Tech Sports Blog

[The following post was published at HokieHaven.com on August 25, 2007.]

As of Thursday, August 23rd, it’s been 236 days since Virginia Tech last played a football game. Needless to say, it’s been a long off-season for Hokies everywhere, but the end of that off-season is just around the corner. The anticipation for Virginia Tech’s 2007 football season has been building since the day after the Hokies’ 24-31 loss to Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. While there were many negative words said and written about our second half performance against the Bulldogs, most folks knew the offense was young, knew we didn’t have many outgoing seniors, and anticipated the team would improve from 2006 to 2007. But the real source of the early anticipation was the schedule. With an out of conference road trip to LSU, as well as Florida State and Miami at home on back-to-back Saturdays, Virginia Tech fans have been scrambling all year for tickets.

If that wasn’t enough, the emotions surrounding the aftermath of the April 16th shootings have been thrown into the mix. I believe that this year’s season opener against East Carolina will be one of the most memorable opening games in Virginia Tech history. The demand for tickets to the game versus East Carolina on September 1st rivals the demand for the games against Florida State and Miami. I believe the anticipation for the ECU game exceeds that of the canceled 2000 BCA Bowl versus Georgia Tech, and it rivals the anticipation of the 2004 BCA Football Classic versus the University of Southern California. In my mind, those are the only notable season openers that have been scheduled in the last decade.

It is remarkable that a game versus East Carolina will likely be one of the most anticipated and remembered football games this season. I mean no disrespect to the Pirate faithful when I say this, but a clash on the gridiron between the Hokies and Pirates was not anticipated to be earth shattering by any stretch of the imagination. Prior to April 16th, the match-up against ECU was viewed mainly as a tune-up for Virginia Tech before the trip LSU. However, the world changed for the Virginia Tech community on April 16th, 2007. In hours and days following the shootings, we experienced an unparalleled outpouring of support from other universities and colleges. East Carolina was one such university, and they pledged to donate $100,000 to the Hokie Spirit Fund just days after the shooting. I welcome them to Virginia Tech on September 1st and look forward to having them join us for what will be a emotional return of football to Blacksburg.

As you can see, I am looking forward to the East Carolina game next weekend. Not only because I expect it to be a meaningful start to the football season, as well as a memorable experience, but because it marks the start of a regular season that I consider to be one of Virginia Tech’s best football schedules in recent memory. I was so excited about this year’s schedule that when it was released, I promised myself that I would attend every regular season game. When the date of the LSU game was announced, I immediately booked airfare and hotel accommodations for Baton Rouge. I have worked on and off all year to get tickets to the away games (home games were already covered by my season tickets), and now I am all set for every game except UVA.

I am ready for the season, and this is how I have ranked the games on the schedule based on a combination of competition on the field, tailgating expectations, and fan anticipation.

Take ‘em or leave ‘em: William & Mary, at Duke
I’m sorry, but these are two games I’m just not very excited about. I can’t get excited about playing a Division I-AA team, and I can’t get excited about driving 3 hours to watch one of the best teams in the ACC pummel one of the worst teams in the league. If I hadn’t made it a goal to attend every regular season game, these are the games I’d skip.

Be there if you can and have fun: (no particular order)
Ohio – Many of you may consider the Ohio game as “take it or leave it”, but its redeeming quality is that it is a home game. They may not be a premier out of conference opponent, but it should still be fun.
North Carolina – I’m looking forward to this game because of three things: it is our ACC opener, it is Butch Davis’ return to Lane Stadium (I always enjoy beating him), and it is a home game.
at Georgia Tech – The Georgia Tech game is definitely a “can’t miss” game for Yellow Jacket fans, and I consider it to be one of our tougher contests this year. Because it’s an away game on a Thursday night, most Hokies will be perfectly content watching this one on ESPN. However, I went to Atlanta in 2004 for our first game against Georgia Tech as a member of the ACC, and I went to Atlanta this past January for the Chick-fil-A Bowl. I enjoyed both of those trips and will be making the trek again. I expect this one to be fun.
at Virginia – As a resident of the Charlottesville area, I will definitely be attending this game. It’s a “can’t miss” game for me, but not for Hokie fans in general. The lack of competition in recent years has taken the edge off of this rivalry, but this year’s game may carry added importance. Why? Because if the Hokies are to fulfill media predictions and go to the ACC Championship game, this could be a must-win game at the end of the year.

I consider the following games as “can’t miss” games for Hokie fans. Again, this isn’t entirely on football merits, as I consider the Georgia Tech game to be much tougher than the Boston College contest. This list is more about the fun Virginia Tech fans will have attending these games.

6) Boston College (Thursday night)
With BC coming into Lane Stadium with a new head coach, I don’t think this will be one of our toughest games this year. However, night games at Lane Stadium are special. I don’t think I’ve missed a Thursday night game at home since my freshmen year (1997). Now, as a working professional, there’s nothing like taking 2 days off of work to head to Blacksburg on Thursday morning, tailgate all afternoon, and subsequently watch Hokie football. Then I get to head home Friday for recovery, and I have the entire weekend ahead of me.

5) at Clemson
Hey, this game is at Clemson. Need I say more? There isn’t a member of the ACC with more football tradition than the Tigers. I look forward to this road trip.

4) Miami
While Miami may have a down year with first year head coach Randy Shannon at the reins, don’t expect this one to be easy. It is the week after Florida State comes to town, and Miami always plays us tough. Lane Stadium is always raucous when the Hurricanes visit, so regardless of Miami’s record on November 17th, this one is a “can’t miss”.

3) East Carolina
There is not much more to write about this game that I haven’t already written. The only reason why this isn’t ranked as the top “can’t miss” football game for a Virginia Tech fan is because of the two games I haven’t yet mentioned.

1-tied) at LSU
A week after we open the season, we will make one of the toughest road trips in recent history. It is expected to be one of the top college football games of the year, and it is – without a doubt – the toughest game of the season for the Hokies. As with many SEC schools, LSU has a football tradition that we just can’t yet touch. Their fans can tailgate with the best of them, and they have one of the loudest stadiums in college football. Who knows if we will ever play LSU during the regular season again in my lifetime, so I consider it a rare opportunity to be able to watch the Hokies play at the home of one of the SEC’s top programs.

1-tied) Florida State
While I am really excited to go to LSU, I am just as excited that Bobby Bowden finally gets to visit Lane Stadium for an ACC game. Virginia Tech fans want revenge – revenge for the 2005 ACC Championship Game, revenge for the 2002 Gator Bowl, and revenge for the 2000 Sugar Bowl. It’s been a long time since we’ve beat Florida State (32 years), and it’s been a long time since they’ve visited Blacksburg (18 years). I think every Hokie circled November 10, 2007, when this year’s schedule was released. Expect this game to be a night game. Expect the tailgating prior to it to have some extras (extra food, extra games & activities, extra people, and extra drinks), and expect Lane Stadium to be as loud as it has ever been. For any Florida State fan expecting a win because you have never seen us beat you – this one won’t be easy for you. We finally get you on our turf.

Due to the cancellation of the 2007 Spring Game following the April 16^th shootings, Virginia Tech is opening today’s scrimmage and next Saturday’s scrimmage to the public. A fan could easily consider today as the start of the Hokies’ fall football campaign, so I choose today to be the day I get back in Hokie sports blogging saddle. After a long mid-year layoff that began with tragedy, I am ready for some Hokie football.

There is a palpable anticipation by Virginia Tech fans to this fall’s football season. I believe the buildup is from a combination of grief from April 16^th and from the fact that Virginia Tech is truly an elite football program. Having won 10 or more games 3 years in a row, with USC being the only other Division 1A team to accomplish that, and having featured the top defense in the nation the last 2 years, there is no doubt that Hokie football has reached the big-time, and it only needs a national championship to round out its resume. Fan expectations have risen, therefore the excitement the precedes the fall has only increased during the last 5-10 years.

Additionally, the sadness and grief caused by the tragedy in April is still fresh, and the football season will provide an opportunity for the Virginia Tech community to heal as a whole. Don’t forget that many students left campus for the summer after the shootings, and not all alumni were able to make it Blacksburg after April 16^th. For many Hokies, their return to Blacksburg in the coming weeks will be their first trip there since the shootings. Because of this, the opening game versus East Carolina will be a special event that no Hokie should miss.

With East Carolina just 3 weeks away, I am beginning to prepare myself for this fall. I’ve already notified my management at work of the days I will be taking off for football games. I am planning on attending every regular season game (home & away) this fall, so I had conserve my vacation time this year. Next week I plan to attend the second and final open scrimmage at Tech, because even us fans need preseason training. And for the next 4 weeks I will attempt to find LSU tickets, because while I have airfare and hotel accommodations booked for Baton Rouge, I have yet to find tickets.

I hope everyone enjoys their last few weeks of summer, because the summer ends and the football season begins Labor Day weekend. With only one bye week the schedule (Oct 20), Hokie football will be going hard & fast all the way through Thanksgiving.

I’m not gonna lie. I’m not a big fan of predictions of events that more than a week or two away. It’s pretty much impossible to figure out how a team is going to play more than a few weeks down the road. I always find it funny how folks will tout their correct predictions as if they were Nostradamus, but they don’t mention that they’re wrong more often than they are right.

That said, I will attempt to predict the remainder of the basketball regular season for Virginia Tech, as well as next year’s football regular season. I fully admit that I am not a so-called expert, and these are just my gut feelings.

First off the remaining basketball games:

I know what you’re thinking: This guy is nuts! We’re going to lose to Miami at home and beat UVA on the road on their senior night?!?! I admit, that is a crazy prediction, but I have a method to my madness. I think Hokies are going to drop one at home that they should win, and they’re going to win one on the road that they should lose. I also think they have a shot at winning at BC on Saturday, but I just think we’ll be due to come back down to earth.

Now, the 2007 football season:

Again, you’re probably thinking that I’m smoking something. Yes, I’m predicting a win over LSU and a loss to UVA. I think we have a good chance at winning at LSU because most people are going expect us to lose that game. Anyone remember our trips to Clemson in 1998 and Texas A&M in 2002? Those were supposed to be road losses for us.

Also, I’ve got the feeling that two trends end next year: Our losing streak to FSU and our winning streak over UVA. No matter how good or bad our team is next year, Saturday, 10 November 2007, will be one of those days where the Hokie Nation wills the football team to victory. I cannot wait for the day the Seminoles come to Lane. And after we beat Florida State and Miami in consecutive weeks, the Hoos will bring us back down to earth. I hope I’m wrong on that one.

That said, who knows what’s going to happen in the next 7 months. These predictions are meaningless.

Per TheACC.com, here is VT’s schedule for next season:

1 Sep - East Carolina
8 Sep – at LSU
15 Sep – Ohio University
22 Sept – William & Mary
29 Sept – North Carolina
6 Oct – at Clemson
13 Oct – at Duke
20 Oct – Open
25 Oct – Boston College (Thursday)
1 Nov – at Georgia Tech (Thursday)
10 Nov – Florida State
17 Nov – Miami
24 Nov – at Virginia

Next November is gonna be rough.

I noticed a couple of interesting tidbits over at FanBlogs.com.

First off, according to this Florida Times-Union article, the ACC is considering its options for the ACC Championship Game. They can either renew the current contract for another two years, tweak the contract to renew it for only one year, or they can bail out of Jacksonville altogether. Based on the article, I get the vibe that the ACC is going to go with the 1-year option and reassess after next season. Personally, I hope they bail out of Jacksonville. The fact that the loser of the ACCCG has ended up in the Gator Bowl in each of the first two seasons the game has existed really hurts both the championship game and the Gator Bowl. Nobody wants a return trip to Jacksonville after losing the conference championship game. I would love to see the game in Charlotte, purely for geographic reasons. Plus the bowl game in Charlotte is a lower tier bowl, so the loser of the ACCCG will never end up there.

We’re still waiting for the ACC to release it’s schedule for the 2007 football season. Apparently there’s an issue with the schedule of one of the schools, and they are waiting for that to get straightened out so everyone’s schedule will be made public at the same time. However, if you checkout the bottom of this independentmail.com article, Clemson will not be playing any Thursday night games this year. According to Jim Weaver, on a previous Hokie Hotline, Tech is likely to play two games on Thursday night – one at home and one on the road – with Boston College, Georgia Tech, and Clemson as likely candidates. BC is the only home game of the bunch, so that’s got to be one Thursday night game. With Clemson out of the mix, Georgia Tech has to be the other.

As a side note, my airfare and hotel accommodations have been booked for Baton Rouge, the weekend of September 8th. All I’ll need is tickets to the LSU game!

About midway through the second half of Virginia Tech’s win over North Carolina on Saturday, I turned to my buddy Kevin and said something to the effect, “If we pull this off, this game will make our season tickets worth it.” Before the season started Kevin and I bought a pair of season tickets from my brother-in-law’s aunt and uncle. They are big time Hokie Club donors, and they were able to get extra season tickets. We were a little hesitant to pull the trigger, because it’s pretty easy to get tickets to most games. However, we probably would have paid through the nose for 2 tickets to the UNC game on Saturday.

Even though it made sense monetarily to purchase those season tickets in light of the UNC, I wasn’t really referring to that when I made the comment to Kevin. I was referring to the fact that the UNC win will be one of those games that everyone who was there will proudly remember their attendance. For older fans of Hokie basketball, they will remember this win along with our win in 1983 over #1 Memphis State, as well as our 1973 NIT Championship. For younger fans of Hokie hoops, this is the marquee win of our generation. Presently 27 years old – I was a freshmen in the fall of 1997 – I am too young a Hokie to know anything about men’s basketball prior to football’s reign over Blacksburg, so I am included in the latter group. That said, I firmly believe this win is the greatest in VT basketball history. There is one simple reason I believe this: the victory over then #5 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium the week before. Duke and North Carolina are considered to be two of the most elite programs in Division I basketball. They are ACC basketball.

Who would’ve thunk it? Beating Duke and UNC, both ranked in the top 5, within 8 days of each other. These are the kinds of wins that programs build on. In the right hands, these wins are used to take programs to the next level. Will Seth Greenburg build this program into a perennial tournament team? I don’t know, but the future certainly seems bright.

Regardless of what happens down the road, I can now amend my “I was there” list:

• The overtime win over Miami in football in 1998.
• The 1998 homecoming loss that didn’t happen.
• Almost every home football game in 1999 – notable wins: Syracuse, Miami, Boston College
• The 2000 Sugar Bowl loss to Florida State.
• The Ernest Wilford 2-point conversion drop in the loss to #1 Miami in 2001.
• The downtown “riot” the night before the LSU game in 2002, as well as the our win over LSU at Lane Stadium the day after.
• The win in 2003 over then #2 Miami.
• Our loss to #1 Southern California at FedEx field in 2004, the win at Lane over then #6 West Virginia, the crazy 4th quarter comeback at Georgia Tech, and the loss to #3 Auburn in the 2005 Sugar Bowl.
• And finally, I can add a basketball game to this list: our win over then #1 North Carolina in Cassell Coliseum in 2007.

I’ve been debating what to write about Tech’s loss to Georgia in Saturday’s Chick-fil-A Bowl. Did I want to talk about Virginia Tech’s ineffective offense, only gaining 189 total yards? Or did I want to discuss how the Hokies got out-Beamerball’d in the second half with Georgia’s perfectly executed onside kick and Tech’s poorly executed onside kick? Perhaps I could talk about how Sean Glennon turned the ball over on 4 straight possessions. Or maybe Brandon Ore getting a measly 42 yards on 20 carries.

I could keep going, but I know you saw the game. You know that the Hokies’ second half meltdown felt like a kick in the groin. The last time I felt like that after a game was Miami 2005. To make matters worse, the men’s basketball team lost at Marshall earlier that day. Marshall is not a good team that Tech should have easily beaten. I have heard people say this loss will likely keep us out of the tournament. (Per RealTimeRPI.com, Tech’s is ranked 61 at the time of this writing.) Needless to say, the men’s basketball team needs to do some soul searching before they enter ACC play.

Instead of talking more about the game, as it is still fresh on everyone’s mind, I will conclude with something positive. The Chick-fil-A Bowl is a great event. Atlanta is a fun city (I went out all three nights I was down there), and the Georgia Dome is a great venue. I had just as much fun going to the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta as I did 2 years ago when I went to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. I would go back to Atlanta in heartbeat. Also, the Georgia fans I ran into during the course of the weekend were awesome – very knowledgeable, loud & rowdy, and quite classy. I hope we get a chance to play Georgia again.

To someone who doesn’t follow college football closely, this game screams of a mismatch. Georgia, 8-4 and unranked, with losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky, takes on Virginia Tech, 10-2 and ranked 14th. However, just as Hokie fans will ask you to look past Virginia Tech’s losses to Georgia Tech and Boston College, Dawg fans will ask you look past Georgia’s losses to Vandy and Kentucky. The fact of the matter is Georgia finished the season with wins over then #5 Auburn and then #16 Georgia Tech. They have a good defense and a young quarterback. When you start looking a little deeper, Georgia and Tech look much more similar than their overall records would seem to indicate.

Offensive stats:

• Yards per game: UGA 329.9, VT: 320.1
• Passing yards per game: UGA 197.8, VT 200.8
• Rushing yards per game: UGA 132.1, VT 119.3
• Points per game: UGA 24.5, VT 25.7

Defensive stats:

• Yards per game: UGA 264.0, VT: 221.1
• Passing yards per game: UGA 150.3, VT 128.2
• Rushing yards per game: UGA 113.8, VT 92.9
• Points per game: UGA 17.1, VT 9.3

The similarities end when you start to look at each team’s bowl preparation. According to this Lynchburg News & Advance article, by Nathan Warters, Coach Mark Richt will have his team practice 15 times prior to the Chick-fil-A Bowl, while Coach Frank Beamer will have the Hokies practice 9 times. The NCAA does not allow more than 15 practices prior to a team’s bowl game. Richt is utilizing the maximum number of practices because of last season’s Sugar Bowl loss to West Virginia. Beamer is using the same bowl practice schedule he has used for the last 5 years. It’s easy to second-guess Beamer’s practice schedule, but given that Coach Beamer has taken Tech to 14 straight bowls, I trust he knows what works and what doesn’t work.

So, what’s going to happen on Saturday? I could tell you that it’s going to be a defensive struggle, and that the team that turns the ball over less will win the game. But you already knew that. As every Hokie fan knows, Virginia Tech’s success will depend on the offensive line. They don’t need to be spectacular, they just need to be adequate. They need to create some holes for Brandon Ore, and they need to keep Sean Glennon off his back. Also obvious to every Hokie fan is the effect Brandon Ore will have on the game. If Ore has a big game, then a Tech victory is all but assured. If he doesn’t, then more pressure will be on Glennon and the offensive line.

This game is not going to be easy for the Hokies, and I expect them to be down by a score early in the game. I think the second half will be dominated by the Hokies defense, with the offense doing nothing special, other than not turning the ball over. Here is how I see the game being played out:

• Georgia comes out fast & inspired and scores first with a touchdown off of a special teams play. This will be their only touchdown of the game.
• Virginia Tech gets on the board with a field goal off of a long drive that stalls out in the red zone.
• Virginia Tech will score a touchdown off of a turnover.
• Virginia Tech will score a touchdown on a short field caused by a good punt or kickoff return or a short punt.
• Georgia will get in 2 field goals during the course of the game, making the final score VT 17, UGA 13.

That is, of course, just my opinion. I have been wrong before, and I will be wrong again. Personally, I’m hope I’m wrong in that Georgia never has a chance on Saturday, but I don’t see it working out that way. Regardless of the outcome, I am looking forward to this trip to Atlanta. I will be driving down to Atlanta Friday night and will be there the entire weekend, including New Year’s. It should be a great time hanging out with one of my college buddies, as well as partying with all of the Hokies and Dawgs that make it down for the game.

It is unbelievable how fast this summer flew by. It feel likes it was only yesterday that I started my new job. That was 2 months ago. While the end of summer is upon us, and that is bad news to some, the good news is that there are only 4 weeks until the Hokies take the field at North Carolina State.

Four weeks!!! I can hardly wait. I can practically smell the peanut oil for the turkey fryer, taste the goodness of a stiff Jim Beam & coke, and hear Lane Stadium rocking.

So, what happened over summer vacation?

• Boston College officially joined the ACC in July.
• The ACC added two bowl tie-ins for 2006. (The Emerald Bowl in San Fransisco and the Music City Bowl in Nashville will host ACC teams starting in 2006.)
• The ACC media picked Virginia Tech and Florida State to win their respective divisions.
• Virginia Tech is ranked #7 in the first USA Today Coaches Poll of the year, ahead of our ACC brethren (#8 Miami, #12 FSU, #22 BC, #23 UVA).

There is definitely a sense that this season could be something special. But along with this hope there is a dose of reality – everyone remembers 2002 and 2003. Talent plus Hype does not necessarily equal BCS. What will make the 2005 Hokies any different? They have arguably one of the most talented teams in Tech football history. However, this talented team will hopefully remember what it took to win an ACC championship. Team United is what they were called last year. If Team United shows up on September 4th, this season will be more memorable than 2004 and possibly more memorable than 1999.

But, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. The season has yet to begin, so I’m going to try and keep Rose Bowl talk to a minimum. I wouldn’t want to get too excited only to show up in Blacksburg for a game and see the cHokies take the field.

EDIT: I wanted to leave you with links to two articles – an excellent read at TailGateFever.com and Terry Bowden’s ACC Preview at Yahoo! Sports.

I came across this post on the mighty mjd sports blog from about one year ago, just after the USC game.

The mighty mjd referred to this column by Matt Hayes that Virginia Tech hit the ceiling in 1999 and was in decline. While mjd’s reasons were rediculous, I love this prediction: I can’t envision Tech winning a conference championship or playing in a big-time bowl anytime soon. With that, recruiting takes a hit. With that, everything goes down hill. But other than that, I’m sure the ACC will be a lot of fun for them.

It gives me warm fuzzies to read these opinions knowing that we are now the defending champions of the ACC.