ACC Fantasy Football: DC Hoo Wins Big

All hail DC Hoo, winner of the first TheSabre.com ACC Fantasy Football league!

We held an ACC fantasy draft back in August with myself, intrepid Sabre correspondent Nick Sauer and five Edge subscribers as owners. We kept it simple. Each owner selected one quarterback, two running backs, two receivers and one kicker in a six-round serpentine draft. Points were tabulated based on touchdowns, field goals, extra points and yardage. No trades or free agent pickups allowed except in the event of injuries.

We thought it would be a fun way to follow the ACC and keep track of the conference’s offensive players. Unfortunately, DC Hoo sucked all the fun out of the league by trouncing everyone, putting together a solid team and making inspired pickups when two of his players were injured. He wins a free year of Sabre Edge and the animosity of his fellow owners.

To see how the draft transpired and read each owner’s thoughts immediately afterward, you can check out the original Sabre ACC Fantasy Football story that ran Aug. 27. Notice in that article how optimistic everyone is. We all thought we were so smart.

Haha! Joke’s on us. For some reason, none of us drafted Miami’s Brock Berlin, who ended up leading the ACC in touchdown passes. Nor did anyone draft Miami’s Roscoe Parrish or Georgia Tech’s Calvin Johnson, two of the league’s top receivers. Still, someone had to win, and speaking for myself, I’m just glad it wasn’t Nick.

Final Standings

1) DC Hoo: 506 points

2) Hoos-your-daddy: 421 points

3) debit: 411 points

4) Nick: 388 points

5) John: 359 points

6) FirstCoastCav: 314 points

7) managerbowl: 267 points

Each participant agreed to write a summary of his team’s season, looking at the surprises, disappointments and busts. By reading these, you can gain some sense of how the ACC football season played out, at least from an offensive standpoint. Far more busts than booms.

7) managerbowl (267)

QB: Chris Rix, Florida State (11, injury drop)

QB: Joel Statham, Maryland (21, injury pickup)

RB: Cedric Humes , Virginia Tech (54)

RB: Ronnie McGill, North Carolina (33, injury drop)

RB: Sammy Maldonado, Maryland (15, injury pickup)

WR: Ryan Moore, Miami (8)

WR: Deyon Williams , Virginia (4, injury drop)

WR: Calvin Johnson, Georgia Tech (40, injury pickup)

K: Jon Peattie, Miami (81)

Quite a disappointing year for team managerbowl. Obviously, Chris Rix
was one of the biggest busts in college football this year. My dad told
me he would stink and he was right. I suppose I would have picked
Whithurst instead of Rix if I had had the chance, but he wasn’t a whole
heckuva lot better so I wasn’t gonna be great either way.

Most of the top RBs were gone when it came to my second pick. I was happy
enough taking McGill, who was good when he played but was hurt most of
the year. Ryan Moore was awful. I thought Miami would be an offensive
juggernaut in the new ACC and he would be catching TDs all year long
from Berlin. It just didn’t happen; he was a non-factor. My fourth-round pick of Jon Peattie was my only good selection. I knew there were
only four kickers who had locked up their positions and I got the last
one. I was very happy with this pick and he did well for me.

I was also happy to get my next pick of Cedric Humes . He was going to the starting
RB for a solid running team but he stunk out loud to start the season. He actually came on OK in the last three weeks but I was out of it
by then. Sure wish I had taken Pearman there instead; my lack of homerism hurt me.
Then, when I applied some homerism, I chose Deyon and I think we all know
how anemic our whole passing game was this year, I dropped him when he
got hurt and picked up Calvin Johnson, who was a stud. Sure wish we
could find ourselves a freshman WR to come up huge next year (Let’s get a
1010, Todd!).

I had a lot of fun drafting and had fun keeping up with it, but I was out of it so early it was a bummer. I really thought I
had drafted well and hardly any of my picks really panned out, nor did
many of my injury pickups. I picked up Maldonado and
Statham right before the Terps went on their horrible offensive run. No
excuses, I drafted poorly but had fun.

6) FirstCoastCav (314)

QB: Marques Hagans, Virginia (102)

RB: Chris Barclay, Wake Forest (92)

RB: Leon Washington, Florida State (69)

WR: Craphonso Thorpe, Florida State (22)

WR: Derrick Fenner, Maryland (29)

K: David Jordan, Georgia Tech (0)

What can I say?? I did my research, weighed in on who
I thought would be big impact players and thought I
had genuinely done a good job in my draft. Well,
Marques fell off the face of the earth in the second
half of the season. Hey, at least I didn’t draft
Whitehurst or Rix in the first round. Ha!

Leon Washington got hurt and never really fulfilled his
enormous potential. Chris Barclay always seemed to
lose yards and TDs to Wake’s other backs. Derrick
Fenner was sabotaged by the worst quarterback play
I’ve ever seen, coached by a so-called “Offensive
Genius”. And as for Craphonso Thorpe, well, I have no
idea what black hole he slipped into this year
(answer: Chris Rix’s). All I know is that he sucked
all the life out of my team. And as for the kicker,
well, I don’t know what to say. I would’ve liked to
have had one, I guess.

So do I have sour grapes after getting crushed by
DC Hoo? Absolutely. Would I gladly do it again?
Absolutely. In a heartbeat. In the end I probably took
the Hokies too lightly and expected too much from the
Noles. Oh well, at least there’s hoops. Now if only we
could teach Gillen how to conserve his timeouts.
Thanks guys, it was fun!

5) John (359)

QB: Darian Durant, North Carolina (123)

RB: Josh Allen, Maryland (60)

RB: Cornelius Birgs, Wake Forest (17, injury drop)

RB: Tyrone Moss , Miami (17, injury pickup)

TE: Heath Miller, Virginia (49)

WR: Jawarski Pollock, North Carolina (28)

K: Xavier Beitia, Florida State (65)

Creating a Sabre fantasy league was obviously a huge mistake. I try to pass myself off here as some sort of ACC football expert, and then to get exposed like this in front of the entire Sabre community – how embarrassing. And lsoing to Nick, of all people, I’ll never show my face in public again.

I could blame myself for making bad selections. After all, why did I pick a backup tailback (Birgs), a midget receiver (Pollock) and a fat kicker from Wide Right U. (Beitia)? But I prefer to blame others for my mistakes, so I’ll point the finger at all the foolish coaches in the conference.

Coach Bunting, Durant is the only good player on your whole team! Try letting him throw a little more. Then maybe you’d have made a bowl game and saved your job. (Oh, wait. Never mind.)

Fridge, only an offensive mastermind like you could have turned Josh Allen from a 257-yard dynamo against Virginia last year into an eight-carries-per-game dud this season. Try using eight tailbacks and six quarterbacks next year. That’ll show everyone what a genius you are. Until then, enjoy your vacation to the Hershey factory.

Coach Coker, how about giving Moss a little more work, especially around the goal line? He’s a 245-pound bowling ball. No one could stop him from getting into the end zone but you. Way to inject some of that Big East mediocrity into the ACC.

Coach Groh, I put up a missing persons bulletin for Heath Miller in the red zone. Where was he all year?

And Coach Bowden, nice job playing musical chairs at quarterback and kicker. If Rix and Beitia were that bad to begin with, why did you start them as freshmen and bench them as seniors? Usually players get better with good coaching, not worse.

OK, I feel better getting that off my chest. Who’s up for ACC fantasy basketball?

4) Nick (388)

QB: Bryan Randall , Virginia Tech (177)

RB: P.J. Daniels, Georgia Tech (66)

RB: Duane Coleman, Clemson (28)

WR: Tramain Hall, N.C. State (35)

WR: Willie Idlette, Wake Forest (12)

K: Nick Novak, Maryland (70)

Well, it’s pretty obvious from looking at my team that I did a poor job of drafting players. Bryan Randall turned out to be a great pick and much better than I expected. I thought the Tech offense would really struggle and he would put up mediocre numbers, but he was the best player in the ACC.

P.J. Daniels in the first round turned out to be a major bust due to injuries. He could have made a huge difference for my squad. The other big disappointment was Nick Novak, who suffered due to the pathetic Maryland offense. Duane Coleman also did pretty much nothing due to losing a lot of time following his injury. I should have researched the Clemson injury situation a bit more before drafting him.

Tramain Hall and Willie Idlette both had disappointing seasons, although Hall’s problems weren’t totally his fault due to the inconsistent play of Jay Davis. Overall, I had one good player and a bunch of mediocre to bad players. What a disappointing fantasy season. I almost lost to John – now that’s sad. Congratulations to DC Hoo for owning everyone, and I look forward to next year’s season to earn back some of my honor.

3) debit (411)

QB: Charlie Whitehurst, Clemson (70)

RB: Lorenzo Booker, Florida State (61)

RB: Alvin Pearman, Virginia (120)

WR: Chansi Stuckey, Clemson (11)

WR: Chauncey Stovall, Florida State (66)

K: Connor Hughes, Virginia (83)

After the draft I was pretty confident that my team could post league-winning numbers. I was shocked, of course, to find my team near the cellar after a few weeks of play, but I rallied in November to finish in a respectable third place.

The league rules clearly stated that you could not replace a player unless he was injured. The night before the Clemson-Virginia game I had a dream in which Charlie Whitehurst left the pocket trying to scramble for the first down and, intimidated by Darryl Blackstock and Ahmad Brooks , dove to the ground only to catch his thumb in Brooks’s shoelace, dislocating it and crippling his passing ability for the rest of the season. On the same play, Chansi Stuckey was trying to block for his scrambling quarterback and accidentally stumbled off the playing field and was trampled by CavMan and his horse. Neither of these players came upon such misfortunes, so I was tortured each Saturday thereafter with mediocre performances by the Clemson offense while watching free agents such as Calvin Johnson and Brock Berlin rack up huge numbers.

The bright spots on my team were Alvin Pearman and Chauncey Stovall. We all know how Pearman’s season went after the Florida State debacle, and just like in real life he picked my fantasy team up on his shoulders and carried it through the remainder of the season. Stovall was a nice surprise since Craphonso Thorpe had such a disappointing season. Stovall was the most consistent receiver in a very disappointing Florida State offense and, given the inconsistency at quarterback, I was very pleased with Chauncey’s performance.

The last two players on my team were Lorenzo Booker and Connor Hughes. Booker performed right about where I expected and scored about the same amount of points as Leon Washington. Hughes was clearly inconsistent and was not as accurate as last season, but he still put up the second-highest point total for drafted kickers.

Overall, I am pleased with the end result, and would never wish harm on my drafted players, although Calvin Johnson and Brock Berlin would have been nice pickups in mid-October.

2) Hoos-your-daddy (421)

QB: Jay Davis, N.C. State (105)

RB: Wali Lundy, Virginia (133)

RB: Frank Gore, Miami (86)

WR: Jason Anderson, Wake Forest (18)

WR: Nate Curry, Georgia Tech (25)

K: Jad Dean, Clemson (54)

While I am happy with a second-place finish, I feel it was a year of
disappointments and what could have been. While DC Hoo had a terrific
season with prophetic draft choices, I can’t help but point out that he
was extremely lucky in replacing two of his under-performing players
with bona fide stars. C’est la vie.

Looking back at my draft, I can only wonder why I choose Jay Davis over
Brock Berlin. At the time I was convinced that Kyle Wright or Derrick
Crudup would eventually replace Berlin. That certainly looked to be the
case after the Florida State game. I could not have been more wrong.
Regardless, my team’s apparent wide receiver strength going into the
season turned into the main reason for its distant second-place finish.
Nate Curry and Jason Anderson were both proven veterans and the focal
point of their respective offenses. Unfortunately, Calvin Johnson
emerged as a star in the making for Georgia Tech, while Wake’s Cory Randolph had a horrific
season at quarterback.

I was able to salvage a second-place finish because of great years from
Wali Lundy and Frank Gore. Lundy, in the Jerome Bettis mold, was a
touchdown machine. It seemed that every time he got in the red zone, he
scored. While I could not have been happier for Alvin Pearman and his
emergence as the #1 running back, he was a significant roadblock to
Lundy’s potentially fantastic season. Gore had the rebound year that I
envisioned, even though his stats reflected a roller coaster at Six
Flags.

The one saving grace to my fantasy season was Jad Dean eventually
earning the starting kicking spot at Clemson. After the first couple of
weeks, it appeared that I may have been doomed to the fantasy basement.
Unfortunately, that title went to managerbowl.

1) DC Hoo (506)

QB: Reggie Ball, Georgia Tech (126)

RB: T.A. McClendon, N.C. State (77)

RB: Cedric Dargan, Duke (4, injury drop)

RB: Mike Imoh , Virginia Tech (60, injury pickup)

WR: Airese Currie, Clemson (52)

WR: Adarius Bowman, North Carolina (30, injury drop)

WR: Roscoe Parrish, Miami (53, injury pickup)

K: Brandon Pace, Virginia Tech (104)

It’s High Times for the DC Hoo team (but mostly for our departed teammate Adarius Bowman, enrolled at a holistic college known as UNC) as we cruised to a pretty comfortable win in the first Sabre Fantasy League. It was a crazy year in the ACC and a nightmare for offensive coordinators in the conference. How bad was the ACC in terms of offense? Reggie Ball almost doubled Charlie Whitehurst in fantasy points and Ball’s job wasn’t secure until the middle of November. I can’t remember a year that the ACC had such miserable quarterbacks at so many schools. Chris Rix was again Chris Rix and NCSU, MD, and WF never found a stride at QB. So you think the focus would be on ACC running backs, but again you’d be wrong. UVa had the strongest ground attack but switched starting running backs halfway through the year. VT had three different starting RBs. UNC went from a decent RB to the unbelievable Chad Scott in October. I think only FSU and Miami kept their starting RBs for most of the season. UVa was very lucky as neither Pearman nor Lundy got injured.

I hated picking first because the league was so wide open. You had about five or six blue chips, then a series of other quality picks. Working on a snake draft, I’d have the first pick and then the last pick in the second round. Which meant most quality QBs and RBs would be gone before my second pick. And, indeed, that is how it developed.

After the draft, I felt my team was average but with a great upside if T.A. stayed healthy and Ball broke through. Of course T.A. didn’t, but I waltzed to a victory on the strength of two great picks and solid injury pickups. The two great picks I made were at the end of the fourth round and the start of the fifth, when I picked Ball and Pace back to back.

Round 4: Reggie Ball (#2 fantasy QB in the league)

Four of the seven teams drafted a QB in the first or second round. A fifth took Hagans in the third round, leaving a handful of unattractive options on my draft board. There was Randolph at Wake, another combo runner/passer, Brock Berlin and Reggie Ball. I looked up some stats and decided to go with Ball because I thought GT had some strong receivers. I also figured that unlike Randolph and Berlin, Ball had no fear of being replaced. And Ball responded from a fantasy standpoint. He threw for 14 TDs and ran for a few more. Ball did well in racking up yardage and numbers vs. bad teams like UConn and Clemson. His fantasy line would be something like 30 points one week, then 4, then 8, then 24. Always up and down but in the end he produced. Odd thing for me: Brock Berlin was never drafted or picked up. I’m not sure why others never grabbed him but I passed on him because I wasn’t sure if he’d be the starter in October.

Round 5: Brandon Pace (#1 kicker)

ManagerBowl had snagged the kicker I wanted with the pick right before me (Peattie). The ACC had four lock kickers in the preseason (Novak, Hughes, Peattie and Beitia – later replaced!). When those guys were taken, I was trying to decide between Pace and Jad Dean. I decided against Dean because of Tommy Bowden’s penchant for replacing his kickers. Plus, I knew that VT had no other placekicker, Beamer likes field goals and the VT offense would be good but not great and settle for field goals. This was the pick I felt better and better about as I thought it over. Pace more than delivered. He gave me a huge edge in the league as about every week he was good for 10+ points. Grabbing a kicker late also gave me an advantage because I didn’t waste a second or third round pick grabbing Hughes or Novak. This was my best pick.

Round 1: T.A. McLendon (#5 RB)

I knew this pick was a risk because of his injury issues. And I guess I should be pleased he only missed something like four games. Having T.A. as your superstar is hazardous to your mental health. Defining moment of T.A.’s career: Scores a TD vs. rival UNC to win the game. Wait. It’s not a TD. So you carry the ball again, fumble it and UNC wins. I can’t imagine being his teammate or the team trainer. You’re just waiting for a game-breaking run, fumble or injury. There’s no middle ground here.

Round 2: Cedric Dargan (dropped for Mike Imoh )

I wasn’t happy with the Dargan pick. But he got off to a great start, running for 100 yards and looking good. Then he disappeared from the box score. Which led me to search for a description of his football injury. Searching for Duke football information is the fantasy equivalent of looking for Big Foot. No one cares about Duke football, much less their injuries, so I dropped Dargan and picked up Mike Imoh . Imoh gave me several productive games (especially vs. the Heels) before he too was injured. But at least you can read about 40,000 posts or articles on Imoh and his hamstring. I still don’t know what was wrong with Dargan. Anyway, bad pick for a lot of reasons.

Round 3: Airese Currie (#3 WR)

A pick I really liked. But remember when I said that ACC QBs were bad? Never felt like Currie produced but he was still the #3 receiver in the league. What more do you want? Let’s just say that the ACC didn’t light it up at WR this year except for …

Round 6: Adarius Bowman/Roscoe Parrish (#1 WR)

The last pick in the draft produced the best WR combo by a solid margin. Bowman was the big-play man for the Tar Heels and had the year many of us hoped Deyon Williams would have. He scorched secondaries for long touchdowns and had a pretty solid half season despite splitting time with a host of other talented Tar Heel wideouts. Unfortunately, Bowman took “Already at a Higher Level” too literally and got suspended for the year. Which helped me pick up Roscoe Parrish, who scored 50 points in a half season and two TDs against UVa. The last round was feast or famine. Debit getting Chauncey Stovall was a great pick. Everyone else suffered a crushing round as people got little or no production from their last pick.

In summary, I had a strategy of getting RBs first, then a top-notch receiver. Get a QB and K who were guaranteed to be starters, preferably on teams with decent offenses. I got a bit lucky with some players. But I think it was the crazy offensive year of the ACC that was beneficial to me. Reggie Ball outscoring Charlie Whitehurst and Chris Rix COMBINED. That’s just crazy.