VT-Duke Preview

Virginia Tech (1-1, 0-0) makes its ACC debut Saturday, welcoming Duke (0-2, 0-0) to Lane Stadium at noon (Raycom/JP TV, XM 180).

The last time these two teams played was Bruce Smith’s senior season of 1984, when the then-independent Hokies knocked off the Blue Devils 27-0, holding them to a mere 68 yards of total offense. The Devils will hope to make things a bit different this year, but an already-tough assignment got harder last week as senior DE Phillip Alexander broke his leg during an interception return against Connecticut. That merely added to an already-long list: would-be starting RB Cedric Dargan, leading returning WR Senterrio Landrum, and CB/PR Kenny Stanford are all out as well. The QB situation is slightly better, as should senior Chris Dapolito go down, he would be replaced by sophomore Nebraska transfer Curt Dukes. The Devils average just under 300 pounds across the offensive line, so there’s at least some mass between the QB and Tech’s deep, skilled defensive line.

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VT-Western Michigan Preview

Virginia Tech (0-1, 0-0) closes out a three-game series with Western Michigan (1-0, 0-0 MAC) Saturday at noon Eastern in Blacksburg, VA (no TV, XM 180). In 2001, the Hokies beat WMU 31-0 at Lane Stadium, and in 2002 they visited Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo, MI to again shut out the Broncos 30-0.

The Hokies are hoping to use this home opener to work out some of the kinks revealed in their season-opening loss to Southern Cal. WMU’s program has taken a bit of a slide in recent years, and though they demolished I-AA Tennessee-Martin 42-0 in their opener, the Broncos aren’t expected to provide the Hokies a serious challenge; Chris Stassen’s composite predictions reveal a team generally picked fourth in the MAC Western Division.

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Zell, Religion and Regionalism

Time for some cleanup on Zell Miller, before I move on to other political fun. The best way to analyze this speech, I think, is probably to break down the regional impact.

It may well have freaked the Northeast and Pacific Coast out, particularly the highbrow leftist intellectual base that seems to hold the balance of political power. They certainly wouldn’t recognize what Michael Novak rightfully described Tuesday as a literary form: I’m a Methodist, but I’ve been to a few Southern Baptist services over the years, and Brother Zell was preaching from the pulpit that night at Madison Square Garden.

Bigwig over at Silflay Hraka did the Southern deconstruction last Thursday, and I heartily recommend it. But let’s take his analysis one step further. That speech was meant to lock up VA, NC, TN, AR and the Southern-leaning parts of WV, yes, and take care of the last remaining Southern Democrats for Bush. But furthermore, I read it pretty quickly as a play also to socially-conservative, pro-military Midwestern Democrats who hew to that party because of union loyalty.

These folks stepped out of their party-affiliation box 20 years ago, and the Republican party could really slam-dunk this election with a solid conversion rate on them this year. One of Robert Musil’s readers tracked with me on this, and followed up on Bush’s campaign schedule in the immediate aftermath of the convention:

• Scranton, PA
• Milwaukee, WI
• Cleveland, OH
• Erie, PA
• Parkersburg, WV

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USA-Russia, Take 2

Prepare yourselves for a less-than-coherent set of observations from tonight’s World Cup of Hockey quarterfinal in St. Paul, which the USA won 5-3 over Russia.

• It’s probably not a positive comment on the economics of the game in the USA when a Canadian bank with no business in the USA is buying advertising space on the dasherboards in Minnesota, where Canada will not play a single game.
• These two teams are actually pretty close in terms of ability — give Russia the edge on forwards, US barely on defense (neither team is that good), US slight edge in goal because of the development of Robert Esche. (I know Rick DiPietro won the Slovakia game, but the guy scares the heck out of me in a big game — just too flamboyant a G for my tastes.)
• Breaking down the forwards a bit further, Russia scared the heck out of me when they were trailing precisely because of their snipers — Kovalchuk, Yashin, Datsyuk, Kovalev etc. They’re the most frightening team in the tournament to play with a lead, because they can make a goal happen so quickly. But perhaps the USA’s strongest point is its collection of power forwards, even with Jeremy Roenick running his mouth in the ESPN box rather than on the ice. There aren’t many American pure scorers these days, but nobody grinds better.
• A few birthplaces jumped out at me when I read the American roster. Brett Hull of Belleville, Ontario? His mom is American, and the Canadian junior national team turned him down when he tried to move up to the international level. So I can buy that one. But Brian Leetch of Corpus Christi, TX? Even more surprising, Eric Weinrich of Roanoke, VA?! I guess both these guys’ families moved up to New England at some point (they both did prep school up there). I think if I’m looking for local interest, the closest I’ll get in reality is Jeff Halpern of Potomac, MD.
• Eric should consider himself lucky that, having been in Montreal for the past week, he wasn’t subjected to 5-7 rounds of those idiotic commercials for the Bounty Hunter show on A&E every time he wanted to just watch the hockey game.

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Zell Freaking Miller!

OK, I don’t normally do the two-lines-and-a-link thing. But this is too important not to.

Go watch Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA)’s keynote at the Republican National Convention. It takes about 16 minutes. If you’re at work, go home to do it, unless your office allows you to stand up and cheer in the middle of the workday.

After that — but only after — you can read the transcript, or read Allah and his commenters’ takes as they watched the entire evening’s telecast.

I’m incapable of intelligent analysis of this one, at least for a few hours. Simply incredible.