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Thanks for sharing this website! Definitely some fine reads there, and I'll examine them at more length in the future. And those verses from Psalms definitely ring true here. It reminds me of another quote, from Genesis 1:6-"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."

I apologize for not getting on the past few days, I've been incredibly busy. Not to mention, sick as a dog. To build a team that perennially wins, I fully agree, you can't just start practicing at the end of February. You have to lay the groundwork for the following season all throughout the offseason, not just in 4 weeks of practice before the first game. That's what Graham football has always done so well, and the results through the past 20 years speak for themselves. However, I disagree with the sentiment that you can't compete on a limited basis unless you do these things. Graham "competed" around 2004-2005, back when they had that solid crop of talent. Again, it didn't matter a hill of beans in the long run, as it resulted in a first round SWD Tournament exit every year. But they were highly competitive, and very nearly made the district finals. The "lightning in a bottle" scenario, as it were. Still, I'd like to see the Little League infrastructure return to Bluefield, and I'd like to see coaches at the younger level change the baseball culture here. It's nowhere near impossible, but it's going to take a LOT of work.

I mean no disrespect in anything that follows. Having played baseball at Graham many moons ago, this is my frank, honest opinion. I'd love to see Largen have a shot at it, TBH. A great guy, and he'd bring a pitcher's mentality, which is something that Graham's always lacked. This is the perfect opportunity for someone to come in and erase the culture of losing in GHS baseball. Someone who'll come in and reinforce the fundamentals of the game, which have ALWAYS seemed to hurt Graham at inopportune times. Someone who'll make the young men work and work HARD to get better: actual fielding drills instead of 2.5 hours of fungo. Someone who can develop live arms instead of plugging up a pitching machine as a substitute. Someone who'll condition these young men into baseball athletes instead of relying on football training to carry them through. Someone who'll take the extra time to help the young men work out of hitting slumps and reinstill confidence when it's lacking. Because it's not been there since Sam McKinney left (1991, am I right?). Campbell cared about his players and cared about the program, but the preceding was NOT him. And as someone who loves baseball and wants to see Graham not play with, but COMPETE with, the likes of Tazewell, Carroll County, Abingdon, and Richlands, NOW is the time to find someone to lead GHS baseball out of the wilderness.

I may very well do so, and Ben Stein is probably in the Top 3 of most articulate conservative voices in America today. Truly is. As far as Intelligent Design goes, I'm a firm believer in it. Three main reasons. First, I believe unequivocally that Jesus is my Lord and Savior, and the Bible said God made the Heavens and the Earth. Second, I've never heard a satisfactory pure scientific explanation about how life originated in the first place. Every laboratory attempt to create a functioning single-celled organism, much less a genome, from free-flowing proteins has been unsuccessful, and there have been painstaking attempts to do so. Third, I've never heard a satisfactory pure scientific explanation about how the Big Bang theory occurred. Sure, I know the what about its occurrence: all the mass in the universe was condensed into an infinitessimally small space, the explosion, the massive heating and cooling with expansion, etc. However, the laws of physics declare that once an area obtains a certain density, it collapses into a point of singularity. More or less, it creates a black hole. This is the exact opposite of an explosive expansion, especially with all the mass in the universe. The laws of physics and the Big Bang Theory (as I understand it) are scientifically incongruent. If anyone would like to justify #2 and #3 to me, I'm all ears. A fair warning: I've taken college astronomy and AP Biology, and I haven't found the answers there. And I made As in both sets of classes.

Congratulations, Hokies. And thanks for finally grabbing the ACC a win. Badly, badly needed for our conference. Enjoy the win: you've waited for quite some time to enjoy it.

Shanahan had a LOT of say in who the Broncos drafted. The buck stops with the HC, and mediocrity isn't acceptable in Denver.

You've got a great point about the difference between bowl season and the regular season. Heck, look at Al Groh. Pitiful regular season coach, but an above average bowl game coach (could very easily be 5-0 in bowl games save epic collapses in both losses). And I think the OOC regular season games are a big indicator, as well. Of course, USC playing UVA isn't as good an indicator as USC-Ohio State, given that one was 2nd in an 11-team league and one was 11th in a 12-team league. I certainly don't think the Pac-10 is the strongest; they bit the bullet against the Mountain West. Just like the Big Televen got punked by the MAC.

More toward the BluefieldRocks: OSU was the 4th-best team in a BRUTAL Big XII. Pitt was a good, but extremely overhyped, Big East team. BYU, as you said, was likely the 3rd/4th best non-BCS team in college football in a VERY STRONG year for non-BCS schools. Miami was the youngest, but most athletic, team in the ACC this year. And to top it off, Penn State was a 2-point swing away from playing in the national title game. Surely, you must derive some merit from the best of one conference beating those similarly situatied in another conference on a neutral field. There's some merit in the argument that it's not a perfect, or even great, measuring stick. It's certainly not: look at the Sugar Bowl-the ACC #2 v. SEC #5. Until you get an "ACC#2 v. SEC#2" game, it's not entirely accurate. And it also totally neglects the bottom of the conference (non bowl-eligible teams). But I wouldn't say that it's a "poor" measuring stick. What IS a good measuring stick of a conference is when the SEC #5 beats the ACC #2 38-3. What's also a good measuring stick is when one conference constantly underperforms (COUGH-ACC-COUGH), and when a conference constantly does rather well in bowl games (like the SEC).

I think Terry Bowden is a bit scummy, but I think it's long time that he got another chance. He's been away from the game for 10 years, am I right? I hope he makes the very best of this opportunity. If not, it'll definitely be his last.

Don't look now, but the Pac 10 is 5-0 in their bowl games this season. That's right, the "worst conference in America" is going to win the bowl challenge. Frankly, I think everyone's underestimated the Pac-10 this season, seeing how the bowl games have went.

Happy New Year to you as well. And VT isn't even favored in this game, much less "should win". Cincinnati's a very talented squad: 25th in the nation in passing offense, 50th in total offense. And Cincinnati's no slouch on defense, either: 13th in rushing defense (what the Hokies do best, by far), 25th in total defense. For those scoring at home: VT-7th best defense; CIN-50th best offense VT-109th best offense; CIN-25th best defense --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And back to the original point, I'm glad to see Vanderbilt win their first bowl game since 1955. An interesting note: Boston College had the longest bowl winning streak in the nation before this loss, too: 9 games. And yes, the ACC is stinking it up, yet again.

This is true. Wins are precious in this conference if you don't wear some shade of blue. Our next ACC game is against the Hokies on 1/10. Going 2-0 to start out would do wonders for Virginia's morale with players THAT young.

LOL, goes to show how much I care about that game. ;)

That was an ugly, UGLY game.

Sweet! :D

GREAT article! Man, this could be the best article I've ever read from the BDT that wasn't an AP story. I don't have a bunch of time right now, but I'll go further later if requested. There are holes in the global warming theory I could drive a Bradley tank through. There is anything but a true consensus, and much of the debate on behalf of global warming is revenue-driven.

This family's in my prayers as well. That's a tragedy, especially this time of year.

Well, how's this for the predicted 12th-place team in the ACC? A fired-up Virginia team won its first road OT game in 13 years, and first ACC road opener in 14 years, with the 88-84 OT win Sunday night. I got to watch the 2nd half of this game, and I saw something in that game that I've only seen once from this basketball team before: the heart and grit to not give up when they fell behind late. The other time? 2006-2007, the NCAA Tournament team. I know that this isn't the fate for the Cavaliers this season, and I'd be shocked if they finished with a winning record. But when your three biggest producers are 2 juniors, 1 sophomore, and 3 freshmen, the future sure looks bright. Especially winning games like this, this early.

That's a shame indeed, and my regards to him as well.

"You took the words right out of my mouth..."

I'd like to congratulate WVU and its fans on the win. I tell you, WVU's put their "can't win a bowl game" stigma aside in recent years with this streak of 4-in-a-row. That was a great, exciting game, and I hate to see the bickering going on among rival fans. Let WVU celebrate, they earned it. VT will have its chance on the 3rd.

I'd put this more along the lines of North Texas-Oklahoma. No matter how trashy Oklahoma plays, they'll still beat North Texas by 14+, regardless. Duke best could've beaten VT worst. Duke's above-average nearly beat VT's below-average...

It's normal to grandfather in guns manufactured/purchased before this law went into effect. Frankly, I like this process. Register everyone, have a carry-and-conceal permit. It doesn't seem as if NJ registers every gun sold from the Burress situation. I don't feel like I've been very articulate in this discussion. Stupid winter break!

lol. ;)

I was referencing the NY/NJ law in my quote that Lance and I both knew about, and I see now how unclear I was in doing so. My apologies, and thanks for point that out.