An early (statistical) look at the CFA Bowl matchup.

Offensively, the yardage stats for the season are pretty close:

UGA has 2268 yards passing and 1585 yards rushing.

Virginia Tech has 2216 yards passing and 1,432 yards rushing.

UGA has eight receivers with double digit receptions; Va. Tech has seven.

One difference between the two schools is that Georgia has spread the rushing carries around. Kregg Lumpkin has 150 carries out of 395 total. Virginia Tech, on the other hand, has a go to guy in Branden Ore, who has more than 50% of the total team carries. Both backs average about 5 yards a carry.

The Hokies definitely have an advantage in turnover margin. They’re +7 on the season, while the Dawgs are -4 (and that number was much worse pre-Reggie Ball).

On average, Va. Tech scores about a point and one-half a game more than Georgia.

On defense, Georgia ranks ninth in total defense; Virginia Tech is first in the country. VT is also first in the country in scoring defense and gives up about eight points a game less than the Dawgs.

One other area where the Hokies have a distinct advantage is in the kicking game. Brandon Pace is perfect in extra points and a remarkable 17 of 18 in field goals. His longest this year is only 42 yards, though. Georgia? Let’s just say that it would be great if Coutu could make it back by December 30th.

Sagarin rates Georgia 34th in strength of schedule. He has Virginia Tech playing the 66th rated schedule.

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Why I love college football fans.

You’re a Georgia Tech fan. You’ve had your guts ripped out two straight weekends by schools you believe Tech should have beaten. Your starting QB, a fourth year senior, sports the following line for those two games – 15 for 56, 0 TD’s, 4 INT’s, 1 Fumble (returned for a TD) – and gives out quotes to the media that sound like he doesn’t care about his play. Everyone is so down about it that the bowl game your team is contractually obligated to play in doesn’t want them there.

In short, things suck. Things suck bad.

To add insult to injury, you’re taking shit from a Clemmins fan in this blog thread about the Gator Bowl.

And at that point is where you find that last ounce of innate dignity in your being, that pride you have in yourself and your school. Not to mention that anger you feel at a moron who can’t spell ‘loser’. And so you punch back with this:

Too bad you can’t spell LOSER. You must have gone to Clemson. IPTAY. I Plow Thirty Acres Yearly.

Savor the moment.

Assorted thoughts from Championship Saturday…

1. Is ACC commish John Swofford a drinking man? After watching the ACCCG and the SECCG, I’d have been reaching for the Wild Turkey. The two games couldn’t have been more different in terms of atmosphere, attendance, play making – all in favor of the SEC. If you’re a recruit looking at, say, Georgia and Clemson, what are you thinking after last night?

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(photos courtesy of the AJC’s David Tulis and Ben Gray)

Mr. Swofford, your best team (which was basically an afterthought when you pushed through the expansion of the conference, by the way) is headed to the Chik-Fil-A- Bowl to play the SEC’s fifth best team – and it looks like a pretty good matchup. The Gator Bowl folks are almost in a state of open revolt about welcoming Georgia Tech back after that stirring loss. Your BCS representative won its first conference championship in 36 years, so you better get ready to hear Cinderella’s name a lot in the next month. And your two crown jewels barely squeaked into mediocre bowl games this year.

Plus, for yuks, you got to listen to your network announcers refer to your championship game as the “Brain Bowl”. More than once. I was hoping to hear someone to say “Nerd Bowl”, but I guess you can’t have everything.

But look on the bright side: that Tyler Hansbrough is one helluva player. March Madness can’t come soon enough.

2. I really can’t believe that USC lost to UCLA. Especially to a UCLA starting a QB on three days’ notice. Rose Bowl officials have to be the happiest people on the planet this morning, looking at a Michigan/USC matchup. The Orange, Sugar and Fiesta folks probably aren’t as thrilled right now.

3. If you caught today’s AJC article entitled Who is No. 2?, you can see how lame the argument really is for letting the BCS go ahead with a Michigan-OSU rematch. All it boils down to is that Michigan’s loss is more impressive than Florida’s, and that Michigan should have a chance to win one for Bo. I posted yesterday that all other things being equal, a conference champion should go ahead of a team that didn’t win its conference, but in reality, things just aren’t equal here. Florida won more games in a tougher conference with a better schedule than Michigan. The Gators deserve to go, although the thought of back to back national championships in men’s basketball and football for Florida does kinda turn my stomach.

4. Wake Forest versus Louisville is gonna be ugly. Somehow, I don’t think three field goals will be enough to win.

5. Reggie Ball continues to display the skill (as the AJC put it, Ball followed up his worst performance ever with his second worst performance ever) and grace (again from the AJC: “I just said ‘No’ twice,” Ball said when a reporter tried to ask Ball about the second-to-last game of a career”) that mark him as one of the most beloved players to don the gold, blue and white. And make no mistake about that – there are some pretty interesting shots being taken by some of the Tech defensive players against the offense in the AJC today.

6. And does anybody really believe Urban Meyer’s comment at the end of halftime that he didn’t know USC lost?