SEC Wrap Up – Week 4

It was a bad week for me as a prognosticator, finishing 5-4. I guess I should have learned my lesson about picking Vanderbilt; they just could not stop Ole Miss when it mattered. Maine over the Mississippi State Bulldogs? Ouch. Huge embarrassment for the SEC, not to mention that State must not have any pride.

Georgia squeaked by. As I said in my roundup, I was not sure if it was going to be close or a blowout. The UGA offense is sputtering. We need Ware back for the October 2 clash with LSU.

I was right on the money with Arkansas, although they did miss my 50+ points on the board prediction. Still, 49-20 of La Monroe must feel nice after getting kicked in the teeth by Texas.

South Carolina easily took down South Florida; I thought it would be closer, but a win is a win.

A last second field goal by Tennessee ruined my prediction of a Gator win.

Kentucky also showed some spunk and thrashed Indiana. I honestly thought Indiana was better, Kentucky was worse, and the Wildcats would embarrass the SEC. I am sure the ‘cat fans are thankful that honor goes to Mississippi State.

As predicted the Tide easily rolled over Western Carolina, 52-0, but at what cost? Alabama lost starting QB Brodie Croyle for the season. That is going to be a huge loss for the Tide.

The Bulldogs have a week off to think about getting their offense in gear. I am now 20-5 on the young season (9-1, 6-0, 5-4). The most interesting match up on the board next week has Alabama traveling to Arkansas, but the game has lost a little luster now that the Tide are going without Croyle.

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SEC Roundup – Week 4

Time is short, so I will get right to the picks.

Vanderbilt over Ole Miss. I still have confidence in Vanderbilt despite the thrashing they took at the hands of South Carolina a couple of weeks back, while the Rebels are still looking for an identity in the post Eli era.

Mississippi State will easily prevail over Maine.

Arkansas will put up 50+ on La Monroe.

South Carolina will beat South Florida, in a game that is closer than most experts are expecting.

I think Auburn will surprise LSU *IF* Auburn can manage some semblance of a passing attack. The Tigers (from Auburn) will use this game to move to the driver’s seat in the SEC West.

Poor Kentucky – they will fall to Indiana. The Wildcats will be the SEC embarrassment week; they are a pitiful bunch of cats in desperate need of a win. The schedule only gets harder, and the losses are about to pile up in a hurry. The best they can hope for are four or five wins – if things fall in their direction.

Alabama will once again Roll, this time Western Carolina will make them feel extra special.

Finally we have Florida at Tennessee. This one is the hardest on the board to call, even harder than the Tiger vs. Tiger match-up. I am going to go with the Gators over the Volunteer’s inexperience at QB.

Georgia will outlast Marshall. To be honest, I am not sure if this one will be closer than expected or a laugher as Marshall starts the season 0-3.

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Jacques Villeneuve Returns to F1

Truth be told, when I started watching F1 in 1995 I fell in love with Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve. Hill won the championship that year followed by Jacques in 1996. It looked like Villeneuve was set for even bigger things, but something went wrong on the way to paradise when he decided to help build BAR.

Oops – big mistake. One that took Villeneuve right out of F1 prior to the last race of the 1993 season. Now Villeneuve is back at the expense of Trulli, testing for Renault, hoping to land a contract for the remainder of the year.

Yesterday, in his first test back in F1, Villeneuve pulled in the slowest time at Silverstone, a full 1.6 seconds off the pace set by McLaren and Raikkonen. Scary, sad. Today Villeneuve managed the 3rd fast time, a mere 0.036 behind Sato’s BAR first place pace. Very nice.

Making matters more interesting, Villeneuve has a chance to knock BAR in the ass if he can help Renault catapult in front of his former team. That would indeed be sweet redemption for Jacques, plus he gets back in racing shape as he prepares to join Sauber next year for a two year contract.

I am not sure if Villeneuve call pull Sauber to the front, but let’s face it, Sauber is the minor league Ferrari team. They have good parts, and a decent setup. Running last year’s spec Ferrari parts is nothing to sneeze at – this could be a great situation for Sauber and Jacques should be able to squeeze nice things out of the car. Say what you will about Jacques, but no one has ever doubted his talent.

“Welcome back to the show Jacques!” F1 just got interesting again, and if you happen to beat BAR a few times in the process, so much the better!

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Northeastern 14 – Navy (#78) 31 (NCAA Chronicles 2005, Season 1, Week 3)

Another week, another infraction to take care of; this time CB #23 was recommended for a 3 game suspension due to academic infractions (bad grades). I said the heck with that – this is Navy, so I only suspended the guy for a quarter.

I did not know what to expect with Northeastern. I figured it would be easy, but that never seems to be the case with my games. I let them stick around a little longer than I should have, and once again my experimentation at the end of the game (once in hand) almost cost me. With that said, there were really no worries with this one.

Week 3
#5 Georgia 20 – South Carolina 12
USC remains #1

It is obvious by now that I can run the ball and control the clock. The risk of running an option attack is playing from behind, having to come from behind. Luckily we outclassed our opponent, so we did not have to worry about coming from behind. I do worry about our ability to come back if and when we are trailing somewhere down the road.

The game was rather mundane, but a scary moment happened when my starting QB (#6) went down with an injury in the 2nd quarter (he later returned after the half). My backup came in cold off the bench – 3:18 to play in the half, 16 yard line, 4th and 10. My back (QB #2) easily took the ball in for a TD on the next play. Looks like I may have a capable backup.

I should have had 3 more points, but my kicker was slightly short on a FG attempt at the end of the half, clanking the ball off the crossbar. And it was a resounding clank. At this point I was up 24-7 so the game was as good as over so I decided to let the backups see some action, and to experiment with some of the lesser used plays in my playbook.

               1st   2nd   3rd   4th   |  Final
Northeastern   0     7     0     7     |  14
Navy           10    14    0     7     |  31

Once again I did well passing, but the passes are really there to help with the run; I mostly roll out looking to run and rarely throwing unless my target is very open. My offensive line is giving up way too many sacks; this will hurt me at some point down the road.

                   Northeastern   Navy
Score              14             31
1st Downs          11             21
Total Offense      241            356
Rush-Yards         15-(66)        47-231
Comp-ATT-TD        9-32-1         8-15
Passing Yards      175            125

Sophomore SS #25 was named Defensive Player of the Week (for Independents) – 2 Tackles, 2 INTS, 1 TD

My starting QB (#6) continues to do a bang up job of leading our option attack. He had a 123.3 QB rating, and while he was only 8-15 passing, there were 2 recorded dropped passes.

We really improved on 3rd downs, and we easily won the turnover battle. We have to get better in the redzone – I have to make sure I do well in the red zone because each drive is important when you run a ball control offense.

Other interesting Navy stats/figures/numbers
7-13 (53%) 3rd down efficiency
6-3-1 (66%) in the redzone (redzone-TD-FG)
TOP 8:08 – 15:52
Turnovers 4 – 1 in Navy’s favor
Next up: Navy travels to #74 Tulsa (1-1)
Combined Opponent Record: 2-5
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Duke (#94) 14 – Navy (#88) 24 (NCAA Chronicles 2005, Season 1, Week 2)

First let me get the preliminary stuff out of the way. I decided to go with Navy because in all my years of NCAA Football I have never played with them so Navy should be a fresh experience. Second, I like the idea of an independent school – I am not tied to a league as I would have been with my traditional NCAA Football favorites – North Texas, Texas, SMU, and Georgia. Navy starts the year (in NCAA 2005) ranked #88 – so there is a challenge. Finally, Navy runs an option offense, and I love me some option offense.

I am playing on All-American, 6 minute quarters, with heavily tuned sliders. I will discuss these in a later post. NCAA 2005 does have a tendency to drop too many passes, but I have found slider settings that compensate well enough to give me an enjoyable gamplay experience.

One thing I am doing different this year is not listing player names for default players. I will go with number for current roster players, and names for new players. I can go into reasons in a later post.

Week 1 was a bye week for Navy. I’ll post recaps every of other games each week to keep the flavor interesting.

Week 1
USC 62 – Virginia Tech 28
USC had 511 Total Yards in a total Hokie
Week 2
Georgia 42 – Georgia Southern 7
LSU 35 – Oregon State 32

Prior to getting started with my first game I had to take care of some NCAA rules violations. FS #33 (I cannot list these guys names since they are serving our country) was recommended for a 3 game suspension due to Fraud/Team Rules Infractions. At the time I did not realize that he was one of my key players (74 overall rating). I took the recommendation and told the kid to sit for three games.

       1st   2nd   3rd   4th   |  Final
Duke   0     7     0     7     |  14
Navy   10    7     7     0     |  24

Out of the game I dominated with a strong option attack, getting my primary backs (QB, HB, FB, WB) involved quickly. Duke struggled time and again with the option, and play-action passes were easily setup and completed as Duke cheated against the run. The option is a beautiful thing when implemented correctly – truly the option is the great equalizer in college football.

                   Duke           Navy
Score              14             24
1st Downs          10             15
Total Offense      160            263
Rush-Yards         12-(-5)        38-186
Comp-ATT-TD        11-36-2        8-17
Passing Yards      165            77

Obviously the passing completions to attempts for Duke were not too hot. I’ll have to give it a few more games to see if more adjustments can be (or should be) made. I have figured out how to pass, but the CPU just does not put up a good ratio.

I was actually doing very well with my passing attack (7-11) before I started experimenting towards the end of the game. I was up 24-7 and decided to get creative; I’ll have to be more cautious next time as my excitement got the better of me and resulted in an INT and two wasted series.

There was nothing really exciting to report in the game – I kept the ball on the ground and pounded the heck out of Duke’s defense. I completed just enough passes to keep Duke off balance, but I have to get better with third down conversions. My offensive line can run, but pass blocking was lackluster, as my guys up front gave up 3 sacks.

Other interesting Navy stats/figures/numbers
1-10 (10%) 3rd down efficiency
3-4 (75%) 4th down efficiency
4-3-1 (100%) in the redzone (redzone-TD-FG)
TOP 7:43 – 16:17
Turnovers 1 – 1
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Ivan Is Coming …

I have lived in Columbus, GA most of my life and last week was the first time that I can ever remember school being canceled due to a hurricane. Granted, most of the schools were without power, but Frances was not too nasty in my area – thunderstorms, rain, downed trees, and power outages. Typical storm type stuff. We lost power for a few hours and lost a 100 year old oak that was uprooted. Other than that – it looked like the kids got a “rain” day.

Enter Ivan. It is coming, and it is coming hard. Thankfully it looks like it will track west of my area. That did not sound right, but I think everyone knows what I mean – my area will miss the major stuff at the expense of other parts such as western Alabama.

Local area schools are going to be closed Thursday and Friday, but it looks like this one will be more than a couple of “rain” days. Tornados and flooding are expecting. The family will bunker down while I will bravely (or stupidly) make my way into the riverfront office. Winds are gusting to 16 mph right now, but expected to be sustained at 25-45 mph before it is over. Not sure how the weather folks predict this stuff, but it sounds nasty.

I have family in Mobile, AL – thankfully they headed east yesterday towards Tallahassee, FL. Got the hell out of dodge. Sounds like the right choice because Gulf Shores was hit with a 10 foot surge. Hard to imagine the beach being completely under water, but harder still to image the first floors of the beach front condos being under water, but that is what has been reported in the Gulf Shores area. Scary stuff.

Columbus has not seen the likes of Ivan since 1995 when Opal trashed the area. I was in Atlanta at the time, which als saw some extensive damage. I do not remember Opal too much – I guess I had a life back then.

Ivan is coming – wish of luck and say a prayer or two for those in the path of the nasty stuff!

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SEC Wrap Up – Week 3

Last week was fairly predictable. As expected Auburn blasted Mississippi State, Florida took care of Eastern Michigan, albeit by much less than expected. LSU blasted Arkansas State, Alabama easily took out Eli-less Mississippi, and Arkansas lost in a nasty battle to Texas.

Georgia took care of business at South Carolina despite spotting the cocks 16 points. I told anyone that would listen that the Gamecocks always play the Dawgs tough at home, and this year was no exception. Georgia won by 4 – I predicted a 6 point margin of victory – either way UGA won so I am happy.

The final totals put me at 6-0 on the week, and 15-1 on the season. Not sure what that is worth … nothing I guess since I am not going off of point spreads, but I am still impressed with myself. LOL

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SEC Roundup – Week 3

Saturday, September 11, 2004 – A new weekend of SEC football is upon us, and life will be good as long as the Dawgs eat some fried chicken. I have been scared to death all week about visiting a stadium full of fighting gamecocks – South Carolina always plays Georgia close, and this year will be no different. The key to the game will be Georgia’s ability to stop the run – if they can limit Holtz and company on the ground, then Georgia will win going away. I do not expect an easy game – Georgia by six in a low scoring affair.

If the Tigers prove to be paper thin against Croom and company, then there will be a major backlash against the River Boat Gambler on the Plains. No way, no how – Auburn should win by 21 (or more) in a major blowout. Welcome to football SEC-style Sylvester; it will be tough, but he will turn around those other Bulldogs.

Speaking of Tommy, Auburn faithful should just run Tuberville out of town and be down with it. It is hard to believe that he is only 39-24 after five full seasons on the Plains. Auburn gets enough talent year in and year out to be a Top 10 program. If they ever get a QB and figure out that their ground attack is capable of controlling any team in the country, then look out. Not going to happen anytime soon, but they will still whip Mississippi State today.

LSU in a laugher over Arkansas State. LSU should have dropped out of the Top 10 after their performance against Oregon State, but the polls being what they are, the Cajuns are still raging in the Top 5.

Florida by too many to count in the biggest rout of the weekend, as they demoralize Eastern Michigan. Anything less and Gator fans will be calling for Zook’s head.

The Tide will roll, roll, roll for consecutive weeks as Ole Miss continues to face the reality of life without Eli.

The meanest, nastiest game of the week will see Texas exacting a measure of revenge against Nutt’s hogs in Fayetteville. Last year the Razorbacks hogtied the Horns, but Texas will not be embarrassed two years in a row.

Last weekend I was 9-1, which was a heck of a start. Unfortunately my only miss was South Carolina. Hopefully I am not on the wrong end of a chicken fight two weeks in a row!

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24-14 (or Why I Love College Football)

Last night 17th ranked Missouri and Heisman Trophy candidate Brad Smith encountered more then they could handled from Troy State University – yes, it does appear that the Sun Belt does have what it takes to compete with the big boys.

The ESPN crew said it best, the scholarship limitations have started to equalize the “haves” and “have nots.” It doubtful that Sun Belt teams such as Troy State and North Texas will ever fully compete with the BCS elite from Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Florida State, Miami, Georgia, and so on, but when Troy State knocks off what is considered a decent Big 12 school? What does that say about the Big 12 as a whole? What does that say about the “have nots?”

This is the reason I love college football. The match-ups, while not always compelling to non-college football fans, are full of energy, hope, and great entertainment. Who would have thought that Troy State would knock off Marshall and Missouri in back-to-back weeks? Who would have thought that Troy State would overcome a 14 point deficit with 24 unanswered points?

This is why they play the games. Upsets are why the college football regular season holds so much significance – every week is a playoff or has playoff implications. This is why I love college football.

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NCAA 2005 Schedule Bug?

Now that college football has officially kicked-off, consummated by UGA’s 48-28 victory over Georgia Southern, I have decided to once again “chronicle” a NCAA Dynasty. Despite much clamoring on vagrant message boards about the brokenness of this years NCAA football title, I am finding much success, and once again enjoying the college football experience.

First article should be up shortly. I will keep everyone in suspense for a little while longer. I will say that I did not use UGA because it is too easy for me to win with them (on All-American), and I did not pick North Texas (kind of old hat now, plus playing with/as QB Andrew Smith, who died August 7 in a traffic incident, would be disconcerting), and I did not go with SMU again, because, well, there is not much love there. Anyway, more to come.

I noticed that USC played BYU in week #2 (September 4), which is incorrect in real life because BYU just beat Notre Dame. Must be a strange scheduling fluke. Anyone else see this strange scheduling mistake (playing with PS2 version)? I restarted several times just to see if it really was a fluke, but it looks like the scheduled are always set to not have Notre Dame travel to BYU in week #2 of Dynasty Season 1.

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SEC Wrap Up – Week 2

Win, some lose some. I called the Dawgs in a 20-point victory (33-13), but the actual score was 48-28. Better offense than I expected, but the defense was shaky against the option. So the 20-point margin of victory was spot on, but the results were slightly unexpected. Danny Ware made a believer out of me (135 yards on 18 rushing attempts, good for 3 TDs), and hopefully will continue to improve, providing a much needed balance to David Greene’s passing attack.

Speaking of shaky predictions, and trouble against the run, I guess I was pretty dumb to call Vandy over South Carolina because the roosters pulled off an easy 31-6 victory. Georgia better figure out how to stop the run this week, or next weekend’s game at South Carolina is going to be not so fun.

I correctly called out Memphis over Ole Miss (20-13) in a big SEC ouch. Hopefully Kentucky will prove me wrong today, but I am also expecting them to fall. I still expect Tennessee to easily handle UNLV despite the Vols QB questions.

As expected, Alabama started off slow against Utah State (17-10 halftime lead), but managed to roll away in the second half to a 48-17 victory. I was way off base about LSU over Oregon State, who I incorrectly labeled the Ducks instead of Beavers. At any rate, LSU won in overtime, but only because the Beavers missed three extra points. How freaking hard can it be to find someone to hit an extra point? Before it is all said and done, an impressive performance by the Beavers will be all but forgotten by the pollsters.

Mississippi State won big over Tulane (28-7), Arkansas easily took care of New Mexico State (63-13), and Auburn blanked Louisiana-Monroe 31-0, which has to be a moral victory for the Indians after last year’s 73-3 debacle.

So far I am off to a 7-1 start. Not too shabby.

[Late edit Sep. 11 – I was going to make this a part I and part II article since TN and KY were scheduled for Sunday. Oh well, ran out of time for a second article, but I did correctly pick both games so that makes me a dandy 9-1 on the year.]

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Now Drinking …

I figured I may as well go as far off topic from sports and whatnot as possible, and what better way than to talk about one of my favorite subjects – beer (and every now and again, wine)! I am going to start a semi-regular feature on what yummy adult beverage is being consumed by yours truly. Basically, whatever is in the fridge is going to be featured here. I would love to read your suggestions.

Newcastle – the brown ale. This one is a staple in the Calvert icebox. It goes down cold and easy, has a nice robust flavor, and tastes great with a variety of snack foods. Only problem is that it is really much more of a winter brew (i.e. a little heavy).

Mike’s Hard Lime (MHL) – this is a new one for me; the perfect summer brew. Kind of like drinking a margarita without the kick, and it provides a soft landing. MHL is perfect for cooling down, especially with some hot salsa. Problem is that you will throw down two or three before you realize it. In other words, MHL is very addicting; my wife loves it, which is certainly another reason to keep it on hand. Wife + MHL = fun for me. I am going to get my ass kicked if she reads this. Oh well, hope it works out well for you too!

Coors Light – I picked up a 12 pack today since it was only $8.49, and I wanted something watery for the long holiday weekend. It has been a while (say two or three years) since I picked up a Coors so I was not sure what to expect. Twins? Naw, too cheap, and not worth the beating I would take from the before mentioned wife. I managed to down a couple of silver bullets; they were certainly icy cold, and I guess had a decent flavor for a cheap, light beer. Worth the money, but nothing to write home about.

Blackstone Napa Valley Merlot (2002) – wow! What an exceptional wine. I am not a wine connoisseur so I really have no idea how to describe the quality of the wine. For me wine is either cheap and taste like crap (Fox Hound), pretty good day-to-day variety and not too hard on the wallet (i.e. Woodbridge or Beringer), or delicious and expensive (i.e. this Blackstone stuff). Since we landed a babysitter, I took my lady out for a nice meal tonight, and in the process we discovered this wonderful wine. My wife does not normally like Merlots, but she could not keep her hands off my glass. It was so good we picked up a bottle on the way home. Kind of pricey ($16.99 750ml) for my normal day-to-day tastes, but this one goes on the list of scrumptious favorites. Highly recommended.

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SEC Roundup – Week 2

Saturday, September 04, 2004 – Ah, I love this time of year. Since I have to get the “honey-do” list out of the way, I will jump right in and get the 2004 season started.

Kick off starts in a little less than five and a half hours when the Dawgs take on Georgia Southern. I expect the Dawgs led by David Greene and true freshman running back Danny Ware to roll to an easy 33 to 13 victory.

In other predictions, the fighting Cocks from South Carolina will get plucked by Vanderbilt in a close tussle. Yes, I am the dumb SOB that is predicting that the Commodores will eek out enough wins to become bowl eligible. There I said it; I feel better now.

Other upsets will play out as Ole Miss falters without Eli Manning, going down to Memphis. In another SEC embarrassment, Louisville will once again whip the Wild Cats of Kentucky.

Alabama will start off slow, but will manage to Roll Tide, Roll, away from the Aggies. Speaking of which, Utah State’s counterparts at Utah sure did spank those Aggies from Texas A&M Thursday night. As a closet Texas fan, that was fun to watch.

In other SEC clashes … really mismatches is the more appropriate description … Tennessee will easily beat UNLV, LSU will barbeque the Ducks from Oregon State [edit – another oops – if only the Beavers could kick a f’ing extra point; unf’ing believable], and the Hogs in Fayetteville will think they are something after mauling New Mexico State. Finally, Auburn will once again beat the living snot out of Louisiana-Monroe; Auburn thrashed the Indians 73-3 last year.

[Oops – forgot about those other Bulldogs at Mississippi State. They should win big over Tulane. If not, it will be a hell of a long year in Starkville.]

College football SEC style. Gotta love it!

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Indy Racing League Gets Interesting

I have always been a casual fan of the IRL – I do not follow the series very closely, but I do appreciate the exciting racing action, and of course the Indy 500. I have always thoughts that the IRL suffered for two reasons. First, the marketing arm of the IRL does not strongly promote their drivers in the way that NASCAR promotes their top guys. In my opinion, people love NASCAR because of the driver personalities – many are larger than life. Second, the IRL suffers because it is perceived by many casual fans as just another form of oval racing. Oval racing = NASCAR in much the same way that video games = PlayStation.

The reality is much different. As a racing fan I know the IRL’s top teams, top drivers, and understand how difficult it is to setup an open wheel racer to fly around an oval. It is not just driving around in circles. NASCAR is so ingrained in the casual racing community that the IRL is little more than an afterthought. Hopefully that will change. I have written about this before, but many NASCAR fans fail to realize that series has top drivers that started in the IRL.

F1 is by far my favorite form of motor racing. I love F1 because I like road courses, I love the pageantry, and I love the technology. Nothing else comes in as a close second. I follow all sorts of racing circuits – Le Mans, GT, Rally, you name it, but F1 is near and dear to me.

Of course I follow NASCAR – it is kind of hard to live in the South and not follow NASCAR, but it does not engage me in the same way that F1 manages to suck away my Sunday mornings. Except for the Indy 500, I only watch IRL races when there is nothing else on TV that I would rather watch. That is pretty much the same for all other racing except for a few Le Mans races that I always watch if I have the time. Sad and pathetic, but true.

The Indy Racing League just got more interesting. In early August the IRL announced that Infineon Raceway (California) and Watkins Glen (New York) were being added to the calendar in addition to 14 or so oval courses. Yesterday the IRL announced that addition of St. Petersburg, a street circuit race, to the 2005 schedule.

This is great news. The IRL now has ovals, two road courses, and a street circuit. Smells like roses to me. I hope that other racing fans take notice.

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