Blogpoll Roundtable Week 2

This week's BlogPoll roundtable is being hosted by collegegameballs.com.

Since that site is written by a Hokie grad and this is Hokie week, figured I'd better jump in this time around.

1. Which freshman impressed you more last weekend: the California dream Matt Barkley who quarterbacked USC over tOSU or white lightening Tate Forcier who slashed through Notre Dame? Which one would you like to have on your team? Feel free to write in another worthy candidate.

On the surface, Forcier probably looked better but he was at home with nothing really to lose against a fair to middlin' Notre Dame defense. Barkley, on the other hand, looked like a freshman QB in his first road start. I wasn't buying the ready made, "superfrosh leads his team on a winning touchdown drive" hyperbole Mussberger was spitting out, but Barkely did hang in there, spending most of the second half with his back against his own goal line, plugging away with a game plan so simplified that it made vanilla ice cream look like rainbow sherbet by comparison. It wasn't a jaw-dropping performance, just a gut check sort of game but I'd always rather see that out of my freshman quarterback than a whole handful of highlights.

2. Let’s play a game of pretend the unthinkable happened. Commissioner Beebe of your conference has been forced to resign after he was caught canoodling with some harlots. Great news, you’ve been chosen to succeed him. To make your mark you decide to make a big change. What is it going to be?

Is there any doubt said canoodling occurred in Jerry Jones box at the space palace? This one's easy for me and not remotely realistic. Colorado keeps eying the Pac-10 whenever that conference talks about expansion, so why not let them go? I've always wished TCU was a part of the Big 12--the Frogs got snubbed when the SWC was disbanding--because I like their style of football and they have a pretty rich tradition. Adding the Frogs allows OU to move to the North and with Colorado gone, Nebraska and Oklahoma can resume their yearly post-Thanksgiving shenanigans. Three birds, one stone.

3. This week the quality of games is kicked up a gear. Other than your own, which game are you most looking forward to?

Nebraska might be playing in the best game of the week, but they're exempt so I'm tempted by Georgia Tech-Miami. It's a great Thursday night game, but the fact that it's on Thursday sort of lessens the impact for me. I'm watching the Thursday game regardless, so I'm going to go with Texas Tech-Texas. That's your primetime game and it's our first look at Big 12 conference play. With the Red Raiders only a few weeks away, I'll be interested to see how they perform in Taylor Potts first road start.

4. What mascot and/or tradition would you thieve from another school if it was socially acceptable.

Love this question so much I'll answer it three times.

Mascot? Give me the Fightin' Christian from Elon. They're now the much more pedestrian Phoenix.

Tradition? Harvard and Yale have their prank wars and it's pretty tough to top this (be sure to watch the video, but not at work).

And a bonus answer regarding fight songs. Could there possibly be a better one to have than "Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech."

Makes we want to go back for a degree from there.