It will be Andre Williams, not Montel Harris, lining up across from the Orange on Saturday at the running back slot. The true freshman has big shoes to fill, considering Harris is mere yards away from breaking the school all-time rushing record.
Williams is BC's Delone Carter to Harris' Antwon Bailey, so the Orange will have to adjust their thinking accordingly. But don't think he's not explosive. Virginia found that out last weekend.
First came the speed when he broke the play of the game, a 59-yard burst that set up the game-winning touchdown by Harris.
Then, when the Eagles were trying to run out the clock, Williams showed his other side when he ripped off a 20-yard gain and absolutely buried Cavaliers safety Rodney McLeod. Williams wound up gaining 108 yards on 12 carries.
Derrell Smith will be leading the charge to stop Williams and the Eagle offense. But first things first, Smith has an even more important job... Cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the team.
"That will be my first Thanksgiving dinner as a chef," Smith said, pausing before adding, "on the low. Don’t tell anybody."
The menu will feature "a big chicken" instead of turkey, collard greens, candied yams, macaroni and cheese and sweet potato pie. Hogue is on the hook for the pie, Smith the rest.
"I’m going to infuse the chicken with some flavors," he confided. "You know . . . butter."
In that article there's a pretty interesting note from Smith about how much he hated the idea of moving to middle linebacker initially. The former running back just didn't think he was going to be able to do well in that spot.
I'm gonna go ahead and say that it worked out.
Syracuse winning by 2 or 3 seems to be the way to go. The Big East and ACC bloggers over at ESPN both went with that.