A friend texted me this morning outraged there were a few teams ranked ahead of Virginia Tech that really didn’t deserve it, and I had to say I really don’t mind it. The Hokies have traditionally played better flying under the radar, and it kind of inadvertently feeds the whole “revenge tour” mentality several have suggested that James Franklin and the Hokies have this season.
It also creates an “us vs. the world” mentality that Michael Jordan made a career of, always acting as if the world was disrespecting him so he’d push himself harder and play angry (even though sometimes he manufactured that outrage). It’s not a bad motivation for a young team still trying to find its identity.
So as far as I’m concerned, let them vote in 40 percent of the SEC (looking directly at you, Kentucky and Missouri) here at the end of September. It’s where they put you at the end of October that matters…
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I saw this morning that the Washington Commanders are working out a deal to bring Austin Ekeler back to the roster, and I like the move. He’s no longer the faster or strongest on the field, but he’s a good receiver, knows how to block in pass protection, and has a lot of football knowledge, so he knows where to go to find a hole in the defense.
So does Marcus Mariota, and it would seem they’ll use that knowledge together to find some big plays. It also doesn’t hurt to have another old salt who can still play on board when you have a relatively new offensive coordinator. Folks like Ekeler can add an element to the conversation such as “we’ll do it your way, but in the past these are the challenges you might want to keep in mind” that can very quietly make an offense better…
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Now that the regular season of MLB is over, two things regarding the Washington Nationals got my attention this morning. Saw that while they finished with a 77-85 record (four games under .500) they also finished with a record 42 blown saves of which 24 led directly to losses.
When you consider the Philadelphia Phillies won one of the wildcard positions in the National League with an 88-74 record (11 games better than the Nats), if Washington only wins half of those 24 games, they’re in the playoffs.
That’s downright ownership malfeasance. They knew it was a problem from the start and made no effort to spend the money to improve the bullpen from awful to just average. Would be like a football team going into a season with no kicker. I don’t know how competitive they would be in the playoffs, but to a fanbase wandering around in the desert the last six years since the World Series, it would have been a tremendous shot in the arm.
As someone who has watched just about every pitch since the team left Montreal for Washington, it really makes you wonder just how badly current ownership wants to win now vs. sometime down the road…
