Quietly in to the Night

And with a whimper, the UVA football season slowly came to a close. The Oceanliner was in Charlotte for Thanksgiving and got to watch the Tech game with Austin, birthday boy Potts and Tyler, which was fun. Plus we gave the Hokies a better game than I thought we would have. We had a chance to win in the fourth quarter, which is all you can really ask for. But a Favre-esque back breaking interception from Marc Verica ended the game and Virginia’s season. Two things here:

1) It was a horrendous pass. Truly God awful

2) I don’t trust people name Marc who spell their name with a c. Weird.

The Hoos “offense” did provide some entertainment value however, by running the Wildcat formation for most of the game. I can’t imagine what people who don’t follow the ACC must have been thinking if they tuned in for the game.

“Wait, you’re telling me that the starting Virginia cornerback, who hasn’t taken a rep at quarterback since high school, has taken 75% of the snaps in the biggest rivalry game of the season? What kind of Looney Tunes ship are they running in Charlottesville?”

And they would be exactly right. Except I kind of liked it. If Vic Hall is in at quarterback and running every time, there’s no way Verica can throw an interception on the same play. It almost worked too. Hall ran 16 times. 13 of these runs were completely stuffed. But of the other three, two went for touchdowns and the other for 39 yards and into Hokie territory in the 4th quarter, only down by a figgie. Then Verica comes in and throws a pick. A horrific and putrid interception. His 16th of the season. That was tied for 5th in the country. Plus he only threw 8 touchdowns. Not good. When we were riding out four game winning streak, Verica looked good and seemed like he was steadily improving every game. Well, he must have hit a wall, because he ended terribly and looks very shaky going into 2009.

Another thing about that four game winning streak and the Hoos very strange season. If you look at our results against D1A teams (so excluding Richmond), we started 0-3 (losing by an average of 36 points per game by the way)…then won four games in a row…then lost four games in a row to finish the season. Weird again. After winning those 4 games in a row we were alone in first place in the Coastal. We finished the season 11th in the conference. Bizarre.

One last thing about us running the Wildcat. When Tyler and I saw us running it, we both thought,

“Oh no, they are going to start calling this something embarrassing like the Wild Wahoo”. *hanging heads in shame*

Not to be disappointed though, the ESPN announcers actually came up with something much worse, and started to call the formation the Wahoo Cat. Tyler and I were stunned. That just didn’t make sense at all. So we came up with a better name. If you are going to call it two animals, why not the Catfish formation? I like it. So if we start running this stuff again next year, call it the Catfish. Do it.

Quietly Perprexing

A week or two ago I went to the gym at my office before work to get a run in. When I walked into the gym, there was a small Asian man running on the treadmill…with no shoes on. Now this seemed strange to me, but the dude could have forgotten his shoes at home and still wanted to get his workout in. I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt. But then the guy ends his run, turns around, sits down on the treadmill, and puts on a pair of shoes. Running shoes. Strange.

While we are on the topic of treadmills, I went to the gym at my parents’ apartment complex on the morning of Thanksgiving, so as to build up a bigger appetite. I get on the treadmill and it asks me to enter my weight…and prompts me for a number between 75 and 400 pounds. Two thoughts:

1) I’m no personal trainer, but something tells me a 400 pounder is going to need a little more than a treadmill. But hey, I guess you gotta start somewhere.

2) It’s hard to believe that the same piece or machinery, which looked very brittle and flimsy, would be able to accommodate both Mary Kate Olsen and Mark Mangino.

Quietly Complimentary

Peter King is a moron, but can still sometimes crank out a good article, and I must give credit where credit is due. King wrote an excellent piece in last week’s Sports Illustrated about linebackers in the NFL, and specifically how Derrick Brooks prepared for a game against Adrian Peterson and the Vikings. I highly recommend it. You can read it here.

It appears that when King actually has to revert to real journalism for a magazine article, instead of his Favre-idolizing and horrendous tangents in an online piece, that he can actually be eloquent and insightful.

Quietly Perplexing

At a rest area on the way back from Charlotte on Sunday, I saw a black guy wearing a Davis Akers Philadelphia Eagles jersey. I was puzzled. Why would a young black dude buy the jersey of a 33 year old, balding, white kicker? Why would anyone buy a David Akers jersey? Weird.

Quiet on the Court

In an NBA game a couple of weeks ago, David West of the Hornets played 36 minutes and only had 1 rebound. He is their starting power forward. What exactly was he doing? It seems like you would have to exert enormous amounts of energy to stay away from that many rebounds during the course of a game. Weird.

Loud and Clear

The NBA coaching carousel is a joke. When Eddie Jordan got fired by the Wizards recently, he had been the longest tenured coach in the Eastern Conference…with 5 years on the job. 15 teams in the conference, and not one coach with 5 years under his belt. Silly.

Well, that’s it for this week folks. Austin and I are heading to Green Bay this weekend to take in a Packers game at the Frozen Tundra. I am ecstatic. One, because it will cross off a major sports milestone in my life. And two, I don’t have to watch Brett Favre play. Thank God. Keep it real everyone. I already know you will stay safe.