Week 12 - Miami and stuff

Before I start, I wanted to point out that several of the people I've called out in that new thing I've been doing have played really well lately. In fact the whole team is performing great. But since I spoke negatively about a few guys, I want to praise them when they do well. Jeron Gouveia-Winslow had another huge, game changing play. He was the one that forced the Ezly fumble on the goal line last week against UNC. Great play GW! My boy! Also, Hosely, Drager, the defense as a whole, Beamer, and even Stinespring have done well down the stretch after I called them out earlier for their plays or decisions. See it's not all negativity!

I’m terribly unmotivated to do this blog this week. We should have the Coastal wrapped up after beating UNC last week. I mean all we have to do is beat UVA, and everyone but Miami has done that this year. So that got me thinking, are the players in a similar situation? They know they just have to beat a weak UVA team, so do they overlook Miami and get rocked? Sure it’s different situations, but I like being able to relate athletes to myself. I mean, I’m a little athletic…

Anyway, to show my lack of motivation, here’s my synopsis: Miami’s offensive and defensive lines are better than ours. They’ll probably win the battles up front making this a tough game to win. On the offensive line they are all huge and great blockers. Their two tackles, Orlando Franklin and Seantrel Henderson, are beasts. Franklin is a senior and the leader on their line, and Henderson is a true freshman that came over from USC after they got in trouble. Henderson was the #1 recruit in the nation last year. They have used their size and strength up front to run all over people since Jacory Harris went down. Berry, Miller, and James have been running all over people the last few weeks. And am I the only person that’s upset that Jacory Harris is out against us? He’s an interception machine! Oh well…

On the other side of the ball, the defensive line is another tough matchup. End, Allen Bailey, leads a group that gets to the QB often. They’re 7th in the country in sacks. We could see a different game plan this week after GT and UNC only rushed 3 or 4 and dropped everyone else into zone against us. Their secondary has been great too. They’re 3rd in the country in pass defense and have only allowed 6 passing TDs.

But history is a bit on our side. In the 3 years under Randy Shannon, Miami hasn’t lived up to the hype in games against VT. Sure they beat us last time we went down to Miami, but they only scored 16 points in the game. In the last three years, they’ve scored 14, 16, and 7 (last year in the pouring rain). So if Bud still has their number, I’m confident our offense can score at least 21 points. We have too many weapons on offense to score any less. So yeah, that’s all I’ve got this week. Maybe a loss will motivate me to do a better write-up for the season finale. Or maybe the Hokie players are nothing like me… Even though Josh Morgan once told me that I had good hands and that I should come out for the team when he threw the football around with us at our University Terrace apartment. This was before the girl he was dating in one of the apartments above us threw him out (and all of his clothes and stuff out the window and into the lawn) and moved on to Deron Washington. But before I start to ramble...

Hey, Bud Foster, it seems like people have been running all over us this season. Keep up your complete dominance against Miami's offense and come up with a game plan that plugs all the holes for opposing running backs. Too often this season it seems like all the linemen and linebackers are getting blocked on design runs and the first people to the ball carrier are coming from the secondary.

Prediction: 24-17 Hokies. For whatever reason… It’ll be a tough day for a rushing offense and defense I imagine, but Tyrod will do enough to carry us back to the ACC Championship game. And since this post lacked all sorts of effort and humor, I’ll leave you with this motivational poster inspired by Miami’s loss to us 3 years ago: