Joe Who? and The Start of Predictions

My posting schedule makes it nearly impossible to break news but the big one broke over the weekend, we got ourself a new QB and he's not too shabby. Chase Rettig who has been marked as one of the fastest risers in the 2010 class committed to BC over Lane Kiffin and the Vols as well as marked interest from USC. I have 2 feelings on this. First, for no good reason, I feel more confident that Rettig will actually come to BC. If you look way back in my old posts you'll see that I was uneasy on Boisture's commitment until he had his little "my word is oak" moment and even the Globe ran an article on him. This time however, I don't feel as uneasy, maybe its because this guy already had other big time offers I don't know. Those big time offers also lead me to my second point on Rettig, when we recruited Boisture he was only getting interest from fringe great team, Those teams that crack the top 25 occasionally but never really show up to the big bowl games. True, Tennessee has been the dregs of the SEC, but they have been great within recent memory (National Championship 1o years ago, competing for SEC title pretty much every year and generally show up in the preseason top 25). Rettig was also getting attention from USC, who like them or hate them have a very good program. As far as evaluating QB talent goes you can't knock Pete Carroll's staff. So if they were looking at a relatively unheralded guy (if you don't have at least 4*s don't even bother going to a USC camp) you have to get the feeling hes a little under the radar.

Alright enough gushing, back to reality. First up Heather Dinich actually saying something positive about BC, granted it's probably off the mark but whatever. Dinich seems to feel that Shinskie will be better than expected, she then continues to say that BC has the worst QB situation in the ACC. Here's my take, Shinskie is a wild card he could be pretty good, honestly I think Spaz and Co. took a flyer looking to get help wherever they could. This isn't a knock on Tuggle, he struggled in the spring and Shinskie has a real boom or bust potential. My feeling with Dinich is that she writes for the semi-casual fan. The guy that knew we signed a 25 yr old but then shrugged it off as a Depth Chart booster. I think the competition really comes down to Shinskie or Tuggle, which is why I'm surprised he seems to be at the top of a lot of depth charts.

In other news I picked up NCAAF 2010 yesterday and spent 2 hours copying my evaluation of players over from the custom teambuilder (I could have just downloaded it if the internet connection worked at my apartment). I then went about setting up the depth chart and I found myself with some interesting situations.
#1 QB battle: My evaluation had Tuggle and Shinskie both as a 79 overall, but very different styles. Tuggle is a quick scrambler with poor accuracy and awareness while Shinskie moves slower than Tennant but has a rocket arm with decent accuracy but also poor awareness.(for Tuggle I worked off what I saw at the spring game and practice notes and for Shinskie I worked off 7 year old scouting reports and the fact that he hasn't played in 7 years). To be honest I may have been optimistic with both 79 overall? but whatever. Shinskie got the nod in my book even though I prefer to play the game itself with mobile QBs. I gave Shinskie the nod because the RB situation is great and I wanted to have a solid arm when I actually throw.
#2 RB battle: the out of the box ratings for Harris and Haden are 89 and 88 respectively and the only thing I changed were Hadens speed and injury resist (up and down respectively) and Harris Break tackle (he just keeps going). Harris got the nod from the game to be the starter and I did the same. The only thing you have to be conscious of is to rotate even when Harris isn't tired. I got in the habit of pounding with Harris and flying outside with Haden.
#3 LB: To be honest not a great situation. I keep hearing mixed things about McLaughlin being back or not but I left him in. According to EA Wil Thompson can't play MLB leaving so hes out at ROLB, DiSanzo got the starting nod though 77 overall (I might have been generous there but he played well in the spring) and Luke Kuechly heads up the LOLB spot in Herzlich's absence (I bumped Mark to a 99 overall, though not intentionally, I intended to have him around 96, I then redshirted him to keep him available for next year) I gave Kuechly a 79 because he came in as a 4* (Quinn got the same treatment)and thats how the game generally evaluates 4* players (77-80). Dominick LeGrande got the nod as a backup, though it will be interesting to see if he stays @ LB or switches back to Safety.

The outcome: granted it is against FCS East (aka Northeastern) but playing with 5min quarters on the regular difficulty the score was 76-0. Offensively Haden had 238 yards and 3 TDs off of 7 runs (2 were long runs from garbage time options with Tuggle though) Harris had about 150 on 13 attempts with 2 touchdowns Shinskie had a 613.8 passer rating because he went 5 for 5 for something like 240 yards and 3 touchdowns. Tuggle had an interception (because I accidentally left him in after I ran a couple options in the first half then made a very bad bootleg throw) but added on a rushing touchdown in garbage time. Defensively DeLeon Gause had 2 int, one returned for a TD, there were 4 forced fumbles. McLaughlin was an absolute beast and Jeff Smith ran a punt return back for a TD. There was a missed 2 point in garbage time because of a clipping call after the Smith return.

and Fantasy Scheduler's Week 11
Who we play: North Carolina
Who we should play: Miami
I like the UNC game but the Miami matchup is a bit of a rivalry because of the Flutie game. Miami also used to be the toast of the Coastal and I believe is the only ACC team with a National Championship in the past decade (well FSU in 99 but Miami was 01)