Has anyone else noticed that Dinich is slowly getting phased out? Or so it seems. In the offseason, Andrea Adelson was added to the ACC blogging staff, a transplant from the LOLBig East blog. Now, these guys David Hale and Matt Fortuna have been writing blogs and lots of meaningless bowl projections, helmet stickers, etc. I try not to get on the site too much, but I've noticed just in the few times I've been on in the past few weeks. I honestly don't know what we'll have to talk about if Mama Giraffe is given the boot elsewhere.
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Going into hiding after Bud's voicemail? Very possible.
She's still active on the @ESPN_ACC Twitter account though, especially on game days.
You could also say that the ACC took the best the Big East had to offer (which then dissolved) thus justifying the addition of AA as a blogger.
She's now hedging, after saying that UNC could make a bowl game last week (despite UNC falling flat against ECU):
"William (Salem, VA)
Although not looking past GT this weekend does the Thursday night game between Miami and UNC seem less like a top flight ACC game after UNC's loss to ECU?
Heather Dinich (1:29 PM)
You know, it's funny, AA and I both agree that we would not be surprised IN THE LEAST (sic) if Miami lost at UNC. Yeah, on the surface that game has definitely lost its luster (so has the Miami-GT game after the Jackets' loss), but again, that doesn't mean Miami won't lose."
then this shortly after....
"Jose' (Tally)
HD, are you with the rest of the ACC in that Miami just looks like imposters? I mean they haven't played anyone and really UF is garbage this year.. I think they finish last in the coastal...
Heather Dinich (1:32 PM)
No. To me the Canes are still the team to beat. They were my preseason pick to the win the division and I'm sticking with that pick until proven otherwise. I think most of us can agree, though, that they've got something to prove. My thing is consistency. Ok, so you beat Florida. Don't lose to GT then."
And yet she refuses to go with the most consistent team in the ACC since 2004. Even before last season.
Here with go again with the HD posts...To be honest I think its just because the ACC is getting bigger and I think they did that to giver her more help.
Well, she still finds a way to not watch the games and call elite defensive coordinators to complain about a win.
Who gives a crap what she thinks and we don't know if they have that kind of relationship to joke like that. And I'm sure Bud doesn't need the fans to defend him he's a grown man.
How HD sees her relationship with Bud...
1) I'm quite willing to bet she and Foster have absolutely no kind of relationship like that whatsoever. 2) Foster rarely smiles, let alone jokes, about his defense. And 3) I don't need to defend him, but it's still fun to mock one of the worst sports reporters in the country.
Question: How do you "defend" Bud Foster?
Answer: You don't... Bud Foster defends YOU!
...thank you and g'night.
She is the one ESPN selected to "report" on ACC football, and yet she double talks and can't get facts straight. All to often she imparts personal "bias" (or ignorance of the facts) into what she states. Read through her posts and you'll see that it really isn't reporting or analyzing of football that she does. Coming from ESPN, that's disappointing.
She isn't the only one. She is just one of many. And even if it wasn't from her you guys would still find a way to go after ESPN for not showing us or saying that they overlook us. Please tell me why should a 6 win team be on ESPN last year or starting off this year? Why? We need to still prove ourselves; we have a great defense this year, but we're are still a team. We win as a team we lose as a team not the defense won and the offense lost. I really don't care about her facts if they're so annoying to you guys why do you keep reading it?
Dude, it's ok. She is what ESPN throws out there.............
If you don't like it, don't read it. If you don't like threads about what you don't like, don't read them.
I read tons of sites, and take everything with a grain of salt. For what its worth, this isn't the only year she has "overlooked" us. I understand we are not a 12-0 team. I really do. I'm happy if we get to 8-4 this year from looking at things at the beginning of the season, and where we stand with(out) in the running game category. What she posts is not high end, nor should ESPN accept it as up to their standards. Sorry if a Hokie fan site has a few things to say about it....
This has nothing to do with VT anymore this about ESPN and Heather Dinich this shouldn't even be put up on a forum here period. If this is your fetish of going after a woman online because she disagrees with our program than something is wrong with you or anyone else. That's my opinion and I DAMN ain't changing it. So it is what it is.
Are you related to her somehow? Seems with all of the threads and posts on this site, you find a way to go out of your way to defend her.......................
No can't stand ignorance or someone going after a woman online verbally abusing or slandering this woman, because of something she wrote about us. She has a right to her opinions just as we do. We're not forced to READ her stuff.
The comments have NOTHING to do with the fact that she is a women. Incompetence is incompetence.
And, we don't get paid to post on here. She gets paid to write what she writes. And there are more than just Hokie fans on the ESPN site. When you get paid, it starts changing from opinion to "reporting." You can get fired for opinion, but will and should get fired quicker for bad/mis-reporting.
(For the record, I don't have an issue with just what she writes about VT. It's the entire conference that is being done a disservice with what is being posted by her on a supposedly reputable sports news site. AND, I have never slandered her or verbally abused her. I have posted what she has posted, and questioned some of the things. Isn't that what a forum is for?)
You are right that she does the ACC a disservice, but this forum topic is living and public evidence that her stuff gets read a heckuva lot more than it should. I know I am but one measly person, however I have stopped reading anything college related from ESPN since I find most of it to be crap. But guess what? HD, nor AA care what we think except that we are still reading their garbage and therefore, they are still getting paid. If no one read HD or AA, that blog would be nonexistent. Money trumps competence any day of the week.
Truth be told, there is a LOT of this out there. Sometimes I think it borders on bullying.
What is ESPN????
The worldwide gods of sports, or so they would have us believe.
Matt Fortuna wrote a bunch of stuff last year also. HD had a baby not too long ago, and AA came over and helped out a lot after that. They both write really well, regardless if you like what they say. I'm not sure anyone was higher on Logan Thomas after his soph season than HD was, so I think she's a bit vengeful after last years debacle.
Well I'm going to have to throw in my two cents here:
Much like the Logan/Leal conversation, I'm tapping out of this.
That's it. Later, y'all, much love.
But people are WRONG on the INTERNET
I think this belongs on the pitt game at noon thread as well. My head is starting to hurt from the nonsense on there.
I agree.
This was precisely what I was thinking of.
Awesome! If I could give out turkey legs I would give you one.
I've been on espn sites chatting with the likes of the silly users that called themselves the ACCylum and the bacon league or whatever they call it. This is up their alley I tend to look for debates or educated arguments regarding VT football not a espn blogger or what she thinks of our program. I'm on a site with a bunch of grown men that acts likes kids with memes... Yea your right h.o.a.t. I bow out of this topic isn't worth trying to get anyone to see the obvious with this on why aren't we ignoring this woman's articles she posts.
The majority rules and its just me so apparently I'm just the one that sees this in a different way...So it is what it is.
Go Hokies!
In life, it's often best to pick your battles. If you think shi**ing up two threads by yelling at everyone to stop making fun an awful blogger whose "analysis" basically boils down to broad, uninformed statements is a good idea... then you're not picking your battles well. It's pretty much unanimous that HD is a terrible blogger and it's likely that she doesn't even watch more than a single ACC game per weekend. Her blog either comes off in a way that she doesn't care about providing quality content to her readers, or in a way that she is just incompetent at doing her job. Either way, as a professional who is paid to blog, it is inexcusable. Stop defending her please.
I just ignore her. No page hits, few comments about her.
I don't think he is really yelling more than saying what I even agree with: If she is so awful why are we honoring her by reading her blog so much? If HD and ESPN exec's looked at TKP, they would know she is doing a great job...good or bad people are reading and talking about her stuff on a daily basis.
The way I see it, if you don't like a product, you stop consuming it and you move on to the next best thing.
Ok, we've seemed to cover the fact that HD is not going to win an award for sports reporting....and if you don't like the product, the logical move to make is to not consume said product. This begs the question....
Where do you go for objective, fair reporting on college football? Where do you find thoughtful writing, in-depth analysis, and breaking news?
TKP.
Actually, I pose this as a serious question.
TKP is the most fantastic fan site I've ever seen. Can't argue that at all. But generally, outside of Andy (another reason TKP is cool) we don't have reporters. And there is a lot of college football out there. I occasion CBSSports.com, but their coverage is spotty, with an occasional good commentary. The mothership is probably the best all-everything site for coverage, but commentary and true insight is woefully inadequate. Where does everyone else go, if not for these two sites?
Agree with Horse below. Given that I've been enjoying FS1 these days I'm contemplating checking out foxsports for college football. Anyone have any insight on that?
I tend to go to SI for Mandel and Staples. Talented, real journalists with a deep passion for the game. They don't focus on us much, as they're tasked with handling pretty much the whole landscape, but they're involved like Peter King is in the NFL. Sometimes they (especially Mandel) get a little bigheaded, but I figure I would too if I knew as much as they did and had to deal with college football fans, who aren't exactly known for their levelheadedness.
I also go to Yahoo sports and, while there, avoid anything written by Pat Forde. They're pretty good and they're the best investigative journalists you'll find in the sport. They also function almost entirely on data (aside from their opinion articles, of course). It seems that their mantra is, "Let's provide people with facts". And they do. Their stat site is one of the best you'll find.
Ok...will try these....thanks for the horse sense!
I went to Yahoo a lot before, but now it seems a lot of their stuff on specific teams are behind paywalls. I liked their previews and post game grades but now I hardly see those up there and get better quality stuff on here. I agree on avoiding Forde and their stat site being one of the best.
CBS used to have a fantastic forum community, but recently they've done away with it and gone with the more ESPN commenting model. You used to be able to have entire threads with different topics on that website, and there were a ton of people that would contribute statistical breakdowns as well as plenty of trash talk.
As of now though, I get most of my information by simply watching college football and checking out twitter. I tend to watch CFB from 9am to 12am on Saturdays in the fall, its become a great tradition I find. (I'll even go out to a bar or party or whatnot and continue to watch whilst drinking...) Is the information as in depth as what the key play is able to show for the Hokies? Absolutely not, but I don't really need that sort of information about every single team. If I did, you could call me Phil Steele. Watching games and seeing how individual players perform is more than enough to educate yourself about other conferences and the landscape. Twitter is also nice at times.