Gridiron Dynasty - Leahy DIA (BCS)

[joannes3000]

Welcome to Duke, Coach! We are thrilled to have you leading our program and we are sure that you can lead us to great success.

Ali Padilla

President

Duke University

John Baxter

Athletic Director

Duke University

[joannes3000]

Considering the fact that my entire team is populated by sim recruits, I'll just hit the highlights of the few usable players currently on the roster.

Robert Evans (FR) looks like he can develop into an above average QB. He has average game instinct, stamina, and work ethic; and below average technique and strength.

If he doesn't declare early, Patrick Mayfield (JR) will anchor our offense at RB. He has excellent elusiveness; above average stamina, strength, and hands; and average speed, athleticism, and work ethic.

Daniel Holland (JR) will be the anchor of our OL, grading above average in strength and blocking; average in technique, game instinct, and stamina; and below average in work ethic.

Todd Sears (FR) will anchor our DL. He has excellent strength; above average tackling; average stamina and game instinct; and below average work ethic and technique.

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As you can see, we have a long rebuilding project ahead of us. Before players declare early, we have 13 open roster spots. I rescinded 3 scholarships to start removing some of the dead weight even though it hurt my rep a little bit. It will be far more important at this stage of the rebuilding process to turn over the roster as quickly as possible.

Right now we're looking to recruit the following positions:

2 RB

1 WR

2 OL

2 DL

2 LB

4 DB (2 RS)

This should give us a fairly stable base to start the rebuild with the only tough position to overhaul being DB. This is due to the fact that there is only one FR and one SO at the position. What I might just do this season is take my lumps completely and RS one of the JRs to better even out the classes. That will leave us with only 6 DBs this season, but we don't have the talent to win immediately. I'd much rather balance out the recruiting classes now and not worry about it in two seasons when I can actually start fielding a competitive team.

Just based on talent alone I'm not particularly worried about any of my players leaving early, other than Mayfield and Holland. Both are JRs and are the only ones that seem talented enough to leave early. If nobody leaves early we should be set for recruiting, where we'll be looking to scrape for talent here and there. The emphasis will be on building a bankroll for future seasons when we can actually begin to compete for better players. It wouldn't surprise me if we were unable to beat out a well-established DIAA team for a recruit at this point, given our team's lack of success and my lack of bank.

[joannes3000]

Sorry for the late entries! I've been wrapped up in HBD and GD has been put on the back burner a little bit. Time to play a little catch-up.

Looking at the season schedule, wins could come few and far between. Our OOC slate features 3 teams from BCS conferences and 2 from non-BCS conferences. Our opening game against Ball State looks to be the most winnable game since we have it at home. Beyond that, we'll be lucky to win 2 games out of the first 5.

Our in-conference slate is going to be a very humbling experience as well. We will take our beatings from division powers Miami, Virginia, and Georgia Tech. We also drew Boston College from the Atlantic. That's 4 losses right there. We do have 4 sim teams on the in-conference slate, which could make all the difference in year one of the great rebuild.

First year expectations? I will at least match last season's mark of 3 wins. That should keep my job status from dropping. The 4 games against sim teams will go a long way toward reaching that goal. At best I see us winning 7 games and achieving a winning record, something Duke hasn't experienced in 15 seasons.

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Recruiting went well, given our dire straits. The most important goal we accomplished was that we signed 13 players to scholarships, nearly all of which will be pressed directly into starting roles. We landed the #57 class in the country, which is amazing for what we had to work with. We couldn't exactly sell Duke's winning tradition (13-39 record the last 4 years). We also didn't have a bankroll to work with since it's our first season at the helm. The only positives were my reputation (A- after cutting dead weight) and loyalty (A+) ratings as a coach.

Within the conference we had the 7th best recruiting class, and we had the 4th best class in our division. It's going to be a long road to even get to mediocrity.

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11/29/07 Ball State

11/30/07 at Arizona State

12/1/07 at Indiana

12/2/07 at Texas Christian

12/3/07 #20 Connecticut

[joannes3000]

My inaugural game at Duke was a great one. First, because we won! Second, because even with barely a blip of talent on our roster, my offensive game plan showed that it has teeth. We went into halftime with a 28-21 lead and got the ball to start the 2nd half. We built a 35-21 lead early in the 3rd and then hung on for dear life. As good as our offense performed, our lack of talent on defense showed how painful this season can end up being. We ran for 236/3 and passed for 282/3/0. And while it was impressive to put up 518 yards of offense, our defense gave up 481.

42-45 W

Any good feelings from our opening win were quickly dismissed in the desert against Arizona State. We were staring at a 21-0 lead before we managed to put points on the board. The closest we got was 10 points late in the 4th, but it was never really a contest. We ran for 146/4 and passed for 262/0/1. Our offense put up 408 yards, but our defense surrendered 526.

28-45 L

Our road trip continued with a trip to Indiana. We got out of the gate quickly, taking a 14-7 lead in the 1st quarter, and went into the half leading 28-21. Indiana quickly tied the score in the 3rd and we took a 3 point lead going into the 4th. Indiana tied up the score with just under 8 minutes to play, but we scored a TD with a time-consuming drive that left Indiana the ball with just under 2 minutes. Our defense woke up just in time to stop Indiana 2 yards short of a first down on our 25 and we ran out the clock from there, notching win number two! We ran for 247/2 and passed for 203/3/1. Our offense put up 450 yards and our defense had it's best statistical game of the young season only allowing 403 yards.

38-31 W

The final game of our road trip took us south to Fort Worth for our matchup against TCU. We got out of the gate early again, taking a 14-7 lead into the 2nd quarter. Reality set in, however, as TCU rattled off 21 points in the 2nd and the best we could do was kick a FG. The game got ugly in the 2nd half, as TCU dominated us on offense and our defense was absolutely helpless. We ran for 223/1 and passed for 246/2/1. Our offense put up 469 yards, but our poor defense got smoked for 615 yards.

Injury update: Duane Garcia, our #2 RB went down and will be out until after the 12th. This ends his season and he won't get a medical RS because it's 4 games into the season. A player must play in less than 20% of the scheduled games and we will only play 13 games this season, making game #3 the cutoff. Garcia just rushed for over 100 yards the game before, and this will put a major damper on our offense.

27-55 L

We come home in time to host Connecticut. The game got out of hand early and we did nothing to slow things down. We were down 14-0 after one quarter and were down 28-3 at the half. We were nearly held out of the endzone altogether until we managed to score a TD with 4 minutes to go in the game. We ran for 140/1 and passed for 128/0/0. Our offense was shut down for the first time this season, as we were held to 268 yards. Our defense was victimized again, giving up 479 yards.

49-12 L

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With the first 5 games in the books, I'm happy with what we've accomplished thus far. We're 1 win away from matching last year's win total, with 4 sim games yet to be played. Our offense is performing well, although that will take a considerable blow with Duane Garcia going down during the game against TCU. I've had to go through this situation before when I was at Appalachian State in Rockne, so it's nothing new. It's far from desirable, however.

The next 4 games will bring both ends of the spectrum. We host games against powerhouses Boston College and Virginia, both coached by Hall-Of-Famers. The other two games are on the road against downtrodden sim teams - NC State and Maryland. We will likely match last season's win total with the first game and exceed it with the third. Games two and four will be learning experiences all-around. I will probably see a toned down version of the BC and VA offenses, so I won't learn much there as a coach. Our team will get absolutely schooled, however.

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12/4/07 at NC State

12/5/07 Boston College

12/6/07 at Maryland

12/7/07 #6 Virginia

[joannes3000]

Our first conference game produced the kind of results I had expected against a sim team. We ran for 414/5 and passed for 130/1/0. We put up 544 yards of offense and allowed 288.

42-16 W

Our first game against one of the conference juggernauts also went as expected. We got blown out of the water offensively and defensively. We ran for 50/1 and passed for 249/1/2. Our offense put up 299 yards and our defense surrendered 450 yards.

49-14 L

Game 3 of in-conference play brought another sim team and another chance at a win. We ran for 348/4 and passed for 52/1/0. We put up 400 yards of offense and allowed 247.

36-17 W

Game 4 brings another powerhouse to Durham, and this time it was Virginia's turn to steamroll us. We ran for 190/2 and passed for 105/1/2. We managed 295 yards and gave up 532, all on the ground.

52-20 L

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With 4 games left to go in the regular season our record stands at 4-5. We have two winnable games against sim teams left, and the remaining two look to be losses. We will surely lose when we travel to Coral Gables to play the Hurricanes and it will take a major miracle to pull the upset when we wrap up the season on the road against Georgia Tech. I would've felt slightly better about the Tech game if my #2 RB hadn't gone down, but we have very little offense when it comes to human teams.

That said, we will likely finish the season at 6-7 and will not go bowling. I don't know if GD has a minimum win requirement to be eligible for bowls, but I'm willing to bet that our losing record will weigh heavily against us. With 28 bowl games and 56 participants, we have a remote chance of getting in based on our WIS ranking if it holds up. We are currently ranked #55 with Miami likely being a top 10 school when we face them. Georgia Tech is a top 40 team, so that will help our SOS as well. It will be interesting to see how the bowl picture shapes up, especially if we are in the top 50 at the end of the season.

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12/8/07 North Carolina

12/9/07 at #5 Miami (FL)

12/10/07 at Virginia Tech

12/11/07 at Georgia Tech

[joannes3000]

Another game against a sim, another expected outcome. We ran for 326/4 and passed for 109/0/0. Our offense went for 435 yards while our defense allowed 287.

Injury update: Is this even fair? 9 carries into our game, #1 RB Patrick Mayfield goes down and doesn't return to the game. The post-game diagnosis is positive, but Mayfield won't be in game-shape until the last game of the season.

17-31 W

Another game against a powerhouse, another expected outcome. We ran for 112/1 and passed for 131/0/0. Our offense managed 243 yards while our defense allowed 594.

7-45 L

Our final game against a sim team was a disaster. With 3 healthy RBs, we were unable to execute our normal game plan, which is a heavy ground attack. We switched to our balanced attack for the first half and went into halftime tied 7-7. I went to our run-heavy game plan in the 2nd half hoping that our RBs would be rested enough to power us to victory, but I was wrong. We ran for 202/0 and passed for 103/1/0. Our offense put up 305 yards and our defense allowed 292.

7-14 L

The final game of our long inaugural season came and went with little fanfare. Our loss to Va Tech eliminated what long shot we had at making a level 1 bowl. We ran for 107/2 and passed for 164/0/0. Our offense put up 271 yards while our defense allowed twice as many, 514.

14-52 L

[joannes3000]

Season two at Duke was much more successful than season one for several reasons. First, our very modest 5 win season was tied for the highest win mark in 15 seasons. Secondly, we had ~60k extra recruiting cash after bowl season.

Still being a bottom-feeder school we were conservative with the majority of our recruiting efforts, although I did recruit a few players much earlier than usual. After the first few cycles, I targeted a small handful of players that remained undecided and got them considering only me. Luckily, nobody went after those recruits, so we were able to land that handful of recruits for less than 3k each.

We recruited aggressively in some cases where the main competition was a DIAA school. I was able to land a few nice recruits that were being courted heavily by successful DIAA programs but no DIA programs, which goes to show how crappy our recruit vision is at this point and how short on talent we are.

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Offense

We landed an average DIA QB that was overlooked due to his low STR. William Sullivan has above average game instinct, athleticism, speed, and elusiveness; average stamina; and below average technique, strength, and work ethic.

RB Melvin Gardner has above average stamina and work ethic; average elusiveness, strength, and speed; and below average athleticism. With his high work ethic, Gardner could pan out to be an above average RB in a few seasons.

We landed an average WR class this season, with no slouches like last season. Gary Evans was a RB in high school but he will play WR for us. He has above average speed; average stamina, athleticism, hands, and elusiveness; and below average work ethic and technique. WR William King has above average hands and elusiveness; average speed and stamina; and below average athleticism, work ethic, and technique.

Our lone TE recruit was Ralph Price. He has above average elusiveness; average athleticism, work ethic, stamina, strength, blocking, hands, and technique; and below average speed.

Given our team's lack of prestige, I think our OL class was excellent. Terry Kyle has above average athleticism, work ethic, stamina, blocking, and technique; average strength and game instinct. His line mate,

James Smith has above average strength and blocking; average work ethic, stamina, game instinct, and technique; and below average athleticism.

Defense

Much like our OL recruits, our DL recruits exceeded expectations. Jacob Lewis has above average stamina and strength; average work ethic, tackling, game instinct, and technique; and below average athleticism. Angel Torres has above average work ethic, strength, and tackling; average technique; and below average athleticism, stamina, and game instinct.

I did some planning for the future by recruiting a pair of LBs, fully intending to RS both of them. I'm hoping that with an extra year of growth, they will make for nice anchors in our base 4-4 defense once they start getting playing time.

William Hansen has excellent tackling; above average stamina and strength; average athleticism and work ethic; and below average speed, game instinct, and technique. Dennis Osborn has above average game instinct; average speed, strength, and tackling; and below average athleticism, work ethic, stamina, and technique.

I ditched my original plan of trying to level out my DB classes and recruited two DBs this season. This will give us a total of 4 FR on the roster including the two DBs that were RS'd last season. Now that we have a full compliment of DBs, I can focus on balancing out my classes in upcoming seasons without having to worry about getting lit up against opposing passing offenses.

Michael Gary has excellent elusiveness; above average work ethic and stamina, average athleticism, speed, and technique; and below average hands and game instinct. Timothy Lancaster has excellent elusiveness; average speed, work ethic, game instinct, and technique; and below average athleticism, stamina, and hands.

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I felt pretty good about this recruiting class and felt that it was a nice step up from last season's inaugural group. Recruit rankings pegged our class as the 43rd best in the country, which is up 14 spots from last season. Our class was the 5th best in the conference and the 3rd best in the conference. Here are the recruit rankings for this season:

Virginia - 6

Miami - 10

Clemson - 25

Boston College - 39

Duke - 43

Georgia Tech - 45

Florida State - 56

Virginia Tech - 84

Wake Forest (sim) - 92

Maryland (sim) - 93

North Carolina State (sim) - 95

North Carolina (sim) - 103

Our 4 year win/loss record is now 16-36. We also managed to bankroll a little more cash this season, and our total before any bowl money this season is 100k. My coach reputation also rose to an A and my loyalty remained at A+.

[joannes3000]

Our OOC schedule features plenty of winnable games at the expense of SOS, which is what I intended. We accepted one human request and loaded up the remaining 4 games against sim teams, one of which was picked up by a human coach during the offseason. Our first 4 games should be very winnable and we will likely go into conference play with a 4-1 record.

In-conference play brings two more sim teams, and Virginia Tech is being coached by a human for the first time in 10 seasons. If we can win those 3 games that will give us a winning season; the first Duke has seen since season 18. The remaining conference games will likely be losses, as they were last season, but a 7-6 record and an outside chance at a bowl game will be considered a success for us in only my 2nd season here. From this point forward, the bar will be set at 7 wins and at least a low-level bowl invite.

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1/3/08 at Ole Miss

1/4/08 at Baylor

1/5/08 Western Michigan

1/6/08 at Air Force

1/7/08 at #15 Wisconsin

[joannes3000]

Our first game was against a downtrodden Ole Miss team that hasn't had a human coach in 15 seasons. We ran for 325/4 and passed for 217/3/0. Our offense put up 542 yards and our defense allowed 259.

49-21 W

Our second game was against a sim-coached Baylor, who also hasn't had a human coach in 15 seasons. I forgot to set my game plan correctly though, and we didn't put the game away until we scored the final TD with 3 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. We ran for 433/4 and passed for 10/0/0. Our offense put up 443 yards and our defense allowed 311.

28-21 W

Our third game was against another sim-coached team in Western Michigan. We ran for 383/5 and passed for 178/3/0. Our offense put up 561 yards and our defense allowed 446.

38-55 W

Our fourth game was against yet another sim-coached team; this time Air Force. We ran for 382/4 and passed for 130/2/0. Our offense put up 512 yards and our defense allowed 213.

45-11 W

Our final OOC game was against Wisconsin, quite the difference from our first 4 games. They are superior in talent and also coached by a HOFer. We ran for a paltry 64/0 and passed for 241/1/2. Our offense put up 305 yards and our defense allowed 514.

9-38 L

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Well, we accomplished what I had set out to do with our OOC schedule. We racked up 4 relatively easy wins, other than against Baylor where I forgot to set the correct game plan until the 2nd half. We're only halfway through ridding the roster of sim-recruited players and we will continue to schedule cupcakes until we are competitive. And come to think of it, we probably won't ever take on a difficult OOC schedule, given that we have 2 elites and another powerhouse (Boston College) within the conference to help with SOS.

The 4 wins during OOC play puts us one game behind our win total from last season. With two more sim games during conference play (Wake Forest, North Carolina), we should easily get to 6 wins. And even though Virginia Tech is now human-coached, their lack of overall talent should give us a chance at a winning season and a bowl bid this year.

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1/8/08 at #16 Florida State

1/9/08 Clemson

1/10/08 Wake Forest

1/11/08 #6 Miami (FL)

[joannes3000]

Injury update: I forgot to mention that we had some significant injuries during OOC play. OL James Smith suffered a mild injury against Wisconsin and missed 3 games. OL Danny Welsh suffered a serious injury against Air Force and he will be out for the remainder of the season. Like most long-term injuries, it happened too late into the season for him to receive a medical RS.

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Our conference slate kicks off against Florida State. In typical fashion, we got dispatched by a vasty more talented team. We ran for 55/1 and passed for 310/1/2. Our offense put up 365 yards and our defense allowed 515.

20-56 L

Clemson came to town for our 2nd conference game and the result was similar to the first game. We ran for 102/2 and passed for 224/0/0. Our offense put up 326 yards and our defense allowed 431. Injury update: TE Clarence Holmes suffered a minor injury and while he won't miss any games, he will definitely be limited for the next few games.

38-17 L

Game 3 provided a break, with sim-coached Wake Forest coming to town. We ran for 498/5 and passed for 91/2/0. Our offense put up 589 yards and our defense allowed 293. Injury update: DB Wayne Powell suffered a mild injury and will be out until at least the 13th. He likely won't play this season unless we get to a bowl game.

13-49 W

Back to reality against Miami... We ran for 63/0 and passed for 246/1/0. Our offense put up 309 yards and our defense allowed 596 - all on the ground.

55-10 L

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With our win against Wake Forest, we have matched our win total from last season. We have one more gimme game against North Carolina and I still feel confident about our chances against Virginia Tech. A bowl bid is in sight!

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1/12/08 Georgia Tech

1/13/08 at North Carolina

1/14/08 Virginia Tech

1/15/08 at #4 Virginia

[joannes3000]

Game 10 brings Georgia Tech to town, and they were kind enough to bring a beatdown as a gift. We ran for 62/0 and passed for 308/1/0. Our offense put up 370 yards and our defense allowed 591.

52-10 L

Our next game put us on the road against sim-coached North Carolina and it was business as usual. We ran for 542/6 and passed for 96/2/0. Our offense put up 638 and our defense allowed 221.

58-10 W

Game 11 was a home affair against Virginia Tech, our last chance at a win for the season. We were fortunate to win the game, as we literally tried to fumble the game away. We had 3 fumbles and lost all 3 of them. We opened the 4th quarter by fumbling at midfield, and VaTech capitalized with a TD to pull within 8 points. Our next drive was killed by another fumble, this time just past the 50. Our defense saved the day, however, forcing a critical 3-and-out.

We ran for 292/3 and passed for 124/1/0. Our offense put up 416 yards and our defense allowed 358.

20-28 W

Our final game of the season has us on the road against defending NC Virginia. The results were ugly as usual. We ran for 66/0 and passed for 218/1/1. Our offense put up 284 yards and our defense allowed 592 yards all on the ground again.

10-66 L

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Our 7-6 season qualified us for a bowl berth, but our weak SOS denied us of a bid. I can't say we were looked over, given the fact that we had zero quality wins. VaTech wound up ranked #73 and they were our biggest win of the season.

With our 2nd season now complete at Duke, I like the direction of our program thus far. We've increased our win total for two consecutive years and we've achieved a winning record relatively quickly. In fact, our win total over the past two seasons (11) matches Duke's win total over the past 3 seasons before I arrived.

That said, we still have a long way to go. We won't be competing against the likes of Virginia, Boston College, Florida State, or Miami any time soon. I would like to start making strides against Clemson and Georgia Tech, as well as staying ahead of Virginia Tech and any other sim teams that get occupied by human coaches.

We have at least 14 more sim players graduating (and I doubt any leave early for the draft), so next season should be a very good indicator of where we stand. We will have a roster that is comprised of close to 75% of my own players, meaning we will finally start having some depth!

[joannes3000]

From: John Baxter

To: Coach joannes3000

Subject: A bump in the road...

Sent: 1/21/08 3:00PM

Coach,

I know you'll be interested to hear what I just stumbled upon -- Firejoannes3000.com! Just so you know, I think they're overreacting. Of course, a good season next year won't hurt anyone. I'm looking forward to a good year.

John Baxter

Athletics Director

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Wow, I guess our two seasons of decent football have awoken the competitive spirits at Duke! My job security has amazingly dropped one notch from Very Secure to Secure, after guiding Duke to their first winning record in 16 seasons. If nothing else, this will serve as motivation for us to not only continue our success but to also take the next step forward, which is a bowl invitation.

[joannes3000]

As mentioned in my Rockne thread:

I've got a very interesting change coming this offseason to report. Having had much success with using the Pro set, I have decided to go full tilt with a balanced offensive attack and will be implementing the I form as well. I have been consulting with a HOF coach and over the span of two days that we spoke, he won a NC with a team running a balanced attack. With Temple still very well in rebuild mode, now is a perfect time to install an offense this radically different.

[joannes3000]

Season three of the rebuilding project at Duke started off successfully in my estimation. The momentum of our 7 wins last season, along with some coaching vacancies within our recruiting area gave us access to some nice recruits given the (non)winning tradition of our team.

I continued with my recruiting techniques from season two by recruiting early for several recruits that were local to me. It turned out that the vast majority of them signed for minimal amounts of money because we got little, if any, competition from other schools for their services. This allowed me to key in on a couple of key targets I was willing to battle for.

We met all of our determined needs this recruiting season, which is always a plus. I'm especially happy with landing the one extra RB and one extra LB I was hoping for, both of which will RS this season. Part of the leap that I expected to take starts with the recruiting season, as I want to teach people that Duke means business off the field as well as on the field.

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Offense

QB John Eaton projects to be an average DIA player in all facets, which is rare for me to land. By the time he is expected to throw passes as a JR, he should be above average in all categories. He has above average speed; average game instinct and work ethic; and below average athleticism, stamina, strength, elusiveness, and technique.

RB Eugene Gonzalez is the gem of our class, who is a converted TE. He excellent strength; above average speed and elusiveness; average athleticism and stamina; and below average work ethic. He's even an accomplished blocker to boot. He will RS this year and should spearhead our running attack during his time at Duke.

RB Joseph Sandoval has above average speed; average work ethic, stamina, and elusiveness; and below average athleticism and strength.

WR Jack Beatty is a converted RB. He has above average speed, work ethic, and stamina; average elusiveness and technique; and below average athleticism and hands.

WR Martin Jackson has above average speed, stamina, and elusiveness; average work ethic; and below average athleticism, hands, and technique.

TE John Abrams has excellent work ethic and blocking; above average strength; average athleticism and speed; and below average stamina, hands, and technique. He is already a devastating run-blocker and if he improves his pass-catching he has the speed to be a dual-threat TE.

OL Harold Boyer has excellent stamina and blocking; average athleticism and strength; and below average work ethic, game instinct, and technique. He will need to become more technically sound, but is already a road-grader.

OL Ryan Powell has excellent work ethic, stamina, and blocking; average athleticism and strength; and below average game instinct and technique. Like Boyer, Powell is a mauler and I have high hopes of him becoming a stud OL with his high work ethic.

Defense

DL Leslie Lloyd has excellent work ethic and stamina; above average strength and tackling; and below average athleticism, game instinct, elusiveness, and technique. His high work ethic, along with having plus grades in two core skills (STR, TKL) make Lloyd a candidate to be a game-changer.

DL Jeffery Sykes has above average strength and technique; average athleticism, work ethic, stamina, and tackling; and below average game instinct and elusiveness.

LB James Flores has phenomenal tackling; excellent speed; average stamina and strength; and below average athleticism, work ethic, and technique.

DB Stanley Greene has average athleticism, speed, work ethic, stamina, and elusiveness; and below average hands, game instinct, and technique.

DB Gregory Washington has phenomenal speed; above average elusiveness; average stamina; and below average athleticism, work ethic, hands, game instinct, and technique.

Special Teams

K Michael Reid has average work ethic, strength, and technique; and below average game instinct. He will pull double duty as a punter as well.

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Ardikus and his recruit rankings are currently MIA, but the rankings provided by another coach have us with the #50 class. This is a step back from our #43 ranking last season and I think it's due to the new rankings rather than a weaker recruiting class. Nonetheless, that gives us the 5th best class in the conference and the 3rd best class in the division.

Miami - 5

Florida State - 17

Virginia - 25

Clemson - 32

Duke - 50

Maryland - 53

North Carolina - 57

Boston College - 58

Georgia Tech - 68

Virginia Tech - 70

North Carolina State (sim) - 99

Wake Forest (sim) - 102

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While we aren't exactly broke, I still felt I overspent a little bit. Our protracted battle over Eugene Gonzalez cost a lot more than I had hoped it would, as I ended up spending over 60k on him alone!

[joannes3000]

Thanks to a span of complete ignorance, my OOC slate was generated by the sim. That's right, I forgot to schedule any OOC games for the entire duration of season 34. That puts a damper on our chances of winning some easy games since I didn't get a chance to schedule a handful of downtrodden sim teams. That's right - if it works for Kansas, it works for me!

We actually didn't get a terrible draw, given my ignorance. We drew one sim team (UCF) which should be a gimme win. And while we drew elite Florida and BCS Georgia to boot, our other two games against Iowa State and UNLV should be competitive at the very least.

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2/7/08 at Iowa State

2/8/08 UNLV

2/9/08 #12 Florida

2/10/08 at #20 Georgia

2/11/08 Central Florida

[joannes3000]

Nothing like a nail-biter to start off the season. Playing at Iowa State, we took a lead going into the 4th after having a masterful 3rd quarter only to have an uninspiring final frame where we gave up 10 straight points. We snapped out of it just in time to score the game-tying TD with just over 2 minutes to go and forced the game into OT. We started on defense and forced a fumble on the first play, leading to the game-winning TD on our possession! We ran for 254/3 and passed for 226/2/0. Our offense put up 480 yards and our defense allowed 382.

38-31 (OT) W

Game 2 has us back home against UNLV and we played another dramatic game, this time with the crowd on our side. Once again we scored a TD late in the 4th quarter, this time to win in regulation. We ran for 200/3 and passed for 235/2/0. Our offense put up 435 yards and our defense allowed 390.

34-38 W

We didn't have time to celebrate our two clutch wins for long, as Florida came calling for game 3. We hung in tough at the half, staying tied at 21, and had the game tied up early in the 4th until the wheels came off. We played very well against an elite, however, so the loss was somewhat acceptable. We ran for 72/3 and passed for 212/1/0. Our offense put up 284 yards and our defense allowed 474.

41-28 L

We traveled south to Sanford Stadium for game 4 and were hopeful of an upset after our good showing against Florida. The game was tied up going into the 4th quarter, and it looked like we were going into OT after a late drive stalled and we had to punt away with just over a minute to go. Our defense came up huge, however, by forcing an INT with 40 seconds to go. Two plays later we scored a TD and silenced the home crowd with a thrilling upset. We ran for 93/2 and passed for 231/1/0. Our offense put up 324 yards and our defense allowed 382.

21-14 W

We came home after our upset victory and hosted sim-coached Central Florida. They were 30.5 dogs and we took them behind the woodshed. I knew we had a talented team, but this game got out of hand in a hurry. We ran for 398/10 and passed for 259/1/0. Our offense put up 657 yards and our defense allowed 124.

3-77 W

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I'm thoroughly impressed with our 4-1 OOC record, especially with the only loss being against an elite Florida squad. This is far more impressive than our 4-1 start last season when we dialed up wins against sim teams. We were actually ranked #18 going into conference play!

We're staying grounded going into conference play, however, because the ACC is going to be brutal as usual. If I can match last season's 7 wins, we should sneak into a bowl game this year due to our increased SOS. If we can pull an upset somewhere and get 8 wins, we should be a lock to go bowling.

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2/12/08 #5 Florida State

2/13/08 at Clemson

2/14/08 at Wake Forest

2/15/08 at North Carolina

[AHF]

Nice start to the season! I can tell you I am happy that a Duke over Georgia win is pure fantasy, though.

[joannes3000]

Quote:

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Nice start to the season! I can tell you I am happy that a Duke over Georgia win is pure fantasy, though.

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Lol, you're absolutely correct. Growing up in Athens, I almost felt like it was my moral obligation to lose the game.

[joannes3000]

Our conference schedule starts with a home game against elite Florida State. We ran for 47/2 and passed for 269/1/0. Our offense put up 316 yards and our defense allowed 495. Compared to last year's 24 point throttling, I'm happy that we only lost by 19.

40-21 L

Our next game we were on the road against Clemson and I was really hoping to pull an upset after a strong showing against FSU. We're still another season or two away from being close enough from a talent standpoint to beat one of the mid-level conference teams, however. We ran for 58/2 and passed for 286/1/0. Our offense put up 344 yards and our defense allowed 457.

21-38 L

On the heels of two straight losses, game 8 has us on the road against a sim-coached Wake Forest team. Things didn't get quite as ugly as when we played UCF earlier this year, but we won handily. We ran for 392/4 and passed for 218/3/0. Our offense put up 610 yards and our defense allowed 274.

49-17 W

The annual Tobacco Road game is at North Carolina this year, and they're human-coached for the first time in 10 seasons. It didn't matter much on the scoreboard, however. We ran for 251/4 and passed for 296/2/0. Our offense put up 547 yards and our defense allowed 141.

42-3 W

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Well, I think we're slowly making progress against our conference foes. We narrowed the losing margins against FSU and Clemson compared to last season, and I expect more of the same against Georgia Tech, Virginia, and Miami later this season. As long as we beat Virginia Tech as expected, we will match last season's 7 win total.

We are currently in line to get a bowl bid this year also, with our team currently ranked #45. We should hover right around that ranking, even as we accumulate losses to end the season. Virginia and Miami will continue to be ranked in the top 25 which will help our SOS. Georgia Tech is having a bit of a down year, and if we can catch them off guard, 8 wins should lock up a bowl bid.

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2/16/08 Virginia Tech

2/17/08 at Georgia Tech

2/18/08 at #7 Virginia

2/19/08 #17 Miami (FL)

[joannes3000]

The back end of our regular season starts with a home game against Virginia Tech. They are one season behind me in terms of their rebuild project, but we're several seasons ahead in terms of the product on the field. We ran for 305/4 and passed for 158/2/0. Our offense put up 463 yards and our defense allowed 232.

7-42 W

Our road game against Georgia Tech is our last winnable game of the regular season, making it critical to our bowl aspirations. We've been talking about this game all season because this is a good game to check our team's progress within the conference. Georgia Tech was banged up at LB, so I liked our chances even on the road.

At the half the game was knotted up at 14 and Tech took a lead late in the 3rd quarter with a TD. We quickly tied the score in the 4th, but Tech took the lead on a FG with just under 8 minutes to go. Fatigue finally started to set in for the Tech defense, as we drove 80 yards without even going to 2nd down to take the lead with a TD. We left almost 5 minutes on the clock, however, and our defense stepped up big time just outside our redzone, forcing 3 consecutive incompletions to give us the ball back. We couldn't kill the clock entirely, but we pinned the ball at the 1 yard line with 40 seconds left in the game and there were no dramatics at the end.

We ran for 157/5 and passed for 263/0/0. Our offense put up 420 yards and our defense allowed 491.

35-31 W

After our terrific upset the prior week, we traveled to Virginia knowing we were just playing to keep the score respectable. Last season we were on the humiliating end of a 66-10 blowout, and we managed a much better showing this season. We ran for 112/3 and passed for 190/0/0. Our offense put up 302 yards and our defense allowed 534 yards.

21-42 L

Our regular season finale was a home tilt against elite Miami. Again, we were playing to keep the score respectable and we achieved that. After getting throttled 55-10 last season, we managed to keep things decent this season. We ran for 35/0 and passed for 215/1/0. Our offense put up 250 yards and our defense allowed 368.

27-7 L

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Our goal of taking the next step this season has been accomplished to this point. We hit 8 wins, which is tough even if I schedule 5 gimme games for my non-conference slate. We should also be in line for a decent bowl berth since we are currently ranked #43 with CC games being played right now. Barring some ridiculous oversight by the bowl committee, we should be a lock for the post season. 4 of our 5 losses have come against top 25 teams, with 3 of them being elites (FLA, MIA, FSU) and the 4th being a powerhouse also (UVA). Our only other loss was against an above-average Clemson team. Our losses came against teams with a combined 58-7 record this season. Bowl bids should be announced later today and I fully expect to be one of the possible 6 teams the ACC sends bowling.