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Season Recap
By Bob W. 2004 ACC Football Recap: Well the 2004 ACC Football season is
over. Sure there are some conference teams that still have to represent
themselves in their bowl games (hopefully we will go 6-0), but it is over for
Maryland and therefore I am doing the wrap up today. Overall the season was a
disappointment for us Maryland fans. Our first bowless season since 2000, a
quarterback controversy of epic proportions, and the loss of some key personnel
who helped right the Terrapin Ship over the last 4 years. DAS BOOT- You will be forever enshrined
in the D-7 Tailgate Nickname Hall of Fame (Something we need to develop Bix). I
will never forget your Thursday Night Boot on National Television which gave us
our first win over a ranked opponent since, well lets just say it had been a
while. I will also never forget how you redeemed yourself against NC State
(with a little help from the Ambush). The site of the fires in the State
Parking lot after the game still gives me goosebumps. Steve Suter- You gave all of us white
boys from Maryland under 6 feet tall a reason to believe. I will never forget
the Gator Bowl in which you put a knife into WVU’s heart again with your punt
return, and then twisted the knife with the amazing catch on the Mountaineer 5
yard line. But enough of the memories, lets move
on to how everyone did in their ACC predictions that were made back in August
(thought we would just let it slid didn’t ya). There is nothing better than
competing with your friends in, well just about anything. In our latest idea to
figure out who is better than who, we are going to break down everyone’s ACC
final standings picks. For all of those who picked Virginia Tech near the
bottom (like me) it’s time to pay the piper, and all those who picked Maryland
as the 2004 ACC champ, well hopefully you will find some reason to keep reading.
The scoring- I don’t know how
scientific this is but it is as fair a system as I can come up with. I took
where you ranked a team and subtracted it by their actual finish to determine
how many spots away you were. For example if you had FSU winning the ACC and
they came in Second you scored a -1. Predicting UNC at 10, with an actual
finish of 5th would give you -5 points. There are no positive
points, the best you can score is a 0. First of all let’s look at the teams.
The most predictable team of the year was Duke, almost everyone had them in last
and as always, they didn’t disappoint. Everyone combined to go a mere -2 with
the Blue Devils. Other candidates for the Rock Solid award are FSU with -4,
Georgia Tech -8, and UVA with -11. The Shockers of the year, which if just
one person could have nailed down they would have walked away with the ACC
Prognosticator of the Year Award, was Virginia Tech which no one had higher than
5th! That is a combined score of -65. Other unpredictables were
Maryland with -58 (ouch), and UNC with -55. The drifters this year were the teams
that you basically knew where they were going to finish, but they weren’t as
easy to pull as the Dukes and FSU’s of the world. Clemson came in with a -16,
Wake was -17, Miami scored a -20, and NC State scored -27. I will end the suspense now and give
the Final Standings for the 2004 Prognosticator of the year award, then I will
follow it with the breakdown of each person’s picks. For full details see the
enclosed table. The 2004 Prognosticator of the year award goes to….. Gilmore with a score of -22!!!! 2nd Place (tie)- Bob, Chris, Andrew, and J with -24 6th Place-D 7 (the average of our combined rankings from August) -25 7th Place (tie)- BJ and Justin -26 9th Place (tie)- John and Jason -32 11th Place- Brian -32
Gilmore- Only at D7 can you miss
the conference champion by 5 places and still be the best predictor in the
bunch. The key for Gilmore was having Virginia Tech in 6th place
which surprisingly is the third highest any of us had the Hokies finishing.
Gilmore nailed FSU, UVA, and Duke. Putting UNC in 10th when they
came in 5th hurt, but being close with the Wolfpacks lackluster
performance helped put him a wee bit a head of the rest. Bob- Despite being the most
handsome member of D7, I could only muster a -24. I did manage to nail FSU and
Duke down and came within a spot of getting UVA, Clemson, Ga Tech, and Wake.
Predicting Maryland 4th (the lowest anyone predicted the Terps to
finish) also helped keep me in the hunt. However putting Va Tech at 7th
was devastating as well as underestimating the Tar Heels. Chris- Chris managed to nail
down the UVA finish as well as the Duke finish (he like the rest of us really
went out on a limb on that one). Missed FSU, Miami, Clemson, and Wake all by
one spot. Those multiple close calls were enough to salvage his picks despite
missing Virginia Tech (pay attention this is becoming a reoccurring error), UNC,
and our most beloved under achievers by a combined -17. Still good enough for a
share of second. Andrew- Handy Andy (see beer
pong table pix) proved he could pick ACC finishes with the best of em’, well
maybe not the best of ‘em but he can pick them as good as the rest of us can.
He drilled FSU, UVA, Georgia Tech (only 2 can say that), NC State, and Duke.
Wow Andrew certainly gets around (cough, slut, cough). His 5 correct hits gives
him the most correct picks in the bunch, however considering he still came in
tied for second it really tells you how the rest of his picks panned out.
Clemson cost him -1 and there is no shame in going -2 on Miami. Many of us can
fell the pain of the Terps shortcomings, as well as the Va Tech and UNC suprises
(-17 on those 3) but what really killed you was the Demon Decans 6th
place pick (-4). The only other person who had the Dec’s that high was the guy
engaged to one! Though most of Wakes games they could have won so that really
wasn’t all that bad of a pick A good run, but you are still only good enough for
¼ of 2nd place. J- The last of the second place
finishers. J correctly called the UVA, Wake, and Duke finishes, but got crushed
by his homer call of Maryland (-6) to come in 2nd. Second place?!
You know what they say, “hindsight is 20/20”. The Terps cost him 6 precious
points. However, J was only 1 off for FSU, Clemson, and Ga Tech. The Miami
(-2) at 1 was still possible a few days ago so no shame in that but NC State at
6 was costly (-3) and then there were the Hokie and Heel pitfalls which took off
another 10 points. In the end J could do no better than the rest of the second
place finishers. D-7- Back in my days of playing
cards in the Tanaka’s basement we invented this one game. I forget how it was
played, basically 5 card draw, but you had to beat a secret hand that was dealt
face down and was only revealed after the winner had one. If the winner could
not beat this secret hand the money was split by all players. The mystery
player was referred to as Herbie (I think after the love bug, but I won’t
officially admit that). Anyway D-7 is Herbie’s cousin. No one in particular,
yet all of us at once. This is a combination of all our picks, the average if
you will. Herbie, er uh D-7 got FSU, UVA, and Duke all correct. But that is
where the party ends. Georgia Tech and Wake were near misses, and Clemson and
Miami were -2 each. However like the rest of us the Maryland, Virginia Tech, NC
State and UNC were just too much to over come (-19 for those). So D-7 finished
with -25 (Clemson and UVA tie threw things for a loop). If you are above that
you are above average, below that and well you know what you are. BJ- BJ came in second in the
perfect pick category correctly predicting FSU, Georgia Tech, Wake, and Duke.
That’s the good news, the bad news is that all the other selections he wasn’t
even within one spot of. His next best picks were Miami, Clemson, and UVA all
of which he missed by 2. Then it gets ugly. Terps (-5), NC State (you do know
that Phillip Rivers graduated right?) (-4), UNC which we all got wrong cost him
4 more, and the coup de grace (if you don’t know what that means look it up) was
the Hokies which BJ had finishing 8th. Not the worst job picking, in
fact had VT had a typical VT Novemeber, you probably would have been in the top
2. Justin- Well the good news is
you beat your brother so you will be known as the smarter of the two twins
(which is kind of like Dallas and Washington fighting for 3rd place
in the NFC East). You can sum up Justin’s picks by two words “near miss” or
maybe “near hit” either way Justing got FSU, and UVA correct and came within 1
spot on Clemson, GT, Wake, and Duke. Justin feel into the Terrapin trap and
lost 5 points on the predicted 3rd place finish (join the club), NC
State also gave him fits not living up to their pre-season hype, and Va Tech,
well they just ruined everyone’s standings. The team that kept Justin behind
the pack was the UNC last place finish. The team that called out Miami, and
then bet them, must have put Justin’s picks on the bulletin board because they
not only came in not last, but 5th, costing Justin 6 points.
John- As we move further down
the line we come to our first Howard High grad. In John’s defense he nailed FSU
and NC State (which was a thorn in everyone else’s side). He came close on UVA,
GT, and Duke (-1 each). But Miami WRONG (-2), Maryland WRONG (-5), Clemson
WRONG (-2), Wake WRONG (-4), let me pause here and say that if you are going to
miss on a team by over predicting them by a wide margin, you had better hope it
isn’t the school your fiancé graduated from, something like that may leave you
vulnerable to harassment from others. Back to the score card, Virgina Tech
WRONG (but who wasn’t) (-6), and UNC, who must be Wake’s rival because John had
them last….WRONG (-6). Final Score John -24, John and E -28! Jason- The second of the Calvert
County boys came in just behind his brother at -28. Jason did manage to get the
Duke prediction right (which is like predicting the sun will rise tomorrow) but
that is where the fun stops. Though FSU was off by one Jason managed to 2 step
his way through the rest of his predictions, Miami off by 2, Clemson off by 2,
(Swing your partner), UVA off by two, NC State off by two, (Now rotate), Wake
off by 2, and GT off by, yep you guessed it 2. Maryland, VT, and UNC combined
to take away another 15 points. But hey, you did get Duke correct. Brian- And finally we arrive at
our final Howard High Grad. Brian was one of those guys in college that would
take an exam, come home exasperated and say how horrible he did and how he was
going to fail, and how he ruined his life blaa, blaa, blaa, and then would get a
98 on it. Well he couldn’t quite pull this one out of the fire, but believe me
everyone was cheering for him. Had we known that the guy that picked Maryland
to win the ACC came in dead last in the predictions it probably would not have
been a very fun season, nevertheless here’s to going out on a limb (it is not
like Gilmore wins any money for being first). Brian did get both GT, and Duke
right (hey way to go on that one!!), and he did manage to pick Miami and FSU
within 1. However Brian was crushed by the Terps (-7), Clemson (-2), NC State
(-4), VT (-5), Wake (-2), UVA (-5), and UNC (-5). Ouch, but hey only you and 8
others can claim they correctly had Duke in last place. Cory- Cory is the only member
who did not list a prediction on his member site. What a smart guy. Reminds me
of the saying: “It is better to be quite and have people think you a fool, than
to open your mouth and prove them right.”. If only the rest of us would have
been so smart. Well there you have it. Gilmore is this years 2004 ACC Prognosticator of the Year Award Winner. If anyone else wants to throw their hat in the ring (especially those of you that don’t see the world through Terp colored glasses) just ask Chris before the beginning of the season next year. Until then, enjoy basketball season.
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