ESPN: ACC College Football Preview 2009

General15

Nary a mention of NC State.

* Is Virginia Tech too young?

* North Carolina has the best front seven in the league because they have ‘lots of big names’?

* How much pressure is on Randy Shannon this year? It isn’t ‘fair’ to pressure Shannon in year three because he has so many new coaches? If that is the case then why shouldn’t coaches just revamp their coaching staffs every year to keep the pressure off?

* Jonathan Dwyer and CJ Spiller are ‘hands down’ the two best players and ‘must watch’ players in the league.

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General

15 Responses to ESPN: ACC College Football Preview 2009

  1. burnbarn 08/14/2009 at 1:19 PM #

    Saw where Fox South is doing their ACC preview tonight at 9

  2. packalum44 08/14/2009 at 1:34 PM #

    I hate to sound sexist here, but it is obvious that HD’s has an odd perspective on college football. She is sort of a joke, and ESPN has no incentive to give a shit. They need some cometition.

  3. LKNpackfan 08/14/2009 at 1:37 PM #

    This is the worst ACC preview I’ve seen on any outlet.

  4. LRM 08/14/2009 at 2:32 PM #

    I don’t get upset about any preseaon picks or projections, especially in the brief, cookie-cutter previews like this one. The daily college football live show on ESPN actually does a great job previewing conferences and even individual teams.

    I agree that Dwyer will be the best player in the ACC: he led the conference in rushing (1,395 yds/107.3 ypg) and had 13 TDs (12 rush, 1 pass), and there’s no reason to expect he won’t improve.

    However, Spiller might be one of the best athletes with the most promise, but he hasn’t put up the numbers yet to support him as being considered for “hands down” best in the ACC.

    I think people here will be upset Wilson isn’t getting more respect, but I’m ok with that.

  5. Cosmo96 08/14/2009 at 2:36 PM #

    Other than the mentions of CJ Spiller, it seems like they were focusing solely on the Coastal division.

  6. 61Packer 08/14/2009 at 3:27 PM #

    NC State will continue to get little if any mention in the national outlets until the ACC starts winning games that matter. And when and if that finally happens, if we’ve become a consistent 8-4 team instead of a team that hangs around .500 each season, we’ll get the respect we crave. In the process, our success will help lift our league.

    Sadly, given how deeply we’ve become entrenched in mediocrity, even in football, we’re going to have to be patient and give TOB and his staff a little time to get ‘er done. We’re closer than we’ve been in a long, long time, believe me.

  7. LRM 08/14/2009 at 3:55 PM #

    If we were 9-4 or even 8-5 last year, I could see us getting more preseason media attention. But we were 6-7, and we’ve got to prove we aren’t still the ACC’s worst defense. Right now we’re nothing beyond a local draw.

  8. BJD95 08/14/2009 at 3:58 PM #

    Dwyer is a system player. He is WAY overhyped.

  9. 4in12 08/14/2009 at 5:03 PM #

    ESPN only reports on top 25 teams. When we break into the polls they will start talking about us.

  10. SaccoV 08/14/2009 at 7:15 PM #

    I’m glad Douchebag ESPN anchorman “appreciates” her time. I could have smoked a cigarette or played with my son for those four minutes I lost. Jesus. No mention of Wake Forest or Boston College, in addition to NC State, Florida State, Maryland or Virginia. When it comes to “thorough” coverage, you can tell ESPN really gets the job done. And by “gets the job done,” I mean, “couldn’t cover a bed with a top sheet.” Also, I agree with BJD, Dwyer is a system running back. The bottom line here is that if you’re looking to ESPN for something worth hearing, reading, or listening to, you’re SOL. Read your local papers, and check out the blogs. You’ve got everything you need at hand.

  11. Wufpacker 08/14/2009 at 7:40 PM #

    “It isn’t ‘fair’ to pressure Shannon in year three because he has so many new coaches? If that is the case then why shouldn’t coaches just revamp their coaching staffs every year to keep the pressure off?”

    Maybe a certain basketball coach who shall remain nameless should have given that a try.

    LKNpackfan said:
    “This is the worst ACC preview I’ve seen on any outlet.”

    I could not agree more. And no, it isn’t because they didn’t mention NCSU or Wilson. Heck, even FSU didn’t get a mention, and most folks are expecting them to be the team to beat in the Atlantic Division. Instead of an “ACC Football Preview”, it seemed more like a Q and A about a few ACC teams between two fairly uninformed individuals. Not saying they ARE uninformed, just came across that way because pretty much all they did was repeat what has been in numerous other publications.

    Someone above said that ESPN only covers the top 25, and I agree that to a large extent this is true and I can even understand why. But this was supposed to be a conference preview, not just a preview of a few teams in the conference.

    And I believe FSU is preseason top 25, so they can’t even use that excuse.

  12. Greywolf 08/14/2009 at 8:50 PM #

    I ain’t gittin my shorts in a wad over what those dipsticks said or may say.

  13. Wufpacker 08/14/2009 at 9:50 PM #

    No wadded shorts here.

    I honestly could not care less what they have to say, whether NCSU gets mentioned prominently or whether their “ACC Preview” is well done or not. I rarely if ever even go to their site anymore and this has been the case for a long, long time. Most of the time if I am looking for sports news I stick with the locals. On the occasions I do seek out a national perspective there are a few sites I use (Sporting News, CBSSportsline, Fox Sports and SI to name a few) but ESPN.com is rarely among them.

    In fact, until today when I followed the link for the video on this thread, as well as the link to the All-ACC team/Riley Skinner listing on the other thread, I probably had not gone to their site in nearly a year, with the exception of ESPN360 when it was the only way to catch an NCSU football or basketball game. After my experience with them today (poor quality coverage, as expected) I will likely avoid them for another year.

    And frankly, I would rather that we were NOT getting so much pre-season press/attention. It seems every time we have expectations (rightfully or not) thrust upon us by allegedly knowledgeable folks, we woefully underachieve. I’d prefer to fly under the radar so to speak, and remain dogs as long as possible. In fact the line for our game with USC has us favored (-3.5). I would greatly prefer not to be favored, although it would be somewhat of an insult if we weren’t since the game is at our place. Besides, if USC was favored that would be prime betting territory.

    Fortunately I believe that TOB’s approach and coaching style lends itself to not necessarily needing to sneak up on anyone, and not coming out flat and having a letdown against anyone. I truly believe our success under TOB will be more a function of thorough preparation and a sound gameplan that strategizes how to maximize our strengths while exploiting our opponent’s weaknesses.

    Under previous “regimes” it seemed to be very important that the players be extremely psyched up in order to perform well and give us the best chance to win. All too often we would come out and not have that emotional spark, and it showed. With TOB I don’t think that is as much the case. Likewise, I don’t expect to see us beat ourselves with silly penalties, poor play calling and poor game and clock management.

  14. LRM 08/14/2009 at 10:32 PM #

    Good lord, ya’ll. This isn’t ESPN’s comprehensive ACC Preview. If you frequent their blogs, you’d know that they each day they do multiple “shorts” like these with their bloggers and columnists. They fill space in an otherwise slow news period for college football.

  15. LKNpackfan 08/14/2009 at 11:25 PM #

    You guys legitimized it with a post, so we, predictably, ripped it apart.

    ESPN:Sports::USA Today:News <–which is to say, low to no value.

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