Welp, Michael Corleone completely Luca Brasi'd us against Florida State. We wish Fredo would have just finished the job.

Now we have an awkward out of conference game in late January. Who the hell is North Carolina Central? No one knows. Their mascot is most likely some form of cat, possibly wild.

So there's not much to go on here, so consider tonight's hero the Alaska Nanook mascot. Witness his awesomeness below...

Video via Deadspin.

The world doesn't exist any more, btw.

LET'S GO HOKIES!!

This morning, Taco Bell founder Glen Bell, Jr. passed away at age 86.

There are no words to describe how important Taco Bell is to my every day life. The North End Zone would like to thank Mr. Bell for his wonderful contribution to society.

Currently, Georgia Tech is rolling UNC 29-11. Wins in the ACC will not come easy. Thus making today's game against Florida State all the more important. A big win on the road would go a long way towards getting the respect Hokie basketball deserves... nay, DEMANDS.

The game is on Raycom, so if you have bunny ears on your tv you might be able to catch it. It will be fun asking the bartender to piss off all the Ravens fans at the bar and put on the Tech basketball game.

But I digress. Let's get this win and put another one of those "iffy" games in our back pocket.

And where do we go when things get iffy? To someone that knows how to take care of things...

Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

LET'S GO HOKIES!!!

As our thousands of loyal readers know, each March brings out a very special event here at the NEZ: The Annual March Madness Madness.

The past two years have seen us crown the greatest cartoon character of all time (Homer) and the greatest TV theme song of all time (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Both were the result of a crazy 64 team tournament, with all the upsets you can imagine (David the Gnome over Inspector Gadget?!?!).

After racking our brains over what to go with this year, we've decided on this year's contest...

Welp, we play Miami tonight. Not much we can say about it now, or afterwards, since it's not on TV. Yay for XM Radio!!

So let's get back on that horse. A win tonight is actually pretty important. So let's go with some trusted heroes...

LET'S GO HOKIES!!!

Our friends over at Gobbler Country asked us to participate in their End of Season Hokie Roundtable. And seeing how The Northerner and your humble editor pretty much know everything about Hokie football, we decided to take them up on their offer.

All questions after the jump...

Sorry for being absent from this blog for so long, but honestly, there is not much to write about these days.  Except for this breaking news story last night:  The loss to Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl has scared Lane Kiffin into taking the job at USC.  Big news machines like ESPN for FOX Sports might tell you it's for different reasons, but come on, we know better.  He goes into Knoxville 14 months ago tooting his horn and talking the talk, but when he ends his season with the ass-whooping Tech gave him, he got frightened.  If he stays at Tennessee, he might have to face us again sometime.  The chances are tipped in his favor if he makes the trek over to USC.  Sure we might meet in the BCS title game (HA!) but the chances of us meeting in any other bowl game are slim to none, and slim just left town.

So now this leaves UT without a coach.  Who to pick, who to pick?  How about the Offensive Coordinator named to the 2009 All-Bowl team.  The same OC who kicked the crap out of the Vols in Atlanta?  I hear he's on the market and looking for action.  Just a thought.

Anyways, in other news, the men's bball team blew a lead against UNC and eventually lost the game, prompting score-contributor and sometimes commenter GWay to mass-text: "What. The. Fuck."  What the fuck indeed, sir.  It's tough to get mad at them when this loss was only the second of our season.

So there you go.  Crazy shit going down in the NCAA.  The way we like it.

We don't spend much time over at Rivals.com. That would count as "conducting research", which goes completely against The North End Zone's mission statement.

However, we were notified that they have announced their 2009 All-Bowl Team. The "team" includes coaches...

We hope you're sitting down...

On FSN: 7:45pm.

Tonight the Hokies travel to Chapel Hill for the first ACC game of the season. The Hokies might be without Malcolm Delaney tonight, against UNC, so the boys are really in need of a Hokie Hero. They need motivator, a man willing to take a stand, a man amongst boys.

And since Garrett Gilbert has set back the back-up quarterback position in ways that Koy Detmer could only dream of, this week, we turn to one man to pick up the pieces. That is West Canaan High School quarterback John Moxon, who made it cool to be second string.

If Mox were to address the team before the game this evening I believe it would go a little like this.  

Let's go out there,  
play the next 40 minutes for the next
40 minutes, and leave it on the floor.  
You have the opportunity to play
like gods for the next game of basketball.  
But you can't be afraid to lose.
There's no room for fear in this game.  
If you go out there and half-ass it
because you were scared,  
all you are left with is an excuse.
You’ll always gonna wonder.  
But if you go out there
and give it absolutely everything...  
That's heroic.  
Let's be heroes.  
Come on.

GO HOKIES

So we continue with our pattern of finishing in the final ranking top 10 every other year.  Could have seen this coming.  Just another day in Hokieland.

One note on the game last night:  I don't really know how to figure out that game.  I honestly think Alabama was in control the whole time, save for the first part of the first quarter.  I mean yay, Gilbert got his confidence up and led the Longhorns to within 3.  But that entire time, all I could say is, "'Bama has slowed their pace down A LOT."  Then when the Longhorns came close to tying, Alabama turned it back up to 11 and put the game out of reach.  It's like they were teasing Texas like you would a puppy.  "Come get the ball.  Come on.  Come get the ball.  Now go chase after it."  Kinda feel bad for Texas but then you realize it's Texas.

And on that note, can we stop the feeling bad for Gilbert for having his baptism by fire?  Seriously.  This kid is the TEXAS second-string quarterback.  He won the Texas State Championship twice in high school.  He probably got money and women thrown at him during the recruiting process.  He's probably one of the cockiest sonsabitches you ever met.  Let's back off the "Aww he can't read the defense and keeps overthrowing his receivers.  Aww he's too nervous because he's getting his first real playing time in the National Championship."  SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LISTEN TO YOURSELF.  He gets to play in the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP IN HIS FIRST REAL GAME.  This kid will probably be using the line "I almost beat Alabama in the National Championship game in my first game" to get bitches for the next 10 years, or until he wins his own Championship.  Don't feel bad for this guy. You should be ashamed of yourself.  Ryan Williams would slap his mama to get that chance, and then he wouldn't shit himself at crunch time.  He would put the entire team squarely on his shoulders and say, "Fuck this.  I want myself some crystal football."  Boom.  Done.  Don't run that Gilbert shit my way.

And scene.

Gobble gobble, bitches.