Orange Effect

Week 12 - Miami and stuff

2010-11-18T10:13:00.001-08:00

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:

Week 11 - Adversity

2010-11-12T07:29:00.001-08:00

Happy Veterans Day! I’d like to take a moment to thank all of those that are serving and have served. Keep our troops in mind this weekend.

So that Georgia Tech game was pretty stressful huh? It didn’t help matters to be there in the freezing cold with an angry GT alum girlfriend either… She was a good sport about all of it, but she was still cold, sick, and angry. But that said, it was a fun weekend in Blacksburg, and I miss it so much. How good did GT look though? I thought it was their best game of the season on both sides of the ball. Al Groh and the defense surprised me (and the Hokies) with how well they played and game planned. And since GT got up early, they were able to run the ball and not throw it which as I pointed out last week was the key to their success. Luckily they did throw it a few times including two interceptions in the red zone. And the last interception was the one that sealed the deal. Probably a game we shouldn’t have won, but hey, we did!

So now we’re moving on to a UNC team that is really hitting their stride now even though they have had so much off the field (and even on the field) issues this season. They have already had 31 players miss at least 1 game this season due to NCAA violations or injuries. With everything added up, they will lose an estimated 89 starts from players. Now they are faced with the question of whether or not to pull Ryan Houston’s redshirt since they really don’t have a running back left in the backfield. At least we decided to not redshirt David Wilson before the opener which is looking more and more like a great decision due to the two kick returns in huge wins (against NCST and GT) and Ryan William’s injury. So how has UNC played so well this season? Well the starters’ backups were also great recruits and are playing up to their hype. It’s probably easy to recruit if you pay players, give them gifts of housing, travel, entertainment, and jewelry, write essays for them, not make them go to class, make them contacts with agents, and allow them to partake in cannibalism. Alright fine, one of those is made up, but you have to figure out which one on your own. And apparently this has gone on for a while. I just found out today that former UNC players, Hakeem Nicks, Mahlon Carey, and Omar Brown, also received gifts while at Chapel Hill.

And before I get into this any further, just know that I don’t think this is a problem specific to UNC. Look what’s going on with Cam Newton and about half of the SEC and USC, and throughout the college athletic landscape. I mean would you be surprised if something came out like this about Michael Vick? I’m not saying he got paid and VT at all, but it also wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he did. Obviously this is going to happen when there is so much money in the college sports system as a whole and those that are providing the entertainment are only paid in tuition. Most of these players come from poorer families and could probably use a little extra cash for school. So you can’t help but feel a little sympathy for the athletes. But then there’s Marvin Austin… How can you be so dumb to broadcast over facebook and twitter that you’re partying and traveling with agents and then continue to hurt your cause in an ongoing NCAA investigation by other comments you make? I mean all these players on UNC decided to come back to be one of the best defenses ever in college football. But more than half of them were taking money and gifts from agents. Just go pro! This whole thing hurt all of their draft statuses (or is it stati?).

But what bothers me the most about everything that went on and is still going on is how Butch Davis is being canonized over how “UNC is overcoming adversity.” Are you kidding me! You have to be crazy to think that Butch Davis didn’t know about any of this. The tutor that wrote all the papers for all these players and even Butch Davis’ son is the Davis family’s nanny! So when Butch has all these interviews about how proud he is of these players for overcoming all this adversity and how these guys are such great guys, he couldn’t come off as more of a hypocrite. He knew all of this was going on! Coaches always know! Why do you think Pete Carroll snuck off to the Seahawks right before the shit hit the fan at USC? And overcoming adversity? Really? I mean yes, I guess it is adversity, but it’s self inflicted adversity! It would be like if someone wanted be the first one legged person to swim the Bering Strait, but they cut off their own leg to do it. It’s not like Mississippi State playing through the loss of Nick Bell after his fight with cancer, or Rutgers playing for Eric LeGrand after he was paralyzed from the neck down from making a tackle, or Notre Dame playing for the student that died in the tower collapse taping a practice (although we still may learn that the coaching staff is to blame), or even Michigan State rallying after their head coaches heart attack scare, or other real tragedies other football teams are facing. UNC only has themselves to blame! If I have to hear another interview of Butch Davis just gushing about how great his players are, how big their hearts are, and how they have overcome so much together, I’m going to lose it. Sure I feel bad for the UNC players that did it right and got dragged down by the players that were only looking out for themselves, but Butch Davis and several of the athletes on UNC are to blame. And in all honesty, Butch Davis should be fired over this. He actually should have already have fired…

Ugh, now to some real football stuff… T.J. Yates is having a great year all things considered. He’s lead UNC to throw for the 33nd most passing yards in the country and is the most improved player in the ACC. And on offense he’s doing mostly alone with all sorts of running backs, receivers, and even his #1 target, TE, Zach Pianalto. He does still have a lot of weapons at WR, but I don’t see how UNC can come out and run the ball. If we can make them totally one dimensional, I don’t see how they can beat us. Our pass defense is too good to let Yates and Co. go up and down the field. And on defense, UNC is still good. They’ve gotten most of their players back like Quan Sturdivant and others, and the people that filled in for them played great. Also, I think Bruce Carter is a beast! We might have some trouble running on them, but their secondary is depleted by injuries. So I expect Tyrod to have a big day throwing.

It’s not like UNC is the only one facing adversity through injuries! Defensive End and regular blog mention, Chris Drager is out due to a hit he took in the Georgia Tech game. It hasn’t shown up too much on the stat sheet, but I think Drager has had a really good 2nd half of the season. He’s been hurrying the QB and knocking down passes a good amount recently. That said, I’m not too worried with JR Collins and James Gayle stepping in for him. They’re not as good in run defense, but both are probably better pass rushers, and as I said, UNC will be throwing a lot against us. But the biggest hit to the Hokies is the loss of both return men! David Wilson, fresh off the game winning kickoff return against GT, is out at least 1 week with mono. Dyrell Roberts is out for the rest of the year with compartment syndrome. This causes painful swelling (in Roberts’ case in his thigh) which caused him to have emergency surgery the night after the GT game. This leads to my weekly H_RMBSYCGAAMACBLDE(AMTYFAMBT)!

Hey, Ryan Williams and Tony Gregory, step up in the kick returns and more importantly hold on to the ball! We have adversity to overcome!

Prediction: We will stare adversity in the face and then stomp on it. 27-17 VT. Why? Because it’s almost lunch time… I mean, we’ve played well against the pass all year and this should be no different. Also, our offense should do better than they did against UNC last year. Tyrod Taylor will be the player of the game, and year…

Week 10 - Groh Blows

2010-11-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

Oh where to start? I guess I’ll just throw this out there now; I think there are only 2 ways this game can go: a shootout or a VT blowout. That’s really all I can see happening. Both teams will outmatch their opposing defenses, but will GT have another multi-turnover, penalty filled game where they can’t convert 3rd downs and basically stop themselves on offense? They have already done this 4 times this year. The 4 games: a 28-25 loss to Kansas because they can’t stop Kansas’ passing attack and killed themselves with penalties and 3rd down conversions (4 of 13), a 45-28 loss to NCST because they can’t stop Russell Wilson and have a punt blocked and an additional 2 turnovers, a 24-20 win against Wake where they win despite penalties and a -2 turnover deficit, and a 27-13 loss to Clemson where Ellington and company ran all over their defense, they converted only 6/16 3rd downs, and only completed 6/19 passes.

So why are they having so much more trouble this year compared to the previous two? Well most people will point to the fact that they lost 4 of their probably best 5 players from last year’s team to the NFL draft. And I agree that this is a large part of the problem. Derrick Morgan Burnett were great on defense and when they left the skill level did have a significant drop. Allen and Dwyer were pretty much interchangeable, so Dwyer wasn’t a huge loss. But the biggest loss of all was Demaryius Thomas. There is a reason Thomas was picked in the first round of the NFL draft. His size, speed, and skill made it where he could stretch the field, win jump balls, and catch anything near him. The current GT team does not have this ability as seen by Thomas’ 1152 yards last season compared to 678 yards total with a team high of 164 yards from Stephen Hill with only 4 games to go. So obviously the loss of Thomas was a huge loss.

I say that’s only half of the problem. As I said earlier GT is killing themselves on offense in their losses through timely penalties and turnovers. But the biggest reason they’ve been losing is the 3rd down conversions. In their 3 losses, GT is 4 of 13, 4 of 14, and 6 of 16 for a total of 14 of 43 (32.6%). For the season they are converting on 3rd down 38.4% of the time which ranks 70th in the country. Last season, they converted an astonishing 52.4% on 3rd downs, which ranked 2nd in the country. Thomas is part of the reason for the drop off considering how many drops I’ve seen for GT, but the real root cause in my opinion is the play calling. More often than not last season, GT would run on 1st and 2nd to get a 3rd and short. This would give Paul Johnson the luxury of basically 2 shots using the triple option to pick up the short yardage since he always goes for it on 4th down. Meaning this opened up the passing game since it isn’t an obvious passing situation (run or pass can get you the first down) and there is little to lose (if you’re confident your offense can pick up a few yards on 4th, and Paul Johnson has never seemed like he has lacked confidence). But in the games I’ve seen GT play this year, the 3 losses + the UNC game, GT will often throw on 1st or 2nd down. I don’t know if you’ve checked but Nesbitt is only completing 38.2% of his passes and a lot of those passes are screen passes. I mean Nesbitt is rarely mistaken for an accurate passer. Even last season with one of the top 2 or 3 receivers in the country, he only completed 46% of his passes (granted he took more downfield shots). But now you don’t even have Thomas, so why would you throw the ball just as often? Nesbitt is currently on pace for 700 less yards with only 9 few attempts. So as a VT fan, I’m hoping Nesbitt attempts 20 or more passes this Thursday…

But let’s move on to what will be my favorite part of this blog, my boy, Al Groh! This is where we will start the Groh Blows.

Al Groh has been in the defensive scheming game for 40 years, and is credited for brining the 3-4 defense to the college game. This is complete bullshit since the defense has been around since the 40s or probably even earlier, but yeah basically it was popular in 80s and early 90s in the NFL and he brought it with him to UVA. So the defensive mastermind converted and oversaw UVA’s defense in 2001. Since that time he lead the Cavaliers to a 59-53 record, a Gator Bowl, a Music City Bowl, a MPC Computers Bowl, and 2 Continental Tire Bowls. He alienated the Tidewater area and allowed VT to be the sole recruiter of the area. He sparked VT websites such as www.dontfirealgroh.com. Oh, and he has had a single win against VT. I know my readers, they want stats! Well, here’s some good stuff since 2004 about Al Groh defenses (I couldn’t, aka didn’t try very hard, to find anything older than that). All of these wonderful stats are brought to you by well me, but from cfbstats.com.

From 2004-2009, Al Groh’s total defense at UVA has ranked 18th, 61st, 17th, 23rd, 42nd, and 52nd. This is pretty good, right? Three times in the top 25, all 6 years in the top half(ish). So I can see how this would be an improvement for GT. Wait, how did GT do in that same time? They finished 12th, 22nd, 27th, 20th, 25th, and 53rd from 04-09. So they replaced their defensive coordinator from 2009 that gave up an average of 24.8 points and 360.3 yards per game, with the mastermind of the defense that gave up 26.3 points and 358.4 yards per game. Oh and he’ll be switching to the 3-4 which GT hasn’t recruited the personnel for, and they haven’t played during their college careers. So how’s Al doing this season? Teams are averaging 23.6 points and 354.3 yards per game against GT. And GT has yet to play VT, Miami, and Georgia which are in the top 4 of offenses they will play this year. And for the complete demoralization of possibly the 2 GT people that might read this, VT, under Bud Foster, has ranked 4th, 1st, 1st, 4th, 7th, and 12th in that time.

So how have the Hokies specifically done against Al Groh since 2004? Well they are 6-0 and have averaged just over 28 points per game. And this is with VT offenses that ranked 66th, 57th, 99th, 100th, 103rd, and 49th in total offense. And now we actually have an offense! To my surprise we are ranked 12th in the country right now in scoring offense and 32nd in total offense. So in summary, I think our offense will be tough to stop.

The question is how does our defense play against the triple option. Well, I don’t really know. GT under Paul Johnson has been fairly good against us in the past and completely controlled the clock last year. We aren’t really strong at stopping the run right now as we rank 77th in the country in average yards per rush against us at 4.4. We have already given up 44 rushes longer than 10 yards and 11 rushes over 20 and we haven’t played a real rushing attack yet. Our linebackers haven’t really don’t a great job recognizing the run or wrapping up the defender. Well we’ve missed a lot of tackles in general which is the recipe for disaster against GT. Plus, Bruce Taylor might still be suffering from his ankle injury by Thursday meaning Redshirt Freshman Jack Tyler will get significant playing time. It’s not like Taylor has our most tackles, tackles for a loss, QB hurries, and 3rd most sacks…

This brings me to this week’s installment of H_RMBSYCGAAMACBLDE(AMTYFAMBT)!

Hey Everyone on Defense, everyone needs to learn to wrap some people up! I’m tired of this missed tackle garbage, and GT is the type of team you really need to tackle.

But there is some good news. Teams have historically done well against Paul Johnson’s triple option when they have more than a week to prepare. Bud Foster did go visit Iowa over the summer to talk with them how they stopped the triple option. Also, all the things I’ve already mentioned about Groh and their play calling. Oh and we’re 28th in the league in opponent 3rd down conversion.

Prediction: GT always plays us tough, so I leaning that this turns into a shoot out. I have no idea how the rain and 36 degree temperature affects each team, but I feel like we’re a pretty good bad weather team. So how’s it all play out? We put up 42 on Al Groh’s defense last year which had better personnel than this year’s GT team has, but GT will control the ball much better than UVA did last season. So I say VT wins this one 34-24. But who knows with these two teams…

Week 9 - Basketball Preview!

2010-10-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

To make up for the fact that I didn’t post anything last week, I’ve decided to treat you all this off-week with a basketball preview! How fitting is that in an off-week after destroying Duke? Full disclosure, I was going to do this last week anyway and take this week off, but due to training for work and laziness at home, it didn’t happen. But now we’re here, let’s get this started. I’ll break it down by projected starters, main contributors off the bench, schedule and outlook, and finally recruiting. I promise I'll talk football next week. Well, if I get around to it... Anyway, without further ado:

Projected Starters:

Malcolm Delaney, PG – Delaney is the heart and soul of our team this year, and the weight is on his shoulders to get us over the hump and into the tournament. Last year he was the ACC’s leading scorer averaging 20.2 ppg. He also averaged 3.7 rpg, 4.5 apg, and 1.2 steals per game. More than anything though, he is a master at driving and getting to the free throw line where he was 3rd in the ACC in free throw percentage. He was unanimously voted 1st team All-ACC (first ever at VT, yeah I know we’ve only been in the ACC 6 years) and is going into this season on the John Wooden Award Preseason Watchlist for best player in the country. All eyes are on Delaney this year as we can only go as far as he takes us.

Dorenzo Hudson, SG – Hudson was the most improved player on the team last season and maybe even in the ACC. He increased his offensive output from 4.6 to 15.2 (10th best in the ACC) last season and took over games when Delaney was injured. He has always been a lock down defender, but now he has become a great scorer by beating people on the dribble and slashing to the basket. And as a sign for things to come, Hudson averaged 20.2 ppg in post-season play last year.

Terell Bell, SF – Bell is the best defender on the team with his 6’6 frame and longer wingspan. He rebounds well for his position pulling down 6.1 rpg and had the 2nd most blocks on the team. He also greatly improved his shooting last season and had the best 3pt percentage on the team at 0.361. This enables the Hokies to spread the floor and give Delaney, Hudson, and Allen room to drive.

Jeff Allen, PF – Allen has always been up and down for the Hokies, but when he’s up, he’s really hard to stop. He’s 6’7, 230 but has great feet quickness and the hands of a guard. This makes him a matchup problem with anyone. Offensively he can beat bigger men to the rim on the dribble, and defensively he is all over the place. He is the active leader in the ACC in rebounds, steals, and blocked shots! The problem with Allen has always been foul trouble though, and this could be an especially big problem this year with our very limited front court…

Victor Davila, PF – Davila was a highly rated recruit, but has yet to live up to the hype. He is the Hokies most gifted offensive player in the front court with a lethal hook shot, but goes cold for several weeks at a time. And his defense needs more work than his offense. He needs to be more physical, especially crashing the boards. He was 3rd on the team in blocks, but overall needs to pick it up defensively.

Bench:

Erik Green, PG – Delaney and Hudson played more minutes than just about anyone in the country last year, and that’s mostly because Green and Boggs left a bit to be desired while trying to give them a rest. Green has the talent and has had a great offseason, so there is a good chance we see more of him this year. Last year, his shot was off and he was too timid, but he’s put in the work on the court and in the weight this offseason and is coming back bigger and more confident.
Ben Boggs, G – Boggs is undersized and not a true point guard. He can knock down and open 3, but rarely creates for himself or teammates. His primary role will be to just give the starters a rest.

Cadarian Raines, PF – Oh my… In my opinion, Raines is the key to our season this year. As I hinted earlier, we really have no depth in the front court this season. Allen, Davilla, and Raines are it. Raines didn’t play too many minutes last season because of a foot injury, but his size is needed this season. The good news is that Raines might be more of a complimentary player to Allen with how physicality. He plays bigger than he is, which is already 6’9, he’s a great rebounder and blocker, and he is an energy guy that will go all out all the time. But he did just have his 2nd foot surgery in just over a year this summer and is still hobbling around…

Manny Atkins, G/F – Much like Bell, Atkins is a great defender with a long wingspan. He didn’t play too much last season, but did show signs of improvement specifically in his ball handling. Expect Atkins, Eddie, and Bell to get some major minutes at PF if Allen gets in foul trouble, Raines has health issues, or Davila has a quiet game. Yeah, basically expect the Hokies to play small ball a lot this season like when we had a 140 lb Deron playing as a "power" forward…

Still. he was my favorite power forward...

Jarell Eddie, SF – I’m so giddy about our recruiting the last two seasons. Eddie might be the best recruit VT has ever landed, well until the next class coming in next year! In my biased opinion, Eddie has a chance at the ACC Freshman of the Year. At 6’7, 210 he has the size and strength to play either forward position and rebounds the position well. He also can hit open 3’s, has decent rang on his jumper, and is great at driving to the basket and going up strong or drawing contact. He will be a matchup problem for nearly anyone he faces. I expect he’ll make an instant impact and play a lot of minutes for us this season.

Tyrone Garland, G – Garland is another super freshman coming in. He’s a little rawer than Eddie, but like Delaney he’s good at slashing to the basket. He’s not a true PG or SG as he mostly creates for himself and lacks a consistent outside shot, but he has the skills that should get him on the court this season and set him up for a good career at Tech.

IR:

JT Thompson, F – Thompson was a PF trapped in a SF’s body. But he played much bigger than his 6’6 frame. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL in a pick-up game and is out for the season. We could have really used him off the bench at PF. He was 4th on the team in points last season and 3rd in rebounds.

Allen Chaney, PF – Poor Chaney was supposed to make an instant impact after transferring from Florida 2 years ago, but since then he’s had rotten luck. Chaney is an athletic 6’9 forward that is a great rebounder and has good perimeter skills for the position. He missed all of last season due to a shoulder injury and resulting surgery, now he’s having a much scarier problem. He fainted in practice in April and had to receive mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He was diagnosed with dehydration and cleared for light shooting drills soon after. But he continued getting dizzy and having fainting spells in light workouts unless he chugged 4 Red Bulls beforehand (from his own experience). Because of this they decided to look at his heart where they learned that he had vital inflammation of the heart. The virus requires 6-18 months to run its course while resting and having little to no physical exertion. So odds are, he’ll miss the entire season. Even if his heart recovers in time, he’ll be out of basketball shape to make any impact. The one bright spot is that NBA vet, Juwan Howard, also suffered from this virus and called Chaney to encourage him. But you can’t help but feeling terrible for this kid.

Outlook:

On that uplifting note let’s get into the Hokies outlook for this season… Last season we finished 25-9 overall and 10-6 in the ACC (tied for 3rd). And again we were on the outside looking in during March Madness. Since VT joined the ACC in 2004, only 4 times has a team gone .500 or better in ACC play and not made the tournament. Three of those times were VT... But this season there are no excuses. We are ranked #23 preseason. We were voted to finish 2nd in the ACC by the ACC. And we have one of the best players in the country. Also, our strength of schedule is way up this year (which was important last season, but not as important a few seasons before that…).

As stated there is a glaring weakness in the front court. We only have 3 true front court players in Allen, Davila, and Raines. And only one of those has truly proven himself. Davila or Raines will really need to step up in order for the Hokies to live up to the hype. And not only that, but all three have to stay out of foul trouble and stay healthy (which is not exactly any of their strong points).

But for where we lack front court size and depth, we more than make up for in back court speed and athleticism. There will be few teams that will be able to defend Delaney, Hudson, and Eddie. Plus, Hudson, Bell, Atkins, and Eddie will be tough defensive matchups for anyone. The back court should be an advantage for us in every game aside from possibly Duke and Kansas St.

Looking at the schedule there are some tough tests. I guess Greenberg is making sure we’re not in the same position on the bubble this season as last due to strength of schedule. The challenges start on the road against Kansas State on Nov 16. For Kansas State, Jacob Pullen is one of the best guards in the nation at putting the ball in the basket, plus you pair him with a front court consisting of Jamar Samuels, Curtis Kelley, and FIU transfer, Freddy Asprilla, and Kansas State is tough to defend. Then the Hokies will travel to Anaheim for the 76 Classic over Thanksgiving weekend to play Cal State Northridge, then DePaul or Oklahoma State if they win. If they win the first two games, they’ll probably play Murray State in the finals. And Murray State’s senior guard duo of B.J. Jenkins Isacc Miles is one of the best in the country. The Hokies will also travel to the Bahamas to play in the Battle at Atlantis against Mississippi State on Dec 18. Mississippi State’s Renardo Sidney, Ravern Johnson, and Dee Bost (if he’s eligible) present real matchup problems for an undersized Hokies team. Then there is all of the ACC to contend with. Duke is loaded in the back court with Nolan Smith, Kyrie Irving, Kyle Singler, Seth Curry, and Andre Dawkins. I’m not terribly worried about the Plumlee filled back court, but their depth at the guard position is just scary. Other tough matchups include big men Jordan Williams from Maryland and Tracy Smith at NCST along with a great group of freshmen. Plus, there’s no telling how good Harrison Barnes is going to be for UNC. That said, it is a down year in the ACC, so VT should be able to win 10 or more.

I predict tough losses to KSU, someone in the 76 Classic (OKST or Murray St probably), possibly Mississippi State, then a few losses scattered throughout the ACC. At the end of the year, I expect the Hokies to be around 23-6 going into the ACC tournament (as a #2 or 3 seed). But it’s going to be tough with our lack of depth in the front court.

Recruiting:

I’m already over 2000 words going into this part, so I’ll try and wrap this section up in as few words as I can, but I’m just so excited about how well Greenberg and company have recruited the last two years. I’ve already told you about Jarell Eddie and Tyrone Garland from last year’s class and how excited I am about them both (especially Eddie). Well check out next year’s class, which is still in the works:

Dorian Finney-Smith, SF – According to ESPN, Finney-Smith is the 4th best SF prospect in the country and 15th best overall. He is the best recruit Virginia Tech has ever gotten (an accolade held by Jarell Eddie for about a year). At 6’7 he can play as a shooting guard or either forward position. He can get to the rim off the dribble, can hit open shots, has great vision and can find teammates for easy buckets, and is very effective on the offensive glass. He needs to build some more strength and develop more of a low post game and become a better defensive rebounder, but there are very few holes in his game.

Marquis Rankin, PG – Ranked 21st in the nation at PG, Rankin is a quick, athletic PG that is great in transition and on defense. He also has a high basketball IQ and moves well with or without the ball. He’s had a few injury problems in the past and isn’t much of a shooter, but he’s more of a true PG than Tyrone Garland. If he can stay healthy he could be a major contributor and start for 4 years at Tech.

C.J. Barksdale, PF – Another 6’7 athletic offensive monster. Barksdale is the 15th ranked PF in the country. He can knock down mid range jumpers and attack the basket. Also, he’s a force on the offensive glass. Needs to add strength to hold down the post on defense and needs to work on his technique, but the athleticism and skill set is a matchup problem for any low post defender.

Robert Brown, SG – Brown is a streaky shooter, but has great shooting and passing touch as well as body control. He can also drive to the lane and finish with both hands and has a knack for drawing fouls. He is also an athletic and long armed defender and was ranked 39th in the country and SG.

And who’s considering Tech that would put this class over the edge?

Adjehi Baru, C – Baru is the 5th ranked C on ESPN’s rankings and #47 overall. Baru is from the Ivory Coast but moved to Virginia in high school. He’s a ferocious defender that brings a lot of energy on the court. He’s a great rebounder and help side shot blocker. He’s also coordinated for his size making him a good passer and offensive player. Like most kids coming up he needs to add strength to play in the low post at the college level, but he could make an immediate impact.

It would be a phenomenal pull to add Baru to this class which already ranks 10th in the nation (higher than we have been ranked in football recruiting since Vick). I mean when was the last time we’ve had this much to be excited about enter the season? Not since ’94-’95 coming off a NIT championship and returning all of our starters. Except no one cared about basketball then. But now we have become a basketball school thanks to JMU. Also, I've read that the four of these guys are already calling each other and talking about how they plan on coming to VT to win a national title. That's the kind of stuff I want to read about my recruiting class!

It’ll be a great season, and I’m very excited about it. You know if Allen can stay out of foul trouble and Raines can stay healthy. If not, I’ve read a rumor that a couple football players might come out for the team in a low post enforcer style like Jeff King. The names I’m hearing: Marcus Davis and Prince Parker. But let’s hope it doesn’t come down to that!

Here’s to your health!

Week 7 - It Worked!

2010-10-13T12:07:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! It worked. My latest inclusion of H_RMBSYCGAAMACBLDE(AMTYFAMBT) actually worked. Based on the fact that Darren Evans was motivated by reading fans opinions, I decided to call out Jeron Hosley for his punt returning and guess what? He returned 3 punts for 98 yards and a TD! He upped his average yards per return for the year from 0.8 to 12.75 in a single game! Jeron, since you obviously read my blog, firstly, you’re welcome for the inspiration, secondly, I’m sorry giving you a hard time about it, and thirdly, great season so far! Hopefully you can see why I did it, and we can continue to be friends.

In other H_RMBSYCGAAMACBLDE(AMTYFAMBT) news, the other 4 sort of worked I guess. GW got beat on the first drive for the TD, but had a decent game after that finishing with 5 tackles. I’d call him out again, but I’ve already been tough on him all season. Beamer at least sort of fired up the team and we only had a 0-7 deficit to start this game, and then went on a 38-0 run. Stinespring’s offense looked good on downs 1 and 2, but not so much that 3rd one… And Exum had another good game and had no penalties.

So since this sort of worked, we’ll add the 2nd installment to “Hey _____, read my blog so you can get angry and motivated and come back like Darren Evans (and maybe tell your friends about my blog too).”

Hey, Chris Drager, aside from the Boston College game you have been nonexistent. Averaging 1.8 tackles per game, you have less tackles than all three other starting linemen plus your own backup, Fresman JR Collins. You only have 1 tackle for a loss which ties you 10th on the team, behind 5 linemen, 3 linebackers, and a defensive back, and 3 of those are backups. You also only have 2 QB hurries on top of that. Either step up or take a step back on the depth chart!

Now that we’ve got that taken care of, what should we look for against Wake Forest? Well they a running team that would run the ball a lot and for a lot of yards. But they didn’t really run it that well. At 4.5 yards per carry, they are 53rd in the nation. But only 1 team has attempted more rushes than them with a lower yards per carry average. A more telling stat: in their 2 wins against Duke and Presbyterian, they are averaged 6.25 yards per carry with 9 TDs. In their 4 losses against teams that would at least consider playing defense (which surprisingly includes GT! OHHHHH!!!!), they averaged a meager 3.55 yards per carry and only have 6 TDs. And they were even worse throwing the ball. But then out of nowhere Tanner Price comes out and throws 326 yards with 2 TDs and no picks against Navy. This doubled his season total and nearly doubled the team total. This is surprising because Wake had been an option run offense, and they do a rare QB by committee approach. From recent Hokie memory you should know that QBs by committee are usually bad. But Wake has already rotated in 4 QBs!! So to be totally honest, I don’t know what Wake will do on Saturday, and I’m not sure they do either…

So how’s Wake’s defense? Horrible! They’re 102nd in the nation in total defense. In their last 4 games they were crushed 31-0 by FSU, humiliated by Stanford 68-24, and then suffered heart-breaking losses to GT (24-20) and Navy (28-27). Option offenses have put up lots of points and yards on them as have passing attacks. They’re weak in all facets of the defense. Plus I bet they’re pretty demoralized after their latest 4 game stretch. All we need to do is score early and put them in a hole. I’m guessing they won’t be able to dig themselves out. Which is good news since we’ve been so good starting games this year…

Anyway, looks like Ryan Williams is unlikely to make it back in time for the game. But whoever gets the carries against Wake should have a pretty good day. Either Evans or Wilson will get hot. And Tyrod should have another big day.

Prediction: 38-21 Hokies.

Also, if you haven't heard, Greg Nosal, our LG, lost part of his pinky late in the 2nd quarter against CMU when it got stuck between his facemask and another players on a block. He got some pain killers and went right back out to play the whole 3rd quarter! Then once VT got a commanding 31-7 lead he left the game and they reattached the pinky chunk in the 4th. If you're not grossed out yet and want to read more go here:

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/10/va-tech-lineman-loses-part-pinky-keeps-playing

So Greg Nosal, this High 4 goes out to you!

Week 6 - Hey You!

2010-10-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

To start, you should know that I probably only watched about 10 minutes of the game against NCST because of a wedding and reception. I listened to another 20 min or so on the radio. But in that time I somehow caught the Tyrod 70 yard run, Hosley’s first interception, the Boykin TD, Hosley’s 3rd interception, and the Evans touchdown to seal the deal. So from what I could tell, the Hokies were awesome! They were pressuring Russell Wilson, forcing turnovers, playing well in the secondary, running all over the NCST defense, and making plays when they needed. When I turned on the little lady's phone at the end of the wedding and we were already down 0-17, I thought we were doomed. Virginia Tech doesn’t come back. But then for the parts of the game I listened to and watching, I just didn’t understand. I mean we were crushing them! Apparently I singlehandedly swung momentum back to our side. And you can’t tell me otherwise because you weren’t there! Well except Theresa, Rob and Sheri…

But enough about how great of a fan I am… Let’s talk about the Hokies. I’ve been waiting for a replay of the game on Comcast Sports Net all week so that I could make points about why we went down early and stormed back. You know, so I could have something backing up what I put down here, but I haven’t seen it yet. So keeping with the theme so far, I’m going to make wild accusations and predictions for the whole blog this week! Why? Because once you start going down this path it’s hard to come back. Just ask CNN.

So I read on Kyle Tucker’s blog that one of the biggest motivating factors in Darren Evans amazing comeback is that he read all sorts of posts online from experts and even VT fans about him about things like Williams and Wilson would be better without him, he’ll be fat and slow after the long time off, that his dreads aren’t as cool as Williams’, and that he isn't athletic enough to do 10 backflips or catch a wild rabbit like Wilson. This is pretty fascinating to me, but it really shouldn’t be since I’d probably do the same. So this has inspired me to create a new section of my blog that may end up just running one week before I realize it’s dumb or I simply forget. It’s called “Hey _____, read my blog so you can get angry and motivated and come back like Darren Evans (and maybe tell your friends about my blog too).” Pretty catchy right? We can shorten it to H_RMBSYCGAAMACBLDE(AMTYFAMBT), if you’d like. And since this is the inaugural H_RMBSYCGAAMACBLDE(AMTYFAMBT), I’ll throw in a couple extra!

Hey _____, read my blog so you can get angry and motivated and come back like Darren Evans (and maybe tell your friends about my blog too):

Hey Jeron Gouveia-Winslow, I’ve typed your name so many times about how bad you are in pass coverage that I don’t have to look up how to spell it anymore! I did like your effort against BC... Let’s do that more often!

Hey Bryan Stinespring, what took you so long to figure out how to pass in the red zone? You can’t wait until reporters talk you into changing your play calling all the time!

Hey Frank Beamer, we’ve gotten down 17-0, 10-0, and 17-0 at the beginning of three games so far! That’s coaching! Motivate your players and let’s try starting out a little stronger next time.

Hey Jeron Hosley, we are 116th in the nation in punt returns average at 2.5 per return! We only 15 yards total, and 11 of them came from Danny Coale’s only return! Maybe quit focusing on defense with your most interceptions in the country AND most pass deflections and try and return a few punts. I’m kidding! I’m very impressed with Hosley so far this year, but 5 returns for 4 yards isn’t cutting it! Dyrell Roberts, you just missed the list for your kickoff returns… Where’s your #4 in the nation return average?!?

Hey Antone Exum, maybe turn your head and look up for the ball when it’s coming so you don’t get flagged for so many pass interferences. Kidding again. I heard the calls were questionable at best, but it couldn’t hurt right?

Now that I’ve been thoroughly mean and motivating, I’ll try and focus on some positives. I think our defensive line is continuing to improve. I may be wrong considering the parts of the game I missed, but what I saw and heard was encouraging. The starting 4 have been very good. Also, Hosley moly!! Three interceptions and four pass deflections? Leading both categories in the country (and he missed a game!)? Our secondary is just plain nasty. Speaking of nasty, Bruce Taylor is becoming a beast! Since those early hits out of bounds, he’s been solid. He already has 9.5 tackles for a loss, which is 6th in the country.

On offense, Tyrod continues to play great and keep us in games when we need him too as well as bring us back like on that 70 yard run (one of the most exciting radio calls I’ve ever heard, seemed like he was running all over the field for like 20 seconds!). But now he’s getting some help from the running backs. Evans has been on fire these last few games, and he looked really good against NCST. It was his best game since Maryland of 2008. Also, I’m still impressed with Jarrett “Sausage Fingers” Boykin’s playmaking ability. He’s 7th in the nation at 23.3 yards per reception and already has 4 TDs. And Andre Smith really made some plays against NCST. Been a while since we had a relevant TE (poor Boone had to block all last season). And finally, the play where they motioned Andrew Lanier, our LT, out wide then moved up a receiver to effectively be a lineman, which left Andre Smith as an eligible receiver even though he was in the LT position, that was a very creative and inspired play call. It was such a good play that it made me write a run-on sentence to describe it. So props for that one Stiney.

And the last positive is our schedule the next three weeks. Don’t get me wrong, there are no sure things any more after the JMU debacle. But the schedule is a bit forgiving for now. We have 3 games at home against Central Michigan, Duke, and Wake Forest. Central Michigan is good, and they like to spread the field and throw the ball around (like a poor man’s NCST, Boise St, ECU, ect…). So we’ve seen this before. They lost 11 starters from last season including their all-MAC QB Dan LaFevour. I think they even lost their coach. I expect the Hokies to play them like they did ECU in the 2nd half. So expect a lot of 30 formation and nickel on defense (meaning a lot of Antone Exum and not as much GW). If the Hokies stay focused to start the game, they should cruise in this one. They also should be able to run against CMU.

Prediction: 31-13 Hokies. Darren Evans and David Wilson will probably have a big game. Also, there’s a good chance of another 2 or 3 interception day for our defense.

Week 5 - Rushed Again!

2010-09-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry, this will be another abbreviated post. It’s the end of the fiscal year at work, and I was traveling over the weekend. Then I’m going to Blacksburg for a wedding this weekend. So, my excuse is, I’ve been busy. Therefore the 10 of you that still read this will be the ones that will suffer. So here’s a quick look at what I expect will happen Sat (back on real TV!):

1. Our defensive ends have turned the corner! It was such a huge relief to see how well Friday played against BC against a great lineman. But I was more impressed with Drager’s play. I have never given him any credit, but he really impressed me at BC. And unlike Friday, he’s shown he is a force against the run and pass. Even Gayle came in off the bench and played well! Combined the 3 had 7 tackles for a loss, 4 sacks, and 3 forced fumbles. It was an absolutely huge day! And I expect more of the same against NC State. They are a pass first team that spreads you out, so the ends will have a green light all day. They have to watch out for the draw, but I expect Russell Wilson to be pressured non-stop, just like he was last year. See how the title of the blog worked two ways now? Clever aren't I?

2. Even though my boy, Jeron Gouveia-Winslow, had a great game against BC (aside from an early blown coverage), it could be another game where we play predominately nickel packages like we did against ECU. I expect Exum to get his 2nd start and Whitley to move back up to the Whip/Nickel slot. I really like our nickel personnel this year. That said, I’m happy GW had a good game at BC, because I did feel bad for him and how he performed in the first two games. Maybe it’ll give him the confidence boost he needs going forward.

3. Our defense is better than our buddy Al Groh’s. GT couldn’t much pressure on Russel Wilson and their secondary played a soft zone. I expect us to have more success on defense than GT did. We might have more trouble scoring though…

4. Our offense is still underperforming. I still like what Tyrod is doing. I like what David Wilson has done. Coale and Boykin have been good when they have enough time to run their routes. But the offensive line is still struggling. NC State’s defense is nowhere near as good as BC, but we also struggled against JMU… The play calling must be better, because 19 points might not win this game.

5. Ryan Williams might be back this week, but apparently he’s far from full strength. He hasn’t been full speed this week in practice or done full contact. Plus he hasn’t looked that good all season…

6. NCST opponents are 6-10 overall. VT opponents are 11-2 with both losses being to VT.

7. How is Russell Wilson still playing football!??!! Didn’t he get paid good money to play baseball? Same goes to Kyle Parker and that safety from GT (all of which the Rockies drafted last draft somehow).

All things considered, I expect us to win this game. We’re a 5 point favorite, and we killed them last season. We harassed Russell Wilson all day last year. What I saw last week against better offensive linemen has encouraged me to think we can hold NCST to under 20. This should be a favorable matchup. So I think VT wins 27-17. Of course, maybe our offense figures out how to run more screens (which we ran once last week for like 15 yards…), short passes, and effective play actions, and we put up a lot of points.

If I left you wanting more with my weak effort you can find more information about just how bad our red zone offense and play calling is; take a look at Kyle Tucker’s blog the last few articles.

http://hamptonroads.com/blogs/kyle-tucker

The good news is Stinespring has been hearing a ton of pressure from the media (including said Kyle Tucker), and maybe we can expect a little more inspired play-calling. But I’ve fallen for that trap before. Like 4 weeks ago…

In unrelated news, we just got a verbal from Dorian Finney-Smith, a 5 star SF from Portsmouth, VA for the 2011 basketball class. ESPN ranked him as the 15th best overall prospect of the class. We’re currently ranked 10th in recruiting for 2011. That’s 5 spots higher than we ended up in football recruiting for the years we got Tyrod Taylor and Ryan Williams. I told you we were a basketball school! We even have a Deronimo practice facility:

Week 4 - Blitzkrieg BC?

2010-09-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

So last week was a hurried blog, and the next two will probably be hurried too. Unfortunately I don’t even know if I’ll be able to even watch the game vs BC because I’ll be home for my grandparents’ 90 birthdays. But that doesn’t mean I can’t tell you what to expect.

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…

Week 3 - I've got nothing...

2010-09-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

So I tried starting several different versions of a blog this week, but I just can't get into it... And you should understand why! But to prove that I did indeed think about it, here's a taste of some of my ideas:

Idea 1: Maybe We're the Other Team in Football Movies

So far we've been the big bad favorite in two games to scrappy underdogs/Cinderella types. Twenty years from now can't you see a movie about how Boise State overcame adversity to win the national championship beating the big boys clubs and facing adversity the whole way through? What about JMU? Coming off a dissappointing season, they pull a huge upset on the team that wouldn't even consider any of the Dukes for a scholarship. Then they coast all the way to the FCS Championship beating everyone and becoming men.

So what is typical of the "other team" in these type of underdog football movies? 1) They're the favorites because they have bigger and better athletes. 2) They're dirty. 3) They can't tackle. 4) Their defense is considered one of the best the good guys have seen in the big scenes leading up to the game, but turns out it's pretty bad.

Which of these do we not meet? I mean I could even give out awards named after other football movie bad guys such as the Warden Hazen award for dirtiest play to DJ Coles for running into the punter, then getting TWO personal fouls on the SAME PLAY!

bleacherreport

And if you’re unaware, Warden Hazen was the warden in The Longest Yard and led the team of guards to one of the dirtiest games in any sports movie since the Nazis in Victory. I came up with a few others, but like I said I’m unmotivated this week.

Idea 2: We’re a Basketball School now!

So this is the first time I can remember, and I don’t care to look it up, that the basketball team could end up higher than the football team in rankings. So that makes us a baskeball school right? Move over Duke and your 1-1 football record, just mocking us with your multi-school athletes! We’re coming in basketball with all of our starters, and 90% of our scoring returning. Plus, SF Jarrell Eddie is getting talk of possibly being the Freshman of the Year in the ACC. He’s a scoring machine and can knock down open 3’s (which is something we lacked last season). I’d go on to say how our recruiting has been great the last 2 years, and how Florida transfer, Allan Chaney, will help us inside. But again, I’ve already written more than I planned this week.

Oh and in a multiple sport, kick you while your down, type deal: J.T. Thompson was injured in a pickup game and is out for the season. Yep…

Idea 3: I’m a Better Fan Now

The loss to JMU put my fanship in perspective and revealed that I shouldn’t put so much thought and energy into college football and sports in general. I’ll be a more relaxed and better fan now.

Yeah right…

Week 2 - Risk Management

2010-09-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

To avoid ranting and complaining about things like questionable calls and non-calls on Boise’s winning drive probably costing us up to 50 yards, I’ve decided to get technical this week. I'm going to be all professional. Here is my technical report of lessons learned and potential mitigations using the risk waterfall.

A football team is similar to a system. One could argue that it is a system of systems. Therefore I will treat the problem as seen vs Boise State as a systems engineering problem. A system is only a great as its weakest part. Therefore I have broken down the Virginia Tech Football System as a whole to find the weakest parts. From these parts I have pulled lessons learned and have provided mitigations in the conclusion of this report to raise the performance of the system as a whole.

Lessons Learned

1. The D-Line is weak. The stats listed below might not do this point justice. Watching the game you could just tell the Hokies were getting pushed around up front. A partial list of defensive stats to prove this point is listed below:

• Only Steven Friday got to the QB, recording our single sack.
• Including that sack, the Hokies recorded just 3 tackles for a loss (Friday, Graves , and Carmichael).
• The D-Line combined for just 10 tackles (6 solo, 4 assisted).
• The D-Line only hurried Kellen Moore twice.
• The Broncos averaged 7 yards per carry.

2. Last season’s best run blockers graduated. With the graduation of Sergio Render and Ed Wang, our rushing attack has taken a step backwards. A partial list of historic and current stats to prove this point is listed below:

• Ryan Williams rushed 21 times for 44 yards (2.1 per carry) and never had an opportunity to get in the open field.
• The Hokies combined for 44 rushes for 128 yards (2.9 per carry).
• 73 of those 128 yards came from Tyrod Taylor scrambling for his life.
• Where the Hokies had 10 tackles total from its D-Line, the Broncos had 11 tackles for a loss (3 sacks).
• Last season we never got held to less than 90 rushing yards from running backs (Alabama held the Hokeis to 90 but on just 20 carries).
• Boise State held our RBs to 58 yards on 26 carries (2.23 per carry).
• Alabama, UNC, and Nebraska were better defenses last year than Boise is this year.

3. Beamer Ball needs some work. That was the single worst special teams performance I’ve seen from Virginia Tech since I started watching in 2003. A partial list of special teams stats from Mon night to prove this point is listed below:

• With 2 blockers not blocking anyone, Austin Pettis ran right past them untouched for one of the easiest punt blocks I’ve ever seen.
• Justin Myers kicked off out of bounds and only had one touchback.
• Chris Hazley missed a 50 yard field goal by about 25 yards.
• David Wilson returned 6 kickoffs for an average of 20.3 yards.
• Titus Young from Boise averaged 26 yards on 4 returns.
• Boise punted 3 times where Hosley had 0 return yards, Saunders punted 4 times and Boise was able to return it for an average of 11 yards per return including the final return setting them up at midfield for their final drive (did I mention the questionable non-call for the block in the back?).
• DJ Coles ran into the punter and then got a personal foul (or 2) on the same play!

4. The Defense as a whole isn’t "reloaded" yet. The secondary looked solid, but the linebackers were at best mediocre while the d-line was bad. A partial list of stats to prove this point is listed below:

• Cody Grimm’s (the Reaper’s!) replacement, Jeron Gouveia-Winslow, got beat on several big pass plays including the game winner.
• Bruce Taylor and Lyndell Wilson missed several tackles on Boise’s big run plays (including the 71 yard TD run where they both missed a tackle).
• For D-Line stats, refer back to Lesson Learned #1.
• One positive note, Eddie Whitley had a phenomenal debut. He led the team in tackles with 7 (6 solo) and in times said about him “Holy shit, he’s all over the field.” He also had 1 force fumble (which was really forced by a Boise O-lineman), and a QB hurry.

5. Warm up game, please. I am aware Beamer thinks it keeps everyone focused in the off season. But when something backfires this many times we should rethink the strategy. A partial list of historic scheduling stats to prove this point is listed below.

• Four of the past 7 years we have played the first (or in one case second) game against a pre-season top 5 team. In those 7 years we have lost 5 times (USC in ’04, LSU in ’07, ECU in ’08, Alabama in ’09, Boise in ’10).
• All but one of those games but one were close (LSU).
• USC, LSU, and Alabama all went on to win the national championship. Therefore, I’m going to Vegas to bet $5000 on Boise to win it all right now (12-1 odds in case you were wondering).
• USC, LSU, Alabama, and Boise St were all the more experienced team (how this is the case boggles my mind).

6. Tweak the offensive play calling. First a question, can you remember a single pass play that wasn’t a hitch or just a go route? The play calling was what I’ve come to expect at VT, meaning poor. A partial list of stats and opinions to prove this point is listed below:

• The running backs ran for 26 times for 58 yard. I do not blame Stiney for trying to get the ball to your best player in Ryan Wiliams, but maybe try other means of doing it such as screens and draws instead of handing off the ball and not blocking.
• Tyrod had one hell of a game throwing and in general. He threw some great deep balls that connected and just missed, but that’s about all he threw. Did we run a single WR screen or even a slant? Aside from a few hitches, I don’t remember any other short routes.
• The last two drives with the game on the line were abominations of play calls. The 2nd and 6 QB sneak with Tyrod was an interesting call because you could blow straight forward and a short and 3 or give Tyrod the pass run option. But a QB sweep is a risky call with little reward. Then on 3rd and 8 I have no problem throwing for the first down (and win). But a 30 yard bomb is a low probability way to do it. Either go for the 8 yard pass or run the ball to run 40 seconds off the clock (would have punted with about 1:25 left in that scenario). And on the final drive, 3 consecutive deep balls? Not that there was much the Hokies could do in that situation, but we had timeouts and only needed a field goal.

7. Virginia Tech was the better team. Not trying to discredit Boise State here, because they are a great, experienced, and well coached team. But Virginia Tech is more talented and just beat themselves. Plus, I wanted 1 positive lesson learned…. A partial list of stats (and opinions this time) to prove this point is listed below:

• Tyrod Taylor was the single best player on the field. Yes, Kellen Moore had a great game, but he had a lot of help (running game, defense, Pettis, ect). Tyrod carried the Hokies on his back and nearly snatched the victory away himself. His final stats: 15/22, 186 yards, 2 TD, 169.2 passer rating, 16 rushes for 73 yards, and he basically pulled a move out of the matrix to avoid a sack and get a first down.
• Despite the turnovers, 17-0 deficit, lack of a run game, no pressure on the QB, and everything already mentioned, the Hokies led the game late and had the game in its grasp.
• To put it better, despite playing the worst game in recent history, Virginia Tech still nearly beat a top 5 team that had everything go right.
• We look good enough to win the ACC and get into the Orange Bowl with just a few mitigations strategies.

Risk Waterfall:

Below is a risk waterfall if you are new to the game. Red is high risk, yellow is moderate risk, and green is no risk. We like green risk. The x axis is labeled as impact to the team if the risk occurs, and the y axis is the probability of the risk occurring. Lessons learned 1-5 are shown below.

Figure 1. VT Risk Waterfall

This means that the probability of our D-line being bad is highly likely and the impact of them having another performance like they did against Boise is great. I am specifically worried about Georgia Tech, Boston College, and Miami. The probability that our best run blockers graduated last season is highly likely, but the impact is moderate due to depth and Tyrod. Strong defensive lines such as UNC’s and Miami’s will present problems if this goes unmitigated. The probability that Beamer Ball needs work is uncertain because this simply could be an unlucky game, and the impact is moderate. The probability that the defense isn’t reloaded is even chance, but I do not believe we have enough evidence about the linebackers. This is obviously a high impact risk. And finally the need for the warm up game is remote because here are the Hokies opening day opponents for the next 5 seasons: Appalacian State, East Carolina, West Carolina, William and Mary, and Furman before possibly opening 2016 at home against Wisconsin (probably will be the 2nd game of that season). There is a chance VT opens the season at FedEx against Cincinati in 2012, but the game is not scheduled yet. The impact of scheduling is high risk.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Bud Foster has his work cut out for him this year. The most important lesson learned from the opener is that our D-line needs to be whipped into shape. Other problems that need to be mitigated are run blocking (and blocking in general), play calling, and reloading the rest of our defense. I propose the following mitigation steps:

Mitigation step down criteria:

1. Have Hopkins or Battle step up in run stopping. The competition should get the best out of both of them, but experience in general is needed. Find a DE to push Drager. While Drager had 3 tackles and a hurry, he is the weakest spot on our D-line. A backup needs to learn the system and push him to be better or simply replace him.

2. The left side of the line needs experience. The 2 deep at LT and sole LG simply need the playing time to get better. Competition between Becton and Lainer at LT should improve them both and hopefully have someone stand out.

3. Again, experience will help as there is so much youth in a lot of special teams positions, but punt blocking was a problem throughout all the fall scrimmages and practices and must get addressed immediately. Lack of discipline shown by some special teams players.

4. With two new LB and DL, they just need to get some reps. Not worried about reloading at LB as they are a more athletic and physical group than they are replacing. DL is another story as previously stated.

5. Scheduling mitigation already in place as stated.

6. Fire Stiney? At least add a few short passes…

7. Best mitigation strategy going forward this season: Play JMU next week and win by 40.

References

Tucker, Kyle. Boise Week. Vol 8: Thoughts (mine and theirs) on VT’s 33-30 loss… http://hamptonroads.com/blogs/kyle-tucker. 07 Sep 2010.
Cfbstats.com
Espn.com

Week 1 - Who are we playing?

2010-08-31T06:44:00.000-07:00

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.

The Night Before Strasmas

2010-06-08T11:34:00.001-07:00

Twas the night before Strasmas, and all through DC,
All the GMs were stirring, even George McPhee.
The banners were hung in the Verizon Center in dispare,
In hopes that non-Mystic attendance championships soon would hang there.

The fans wake from nightmares sweating in beds,
While visions of Kwame's are burned in their heads.
And my lady friend in her jersey, and I in my cap,
Finally believe that this city is done with this crap.

When Strasburg was picked, there arose such a clatter,
And maybe next year, the Nat's could pick up a batter.
What do you know, they got someone sharper,
Even Pujols is jealous of a kid named Bryce Harper.

Will the championships come, I say who knows?
But it can't get worse, we've had lower than lows.
Maybe we're due, it's been quite some time,
We've got all these young athletes going into their prime.

There is Strasburg, and Capps, and John Lannan,
There's Harper, and Dunn, and Ryan Zimmerman.
There's Ovechkin, and Backstrom, and Semin and all,
Even the lowly Wizards are getting John Wall.

There's new faces on the Skins that we'll surely like,
With McNabb and Trent Williams lead by Coach Mike.
Maybe they come out this season with a bang,
And the highlight of the year isn't Cooley's wang.

I know better than think that success is on its way,
There's a better chance to catch Santa on his sleigh.
But now there is hope as far as I can see,
And maybe just the traffic will suck in DC.

So before I'm busted, by my boss as he passes,
I wanted to say something to all of you asses,
'The District is coming, so the best of lucks.
Merry Strasmas to all, and Crosby still sucks.'

Coleman Collins remembers VT Tragedy

2010-04-16T13:58:00.000-07:00

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/14975/coleman-collins-remembers-the-tragedy-of-virginia-tech?body=never%20forget

Hokies Offseason Blog - 2010 Predictions

2010-01-20T09:54:00.000-08:00

VT Predictions:

The recruiting class coming in will go down as one of the bests, amazing job restocking both lines.

Defense will struggle early then steadily improve to another top 20 performance.
Offense will be top 20 too.

Ryan Williams will not be a Heisman hopeful with Evans back.

Taylor will double his TD passes from last season.

Steven Friday will lead the team in sacks, but John Graves will be our best lineman.

Jayron Hosley, Eddie Whitley, and Davon Morgan will step in nicely at field corner, safety, and rover, and the pass defense will be even better than last year and will be top 5 in the nation.

The run defense will be a little bit worse though. Losing 3 starters on the line, the Grimm Reaper, and Chancellor will hurt.

I will miss saying the Reaper…

I will use the hell out of “Sausage Fingers” to compensate.

We will stop the triple option damnit!

Boise State will get abused in RFK.

We will win the ACC and get back to the BCS.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_M55axAOjwnw/R1HY-D13nCI/AAAAAAAAAOM/pNxYbzJEkIE/s1600-R/2007ACC-Champs-VT.jpg

ACC Predictions:

Georgia Tech’s triple option won’t be as devastating with Paul Johnson recruited skill players.

UNC’s defense will be top 5 in the nation.

The Atlantic will be even worse this year than last, and the top 4 ACC teams will be in the Coastal.

Florida State will win the Atlantic and get its swagger back.
Miami will not.

Rebuilding will not be easy at UVA.

Maryland will be worse.

Duke will return to the basement.

The ACC will fail to fill all of its bowl placements again.

At least one of the following teams will lose to a non FBS school: Duke, Maryland, NCST, UVA, Wake.

Preseason Top 10:

1) Alabama – I’m not entirely convinced Alabama will be the best team next year with how the rest of the top 6 or 7 are looking, especially considering the huge losses on defense. But I’m giving credit where credit is due. You win the national championship, return all of your key players on offense, and recruit the way Alabama does you get the #1 spot.

2) Boise State – Finished the season in the top 5 (possibly should have finished #2), and they return an astonishing 23 of 24 starters only losing an NFL talent CB, Kyle Wilson. Admittedly a huge loss, but that is only a single starter you have to replace from a team that didn’t lose last year.

3) Ohio State – So maybe the Big Ten is better than I thought. Their work in the bowl games made a huge statement. And with Pryor (possibly) turning the corner and returning most of the defense and pretty much all of the offense, Ohio State is poised to make another run to get blown out in the championship game. Just kidding (I think). Solely placed them ahead of Oregon because they just beat them even though I think Oregon has a better year next year. Makes sense to me at least…

4) Oregon – Very young team returning all of their starters except 1 on offense and 2 on defense. LaMichael James could make a run at the Heisman if he keeps up the numbers he put up last year.

5) VT – Hokies had a good season offensively for the first time in years and return most of the key players who made that possible. The losses of Render, Wang, and Boone will hurt both the run game and pass game, but there are athletes everywhere. The defense will have some rebuilding to do and this will be one of our least experienced defensive lines in years, but Bud Foster is still the coach isn't he?

6) Iowa – Returning Stanzi and most of their stifling defense will keep Iowa in the top 10. They are losing a lot of players off their offensive line which is always a bad sign.

7) TCU – The Horned Frogs are only losing two players on offense (including their starting running back) and should be just as explosive on offense this season. But key losses on the defensive side, namely Jerry Hughes, will hurt.

8) Arkansas – Ryan Mallett is coming back for his senior season and will lead a strong offense for the Razorbacks. They are returning most of the starters on both sides of the ball. They could be a dark horse to win the SEC which would automatically qualify them for the national championship game (right?). With Florida losing their whole team and the weird nonsense with Meyer, someone will have to step up in the SEC.

9) Texas A&M – To be honest, I don’t like anyone in the Big 12. Texas and Oklahoma are losing a lot of key players, Nebraska is losing Suh which had more to do with their success than anyone on any team I’d wager, and Texas Tech lost their coach. But I do kind of like Texas A&M and their young offense led by QB Jerrod Johnson. And if they can bring in a defensive coordinator like the guy from Air Force they could be ready to compete this season.

10) Oklahoma – With all the injuries Oklahoma had this year on offense they did get a lot of playing time from their youngsters. This will translate to a good year next year and a possible return to the Big 12 Championship. Expect a big offensive year from Oklahoma and a lot of new faces on defense. The last pick was probably pretty stupid so I put Oklahoma in here to follow A&M up for when they flounder.

Heisman Hopefuls:

1) Mark Ingram, RB, Alabama

2) Kellen More, QB, Boise State

3) LaMichael James, RB, Oregon

4) Ryan Mallet, QB, Arkansas

5) Christian Ponder, QB, Florida State

No I don’t think Ryan Williams will be able put up Heisman numbers when he is splitting carries with Evans, Oglesby, and Wilson (hopefully we can redshirt Wilson). Also, I’m sure some Big 12 QB will put up astronomical numbers and be hyped into the list. My guess is Landry Jones from Oklahoma or Jerrod Johnson from Texas A&M.

And just remember, predictions don't have to be right!

Hokies Bowl Blog - The Appalacian Showdown

2009-12-30T14:57:00.000-08:00

So I know I’ve already done one rushed themed blog, but here comes another. I mean the game is only one day away and I have 2 New Year’s parties in that time. I'm just too popular I guess. Throw in the fact that Yener is here, and that we’ve already started drinking, a party could break out any second. I mean there is a keg literally 20 feet away from me. So I apologize for the brevity and terribleness that will follow, but I promise I’ll do better next year. Oh and all my proof readers are also drinking, so this one is raw.

At first glance, Tennessee is built very similarly to VT. Both are run first teams with good, but not great, QBs who are good at keeping the ball safe. Both teams have great defenses and are especially good against the pass (both in the top 15 nationally). And both teams have an outspoken coach who are constantly under investigation for one reason or another and seem to make enemies everywhere they go. Oh wait, Beamer is sort of the opposite of that isn’t he?

http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-football-recruiting/files/2009/02/kiffin.jpg

We’ll start this with a breakdown of coaching. The Hokies are led by the same group that has led them for 10 years or so now (just learned Billie Hite is the longest serving assistant coach in the country at 32 years). At head coach we have Mr. Class, Mr. Old School, Mr. Good Ole Boy Frank Beamer vs. Mr. Pro, Mr. Cocky, Mr. Pain in Everyone’s Ass Lane Kiffin. Beamer is a proven college head coach at this point obviously. We’ve won 10 games or more the last 5 years (6 with a win tomorrow), been to a bowl game 17 straight years, and all sorts of other stats that say, Frank Beamer has a decent idea what he’s doing. Lane Kiffin is a proven pro coach (sucked at the only time he was a head coach for 4 games with the Raiders, but I’m not convinced any coach will be able to save the Raiders). Kiffin is also a proven recruiter. His only 2 recruiting classes have been amazing. He’s getting kids from everywhere. Lane Kiffin is also a proven shit talker. He hasn’t done too much to back it up though.

The defensive coordinators are the strengths of both staffs. Bud Foster and Monte Kiffin should both have the upper hand against their offensive competition. Monte pretty much invented the Tampa 2 and has been a great defensive coordinator at the pro level for decades. Bud Foster implements a little Tampa 2 and has dominated the college level. Both offensive coordinators should be outmatched. I’m worried how Steiny will perform against Monte. But the Hokies do have one huge advantage. VT has been amazing on special teams, and Tennessee just lost their special teams coach. This could mean they pay more attention to it, or it could mean we take advantage of every return, kick, or punt.

As I said before, the strength of both teams is their run game and pass defense. Both offenses live and die by the running backs. Both teams will try and establish a ground game (until Steiny says “screw it let’s throw it deep every play for a quarter”) and both will try to grind out a victory. The Hokies will rely heavily on Ryan Williams as they have all year. Not a bad person to rely on. He’s something like 110 yards from being the single season leading rusher at VT (over Kevin Jones in 2003), he’s 1 TD from tying and 2 TDs from scoring the most TDs in a season the ACC ever. I think he’s close to getting the most rushing yards in a season in the ACC, but this is a half ass effort and I’m not going to look it up. The Hokies will need a huge game from Williams to win this one. Luckily Williams ended the season really hot with 600+ yards in the last 4 games and scoring 4 TDs both of the last two.

Tennessee is lead on offense by Montario Hardesty. Hardesty has 1300 yards and 12 TDs, and has been most of the Vols offense. He has also been great of late and has dominated to close the season. The QB Crompton has been some help (26 TD, 12 INT), but mostly this will be which RB (and line) will have the better day. And unfortunately, the Vols have the better line. They’re bigger, better pro prospects, and only gave up 12 sacks all year. That’s incredible against SEC defenses!
Tennessee’s defense is the reason they are even in a bowl game this year. They are one of the strongest units in the country, and the secondary is possibly the best in the nation. They are led by junior Eric Berry who just won the Thorpe award which goes to the best defensive back in the country. So for those of you counting at home, the Hokies will have played against the best defensive back (Berry), linebacker (McClain from Alabama), and lineman (Suh from Nebraska). When was the last time this happened? You’ll need to find a better journalist for the answer to that question. But yeah, dude is nasty, probably a top 5 pick this year (top 10 at least). The weakness of both defenses is the run defense, especially Tennessee. Their D-line might be their weakest unit on offense or defense. They don’t help stop the run and they don’t get to the QB that often. This is something the Hokies will need to capitalize on in order to win this game.

Blocking a punt wouldn’t hurt either…

Beamerball!

Prediction: 27-21 VT. I bet Ryan Williams gets the VT rushing record and ACC TD record going for 140 yards and 2 TDs. Taylor will need to protect the ball, and special teams and turnovers will probably decide the game.

http://www.123newyear.com/images/category/happy-new-year/happy-new-year004-800.jpg

Hokies Week 13 Blog - Thankful I'm not a Wahoo

2009-11-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

I have a plane to catch in a few hours that will send me home to Alabama for Thanksgiving, so this will be my shortest and most hurried blog yet. Go ahead and count; it’s less than 1000 words!

This is one of my favorite times of the year. I love seeing my family and getting everyone together, I love getting plate after plate of turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, creamed corn, ham, pecan pie, banana pudding, pumpkin pie, and any other dessert that has some sort of descriptive word of what’s in it followed by pie or cake, I love the football, and in particular I love beating UVA. I mean it’s as big of a tradition as the Thanksgiving all day eatathon and Black Friday at this point isn’t it?

Also, one note on Alabama because I think this is ridiculous. They moved the Iron Bowl up to Friday at 2:30 or 3:30. I’m guessing for big TV money or something. But now stores of every kind across the state will be opening up for Black Friday sales at 4 am because they’re worried no one will be out shopping when Alabama and Auburn are playing. I know I’ll be in the front of the lines at 2 am.

http://tech4teens.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/black-friday-lines.jpg

Or I’ll be asleep till noon and do all my Christmas shopping online…

But now onto the preview of the game! To start, it’ll probably be a boring defensive battle. VT has another top 10(ish) defense, and UVA is solid as well. Al Groh brought a 3-4 defense to UVA, which will be only the 2nd time the Hokies have seen this style of defense all year. The first and only look at it was in the opener against Alabama. UVA is very good against the pass and ranks 19th in the nation in pass yards against. Their secondary is one of the strongest units in the ACC just behind VT and Clemson. They also do a decent job getting to the QB and even have more sacks than GT who is always praised for its D-line. Could be a boring low scoring affair.

The good news is that they are one of the worst teams in the ACC against the run.
The 3-4 is designed to be able to bring blitzes and hit zones, and this is a big reason why they can put pressure on the QB. But with only 3 down lineman it can be easy to pick up huge chunks of yardage on the ground by opening up bigger holes and getting more blockers down field if the defense makes a bad read or if they bring pressure from the wrong spots. While UVA was able to contain CJ Spiller last Saturday, in the few games before that they gave up 151 yards to Montel Harris of BC, 152 yards to Graig Cooper of Miami (268 total rushing yards given up that game), and while this isn’t exactly apples to apples, they gave up 362 rush yards against GT. So on paper, it seems like Ryan Williams has a good chance for another big day.

Now let’s look at the other side of the ball. UVA is flat out terrible on offense. Jameel Sewell can be a playmaker at QB with his arm and legs, but he isn’t nearly as good as Russell Wilson. Sewell on the year has thrown for 7 TD and 7 INT and has run for another 6 TD. But like Wilson, Sewell is on his own on offense. They have no running game to speak of and lack any other playmaker. They are 112th in the nation in rushing offense which makes them completely one dimensional. And there are only 4 teams in the nation that have given up more sacks (4!). They are getting sacked on average 4 times a game. The most revealing stat is that UVA has scored more than 21 points just twice this season (neither against ACC opponents).

So how does VT’s defense look against this? Pretty damn good. I really can’t see any way they score more than 10 points that doesn’t involve turnovers and blocked kicks. VT is the 13th in the country in total defense and scoring defense, 2nd in the ACC in sacks at about 3 a game, and 10th in the nation in passing defense. There are playmakers at corner, linebacker, on the line, and even at safety. This seems like a matchup made in heaven, and hopefully Bud Foster has a field day and we force turnover after turnover.

Speaking of turnovers! The Reaper is now 1st in the nation in forced fumbles thanks to 3 in the first 4 offensive plays for NCST! First team all-ACC for an undersized walk-on. You will be missed next year!

Prediction time. We’ve got one team that hasn’t won in 5 years, has won once in the last decade, has a terrible offense with no running game to speak of, gives up a ton of sacks, is susceptible to the run on D, going against a team that is one of the nations best defenses especially against the pass, has one of the premier running backs in the nation, and is coached by a group that has consistently had the program at an elite level. Hmm…

31-10 VT! The Hokies will be too much for the Hoos. Speak of which… Hoo’s your coach next year? Al Groh will be missed around these parts. Hopefully the new guy follows suit of letting us recruit all of Virginia.

There is no way Ryan Williams isn’t the player of the game. But I think Worilds has a big game as well, and people will finally remember how big of an impact he is. I hope we see a repeat of the performance when we took over their field then rolled them 52-14.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/31/65594708_f03f1fc5f1.jpg

Have a happy Thanksgiving and remember give thanks you’re a Hokie!

If you’re curious this was 999 words.

Hokies Week 12 Blog - RW vs. RW

2009-11-18T11:12:00.000-08:00

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.

Hokies Week 11 Blog - College Park Showdown

2009-11-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

There will be a huge showdown this Saturday at 1:00 EST in College Park, Maryland. We will see a matchup of two premier leaders on the football field. Both have prepared a long time for this matchup, and there is a lot of buzz going into this game. Where will you be when Nike and Under Armour throw down!?!?

Both Nike and Under Armour will unveil brand spanking new uniforms this week for the nationally televised VT/Maryland game. Nationally televised on your computer… What? You get good crystal clear coverage on your 11” laptop right? I’ll personally be at the game so I’ll let you know how awesome they are first hand.

But let’s break down this matchup. Nike comes in with all the experience and has been a dominant force for decades while Under Armour is still the new kid on the block. But Under Armour has had a lot of recent success, as it has made a huge splash in its first 15 years. Let’s take a look at some of the personnel between the two teams. Nike has some big time individuals with the likes of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Adrian Peterson, Lebron James, Tom Brady, Roger Federer, Derek Jeter, Larry Fitzgerald, Lance Armstrong, Nolan Ryan, Barry Sanders, Back to the Future, Jerry Rice, Cal Ripken Jr., and Lil Wayne. Under Armour is led by Vernon Davis, Tommy Tubberville, Devin Hester, and that guy who yells a lot (and his creepy roided up younger version). How about a comparison of slogan? Again the edge goes to Nike with the simple but effective “Just Do It.” But how could Under Armour compete with “Click Clack”?

But enough about the history, what will be hitting the field on Saturday? Nike unveiled it’s second Pro Combat Uniform line at Virginia Tech last week (TCU was first) with a huge presentation done by the folks at Nike which brought Antonio Freeman and Bruce Smith into Blacksburg. They even rode in a huge motorcade with Frank Beamer to the unveiling. And the crowd of 100 went wild as Tyrod Taylor and Cody Grimm stepped out of a locker or something wearing these bad boys:

http://hamptonroads.com.nyud.net/2009/11/battle-brands
(you can click any image to make them bigger)

Nike’s theme for these is “Good guys wear white,” which is going against the blackout at Maryland. These are pretty snazzy uniforms for the most part, and I like how for the most part they look clean but are still edgy. I even like the two different width stripes on the helmet. Also, they are top of the line in terms of the science and engineering behind making football uniforms. According to Nike they are much lighter than the previous uniforms because the jersey material is 23% lighter, the pants material is 49% lighter and material wicks water away to make them 46% lighter than our old uniforms when wet. Also, they have improved ventilation and are more durable.

http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/usnikefootball/en_US/rivalries09?school=vt&tab=uniform

The shoes are also state of the art and have so many improvements I won’t go into them.

http://friendsoftheprogram.net/2009/11/13/a-closer-look-at-nike-pro-combat-virginia-tech/

And the finishing touch are the Nike gloves:

http://friendsoftheprogram.net/2009/11/13/a-closer-look-at-nike-pro-combat-virginia-tech/

I’m not a fan of all the ridiculous wording on the jerseys though. Throughout the jersey there are VT sayings like Ut Prosim and Beamerball, which along with the wire mesh shoulder pads take away from the overall clean look. But they are designed to look fast and I think that is accomplished, and these uniforms are growing on me.
So what are Nike and the Hokies going up against? Under Armour is breaking out two new uniforms for Maryland and South Carolina this weekend. And what awesome new features and fresh looks are they providing? None… Yep, they’re pretty much the same jerseys as before with three small changes.

http://www.usnews.com/dbimages/master/13170/FE_DA_091020whispers-underarmour-commitment.jpg

Yes, those are camo sleeves. They’re rocking a black and desert camo uniform on Sat. And they’re going to wear camo cleats as well:

http://www.usnews.com/dbimages/master/13171/FE_DA_091020whispers-underarmour-cleats.jpg

And I’m sure that you're just like me and said “Ha, that’s lame, are the fans going to do a camo out too? They’re hard to see at home games to begin with!” But then you’ll feel like an asshole like I did. The little patch on the sleeves that you probably missed is for the Wounded Warriors Project. Under Armour teamed up with these guys to help spread the word to help push for legislation to pass to help soldiers injured after 9/11 in games near the DC (apparently rumors the Vice President and other big time congressmen might show up for the game) and on a primetime nationally televised game (Florida/South Carolina).

The only other change to the uniform is on the back, instead of having each player’s name, they will be replaced by a military word like “duty” and “honor.” The changes made to modify the uniform for Maryland is probably a fraction of the cost that went into making the VT one (and the 9 others that Nike will display throughout the rest of the season). So how do the two matchup? Virginia Tech’s Nike Pro Combat Uniform vs Maryland’s Under Armour Wounded Warrior Uniform.

Under Armour wins by a mile… Yes, Nike’s uniform is better looking. Yes, it is a better uniform to play football in. But Under Armour has the intangibles. Who cares if the VT uni has Ut Prosim “that I may serve”? It’s still just a bad matchup. Nike Pro Combat vs. Under Armour Wounded Warriors… Doesn’t that just sound terrible? Great move by Under Armour and a great cause. There will even be veterans doing the coin toss and halftime festivities promoting the cause.

Oh, there’s also a football game on Saturday… I’ll take Virginia Tech over a Maryland team that is 96th in scoring offense (20.8 points a game), and 98th in scoring defense (32 points a game). There is a lot of talk that this game will be really close, but I just don’t see it. Teams that run the ball well, destroy Maryland. Maryland really hasn’t stopped anyone on offense, and their best offensive player, QB Chris Turner, will be out due to a sprained MCL. The only way we lose this is if all the negative karma we have due to the uniforms takes over.

VT wins 38-13. Ryan Williams will run all over them and be the player of the game. Apparently I’m a broken record… Maybe I should start picking the 2nd Best Player of the Game! 2BPotG goes to Rashad Carmichael. I think that between Carmichael and Virgil, we get 2 or 3 picks and 1 for a TD.

Hokies Week 10 Blog - Controversial Conference Rankings

2009-11-04T07:36:00.001-08:00

So who’s ready for some Hokies basketball now?

http://www2.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/Virginia+Tech+v+Wake+Forest+oLhNA5N7hZdl.jpg

Basketball season kicks off on Sun, Nov 15, and I wanted to give you a quick preview of what to expect this season now that I’ve given up on football. Just kidding. This can still be a good season for the football team, and I’ll continue to blog about the Hokies even though I really didn’t want to last Thursday and Friday. So here we go with a controversial conference ranking.

Straight up, I’m tired of everyone shitting on the ACC conference saying it’s the worst conference in the league. What basis do you have to make this claim? Is it the fact that Duke, UVA, and Maryland lost to Richmond, William & Mary, and Middle Tennessee State? Or is it the fact that we have no national champion contender again? Maybe it’s because week after week, we beat ourselves? But really, the worst out of the 6 power conferences?

Well unlike these people that like to spread their speculative non-sense, I’m giving you the facts! Yes they are somewhat subjective (honest, I’m trying not to be), but the facts are still there. So let’s go over a few details before we dive right in.

First, I am not writing about the Hokies this week, because frankly I don’t want to. Last Thursday, they completely demoralized me. The Hokies did, not UNC (but as advertised their defense is very good). The whole team just looked bad, and there isn’t just one thing to blame. Let’s take a look at my Recipe for Success from last week: 1) No turnovers – two very costly fumbles that at first set the tone for the game, and then just ended it. 2) Limit the penalties – a pointless holding penalty cost us a TD, 3) Make them throw on us – they had 181 rushing yards and only 131 passing yards (although they did throw on us in the red zone for 2 TD), 4) Protect Tyrod – the line actually held its own against a great defensive front for UNC, yes it could have been better, but seriously Tyrod just throw the ball away instead of running around in the backfield for 10 seconds, 5) Big plays from Tyrod – he was only 11/23 for 161 yards and -8 rushing yards, and his longest play was a 22 yard pass. So there you go, that’s why we lost.

Ok, I lied, one more thing about the Hokies. The only thing that I liked about the game against UNC was Tyrod being a leader. Even if he made a few bad throws and danced around in the pocket a bit too much, he still drove us down the field on our big TD drives. And more importantly, I think, when Williams fumbled to basically seal the deal for UNC, Tyrod was the first to put an arm around him, walk him off the field, and encourage him. This is a favorable matchup against ECU this week and we should run all over them Marshall style. Hopefully Ryan Williams has recovered mentally.

Second, getting back on track, the best way I could think to rate conferences is record against other “good” teams. I started by looking at records against BCS at large teams. So I looked up every conferences record against the ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-10, and SEC. I also sprinkled in a few other teams that we’ll say are BCS buster types. Those teams are Notre Dame, Houston, TCU, Utah, BYU, and Boise St. So we’ll consider only these as “good” teams. I considered Central Michigan and Navy, but after last week’s games I decided against it.

Third, another thing I tracked was inexcusable losses. What I mean by this is what we’ll call an “ACC loss” (see first paragraph). The ACC wasn’t the only conference doing this; just ask Colorado and the Big 12.

Finally, there are a few things I did not consider. I did not consider conference games. Does it matter that Washington beat USC, Illinois beat Michigan, or that Maryland somehow beat Clemson? I mean does that really make the conference worse? I also don’t consider national championship contenders. The past few years I might have considered it, but this is such a mediocre year in college football that I’m just tossing this out altogether. Another reason for this is because the SEC is about the only conference that has legitimate contenders this year in my opinion and I have them ranked 1st anyway. Texas can go out and play someone if they want consideration…

So without further ado, here’s my Controversial Conference Rankings!

1) SEC (7-5 against BCS, 1 inexcusable loss) – I hate to reward a team with my #1 ranking when it has by far the weakest out of conference schedule of any BCS conference, but you can’t overlook the fact that Florida, Alabama, and LSU are all ranked in the top 10, and that the winner of the 3 will play for the national championship. But after that, there are only a handful of good teams: South Carolina, Tennessee, and maybe Georgia, Ole Miss, or Auburn. Also, Florida and Ole Miss have yet to play another BCS team out of conference, and only Mississippi State has played more than 1. That’s just terrible… By comparison, every ACC, Big East, and Pac-10 team have played at least one non-conference game against a good opponent. Man up SEC!

Big Wins: Bama over VT, Auburn over WVU, Georgia over Arizona State, and Arkansas over Texas A&M.

Bad Losses: Tennessee losing at home to a UCLA team that hasn’t won a single game in the Pac-10 and an inexcusable loss for Vandy against Army.

2) Pac-10 (8-8, 1 inexcusable loss) – The gap between the Pac-10 and the SEC is closer than most people think. Could Florida and Alabama beat Oregon and USC right now? I’m actually not so sure. And unlike the SEC, the Pac-10 doesn’t have such a dramatic drop off. Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, and Arizona are all good teams. Plus Washington, Arizona State, and UCLA might be better than the likes of Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt. But Washington State is just atrocious. You know what else!? The Pac-10 has gone out and played 16 good opponents compared to 12 for the SEC with two less teams. I should have put them #1 just to send a message…

Big Wins: USC over Ohio State and Notre Dame, Oregon over Purdue and Utah, and UCLA over Tennessee in Knoxville. Yes I realized that this mostly only comes from 2 teams.

Bad Losses: Stanford’s loss to Wake Forest isn’t horrible, but Wake might not even make a bowl game, and Washington State lost an inexcusable game to Hawaii at home.

3) Big East (5-8, 0 inexcusable losses) – I guess you could argue that the way Cincinnati is playing, gives the Big East a national championship contender, but I’m not buying it. Yes they are undefeated, yes they have looked great doing it, but your signature wins are against Oregon State and Fresno State. And Fresno’s not even a state! But this is conference ranks. And the Big East more than anyone else has won the games they are supposed to, and don’t have any huge slip ups. They’re also going out and playing a lot of good non-conference games at 13. And with only 8 teams in the Big East they have more “good” non-conference games per team than any other BCS conference. That said they haven’t been against the best teams…

Big Wins: Cincy over Oregon State, and South Florida over Florida State. See those are the best of the 5 wins.

Bad Losses: The worst would be NCST giving Pitt its only loss. There are no inexcusable losses.

4) ACC (9-10, 4 inexcusable losses) – This is the point I’m getting to, the ACC isn’t afraid to play anyone! Year after year, the ACC plays the most non-conference games against BCS schools and good opponents. And when they do, they do alright. This year I would say there are probably 8 good teams in the ACC, which is more than any other conference with my biased counting (there might be 8 in the SEC as well). The ACC Coastal by itself is 6-3 against good non-conference teams! The problem this year is the massive amount of embarrassing losses from the likes of Maryland, Wake, UVA, and Duke. That’s what drops the ACC below the Big East in these rankings even with significantly more big wins.

Big Wins: Miami over Oklahoma, Florida State over BYU, Virginia Tech over Nebraska, Wake Forest over Stanford, UNC over UCONN, NCST over Pitt for its only loss, Georgia Tech over Mississippi State, and UVA crushing Indiana and giving them their biggest loss of the year. The ACC has the most big non-conference wins, but who cares about that right? The ACC sucks!

Bad Losses: So yeah here’s where it gets ugly. UVA losing to William & Mary and Southern Miss, Duke losing to Richmond, Maryland losing to MTSU, and Wake losing to Navy and Baylor (wouldn’t be too bad if Baylor had won a single conference game).

5) Big Ten (5-8, 1 inexcusable loss) – So looking at the Big Ten from afar you might say to yourself 5 wins, 8 losses, only 1 inexcusable loss, Iowa as a national champion contender, this is a good conference. That is far from true the deeper you dig. Their 5 wins are against Notre Dame, Arizona, Syracuse twice, and Iowa State. And while they only have 1 loss I deem inexcusable, they have 3 really bad ones on top of that. Throw in the fact that Iowa is a threat to lose every week, and this conference starts to look a little soft. Somehow 4 teams are ranked from the Big Ten! Getting ranked for no reason, now that’s Big Ten football!

Big Wins: Michigan over Notre Dame, and Iowa over Oregon State.

Bad Losses: Indiana getting killed by UVA, Syracuse beating Northwestern, Michigan State losing to Central Michigan, and the inexcusable Purdue losing to Northern Illinois.

6) Mountain West (5-10, 4 inexcusable losses) – I’m shocked myself! I ran the numbers and the Big 12 is actually that bad. No point in wasting time too much time on the Mountain West, but TCU won at UVA and at Clemson, Utah killed Louisville, and BYU beat Oklahoma. Also Colorado State stepped up and beat Colorado as well. Their bottom feeders have a lot of bad losses, so no need to dig into it, but just know the Mountain West won more games against good non-conference teams than the Big 12 and played more good non-conference games than the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, and Big East. Props to the Mountain West and hopefully TCU busts up some of these teams in a BCS game.

7) The Texas Conference, wait sorry, Big 12 (4-10, 3 inexcusable losses) – It’s hard to believe how far the Big 12 has fallen. They are apparently the new Pac-10. And don’t get me wrong, I think Texas, Oklahoma, OKST, Texas Tech, and maybe even Texas A&M and Nebraska are all good teams, but they really haven’t shown it at all. I mean for a conference that was supposed to compete with the SEC for best overall, what happened? The only teams that won a good non-conference game were Oklahoma State, Kansas, Missouri, and Baylor. And just look below who those were against! And yes, that means Texas did not and will not play a good non-conference game all season. No wonder they’re undefeated…

All wins: These aren’t even that good, but anyway… Oklahoma State over Georgia, Kansas over Duke, Missouri over Illinois, and Baylor over Wake Forest. Everyone else played scrubs or lost! The conference’s 2nd best non-conference win was Duke!

Bad Losses: Kansas State is winning the Big 12 North and lost two of its first three games to UCLA and Louisiana-Lafayette, Colorado lost its first two to Colorado State and Toledo. And Oklahoma lost two games there were the favorite in against Miami and BYU.

http://nbcsportsmedia2.msnbc.com/j/apmegasports/200709291739635761210-pf.widec.jpg

In summary, we shouldn’t play in a system that rewards teams for playing nobodies non-conference. Does Texas really deserve to be #2 when they have played weak non-conference games, and the good teams they have beaten haven’t performed this season? Oh well, with secret voting ballots, rewarding teams that will bring a lot of fans and revenue over teams that you know actually perform, and officials who make calls that seemingly benefit any championship contender, what do you expect? I mean everyone has made it completely obvious that no team outside of the SEC, Big 12, USC, or the state of Florida has a chance to win the national championship. Come on basketball! At least there’s a tournament there…

Hokies Week 9 Blog - UNC's Spooky Defense

2009-10-28T12:19:00.001-07:00

Before we get started, Happy Halloween!!! Carve up a pumpkin and get your costumes ready, it’s the Halloween Hokies Blog!

No reference needed, I'm that good.

If you need a last minute college football costume idea, I’m here for you. Pat Forde also did this, but I promise I was giving these ideas out before his article hit ESPN. The only overlap was an SEC official and the Tebow one (but mine’s a little more offensive). So if you haven’t found a costume yet here’s what I suggest. My favorite is Lou Holtz. Dress up in ND gear, big, thick glasses, say the most ridiculous semi-related-to-football-but-not-at-all sayings like “the key to winning in college football is surrounding yourself with people that love you,” and spit on people all night. “Thhwick or Thweat” just rolls off the tongue and dribbles down the chin. I do like the SEC ref one (ref outfit, Florida shirt underneath, throw flags at people behaving well), but since Forde beat me too it (like I compete with him for readers…), I’ll let him have it. But unlike his Tebow idea (ice pack, bruised up, and halo), I say go all out! The Gator of God, Jesus Tebow! This could get offensive fast, so I’ll leave it up to your imagination and let you do this at your own discretion. But if you want to be a little more PC, you could go with Nun Tebow which my roommate just suggested. The Cody Grimm Reaper, LaGarrette Blount, Joe Paterno, Charlie Weis, and Ralph Friedgen are all fun, easy options as well. Or you could be Cavman. Wear an orange and navy jump suit with a cape and goofy hat, get a saber, but most importantly you need a horse on a stick and put your arm in a sling and tell people all night how football isn’t important to you and that education, wearing suits, and drinking cosmos are. Silly Virginia Tech serfs, let them have their football.

http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?p=4377082

This has been a scary year in college football. And just for in time for Halloween, here are the scariest things so far: the Darren Evan pre-season injury, the Hokies strength of schedule, the chaos that will ensue after the final BCS standings when you have 6 undefeated teams left, the fact that regardless of who goes to the national championship game 95% of the people who watch college football will think it’s the wrong choice, that there are 3 teams in the ACC coastal that could win the Big 10, but the ACC is still regarded as the worst conference, the hype Tebow and McCoy are still getting for the Heisman even though they have been far from outstanding, Dr. Lou, Notre Dame and Ohio State/Penn State could get undeserved at large BCS bids over teams like TCU and Boise State, horrible, horrible officiating especially in the biggest SEC games, the complete mediocrity of even the best teams this year, how bad preseason rankings are and how much weight they carry to this point, teaching your players illegal blocking then mouthing off to the classiest coach in college football who brought it up as a safety issue (I said it!), the same intro songs all season featuring Dave Matthews, the fat Mitch Hedberg looking guy who does the ACC one, and every country music singer, the fact that the Hokies are relying on two teams from North Carolina to upset GT and spring us to the ACC Championship game, Tyrod Taylor has the 4th best passer rating in the country, announcers across the country, and Holly Rowe.

But here’s something I’m not scared of at all: losing to UNC tomorrow night!

The defense is actually pretty scary. They are very talented upfront and at linebacker, and the secondary is pretty good too. They are the best defensive line as a whole the Hokies have faced. They don’t have freaks on the line such as Terrence Cody, Ndemakong Suh, Derrick Morgan, or any of the other outstanding linemen the Hokies O-line has battled, but top to bottom they are stacked. They are all big and fast. And they’re led by outstanding defensive end, Robert Quinn. This kid really gets after the QB. He has 30 tackles, 11 for a loss, which includes 7 sacks. He also has 5 hurries and 3 forced fumbles. The linebackers are just as good with Quan Sturdivant being the anchor of the entire D. He leads the team in tackles with 48, has 8.5 tackles for a loss, 2 forced fumbles and returned one for a TD. He’ll be playing for big time money soon.

This means that UNC is poised to stop the run. I’m not saying they will, but they have the personnel to do it for sure. However, they have been giving up big plays in the passing game all year. In their game against Florida State a week ago, UNC gave up 395 yards in the air to Ponder and couldn’t stop an 18 point comeback that started midway through the 3rd quarter. And so far this season Tyrod has been great! He’s 4th in the country in passer rating at 159.9. You take away the batted ball interception and hail marry against GT and he’s probably 2nd or 3rd. And he’s a QB at VT! So far this season, he has the highest rating a VT QB has had since Jon Strock. Also, our receivers are raw and the UNC secondary will be overmatched. I’m not saying we are going to light up the scoreboard, but we will get our touchdowns!

So let’s take a look at the matchup between UNC’s offense and our defense. If UNC’s defense is scary, their offense is like Casper. Coming into this year everyone was hyping how good their passing attack would be with Yates, Little, and their freshman WR weapon, Highsmith. They also have a great 1-2 punch in the backfield with Draughn and Houston. But here’s the thing, their offensive line sucks! It’s absolutely atrocious. Think back the last few years at the Hokies offensive lines and how bad they were. This one is so much worse! Because of this, their running backs aren’t pounding it on the round game, and Yates simply doesn’t have time to find his open receivers. This has led to 8 interceptions with 7 TDs, and they are giving up 2.5 sacks a game.

Here’s a quick look at how their offense has done against teams that get a BCS bid. This eliminates the routes of the Citadel, East Carolina, and Georgia Southern (which I thought was an energy provider…). The games you are left with are a win over UCONN, and losses to GT, UVA, and FSU. In the UCONN game, UNC scored a whopping 12 points on 268 yards in a game they somehow won (holding penalty in the endzone for the safety for the final score). Against GT they scored 7 points on 154 yards. Against UVA, 3 points with 174 yards. They did have a somewhat respectable game against FSU scoring 27 points with 333 yards. But that’s actually one of the better defensive performances FSU has had all season. That’s an average of 12 points and 232 total yards a game. If you throw in their garbage games, they’re still averaging less than 300 yards a game and are ranked 114th in total offense! There is only one BCS conference team below them. Any guesses? It’s UVA. Go ACC! Moral of the story: they are terrible. And we are the best defense they will face this season.

Just one last note before moving on. I rarely talk about special teams, but I wanted to point out that Dyrell Roberts is #1 in the nation in kick return average with over 40 yards per return. Suck on that C.J. Spiller. On to the Recipe for Success!

Recipe for Success:

1) No turnovers – So far this season we have been good about not giving the ball up, and UNC has been bad at forcing turnovers (and great at giving it away), but turnovers hurt in our last game, and they are the only way UNC has a chance in this game.

2) Limit the penalties – This is something we have been pretty bad at the last few games. They need to play smarter on both sides of the ball and quit getting in a bad position because of a foolish penalty.

3) Make Yates throw on us – Their pass game has been just dreadful this season, so shut down Draughn and Houston early and make them throw it. It’ll lead to turnovers and three-and-outs.

4) Protect Tyrod – UNC has a great front 7, so the offensive line and other blockers really need to step it up and protect our QB. And if they can do this it will lead to…

5) Big plays from Tyrod – They are going to stack the box and in all likelyhood they will shut down Williams to a larger extent than any game leading into this one. Taylor will need to make big plays with his arm and feet in this game to win.

Prediction:

UNC is just bad on offense… Couple that with the fact that this is the only night game in Blacksburg, we destroy people any time of day there, we’ve had an extra week to prepare, we’re out for blood after the GT game, Virgil, Williams, Graves (who was literally chopped down at the ankle against GT), and everyone else has had more time to recover, we’ve always owned Butch Davis, this is the best offense VT has had in years, we own Thursday nights, and Brent Bowden is going to pump up the crowd by playing Enter Sandman then the entire game could play out like the first half against BC. But I’ll give credit to their defense.

Hokies win 27-10. I’m about 90% sure the player of the game will be Tyrod Taylor in this one. It’ll be too hard to come by rush yards. I guess Worilds could get like 4 sacks, but I still like Tyrod.

Hokies Week 8 Blog – Tebow already awarded Heisman?

2009-10-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

With the Hokies off this week, I thought I would take the opportunity to go through the players I think deserve the Heisman. Plus I don’t really want to get into how GT outcoached, outplayed, outpayed the refs, and demoralized us.

The Heisman trophy is awarded to “the most outstanding player in collegiate football.” I assume when they originally decided on giving out this award they meant outstanding as in “standing out among others of its kind,” “prominent,” and “superior.” But with the hype so far this season for the same old faces of McCoy, Tebow, and Bradford (not as much anymore with the shoulder injury), maybe they mean outstanding as in “still in existence” or “unresolved.” How about the voters forget the hype of preseason and performances of last year and pick from the players that are setting themselves apart this year! Where is the mention of Dion Lewis, Mark Ingram, the amazing Ryan Williams, Ryan Matthews, or A.J. Green? Or any defenders like Ndemkong Suh, Relondo McClain, Gerald McCoy, Jerry Hughes, Adrian Clayborn, or Tyler Sash? Actually where is the mention of any non-SEC/Big12 QB? When did this become the best QB in college football award? And the way things are going why not just hand it out preseason?

Oh wait. They did? They already handed it out? Don't they know there's 6 weeks to play? Ladies and gentlemen, everyone congratulate the 2009 Heisman winner, Tim "the Second Coming" Tebow! Don't worry that's not blasphemous, because it's his second Heisman. That's what I was going for... They said the same about Archie Griffin I'm pretty sure.

http://haskinsadoption.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/tebow.jpg

If I were a voter, I would actually evaluate each player and breakdown why they should be awarded this most prestigious of awards. To do this, I would look at each player from three angles:

1) Is this player replaceable? – To be the most outstanding player you have to be one of a kind. How would his team do without him? For example, I think Colt McCoy is a great QB, but so far this season I think Texas is still undefeated without him. Texas is winning on defense this year and just getting it done on offense. Maybe Sergio Kindle, Sam Acho, and Earl Thomas should get more love from the Heisman voters as they have been just as important as McCoy in Texas’ success so far.
2) Are the stats impressive? – While they can be misleading, stats are still a good way to help gauge a player’s outstandingness. The likes of Colt Brennan and any Texas Tech quarterback in recent history have put up outstanding statistics, but a lot of that is the team’s scheme. Also, do the big games come in garbage games? Some stats are more impressive than others.
3) Would I want this player at the next level? – This question I would weigh less than the other two, but to put it frankly would I want the Tennessee Titans to take this player #1 overall next year? (If you saw the game against the Patriots where the two Titans QBs put up a performance of 2/14 for -7 yards, 3 INTs, and 3 fumbles in a 59-0 blowout, you’d agree they’ll pick at least in the top 3). And you do have to take this with a grain of salt since the NFL values raw and physical talent, but still would you say Troy Smith is more outstanding than Darren McFadden, Steve Slaton, Ray Rice, or Calvin Johnson? Because he won the Heisman by a landslide.

So with these three questions in mind who would I vote for? Heisman voters get three votes, but I need way more than that. But keep in mind, my ballot would only list my top 3. But for your reading pleasure I’ve listed the top 10 most outstanding players in the country.

1) Jimmy Clausen (Notre Dame) – I really hate to say anything good about Notre Dame, but Clausen meets all my criteria. He is absolutely irreplaceable. ND probably wouldn’t even make a bowl game without him, and they could win 10 games and go to a BCS game this year. He is statistically the best QB I’m considering with 1804 yards, 65% completion, 14 TD, and only 2 INT with a QB rating of 166.4. And I think he could play well at the next level. Plus, he’s doing this against decent teams.

http://nbcsportsmedia1.msnbc.com/j/NBCSports/Components/Photo-Sports/September/080905_JimmyClausen_h.h2.jpg

2) Mark Ingram (Alabama) – With McElroy being relatively quiet in Alabama’s big games, Mark Ingram has carried the load. In games against VT and SEC opponents, Ingram has rushed for more than 140 yards and at least 1 TD in every game except the win over Arkansas. He was held in check that game but still found the end zone twice. He is currently 3rd in rush yards with 906, is averaging 6.7 yards per carry and has 8 TDs. While the defense for the Tide is carrying the team, without Ingram they could be a two loss team.
3) Ndamukong Suh (Nebraska) – There are a couple reasons I’m putting Suh here: I don’t like how the Heisman is never a defensive player, Suh is a one man wrecking ball, and I don’t want Tebow in my top 3. Nebraska isn’t nearly the defense it is without Suh. He stops the run up the middle (36 tackles, 7.5 for a loss), gets after the QB (3 sacks, 5 hurries), and bats the ball down (7 pass deflections and 1 INT). And all from the nose tackle! Bottom line, there isn’t a single other player like Suh, he is truly one of a kind.
4) Tim Tebow (Florida) – Tebow is a really good college football player and will probably win the Heisman if Florida goes undefeated. Like Suh he is one of a kind. Without Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy, the offense is solely on Tebow. And so far he has produced. By produced I mean squeaked by Tennessee, Arkansas, and LSU. Since when has just getting the job done been so outstanding? But, he has completed 65.6% of his passes, has 8 passing TDs, only 2 INTs, and a QB rating of 164.6. He also has 63 yards per game rushing with 5 TD. But I think if Florida goes undefeated, it will be because of their #1 defense in the country. Slow dual threat QBs don’t typically do well at the next level either. Just ask the Hefty Lefty Jared Lorenzen.

http://thenastyboys.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/3dc8b4688d957-53-1.jpg

5) Ryan Williams (Virginia Tech) – When Darren Evans went down, everyone thought that VT’s running game was in trouble. Not me! I knew Ryan Williams would be a stud. Through 7 games, Williams has 999 total yards and is averaging 6 yards per carry. He also has 11 TDs and has opened up the passing game for Tyrod Taylor, something Evans couldn’t do last year.
6) Ryan Matthews (Fresno St) – With 974 rushing yards, Ryan Matthews is leading the country, and he hasn’t been held below 100 yards yet. Take him out of the offense and Fresno State isn’t competing with the likes of Boise State, Wisconsisn, and Cincinnati. Matthews is averaging a ridiculous 7.4 yards per carry, and ran for 234 yards and 3 TD with an average of 12.3 per rush against the same Boise State team that held LeGarrette Blount to -5 yards.
7) Tony Pike (Cincinnati) – Cincinnati has come out firing, and is surprisingly undefeated. Tony Pike has carried his team on his back with victories over Rutgers, Oregon State, Fresno State, and South Florida. Pike has completed 64.3% of his passes for 1633 yards, 15 TDs, and only 3 INT. He has a passer rating of 155.1, but his value to his team could be revealed in the next few games if his wrist doesn’t heal in a hurry.
8) Case Keenum (Houston) – Keenum is leading the country in yards (2462) and TDs (19) by a decent margin. He is also leading Houston to a great season with wins over Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and Mississippi State. Even in Houston’s lone loss to UTEP, Keenum threw for 536 yards and 5 TD. He’s likely to throw for over 5000 yards and 40 TDs again this season, but the competition just isn’t there.
9) Dion Lewis (Pitt) – Freshman running back Dion Lewis has already racked up 918 yards this season (2nd in the country). He also has 10 TDs and has carried Pitt to a 6-1 start. The running could get a little tougher with USF, WVU, and Cincinnati still to come.
10) Jacory Harris (Miami) – Jacory Harris has led Miami to the Top 10 for the first time in a long time. Without him, Miami is probably 2-4. The reason he isn’t higher than 10 is that his stats aren’t overly flashy: 1518 yards, 11 TD, 7 INTs, with a rating of 157.3. But with the remaining schedule for Miami, Harris has the best chance to put up good numbers and climb up the Heisman rankings.

Runners up: Tyler Sash or Adrian Clayborn (Iowa, DB or DE), A.J. Green (Georgia, WR), Toby Gerhart (Stanford, RB), Ryan Mallet (Arkansas, QB), Jerry Hughes (TCU, DL). No, Colt McCoy isn’t in my top 15…

Hokies Week 7 Blog - Option Offense, Optional Defense

2009-10-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

To begin, last week was the most complete game I have seen VT play in years. The Hokies handed it to the Boston College (finally) in every facet of the game. It was a beautiful thing to watch once I woke up, I still had sleep my eyes for a noon kickoff. How are you supposed to get a reasonable tailgate in before noon?!?! Anyway, I won’t go too much into the game since it was so one-sided but here are a few highlights: We put up 441 yards on a decent defense (a better defense than we’ll see this week, oh snap!). BC had a total of 3 yards in the first half. 3!!! That’s 5 inches per play. Ryan Williams (182 yards, 1 TD) and Tyrod Taylor (7/10, 126 yards, 2 TD) both had great days and were rewarded with an early exit in the 3rd quarter once we were up by three dozen points. Ju Ju Clayton competed his first career pass, an 80 yard bomb to Marcus Davis (who caught his first career pass, an 80 yard bomb from Ju Ju Clayton). By the way, that gives Clayton a QB rating of 220.4 for his college career. David Wilson found the endzone for the first time since the Marshall explosion. We got 3 takeaways with Carmichael grabbing an INT and going 22 yards for a TD. We held their starting QB, Old Man Shinskie to 1/12 for 4 yards with 2 INTs. (Also I missed in the drinking game any baseball reference towards Shinskie by the announcers such as “high heat,” thanks to Andy for that one). So yes, a complete game! After all these years! It feels so good, that I don’t want to look forward to next week.

And why wouldn’t I want to do that? Because last game was so good, let’s just enjoy it for a little while. Because either way, me or the Fabulous and Wonderful Little Lady (who graciously proof reads these, and I left a few editorial notes in for this one) will be angry after the game is over. And because Georgia Tech runs the triple option which is a slightly gimmicky offense, but it is very effective. It’s actually a pretty old offense, but the teams that ran it decades before didn’t have QBs as good as Nesbitt or WRs as good as Demaryius “Bay-Bay” Thomas. Seriously, back to back y-i in your name? Nice… The problem is there isn’t too much you can do to prepare for it. You just need all your defenders to play their role and cover their man. And because of this, whoever ends up with the ball for GT will have basically a 1 on 1 battle with a defender to make a big play. That is if Paul Johnson’s guys up front for GT can effectively chop block the line without it being called for a penalty. Expect GT to hand out chop blocks left and right, but if you can’t get one, you can buy one online at ramblinwreckstore.com “where we celebrate cheating, potentially career ending blocking”:

http://images.footballfanatics.com/productImages/_361000/FF_361565_l.jpg

(LL editorial note 1: We learned our cheating ways from UGA. If you don’t cheat a little against them then they’ll definitely win. Also at least we don’t purposefully step on people like a QB did at lesser technical school…)

With this system, you can see how GT is averaging 277 rush yards a game (4th in the nation). But unlike last season, GT has been able to make some big passes off play action. Thomas already has 620 yards and 4 TDs, and that’s only off 26 receptions. This has made GT’s offense that much more potent this season. In their last two games, GT has scored 42 and 49 points against Mississippi State and Florida State. And in those two games they have averaged around 500 yards. They didn’t even have to punt against FSU! It doesn’t matter how good of a defense they are going against, they are going to make a few big plays and score TDs. They have too many skill players not too. Dwyer, Nesbitt, Thomas, Allen, and even Hill who has been mostly quiet this season all have the ability to take the ball 30+ yards and score. And they’re going up against a defense that so far has been inconsistent and has given up big plays on the ground and through the air.

So if they are going to score a lot against us what can we do? Well we’ll just have to score more! Remember when I said GT has put up around 500 yards per game the last 2 games against MSU and FSU? Well MSU and FSU have put up an average of 515 yards against GT! They didn’t stop the run or pass in either game with both MSU and FSU going for more than 200 yards in each category. Aside from UNC and a Periloux-less Jacksonville State, they haven’t stopped anything. Well, Derrick Morgan has stopped to take a breather quite a bit. And everyone is stopping UNC these days. The secondary was supposed to be the strength of the defense this season with Butler and Burnett, but they have given up big plays throughout the year. Derrick “Give me some oxygen” Morgan has gotten a lot of sacks, but hasn’t made the line as strong as expected. The defense is good as creating turnovers, but that’s about it so far. Duke might have a better defense. Duke!

So what does Virginia Tech need to do to win the game? On offense, they just need to keep doing what they’re doing. Since the miracle pass to Coale in the Nebraska game, the Hokies offense has been on fire. They have been running and passing all over the competition, and have shown that even if you can shut out Ryan Williams and the running game for 3 quarters, Tyrod will pass all over you and eventually the running game will wear you out. Another key is that we have to continue to hold onto the ball and not turn it over. We’ve done great so far this year, but you can’t afford turnovers to a team like GT.

On defense, they simply need to play assignment football and wrap up the ball carriers. GT will probably have some big plays. I mean, I can already see Chancellor biting on the run and getting burned deep a few times, but hopefully Carmichael will be in Thomas’ pocket all game. I can also see Chancellor biting on the run, but the wrong one… And I can say the same for our interior LBs Barquell Rivers and Jake Johnson. But there is good news! All three of our “give up the big play” defenders are way better at stopping the run than pass. And that’s the key to beating GT. Plus, even if they do misplay a few downs, you know Cody Grimm “the Reaper” will be there to clean up the mess. He could end up with 20+ tackles this game! And even with Thomas at WR, Nesbitt is still an iffy passer at best. He’s pulling a Reggie Ball and just heaving it towards Thomas hoping he makes the play. And occasionally he’s heaving it to the defense or 20 yards past his receiver. Dude is only completing 50% of his passes and most of those are the screens they run. Actually 3.4% of his passes are going to the defense, compared to 0.9% for Tyrod. (LL editorial note 2: He’s a thousand times better than Ball…I hate that guy.) Miami shut down GT’s offense with their speed. Clemson shut out GT for 3 quarters. It can be done! And I’m not saying we will, but VT has the personnel to do it. Our line is quick and nasty, our linebackers and safeties specialize in stopping the run, and our corners are good tacklers. It just comes down to winning each 1 on 1 battle. And that brings us to the Recipe for Success! Also, I have a sweet recipe for Apple BBQ Pork Tenderloin at the end of this if you’re interested. Because I’ve discovered a new hobby – brining.

Recipe for Success:

1) Keep it up Stiney! – for the 2nd week in a row, my recipe for offense success is to keep doing what it’s doing. If Stiney can dial up another good game plan, GT will be unlikely to stop the run or pass based on how both teams have played the last few games.
2) No Turnovers – We absolutely can not afford to turn the ball over against GT, they are good at taking the ball away and are good at making the team pay for it.
3) Get up early – Miami won because GT got down 2 scores and had to start throwing the ball. While Thomas is a playmaker, GT doesn’t want to throw the ball often.
4) Win your 1 on 1 battle – the key to stopping this team flat out is stopping the man you’re assigned. And if that man has the ball you must take him down because you might not have another line of defense.
5) Cover Thomas deep – Carmichael will have his hands full this weekend, as I think Thomas might be the best receiver we play this year (maybe 2nd to Julio). He is certainly the best in the ACC. And at a triple option GT, weird right? Also, Thomas has 26 of 37 catches for the team, so I wouldn’t worry about them throwing to anyone else.

Final score: 38 - 24 VT. Player of the game: Cody Grimm with 39 tackles, 12 tackles for a loss, 2 FF, and 1 FR. Or maybe I should just go with Ryan Williams again… It has been the safest bet of the year. Nah! Give me the REAPER!

There is no more football talk from here.

Recipe for Apple BBQ Pork Loin:

Get a nice tasty pork loin. It is very important to rinse it and pat it dry if you plan on brining. Then put it in a storage bag.

Brine:
1 cup Apple juice (could also do ½ cranberry and 1 cup water for first 2 ingredients if you prefer)
½ cup water
1 tbsp Worchestershire
1 ½ tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp paprika
½ tbsp chili powder
½ tbsp dry mustar
½ tbsp pepper
1 tbsp Old Bay
½ tsp ginger

Heat liquids in a small pot and add all the dry ingredients. Once they are all dissolved and mixed in take the liquid off heat and let it cool (add some ice to speed the process). Be sure the liquid is about room temperature before adding it to a storage bag with your pork loin so it doesn’t start the cooking process. Let the pork loin soak up the deliciousness of this magic concoction for 10-12 hours. Make sure the pork is submerged in the brine, if not add a little water and salt. You should add 1 tbsp of salt per cup of water, so if you just ad a splash of water add a pinch of salt. You can brine for up to 24 hours, but if you leave it in the brine too long the meat will turn to mush. I’d say 18 hours or less to say safe. And this only applies to pork, each animal has different brining times.

Dry Rub:
1 tbsp coarse Salt
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp garlic powder
Rinse the brine off the pork loin (you probably don’t want to go straight into cooking it with this mixture as it will be very salty). Mix ingredients or just eyeball them and sprinkle them on and rub into meat.

Apple BBQ Sauce:
2 cups of apple sauce or smashed up apples
1-2 tbsp oil
¼ diced onion
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp pepper
2 tbsp brown sugar
½ cup ketchup
¼ cup water
¼ cup honey
¼ cup apricot preserves (or peach, apple, whatever)
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp mustard
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp chili sauce (I love Chili Garlic Sauce by Huy Fong)

http://www.sammcgees.com/img/1222FC/huy-fong-fresh-chili-garlic-sauce_1_std.jpg

Pre-heat oven to 350. Put oil in a pan on med-low heat and add onion. Simmer for 4 min and add garlic and apples (if using applesauce add them with other wet ingredients). Cook for another 2-3 minutes till onions are soft, and add all the remaining ingredients stirring constantly. Simmer for 15 minutes. Put pork loins in lightly greased aluminum foil and poor BBQ sauce over them. I double wrapped them in foil and put them in a big dish to be safe. Cook at 350 for 1 hour. Let sit for 10 min, unwrap, cut, and serve! You could also grill it for the last 10, but I can’t. Regardless it’s so good…

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_uOL8vPc-ll4/SiQC_o7Oh7I/AAAAAAAABAA/lz5iDG4YlUY/s400/pork+loin+grilled.jpg
Not mine, but pictures are fun.

Hokies Week 6 Blog – BC addition

2009-10-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

I didn’t do a preview of our game last week, but maybe I should have. Although it would have been completely wrong. To my credit though, I was telling people all week that Duke is better than people think. They have a pretty good defense and a playmaker at QB. That said it’s still Duke! I am still shocked how they were able to shut down the running game 3 quarters, and I’m even more shocked that Tyrod went 17-22 for 327 yards! What a game for the young man. But a win’s a win, and you should be happy with it regardless of your opponent. Just ask Houston and Michigan. You should play better after I hype you up Houston. I’m very disappointed in you.

So what can we expect this week against BC? To be honest, I really don’t know. On paper they’re good, but I really don’t see the talent, and the jury is still out on how good any of the teams they played are. They have 2 noteworthy wins against Wake Forest (in OT) and Florida State. But Wake Forest lost to Baylor, who doesn’t have another convincing win, but beat NCST and Stanford who I think are both decent teams. Wake even put up around 500 yards in their OT loss to BC, but turnovers hurt them throughout. And don’t even get me started on FSU. I think they’re a good team, and this is a good win for BC, but FSU could win out or lose out, and I wouldn’t be surprised either way (except for the beating Florida part). And then BC loses to Clemson? A team, that despite having one of the best playmakers in the country, has no offense. Clemson lost to Maryland! Maryland!

So yeah, who knows what BC brings to Blacksburg? Me, of course!

We will start with their offense. The offense is lead by Uncle Dave Shinskie who after 6 years of minor league baseball decided to go play QB at BC as a 25 year old freshman. He’ll graduate at age 28 and plans to teach and coach elementary school. He is a very atypical college player and has shown a lot of poise so far, and now that he knows the playbook he is playing well and winning games. He only played for a small part of the Clemson game going 1/1 for 2 yards, but in the last two games against Wake and FSU, he has gone 30/50 for 231 yards, 5 TDs, and 1 INT. He is a true pocket passer that won’t make too many plays with his legs, but the line has been sturdy for him so far. This is a good time to point out that the offensive line is the strength of the team. The other weapon BC has at its disposal is sophomore running back Montel Harris. Harris was held in check against Wake averaging 3.0 yards per carry, but bounced back for a career day against FSU running for 179 yards and 2 TDs on 25 carries (7.2 average). With runs of 42 and 48 this season, Harris has big play ability against a team that has given up big plays. And did I mention he’s running behind the strength of this strength of the team, offensive line. This is a good offense, but the Hokies have already faced 3 better offenses against the likes of Alabama, Nebraska, and Miami. You could also make the argument that Duke has a better QB, but we’ll settle with the previous statement. I know Shinskie was out against the Clemson game, but how many total yards do you think BC’s offense got that game? You’ll never guess it, and now I’m going to make you wait till later in the article.

The defense for Boston College has performed pretty well so far this season holding its 3 ACC opponents to 21-25 points each. The loss of last years ACC defensive player of the year, linebacker Mark Herzlich, has certainly hurt the Eagles, but the team has stepped up in his absence. That said, this is not the same defense that was #1 in the country last year with the likes of LB Herzlich, DT Raji, DT Brace, and LB Toal all missing from the lineup. The secondary might be the strength of the team, but they have given up 300+ pass yards in the last two games. Also, Clemson and Wake ran for 140+ yards. I said VT has faced 3 better offenses than BC, they’ve probably faced 3 better defenses as well.

Small aside. Good news on Herzlich, he announced on some radio show that he is 99.9% free of cancer and has been able to start hanging out with the team on the sidelines. Also, VT is planning on presenting Herzlich with a check for $9,400 (he’s #94) to help with the treatment costs at halftime of the game. I think that’s pretty neat. Oh and that’s twice what Clemson did, so hopefully we beat them twice as bad?

So like I was saying earlier, I am shocked by the Hokies performance against Duke last week for good and bad reasons. We’ll start with the good: our offense can throw the ball! Wait, what? Yep, Tyrod was putting the ball right where it needed to be and the receivers time after time went up and made big plays. And Ryan Williams got shut out through 3 quarters? I don’t understand… That’s a lie, I do. Duke put 8 in the box which explains both. But still! This is very un-Stinespring! To recognize what an opposing defense is doing, and then change up the game plan to take advantage. What!?!? Nothing about this season makes sense. And I can’t believe I’m going to say it. No I shouldn’t jinx it… But I want to give credit where it’s due. Hmm. I’m doing it. Since the Nebraska game, Stinespring has done a great job at play calling. I can’t believe I said it… Where was I? Right, our offense. Our offense has looked pretty solid the last 2 weeks, and we have shown the ability to run and pass. This is something we haven’t shown, umm, since I decided to go to VT in 2003. And since it’s only been the last 2 games, I should probably reel my hope and amazement back in. I’ve had my hopes crushed before (I’m looking at you Marcus), but right now things look good. I mean Tyrod threw for 327 yards! And Ryan Williams is the best RB we’ve had since Kevin Jones!

But now the bad… The defense continues to give up big plays (to Duke!). And now they are giving up long sustained drives (to Duke!). I am still completely impressed with how the defense (and especially the line) played against Miami. And I’m am a huge fan of Cody Grim “the Reaper” as he continues to make play after play. And the defense continues to lock down in the red zone (after the Alabama game we have only given up 2 TDs in the redzone). But 359 yards through the air to Duke! Unnecessary and costly penalties to extend scoring drives to Duke! Overall poor performance in the secondary to Duke! Also we have shown the inability to stop the run against Alabama and Nebraska. I’m not a fan of the inconsistency shown so far by the defense as a whole. So here’s my Recipe for Success!

Recipe for Succes:

1. Keep it up Stiney – I didn’t just say that… If we can continue to draw up good offensive game plans, we should have no problem scoring 30 on BC. And against BC, I think that means hand the ball off to our trio of backs as BC is soft up front, then pass over the top when they stack the box.
2. Stop Montel – The show and RB. Harris behind their O-line is probably BC’s biggest weapon. Make Shinskie throw on our secondary. Regardless of age he is still a freshman that hasn’t seen a defense as good as ours.
3. Pressure Shinskie – He hasn’t been pressured yet, but I think it’s about time. As good as their line is, they haven’t faced the likes of Jason Worilds (or Bud Foster).
4. Study the Clemson tape – I know it’s a different QB, but do whatever Clemson did to hold BC to 54 yards! See there’s the stat as promised. Reflect on that for a second. 54 yards throughout a whole game. Do you realize that’s less than a 1 yard per minute in the game?
5. No more big plays – Probably the most important factor for VT to win this game. We can not give up big plays. If we don’t, expect a score like we had against Miami, if we do, expect more of a score like Duke (hopefully with us being the winning team).
6. Get a turnover – I thought we lived on forcing turnovers. We are currently 92nd in the country averaging 1.4 takeaways a game. WTF Beamer Ball?

Prediction:

I really don’t know which way to go on this. The homer in me wants to look at the matchup and say our offense is better than their defense, and our defense is better than our offense, we should win big. But the pessimist in me says, I don’t know what to expect form our offense or defense and this is BC, and they always find a way to beat us or make a hard game out of it at least.

27-17 VT. 50% chance of showers, 95% chance of Ryan Williams getting 150 yards and 2 TDs and being the player of the game.

http://jacksonwest.files.wordpress.com/2006/01/250px-FlutieFlakes1.jpg

And I must say I’m thrilled that Flutie quit working for ESPN and won’t be covering our game this year. I’m still pretty sure the ESPN2 announcing will enrage me with its Boston bias. I mean how many BC/VT games did Flutie cover? And how many times did they interview and show Matt Ryan? They gushed over him more last year than anyone on the field, actually more than all the players from both teams combined. If you’re playing at home and into this sort of thing, drink any time they say Flutie or Ryan. Chug the entire time they show a replay of Ryan’s winning pass or Flutie’s hail mary. We could make a game out of this… Drink any time they say how big Boykin’s hands are, say how “mature” Shinskie is, any time they praise Herzlich and mention cancer, any time they mention Tyrod’s scrambling ability, any time they say “Beamer Ball,” show the lunch pail dude in the stands, mention how well Frank Spaziani has done in his first year, mention how the Atlantic Division is up in the air, and how the ACC needs a national champion contender, and finish your beer if Herzlich cries at halftime. Yes the announcers are this predictable, and no you won’t be sober.

Hokies Week 5 Blog - Top 25

2009-10-01T06:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.coastalalabama.tv/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/saban_uga1.jpg

I’ve decided that instead of writing a pregame for Duke I would share my view of the top 25 instead. It has been a long time dream of mine to be a voter in the AP poll. By long time, I mean since I started this blog, but still. And I’m also doing this because I do not like how group think does these polls currently. I’ve probably spent more time on this one meaningless poll than some people will spend on all of their polls for the whole season. And I especially hate how they have now made the coaches poll anonymous. That is the opposite of how these should work, you should be completely accountable and be able to defend why you put Ole Miss #4 when they haven’t shown you anything at all. Without further ado:

1. Alabama (4-0) – Of the unanimous top 3 everyone has, I think Alabama has done more to show why they belong. Completely controlling the game against our poor Hokies and a good Arkansas team show that the offense and especially the defense are first class. And McElroy is looking like a better QB than John Parker Wilson ever was.
2. Texas (4-0) – Was pretty much a coin flip with Florida, but they’ve beaten a good Texas Tech at home and still have a healthy Heisman hopeful. Next 4 games are Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Oklahoma St. Finally we’ll get some of these teams tested!
3. Florida (4-0) – I think Tennessee and Kentucky might be two of the worst teams in the SEC this year, but they are still SEC teams. And even if Florida struggled a bit moving the ball against Tennessee’s D, Florida hasn’t come close to getting a scare. But how will they respond with Tebow being out with a brain.
4. Virginia Tech (3-1) – Yes I’m a homer, but the Hokies have knocked off #9 Miami, #19 Nebraska, and led 3 quarters against Alabama. At this point they are the best of the 1 loss teams based on performance, and there is no arguing it.
5. Houston (3-0) – Back to back wins against good Big 12 (South even!) opponents. Not even Oklahoma and Texas can say that. Yet at least… They have been the most impressive of the BCS busters through 4 weeks.
6. Cincinnati (4-0) – Tony Pike has looked solid at QB and has led the Bearcats to a 4-0 start. They have good wins at Oregon State and against Fresno State at home.
7. Boise State (4-0) – Uggghhh. I hate to rank them so high, but they handed it to a weird, but still good, Oregon team week 1, and beat a decent Fresno State. Will any team be able to beat Boise State the rest of the way? On paper, I’d say no.
8. Iowa (4-0) – After a scare week 1 against Northern Iowa, Iowa has been impressive with wins over Arizona and Penn State in Happy Valley. Their defense and special teams has them ranked as the best team in the Big 10 so far.
9. TCU (3-0) – Wins on the road against two ACC schools. Sure one was UVA, but the Clemson one looks at least somewhat respectable. Still pretty meh on these guys though.
10. Oklahoma State (3-1) – The big win over Georgia will go a long way this year, but the loss to Houston hurt. Who knows what will happen with Big 12 play starting.
11. Oregon (3-1) – A ridiculous week 1 game and melee with Boise State somehow dropped Oregon off everyone’s radar. Three wins over good teams (Purdue, #18 Utah, #6 Cal) and people remember you.
12. LSU (4-0) – I am absolutely not impressed with how they’ve won against teams like Washington, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State. Washington beating USC helps. But the fact remains, they are undefeated winning 3 games against SEC and Pac-10 teams. They could lose two games in the next three at Georgia, then Florida and Auburn at home though.
13. Miami (2-1) – Miami looked unstoppable on offense against FSU and GT, and shut down the Yellow Jackets run game completely. The U was back! Until it rained and they melted in Blacksburg. Huge matchup this weekend against a likely Bradfordless Oklahoma.
14. South Florida (4-0) – They are 4-0 and have won convincingly (the game at FSU wasn’t as close as the score). Who knows how good Florida State really is, but this win was still huge for the program.
15. Auburn (4-0) – Surprising start for Gene Chizik and the Tigers. The offense has looked great and Auburn already has two good wins against Miss St and WVU. And by good win against Miss St, I mean they won convincingly unlike a LSU team that scraped by. Haven’t played on the road yet though.
16. Georgia (3-1) – Only loss was a low scoring game against Oklahoma State (and here I thought they didn’t play defense in the Big 12), then won two shoot outs over USC and Arkansas (in the defensive SEC)?
17. USC (3-1) – Well they did beat Ohio State in the Horseshoe, but losing to Washington keeps USC rated so low. Do something on offense and I’ll move you back up.
18. BYU (3-1) – Impressive win over Oklahoma week 1, but got killed week 3 by a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde Florida State. How much of their opening win was due to a Heisman injury?
19. California (3-1) – Voters seem to have completely bailed on the Cal band wagon after the 42-3 shellacking Oregon handed to them. But Oregon is a good team, and Cal still beat a good Minnesota team. Cal/USC this weekend, tune in!
20. Georgia Tech (3-1) – Mediocre performance against Jacksonville St and most of the Clemson game, and a very poor showing in the loss to Miami, but GT bounced back well against #22 UNC.
21. Ohio State (3-1) – Tough loss to USC and ugly showing against Navy put Ohio State at 21. But they have rebounded with back to back shut outs against Toledo and Illinois and could climb to the top of the Big 10.
22. Oklahoma (2-1) – Has a better chance to get to the national championship than anyone outside the top 3, but show me something already, seriously… The game against Miami this Sat will go a long way for whoever wins.
23. Nebraska (3-1) – Totally putting Nebraska here to make the Hokies look better. So what? They’ve destroyed who they should have and hung tough in Blacksburg.
24. Penn State (3-1) – Maybe if you went out and played someone non-conference you’d be ready to take on a halfway decent team. Ranked 24 is generous from what Penn State has shown me.
25. Michigan (4-0) – The offense looks solid, but the only impressive win so far is against a Notre Dame team that really hasn’t shown how good it is. Schedule gets a little tougher in two weeks at Iowa, but at Michigan State next could be a trap game.

My apologies to Kansas (4-0), South Carolina (3-1), UCLA (3-0), and Wisconsin (4-0) who probably all 3 should beat out the likes of Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, and Michigan based on performance thus far.

Hokies Week 4 Blog - Miami Preview

2009-09-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

To start, Ryan is worthless. Totally not dedicated to this blog that we decided to do on a whim after a night on the town. We were in two different towns, but you get the idea. So here I am to save the day again, but this time with more pessimism. Starting with this: Great win by the Hokies over Nebraska! They looked amazing… On a single drive! A big return by Roberts, a long run by Williams, and a broken play led to all 3 of our scores. I thought they would score 38 points against a real school? What was I thinking? But a win’s a win, and we’ll take it.

I don’t even know where to start with Miami though. I mean have you seen them play? I watched both of their games in their entirety, and I am scared. Florida State and Georgia Tech both have good defenses, but Miami has been able to do as they please on offense. The defense looked a little suspect against FSU, but then they turned around and held Georgia Tech to under 100 yards rushing. And during this time, the Hokies have lost to Alabama, destroyed a poor Marshall team, and struggled on offense against a Nebraska.

On paper, this does not look like a good matchup. The Hokies’ defense has given up several uncharacteristic big plays and has had someone rush for 100 yards on them three games in a row. Miami’s running backs, James and Cooper, might be the best duo the Hokies have seen this year. They are certainly better than Marshall from Marshall and Helu from Nebraska. Also, The Hokies also play a soft zone, which so far Harris has picked apart twice. And the Hokies have only gotten 3 sacks so far this season. Miami has only allowed a single sack on Harris, and Harris has been hurried an additional 0 times. 0! Teams have only gotten to Harris once in two games! And Georgia Tech has one of the best defensive ends in the country.

Aside. According to some experts Georgia Tech’s Derrick Morgan is the real deal and one of the best DEs in the country. He has already had 5 sacks in his 3 games. But I’m not buying it because the dude doesn’t play something like 90% of the game! Watch a GT game and count how many times you see him huffing and puffing on the bench. You’ll run out of fingers if you go that route. Although he did good working with Patsy Todd to put out this song in ‘61:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXYIzGnserI

Ok, aside over.

On offense, the Hokies have struggled against teams not named Marshall. They have been completely shut down throwing the ball, although maybe that deep ball to win the game against Nebraska boosts Tyrod’s confidence. And although, Williams and Wilson have broken big runs and gotten a majority of our points, they were quiet for large parts of the Alabama and Nebraska games. But there is a little good news. Miami doesn’t have a Terrance Cody or King Kong Suh at NT! They have Allen Bailey… At what point do teams stop having freaks in the middle of their D line against us? The strength of their D is certainly their D line (sounds a lot like someone we just played…), but they have athletes at every defensive position. This will be one of the fastest, if not the fastest, defense the Hokies face this year.

So you want some good news by this point don’t you? You don’t think I’ll continue to write off the Hokies in this game saying things like “don’t forget, Miami had a few extra days to prepare for the game after their Thursday night game against GT,” or “Mark Whipple may be the best offensive coordinator we face, or possibly in the country,” or “Miami looks to have it’s swagger back on both sides of the ball.”

Oops, sorry.

But there are a few things working for us! First, the game is in Blacksburg. Home field advantage coupled with the fact that Miami is around 900 miles away helps (that’s a long flight! And that is an advantage!). Miami uses their speed to play mostly man-to-man on defense. This is an advantage in two ways. It will open up the running game a little more than against zone, and Tyrod has been historically better against man defenses (credit to Kyle Parker of HamptonRoads.com for that one, as if I knew that, ha). Although you couldn’t tell it from the GT game, Miami is susceptible to giving up big runs, and we certainly have two backs capable of doing it, as well as big passes, GT had only 6 complete passes but for 113 yards and Ponder had 294 yards passing. Also, we’ve only given the ball up 1 time on offense. The other two turnovers were a muffed punt and a turnover on downs in the 4th quarter, both against Alabama. So as ugly as our offense has looked, they aren’t turning the ball over. Also, we have Virgil back which brings back our best cover corner and best tackler at that position. And even though we only have 3 sacks on the year, we have many hits on the quarterbacks. The best example is Zac Lee from Nebraska. He didn’t get sacked, but he did get hit around 10 times and had to throw the ball away. He ended the day going 11 of 30 passing with 2 INTs. Which brings me to this weeks Recipe for Success!

Recipe for Success:
This is multiple parts, because we’ll probably have to do all of them in order to win.
1. Red zone defense: We have to keep up the pressure and force Miami to field goals inside the red zone. We’ve done it once against a good offensive team, and we can do it again.
2. Wrap-up tackles: We have given up too many big plays so far this season in each game and mostly in the running game. Everyone but Cody Grimm “the Reaper,” needs to step up and wrap up.

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/157215/grimmreaper.jpg
3. Force turnovers: Doesn’t seem like VT football until we get a TD on defense does it? We’ll need points off turnovers this game to win.
4. Pressure Harris: I haven’t talked about Harris much for a reason. Because everyone is all over his nuts right now when I think it’s the O line that is doing all the work. When you have only had pressure once in two games, it’s not hard to take your time and throw a good pass. Unless you’re Glennon or something…
5. Play to our strength!: If we come out heaving the ball down the field because it worked once when our QB called an audible, scrambled, and found a wide open Coale, well I’ll probably just sulk and cry on the inside. But our game plan needs to be this. Wait for it. Give the ball to our playmakers! And I mean Williams, Wilson, and Roberts of course. But not right after a 75 yard return. Idiot…
6. Be less predictable: For the love of God, quit running the same 5 plays over and over again. The dive, toss, sweep, design QB sneak, and deep ball aren’t enough… Still want to see more screens and play action. By more, of course I mean any, because we haven’t run either. Also, we need more slants and quick passes to open up the run and the deep ball for our big play receivers.
7. No turnovers: Our defense is probably going to be on the field more times than not. Turnovers would kill any chance we have of winning.

So here’s my prediction. Wait. First let me remind you I’m a huge homer. Ok, let’s continue.

31-27 Hokies! We force a lot of key FGs, break open a few big plays, and help ourselves out winning the turnover battle. Player of the game: Williams, with a healthy Virgil getting consideration (6 tackles and 1 INT?). Let’s not forget, Miami has been upset in Blacksburg before.

http://www.behindthenet.org/imgs/miamiFailure.jpg

Hokies Week 3 Blog - Nebraska Preview

2009-09-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

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Time to get ready for Week 3 vs Nebraska! I’ll do my best to set the game up for you and make a few predictions for the action on Sat. Probably not going to have a running diary of the game again this weekend because, unlike against Marshall, you have no excuse to not watch this one! I guess unless you live in London… But still, no excuse!

VT had a big win over Marshall last week running all over the Thundering Herd. Take that irony! The combined running attack gained a total of 444 yards. Ryan Williams got 164 on the ground with 3 TDs and David Wilson got 165, both averaging over 10 yards a carry. The passing game started cold, but heated up going into halftime, so Tyrod might have finally gained a little confidence after a rough start to the season. The defense dominated but gave up two big plays setting up both of Marshall’s score. And the special teams were solid, returning a punt for a TD and not giving up any big plays the other way.

Nebraska has started the season off with two softies, and beaten both handedly. They are averaging about 300 yards a game passing and 200 yards a game rushing in those two games. First year starter, Zac Lee, has completed over 70% of his passes and has thrown 6 TDs and just 1 INT. At RB, they have Ryan Helu Jr. who is a 2 year starter and ran for 154 yards and 3 TD in their opener against Florida Atlantic. So the bad news is they seem to be explosive on offense. And they have only given up 12 points this season on defense. But the good news is that it was against Florida Atlantic and Arkansas St. Both were 6-6 teams in the Sun Belt Conference.

So what does this season tell us? How will we match up?

Nothing and who knows… One thing of note, Nebraska gave up 122 yards rushing to Florida Atlantic, and 143 yards to Arkansas St. Both of their starting RBs averaged around 4 or 5 yards a carry. Of course you could flip it to the other side of the coin and see that Alabama ran for 268 yards against us and Marshall even put up 126. But here’s the difference: Nebraska basically split time of possession with its opponents (lesser opponents at that). Alabama controlled the clock, and I mean controlled the clock, and their running game was mostly held in check until the 4th quarter till at last our defense collapsed in exhaustion. Marshall’s running game was completely stopped aside from a single run for 60 yards. Just looking at the stats, Nebraska was giving up chunks of running yards all game.

But still, the best we have to go by is the matchup last year, and maybe Nebraska’s bowl game vs Clemson. But lets be honest, Clemson was a complete shit show last year and who knows why that game turned out the way it did. So, how did our game shape up last year? VT win 35-30, season high passing yards for Tyrod (171) last year, held Nebraska to 55 rush yards on a 2.2 average, kicked 4 field goals all inside the 25, and had a 10 min advantage in time of possession.

So what’s the difference between the two teams from last year to this year? To start, Nebraska only had 13 starters return, and lost key people at QB and WR. Their offense is young, with only Helu and tight end, Nike Mcneil, returning at skill positions. Both had TDs last year against the Hokies. So from an experience stand point, you can argue that the Nebraska offense took a step back from last season. But if they stepped back in offense, they stepped up in defense. They return NFL talent, Ndemkong Suh, at NT. This kid is a freak, he lead the team in tackles (76), sacks (7.5), and tackles for a loss (11.5), plus he got 2 INT, and even caught a TD pass. King Kong will be a force in the middle, but hopefully our work against Terrence Cody has prepared our line for this. I assume King Kong is his nickname, and if not it should be and shame on you Nebraska fans. They will also get good play from their safeties, but their linebackers might be the weak spot, as they lack experience starting two redshirt freshmen.

So how bout them Hokies? The offense is better this year than last year regardless of what happened in the Alabama game. With the only real loss being Glennon (and come on, is that really a loss?), the Hokies have taken a huge step forward this year. To put it in perspective, last season the Hokies scored over 30 a single time last season, and it was not against East Carolina, Furman, Western Kentucky, Duke, or UVA. You remember who it was against? Of course you do! It was Nebraska. This year we put up 52 already, and if we remember the recipe on how we did it we’ll probably run up a few more scores by seasons end. And that recipe is, of course, give the ball to playmakers. And those playmakers are Ryan Williams and David Wilson. I would also like to see Roberts get some more touches, but we’ll get to that. So last season we put up 35 points, scoring 8 different times, against Nebraska. And yes I said their defense is better, but our offense made more of an improvement than their defense. So how does our defense look? Does Bud Foster still coach it? Yeah? Its good then, top 10 in the country.

So here’s how it all shakes out. Nebraska will be tossing it all over the field, so they will get their first downs. It’s just how our zone works. But with a new QB and new WRs who haven’t faced a road game or a big time opponent, can you think of a worst test than Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. This will likely lead to 2 or 3 picks and a couple sacks. And I’m sure VT will come out gunning down the field because we never learn, but we’ll settle down as soon as Williams gets a few touches and breaks a big gain. Then we’ll control clock, run the ball and complete short passes and win by a few scores.

And here’s what I personally want to see more and less of, in no particular order: more runs early in the game, more screens to Williams, Wilson, Roberts, and even Coale, less Ogelsby (no offense to the guy), more option, more play action, more short passes, way less deep throws, more sacks (where are you Worilds), more healthy Boone and Virgil (especially Virgil this game), more fans like Nebraska fans and VT fans, less Lou Holtz except when they talk about Notre Dame this weekend, less dramatic and inspiring commercials from oil companies, insurance companies, and IBM, more funny beer commercials, and less arrogant beer commercials. I don’t care that you’re triple hops brewed Miller Light, you still taste like corn and ass!

More Erin Andrews!

http://cache.deadspin.com/assets/resources/2007/10/erinandrewseatsasandwich.jpg

Less Holly Rowe (who we’re stuck with this week).

http://mtimages.cstv.com/runandshoot/*HollyRowe.jpg

And finally, more VT wins!

Just looked up Worilds stats, 7 tackles, 1 sack (4 yards), and 7 hurries. That’s actually pretty good for 2 games, but he still seems quiet. Maybe from the upper deck of the Georgia Dome and on a laptop it’s hard to notice…

Final score: 38-20 VT. This isn’t too far fetched is it? I mean, they don’t play any defense at all in the Big 12 right? I’m such a homer. And I don’t know why I’m doing this, but player of the game will be Tyrod Taylor. I should really say Ryan Williams… Sticking with Tyrod against my better judgment, 3 TDs (2 in the air, 1 on the ground) and over 300 total yards. Yikes, I sound like a lunatic.

Hokies Week 2 Blog - Marshall Diary

2009-09-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

So my good friend and roommate, while we were at VT, and I decided to start a Virginia Tech sports blog for a couple of reasons. We both are knowledgeable fans. We think we can offer some humor and entertainment to writing about something we both enjoy. We can write about VT without worrying about being extremely biased (especially me). And we’ve been drinking. That said, we’re off! Be warned I ramble…

3 hours before kickoff – I’m glad we started this week instead of last week so we don’t look like huge homers that think we’ll destroy Alabama...

I’ve decided for this first article, I would just do a game diary for several reasons. But mostly because we decided to start blogging for VT last night and the game is today. So that rules out any pregame nonsense, and this just makes sense since not everyone could go to the game or get ESPN 360.

Anyway, some quick thoughts going into the game. I think our defense is absolutely sick. They played well against Alabama, but when you’re on the field for 80% of the game, you are going to give up some points. The new inside linebackers looked pretty good, but they couldn’t stop the sweep last week (when it even seemed obvious that it was coming). But that was Alabama with big time playmakers at RB and WR and a big line. I don’t think Marshall scores more than 13 points on us, and I think they only have a single sustained drive. All of their few points will come off of turnovers or field position.

The offense looked horrible against Alabama. Credit to Alabama’s defense and McClain, but the Hokies had to do something on O, and they couldn’t. The only bright spots were the few carries they gave Ryan Williams. Williams showed he can be the man to carry the offense on his back as Evans did last year, but they didn’t give him enough chances. I mean, he ran 13 times for 71 yards. That’s and average of 5.5! Give the kid some touches. The passing game was just difficult to watch. We have the playmakers, but Tyrod needs to step up and hit them. And at what point is our offensive line going to be as good as they’re hyped up to be to start the season. “The Hokies have a lot of experience on the line this year; they should be the strength of the offense.” We’ve heard this before. I can’t believe I fell for it again… Year after year I do. If we struggle to move the ball today, a certain offensive coordinator should be on the hot seat. But I think the offense gets it together today and the game isn’t close.

Recipe for Success: What the Hokies should do is give the ball to the running backs all day, and rack up 300 yards on the ground. This will open up the passing game for later games as teams will start to respect our run. But here’s what we will do, come out passing to try and boost Tyrod’s confidence. But it will fail. We’ll get our touchdowns, but with a lot of 3 and outs and a few turnovers. If I were calling the game, Williams would have 100 yards in the first half, and then Wilson would get 75 in the 2nd half with Ogelsby getting 40 throughout.

We will win 38-10, with Williams as player of the game

2 hours till kickoff – Sweet new TV comes sometime between now and 1 according to Brian from Best Buy. We will now watch football in a sexy 50” version of fun. Except for our game today… Because our game is on ESPN 360 and we don’t have an HDMI cable to connect the computer to the TV. So thanks ESPN with your monopoly of screwing over local broadcasts of games. This means we’re watching Stanford destroy Wake in 50” goodness, while we are going to watch the Hokies on 12 inches of fuzzy ESPN 360 computer.

1 hour and a half – Holy shit this is a big TV. Time to get cooking. I’m making ribs and Hungarian Wax Poppers (it’s a type of pepper) to celebrate the Hokies home opener and the new TV.

20 min – But with Wake and UNC struggling, the ACC looks horrible. Any respect for the ACC is riding on the shoulders of Miami and FSU these next few weeks.

5 min – Been cooking frantically and everything is now complete. After 2 hours and 45 min the ribs are done and they are amazing!

Recipe for Oven Baked BBQ Ribs! (skip this section if you don’t care)

This is more of a method of cooking ribs, as I have failed to make good ones before. So I felt you wanted me to share how to make terrific, baked ribs. With only 3 of watching I only got 1 rack of baby back ribs, so double, triple accordingly. Also, you’ll want to refrigerate the ribs overnight in the BBQ sauce, so be prepared.

Dry Rub:
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp of salt
1 tbsp of pepper
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp cayenne

Sauce:
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup chile sauce
¼ cup rum
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp Worcestershire
2 cloves garlic

Directions:
Simmer all ingredients for the sauce for 20 min on low-med heat (or just use your favorite BBQ sauce instead). Apply dry rub liberally to all surfaces of ribs and rub it in. Make sure you have big enough pieces of aluminum foil for the ribs (cut ribs into manageable sizes if not), and spray foil lightly with cooking spray. Place ribs in aluminum foil. Pour the BBQ sauce liberally over ribs. Wrap tightly and put in the fridge overnight.

Preheat oven to 300. Then cook the ribs for 2 hours 45 min. If I didn’t live in an apartment, I would cut the time by 30 min and grill them for 15 min. But alas. Add more sauce if you want, let them cool a little bit, then devour.

The Hungarian Wax Poppers are pretty good too (stuff with Italian sausage, cream cheese, parmesan, and a few spices and baked at 350) but it’s going to hurt to poop later.

KICKOFF!

1st Quarter:

12:30 – It’s like I know how Steinspring thinks… We force Marshall to punt, and then open the game with a bad pass down the field.
12:10 – See all you have to do is give it to Williams. Huge gain the first time he touches the ball. And they follow this up with? Another deep pass of course…
11:05 – First drive is over with 4 of 5 plays being pass plays. Got around 20 yards on the one run, and 6 yards combined on the pass plays. On Tyrod scrambling…
9:00 – Pretty soft zone on D with back to back open WRs down the field. Luckily both were ugly passes.
8:00 – Get the ball back, and Tyrod breaks a huge design run for 46 yards. When did Steiny start running the spread? We haven’t been under center yet.
6:30 – Running is so easy on these guys! It’s like I expected this.
5:30 – Uggghhhhh… Just run the ball. Tyrod intercepted in the endzone. Now we’re around 80 yards on run plays and the same 6 yards on passing plays (with 0 actual pass yards).
4:20 – 3 and out, then on the first play a 57 yard run by Williams for a TD! Man, I like being right.
2:30 – Haven’t talked D much. They’ve done a good job especially on the line. The secondary is letting people get open, but no damage so far. Special teams is looking good too.
1:00 – Hey! First completed pass! And it was a really good looking pass to Jarrett “Sausage Fingers” Boykin for 20 yards and a first down on 3rd and 14.
0:30 – Glad we brought the option back. It seems like it’s been a while since we ran it, and it’s not like we’ve had a shortage of mobile quarterbacks the last decade. Big gains by Taylor and Ogelsby to close the 1st quarter.
Overview – VT leads Marshall 7-0 with a big advantage on total yards at 191-34. Taylor has 20 yards passing completing 1/5 and 56 yards on the ground. Williams is leading the way and has 6 carries for 96 yards already! That’s an average of 14.3 yards a carry. And it’s only 7-0?

2nd Quarter:

14:15 – Steiny’s starting to figure it out. Williams runs in from 4 yards and gets TD #2. Offensive line is looking really good, and Tyrod is under center more now. (And Wake is finally starting to look good, not just because it’s on my sweet new TV in HD, but they’re moving the ball on O and not giving up anything on D.)
14:00 – Ha! Marshall’s running back’s name is Marshall. It took me this long to figure that out? That’s how you know this blog will be good. Nothing gets by me. Give me a break though, they haven’t been on the field at all today.
13:00 – Cam Martin out of Martinsville (this is fun) gets a stop and another Marshall 3 and out.
12:15 – Jayron Hosely runs back a punt 64 yards for another score! Special teams looks solid. Great blocking for Hosely on that run back. (Also, Wake ties it up 17-17! Come on ACC credibility!)
10:40 – Good drive by Marshall, the team, including a nice 60 yard TD run by Marshall, the RB. Two missed tackles and a bad job at containing him. He just ran into a mess of people the popped out to the right and was gone. 21-7 VT.
9:35 – Tyrod sacked on 3rd and 2. You know because we didn’t want to run for the short yardage because the pass is working so well and we aren’t averaging over 10 yards a carry. Tyrod’s stats so far: 1/6 passing, 20 yards, 1 INT, 1 sack. So we’re forced to punt.
7:35 – Another 3 and out and you can kiss Marshall’s momentum good bye.
7:20 – Guys on ESPN 360 reveal that apparently we’ve returned our entire coaching staff 3 years in a row. We are 1 of 5 FBS teams to do that. We’ve done so well on offense the last 3 years too, I can see why we would keep everyone.
6:30 – A nice scramble and dive by Tyrod extends the drive on a 3rd and 5. And Williams is looking slippery as he is dodging all these tackles.
5:40 – Great toss downfield to Coale. Finally! Williams follows it up with TD #3 for 30 yards. If you’re counting at home, that’s 5 TDs for Williams on the year, 2 TDs on returns, and well that’s it. Williams is just plain sick. I don’t really want Williams to be a backup in our running game this year or next year. Don’t take this the wrong way though, I mean I feel horrible for Evans, but I don’t want Williams splitting time. Except maybe with Wilson…
5:00 – Cam Martin is playing well today and just picked up another big tackle. And another 3 and out.
2:30 – Ogelsby in for Williams on this drive, and Tyrod comes out passing. Ogelsby gets 3 yards on a 4th and 1 at the 40.
1:50 – Couple of good passes and a great catch on the sidelines by Roberts.
1:30 – Wow. Tyrod just got 10 seconds of protections from the line and by scrambling around which leads to a 21 yard pass to Roberts for a TD. I think Roberts is a legit talent and could play at the next level.

Halftime – The Hokies’ D holds, and Tyrod takes a knee to take us into halftime. After 4 scores in the 2nd, the Hokies now lead 35-7. Hokies winning the total yardage battle 346-143. Tyrod is 6/12 with 1 TD, 1 INT, 2 sacks, but he is showed a lot of improvement on the last drive and completed his last 4 passes. Williams gets 144 yards in the first half (12 yard average) with 3 TDs! Marshall already has 8 punts. Aside from a single breakdown on D, they are looking really sharp. Offense is banging on all cylinders now too. As is special teams.

3rd Quarter:

12:30 – ESPN announcer just had this nice little ditty: “Ogelsby and Williams sounds like a law firm, and they’re really making Marshall pay,” as Ogelsby runs for a first down. I laughed. As the little lady, my roommate, or anyone that has watched a game on TV with me ever could tell you, I despise most announcers. But I kind of like these guys. The color commentator seems downright giddy watching these athletes and this game, and has already lost his voice he’s so enthusiastic. But he’s not overly enthusiastic, just the right amount. And they have great chemistry together, and have made a few snappy one-liners. Here’s to you Sam Smith and Sonny Randle. You might be the only announcers I ever give a shout out to.
11:55 – Williams takes a screen 35 yards after what looked like a sure tackle. Just bounced off him and kept going.
10:45 – The Williams reception sets up a TD pass to Boyce on a great pass and catch. Tyrod put it low and in front of Boyce keeping it away from the defender on a well thrown ball. This capped off a nice drive with the only error being a 15 yard chop block which was the Hokies’ first penalty.
6:10 – Defense plays a soft zone and gives Marshall a long drive to the VT 16. But on 4th and 1, Cody Grimm hits Marshall (RB) behind the line and forces a fumble which VT recovered.
5:25 – Hokies have started to sub people in on both sides of the ball, and Wilson breaks a huge gain breaking several arm tackles for 50 yards.
2:50 – Matt Waldron hits a 28 yard field goal after Wilson is stuffed twice and Ju-Ju Clayton throws an incomplete pass. And during the commercial break, my roommate and I decide that the Nissan Cube is the ugliest automobile ever, even worse than the PT Cruiser and the Pontiac Aztec.

From uncrate.com

1:35 – Whitley gets beat deep and Brian Anderson from Marshall delivers a 60 yard bomb to Antavious Wilson from their own 20.
0:00 – Since the clock hit 0:00, we have had a VT late hit, a Marshall illegal formation, and a VT offsides. So it’s still the 3rd quarter 10 minutes later. A 2 yard screen and we’re finally done. Marshall will have 2nd and 7 from the VT 25 to start the 4th.

4th Quarter:

14:05 – Defense holds Marshall to a FG, and looked good aside from the 60 yard pass. 45-10 VT.
11:50 – Wilson flat out amazes me. He’s a freak. He just had a twisting, turning, reaching catch. It was called back, but he just put on an athletic display. He follows it up with a 15 yard run breaking through more arm tackles and just bouncing off of people.
9:45 – Wilson just ran 36 yards through defenders for a touch down on a 4th and short. Announcers call him “Houdini.” Ta-da, 9 carries 119 yards for an average of 13.2. I still like Little Sweetness as a better nickname. 52-10 VT.
6:00 – Not much going on, Ju-Ju Clayton neither impresses me nor depresses me with his performance. Still hasn’t completed a pass though. But we just punted for the 3rd time this game, compared to 9 for Marshall.
4:30 – Make that 10.
2:45 – Wilson is simply playing at a different speed than Marshall right now. Another 30+ yard run. And in classy Frank Beamer fashion, they are taking a knee for the final 3 plays from inside the opponents red zone to run out the clock.

Final stats – Wow! Hokies win 52-10 with 605 total yards compared to 253 for Marshall. The Hokies racked up an astounding 444 yards on the ground with Williams gaining 164 yards and 3 TDs on 16 carries (and 1 reception for 26 yards), Wilson gaining 165 yards and 1 TD on 12 carries, Ogelsby gaining 60 yards on 12 carries, and Taylor ran for 58 yards on 7 carries (which includes the 2 sacks). The team rush average was 8.4. This was also the first time ever that VT has had 2 rushers with over 160 yards. Tyrod ended the day 9/16 passing with 161 yards with 2 TDs, to Roberts and Boyce, and 1 INT, to DeQuam Bembry.

No real analysis needed, not that I could provide it anyway. The Hokies ran all over Marshall, which opened up the passing game in the 2nd quarter. The defense gave up 2 big plays, but completely dominated otherwise. And special teams performed well with a big return from Hosely and solid work by everyone on the kick offs, punts, and returns. My prediction turned out to be pretty good, but Steiny figured out that all we need to do to put up points is to hand the ball off to our playmakers. And I’d give Ryan Williams player of the game, but Wilson is certainly debatable.

Highlight of the week: Will it be Ryan Williams breaking a long run? How about David Wilson? So many to choose from!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTjAppTguMY

Neither! It’s the pre-game to the UVA/TCU game! Not even the Cavalier’s horse wants to root for UVA this year, and I really can’t blame him…

Quote of the week: During the OSU/USC game, the Little Lady said this about Jim Tressel:
“You know how Jim Tressel looks really clean cut and conservative? He seems so clean cut that it’s creepy. I wouldn’t want to sit next to him at a bar for fear that he would rufie my drink as soon as I turn around.”

And maybe she's on to something...