Previewing ACC Quarterbacks: Georgia Tech's Tevin Washington

Tevin Washington: Georgia Tech

Tevin Washington is the one quarterback in the ACC that is hard to put a premium on how good he can be just looking at his numbers.  When Tech's option game is rolling Washington is as tough as they come, but if the yellow Jackets are going to make any noise this senior is going to have to be better on third and long.

Washington's 1600 yards were probably the most dangerous in the ACC in 2012.  running the Georgia Tech flexbone offense and being able to hit open receivers in the passing game makes defending Tech almost impossible.  As junior he completed 49 % of his passes up from 41%.   If the senior improves his completion percentage even more then the offense will be even more dangerous.  In all four regular season losses last fall Washington managed less than 100 yards through the air.  Teams that were successful did a great job defending Tech on first down.

For Washington to take Tech to the next level he will have to be better on 3rd down and long.  If he can just be average on third and seven to ten yards then Tech could be unstoppable. The brick wall the Yellow Jackets have hit under Paul Johnson is games the option is clipping yards on first down at four and five yards a pop along with injuries piling up later in the season.  An improved Washington and the willingness of Tech to mix in a little more pass rearl in downs could make them a formidable challenge to the Hokies for the Coastal division.  


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Previewing ACC Quarterbacks: Boston Colleges Chase Rettig

Chase Rettig: Boston College

Rettig as a sophomore threw for 1900 yards and in his wins the quarterback actually averaged fewer yards per game than in his losses.  The difference where Rettig must improve is accuracy.  He completed 52% of his passes in defeat and 63% of his passes in games BC won.  For BC to keep up with the high profile offenses in the ACC they will need Rettig to be accurate when called upon especially on third down to keep the chains moving and opponents offenses on the side line.

Rettig has a big time arm and a year reading defenses along with another spring under his belt should help him improve in his pre snap reads.   In games BC lost Rettig was hesitant with where he should throw the football and when you hesitate at this level you are not very successful.  BC returns the most amount of ltterman of any ACC school, but bringing back a team that was below average at best does not give fans in Boston a lot of hope.  

If Rolanden Finch can continue to improve allowing Boston College to utilize more play action Rettig should have an improved season.  Of BC's last seven games six have talented defenses that will test any improvement Rettig makes this off season.  Even with an improved quarterback it is difficult to see BC challenging for their division or making a bowl game this season.  


Please follow us on twitter @MandMsportshow and you can also find Haley on Keepingitheel.com    

Ranking the ACC Wide Receivers

The ACC season is just around the corner and many of the leagues leading receivers graduated or were drafted in the NFL.  Looking at this years group there a few players that offenses will scheme to get the ball into their hands as often as possible as well as some new guys who should rise to the surface.  This is a hard position to judge without seeing production first.  Often you here of guys who did great in spring, look awesome in practice yet for whatever reason it does not transcend to Saturdays. Here is our quick look at guys you must watch on Saturdays.  There will be a few new players this year to jump on the scene as Watkins did last year, but we will hold off until about halfway through the year to reevaluate each position we cover in the pre season.

1. Sammy Watkins: Clemson
Watkins is the no brainer pick in this category, but off an season arrest for marijuana possession will be an interesting story to follow.  Will Dabo Swinney play Watkins in week one or will he sit versus the Auburn Tigers. Regardless of when Sammy plays he is the best Wide receiver in the ACC.

2. DeAndre Hopkins: Clemson 
on any other team Hopkins would be a number one receiver.  Lucky for him Clemson plays in such a high octane offense that he caught 72 balls last year for 798 yards.  That was good enough for 4th in the ACC and playing with the leagues number 2 recever in terms of yards with Watkins.

3. Conner Vernon: Duke

Vernon led Duke in receptions catching 70 balls for 956 yards.  Vernon needs to play big against the better teams in the ACC this season if he wants to move into a All-ACC contender.

4. Michael Campenaro: Wake Forest

Campanaro not only caught a lot of footballs last fall he was consistant in games. With experienced quarterback Tanner price running the offense along with the departure of Wake's number one receiver Chris Givens Campanero could have a huge year.

5.  Rashad Greene: FSU 
Florida State's play making wide receiver averaged over 15 yards per catch, and Greene needs to be more consistent to climb the ladder of ACC receivers.  The talent is there he just needs to have more catches than in the forties.  


6. Eric Highsmith: UNC
With Dwight Jones departure Highsmith is UNC's incumbent number one wide receiver. He had a solid year with 50 catches for over 700 yards, but do not be surprised if teammate TJ Thorpe is not utilized more in the offense this fall under new coach Larry Fedora.  

7. Tobias Palmer: NC State
For NC State to realize a goal of winning an ACC title Palmer is going to have to be great this year with departure of prolific wide receiver TJ Graham who will be in the NFL this fall.


8. Marcus Davis: Virginia Tech
Davis takes over at Tech as Danny Coale and Jarrett Boykin will be catching passes from NFL quarterbacks instead of Logan Thomas.  For Thomas much of his Heisman talk will increase or decrease depending on the play of Davis.

9. Kevin Dorsey: Maryland
For the terapins there was not a lot of positives in 201, but Dorsey was one of them accumulating 45 catches for 570 yards.  With Danny Obrien gone it will be up to leadership from Dorsey to help bring along another young quarterback for Maryland. 

10. Bobby Swigert: BC
Swigert caught 44 passes for 470 yards for BC last fall, and with Rettig a year older Swigert is a key to any success the BC offense will have this fall.

Can the Defenseless Tigers Make a Run at the National Title?

Dabo Sweeny and his Clemson talents came out blazing last fall with an explosive offense featuring Sammy Watkins and Tajh Boyd. In an exciting game against Auburn Clemson burst on the national stage as an exciting team that some had pegged to make a run toward a national title.  The tigers started off 8-0 and their offense was cooking averaging nearly 40 points per game.  The offense however hid a defense that was not ready to contend fora national championship.

After finding themselves 8-0 Clemson traveled to Georgia Tech and the Yellow Jackets stung the Tigers defense all night. when faced with situations where they could make a come back the Tigers could not stop Georgia Tech from eating up yards and time on the clock.  Combine this effort with their offense sputtring for the first time all year and Clemson was exposed with weaknesses that would be highlighted in five of the final six games.

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Clemson finished the year losing four of their final six and the only game that was positive for their defense was the A.C.C. championship game versus Virginia Tech.  Virginia tech's Logan Thomas is considered by many to be a Heisman candidate, but his two games versus Clemson where they accumultated 13 total points along with the departure of David Wilson makes me hesitant in naming Thomas a favorite for College Footballs most prestigious award.  Clemson was able to defeat Virginia Tech for the A.C.C. championship, but the Clemson defense against West Virginia we saw a team that resembled a defense that was closer to a lower tiered team that a team you can run to the title with.

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The question for this year will be can Clemson's defense turn around to help the offense on occassion when it is not clicking? Dabo Swinney hired Brent Venables to come in and change the culture of the defense to match the high powered attacking offense Chad Morris runs. Venables joins Clemson's staff after spending the previous twelve years at Oklahoma where he was the defensive coordinator since 2004.

Venables will have to improve a defense that gave up 29 points per game, and considering the ACC is deep at the quarterback position Clemson must improve or any chance at winning the ACC or a national championship will be moot.  

The Tigers start the season with Auburn in the Georgia Dome on September 1st in the kickoff classic.  If the Tigers want to be considered as a team worthy of title consideration Venable's defense will need to be good right of the gate.  The ACC Atlantic division could be decided in week for when Clemson travels to Florida State.  After this game the tigers will have to get past Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech, but each of these teams are in the Coastal division.  The next test in the Atlantic division will be at home versus NC State on November 17th. If the Tigers defense can improve in a minor way they should be in the ACC championship game for the second year in a row.  



         

What Were the Pacers Thinking?

After one day of looking back on the NBA draft you cannot tell which players will be superstars and who will be total bust, but what you can do is look at the player selected and use a list of questions to determine if it was a good pick, a risk with high reward or just plain dumb.  Anthony Davis was the only player everybody had as a can't miss type prospect, but the draft was deep with overall talent.  There were a few teams that picked players that made me just scream WHY?!

Now comes the point to this whole post in the Pacers taking Miles Plumlee at 26 in the draft.  i do not want to degrade Plumlee because he rebounds and runs the floor pretty well, but that is about it.  Perry Jones was still sitting there and if you needed an athletic big man who can score and rebound then why not take a player with lottery pick potential.  The Thunder got the steal of the draft getting Jones so late.  I cannot understand how NBA GMs who are supposed to be so wise make such dumb decisions on draft night.  Will Plumlee play in the league? Perhaps, but at what cost to the Pacers?  They could have selected a much more talented player at 26 and probably gotten Plumlee as a free agent or worst trade a second round pick for him.  Jeff Taylor from Vanderbilt was on the board as well and when you are picking that late in the first round you take the best player available.

The NBA draft makes basketball intelligent people look ridiculous for one day out of the year.  A quote by Roy Williams sums this point up when every NBA personnel person told him James Michael Macadoo should go back to school, but if he came out he would be a first round pick.  At least in the NFL a college players career has some bearing on their future.

                    

Who are the 2012 Heisman Candidates?

Every season schools begin a campaign for their player to win the Heisman trophy, college footballs most prestigious individual prize.  Billboards are created, posters, radio announcements, but who are the real candidates to win this trophy?  You should go ahead and cut out defensive players because as good as they may be the media who votes will not let history repeat itself where they robbed Peyton Manning of his Heisman after getting caught up in the movement for Charles Woodsen.


2012 has some familiar faces among the pre season Heisman hopefuls, and there are a few guys that we believe are absolutely going to be in New York unless a freak injury occurs.  Some schools try to hype their player, but the following players play has earned them the right to be considered.  For fun we will put five guys in three lists called Bet the Farm, Safe Bets, and Team Hype?  The bet the farm guys are proven solid players who are consistent.  Safe bets are players that show promise and have had great games, but have a couple games that are more like manure classic performances.  The category What are you thinking refers to fans or schools that hype a guy based on potential only.  Their numbers really are not Heisman worthy talk, but they are waiting for that monster year.  For Quarterbacks if you have lost big games even if you have stellar numbers you fall into this category. 
                 
Bet The Farm


Matt Barkley USC


Geno Smith West Virginia


Montee Ball Wisconsin


Denard Robinson, Sr., QB, Michigan


Safe Bets

Tavon Austin, Sr., AP, West Virginia

Tajh Boyd, Jr., QB, Clemson

Landry Jones, Sr., QB, Oklahoma

Collin Klein, Sr., QB, Kansas State

Keith Price, Jr., QB, Washington

Tyler Wilson, Arkansas *Until he  beats Alabama or LSU and possibly both throwing for 3500 yards is not going to win the Heisman. 

Team Hype

Knile Davis, Jr., RB, Arkansas

De’Anthony Thomas, So., RB, Oregon I know he averaged 10 yards per carry, but let us see it when he is the starter and teams game plan for him every week. 

Gio Bernard, UNC With UNC's scandal fans will be looking for any positive hype and talented back Gio Bernard could be on this list in 2013, but some fans are already asking if he could do it this year.

Cierre Wood, Sr., RB, Notre Dame 

Sammy Watkins belongs on one of the first two lists, but without knowing his discipline from the off season drug charge we hold off on placing him.

David Stern Found His Four Leaf Clover

The debate of who the best player in the NBA continues, and the best way to settle it would be a NBA finals featuring Lebron vs. Durant.  Well that match up has come to fruition and hopefully we will see a series similar to the ones we witnessed during basketballs hay day in the eighties. 

Durant is the leagues leading scorer, and prior to the Celtic's series I would have said he does it more on pure basketball skill than the way Lebron scores.  Think to yourself if your team was down one with 5 seconds to play which player between James and Durant would you want to run a play through. Before the playoffs I may have swung Durant's way, but Lebron scored on a variety of moves and petty much single handedly destroyed the Celtics in game six.

Durant vs. Lebron has the feel of a finals like Magic and Jordan, Bird and magic, Ewing vs. Olajowan, and many more.  Kevin Durant is fun to watch in the half court, and I am starting to say the same about Lebron. I still see Durant playing with a little more fluidity in the half court, but Lebron scores is challenging my views with each performance. The playoffs is where legends are made, and the question will be who wins this game of chess and holds the crown until next season.

Please follow us on twitter @MandMsportshow and you can also find Haley on Keepingitheel.com 

The Key to Olympic Club

Standing on the first tee at the US Open is nerve racking to begin with, but when you are staring at a hole that is 520 yards in length you first think that maybe some players can get off to a quick under par start.  However that 520 yard monster first hole is a par 4 and not the par 5 it has played in the previous four US opens at Olympic Club.  Thus begins the nightmare and pressure of being not only precise, but long enough off the tee so the approach shot is hit with a low iron instead of a three wood.  The next five holes are not as long yet they present difficulty in their own way.  Narrow fairways, blind second shots and bunkers that look so peaceful captivate every golfers imagination in shot selection.  Precision will be a word heard often in the post round press conferences as golfers who exhibit this trait during the tournament will climb the leader board, and those who find the rough shall slam the trunk on Friday.      

If players are to navigate the Olympic Club it will done through the fairway because wayward starts could put a play out of contention prior to finishing the front nine on Thursday.  The length of the course is not all that daunting across the entire course, but combine that with the brutal rough and slick greens creates a scenario where making bogey or worse is certainty when hitting a wayward drive.

Much will be discussed about the 670 yard par five, but the key to this tournament will be managing the difficult holes and taking chances where players can score.  Just after the toughest opening stretch in golf players have the decision on hole seven of whether or not to try and drive the 288 yard par four seventh hole. This decision may seem easy to all of us however after playing so tight and controlled for six holes executing this shot will be tougher than you think.  That in itself is one of the greatest aspects of the US Open.  It tests the worlds best player's mentality as much as it does their ability to hit shots.  Seeing them gruel through the US open shows me that they are still somewhat human, and I use this phrase loosely because I would shoot about a 120 on this course on my best day sporting a 12 handicap.

The player whose metal shines through the first six holes will be in great shape to be in contention for the 2012 US Open.