Heather Dinich ‘Heart’ David Cutcliffe

General NCS Football Rankings & Lists39

She’s at it again.

The woman who originally ranked Carter-Finley Stadium the ACC’s  11th toughest place to play while ranking Kenan Stadium 4th because of its scenic beauty…

This place is just the right size, and the picturesque pine trees make this one of the nicest venues in the league. Butch Davis has an amazing view of all of it from his office.

…appears to be stepping in it again.

Before the 2008 ACC Football season began, Dinich ranked the ACC’s Head Coaches in this entry that SFN ignored.  The list was ok, although it seemed to be long on opinion and short on statistics as evidenced by the most perplexing item that immediately pops off the page – the ranking of David Cutcliffe at Duke at #4 ahead of a laundry list of coaches with significantly more impressive career results like Tom O’Brien, Tommy Bowdem, Ralph Friedgen and even Butch Davis.

You couldn’t justify Dinich’s selection at the time on the grounds of ‘newness’ because Paul Johnson was also new and was slotted at #9 despite a highly successful run at also-ran, Navy compared to Cutcliffe’s six-year run at Ole Miss that was good enough to get him fired.

Q: So, what did a last place finish and 1-7 ACC record with a roster full of upperclassmen get Cutcliffe in the post-season rankings?

A: 4th place, of course!!

See the re-rankings after this season.

Don’t you understand?  While Tom O’Brien added to a decade of success by building a bowl team in a year he lost more games to injury than anyone in the league (by a factor of more than 2x), David Cutcliffe was adding to his significantly less successful resume with a 1-7 record.  Who wouldn’t understand that?  (sarcasm).

I also shake my head at the logic behind dropping Ralph Friedgen to #10 from #8 while raising Jeff Jagodzinski to #5 from #11.

Let me make sure I get this straight:

  • Jagodsinski has coached for two years with a roster full of upper-class talent he inherited from Tom O’Brien – including Matt Ryan.  Jags has obviously performed well in a balanced conference by making the ACC Championship game twice (never winning).
  • Eight years ago Friedgen inherited a program in the same stratosphere as Cutcliffe inherited and responded by making an appearance in the Orange Bowl.  He has compiled a 63-36 while appearing in six bowl games over eight years.

Remember, over the course of this one season Friedgen fell two spots and Jagodsinski rose six spots – with Tom O’Brien’s players.  So, BC must have had a helluva year compared to Maryland, right?

Uh…no.  BC finished a whopping one game ahead of Maryland in the Atlantic Division standings defeating the Terps at the end of the year for the right to play in the ACC Championship game.  Hmmmmm….

I’m not arguing that Friedgen is necessarily that much of a better coach than Jagodsinski.  I guess I wouldn’t even argue too much if you wanted to take a flier and rank Jagodsinski ahead of Friedgen.  I am arguing that there is no rational basis for making such wild moves in the rankings after setting the baseline in August.  The inconsistency of thought and methodology in compiling these rankings severely undercuts Dinich’s credibility.

To be fair, Dinich quickly ‘updated’ her embarrassing stadium rankings in August with an amended ranking in response to broad reader outcry from around the conference.  The follow-up piece can be seen here.

If Dinich doesn’t re-rank this list – or at least statistically explain the list – then she leaves us no choice but to presume the ranking criteria are important things like the coaches’ sense of fashion, office decor, and general cuteness… just like Kenan Stadium is such a pretty place to place.

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General NCS Football Rankings & Lists

39 Responses to Heather Dinich ‘Heart’ David Cutcliffe

  1. Alpha Wolf 12/16/2008 at 10:37 AM #

    Tom O’Brien — He got the most out of his team down the stretch, and practically owned the state of North Carolina with wins over East Carolina, Duke, UNC and Wake Forest.

    Practically?

    How about TOTALLY? Or COMPLETELY?

    Really now, Heather, who else could NC State have beaten to change “practically” to “completely?” Beating App State? The same App State team that NC State easily beat with a bad Amato team the same year they won a national championship?

    Personally, I think Ms. Dinich pulls stuff out of thin air when she does rankings. Cutclifee might be a good coach, but his wins came early and his team did not overcome injury problems and finish strong. Sorry, but he’s #8…at best.

  2. CarnifeX 12/16/2008 at 10:58 AM #

    Meet the ACC’s next Gregg Doyel.

    Print is dead, this is why.

  3. Cosmo96 12/16/2008 at 11:09 AM #

    I don’t know, I thought she did a decent job during the season. Even though she was responsible for those absurd stadium rankings on her blog, I give her credit for at least responding to the readers, admitting she was wrong, and amending them. I don’t think there are many writers out there that would do that (even though they probably should sometimes).

    As for this current topic of ranking the coaches…eh, she blew it. Like I said, I thought she did a good enough job throughout the season that I’m not going to let it bother me too much (although I think the absolute lowest TOB should be on the list is fourth, and I would even put him higher than that). She really seems to like Russell Wilson, and thinks our bowl game will be one of the better ones out there, so I guess that’s something. I think maybe I’m just used to reading much worse than this on the “national” sports blogs, and am glad that we don’t have someone like G**** D***** with this kind of bully pulpit.

  4. Gene 12/16/2008 at 11:11 AM #

    Eh…seems like a Big Ten chick, who got stuck by ESPN with having to follow the ACC…

    My older brother was in one of the dorm’s opposite Kennan, when he went to UNC. It is a nice setting, from what I remember. Much more picteresque than Carter-Finley ever was.

    I remember my bus route going past CF on Trinity Rd, when I was in school, and wondering why a college had such rinky-dink stadium (I had lived in Ann Arbor for seven years prior, my standards were well…different in those days). CF just sort of snuck up on you out of the woods; you didn’t know it was there until you drove right up to it.

    That’s not the case anymore, but I’m still a bit nostalgic about the stretch of Trinity Rd, off of Blue Ridge Rd., before it got built up in the 1990’s. The lack of development sort of grew on me (especially in high school trying to take my car around some hills and bends in the road as fast as I could, with no traffic lights to get in the way), and even CF just sitting there, sort of out of the way, became a feature that I grew to appreciate; a certain serenity which seems a bit lost in Raleigh (and other parts of the country) these days.

  5. RedTerror29 12/16/2008 at 11:18 AM #

    Yes, the Fridge had a great start at Maryland, but they’ve been in a long, slow decline ever since. He deserves to be dropped purely because his early success deserves less weight as time progresses.

  6. Alpha Wolf 12/16/2008 at 11:21 AM #

    Gene, isn’t The Big House half underground? Seems I remember when I saw it (many, many years ago) as seeming a lot smaller than it actually is.

  7. LKNpackfan 12/16/2008 at 11:23 AM #

    Does anyone even read ESPN anymore?
    There are just so many better, more objective, albeit less “who’s now”, outlets available from which to get your sports news.

  8. Gene 12/16/2008 at 11:24 AM #

    Michigan’s stadium is half underground, but the above ground part is a lot more impressive than CF was 25 years ago. Even on the outside, you felt you were standing in front of something big…or I was just smaller then and everything seemed bigger…

  9. Rick 12/16/2008 at 11:26 AM #

    I will not give her hits to her site.
    She is either stupid or trying to cause a stir.

  10. StateFans 12/16/2008 at 11:31 AM #

    FWIW – I thought that she did a good job during the season.

  11. TOBtime 12/16/2008 at 11:37 AM #

    With a face like that she’s trying to get attention any way she can.

  12. Wulfpack 12/16/2008 at 11:39 AM #

    I agree with RedTerror regarding Fridge. I just don’t think he’s all that. If you want to go on one season, Duke was far and away better than they have been in a long long time, and that’s just after one season. But Cutcliffe clearly has his work cut out for him and my guess is he will leave for greener pasteurs once he realizes it is next to impossible to win consistently at Duke. My rankings, today, would go a little something like this for whatever it is worth:

    Beamer – clear cut #1, no question about it
    Johnson – does things his way and it’s paying off at GT
    Grobe – a bit of a let-down this yr, but still a coach in high demand
    TOB – time will tell Pack has the best one
    Jags – hard to argue with 2 ACC Championship game appearances
    Davis – pretty good season, hope he jets to Dallas
    Bowden – only b/c of what he has accomplished, but FSU is a has-been
    Cutcliffe – great first year, but tough years ahead
    Fridge – ho-hum
    Shannon – doing little with loads of talent
    Groh – hanging on by a thread
    Swinney – still way too early to tell

  13. MatSci94 12/16/2008 at 11:42 AM #

    Bonus points to RedTerror for using ‘Fridge’ and ‘less weight’ in the same sentence.

  14. Alpha Wolf 12/16/2008 at 12:01 PM #

    Do intelligent individuals even read ESPN anymore?

    I do, for game stats, play-by-play and national stats. Their web site is often the quickest to post a box score and if you are trying to follow a game you cannot see or hear, they are pretty good.

    FWIW – I thought that she did a good job during the season.

    Yes, she did and she’s not all that bad a writer until it comes to subjective pieces like ranking stadiums or coaches. Granted, not everyone will agree with her opinion, but sometimes, she’s just so far askew in her logic that one has to wonder how in the hell she came up with her rankings.

    Then again, no one here complained one bit when she ranked NC State #4 in her ACC power ranking at the end of the year.

  15. SEAT.5.F.2 12/16/2008 at 12:18 PM #

    I think the only information she has to work with is the “tele conference” calls on tues. Her article show that she takes the canned answers and ad libs with…anything what so ever that floats across her mind.

    Note to this reporter, your employer goes ape $h^t during the NFL draft, why don’t you check back after BC puts another bunch in the pro ranks again before you count them as the sisters of the poor.

  16. LRM 12/16/2008 at 12:39 PM #

    I wrote a column poking fun at her stadium rankings, but it was all in jest. She actually did a very nice job covering the ACC during the season.

    I think the problem is that ESPN has promoted their blogs with such fervor that it has dilluted the quality. In all fairness, she’s likely expected to churn out crap like this to fill “dead air,” between the regular and bowl seasons.

    It’s important to remember, too, that she’s a blogist, not a journalist. These days, that’s a tough distinction to discern.

  17. GAWolf 12/16/2008 at 12:43 PM #

    If she happens to come across and read this blog, I fully expect her next piece to be about how terrible State fans are. I think this assessment of her opinions, while I’m not necessarily disagreeing with it, will upset her maybe a tad:

    “If Dinich doesn’t re-rank this list – or at least statistically explain the list – then she leaves us no choice but to presume the ranking criteria are important things like the coaches’ sense of fashion, office decor, and general cuteness… just like Kenan Stadium is such a pretty place to place.”

  18. Alpha Wolf 12/16/2008 at 12:45 PM #

    ^ I would rather read Heather Dinich than other certain columnist/bloggers out on the ‘Net. If she’s mistaken, she’s honest about it. If people disagree with her, she’ll take their opinions under consideration. That sure beats the other guys who use their “mailbag” to twist and mock his readers.

  19. whitefang 12/16/2008 at 1:04 PM #

    Lists like this are meaningless anyway. But it gives us a chance to talk about it I guess which ain’t all bad. I don’t want to let football season go anyway – do you guys? I am sorta trying to ignore basketball season for the moment.
    I mean maybe you can pick the best coach (Beamer perhaps but TOB would get a vote from me) and maybe you can pick the worst (got to be Groh). But really even picking Dumbo last? Heck he licked the Cocks (always liked the Clemson Can’t Lick Our Cocks bumper stickers) and got them in a decent bowl. Pretty dumb to pick Dumbo last. Almost as dumb to pick Grobe first.
    Pick the best 2, pick the worst 2, and cetainly 5,6,7,8,9 are really hard to distinguish between.
    But like I said it got us talkin

  20. bradleyb123 12/16/2008 at 1:31 PM #

    “The woman who originally ranked Carter-Finley Stadium the ACC’s 11th toughest place to play while ranking Kenan Stadium 4th because of its scenic beauty…”

    No offense, but this is a woman’s perspective. Why would such a comment surprise anyone?

  21. YANCSSB 12/16/2008 at 1:45 PM #

    The thing I’ve learned about Dinich and her infamous lists is that the ranking criteria is subject to change midway through the list. Is she ranking the best coaching job this year? The best coach overall? The most prestigious coach nationally? It’s all of those, and more, all in one list!

  22. Alpha Wolf 12/16/2008 at 1:50 PM #

    No offense, but this is a woman’s perspective.

    My wife once remarked that CFS was a lot harder for visiting teams than BKS because it was “a helluva lot louder in Raleigh. And the State fans give the other team hell the whole time.” Her words, exactly.

    She’s not the biggest sports fan on the planet, BTW. But she knows louder when she hears it and she’s been to Whispering Pines Field more than once in her time.

  23. bradleyb123 12/16/2008 at 2:22 PM #

    I won’t ever forget the game I saw in Kenan Stadium, er, Whispering Pines Stadium, and they actually piped crowd noise through the sound system! It was surreal! I couldn’t believe my ears!!! It was a big third down for the opponent, and a time when the crowd SHOULD be raising holy heck, but it was quiet and serene. I couldn’t believe it. I guess I got used to the crowd going nucking futs at Carter-Finley! LOL

  24. StateFans 12/16/2008 at 3:31 PM #

    ^ Boston College also does this.

  25. ryebread 12/16/2008 at 4:29 PM #

    I was at the big house just a year ago. It’s actually not that impressive on the outside — plenty of stadiums in the nation look much bigger. Only when you can actually see the inside do you actually start thinking that it’s big.

    UT’s stadium on the other hand is quite imposing. You can tell it’s a monster from a distance and it just feels bigger and bigger the closer you get.

    As for the rankings, they’re fun for discussion until the bowls start. It’s her opinion and as long as she backs it up, that’s fine with me. I don’t agree with her, but that’s another issue.

    Perhaps she should split things up into two piles — overall coaching ability and then coaching job done this season. I’d be hard pressed to find coaches in the ACC who did a better job with what they had this season than PJ, TOB and Beamer. Overall though, I think Bowden has forgotten more about coaching than almost everyone else in the league probably knows. Grobe impresses me for building a winning program at Wake, but I honestly felt like they slipped a bit this year and went away from their strengths. Overall, he’s an A list coach who probably deserved a B- grade this season.

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