Where to Start...

A lot of news since I last had a decent internet connection so here we go:

The first summer football camp was last week and besides making it impossible to find parking little news came out of it. In the end it looks like QB Josh Bordner impressed the coaching staff, which is good because he hasn't impressed anyone else. We also picked up a local OL Robert Vardaro, not real info on him yet. The QB pickup probably ends my bring Griffin Murphy to BC campaign as I don't really see the value in bringing a 7th QB into the fold and atleast the guy is tall. Couplebeers has more of an inside track on the camp situation so head over there for some more info.

The writer over at Couplebeers also shares a similar hatred for EA that I share. With NCAA 2010 a little over 2 weeks away they have released the Team ratings for next year. Couplebeers went into the historical snubbing but I've been wasting my time doing some in depth research. For a couple of weeks now EA has been promoting a "Team Builder" for NCAA 2010 (which I hope will feature a download function where you can download the team you built). As part of this you can also get access to the team rosters, and their attribute by attribute evaluation. You have to keep in mind that EA includes about 121 teams (120 FBS schools and one FCS Compass Point team) but it really shows. My conclusion has been that the research comes primarily from the recruiting outlets and then points get bumped up semi-randomly every year with standout players getting a little extra attention. You can see where this is going. My biggest problem this year is with LE # 98 (known to none EA programmers as Alex Albright) is rated as a 73 overall. My conclusion how they came to this ranking, Albright came in as a 3* recruit, which means you fall in the 70-75 range as a freshman (at least according to their system) Albright has then started only a few games since then and has had little production (they look at previous year stats) so he hasn't progressed far. What they didn't look at was the fact that the guy was injured for most of the years. This system is however still better than previously because atleast McLaughlin and Harris were bumped up thanks to there good production (I still remember when Dunbar was barely scratching 80). Their evaluation of Herzlich however was pathetic, my only conclusion is that they relied on stats because he ended up with a 93. He was quite possibly one of the best OLB next year and he got the same treatment as every starting LB for FSU. This also raises another issue as to why Herzlich is even available. I'll give EA a break for this one because they announcement was made late and theres still some ambiguity to the situation but honestly they still have Albright as a Senior and last year Toal and Raji were nowhere to be found while they were in 07. Anyways I went player by player through all of the players and adjusted names, numbers and ratings. If you want to try it out for yourself head over to easportsworld.com click on football and go to teambuilder. If you want to see my evaluation search Boston College and look at the team by "BCEagles2010," and yes I realize theres a duplicate of Lapham, I don't know why.

In other snub news HD is cruising through her top 30 ACC players and the only BC player to hit the list so far is Castonzo at number 23. Shes down to 7 and no other BC player has shown up. I really don't think any of our players (besides Herzlich who HD herself said would be number 1 AND 2) would be in the top 7. The only one who has a chance is Matt Tennant. Still I feel like we should have had a few people in the high teens and twenties. Harris ran truck all over FSU last year, Wes Davis is a pretty good FS and McLaughlin (assuming he's back) was a rock in the middle. Albright, when healthy is great coming off the corner. Tennant and Claiborne are solid O-Lineman. While I don't expect all of them should have been on the list I think it would be fair to say that @least one (including Tennant and McLaughlin) should have been somewhere on that list.

And finally that leads us to Fantasy Scheduler week #4
Who we play:Wake Forest
Who we should play: Wake Forest
Never a problem with this matchup, always some of the finest games, the schools are remarkably similar and produces a fine matchup every year, oftentimes with Atlantic Division standing on the line.

'09: close game but WF's lack of a consistent ground attack means that our experience secondary can load up against the pass.
'07: Defense would just chew up Skinner (they did) and Matt would throw for atleast 300 yards (again)