Montel Harris is only the 4th best RB in the ACC

At least that is what the All-ACC selection committee says.

Luke Kuechly made First team All-ACC as a freshman with the second most votes overall, so put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Anthony Castonzo was also first team, second most votes by 4 (53 to Jason Fox' 57)

Matt Tenant joined Montel on the second team. I would love to say that Montel got snubbed but the ACC is just loaded with RBs this year. The reality is that he was behind Dwyer, Williams and Spiller. Williams is a beast and I've never been a fan of QBs being a product of their system so I don't think Dwyer should be susceptible to the same argument. Most of Spiller's merit comes from his explosiveness in the all-purpose yard category but hes still pretty brilliant and it would still place Montel on the second team if he move ahead of Spiller. Then again it also speaks a lot that a top-5 Heisman contender is only the 3rd best RB in the ACC.

The good news is that next year Montel will be running behind a (hopefully) vastly improved passing game, a line that should be just as much of a beast as it was this year (only potential issue could be Spinney and protection calls) and he can be spelled by a budding star in Finch and a capable back in Phifer instead of running 41 times.

In other news we also got two commits from a local big-body and an athletic Safety. Sylvia gives us some more depth at Safety (if he ends up playing there). While I'll never complain about getting more talent I am getting slightly wary of the legitimate lack of prospects along the d-line, especially DE as I've noted before.

The Walking Wounded

So I just got a look @ the injury list for the game tomorrow, 6 starters and 8 players (total) from the two deep are on it, most of them from defense. Most are probable (including Montel Harris who apparently screwed up his back) but having that many players at less than 100% is just not good news. Even more concerning is the lack of healthy players on the D-line. Scafe is finally off the injury list which should help a little bit but I'm still super discouraged by Alex Albright's lingering injury. Maybe it's time to sell this kid but I still think theres a superstar in there waiting to have a 16 sack game. One thing for sure is that we haven't gotten any real pressure on QBs with a 4-man rush since he went down against FSU.

UNC

HD is claiming this weekend to be the hardest game to pick this weekend, and to be honest I have to agree with her. UNC was projected to be great this year, then they sucked. Then UNC beat FSU and they have gotten increasingly better since then. Granted both the FSU and Miami games were at home (where Harris threw 4 picks) but you have to admit that UNC has looked pretty impressive in the past few weeks.
Enter BC who looked pretty weak against a poor UVA team last weekend but has been stellar at home. In the end I think that home edge gives us the win. We have a good team, the UVA game featured some weird play calling and missed opportunities that shouldnt be repeated. For some reason we suck on the road but we should be pretty good at home. Add in the fact that its Senior Day and you get a little extra motivation @ home. Theres been some question as to who wears # 31 this weekend, I always thought it went to the guy who got the scholarship (Wes Davis) but I would hedge my bets on Marty "Boomcat" Bowman to be rocking the Jersey come Saturday.

In other news Recruiting has picked up.
The big news seems to be Swigert, a slot receiver with tons of upside. He was actually playing QB before he got hurt this year so maybe we'll see some more wildcat option throws like we got in the Steve Logan days.
We also picked up a new face at TE in Jarrett Darmstratter, and I'll be honest I just like saying his name...Darmstratter. Apparently we want two TEs in this class but I wouldn't be surprised to see more TEs come in and see some shifts to DE.
Speaking of DE the news this weekend is of a visit from Josh Watson (along with 6'7" teammate and 0-lineman Laurence Gibson). To be honest we really need to land this kid. We missed out on all our big targets and this guy looks to be a solid DE prospect with plenty of upside. Next years Depth Chart really includes 4 DEs, injury prone (though if hes healthy I predict 29 sacks and 86 TFLs) Alex Albright and Max Holloway on the rush side and by-the-book Brad Newman on the strong side backed up by the relatively unknown German Kasim Edebali on the strong side (apparently Momah has been practicing with the DEs as well just because of the lack of Depth). If any of these guys go down next year we're going to be up shits creek without a paddle unless we bring in some impact guys with this years class.

Good News

I picked up the student newspaper "The Heights" this morning and it turns out that Montel did make it out for the Alma Mater Sunday, he was probably just on the far side of the field and in a crowd so I didn't see him.

Another couple notes;
Some people are a little concerned about the way Morrisey played on Saturday but if you look at most of the snaps he was playing in the middle, not his usual position so I think you can chalk it up to a little discomfort with unfamiliarity.

Albright didn't see the field much, I'm still waiting on him. I feel like if he and Scafe get healthy and Mac starts to click this defense could be really good. I swear I feel like Albright's going to have a 4-sack game one of these days...