The preseason Blogpoll came out yesterday, and surprise surprise the Demon Deacons ended up exactly where they did in those other two polls that clearly don't matter as much as this one. Complete poll data is available here, Brian does some pretty interesting analysis with it.

Rank	Team	PPB	StdDev	Delta
1	Georgia (24)	23.3	1.6	25
2	Ohio State (17)	22.9	2.0	24
3	Southern Cal (15)	22.9	3.0	23
4	Oklahoma (6)	22.0	1.8	22
5	Florida (14)	21.9	2.0	21
6	Missouri	19.0	3.2	20
7	LSU (2)	17.8	3.0	19
8	Clemson	16.8	3.5	18
9	West Virginia	16.1	4.5	17
10	Auburn	14.8	4.4	16
11	Texas	14.8	3.3	15
12	Texas Tech	12.5	4.3	14
13	Wisconsin	11.9	4.2	13
14	Virginia Tech	9.4	4.5	12
15	Kansas	9.0	4.9	11
16	Arizona State	8.6	3.9	10
17	Tennessee	8.2	4.0	9
18	Oregon	8.1	5.0	8
19	South Florida	8.0	5.1	7
20	Brigham Young	7.4	4.4	6
21	Penn State	6.9	4.9	5
22	Illinois	5.1	4.1	4
23	Wake Forest	4.1	3.7	3
24	Alabama	1.6	3.0	2
25	Utah	1.4	2.1	1

Also Receiving Votes: California(1.3), Fresno State(1.0), South Carolina(0.9), Florida State(0.9), Pittsburgh(0.8), Michigan(0.8), Boston College(0.5), Rutgers(0.5), Boise State(0.4), Cincinnati(0.4), North Carolina(0.4), Oregon State(0.4), Miami (Florida)(0.4), Michigan State(0.3), Colorado(0.3), Oklahoma State(0.2), Nebraska(0.2), Notre Dame(0.2), Mississippi(0.2), Tulsa(0.1), Central Michigan(0.1), UCLA(0.1), Hawaii(0.1), TCU(0.1), Mississippi State(0.0), Connecticut(0.0), Duke(0.0), Purdue(0.0), Southern Miss(0.0), Northwestern(0.0), Georgia Tech(0.0), Iowa(0.0),

Total Ballots: 78

Votes by blog here, votes by team here.

My ballot did come in fourth for the Coulter/Krugman award which goes to the voter who's ranking of his own team is farthest above the poll average. I'm okay with that, ultimately becuase I don't think my ranking of Wake is really all that unreasonable. I suppose you could say that makes me numb to the reailties of how things are, or maybe just stubborn, but at this point in a preseason poll I think you're allowed to have your own crazy opinions. Hopefully what happens on the field will only confirm what I already think I know.

On to other things...

I'm hoping to get out to practice myself this afternoon, although I'm not 100% sure if that will actually happen or not. Sorry for not having anything yesterday, I was driving all day. Dan Collins reported that Riley Skinner and Jordan Williams both practiced yesterday, which is great news.

I've got a busy day ahead, but look for something on practice later tonight.

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These days, with everyone concerned about hydration, heat, and humidity, two-a-days have almost completely disappeared from college and professional football. Thankfully they haven't been completely abandoned quite yet, and today the Demon Deacons endured their first of five scheduled two-a-days this fall.

It was apparent to those in attendance this afternoon that the double practice was certainly tiring. At times there was a want of effort and concentration from some players, annoying coaches and fellow players alike. Still, it's hard to blame them when they're nearing the end of four hours of practice for the day.

Wide receivers in general seemed to lack concentration, with more dropped balls than usual. Nonetheless there were some highlights, including a long touchdown pass from Brett Hodges to Jordan Williams, who was back in action today, as well as a great touchdown grab by Andrew Parker in double coverage.

On the whole it was another good day for the defense, with Aaron Curry looking particularly impressive.

One of the main focuses of the day was conditioning, which makes sense for a two-a-day. Everyone ran sprints at the end of practice and did other work in position groups, including lots of sled pushing for the linemen. There's no doubt that these guys will be in shape by the time the preseason ends.

That minor injury bug I talked about this morning continued to make the rounds. On his touchdown catch Andrew Parker came down awkwardly, but I'm not sure exactly what he hurt. Chris Givens also appeared to tweak something on a catch as well. Both sat out the rest of practice but did return to do some pushup-type work while the rest of the team ran sprints at the end of practice.

In other injury updates, Cameron Ford is out of the boot he had been wearing, and Chip Brinkman was doing some jogging today. Still going to be awhile for both of them, but it appears they are making progress.

Only one practice tomorrow at 4:00 leading to another two-a-day on Wednesday.

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It was practice as usual again on Wednesday night, with the Demon Deacons taking the field in full pads once again. As reported by the official site, the most notable thing to happen was probably the institution of the new 40 second play clock.

Other than that, there isn't a whole lot to report from the practice. Plans for Saturday's scrimmage have been finalized; the Deacons will scrimmage at 7:30 on BB&T Field.

Yesterday I had a couple of reader requests for reports on specific players. I can't always promise to be able to provide substantial information, but I'll do my best. The two requests yesterday were for Marshall Williams and Rich Belton.

Williams has looked pretty good catching the ball, making some nice grabs. He is definitely in position to have opportunities this season, but hasn't made a strong impression one way or the other. If that changes, I'll be sure to let you know.

It's more difficult to get a read on Belton. The team hasn't been working much (if at all) on handoffs to fullbacks, so we haven't been able to see him run the ball yet. Most of what he and the other fullbacks have been working on is running routes, which he seems to do fairly well, but he's dropped some passes and may need to work on his hands. There aren't any indications that he's being significantly hampered by the previous injury, so ultimately it's just going to come down to how he performs compared to the other fullbacks.

One new injury note today, Jordan Williams did not practice due to a groin injury and will probably be out for about a week.

Let me know if you have any other questions and I'll do my best to provide answers. I'm on the west coast this week so time zones are making things a bit weird, but I'll do my best to continue staying on top of things.

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