#8 Virginia Polytechnic and State University
Initial Reaction: Blatant Homerism
Offense: Out of the 9 returning starters most people will focus on QB Tyrod Taylor, and Sophomore running back Darren Evans. However, I believe the strength is in the O-line who will be led by returning starters Blake DeChristopher, Ed Wang, and Sergio "I'm effing huge" Render. The WR corp is deep and has talent, but they are young, biggest returner in my mind is Danny Coale. Now on to a Lattimer favorite. Greg Boone will return at TE. At 6'3 287 Boone runs the coolest versions of the "Wild(Blank)" offenses. The "Wild Turkey" Drink up defenders because you're about to die.
Defense:Bud Foster. Tech returns 7 on defense. Players to note are CB Stephan Virgil, DE Jason Worilds, and FS Cam Chancellor, who may be the second safety taken off the board next April. They have to replace the two inside backer positions (coached by Foster) but look out for newcomer Jake Johnson. A Lattimer favorite is also returning in the form of Whip Linebacker Cody Grim, son of Russ Grimm, who is simply a good football player........But seriously, Bud Foster.
Special Teams: I would say some wise ass comment here, But Tech's punters and Kickers are known for squatting the house. Tech also blocks and returns many kicks. Success.
I'll say off the bat that as a Tech Fan I don't think this team is top 10 material. They may very well end up there at the end of the year, but the stars aren't aligning in my mind. Just too much hype, too young, and an offense that is typically the laughing stock of big time college football. That being said, lets get the offense rant out of the way.
Ever since the departure of OC Ricky Bustle, the Tech offense has been....well....shitty. After all these years I honestly don't know what it is. We get good talent, yet we seem to just suck all the time. I don't know if it's the playcalling, the offense itself, players taking offense suck pills, the water, voodoo magic. I just don't get it, but it frustrates me to no end. This has made my life as a fan excruciating for roughly the past 10 years. Hey top 25 team fans. Do you ever get to watch games where you just wreck shop on some inept team? Really you do? Not me, no every effing game has to be a "defensive struggle" shit, we didn't even beat Furman last year until the 4th quarter. FURMAN....For real? Look who plays for those guys. The next time I see a PAP on third and long I'm going to.....Whatever I'm over it, let's look at this year.
Ok the O-line is good...shitty at times, but definitely top 10 material, that's out of the way. Like I mentioned earlier the WR's are very young, and for some unknown reason Tech has tricked some very good receivers in the past several years to come to the bastion of offensive ineptitude known as Blacksburg. So they are good, but young. Another bright spot is the RB position. The top returner is So. Darren Evans who has the ability to go all hulkster on people (set VT single game rushing record) but if something happens they are the deepest they have ever been at RB since I can remember. Fellow So. Josh Oglesby, R-Fr Ryan Williams, newcomer David Wilson, and wily vet Kenny Lewis are all great players. And I do mean great. So what's left? OHHHHH the QB who if I'm not mistaken, passes the ball to other players. Sorry,must have forgoten, I haven't seen that since 2000. (Bryan Randall excluded....because I love him) So here we are with JR. Tyrod Taylor. He can run, which is nice, but he is also coached by Mike O'Cain, which is not so good. In order to save you several pages of ranting I'll simply say this. In order for Tech to win the ACC, and challenge for a MNC, T must play well.
Bud Foster is awesome. If you want to see a typical Tech game look at last year's Orange Bowl against Cincinnati. Offense comes out and drives the field first possession. Foster calls on the dark powers of the G front, and destroys them for the rest of the game. The nice thing is that Tech has some good players coming back. (Worilds/Chancellor) and they have also had nice recruiting classes in the past several years. The question isn't if the defense will be badass, but simply what level of facemelting will they perform. They also have a screw up at least once a year, let's just hope it happens against Duke.
Looking at the schedule, the big game is obviously the opener against Alabama. And I'd love nothing more than to beat them, but I don't think it will happen. The best we can hope for is Bama has QB growing pains/major brain fart. Tech usually plays well early, but the past several years have been horrible. Specifically against other SEC teams. The ACC is another matter. Nobody really knows what's going to happen in that crazy conference. Last year Tech won it, but they didn't really win it if you know what I mean. Sure Tech should be a lot better, but so will the ACC as a whole. Games that worry me (besides all of them) Alabama, Nebraska (thank god that is a home game) Miami,(who unfortunately will play at Tech early, avoiding the November weather) and GT. We also play another team in VA at the end of the year, but they are cake-eaters, like LAX, and serve wine and cheese at tailgates......no really, they do. So I don't consider them a "football team" on the schedule.
What are we looking at for Tech? If they pull something out of their ass going to the MNC is not out of the question. Worst case scenario is an 8-4 regular season. However, most likely we're looking at a 10-2 regular season, and once again playing the Big East champion in the Orange Bowl.
Awesome.
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Couple of things. First, I drove through Blacksburg a couple weekends ago, and it was probably one of the most beautiful areas of the country I've ever seen. My first time in the general Shenandoah region, and I came away impressed.
ReplyDeleteSecond, how do they distribute tickets for the opener? I'm not too familiar with how yall travel, but that's going to be - as it would be any year that Ga Tech doesn't fill the ACC role - an overwhelmingly SEC crowd in a stadium that plays well to noise.
On the flipside, I want to say Bama is filling Andre Smith's LT slot with a Juco guy in addition to replacing the center, so there ought to be major gaps in protection and blocking.
I cannot wait for that game... See it as being won or lost depending on the fight between Tech's D Line and Bama's O Line. Thoughts?
The great valley is amazing, I may move there soon. As far as that opening game I kinda thought it was the standard bowl thing where each team gets the allotted tickets then the rest are sold. I know it's sold out because my dad and I missed out on tickets. I don't know exactly what the breakdown will be, but Tech usually travels well. It will be mostly Bama, but I think you'll be surprised.
ReplyDeleteThe O-line Defense match up is always huge, and I'll simply say that Tech's D-line over the years is the most like a SEC line out of any other team. Another thing to note is that Foster can and will bring the pressure...from everywhere. (I've even seen him put the gun in his mouth and bring 7-8) Now this is all dependent on Foster figuring them out/stopping the run.
Saban will have a good defense, that goes without saying, so I think the game will go down to which offense can actually perform against the two solid defenses. The thing that worries me is Tech's D will sometimes lose their shit against teams that run a bunch of power/gap schemes. In fact I almost want to say it's either really good, or really bad against those teams.
I didn't talk too much on that game because I plan to do a preview when it gets closer. If you think about it, it's one of the better early season match ups in recent history and immensely important for both teams.
Which brings me to my next point, holler at me if you want to do one of these previews for any team, or maybe we can go halfsies on that Tech Bama game.
I'm glad you found a video against Duke in 2006. When they were the worst team in college football.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention that everyone should look at the Luke and Skip Furman videos, along with the additional videos in the series. It is comedy gold.
ReplyDeleteI think if Tech can stop the run and limit deep routes to Juliooooo, then they will win. I don't figure Bama to have that great of a passing game, and I'm sure that Tech can pound a few touchdowns on the ground around Mt. Cody.
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