East Carolina vs. Virginia Tech

The #9 ranked Hokies begin their journey to an ACC Championship this weekend by hosting the East Carolina Pirates. The gamblers are keeping the spread around -27.5 points in this debut and I'll be honest: it has me more confused than a Miss Teen SC contestant.



I usually avoid taking teams favored by such heavy odds. But Virginia Tech has always been able to put points on the board. They put atleast 27 points on the board in 6 games last season. They beat their season opener against Northeastern 38-0 last year and then blanked Duke 36-0 two weeks later.

Then there are the intangibles..

The Polytechnic Institute has had several tragedies in the news over the past few months. A campus shooting, a carbon monoxide leak, and a black sheep have hurt a campus that, from the few of its alumni that I know, have a pride and loyalty that rivals the marines. Their home game on September 1st will be more than just a season opener, but will be a chance for a following to come together.

So what's Skip Holtz to do?

Luckily, he brings back every starter on both sides of the line and most of their 2nd string.

Unfortunately, Holtz had to suspend his projected starter Rob Kass for blowing a .19 blood alcohol test this past Saturday.

Dev's pick: The Hokies cover 27.5 in a game that begins their path to the BCS and Frank Beamer reconfirms that he's one of the best football coaches in the nation.

The Real USC

It looks like the answer to the time old question of who is the real USC is about to be answered. But, before I reveal it, let's do a little research.

-California became apart of the United States on September 9th, 1850.

-The University of South Carolina (South Carolina College) was founded December 19th, 1801. We waited until 1892 to play our first football game, which we lost against Furman 44-0.

-Our alltime football record against the University of Southern Cal is 1-1. We lost to them 23-13 at their place in 1980. But in 1983 when the men of Troy entered Williams-Brice, they were outplayed 38-14.



So it seems that the University of South Carolina was founded before California was even a state. Also, even though our head to head record is a tie, Carolina was the better team the last time we played. Don't count on a rematch anytime soon, as it looks like our athletic department can only sign contracts with powerhouses like ECU and S.C. State.

Now don't yall start supporting these arguments, because the University of South Carolina athletic department has already hired a marketing team to help us. My insider in Gamecock sports tells me that this team (which consists of a few Texans and other Westerners) has taken a national survey and found that few people in the nation or in South Carolina associate the University of South Carolina with the initials USC. They have decided to relinquish all athletic ties to USC. Their decision will be going into effect shortly. So if anyone ever really wanted to own the domain uscsports.com, don't worry.. it'll be available soon.