors are floating about that Carolina either wants to remodel the DD or build a newer building with sky boxes and luxury suites. If they remodel the Dome will have less people but the cost for the new seats will be higher so more income for Chapel Hill. Unfortunately the Dean Dome was one of the last remember the Charlotte Coliseum out on the Billy Graham Parkway in Charlotte was built later and yet is already torn down because that was the last of the so called big arena's that didn't have luxury boxes. I hope the folks in Chapel Hill decide to lift the top off the DD and put the boxes there over building a new building. We will see what the future brings. Right now the future for Carolina basketball is not all that bright following their third lost of this young season. I hear all the Heels fans saying I wish the NCAA would rule on the eligibility of Harrison and Strickland. I think they have and when ever they feel the two players can begin playing they will announce something but with Carolina playing it safe and not playing them I think the NCAA is shaking their head up and down saying good, you are doing the right thing. Who knows but Harrison may not play at all this year. I heard on some show I don't remember whether it was radio or TV the discussion about paying college players. The persons statement was first before colleges worry about paying players they first need to make sure the ones that are there need to be in college not in college because they run fast. Isn't it funny was the statement but all this talk about paying players is coming from the kids that were brought up on the street corner and as soon as their eligibility is up they are going back to the street corner because colleges didn't or the players didn't try to prepare themselves to do anything else other than play sports and every athlete will get to the point where they can't play anymore. Some they never play after high school others after college, only a few ever get money from a pro team to play sports. So eliminate those who can't read a college book and probably the talk of paying players goes with it. I kind of like that idea.

That Pressure Job COACHING

Jim Grobe on Monday resigned as the football coach at Wake Forest. WF as one of the smallest division one football programs has over the years accepted that winning more than half of their games was probably not possible. Along comes Jim Grobe and the Deacs win the ACC football championship and play in the Orange Bowl game. Every school in the country came calling on Grobe to be their coach. Grobe said I like it here and here is where I will stay. Grobe made the Demon Deacons into a competitive football team but the last couple of years the Deacs haven fallen into that 4-7 type season and Deacon fans no longer want that to be the common. How easy it is to forget that this man changed Wake Football. I don't care who you are if you have expectations in your life the disappointment of not reaching your personal goals weight heavy on any person. Then when you throw in a fan base that wants more wins the burden can be too heavy for any man to want to endure so yesterday Grobe resigned stating at this point he had no plans for the future. To me that sounds like those burdens needed to be lift off his shoulders and so Wake has loss the greatest coach ever. Having run a clock during sporting events many times over the years I can tell you right now that the end of the Alabama -Auburn game when there was one second left or not any clock in the country when you as the time keeper hit the stop button one more second will always come off before it stops on the score board. Sitting home having watch all the second half of that game I thought they would rule game over and let's play overtime. I am sure at this time Alabama wished they had. I never in my wildest dreams thought about a run back but I was telling my TV screen that Auburn had to watch the fake kick and pass. The TV angle even while the ball was in flight I never thought about a run back until the deep man ran up into the screen. Every person in that stadium was watching the flight of the ball including the Alabama players so who can blame any player on the field for not being down in coverage. In fact the kick returner did dodge his first man at the 15 yard line and there is that saying in football that if you get by the first man you have a chance. If you saw the Turkey night NFL game anyone who has seen the replay Mike Tomlin the coach of the Steelers was right where he wanted to be on the return by the Ravens kicker returner. I think the best deal if you want to keep coaches off the field as in this case is suspend him for about two games and any coach thinking about that type idea again will remember he got about a half million dollar fine from the league.

Warning Signs

 Tarboro Vikings lost a state playoff game Friday night for the first in what seems like forever.  Fans of the Vikings assumed that dropping  down to1-AA the the state championship game was a lock.  Every coach knows his teams weak points and they do what ever is necessary to cover their flank in military terms.

Tarboro had injuries mounting to key players.  You might say they had injuries in the past like Todd Gurley senior year when Tarboro used Gurley sparingly until crunch time and Gurley made out like a division one recruit and took the Vikings to a title.

This is no fault of any player on the current roster that this years team has many excellent players but no Todd Gurley type among them.  Then there is the lack of competition from the Twin Rivers conference  where Tarboro did not have one conference game that wasn't over at the half.

Then there is one more  very important reason why the Vikings lost in the third round.  Wallace Rose Hill was a better football team.  WRH has just as great of tradition as the Vikings so they didn't come to Tarboro shaking in their boots. Every team that is successful and every team that is not falls into traps because they think we are playing ant home and nobody beats us here. Losing teams always have the mentality of not being sure they can win. Tarboro's previous seven games had given them the Superman thinking and here comes a team that is just as good as the Vikings being thrown into a underdog roll and they were ready. I would hope that everyone in Viking land remembers that there are only a few times in any schools lifetime that for six years in a row thay play on Thanksgiving Friday. This has been a good run and it might not be over yet.

Duke Does It

Duke did the impossible yesterday and won their division and now becomes the sacrificial lamb for Florida State in the ACC championship game in Charlotte.  You look at Duke and you scratch your head as to how has this team done what they have done.

This season has turned out to a season just like Wake had when they won the ACC title back not that long ago. This also means State and Caroina neither have played in the ACC championship  before while both Wake and Duke will. It also Dukes marks the second football title even though it is only a divisional for Duke when State and Carolina have none in 30 years

Why has this Duke team won and I think the answer is rather simple.  They do almost everything the way the game is suppose to be played?  Yes, they have had three or four turnovers in several games and yet they keep right on winning.  They run, tackle and do the basic football play correctly and after they have done this they wait for you to mess up.  They are the perverbial Bulldog  what grabs hold and won't let go.

David Cutcliffe in his 6th season has shown improvement every year but he has been a preacher that preaches the same sermon day after day.  Those sermons have improved Duke day after day and now after two years of bowl eligibility the fruits have come to Duke football.

I predicted the more talented Tar Heels would win but found myself cheering for Duke first of all Duke has been an underdog for so many years  every blind hog needs to find an acorn once in a while.  More than that however I appreciate good football when I see it.

One of the good things of modern technology  is you can hear every coach every day talking on some kind of media.  If anybody has ever heard coach Cut more than once has to like what he preaches.  I wonder would Cut let a player leaving to go pro after he still has eligibility walk as a senior like Carolina did yesterday with tight end Eric Ebron.  It just seems to me you slap all the seniors in the face who have given your school four or five years.  To me that just wasn't the right thing to do and in a small way keeps you team just a little divided instead of united.

This Duke team has been united playing the game of football the right way.  I do think they will lose next Saturday to Florida State but I suspect will give a good account of themselves better than anybody else in the ACC has this year.  The main reason is they are a good football team.

Hunt Defense Shines

The Hunt Warriors defense stood tall  twice, once late in the third quarter and early in the fourth as they held Douglas Byrd without any points inside the Hunt 15 yard  and that preserved a third round 3-AA playoff victory for the  Warriors 20-14.

Dexter Wright got Hunt on the board on their opening drive of the game with a 6 yard run and Hunt D dominated the first quarter.   Byrd got on the score board at the 8:09 mark in the second quarter when Jose Sanchez intercepted a Jacob Williams pass and took the pick six to the house to tie the game at seven.

It took only one minute and seven seconds before Hunt retook  the lead when Malik Williams took a pitch around the left side and preceded to go 68 yards to give  Hunt the lead at the half.  Byrd took their only lead of the game. Midway in the third to lead 14-13 but the lead was short lived as Hunt on their first play after the lead change retook the lead at 20-14 when Williamson hit Darian Ballard for a 70 yard touchdown strike.

Byrd drove to the 15  line but Hunt held in four plays but a face mask penalty gave one more play  but the extra play did little good for Byrd.  A Hunt three and out and after a punt return Byrd started on the Hunt 25 yard line. Once again from the ten yard line Hunt stopped Byrd at the  15 yard line.  The Warriors started using  the clock and finally punted the ball to the Byrd six yard line.  Byrd threw a screen pass and the catcher turned and fogged a pass to a wide open receiver which Hunt ran down at the Hunt 10 yard line but the passer was over the line of scrimmage and the ball came back and Byrd never crossed the fifty after that.

Hunt will travel to  Southern Durham who tonight beat Orange 31-24.

The news is not so good in Tarboro as the Vikings suffer their worse loss since the 2008 State championship game. When they lost 51-28. Tonight Wallace Rose Hill shuts out the Vikings in the second half and roll  35-10 in Tarboro.   It is the first time since  2007 that Tarboro has not played a football game in December.