Friday, December 04, 2009

Hockey starts weekend off on right note and other links

BC moved up the Hockey East standings with a win over No. 9 UMass Friday night. The guys face BU Saturday night.


Future Eagle Kevin Pierre-Louis was named the Gatorade Player of the Year for Connecticut.


Herzy received a standing ovation when he accepted the Commissioners Cup at the ACC awards in Tampa.


The Michigan media caught up with Josh Southern after our game against the Wolverines.


The selections haven't even been confirmed and already the Stanford media is complaining about playing BC.


For those who missed it, Charlie Davies is doing better and thanking his fans.

40 comments:

Dan said...

I'm very excited about the Pierre Louis kid. With his size/speed/work ethic/early enrollment he could contribute immediately. At 215 and proven RB experience, we might even be able to use him in select offensive packages. Although I guess First&Pierre-Louis doesn't quite have the ring of First&Toal.
Our linebacking core should be sick next year (barring anymore freak offseason setbacks).

Gerhart vs. Kuechly/McLaughlin is gonna be an interesting match-up.

blockparty said...

dan, i dont know about you but i always hated the first and toal offense. too predictable. and thats how toal got hurt. remember when we were stuffed 4 consecutive times on the 1 yard line vs fsu in the acc inaugural game?

AlbanyEagle said...

Great early bulletin board material for the Nut Bowl from the San Fran article:

"Playing Boston College, at the Giants' ballpark, simply doesn't cut it. In the wake of the Notre Dame game, Stanford would be a tremendously worthy opponent for TCU, Cincinnati, Texas - any team in the country, come to think of it. "

They may just run all over us, but thinking they are "all that" after escaping with a win over an ND team we very easily could have and should have beaten in South Bend (again) does not make them far superior. Let's hope they start (and keep) thinking they are.

Dan said...

Yea, I wasn't advocating the Bible/O'Brien version where he ran on literally every short yardage situation. More so just excitedly rambling cuz he seems like a pretty quality BC kinda player with above average physical ability too.

For a bunch of smart kids that was pretty dumb material to give an opponent to stew over for a month. Also, saw somewhere Herzlich's dad pointing out that if we win we would be 9-4 which would be a fitting way to finish after all the Herzlich 94 tributes this season.

eagleinexile said...

Yeah, how quickly they forget out there in Bay Area, that this team lost to Wake Forest. The "escape" win for Stanford over ND really just exposes USC.

Sure, Gerhart is prime time and probably deserves better than the Emerald Bowl, but that does not mean Stanford deserves better than BC, not at all.

One nice thing to see in this selection process is that the PAC-10 does the fair and just thing by having their bowls select in conference finish order and the only reason that the bowls get to choose amongst 4 teams is that they will tie for 2nd place. From the articles in the San Fran Chronic it would seem that the 3rd/5th place team cannot be chosen before these 4 teams tied for 2nd, as opposed to the Communist ACC where 7th place gets taken before 3rd, performance on the field is almost meaningless, and the top teams stay top teams with no room to build program reputation unless you win it all. BC traveled over 20,000 fans in 1984, we deserve better, not this year, but the last couple we should have been Peach or Gator.

neenan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
eagleboston said...

I actually think the BC versus Stanford game would be a very good match-up. Stanford's high-powered running game against BC's defense will be interesting. Stanford is not impressed with BC? Consider this about the BC D - they held Notre Dame to their lowest point total all season. This despite the fact they had to defend 5 (or was it 6?) turnovers from the BC offense.

The real trick for BC is if the BC offense can muster 28 or more points. If they do, I am confident the BC D can hold Stanford under 28 points and BC can win this "road" game. Stanford gave up 30 points to Notre Dame, but, interestingly, they gave up 24 points to our other common opponent, Wake Forest. This was the exact same point total we allowed to Wake.

As mentioned earlier, should be a great match-up.

mod34b said...

Since USC lost today and CAL is in trouble (as of this writing), the coveted BC v Stanford match-up may be in jeopardy.

Stanford could be picked by the Sun Bowl in Texas (instead of Oregon State; its assumed AZ will go to San Deigo and bring a lot of fansa)

Thus, if Cal loses, we could play USC! Now that is scary!

PAC10 stadning if Cal loses

1 Oregon 8-1
2 Arizona 6-3
2 Oregon State 6-3
2 Stanford 6-3
5 California 5-4
5 USC 5-4

PAC-10 Bowl order
Rose Pac #1
Holiday PAc #2
Sun Pac #3
Emerald Pac #4/5
Las Veas Pac #4/5

mmason said...

I just sent Bruce Jenkins of the SF Chronicle a little BC football education note on his rather lame, uninformed article. Had to do it. I'm not so sure it has anything to do with what Stanford really thinks--he's just bein'a homie with a bad rendition of "Smells like Team Spirit"...trying to sell newspapers in the last year of the Age of the Newspaper. Bottom line--we can beat Stanford if our D shows up and we don't play prevent, soft-cushion pass defense. Stanford gave up 38 points to the Irish, and I like those odds when I recall the Wake Forest defense held the Cardinal to 17 points. Yes, we've all grown and learned since then, but BC ACC football is not PAC-10 football. The defensive side of the ball is not as rough and tough in the PAC-10 as we see week to week.
Stanford gave up over 34 points in 5 of their games.
Gerhart is great, but we've stopped running backs like Spiller and Tate, and good QB's like Ponder and Clausen. The enemy in most of our games was US...(Boy, doesn't that ND game still make you all crazy?)

So, let the SF media do their thing--we'll clock those guys from Palo Alto if we bring some rough and tumble BC football. Let 'em eat their granola and wear their Birkenstock sandals and think we're just hoping for the honor to play the never before mighty Cardinal and then we'll just rock their Bowl Game Karma with a Montel cocktail and Keuchly sandwich! Yeah! Go Eagles! Bring on those Trees! I'll see y'all in San Francisco and I promise to behave...for the sake of alma mater, of course.

mmason said...

Just a quick note: Stanford has a terrible rep for bad travel--worse than ours! Could get lonely for any other bowl that's out of driving range so we may have Stanford no matter what occurs...

Otherwise--Bring on USC!! Hey, we can do that, too!

Go Eagles!!!

Dan said...

Oh god, while it would be fun and probably push me over the edge to making the trek out to the left coast, thinking about the words USC and Shinskie in the same sentence gives me heartburn.

neenan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
BCNorCal07 said...

Jenkins is uninformed buffoon. Try reading his columns on the Giants during baseball season. The guy is an idiot who writes like he doesn't enjoy or understand sports. Being from the Bay Area, I've learned to just ignore him.

eagleinexile said...

Mmason, way to go on sending that idiot a piece of your mind. I had it in mind to do something similar, but lost interest. To write something like that, he really does not understand college football or the internet, and I am guessing he is one of these guys who thinks that only people in the Bay area would see that article. If I were Spaz, that would go up in the locker room tomorrow with shrug as I said "Well, men, I guess they don't think that much of us out there".

I think Emerald takes Cal or Stanford so as to keep that bowl in the black, but I would not mind seeing BC vs Oregon State, a team we do not get to play often if ever. Every ACC team travels badly to it, inlcuding Miami, FSU and VTech. Honestly, the supposedly good travel schools from the ACC only travel well when the game is within RV range.

mod34b said...

It looks like its gonna be U-S-C...

Here is an excerpt from an ESPN article commenting on the ramifications of the Cal loss (stomping) by Washington:

That means the Emerald Bowl most likely will choose between the Bears and Trojans. Cal has the Bay Area tie-in, but it played in the bowl a year ago. USC continues to be USC, even if it is no longer playing like that.

And after Cal's terrible effort at Washington, the Emerald Bowl might go for USC, which likely would send Cal to the Poinsettia Bowl (Oregon State likely is the Las Vegas Bowl pick). And Cal might prefer going on the road to a warm-weather game anyway.

mod34b said...

I think Stanford is now out as a possibility.

BCNorCal07 said...

The hockey team beat BU at Agganis tonight. The guys scored three times in the third to win going away. Sneep, Shea, Atkinson, and Gibbons all found the back of the night. Way to beat those pups from down the road!

Big Jack Krack said...

Great win for BC Hockey over BU anytime. Go Coach York!

Whoever thought that the selection for the Emerald Bowl would be so interesting and filled with suspense? This is great.

Go BC!!!!

Dan said...

So let's say USC gets in, any chance we can

A. Bring Matt Ryan back for a cameo? Atlanta plays Buffalo that week so they don't really need him.

B. Up Herzlich's recovery from freakish to superhuman?

CT said...

I can just imagine Pete Carroll watching film of Shinskie and chuckling to himself...

Guess we might get a jump on that future series, huh?

What happened to the Twitter-It's Gospel-Emerald-For-Sure technological age that we live in?

eagleinexile said...

So, after Arizona beats USC in a close one on the road, a team that beat CMU by a similar margin as us, and the fact that USC got stomped by Stanford, a slightly above average team (like BC), people still think we cannot step on the same field as the Tro-Jenz ?

I would be more concerned about the point spread of whoever Boise State is going to get killed by than BC vs. USC. They are not SuperHuman, quite the contrary, if there is anything this season has shown us, it is that they are quite human.

Pete Caroll will not be chuckling when he watches Shinskie. However, he will be thinking, "Finally, a QB that gives my shit Defense a chance".

Dan said...

Exile,

I'm a huge BC fan and if we get USC I'm gonna be pumped for the big win but I am still a realist.

USC had a shit season. However, so did FSU but we are still always nervous when we face them because they present the same problem for us. Both have immensely talented players that when they show up could wipe the floor with 90% of teams. As for Shinskie, I still see promise in him, but this will essentially be a home game for USC and well road games haven't really been his thing. Also, a lot of his problems have been mental and subpar season or not, just hearing "USC defense" has to get in his head a little.

Go Eagles!! Beat Pac-10!!!

Big Jack Krack said...

This Emerald Bowl has been selling out and it has become a pretty good bowl.

Any chance the ACC will screw BC and send someone else to SF - and send us to Nashville or Charlotte?

Not really - let them think they're screwing us by sending us to a big west coast city against a very good PAC-Ten opponent in front of a capacity 42,000 fans. Hit us again, Swofford - harder, harder! :-)

What do you think?

Orange = GT
Peach = VT
Gator = FSU in honor of Bowden
Champs = Miami
Music City = Clemson
Charlotte = UNC
SF = BC

Big Jack Krack said...

I don't think the Emerald is a home game for USC - not like Stanford, right down the road.

LA is a long way from SF.

mod34b said...

Now CBS is projecting us against Oregon State -- not a sexy match up at all,

Big Jack Krack said...

I hope CBS is wrong.

mod34b said...

I think CBS is wrong.

Likely playing Cal
A home game for Cal

And not so interesting as Stanford or USC

Big Jack Krack said...

SF Chronicle - Now this bowl scenario is not official........., but based on secrets that really aren't in a business that runs on handshakes and whispers, the Pac-10 lineup is going to be Oregon to the Rose as the reward for winning the conference, Arizona to the Holiday as the reward for beating USC, Stanford to the Sun as the reward for having Toby Gerhart,

catch this:

USC to the Emerald as the reward for being USC, Oregon State to the Las Vegas as the reward for being skipped by the Emerald, and Cal to the Poinsettia as the reward for laying such an ostrich egg here.

mmason said...

Big Jack--I think you're right on. It looks like USC, which is a good thing for us all the way around. They hurt at Defense and we don't. It will be fun and they'll bring a crowd--including all of my Sicilian in-laws.

Dan said...

Either ESPN goofed or jumped the gun it has us playing USC on the BC team page schedule

Dan said...

Ok its official

mod34b said...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Southern California will face Boston College in the Emerald Bowl.

The bowl announced Sunday that the Trojans (8-4) will play the Eagles (8-4) on Dec. 26 at AT&T Park in San Francisco. This marks the first time USC has played in the bowl. The Trojans had played in a BCS game the past seven years.

Boston College is making its 11th straight bowl appearance. The Eagles are the first team to play in the Emerald Bowl twice. They beat Colorado State 35-21 in 2003. Boston College is 8-1 in bowl games this decade.

CT said...

cool...we'll see the difference in team speed...all i want for xmas is a pass rush...

Big Jack Krack said...

Wow - this is what we need to move up. Let's go BC - this is exciting!!!!

Much happiness in my half Georgia Tech household - and I was very happy to see GT get the ball back trailing by one - and pounding Clemson right down the field for the victory - SWEET!

See you in Nashville or Charlotte, Tigers!!!! You really thought you were better, didn't you?

mod34b said...

Clemson will not be going GATOR.. pathetically, FSU is going. So much for even pretending records matter in the ACC

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Bobby Bowden will coach his final game at Florida State in Jacksonville's Gator Bowl on New Year's Day.

Bowl officials announced Sunday that Bowden's Seminoles will play 18th-ranked West Virginia, the school Bowden left in 1976 to come to Florida State. The Seminoles began their 28-year streak of bowl games in 1982 when they defeated the Mountaineers 32-12 at the Gator Bowl.

Under normal circumstances, Florida State would have fallen to a lower bowl with its 6-6 record, but the possibility of keeping Bowden in Florida for his final game matched against his former school was too much for the Gator Bowl to ignore.

West Virginia is 9-3.

Bowden, 80, announced Tuesday that he would retire after the bowl game

eagleinexile said...

Dan,

As per your earlier post, your assessment is on the money with regard to Shinskie and BC having tough games against traditional powers even when they are having off years.

I tend to jump on anyone who says BC should not even step on the field with the big boys. That kind of talk has dogged BC for years, and we have proven it wrong on more than one occasion, sorry.

Well, USC v BC, this will be interesting, and yes some pass rush would be nice, as would a decrease in passes to the wrong team. Definitely going to want work the ground game and keep that not so great USC defense on the field.

mod34b said...

Vtech to chik-fil-A v Tenn

Pitt to Meineke car bowl vs ?? UNC??

mod34b said...

UNC confirms it is going to Meineke Car against Pitt

Looks like Miami v Wisconsin in Champs

and Clemson v Kentucky in Music City

Good slate of Bowls

mod34b said...

By Heather Dinich

"This won't sit well with Clemson coach Dabo Swinney -- or at least it shouldn't. Clemson, this year's ACC runner-up, will play Kentucky in the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl. This is the lowest possible bowl the ACC runner-up could fall to."

Gee -- didn't this happen to another team???

luch said...

i was at the USC-Arizona game yesterday, USC was VERY unimpressive (as far as being USC goes). it was my 2nd USC game this year and both times i came away thinking they were a lot like FSU or Miami, pretty fast and talented but just kind of a bluff.
if we can stay disciplined and qb can play within himself...and if we can grind montel and slow the game down, i think we can be in business. barkley is VERY suspect at this point in the season, he could have had at least 4 or 5 pics yesterday, some seriously badly thrown balls. wes davis should be fired up to play relatively close to his home in the 619 and the DBs should be licking their chops.