Week 1 - Who are we playing?

http://www.espn.com/

It’s almost here. Can you feel it? College football is nearly upon us! So it’s time to start writing about the Hokies and stop making cutesy jingles about some nameless pitcher that won’t throw a pitch for more than a year…

Going into this game I have a legitimate question, who are we playing? I’m not trying to be funny or anything, because obviously we’re playing Boise State. I’m not the only one that’s noticed that just about every college football story to come out this summer has been about them right? Unless you count all the stories coming out about how crooked UNC is of course. But really, who are they? I mean, can you name a single player on Boise State’s roster that isn’t Kellen Moore? Did they really beat a decent team last year aside from Oregon or TCU? Can you name 2 teams from their conference? Who the hell are these guys? What we do know is that they are returning everyone except 1st round pick Kyle Wilson (who Ryan wanted me to point out that he is awesome for the Jets, which is good since they’ll need him to step up when Revis doesn’t play a game this year), this is the highest pre-season ranking they have ever had, and that this could be the first year a non BCS team makes the BCS championship.


I’m really stumped. How good is Boise State? They were good enough to go undefeated last season. But how many teams in the country go undefeated playing the same schedule? And by the same reasoning, how would they have done in any BCS conference? The only 2 games that give me any sort of insight to how good they were last year are Oregon at home and the bowl game against TCU. But even both of those have huge question marks. When they beat Oregon (and they did manhandle Oregon), Oregon was without what turned out to be their best player in LaMichael James. After taking over for Blount, James ran for 1500 yards! Even against Boise State, James only got two carries, but for 22 yards. That is 27 yards more than Blount got as he dragged Oregon down with him. Blount had 8 carries for -5 yards. The final score of the game: 19-8. But we got to take away this memorable moment:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_3299v-A1o&feature=related


The guy’s face after he gets hit still cracks me up. And I’m obviously a huge fan of the Titans signing Blount… Not like he would punch someone again in practice or at a game right?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUG2SqGuutQ


Oh well… At least it was a teammate this time?


Um, getting back on track… I thought TCU was fantastic last season. I thought they would beat Boise State and do it handedly. But I think this needs to be said, “Damn you BCS”! Seriously, what kind of cop out game is TCU vs Boise State! We learned nothing about how good non-BCS teams are against the big boys! I know I’m not the only person that wanted to see how TCU and Boise State would handle the likes of Florida, Iowa, Ohio St, and even Cincinnati and Georgia Tech! I felt robbed by that game. And on top of that, it was soooo boring. And looking at the rest of their schedule, they even had a few scares at Tulsa and at Louisiana Tech.


But I will say that I did learn something from Boise State last season. Their defense is really good. When you think Boise State, you think trick plays, an ugly blue field, BCS busters, wedding proposals, and QBs airing it out and putting up a ton of points. In their biggest games last season, Boise State won by stifling the run game and holding teams to 10 points or less. And they did it playing straight up on offense without using many gadget plays. I’m not counting the games against the WAC because there might not even be a WAC after next season if that’s any indication of the quality of the other teams.


Neither TCU nor Oregon could run the ball on Boise State. Oregon actually couldn’t do anything at all. But TCU had a little bit of luck throwing on the Broncos, throwing for 274 yards, but they also got picked off 3 times. Although, I guess I should mention that Ryan Matthews from Fresno St ran for 234 yards against the Broncos, and Nevada combined for 200+ rush yards, so they aren’t completely a shut down defense. But I come back to my previous point, does that even tell us anything? Offensively, Boise State only scored 19 and 17 points against the only two real defenses it faced. In the Oregon game, yes they missed 2 field goals, but they only scored on drives starting around midfield and got 2 points from a Blount safety. Against TCU, 7 of their points were the result of an interception for a TD.


So what do I think will happen on Monday? I really have no idea… I would like to think we would run all over them with Williams and Evans. And I would also like to think our defense will reload like it has done over and over under Foster. My fear is that Boise State is superior on both lines. All-WAC Defensive End Ryan Winterswyck will be a handful, and that’s before we even know who we will start at LT! With Nick Becton’s turf toe, he has been getting limited snaps. Andrew Lainer has stepped up this fall, but I’m still worried about him matching up with Winterswyck. Currently Lainer is pegged to start, but both should see the field Monday. On the other side of the ball, I’m worried about our revamped D-line against a squad that only gave up 5 sacks all of last year. Let me repeat that, these guys gave up 5 sacks in 14 games, in a pass happy offense. I am not worried about the linebackers or secondary, but there is a glaring mismatch on the line. I think Graves and Friday play well, but converted TE Chris Drager and whoever ends up starting between Battle and Hopkins at DT could be in for a world of hurt. That said, I think our pass coverage is improved from last year, and our linebackers are more athletic. But this is a pretty big first step to test our “reloaded” defense.


Since I’m hopelessly lost by now, and you probably are too let’s get to the prediction. I think we have a few things working for us in this matchup. Bruce Taylor has made a huge step replacing an injured Barquell Rivers at inside linebacker, and in general VT defensemen named Bruce do exceptionally well. This is one of the biggest and most athletics teams Virginia Tech has ever produced (and one of the biggest and most athletic team Boise State has ever faced). People were breaking positional lifting records all over the place. This will essentially be a home game for the Hokies. Boise State is 1-3 against BCS opponents on the road. Boise State still is relatively untested. Our pass defense is better than last year. Bud Foster is still our defensive coordinator. Oh and Ryan Williams, Darren Evans, and Tyrod Taylor are in the backfield. I can see any kind of result in my crystal ball, but I’ve talked myself into the Hokies having a huge season, and it starts now!


34-20 Hokies! Ryan Williams runs wild, which will keep Evans off the field until mop up duty. Tyrod has an efficient game, throwing for 200 yards with 2 TDs and 0 INTs, and he breaks one long run. And the defense shuts down the Broncos in the 2nd half after 17 points early. Sure, why not?


Whatever happens, at least we’ll know which team is a legitimate contender.

UPDATE:

These uniforms were first leaked then made official. We're wearing all black uniforms against Boise State (who also will be rolling out in new Nike Pro Combat Unis).

http://www.hokiesports.com/football/recaps/20100901aaa.html

I do like the helmets, and I love the orange shoes. But I am not sold on everything in between. Maybe they'll grow on me like the last pro combat uni's but I'm not counting on it.