Recall that upon entering the 4th Quarter down in the ATL, VT held a 24-14 lead, as 10 points or
two plays is all that separated the two CFA combatants.
Indeed, VT was looking better; though the game was not (yet) outta reach. That however changed thanks to a 13 point blanking as our beloved Hokies volunteered one of their better Bowl game efforts in the 117 year history of VT football itself. That folks is no bad thing, as VT went on to secure its sixth consecuitive 10 win season and Frank’s first ever back-to-back Bowl win’s in his coaching tenure at Virginia Tech.
That said, recall that UT left at least 14 points on the field and that number is very possibly closer to 21. Recall also that insider reports suggested that Kiffin’s crew was very much enjoying themselves down on the ATL’s social circuit pre-game. Frank appears to have finally found the correct Bowl prep’ balanced alla the 3 bears. Frank used to be “tooooooo hard” early on in his bowl prepping career (think IU in the Indy Bowl). Then Frank got “tooooooo soft” in and around the KU Orange Bowl boundary. These days Frank appears able to have Virginia Tech read to peak at just the right time. And speaking of time…
I do not know how much time Frank has left at VT? Every year is a year closer if you know what I mean. I do know that Frank has been flexible and willing to change and revamp his bowl preparation schedule. That is a sign of someone who can preform mental yoga and learn from his mistakes. That is a sign of a future member of the College Football Hall of Fame
4th Quarter 13:24 remaining:
“Taco” not only came to play, he came to eat 
his N.F.L. rankings right on up as he spent a good deal of the nite wining and dining in the Tennessee (UT) backfield down in the ATL. However, he was overeager to do so – twice taking the bait on “hard counts” from Crompton in his rush to audition for a Sunday paycheck. Also, watch “Taco” make an amazing stop 30 yards downfield vs. Hardesty at the 1:22 remaining mark; as “Taco” chases the play down from behind. To put it mildly, “Taco” hustled his ass off down it the CFA Bowl; easily his highest octane effort ever as a Hokie.
4th Quarter 12:46 remaining:
Play of the Game in my book, as Kam bit on the play-action fake by Crompton for the umpteenth time in his outta-position Free-Safety career. Our Cornerback (Cb, Hill) releases #6 for UT deep; and Kam gets his hips-turned the wrong way as he comes flying up to try to nail Hardest on the run. Note that Kam’s hips are about 180 degrees to the wrong; making for the second dropped bail-out UT touchdown throw on the nite. This is why I harp “Eagle-Drill” which is the only eye-hip coordination teaching mechanism I know of for Secondary play.
Epic play call on 1st and 10 just shy of midfield by So.Cal’s new head coach Kiffin Jr., again; something else you seldom seen outta our offensive love affair with Inside Zone at or near this sorta highly tempting field-position. Love to see us go for broke a time or two with the offensive firepower we will field in 2010 like Kiffin Jr. did vs. us in the C.F.A.
4th Quarter 12:37 remaining:
Perfectly executed, perfectly legal (inside the OT box) cut-block by the right-G of UT on “Taco” on this play. Technically, this is 100% a-ok, no double team for an illegal high-low, and the Cut (not a chop) occurs well within the OT-box both vertically and horizontally. This is also 100% horse”bleep” as this is about as inhumane as Line-play can get in the trenches. Both Cutting and Chopping need to be left to the lumberjacks and the U.S. Forestry Service; as they have no place on any football field!
4th Quarter 10:40 remaining:
“He’s got a great package!”
-Matt Millen on Cody Grim-
WOW! Just WOW!
If I were Cody, I’d go the VT Staff and apologize in advance for punching Matt Millen right in the mouth. Why not just say he’s a great dancer and not afraid to cry Elaine (Airplane) errrrrrrr, ahhhhhh, I mean Matt. Maybe Matt can do play-by-play for The Lifetime Network next year.
4th Quarter 10&change to 7&change remaining:
Watch my most ballyhooed boy in a long long time, one D.Wilson break 4 tackles on 3 consecutive carries; then 4 more before his nite was done. I am only be somewhat facetious when I type that these may be the first 8 tackles he broke all year; or at least since Marshall.
Wilson struck me as a Running-Back (Rb) who got by on raw freaky speed in H.S. Just as numerous Linemen get by on being big vs. AA and A schools; sans any technique or fundamental knowledge of the game. Wilson also struck me as lacking vision and timing at varying points in 2009. One trip to the Ophthalmologist will rule the first part out; or provide a fix for such. The timing part would be partially militated by setting Wilson back deeper in our version of the Power-I formation. Wilson is sooooooooo dang fast that he routinely beat our Outside-Zone or Zone-Stretch calls to the point of attack all year long before our Oline could pry a seam or running lane open. Setting him deeper allows Wilson to arrive on-time, instead of ahead of time; and “Yes Sir” I still say that Wilson is gonna be unbelievable before he leaves VT which I hope is code for 2013 circa r-shirting next fall. (which I am told is now in the works, R.Will and Evans health permitting) He gets those to things ironed out, and he’s gonna flip everyone out before he is done.
4th Quarter 6:22 remaining:
Watch the new-found jump-cut by Boykin vs. the UT Cb #31; causing #31 to pinball collide with the UT Strong-Safety (Ss) #41 which springs Boykin for a 30 yard gain. If Boykin learns some moves and how to actually run with the ball after the catch; look out E.Wilford, this guy is gonna get after you and your VT Wide Receiving records.
Also note that Wilson has finally improved his pass-blocking technique. Nothing fancy, no pancakes here, not even a waffle. Yet the UT Outside-Linebacker (OLb) was disallowed a free-pass to TT on this throw to Boykin.
4th Quarter 5:51 remaining:
Keep your eye on T-mobile on this play. Note the walking hand-off dead-pan routine straight outta old-school yesteryear; a pigskin Vaudeville routine 1o1. A+ salesmanship by TT on this reverse to D.Roberts around right-end and it was wonderful to see D.Ro’ lower his shoulder on the UT Db downfield. Recall that D.Ro’ the Wr is a work-in-progress as he is really a Rb by trade; per such, we really must get him the rock in space in 2010, as he was vastly underutilized as a game breaker in 2009. Great cross-up call by O-Cord Stiney on this one, as the CFA-Bowl was very possibly Stiney’s best play-calling work since visiting wvu in 2005.
4th Quarter 5:14 remaining:
Nice “M! V! P!” chant by you fine TSL’ers in attendance during the sideline camera spotlight of R.Will after the Wilson TD run. First time I’ve ever heard that one at a VT football game. +1 for any of you who vocally got in on something new in our shark-jumping society; nice going!
4th Quarter 4:00 remaining:
Have you ever seen as many Helmets knocked off of footballers as you have this year? What’s up with only buckling the top-2 snaps outta the 4 available? Recall TT getting a tooth partially knocked out and a mouth full of blood vs. NEB a few months ago. How much longer until we see an excessively bloody skull fracture or something even worse? Since when is being kool more important than being able to play the next play, or get outta bed the next day? And more importantly to me, why is nobody else concerned about this? Announces never mention it and nobody else gives a damn about the players’ safety to write about it. I expect this is because the vast majority of the Hokie press core has never balled, never suited up, never rolled out onto the gridiron. There literally are ugly lessons you must learn in-situ out there by paying the physical price that words can not describe and that images can not convey. Why are the coaches on all sidelines and the zebras not putting a stop to this under the Uniform Code Violation call? Refs can call whatever they want per the Uniform Code Violation clause, vulgar messages written on tape, non-P.C. eye-blacks, whatever. Why not do something to make the game safer before it’s too late? Best to guard the barn before the horse run away.
4th Quarter 2:24 remaining:
Very sobering play even for New Year’s Eve 2009, as D.Taylor #56 for takes an friendly-fire vicious helmet-to-helmet contact on this one from the Roc’ #24 downfield. Don’t watch; just close your eyes and give a listen – easily the loudest plastic on plastic hit I heard go “crack” all year long. WOW!
4th Quarter 1:52 remaining:
#20 Hosley breaks on the ball again! He broke on 3 vs. UT and went o for 3 for his troubles. However; my sources raved about Hosely being one of the most naturally intuitive Cb’s they had seen in years in Blacksburg; you can see why during the CFA Bowl. Hosely will not only get 10+ Picks before he is done at VT, you have to love his chances to take a couple or several of these to the opposing house for 6. Throw an sideline hugging Out-Rout vs. Hosely at your own peril. Hosley however did hurt his knee on the dreaded no-contact play downfield two plays after this one; same left-knee that he hurt vs. Marshall on the heinous looking sideline jump-ball patella inflection earlier in the year.
4th Quarter 1:01 remaining:
Note that #6 drops the third TD throw from Crompton; as Crompton somehow threads our Zone-Blitz quad-coverage downfield with Drager (of all people?!?), Jake (now transferred to Liberty), Hill and Porch forming an O&M quadrilateral around #6 for UT. It is eminently fair indeed to volunteer that UT dropped 21 points worth of Crompton throws on the nite. I have not been overly complimentary of UT in this CFA Eye in the Sky series; yet any N.F.L. scout in attendance saw Crompton thread the needle time again and again on extremely difficult throws while taking a O&M pasting all nite long that landed him in the local hospital post-game. One has to expect that Crompton did himself some real live Sunday paycheck favors down in the ATL. In fact you can see Crompton holding the back of his melon (head) after the Safety blitz Sack from Poach on the last meaningful play of the game.
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That was then (2009) … this is now (2010):
7 defensive starters, including one N.F.L. early-entry stud at De (Worilds) ago.
1 all-conference quality Kicker and 1 N.F.L. Punter ago.
2 three year starters on the oLine’s left-side; 1 a Pro, 1 a Pro with a bum shoulder.
2 real good Te’s ago.
1 real good Fb ago.
That’s 14 starters (ago) outta 24 if you count Punter’s and Kicker’s accordingly.
So that was then, and this is now. A lot has changed since we beat a pretty fair Tennessee football team that apparently got down with the get down, down in the ATL socially speaking pre-game. Right now we are poised to field the best VT offense not named Micheal Vick of the Frank Beamer football O&M coaching era. Yes, that is right, Frank’s second best offense of all-time. Tons of star-power at Rb (I count 3 Pro’s here), Wr (I count at least 3 Pro’s here, maybe more), C.News best and deepest oLine ever, and some 4th year starting Qb nicknamed “T-mobile”. Not half bad if you ask me.
The 2010 Hokie defense is in a word … “fast”. Very fast, at least the second fastest in the last 10 years; very possibly #1 in raw speed. The 2010 Hokie defense is also … young. As in greenwood or inexperienced. All the more so on the Field side of play. Go ahead and expect Bo.State to pick on that side of Bud Foster’s 2010 stop-unit folks.
The VT specialists are in a word … “unproven”. One is likely a 5th year senior Kicker (Hazley), with a mild shot for a prodigy r-Fr. (Journell). The other specialist is either a 5th year senior (Saunders) or a nepotistic heir apparent r-Fr. (Bowden). Two of those choices are at least in their maxed out penultimate year of eligibility. Two are basically full-time college football players for the first time. None of the four however are proven in-game commodities.
VT preseaon-rankings:
- ESPN=5th
- Athlon=10th
- bourbonstreet=11th
- Phil Steele=13th
As you can see, there is a lack of consensus in where VT truly belongs pre-season. 8 spots is no small degree of textbook variability or dispersion; when taken as an index that equates to only 32% agreement as to where 2010 VT truly belongs. Most seem to recognize that VT is good, there appears to be some discussion as to whether or not VT is truly great however.
Labor Day 2010 (September the 6th) should dispel any lingering doubt — either way. Bo.State feels like they are poised for a run at the 2011 M.N.C. VT (mostly) seems to feel like they are poised for a run at the A.C.C. championship and a corelated B.C.S. bowl birth. 22 returning starters for Bo.State vis-a-vis 10 returning starters for VT (out of 24 total) will do that.
Still, it will take a lot for Bo.State to beat VT in what amounts to a de facto homecourt game up in D.C. on ESPN at 8pm. That said, Bo.State does have a lot to give, all the more so if they catch (pun intended) the VT Field side defense out of position or get said side to bite on play-fakes and play-action sequences. On the other-hand, if ‘Vada (Nevada, 242 yards) and Fresno State (322 yards) can run on Bo.State why can’t Thunder and Lightening (D.Evans and R.Will)? If they can, that will help set the explosive Bo.State offense down on the Bronco’s bench. This should help de-synchronize Bo.State as the nite wears on.
So take your pick. This one is all about Tempo, a NY.Giant vs. St.Louis Rams super bowl redux. Whomever the game tempo favors is the team that should be rightfully favored to win.
Then (post springball) I said VT 36-29. Now I’m going for…
Virginia Tech=33, Bo.State=27.
“LET’S GO!”
“HOKIES!”
b’street