Virginia Tech Hokies

[DooKSucks]

I don't know what happened, Auggie.

[hedge]

This is your typical Carolina football team: Beat up the weak OOC cupcakes, serve up a few shit sandwiches (Wake, Louisville), but do enough good in at least one of them (i.e., great second half vs. Louisville, although greatly helped by some of Louisville's own boneheaded plays) to at least generate some kind of positive excitement (but still lose the game) and then actually play really well and beat a solid opponent like VT (granted this edition of VT football isn't on par with some recent vintages, but we still played a great game). This is standard Carolina football, totally manic depressive, but doing just enough to keep fans on the hook and hopeful. I do think Fedora is a good coach, though. Also, as DS said, we better enjoy this O-line while we can, when some of those horses graduate, we're going to be in trouble. I doubt Gio will go early, he is undersized and while he is hailed as a hero by Carlina fans, it's not like he's Barry Sanders running up and down the field against Oklahoma and Nebraska. We love this kid, but I'm not sure pro scouts are as enamored as we...

[JRB]

As for what's wrong with Virginia Tech, it's clear that it isn't just one thing.

1) The top three running backs are a lightly-recruited redshirt freshman, a four-star true freshman, and a former walk-on. They were not ready to replace the production of Ryan Williams and David Wilson, either of whom would be on this team if he'd completed his eligibility. Given that Williams and Wilson were top forty picks in the draft, I can't blame them for leaving, but those departures hurt. Michael Holmes and J.C. Coleman wouldn't even have been third-stringers for VT a couple of years ago.

2) The defense was supposed to be excellent, but depth was a concern, and that concern was well-founded. VT lost starting backer Tariq Edwards before the season, causing the linebacking corps to be shuffled. VT had to move Detrick Bonner and Kyshoen Jarrett from corner to safety in the offseason just to get four experienced DBs in the starting lineup, while moving Antone Exum from safety to boundary corner. These moves haven't worked-- Exum got burned repeatedly by Cincinnati, and Bonner's struggled all year, especially against North Carolina. In general, VT's been very poor on first contact-- the VT defense is designed to spill plays to a free hitter, and the free hitters have not been making tackles.

3) The wide receivers have been terribly inconsistent. They're new starters, as well, but they're experienced players, and they were expected to be better than this. Routes have been run incorrectly, reads have been missed, and most importantly, this is the worst blocking group of wide receivers I've seen at VT in a long time. The receivers have contributed some big plays, too(UNC was probably their best game), but they've made critical mistakes in every game. An injury hurt this group as well-- D.J. Coles, VT's best all-around receiver, is redshirting this year due to a knee injury.

4) The above three problems start to make sense when you look at the roster situation. This one doesn't-- a lack of physical will. I'll say it again-- since the start of the Pittsburgh game, they've just looked out of it, especially on the lines of scrimmage. The offensive line will routinely fail to block multiple defenders and more often makes ineffectual contact when it does account for everyone. The defensive line is the most underperforming unit on the team-- they're ten-deep up front, and right now, all ten of them are less effective than they were this time last year.

My personal take: a program is either growing, or it's dying. I think the VT program got accustomed to a level of success over the last eight years, without ever really building on it to field a truly elite team. The margin for error at VT is much smaller than it is at an Ohio State, Alabama or USC-- there's no intrinsic advantage VT has as a program over its nearest rivals. VT has just enjoyed the benefit of an excellent head coaching hire. If that coach and his staff cannot get the most out of their players for some reason, or if they miss on a class or two(as they did with offensive line recruits from 2004-2006), VT isn't just going to stumble to 8-4 on pure talent. VT has always to fight and scratch for everything, and this team isn't fighting very hard. That's what toughest to take about watching this bunch.

[hedge]

"I think the VT program got accustomed to a level of success over the last eight years, without ever really building on it to field a truly elite team. The margin for error at VT is much smaller than it is at an Ohio State, Alabama or USC-- there's no intrinsic advantage VT has as a program over its nearest rivals."

Fair and sober analysis. VT has been a very good program over the last decade or so, one that most other programs would gladly trade places with. But they haven't been able to take the next step into true greatness. Again, it's a position most schools would be glad to be in, but I'm sure after coming so close to grabbing the apple, it's frustrating for VT's fans that the program has never quite been able to actually do it...

[innocentbystander]

My personal take: a program is either growing, or it's dying. I think the VT program got accustomed to a level of success over the last eight years, without ever really building on it to field a truly elite team. The margin for error at VT is much smaller than it is at an Ohio State, Alabama or USC-- there's no intrinsic advantage VT has as a program over its nearest rivals. VT has just enjoyed the benefit of an excellent head coaching hire. If that coach and his staff cannot get the most out of their players for some reason, or if they miss on a class or two(as they did with offensive line recruits from 2004-2006), VT isn't just going to stumble to 8-4 on pure talent. VT has always to fight and scratch for everything, and this team isn't fighting very hard. That's what toughest to take about watching this bunch.

Jason,

Isn't that just the recruting? ACC teams have a difficult time distancing themselves from other ACC teams because the recruiting just isn't there. Not only must you outplay your opponents but you must decisively out-recruit them. If you are a VPI (that is routinely in the Orange Bowl) it is hard to take that "next step" to the national championship with just three-star recruits playing in a conference filled with three-star (and the very occasional four-star) recruits.

Here is Alabama's 2013 class...

4 five-stars
8 four-stars

Here is VPI's 2013 class....

1 five-star
1 four-star (just a soft verbal, waiting for Alabama offer which means welch the moment he gets it)
The rest, three-stars

Frank Beamer is the best HC in the ACC. That may not be saying very much (what with all the sucky coaches we have) but he isn't a miracle worker. VPI isn't in the Big East anymore. Beamer can't win enough games in the ACC to even get a shot at the MNC with a team full of three-stars, the math just doesn't workout right.

You want to take the next step, you are going to have to lower your admission standards to that of SEC teams and even then, you have to SELL. You have to sell these top-notch blue chips that Blacksburg is the place to be. That is a hard sell. For the kids not good enough to play in Alabama, Louisiana, Western Florida, South Carolina, or Texas, VPI sells itself. For the super-human 17 year old players, you have to sell them. Not sure Frank Beamer (or any ACC coach) can do that.

[AlabamAlum]

Admission "standards" for the BCS conferences are virtually identical. All have 'special' programs that allow athletes in with a GPA/SAT lower than the general admission students.

[dave_rickart]

And in UNC's case, they have an 'extra special' program for admiting players and maintaining their eligibility....

[billy bob bocephus]

that was almost augie-esque ... well excpt that it was about 3 paragraphs too short...

hi, augie

[AugustWest]

Yeah, I almost went for it, but changed my mind. Low hanging fruit and all.

[billy bob bocephus]

heh

[hedge]

"Yeah, I almost went for it, but changed my mind."

Wow, that's a first...

[KeviNole]

ACC recruiting is fine. While not on SEC level overall, the ACC has a lot of talent in the NFL which indicates strong recruiting. FSU certainly has no problem holding its own, Clemson does very well, and UM will do much better after the sanctions picture is clear. VT seems to pride itself on getting 2-3 star recruits to play like All-Americans but as said before, this leaves the margin razor thin for error.

[innocentbystander]

ACC recruiting is fine.

Fuck you it is. FSU's recruting is fine. How does BC ever beat FSU with this class?

http://www.foxsportsnext.com/college/bc ... mmits.html

[Jungle Rat]

Learn Jive?

[KeviNole]

Fuck you it is. FSU's recruting is fine. How does BC ever beat FSU with this class?

Meh. http://www.holyturf.com/2011/04/nfl-pla ... filiation/

Number of Players from Each BCS Conference, Average Number of NFL Players per team

SEC-308, 25.6
ACC- 278, 23.1
Big 10-256, 23.2
Big 12-221, 18.4
Pac-10-215, 21.5
Big East-115, 14.3

Now, let’s take a look at the schools with top number of NFL players.

1. Miami, FL-45
2. LSU-44
T3. Texas, Ohio State-42
5. USC-39
6. Georgia-38
7. Florida-36
8. Tennessee-35
T9. Michigan, California-33
11. Florida State-31
T12. Iowa, Oklahoma-30
T14. Maryland, Penn State, Nebraska-29
T17. Auburn, Notre Dame-27
T19. Alabama, Purdue-26
T21. Georgia Tech, Virginia, Oregon-25
24. Michigan State-24
T25. Boston College, Ole Miss, Virginia Tech-23

[JRB]

Virginia Tech managed to limp its way to bowl eligibility, thanks largely to the awfulness of Boston College and Virginia, and even in those games, VT did not often resemble a deserving winner. Fans at the VT-UVA game, in particular, may well deserve reparations from the two schools for subjecting them to such dreadful football. The end of the game was almost comically inept, with a sputtering VT offense being handed its final scoring opportunity by way of another hideous Michael Rocco interception. All they needed to do was run the ball and run the clock down before kicking the winning field goal, but once again, VT's offense failed basic clock management and was snapping the ball with 15 or more seconds on the clock. UVA should have had at least a minute to respond against VT's suspect two-minute defense , but Mike London decided not to take either of his two timeouts, electing to save them for an attempt to ice VT's reliable placekicker before a 29-yard field goal try. It was the first VT-UVA game in a long time after which fans of both schools wanted major coaching staff changes.

Oh well. Somehow, this VT team will be representing the ACC in the postseason. I'm apologizing in advance.

[JRB]

Things that are/were more positively entertaining than the 2012 Russell Athletic Bowl(this is by no means intended as an exhaustive list):

1) A quorum call on C-Span

2) The Lawrence Welk Show

3) A Jersey Shore marathon

4) Any of Innocent Bystander's posts

5) Any of AA's jokes

6) Hack's ass

7) Waiting in a DMV line

8) Waiting in a TSA line

9) Waiting for the Comcast people to come and install my broadband connection

10) My root canal surgery that took two days back in April

11) Dave Rickart

12) The musical careers of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and Shaquille O'Neal

Not eligible for inclusion on this list:

1) The experience of watching any other Virginia Tech football game in 2012. As awful as this game was, it was clearly the high point of VT's season.

[AlabamAlum]

Heh.

But my jokes are hilarious!

[hedge]

Lawrence Welk can be unintentionally entertaining...

[DooKSucks]

Not when you have to watch it because your grandmother has one tv and refuses to watch anything else.