College Football Corner

College Football got the blood pumping this past weekend and now the footall fix is in and the fans have High School, College, and the NFL gets underway this Thursday.

The ACC had it’s problems but they did gets some wins and if we break it down into a 12 team league evaluation the ACC went 7-5 with all the teams from the Atlantic Division coming out victorious. Clemson rolled in their win over powerhouse Florida Atlantic 54-6 and at least from all indications they didn’t get anybody hurt. Wake Forest won against Syracuse but they lost starting QB Ben Mauck in the process with a borken arm and the Deacons will need more than RB Micah Andrews to keep them on track.

Boston College pulled out a tough one with Central Michigan 31-24, Florida State eased past Miami on Monday night 13-10 and it should be a 3 team race with the Seminoles, BC, and Clemson in the Atlantic. Maryland was a winner but they beat William and Mary which is Bill Kopalds’s old tromping grounds and Maryland should have trompled Bill and Mary but the Terps could only muster a 27-14 victory. NC State ran the ball and ran it well to knock off a tough Appalachian State squad but the Pack will have to learn to pass if they are to pass the top teams in the Atlantic. I would like to see the Wolfpack keep on running and pounding away at it with Brown and Baker and not so much Eugene but that’s the coches call. I watched the Chuck Amato show on Sunday night and he was happy with the way DeMario Pressley(out of Dudley HS) was playing along the defensive line. Pack QB Marcus Stone is 6-1 as a starter and Coach Amato says that’s BIG.

Rough times for the ACC’s Coastal Division, only Virginia Tech coming out on top. The Hokies handled Northeastern as expected but what happened to Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia? Duke was a big bust and to fall to Richmond and to be shut out by the Spiders 13-0? North Carolina lost to what looked to be a good Rutgers team. The Scarlet Knights had a very strong ground game and the Heels lost this one on defense. The new QB Joe Dailey(looks just like Tolley Carr of News 12 Sports) was impressive and his receivers Brooks Foster(not Foster Brooks the old drunk from the Dean Martin Show) and Hakeem Nicks(out Charlotte Independence HS) were off to a good start. Ronnie McGill ran the ball well just like Jeff Carlton(News and Record) said he would, but coach John Bunting is very upset with his defensive side of the football.

Georgia Tech with Reggie Ball and Calvin Johnson were sharpe for most of the game against Notre Dame down in Atlanta and to honest with you the Yellow Jackets should have beaten the Fighting Irish. The Jackets could not control their own success and once the Irish got rolling on the ground and in the air with QB Brady Quinn and RB Darius Walker it was all over. The Irish led by their rotund coach Charlie Weiss,( who made history according to ESPN/ABC by just stepping off the bus in Atlanta), did a fine job of managing the game clock. What’s up with the Virginia Cavaliers? They got pounded by Pittsburg 38-13. Is it over for Al Groh and company? The Miami Hurricanes have an excuse, they lost to a powerhouse from the ACC in Florida State.

Locally we had a mixture of success from our area teams in week one of College Football. Guilford rolled behind the 6 touchdowns from sophomore QB Josh Vogelbach. Vogelbach set a school record for most TD tosses in a game and the Quakers posted a 49-35 win over Ferrum. Guilford will go as far as Vogelbach’s arm will carry them. He is a trasnfer from ECU and next week Guilford travels to play at Methodist. There is no Radio for the Quakers this year, you can catch the games at Sportsjuice.com.

NC A&T and Greensboro College both fell into the loss column in week one and for the Aggies they lost to a big-time rival in Winston-Salem State. The Rams rattled the Aggies’ cage by the tune of a 41-14 score. A&T lost their #1 runningback Michael Ferguson and the QB position looked a bit shaky too. You can catch the WS Rams on radio at 90.5 FM with Big Mo Stansfield and A&T can be heard on 90.1 with Spencer Gwynn and Mel Swann. I think Spencer and Mel have been together on the Aggie games for over 30 years.

Greensboro College had to swallow a big helping of the Mars Hill Lions and their running QB Brandon Sims. Mars Hill a Division II unit beat Division III GC 38-13 behind Sims 4 first half TD runs. The Pride was playing up and ended up going down but there was some life when former NC A&T QB Randall Rankins was running the show for GC.

Elon won a very big road game by stopping Coastal Carolina 23-20 down in Conway, South Carolina. Former Ragsdale QB Wes Pope threw a TD pass and also ran for a score to lead the Phoenix to victory. Coastal Carolina had won 12 straight at home and drew over 8,000 fans for the game. Excellent beginning for Elon coach Pete Lembo. Elon games can be heard this season on 920AM WPCM.

The East Carolina Pirates were not quite so fortunate as they fell to Navy 28-23 on the road. Skip Holtz will have his Pirates ready in the future and he could be the man to turn the corner for the faithful down in Greenville. The ECU Pirates can heard on AM 950 WPET. A bright spot for ECU vs. the Navy Midshipmen was the Pirates’ QB James Pickney with 283 yards passing and 2 TD’s.