The age old line of Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore ( Wizard of Oz) is very fitting in regards to the ACC Season opening game being played tonight over in Hawaii. Not a typo, Hawaii.
It’s fitting that Stanford, which is as far away from the Atlantic Coast as you can get on the mainland is heading even further West out into the Pacific Ocean to open the ACC season
Duke opens their season on Thursday night down in Durham versus Elon University so there will be football in the coming days !!!!
Each season, for five decades now, the team I follow the most is the Blue Devils football program. They are still the ultimate underdog and only 11 times in my 61 years has the team won 🏆 6 games and qualified for a Bowl 🥣 game.
Manny Diaz is in year two of his stay at Duke and is coming off a year where he swept the Tar Heel State, defeating the trio of North Carolina, Wake Forest and North Carolina State. Not sure where six wins might come from this time but its one of my favorite things to do each year!
The good folks at ESPN have Duke hovering right at the six win mark this season and there are certainly some must win games on the docket. There will also be a boatload of miles traveled for the six road games or should I say, five of the six as UNC is just around the corner.
New York, California, South Carolina,
Connecticut, Louisiana and Chapel Hill.
The Tulane game will be interesting as the new QB will be facing his old team.
Report: Colts signing Daniel Jones to 1-year, $14M deal https://thescore.com/nfl/news/3239361
Duke’s Danny Dimes is heading to Indianapolis to play for the Colts.
Thirteen months ago Riley Leonard decided to chase a life-long dream of playing Quarterback under the Golden Dome in South Bend. I wasn’t fully convinced that the highly likeable Kid from Alabama had that level of talent and just two weeks into his opportunity the Fighting Irish were upset at home by Northern Illinois.
I have watched the Haters beat up Daniel Jones from start to finish as he went from a Zero Star 🌟 High School player in Charlotte to being drafted 6th overall by the New York Giants. Now it felt like fate would play a similar role for Leonard.
The folks that get paid to tear people down were feasting on Leonard. He couldn’t even beat Northern Illinois at home.
In the World 🌎 where I chose to live, you don’t bail on people when the going gets tough. While I would have rather covered Galax at Carroll County on The Hill, my back up plan was to wear my Duke Football gear and root, root, root for our Guy 👦.
Riley Leonard played Riley Leonard football which means it was a roller coaster ride for sure. It was his second interception that put the Irish behind the eight ball. All he did was lead a tying TD drive 🚗 and then set up the game winning Field Goal.
Here now in roughly 10 days, Leonard and Head Coach Marcus Freeman will face either Texas or Ohio State for a National Championship.
Freeman will now be the first African American ( and the first Asian) Head Coach to participate in a Natty Title game. Kudos to Freeman and his accomplishments and I’m pretty sure that its the FIRST TIME that a Duke QB will be playing in the ultimate game.
Somewhere everyone that played the position, back to Sonny Jorgensen, who had to play Cornerback as well as QB, is smiling atleast a little.
Mike Elko headed to Texas A & M, Waters played running back for NC State and of course Leonard headed to South Bend. Pulled for them all except the day where Duke faced Waters 💧 and his Wolf 🐺Pack.
Freeman was always not good enough and Leonard was also easy to pick on but now the unlikely duo will take one more ride together. Not sure if they can become the first team to win four straight under the new playoff system.
Indiana, Georgia and now Penn State all tried to stop ✋ the run 🏃♂️ of Freeman, Leonard and Company. The winner of Texas – Ohio State University will be favored down in Atlanta.
But win or lose that one, it will be the first time that a QB with ties 👔 to Duke University will try and lead his team to a National Championship!!!
Every now and then something happens and you get the feeling that you have been somewhere before. I am living that right now.
Let’s see 👀 if there’s enough similar things to create a Top Ten List… because its always fun to do..
The big difference between the games on 11/2 and 1/2 was during the middle of the Miami game we outscored the #5 Hurricane 🌀 31-3….31-3….31-3.
Last night 🌙 was an absolute blast. We were in the suites that the Jacksonville Jaguars fan base use. It was Fancy Pants 👖living, something that Lin and I call things that are above our normal life style.
Maybe it was 10 degrees cooler than I would have liked but otherwise it was a great evening spent with the Love 💘 of my life.
Now I’m forced to leave the Country and head to the Bahamas 🇧🇸. But, no, not really. I can say that I just received an email 📧 from the Electric company back home saying that the pending Snow ❄ storm might cause a loss of power tomorrow. So, thoughts and prayers 🙏 for everyone who is reading this.
We will wrap this up by saying GO HOKIES ! The ACC needs you as we are now 2-10 in the post season and sadly the Mean people are all laughing at us.
Big difference between 3-10 and 2-11, right ? Now that I’ve typed it out…
The S.E.C. as a whole and both Alabama and Ole Miss in particular were rather upset that SMU stole one of their precious bids to the Field of 12. Ole Miss took advantage of the opportunity to punk an ACC team and did just that last night 🌙.
Wish the had maybe taken the Alabama approach by mailing in their Bowl 🥣 Game but Duke was not so fortunate.
The reality is that ACC Football is in trouble when you compare it to the rest of the Country. Chris Graham writes ✍ about how the $30 Million ➕ extra the other Power Four schools 🏫 get and its showing.
Final thought about last night 🌙- kudos to the Rebel players celebrating Big Plays by dunking on a Toy basketball hoop with a Duke logo on it. Kinda clever…
A.S.P.N on The Hill 