CHAPEL HILL — Former Burlington Cummings wideout Dwight Jones, who is currently enrolled and practicing at Div. II Valdosta State, might end up being a Tar Heel after all.
According to insidecarolina.com, Jones' academics may have been judged under the wrong set of rules, leaving him eligible to play Division I football.
CHAPEL HILL — Brooks Foster knows that many consider him North Carolina's third receiver, behind play-maker Hakeem Nicks and speedster Brandon Tate.
But after a summer of building his leg strength to try to ward off injury, he's determined to surprise some people.
Joe Ovies, of 850 the Buzz, has completed his annual labor of love — the ACC helmet schedule. Seeing as how one person already e-mailed me (I know it's easy to confuse the two Joes from N.C. State in the Triangle media) looking for it, I figure there are more of you out there in desperate need of one.
Enjoy!
CHAPEL HILL — Ty Lawson's court appearance, once slated for Tuesday, has been continued again, this time to Aug. 19.
He is scheduled to appear in a Chapel Hill court then on charges of driving after consuming alcohol while underage and driving with a revoked license.
Chapel Hill police officer C. Shehan arrested Lawson, 20, at 2:33 a.m. on June 6 on North Columbia St., in the heart of town. The officer stopped Lawson, who was alone in a 2005 four-door Chevrolet with Maryland plates, after hearing loud music coming from the car.
Shehan suspected that Lawson had been drinking, conducted a field sobriety test and found probable cause to charge him with the misdemeanors, Blue said.
State law prohibits anyone under 21 from driving after drinking any amount of alcohol.
— Matt Dees
Josh Czajkowski doesn’t seem worried about making his first start as N.C. State's place-kicker.
Czajkowski, a sophomore, has yet to kick in a game and will make his debut Aug. 28 at South Carolina
“I’m really confident,” Czajkowski said. “Our specialists are looking really good, consistently. We’ve been working together for a long time.”
Rule 3-2-5e nearly brought the Internet down two years ago. It was quickly repealed before the 2007 season, which brought us back to college football games longer than HBO's "John Adams."
The coaches are up to new clock tricks this season but these actually make sense.
Instead of starting the clock after a change of possession — perhaps the single, dumbest idea since bodywash (really, was soap so antiquated?) — or when the ball is kicked — the second stupidest rule change — the college game is adopting a 40-second play clock and tweaking the clock rules when the ball goes out-of-bounds.
Since we don't have Brett Favre to obsess over, the ACC blogosphere needs a topic to get us to Aug. 28. Last month, ESPN steered the subject to the "toughest" places to play in the ACC.
I offered these numbers in the post-expansion era, but they are pittance compared to this research by Patrick Stevens of the Washington Times (which is experiencing some server issues right now so keep trying if it doesn't work at first). If you haven't done so already, bookmark Patrick's D1scourse blog.
Patrick ran the numbers through 20- and 10-year cycles and compares home records to road records, which tells us which team plays measurably better at home — the true mark of a "home-field" advantage.
The college football coaches released their top 25 last week (the AP version, with your favorite AP voter, is forthcoming on Aug. 16) and a certain ACC team was conspicuous by its absence from the "Also Receiving Votes" section.
Grant Teaff, head of the American Football Coaches Association which oversees the poll, pulled the plug on Steve Spurrier's annual homage to Duke. Spurrier always used to list the Blue Devils at No. 25 in his preseason ballot as a shout out to the school that gave him his coaching break, but it has turned into a running joke given Duke's performance on the field.
Speaking of Duke's performance, one Internet sportsbook, which offers lines on I-A-vs.-I-AA matchups, lists the Blue Devils as a 1.5-point favorite against James Madison. In gambling parlance, that line is the book's way of begging you to take Duke because it believes James Madison will win the game.
DURHAM — Anyone truly interested in what might be different about a Duke football program that has won one game in the past two years has to pay attention to not only what first-year coach David Cutcliffe is saying but how he is saying it.
To start the "Cut" era at Duke, here's a sampling from Sunday's Blue Devil media day at the Yoh Football Center.
DURHAM — Thaddeus Lewis is starting his third year as QB1 for the Blue Devils differently than the previous two seasons. Namely he said during Sunday's media day he isn't clueless like he was as a freshman, nor is he dreading it like he did a year ago.
Entering the 2008 season, Lewis ranks second among active ACC players in career total offense (4,346 yards), passing yards (4,564) and passing touchdowns (32) behind Florida State's Drew Weatherford.
Lewis has also taken a liking to first-year Duke coach David Cutcliffe's tall tales. But does he believe them? Listen below.
