We now return to our regularly scheduled program

I want to make a quick apology to all the pollers and "sponsors" of the BCRC/Bleachers Poll. Tragically, due to a massive workload, I was not able to crunch numbers this week and aggregate the Poll. So, I'm going to throw myself in front of the train and let you all pick apart my own Top Ten.

1. Oregon
2. Kansas
3. LSU
4. Oklahoma
5. West Virginia
6. Missou
7. Ohio State
8. Arizona State
9. Georgia
10 Hawaii

Why Oregon? By knocking off USC a few weeks ago, Oregon finally ended the Trojan Dynasty. By beating the Sun Devils handily in Eugene, Dennis Dixon likely sewed up the Heisman and the Pac-10 crowd. The loss against Cal is looking more flukey every week and the Duck defense has responded to the way the Bears went over, around and through them. I think, you put any team on the field, neutral location, the Ducks should be favored. What else should it take to be number one?

Kansas over LSU I like playing this game to describe Les Miles's idiocy against Auburn. A frickin' FLY lands on the football and LSU is a two loss team. So, maybe Kansas hasn't played outside the state of Kansas, and if it was Ohio State, I'd be knocking them. But they are passing the tests as they come. But did you see the way the offense responded against Nebraska? Oklahoma State? This team could gun sling with anyone. I think that a Kansas-Oregon game would be just as competitive as a LSU-Oregon game. My verdict of the 'hawks over the Tigers is based on the impressive way that Kansas has not backed down. Plus, there is a little anti-SEC bias in my head, because I think that "they beat each other up" is not a justification for so many of them to be ranked.

Conference Strength Look, I have three Big 12 teams in the top ten and two SEC teams. I am really tempted to drop West Virginia, but, for some reason, I can't do it. The Big East has really shown their true colors this year, and I'm glad that everyone is finally not buying Tranghese's Kool-Aid. The ACC is definitely in waiting. VTech will continue to be good. Florida State and Miami will bounce back. Those three are locked in to be top 15 within the next few years, consistently.

What about BC? I don't know. I was sure three weeks ago that Jags was building this program past the hump and into the elite, but now I'm sitting watching his recruiting and wondering if we are going to get the defensive athletes we need to have a solid D. The injuries don't help, right now, but that can't explain 42 points to Maryland. Here's my BCS conference rankings:

1. Pac 10
2. SEC
3. Big 12
4. ACC
5. Big Ten
6. Big East

And I would put the Big East lower if I could. I'll actually get three games to watch up tomorrow, I promise.

Editor's Note: BC in fact DOES control its own destiny. Tied with Clemson for the Atlantic lead with a two game lead, a win this weekend and the Eagles gain the tie breaker over Clemson and Wake and will be locked into Jacksonville.

H&L Grows A Little More

Thanks to everyone who has been coming to Heights and Lows for the past few months since we started up again. We really are trying to provide content that is more than just a homer-blog, so, hopefully it has been informative and helpful in micro and macro terms.

We want to try to keep being unique as a compilation blog that touches a lot of areas of the news sphere. So, we've expanded our authorship a little to include our very own news hound, Pavz, who will be providing some content based on national and local coverage of the Eagles.

Also, our editor Shins will be adding some of his own content as well that will touch on a few more aspects of analysis.

Both guys are great writers and will bring a lot to H&L. They also are members of the official poll, so it'll be nice to have more guys with the ability to explain their top tens.

BC News and Notes

I know I said I'd leave the BC posts to Doug, but he's up in Canadia right now so I wanted to get some BC News and Notes out of the way because of Media Day.

First off, new uniforms were unveiled. Photos are from Yahoo!News/AP
What are we, the Philadelphia Eagles? Other than that, I love the gold numbers and the maroon piping to match the helmets.



Also, check out the transcript of Jags's Q&A on BCeagles.com. The pundits can say what they want (and they have already, Pat Forde) and not give us any respect. But reading that just makes you excited about the Eagles future.

For those of you who missed the Pat Forde comment, in comes in response to his story about QBs across the country. Clearly this makes me sound like a homer, but to not even acknowledge Matt Ryan in at least some capacity as the exception among ACC QBs in his sweeping reprimand of the signal callers in the conference is brutal. Sure, it isn't the best QB conference around. But Matt Ryan threw nearly 3000 on a broken foot last year in an offense that didn't play the long ball. For that to still group him with (his quote) "the top nine returning quarterbacks in the league [who] combined to throw 84 touchdown passes and 87 interceptions" is completely unfair. Ryan had 15 passing TDs (plus 4 on the ground) and 10 INTs, but that first number would have been a lot higher in an offense that actually tried. It doesn't give him justice as a statistic.

I like Forde, but when he poses the question "Can anyone here play?" it makes me think he missed that BC-Clemson game two years ago or the myriad games Ryan played on a bum (or broken) foot. I'm not saying Ryan is the #1 guy in the country, although I believe he is very very good, but to be washed over is a great oversight.

Doug will be back next week to take back his reins as the home team rah-rah. I'll get back to previewing some other conferences and the Heisman Race.

BC Link Round-up

Well we are officially back in business, and as you see making a few minor site structural changes. That being said, I bring you news-ie goodness from around the web:

• SI.com has a great article about the new ACC Head Coaches, including our own Jags. The most interesting comment (in my eagle-saturated mind) was:

  "In steps the smiling, affable Jags, the perfect antithesis to the vanilla style of O'Brien, a former Marines officer. The former Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator and BC product brings an offense that will be unlike anything else in the ACC."

  Read the rest of the story here.
• Sportsline posted their pre-season top 25. All I have to say is WEAK... ND Ranked 24, BC unranked, wtf!? What do you expect from Dennis Dodd, other than a piece of garbage. He hates the ACC in every article he writes (For example). Read it here.
• ESPN has been ranking all 119 D-1A programs in reverse order, as of yesterday we found out that BC had made it into the top 25, which is quite nice. Watch for it over here.

The site is going to be regular again, so start sharing it with your friends.

Reprises

Well as Dave said below, our months of sabbatical are over, and we are going to start blogging again. I am sure virtually no one is reading this right now since our reader score went from 56 to 8, but we are going to push this site up again and try to keep it going more.

The off season has been rather nonchalant for BC sports and that's a good thing. We are all getting VERY excited to see how Jags does, and we are all excited to see if BC Hockey can win it all this year.

A big congrats to BC's Jared Dudley for going 22nd in the NBA Draft. Charlotte got a great value in Jared, he is the smartest player in the draft and probably the player with the best "intangible" value.

Talk to you soon!

So ends the hiatus...

Ah, so it's been since late basketball season that we've been really active over here, but it looks like we'll be picking up steam as everyone gets back in the swing of things over at Chestnut Hill. Exciting stuff, I know. There's so much for which to be excited at Heights and Lows.

This fall, I'm going to focus mainly on College Football in the Macro sense. This will include at least three posts a week that include previews, the three games other than BC to watch each Saturday, and the return of the BC Alumni Bleachers Poll and a Heisman Watch. It's our goal to get that up before the real polls come out because we want to be as independent as possible with it. Expect lots of commentary from Doug, too, on the ongoings of Jags maiden voyage as well as news from other ACC schools.

We tend not to talk too much about recruiting because it kind of gets crowded on the web. But, we'll do our best to give you a scorecard about what's going on. My two-part 2007 preview will be coming out in early August. Stay tuned.

The Coaching Search Continues

Welcome to the inaugural post of Heights and Lows!

Wellllllllllll... Being the Bad Cop in this Good Cop/Bad Cop scenario, I am going to have to start my first post talking about the cause that divided Mr. Levy and myself, and made this idea come to fruition. Tom O'Brien. Coach Tom served BC well for his first 4-6 years depending on who you talked to. But for as long as we were at BC, he had checked out. When you watch a coach practically sleep on the sidelines, and lose the most key game every year, know know you found one that isn't there, mentally at least. So now physically he is finally gone, and we are about to enter the new era. Or as I like to say it, Returning to Excellence. We spent years seeking mediocrity, and its time for a comeback.

Currently, we can all imagine Gene D (Coach Flip) madly shaking hands and schmoozing the wives of these coaches, but in reality when it comes to the numbers and contracts, can he reel in the proverbial "Big One"? Another question might be what exactly is B.C. looking for in a "Big One"?

I have been reading everything there is out there about this search, and although currently all signs are pointing towards Mark Whipple (Pittsburgh Steelers QB Coach), I think we should still look at some of the alternative candidates out there.

3) Jim Fassel - Former Head Coach, New York Giants: I seriously doubt this move, but if BC is looking for Big Name, they might bring Fassel in. It could be a good ploy for recruiting, but I don't think "the Big One" is a retired NFL HC. I would wager a dime to a dollar that the Fassel talk is just hype attempts from Alumni.

2) Jimbo Fisher- Offensive Coordinator, LSU: Jimbo's name has been thrown out for every HC job on the market, and he certainly has the coaching cred for it, but does BC want to invest in a coach that is clearly just shopping for the next best thing, until the next best thing opens up? He isnt our man.

1) Steve Kragthorpe - Head Coach, Tulsa: Steve appears to be the "other" leading candidate here. He is a former BC Quarterbacks Coach and is a pretty hot commodity on the market right now. I have heard from some friends well connected in Yawkey Center that he is still on the table, and decisions haven't been made. He very may well be our man as well.

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In other news, welcome to our new blog. The concept here is two die-hard BC Eagles Fans who happen to take oposite opinions on most of the issues of the day surrounding BC Sports. Hopefully between the two of us, you can get your fill of BC Sports (and sometimes just regular BC News).