Ace Injures Knee Again

Reports out of Blacksburg late Wednesday night say that Hokie basketball star Ace Custis has reinjured the left knee that caused him to be redshirted his freshman year. Fortunately, he will only miss about a month.

Ace suffered a lateral sprain of his left knee during a conditioning drill. Tech coaches say the injury is not serious, but I say that anytime your bread-and-butter has a knee that hurts at all, it's not a good thing. Not good.

George Welsh, Speaking His Mind

Here's a doozy. There was a long article by Bill Brubaker in The Washington Post on Sunday, August 25th about UVa's athletes and recruits, and the trouble they've gotten in with the law the last year or so. UVa's honor code was discussed at one point, and football coach George Welsh had this to say, and I quote the Post:

"The Honor thing, I stay as far away from that as I can get," said Welsh, who is entering his 15th season at Virginia. "To me, that's none of my business."

Welsh declined to discuss his feelings about the Honor System in any detail, but noted that the university has "changed a lot" since the system was introduced in 1842. "A lot of alumni support it greatly," he said. "But they were here in the '50s and '60s and then it was an all-male -- you know, middle class, white school. No girls, women. No minorities, basically."

Uh, excuse me? Since when does "no minorities, basically" have anything to do with it, George? Are you saying there's a correlation between the number of minority students at your school and the trouble the athletes are getting into?

Anybody think I should forward that quote to a Roanoke Times reporter, just to make sure they saw it?

• Interesting note from the BC game: since my buddies and I had terrible seats down low in the end zone during the first half, we had to rely on the scoreboard operator for the down-and-distance information. Well, we noticed very quickly that not only was the guy slow to update the info, but he was often just flat-out wrong, many times putting up the wrong down, distance, or both.

  Now listen to what BC's quarterback, Matt Hasselbeck, had to say about the fourth-and-goal in the second quarter, when he dumped the ball off behind the line to a running back. Naturally, the runner was stopped well short of the goal line, and Hasselbeck had this to say about his decision to pass short: "That was just a mistake on my part. I looked up at the scoreboard, and it said it was third down. I thought we had another play."

  Uh, Matt, that's why they keep the official one on the sideline. That's the one you're supposed to look at. Heck, you're just supposed to know. Either that, or get somebody with faster reflexes to do the scoreboard next time.

• Despite Beamer's pre-game insistence that he was going to stick with Walter Ford on punt returns, I only saw Angelo Harrison returning punts. Did anyone notice anybody else?
• Speculation is flying that Beamer might redshirt Marcus Parker for the year, and on his Monday night call-in show, Beamer said it was a "possibility." That brings up an interesting scenario: the Ox and Stith for the remainder of this year, the two of them plus Marcus next year, and Parker and Stith the following year. I like the way that plays out, although I'm sure Stith would rather have the whole backfield to himself two years from now. Stay tuned. Beamer is supposed to make a statement on Parker's status for this week's game anytime now.
• As for the Ox, he is progressing nicely. Look for his return for the Syracuse game. Beamer isn't sure at this point, but here's what I suggest: dress him out, start Stith, maybe play the Ox a little, and see how it goes. If he's not needed, save him. Then let him take a week off and explode against Temple.
• I wanted to correct myself slightly. I made a comment in my BC game analysis about no boo-birds appearing in Alumni Stadium, even though BC "looked terrible," or words to that effect. After reconsidering, I want to correct myself and say that BC didn't look terrible. It's not like they fumbled, threw interceptions, and gave up a bunch of long TD's. They were just beaten, straight up. I take it back.
• Early numbers: the Hokie D is 5th in the nation in rushing (48 yards/game), 19th in total defense (257 yards/game), and 23rd in scoring defense (12.5 points/game). They also have an incredible 12 sacks in just two games. On the down side, Tech is 94th out of 111 division 1-A teams in turnover margin (-1.5 game). The Hokies have turned the ball over 4 times, while taking it just once (Banks's INT against Boston College).
• I invite anybody who's interested to stop by and see me during tailgating Saturday morning. I'll be in the Litton-Reaves (or Animal Science, as we old folks call it) parking lot. Enter the parking lot from Duck Pond Drive, or whatever it's called, go in about two rows, and start looking. My car is a big tank of a station wagon, a two-tone brown-and-gold Chevy Impala.

  The license plates say HKI CNTL. You can't miss it.

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