But first, where did that 2nd half on Sat come from!?!?! The first half was the same sad story we’ve seen all year: no blocking up front making Tyrod our only offense, poor tackling, and pretty poor coaching. But something happened in the 3rd quarter. We exploded! The offensive line played huge in the 2nd half! Wilson and Evans were getting huge holes to run through. The defense turned into one of the defenses of old and only gave up 83 yards after the half. The line got more pressure than they have all season. And Carmichael, after a pretty weak first half, came out to play! He made some great plays on the ball and showed some seriously athleticism on the run back. I didn’t even yell at Stinespring’s play-calling towards the end of the game. Much…
But playing against is a different team altogether. They are a very different team from our own team. They are pretty much the exact opposite of us. We’ll start with a list of strengths and weaknesses for each team:
BC Strengths/VT Weaknesses
Offensive Line – The best part of the BC offense is their offensive line. For one, they are huge! The biggest line we’ll face all season. The average size of their line: 6-6 313. And two, there is NFL talent all over it. I think it’s pretty safe to say that our offensive line is the weakest link in our offense (not counting play-calling?). This is a HUGE advantage for BC in this game.
Tackling – BC’s linebackers are great wrap-up tacklers. As a true freshman, Luke Kuechly, led the team, and nearly the nation, in tackling. Through 2 games, he’s already recorded 21 tackles. And Mark Herzlich is back from missing all last season to cancer. And he looks like he hasn’t really missed a step. Their linebacking core tackles everything! For Virginia Tech, tackling hasn’t really been a strength this season… Two of our top 3 tacklers are defensive backs. Only Bruce Taylor has shown the ability to make consistent tackles from the line backer position, but even he has missed some key tackles. Plus he has shown a great ability to tackle people out of bounds… Our tackling got better when we went into a nickel package for the ECU game. How does that make sense?
Coaching – Before I get in trouble I don’t think all of VT’s coaching has been a problem this season. But I could argue that something is off with the coaching staff. They haven’t been too successful motivating players (we’re giving up tons of points early in games off of just stupid mistakes), the play calling I might have mentioned a few times in these few blogs, and we always seem to struggle in the role of favorite. BC on the other hand has had coach after coach get promotions to NFL positions, they always exceed expectations and compete in the Atlantic, and they do more with less talent than most teams in the country.
VT Strengths/BC Weaknesses
Skill Position Players – Our best offensive player is Tyrod Taylor, but he is also surrounded by weapons. He has 3 great running backs (I would even argue 4) and a now experienced and athletic receiving core. BC doesn’t even know who they’ll start at QB. Odds are that it will be Shinskie, but he’s been far from impressive. Anyone remember how he did against the Hokies last season? He was 1/12 for 4 yards and 1 interceptions. Montel Harris is their only offensive weapon, but he may only the product of a good o-line.
Athleticism – This may just be an aside of the bullet before. But position by position, Virginia Tech is more athletic and faster all the way down the list.
Big Game Experience – This is Boston College’s first true test after playing Kent St and Weber St. And every game is a test for the Hokies at this point! That experience should hopefully be important in this matchup.
Some other things to note for this game:
David Wilson broke the news that Ryan Williams will be sitting this game out. This probably means a 50/50 time share between Evans and Wilson. And by the way, I was very impressed with Wilson. He looks like the most explosive, fastest, and even hardest to tackle of the 3. And he hasn’t fumbled yet, which is nice… I say feed him the ball!
Like I said above, VT mostly played nickel last game with Exum getting his first ever start at FS. He had a great game there (as did Chris Fuller at corner stepping in for the mysteriously suspended Hosley). That meant Jeron GW didn’t see much action against ECU, and we looked a lot better. I feel bad for continuously calling this kid out, but he needs to improve. BC is a run first team, so we’ll see how the coaches decide to play it with Whitley at WHIP or Jeron there.
Virginia Tech has owned BC the last two meetings, but the defense in those two games was much better…
So this game will answer the age old question: what wins college football games? I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. Really what is the recipe for winning in college? Is it a single standout skill position player that carries a team solely on his back like Michael Vick, a team speed/team athleticism approach that all the Florida teams seem to employ, or is it won in the trenches with dominating lines that make other positions look better like Alabama and Iowa last season? The trend seems to be sliding to winning in the trenches. That’s the main reason we lost to Boise State, although there were tons of reasons. So this will be a true test of this question. Team Speed vs Team Trenches. But you know what the Germans said when the French built up their trenches in the Maginot Line? Blitzkrieg!
Last season’s performance has me leaning for a blowout, but both lines were much better last season. Whoever plays QB for BC will have more time than last year, and the holes will be bigger. Plus, we lost to JMU this season... I think this will be another nail biter for the Hokies, where Harris breaks a few long runs, and Tyrod and Wilson have a few big plays of their own.
Prediction: 31-23 Hokies. I expect a lot of Tyrod scrambling, Wilson big runs, and field goals in general. Probably another game where we’re behind at halftime. And Doug Flutie better not be covering the game again! Or dropping in for a half hour conversation! At least Matt Ryan has a game this week so we don’t have to suffer through that again…
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i love making shinskie look terrible lololol
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