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• The Duke Blue Devils came into the game with a defense playing well. But that defense was picked apart in the first half allowing 24 points and close to 300 yards of offense. But in the locker room Coach McGriffin laid into his defense. The defense responded by forcing 4 turnovers in the second half and only giving up 7 points. All four turnovers came via fumbles. Linebacker Barrett Ashley recovered 2 of them and returned one for 73 yards for a TD. "Coach said kill them so we did." said Ashley after the game. Ashley was prized recruit in Coach McGriffin's first recruiting class a 4* OLB with speed and Ashley has not disappointed and today finished with 2 FR 8 total tackles 3 TFL a sack and he also forced a fumble.

  Duke's offense had no trouble with Wake's defense by putting up 485 yards of offense 226 on the ground and 259 through the air. Connette had one of his  better games by going 15-20 for 248 yards with 2 TD's and 1 pick. Freshman RB and second string RB still filling in for the injuried McBride filled in well again gaining 95 yards on 12 attempts and scoring 4 touchdowns. Connette added 73 yards rushing and Soph RB Vincent Lewis added 64 yards. 

  Duke is now 4-2(3-0) is off to their best start under Coach McGrififn. Next week the Blue Devils ACC foe Virginia. 

• looks like we will probably advance tonight so when are good times for you to play the next couple days? 

• This game started off bad for the Rebels, the Gators jumped up 13-0 and didn't look like they were going to slow down. In the 2nd qtr it looked as if the Rebels found their rhythm but that wasn't the case as Brunetti made some very crucial mistakes in the redzone. Ending the half the Rebels were able to cut the Gator lead down to 3.

  Entering the 2nd half  everything bad that could happen to one team happened to the Rebels in this one. Senior QB Barry Brunetti was harassed all game long as the Gator defense piled on 5 sacks and picked the QB off 4 times. To make things worse the Rebel defense played horrible too and would miss easy tackles that allowed 1st downs for the gators. Late in the 4th Brunetti was sacked once again and for a safety which made things worse he was hurt. After stopping the Gators drive the Rebels found out Brunetti wasn't coming back, RS Freshman Jamie Edwards would step in and be called upon to win the game for his team.

  The Rebels had the ball after the Gators ran as much time down as they could. Edwards stepped out and made the right decisions but kept overthrowing his receivers. With less 30 secs left he made his worst mistake and threw a pick, but the Rebel O lineman would level the Gator db and force a fumble giving the Rebels another shot. With 13 seconds left in the game Edwards found his TE for a 34yd completion, and on the next play found his wide out for a 23yd TD and after the PAT the Rebels took the lead. With only 2 secs left the Rebels squib kicked it and stopped the return man. 24-22 Rebels

  I must say my team sucks this year, we can't run or pass and my defense is more suspect than ever. I might be lucky if I don't lose 4 or 5 games this year.
  

• 
  Ok guys, here's the breakdown for our season 5, which will be a fresh restart for the OD in year 1.  Instead of us voting on a bunch of stuff, I took inferences from what you guys have posted already and ran with it (so, in spirit, this is still democratic, lol).  

  Rosters

  I'm in Luvtotha9s' Inner Circle (no, I didn't have to blow him), meaning that I have Version 4 of his roster file, which is about as comprehensive a roster file as you can get.  He's gone through all 120 teams more than once and has applied some ratings tweaks where justified, meaning that teams like Auburn, Florida and Ohio State are not as highly rated as on the default rosters, while teams like K-State and Southern Miss are higher rated than originally set by EA almost a year ago.  Anyone who has declared early for the NFL draft (see Griffin, Luck) are listed as Seniors in the roster file, so that 2011 will be their last season.  Other than the realism, the best thing about the roster file is that Luv has propped up the lower tier teams, so that if you still want to roll with an underdog school, you can do it and not be at much of a ratings disadvantage compared to another user's higher rated team.  Another benefit to the roster file (which also comes from the simple fact that we're restarting in year 1) is that speed is more under control.  Because of progression and the design of recruiting classes, we have a ridiculous amount of players in the OD right now with SPD ratings in the 97-99 range.  Luvs' file starts us off with a much more reasonable distribution of player speed.

  Here's the link to the overall team ratings as reflected in Luvs' Version 4 file:

  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtZPLyoSgAZ8dDFCS1o2SExCYWZYLUNXSlVwTEtiRHc

  And, here's the link to a dummy OD I set up just so guys can browse the rosters (make sure you are logged OUT of the EA dynasty page before you go to this):

  http://www.easports.com/dynasty12?_user_state=system#module=moduleDynastyHub&dynid=418673&sku=511A0001

  
  Time Frame

  Realistically, we are only going to get in two more seasons, at most, in this OD before we hang it up and await NCAA 13 (by my estimation, two more seasons will put us at approximately May 1).  If it's anything like last year, by the time we hit May we're going to be getting loaded up with news about the next version of the game, which will make us care less about NCAA 12.  So, with only two seasons to work with, the long-term teambuilding is sort of out the window.  That means we can free things up when it comes to....

  Team Selection

  No more 3 star limit!  I've done the analysis, and it makes the most sense to just impose a limit on the team's overall rating, regardless of prestige level.  As you can tell from the roster link, the maximum team OVR for available teams is 88 (teams higher than 88 are in RED on the first link I posted above). That limit will ensure that we're not all starting with superpowered teams, but the limit still allows for a nice variety of extra teams that weren't available to us before.  Again, to be clear, team prestige will not matter for team selection, we can pick amongst all teams rated 88 and below.  The overall theme for the OD will become:

  "Let's pick good teams and beat the shit out of each other!"

  As previously noted, team selection order will be RANDOMLY GENERATED.  I will use an online generator to enter people's email addresses and it will randomize a selection order and simultaneously send an email confirming the order to all of us at the same time.

  House Rule

  With ratings progression being what it is, and with persuading players not to leave early being eaiser than it should be, many teams we pick will be stronger in year 2.  To cut against that somewhat, I'm going to set up an extra house rule to make year 2 more of a challenge:

  If you pick a 5 or 6 star team, you will NOT be able to persuade anyone declaring early for the draft to stay on for another year (as noted, the guys in real life who have declared are already designated as seniors in Luvs' file anyway).  Presumably, if you have a 5 or 6 star team, you'll be able to land a couple quality freshmen to replace the early departures.  If by some glitch a player wanting to enter the draft ends up remaining on your roster after the players leaving stage, you'll need to cut them.  If you pick a team 4 stars and below, you can persuade ONE player to return who has declared early for the draft.

  Custom Conferences -- Fucked

  That's my conclusion after 4 seasons of customizing conferences.  Just about every move I've made to keep things corresponding to real life, whether it's adding teams to the SEC, adding/replacing teams for the Big East, etc., has led to ridiculousness, whether it's a lack of control over scheduling user games, the loss of a rivalry game like the Egg Bowl, having conferences with teams playing a different number of conference games compared to other teams in the same conference, etc.  So, instead, we're just going to party like it's 2011.  I'm leaving the conferences alone, with only one exception:  if, after picking teams, we have conferences with only one user, but with 9 conference games (see Big 12, Pac-12), I will swap that user's team into another conference to ensure that all users can have the same number of user vs. user games.

  User Games

  So far, I like the idea of us continuing with 4 user games next season.  At this point, we've all played the game long enough to where all or most of the excitement in playing the game comes from the user battles.  I think I would be fine with 5 user games too, just for the hell of it.

  That's all I got for now, I figure we can generate the team selection order once we get to Week 10 or so of this season.  Post here with any questions, fellas!

    

  
       
   
  

• After a disappointing blowout loss to Hawaii last week, the UCF Knights defeated Big East opponent Louisville 28-21. The Knights were able to get back to a balanced attack on offense as RB Chad Dixon ran for 155 yds and 2 tds on 23 carries. Both offenses struggled early on as only 1 td was scored in the 1st quarter. Louisville would tie the game at 7 with :44 left in the 2nd quarter, but UCF was able to answer back right before the half ended.

  UCF got the ball to open the 2nd half and would drive down the field to score on a 1 yd run by FB Carl Franklin giving them a 21-7 lead. Louisville started going with a pass heavy offense to lead them down the field to get back within 7 with 2:37 left in the 3rd quarter. UCF was then able to run down some clock, but was faced with a 4th and 11 at Louisville's 39 with just under 6 minutes remaining in the game. That was way out of fg range and too close for a punt so Coach Meyer decided to go for it. QB Blake Bortles was faced with a blitz, but found a wide open Dixon on a curl route over the middle except Dixon didn't turn around quick enough and the pass went incomplete. UCF's defense would step up a couple plays later as FS Andrew Hunter would intercept the Cardinal's pass. The Knights would add another td with 2:25 remaining making the score 28-14. Louisville would add another td with :35 left, but could not get the onside kick.

  
  

• Adam Garrett may have had a slow start, but the young kid from North Carolina is rapidly maturing into a serious threat for opposing defenses to keep an eye on.  This week against Stanford Garrett was 14-22 for 241 yards and 3 TDs while having 16 carries for 49 yards and 2 TDs (Minus sacks his stats would be more like 11 carries for 80 yards.)

  The speedy Hawai'ian defense which was so effective last week against UCF (4 INTs, 212 total offense given up) was extremely effective yet again as they had 2 interceptions and 1 fumble recovery while holding the Cardinal to 338 total offensive yards, most of which coming from a late 78 yard TD rush that Coach Raymond was not impressed his defense allowed.

  Hawai'i now has a week off before hitting the road for three consecutive weeks as they visit Cincinnati, Connecticut and then Louisville, so this week off is much appreciated for the young Warriors.
  

• Down 7 late in the 4th Duke QB Brandon Connette, who had been harassed all game, scrambled and found WR T.Clayton for a 36 yard catch and run to bring with-in 1 with 23 seconds left. "We had already decided if we score we are going for the win." Said Coach McGriffin. Duke lined up in the goal line formation and with 1 second left on the play clock Connette hiked it. "We had a passing play called. But Brandon just did not feel like his WR would make the play. They had been slipping all day which caused some sacks. So Brandon made a choice to audible to a run play. Which is not frowned upon. Our HB (Wison) was avg 4.8 yards a run so we should be able to make those final 2." he later added. 

  But freshman HB Curtis Wilson was not able to get into the endzone for the final 2 points and after a close but unsuccessful onside kick Texas Tech was able to knee the clock out. 

  Tech was up 17-0 at halftime but Duke stormed back in the 3rd quarter scoring 17. Connette found JR WR John Mathis for a 32 yard TD and then after forcing a punt the strangest play happened. Duke punt returner Walters was stripped of the ball but J. Boyd for Duke scooped the ball up and ran it 79 yards for a TD. Duke later added a 37 yard FG to tie it.

  In the 4th Tech scored on a run by HB Talbot after a amazing catch by one of Tech's WR. Techs WR just stole the ball away from the Duke safety.

  Duke has now lost 2 straight after starting 2-0 and play host #18 Boston College in a pivotal ACC Game.   

• hey kinghadi, when do you wanna play?
  

• Hey, I'm pretty busy tonight and tomorrow. What times can you play monday or tuesday night?  I'll have to set aside time from the girlfriend and hope I don't get in too much trouble. :P
  

• Clicked on Ready to advanced and it advanced the week, not sure how it popped up but I canceled it and it still advanced us. Not sure if you can fix this or not J.