Hokies Week 12 Blog - RW vs. RW

This will be a no nonsense write-up dealing with sports this week! What kind of hack writes about uniforms anyway?

It was fun to go to College Park last week for the Hokies home game. We went to a couple tailgates with friends and family and it was like a home game.


Courtesy of Andy (click any picture to make it bigger)

The stadium was actually louder for VT than Maryland. Maybe that was because we came out swinging and got TDs in our first two possessions, or maybe it was because the Maryland fans simply didn’t have anything to cheer about all game. As seen by the student section at the start of the 3rd quarter:


Courtesy of my phone!

But the Hokie Nation showed up strong and it was a fun game to be at. I had actually never been to Maryland before and it’s a pretty nice campus. And I saw just about every part of it. We walked from the metro bus stop, to the baseball field, to the “baseball field” also know as the softball field, to the other side of campus to a parking garage, to the stadium, to the softball field, to the stadium, and finally to the metro over the course of the day. I estimated the total walking distance to about 8 miles in College Park alone, and Google maps confirms it.


http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

And if you’re wondering why we didn’t walk that last leg straight. So am I! And yes, we took more direct routes, but this is as half-ass visual aid. Plus it doesn’t show the 1000 steps we went up to get to our seats. Still don’t understand why Maryland’s stadium has 1 side that is about 25 rows up total, and then the other side is something closer to 100. Not even Lane is that disproportional.


Courtesy of Andy

But moral of the story: Tyrod looked great and was the Player of the Game to my surprise. Don’t get me wrong, Williams had a big day, but Tyrod was making some great passes and plays with his legs. We’ll just over look that fumble in the endzone that led to their only TD. Also, the defense was nasty. Great play up front, from the linebackers, and pretty good play by the secondary. They left some people open but luckily the freshman QB couldn’t hit any big plays.

But now on to NCST. The title pretty much says it all. This week the Ryan Williams takes on Russell Wilson for initials superiority. Except that Ryan Williams has a ton of support with a much improved Tyrod, a great receiving core, a decent O-line, and a suddenly stingy defense. But for NCST, Russell Wilson is about it. I mean he has single-handedly won and kept NCST in games. He doesn’t have great running game support or a good O-line. And the defense is just awful… So it will be up to Wilson to keep his team in the game against us.

Let’s see some stats to support this. To begin, NCST is currently 52nd nationally in points scored (6th in the ACC) averaging 27 points a game. And the main reason is Russell Wilson. Wilson has thrown for 2534 yards with a completion percentage of 58.2. He has thrown for 26 TDs with 10 interceptions, and his QB rating is 143.89. Not bad at all. He can also get it down with his legs as he is the 2nd leading rusher on the team with 319 yards and 4 TDs. So as a one man team he is getting it done. He accounts for 70% of NCST’s offense by yardage and TDs. By comparison Tyrod accounts for 53% of our yards and half our TDs. So yes, Russell Wilson is a beast.


http://www.statefansnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/ncaa_wilson_400.jpg

At baseball. He’ll probably be playing in the minor leagues somewhere next year.

But how has he done against the ACC? Great question! In his last 6 games (Wake, Duke, BC, FSU, Maryland, and Clemson), Wilson has only thrown for 260 yards per game with 14 TDs and 10 INTs! He’s averaging around 35 yards on the ground and has 4 TDs in the 6 games though. But the point is, these are pretty mediocre stats against some of the conference’s worst teams (especially some of its worst defenses). Only BC and Clemson are in the top half of the conference in points against and in those two games NCST scored 20 and 23 points respectively. I’m not saying NCST won’t score, because they will. Russell Wilson is too good for them not to score, but some of their stats are misleading.

Now here is a stat that isn’t misleading: NCST is giving up 36 points per game! That is 111th in the nation and last in the ACC. Even in the games where they put up a lot of TDs they still lose because everyone can move the ball on them. Even Maryland hung 30 on them in a loss. In ACC play, they have only held Wake and Maryland to less than 40 points! That means they couldn’t stop the “high powered” offenses of Duke, BC, and Clemson. Wake and Duke threw all over them, and then FSU, BC, and Clemson threw all over them and ran all over them! Only Maryland was held to less than 450 yards.

Yes, I know they held South Carolina to 7 points, and yes I know they beat Pitt (only loss). But look how they’ve done lately. Could they have a repeat performance of the Pitt game? Maybe. But I think it is highly unlikely. They have 3 freshmen in the secondary, they haven’t been able to stop the run or pass lately except against Maryland, they are completely one dimensional on offense, and they are facing the best defense they’ve seen all season. Yep, we are 11th in the country and 1st in the ACC only giving up 16 points a game. With our strength of schedule and all the big plays it seems like we are giving up, that is amazing.

So how’s the game turn out? We will crush them! This game should be pretty similar to the game against Maryland but higher scoring for both teams. Here’s my prediction:

41 – 17 VT. Seems ridiculous but that’s less points than they average giving up on the road. With their secondary and Tyrod’s performance last week, I think he will be the player of the game. Now I’m sure Williams will have like 200 yards… Also, look for a big day from Jason Worilds and Nekos Brown.