I know I’ve been blogging very infrequently lately, but back-to-back games against Ohio and William and Mary don’t exactly inspire an avalance of prose.

But we’re back now, and Virginia Tech is diving head-first into the athletic cesspool that is ACC football.

At its worst, the conference has looked brutal this season in non-league play. Louisiana State hammered Virginia Tech, Nebraska beat Wake Forest in lovely Winston-Salem, Maryland lost to West Virginia, North Carolina State lost to Central Florida, Wyoming beat Virginia, East Carolina beat North Carolina and Oklahoma slammed Miami (though the Hurricanes rebounded nicely with a win over Texas A&M).

On the other hand, the conference actually seems interesting. Who is the best team in this league anyway? Boston College and Clemson are the lone remaining undefeated teams. Virginia Tech joins them in the top 25, mainly because its only loss came on the road against a team that could easily win the national title. But the Hokies haven’t exactly proved their worth yet.

And what to make of Virginia? With games upcoming against three beatable opponents—Pittsburgh, Middle Tennessee State and Connecticut (with just Middle Tennessee on the road)—the Cavaliers could be 6-1 and riding a six-game winning streak into an Oct. 20 game at Maryland. Is it impossible to think that Chairman Al Groh could lead Virginia to the ACC championship game? Not in this league this year.

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The one thing we know for certain, gang, is that Thursday will be one of the greatest days of the fall. In the morning, at 11, Moe’s Southwest Grill opens its downtown Blacksburg location, on Main Street, across from Sharkey’s. I will be there promptly at 10:55, along with Washington Post Lord of Lethargy Adam Kilgore, Virginian-Pilot Count of Consumption Kyle Tucker and Norm “El Head de Red” Wood, of the Daily Press. Then, in the evening, at 9, “The Office” airs its one-hour season premiere on NBC. ‘Tis one of the few network television shows that is a must watch.

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Back to football. Heading into the ACC portion of the schedule, true freshman quarterback Tyrod Taylor has played eight and a half quarters—two and a half at LSU, pretty much the entire game against Ohio and two against William and Mary. Do you think that’s enough to prepare him for conference play?

Sudden thought, gang: When I hear Tech’s coaches consistently insist that their line is improving—in the face of factual evidence that, to some degree, indicates otherwise—I can’t help but think of “Little Miss Sunshine,” the movie in which a dysfunctional family enters its homely looking daughter in one of those weird, little-girl beauty pageants, afraid to tell her, for the entire movie, that she just doesn’t have what it takes to win.

I keep waiting for Frank Beamer to pull a Greg Kinnear—when Kinnear, at the end of the movie, fights off the plastic-faced pageant host and dances on stage with his daughter during her ridiculous routine.

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By the way, and as if you didn’t know it already, all those comparisons between Appalachian State and William and Mary were just lip service. Even though Appy State lost on Saturday to Wofford, the Tribe still doesn’t rate with the Mountaineers, who have won back-to-back Division I-AA national titles. William and Mary is now 10-16 since its last trip to the I-AA playoffs in 2004. 

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With our Angelo State Rams off last week, we turn our attention to another football program that doesn’t get much: the Apprentice School in Newport News. Even after leaving the Daily Press earlier this year, I still try to keep up with the Builders. Their One-Man Sports Information Machine, Jim Heath, was kind enough to keep me on his e-mail list.

Anyway, the Builders lost 35-14 last Saturday at Emory and Henry. They are 1-2 heading into Saturday’s 1 p.m. home game against Salisbury.

On a related note, I challenge anyone to find a better logo in college football—Division I-A, I-AA, II, III, NAIA or USCAA, which Apprentice belongs to for most sports—than Builder Man, the ship-building talisman for Apprentice.