Commonwealth Cup preview!

#25 R.P.I. Virginia Tech #27 R.P.I. france:

Today’s word of the day is… car·ry

(kăr′ē)
verb. car·ried, car·ry·ing, car·ries
verb.transitive.

  1. To hold or support while moving; bear:
  2. To move or take from one place to another; transport:
  3. To communicate; pass on:
  4. 27th November 2004 A.D. …until…???

virginia Head CoachMarc Bronco Clay Mendenhall: age=53, (24-25 @uva and 123–68 overall); has a rep’ for defense, no-nonsense, strictness, quirkiness, and even more quirkiness.
i.e. the quirkiest. And for big-time longview player development. (one of the best; here).
$3,400,000.oo

Happy wife happy life.

Coach Bronco also has a rep’ for… bowling. Well, he did, up until two years ago, as Bronco Mendenhall (head) coached football teams had gone bowling 100% of the time. And yet guess hoo is going bowling; again? In addition to that, Bronco has a reputation for defense overall and the secondary in particular as he was an Fs and team captain for the Oregon State Beavers back in the mid 198o’s. Bronco has also placed a flashy 68 ex-players with the National Football League since 2oo5. He is also known for graduating his players, and ranking his former program seventh for most Academic all-Americans during his tenure at Brigham Young. His dad was a stalwart De for B.y.u. in the mid-1950s and his brother (Mat) started at De for the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVII. So clearly football is in his blood and likewise all over his sporting family tree. Bronc’ has tallied three conference titles and one conference Coach of the Year award (2008, Mt.West). He helped pioneer the modern era Spread-fighting blitz-happy 3-3-5 defensive scheme; which industrializes an Lb/S hybrid position in the hind-5.

With a track record of success at B.Y.U., a reputation for instilling order and accountability, and methods and metrics straight out of a stuffy reddest-state business management text, Bronco Mendenhall and his by the FOX News book ways and means have done about all anyone could do at his {sic: new} liberal arts school. As this no-nonsense coach may look like a very trumpeting or vanilla 7-5-7 pasty questionable fit; although -and to his credit- he’s been pretty colorblind after replacing a rather colorful (unqualified) tribal Minority hire. And to be quite direct; Bronco and his seemingly juxtaposed cultural fit are ahead of schedule here folks. So, props to Bronc’ for getting a big-M.A.C. style u.v.a. gridiron team into a bowl game threepeat, back-to-back-back.

Mendenhall is married to Holly Johnston. They have three sons: Raeder, Breaker, and Cutter. Mendenhall is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

u.v.a. 2018 record:  8 up 5 down and .5oo and 3rd in the A.c.c. Coastal

virginia Defense: (starters back=was 8, now=6)

  • 22nd in Total D.
  • 25th vs. the run.
  • 39th vs. the throw.
  • 46th in Passing Efficiency D.
  • 39th in |zone| D.
  • 1o6th in fumbles recovered.
  • Good in dLine Havoc. Dt’s Hanback and Faumui are pretty dang solid and they are even better than that vs. the pass. Hanback has a throwback dirt-eater rumble to his game and Faumui is a Penthouse full-frontal pressuring Dt who can push the pocket into any Qb’s face. 6 of the Top-8 return here, their experience is bullish, and if De were a bit more dynamic this would be one hellUVA front-4. And it’s a quite reasonable one as is. For a thirty-four base this is not a small dLine; De’s, in particular, are very right-sized.
  • Very good in Linebacking Havoc. The hooVa second-layer is quietly loaded for at least ‘booboo and Yogi’ if not outright bear. As three really solid ballers work here: (Lb’s: Zane Zandier, Charles Snowden, Jordan Mack). They merely combine for over 180 tac’s, 15 sacks and three turnovers. That’s all; no biggie… medium-Mack and Z’ do git plum after your Qb, and erstwhile they are downright solid, they don’t sire many misQ’s and this makes them very tough to straight-up beat. Lb’s are basically on-weight; tho’ kinda tallish… this does not hurt in pass-protect on protracted reach. OLb’s are your stop-unit opus, here.
  • Not so good in Secondary Havoc. 53rd in passes picked. About average in ball-aggression; (“cough-cough”). Tho’ all-star Cb Bryce Hall (a ** recruit mind yah) is done for the duration with what one source called: ‘a pretty significant ankle injury’ (may St.Phillip bless). And suddenly a pretty tight hind-4 is minus three of their Top-8 and that leaves a late Autumn airwaves target or two to pluck. As said, another Cb1 and a back-up Nickle/S2 are also out for the season here. That plus the fact that b.Hall was on place to led the nation with 30 passes defended and 27 of ’em broken in the last 1.5 seasons when he mid-year got hurt; shows you just how much Cb talent went down a pretty dang lame-drain. As Hall is/was the best secondary defender on either team; easily. In lieu of Hall the H.Smith kid looks very inviting at Cb to the point of being ‘user-friendly’ available. We needs to gun things right at this kinda thin, mouthy, tin-plated sophomoric. #23 and iso’ him vs. our bigger Wideouts. Still yet, this is a very good-sized secondary overall; tall and physically developed. Tho’ one of the replacement Cb’s only played 1-series of Db in high school! w9w!

    uva base 34 D:
  • D overall: (Film Study): this hoo D is a lotta things and ‘dull’ ain’t among ’em. As uva can and will blitz, stunt, stem or twist/loop from all over. On-time looks, delayed looks, fake-looks. You name it… and honestly, this is a big ask for a 100% underclassman Vice Squad; 60% of which are basically nuggets or rook’s upfront. Some are calling this an: ‘aggressive’ defense. This is a misnomer as this D is not say 1970’s Oaktown Raider/Stiller rivalry physically aggressive. It is, hooever, a pressure heavy D that tries to get to you before you can big-play IsoPPP+ break contain and get to the areas their blitzers just vacated. Te’s Rambo and Mitch’ (and maybe even an Rb Fly pattern) … I’ma looking at you. As you can see above… uva can ‘even out’ this thirty-four, they toggle Lb depth(s) and they will stack a Will-side ILb-twin. Lotta little subtleties live here. This makes zoning against them rather confusing; (as man-blocking would really simply/nullify at least some of this toggling mess). You will see 2-point stancing and 3-point stancing at the same time. You will see all kinda +/- depth looks elevatoring all over. Be these Safeties, Cb’s, or the aforementioned 2nd-layer. Was pretty surprised by how well uva toggled/backed-off of fake blitz looks… as they get a lotta pen for hard-charging northwardly; which they do rather well. Tho’ their combinations are very modern and they vary them extremely well. Secondary did seem a little HR throw phobic to me, almost like the uva O in reverse, they will yield underneath throws in particular on Lo.FM’s and try to keep everything all in front of them. Every man intensity look (off, medium, press) lives here with Tampa-1 or 2 behind that.
  • ∑ (summary): returning D production=72%. Sans poor Hall, Faumui is your conflict defender here. uva does have two big scoop-n-scores and they will advance the ball in lieu of ‘falling on’ the same. As this is a gunning D if nothing else, it will red-dog you on Lo.FM’s as soon as you step off the bus. (be nice to see Hooker rollout or safety-valve or screen this to death). As D-Cord’ Nick Howell might be the one and only member of Bronco’s red-state regime that is more parts C.n.n. As I saw several forecasts calling for this to be uva’s best halt-unit since 2007. Although recalcitrant to agree with that… it is a dang good defense that was flirting with being great with Hall and his secondary pals’ still in the mix. As is this is not easy work and the Vice-Squad has a lotta film-to-study and tape-to-break to get their blitz recognition keys down pat on a short-work week which sees them spending Thanksgiving sleeping in someone else’s bed. (BONUS: u.v.a. opponents have only fumbled 5-times this year; clear strip-clubs ain’t Bronco’s… thang!) On top of all of ^this^, uva really mixes/matches and keeps their front-3, fresh. Lottsa personnel and associated tendency combo’s defense here and that only adds another layer to this thirty-four short-week riddle. Tackling overall softened the further away from the LOS (line-of-scrimmage) Eye looked… tho’ in all fairness, this is prolly a function of Secondary health being tertiary or less. (and as you see below, the seasonal Dline rates of france are pretty dang Gen. de Leclerc (Patton’s Frenchy tank-ace) impressive.

Defensive letter-grade:

virginia Offense: (returning starters=4)

  • 87th in Total O.
  • 118th in ground O.
  • 43rd in aerial O.
  • 76th in Passing Efficiency O.
  • 44th in |zone| O.
  • 24th in completion percentage O.
  • 39th fewest fumbles.
  • O overall: Qb: the alpha to the zeta lives here! A true dual-threat Qb would be one #3, Bryce “I look like I’ma in my 30’s” Perkins. The 6′3″, 215 lb. r-Sr., Perk’ -has shrunk an inch and found a handful of lbs. since last season. This season he is a 66%, 15:8 thrower compared to being a 65%, 19:9 ratio decent enough passer last year who has a history of foot/ankle or knee dings as a runner— per the insider whispers. No. 1 in the A.c.c. with 3,161 yards of total offense. He was also the Jr.College championship game runner-up in 2017 at Arizona Western Community College. This after 2 years (one r-shirt, one, hurt) at ‘Zona State. So hooVa is his third team in three years. In H.S. terms he only won one state and only set an Arizona state high school record for single-season completion percentage! WoW! Yah; that’s legit. So is his 4 limbed N.f.l. family tree. As Sunday genetics is in his thang. That said, Perkins does not seem to sense backside pressure all that well. Last season+this year and Perk has only generated 71 total TD’s while scoring 520 points! Both marks tied for third-highest single-season tallies in program history last year. As this is an Atlas or Doan’s backache kinda kid, as he being Jeffersonian carrying uva on his back. He has been perfected on his November throw-fits (6:0 ratio) and has run vastly better of late! And oh, by the way… Perk’s completion percentage is up 13% this month compared to last. His Qb-rating is up a phenomenal 50-points this month compared to last. (tho’ all other Splits were nominal vis-à-vis no matter what axis I compared them upon). Well, all other splits not named the 1Q… as Perk’ comes out cooking with CH4 and torches peeps for 74% passing in the opening stanza of work. (this tells you just how heavy they are loading the front-end of their script | that and just how much they trust their closing-D). oLine: uva is better at G-c-G or internally than externally; their inside wedge is close to being nominated for: legit. After that, the rhetorical word was: ‘inconsistent’ upfront here. My word hooever upon breaking tape is: ‘uneven’. Saw a couple I liked (already mentioned) and a couple more I’d like to attack (blindside-Ot for example). The tough part of uva is that their 2-oLine-strengths are 3-gaps apart and that makes it difficult to truly load-up the damn mule and plow the field. Oline is better in run-fits than in the passing-cup although the uva run-fits are middleocore+. This year only 2.5 starters returned, there are no Sr’s. and, including Penn State transfer Alex Gellerstedt, only three Jr’s in the mix for potential playing time. i.e. 2020 and 2021 should be blocking better. This year the hoo oLine has decent and nearly a bit nimble looking size. Tho’ they do have a peculiar offset from the LOS on the boundary-side; 7-men on the Line-of-Scrimmage anyone? Wr/Te: the hooVa catch-corps actually courts three guys with ≥51 snags this season. It is just that their legs are south of their hands in more ways than none. As they can catch; it is just that they lack the Y.A.C. (yards after catch) and the elasticity/electricity to really go off once they make the grab. Eye actually do not view this unit as poorly as everyone else does, although they do need more than one grab for >44 yards to help loosen things up for Perk’ to snap loose underneath. As only one pass-catcher has tallied more than 18 points and that’s just too chilly for late November weather in the basketball on grass era. As a lotta singles/doubles and a few triples live here… HR’s not so much. And oui-oui, their absurd 99.2% catch-rate, counts! This trio is a three-way possession or Charlie Joiner cadre with Dubois being the one tripling guy alluded to above. The cav’ receivers are surprisingly well developed to the point of being a bit physical on tape; ain’t no small-sauce here. Rb’s: as frenchy run-fits go… no boohoo Rb has a carry north of 38-yards this season. (dinged-up) Rb Wayne Taulapapa has tallied 66 points this year, and that’s pretty amazing on a pro-rata-rushing basis when you consider he has not even cracked 400-yards for the duration! That said, do not discount this rushing-O entirely; as the actually rather physical Rb P.K. Kier just put in a career day last week and uva’s O sure needs this like a dead-man needs a coffin.

    uva Base SpreadGun O:
  • ∑ (summary): returning O production=56%. This is a shorter dink-n-dunk work the ball down the field passing set (123 in completion distance). As the hoo short-throw-sets have been forced to cover the arse of the more traditional run-fits. And the sometimes pass-protect available: DAX, Ashby, and Floyd will get a workout here, accordingly.
  • 48% run:pass 52% mix. The new hoo Rb (Kier) is your secret sauce offender. Or at least your Coach Fox Mulder X-factor, as he’s got a slippy’ness to his N-S game when it hits. (Film Study): this is a throw heavy set or a Qb run set; though either way; Perk’ is a Total Offense savant. He also runs stronger/more-determined of late than I expected; as somewhere, John Stallworth and his patented stiff-arm are smiling. A Perk’ nets some sharp Y.A.C. (yards after contact). Eye saw 3, 4 and 5-wide looks. Perk’ has a lotta scripted or delay Go calls on hesitating looking Qb-draws. He is pretty dang useful at this and he does not run like a Qb in traffic. Works his combo’s very well from naked backfields up through split-backs. Perk’ is entirely born-n-bred for a Spread-Gun set. Better at play-action this season; and if they only had a real Rb you have to wonder what this O could do/be with better balance? Saw me a lotta short dig, plant or pegged routing in modern-era terms (i.e. stationary waiting on the ball guys). Perk’ throws a very catchable ball too— a Nolan Ryan fastball pitcher he just ain’t. And there are more than a few motion-guy or Rb safety-valve type looks out in the flat that Perk’ adjudicates very effectively on his check-down reads.

Offensive letter-grade:

cavaliers Special Teams: (1 returns)

uva is 74th in Net Punting and so is Nash Griffin. Nash is a 6′2″, pretty strong looking 225 lb. third-year P. Nash is also a Koufax kicker or a lefty/southpaw punter so load the Jugs Machine for CCW (counterclockwise reps). As this reverse spin can and will handcuff you the first time or three. Nash merely has the longest punt (79-yards) of the D-1 season, which is great for the bronze medal in punting distance-wise at uva all-time. Nash may be ever so slightly familiar to you has he has ST’s double-dipped as uva’s P.A.T. and FGA-Holder since he got to T.Jay’s crib. n.Griffin was first string All-State in Indiana high school ball his Sr. campaign as a P and as a K alike. He was a 2014 Kohls All-American Punter to boot. He also has a history of FGA-fakes; as he was a soccer and hoops star scholastically so watch for a possible keeper on 4th-n-short here.

  • 90th in Punt Returns | 1st best in KO returns!!!
  • 117th in punt coverage | 122nd and in suicide-squad!
  • uva has blocked 1 kick and allowed 2 kicks to be blocked.
  • uva has blocked 1 punt and allowed 0 punts to be blocked.

uva’s Kicker: Brian Delaney. The 5′10″, 200 lb. third-year Bri’ was rated the No. 5 kicker in America by 247Sports. That has cachet, and so does an AAAAAA state titlist championship bling. So, I gotta give this special-boy that round 10-8. Gotta give Bri’ these rounds as well: as he was only rated the No. 1 punter in the country per Kohl’s Kicking and then only rated the No. 2 kicker by ESPN.com. Dang yo’… that’s some real live multi-tasking leg-talent there folks. Making uva’s inking of Brian something of a kicking-coup. Delaney has been a severe upgrade for Bronco as leg-swings go… as he has only two true misses on his résumé this year. With two blocks allowed upfront and that makes him more like one true miss K from 27-yards out to 49! Which may not a bionic leg suggest; although he’s pretty dang tough to beat inside of the forty-five.

Here are Solt-Wr’s Joe Reed’s KO-return numerics: 21 returns, great for 743-yards, on a stellar 35.4 KO return average with 2 housed KO’s and a centennial or 100-yard long. Reed has 2,989 career kick return yards and is averaging 29 yards per kick return – making him the only player in FBS history with 2,700 career kick return yards and a career average of at least 28 yards. You do the maths!

Finally, as B.Patterson found… it is Oct.31st here some weeks; as uva is not adverse to whacky ST’s formations or outright trick-plays.

Special Teams letter-grade: I read some metrics that had hooVa #1 in America in ST’s play. Not sure I agry with that… nonetheless; they are one of the most well-rounded ST’s units in the A.c.c. With coverage being the one bugbear weaknesses here. A.

Unit Rankings:

  1. VT D/
  2. uva D (nearly tied schematically).
  3. VT O.
  4. uva O.

X-factor(s):

  • motive: Huge for each. Do you wanna ‘snap’ or do you wanna maintenance a 1.5 Decade long archrival streak more or less than the other side? Tho’ Eye’d have to say that Perk and Bart Simpson’s favorite candy bar wanna take a bite outta our caboose. And yet we wanna send Bud out wiser than ever before… EDGE=push.
  • weather: truly nominal. Nothing to see less very fair November closing skies here. EDGE=weather.God
  • health/off-field: Both teams are pretty well off all 12th game things considered -“thx” @Coach God. Hooever, the uva Secondary injury report is rather cavalier indeed. EDGE=VT.
  • penalties: Both teams are pretty dang well-coached/disciplined this year. EDGE=push.
  • intangibles: the all-important marker of: Turnover Margin is nearly awash. Although VeeTee has been better of late. france has homecourt in gay Paris. They are also 6th in the grind you down TOP (time of possession) metric. EDGE=uva.
  • fatigue: uva has balled once since the 9th of this month to Vah.Tech’s twice— and Pitt was a rowdy one for a bit… EDGE=uva.

The best thing about these butt-hurt lé Kardashian french, is; what(s)???

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Illationconclusion(s) and OPT digits:

Number of hoos who could cavalier @Tech=8

the takeaway:

The takeaway here is…  the Apostle of All Conservative Conference himself -and the guy hoo sure seemed like the least likely C’ville liberal arts cultural fit- is doing some very bingo work.

I’m no fan… although even I gotta give Bronco this round 10-8.

Maybe even 10-7 as you had to serially wonder how his FOX’y, pasty, and downright Red-State “extra starch in my Gatsby-collar please” approach would sell over in the paragon of ‘enlightenment’ in the dark?

***

Additionally, Eye found it pretty dang culturally telling  that Bronco (somehow) got uva back up off the selfie-fumblerooski mat in Lane Stadium last year to punk/blank South Carolina in their bowl bid when most teams woulda finished carpenters dream or emotionally flat as a board after yacking yet another one up vs. their archrival that most writers said was their game to L.

permutations:

  1. Δ1=30% V.Tech wins a close one. Rough, tough, nitty-gritty low scoring one.
  2. Δ2=20% V.Tech wins one that gets away from uva late. As Fu’ -historically- was not RUTS adverse either. Just ask anyone who was overmatched in September @Memphis or now in Blacksburg, Va. Additionally, and sans some really fugly Hokie Christmas come early help; only the V.P.I. Wr skill-position guys have the instrumental firepower to fuel 2-3 play VicTory dance. (or at least Fu’ was RUTS like this, prior to developing a Kill(er) instinct). So, it will be exceptionally interesting to see how a chalky out-in-front-Fu’ would treat his archrival if/when he develops a multi full play lead after intermission. Would he call off the Hokiebird dogs or would he Dire Wolf sic ’em on Bronco?
  3. Δ3=50% france wins a close one. Rough, tough, nitty-gritty low scoring one.
the optics
streaks are meant to be… frozen?!?

the skinny

Our handy-dandy friend the so-called Forum Guide of Graham Houston fame is calling for a near pick ’em or Even type sister-kisser of a game per a narrow 2-point VicTory from Vah.Tech.

The Forum Guide total yardage markers hooever are calling for virtually 6-point streak-‘snapping’ VomiT outta you know… hoo. (as france pretty well trounced us head-to-head in Total Yards vs. common A.c.c. opponents right up until G.Tech)

The splits overall for the year see these two O’s are separated by… inches. Literally. 9.6″ to be exact. With Tech rushing better and the hoo’s passing better. Whereas uva is about 23-yards stricter in total D. Nearly all of which is via the airwaves.

3:30 pm Tip-Off!

The most recent 3-game splits see the plot viscous… if not thicken; entirely. As it is actually the hooVa O that is (now) better by nearly 80-yards per game! ‘merci’ due to a nearly even 50-yard uptick in running and passing alike of late. As the Hokie O has only improved by 19-yards per game vs. the year (mostly due to Hooker’s rushing). Now, with that cavalier offensive acumen rightfully bestowed…

The hooVa D has softened in the last 3-games by: a confounding 104-yards per game! As you, no doubt guessed… most of this is via aerial foibles gone outright throw-shape troubles. The Hokie halt-unit, however, has stiffened by a downright starchy looking 144-yards per game constriction. And the split on betterment is pretty dang close to even between improved O&M run-fits and pass-shapes alike.

Head-to-head… the last 3-game total aggregate yardage marker has swung an absurd 153-yards per game in the Fighting Gobblers favor and this basically posits, avers, and connotes a 2-full-play triumph for dear ole V.P.I.

Lo.FM (Long-field Management©)

  • Thee hooVa O is a middleocore 57th on 1st-down | and yet a pretty sporty 27th on 3rd down-converts. Whereas Bud Bøck is 28th in 1st-down D | and 45th in 3rd down-converts allowed.
  • On the other side of the ball… the hooVa D is 18th on 1st-down | and 27th in 3rd-down converts allowed. Whereas the Fu’fense is now falling behind the sticks on the reg’ with a 93rd best 1st-down O | and a virtually dead average 67th on 3rd-down converts.
  • Analysis: Lo.FM EDGE=hooVa D!

TTT (Time To Throw©)

  • The hooVa O is a sieve-like 115 in sacks allowed | and a modestly below average 78th in TFL allowed. Whereas Bud Bøck is 12th best in Qb’s sacked | and 30th in Tackles for a Loss (TFL) inflicted.
  • On the other side of the ball… the maginot line is 8th best in sacks | and 21st in TFL inflicted! Whereas the Fu’fense is 65th in Qb Sacks allowed | and 61st Tackles for a Loss (TFL) allowed.
  • Analysis: TTT EDGE=Bud Bøck‘s D!

  1. Budweiser has held the opposition scoreless on 32 consecutive possessions!
  2. Hookier has thrown 110 passes without an interception to begin his career – the best streak since Grant Noel went 108 passes without an interception from 1999-2001.
  3. The Hokies have blanked conference opponents in back-to-back games for the first time since 1935 and held their past three opponents to 3o1 total yards or less with none rushing for more than 63 yards.
  4. The Hokies (8-3, 5-2) have won every meeting against the france since crashing the A.c.c. party way back in 2004. We run this Always Coastal Champion mother!!!
  5. france has face-planted twice at home against the Hokies with a chance to claim the division in the season-ending game, 21-33 in 2007 and o-38 in 2011.
  6. hooVa has been a 2Q and 4Q team all year; per being up nearly 85 points combined in those two quadrants of work.
  7. Beating/upsetting and slump-busting on a grandiose streak vs. mighty Vah.Tech makes Bronco a winner (career-wise) @hooVa. Not bad for a cat who prior to france had only spent one season coaching east of Mountain Standard Time.
  8. After averaging a recruiting ranking in the 60s, Mendenhall and his staff signed a top-35 class this winter. Making 2022 rather curious… as recall he dared to say that hooVa only had “27 A.c.c. level ballers” last season!
  9. Mendenhall signed a well-earned contract extension in May that could keep him at Paris until 2025, yet it allows him to retire without financial penalty starting at the end of 2022, a clause his 2015 contract extension did not include.
  10. u.v.a. has given up 2 full miscellaneous yards this year.

u.v.a. Projected S&P+: 41st.
hooVa Projected S&P wins: 7.6 W’s.

the call

Right now, methinks both fan-bases have practiced waaaaay too much Confucianism…

"man with hand in pocket 24-hour feel cocky all, day."

Both teams are kinda good, the team that emerges will be officially pretty good and yet neither team is an offensive juggernaut. As I do put both D’s ahead of both O’s, be that head-to-head or same-side (1’s on 1’s crime inter-team).

That to me says… lower scoring.

So does last year’s film— this year’s film— and what just has to be a tremendous amount of animus that has been percolating over in C’ville, Va. And not that I am want to anoint most uva/Tech games as being mutually physical… Eye just have a hunch that this one is gonna be snappy, snarky, testy, titillating… and then it is gonna actually kickoff.

the closer

This one is gonna be closer than anyone else, thinks!

As Eye for one do not foresee any late autumn blizzard of points from either side. This one has race to 20 written all over it. The first team there wins. (or maybe even a 3-play race to 17).

As this one sure has the look-n-feel of hard-sledding. Uphill both ways. Fighty, spitey, bitey sledding at that. Points will be at a premium and this Commonwealth Cup will tilt one way or the other somewhere in the 9th inning of play.

And unlike Chris I’ma not worried about averaging anything out; as V.Tech will be above average for the next two -possibly the next three- seasons. Whereas uVa will not crest again until ~2023. i.e. on average hooVa had better get us, now.

oOo

I am however concerned about:

  1. T.Rob’ and Trè’s E-W gone big-play upfield N-S stretch effect(s)?
  2. How/what is this Qb1 culturally revamped Fu’fense when it must, chase?
  3. The uva blitz vs. our still at least 2-years removed from drinking (legally); oLine?
  4. Is Perkins ready to play cannibal Lector football and drink our living blood after 2018?

As Saturday, well; Friday=payday for any collegiate baller.

uva is our annual instate archival pH Scale and the contents of the ~4 PM Commonwealth Cup itself our reborn cultural acid test. Basic or acerbic. As this rivalry is just about to unload, the payoff is here. This segues me into Chuck Noll’s speech after the Stiller’s were beaten for the final time on their way to their third of three Super Bowls way back in 1978…

Gentlemen I want to tell you a story about two monks who go for a walk by a stream. Sometime down the stream there is a fair-maiden who wants to come across. The first Monk goes across, brings her to the edge, and sets her down. The two Monks continue down the stream in silence, and sometime further down they stop again. The second Monk says to the first: ‘You know, it is against our belief and our religion to come into contact with a person of the opposite sex, and YOU disregarded that.’ The first Monk responded… ‘I sat her down back there, you are the one who carried her all the way, here.

Let’s hope there is a Perky 2018 carryover effect in effect on Black Friday…

As apparently, I am the only one of the O&M few who thinks we take uva’s A-game punch in this one.

Because Eye sees this one going deep into the 4Q, and being a single play contest,
or not more than 1.5 edge of your seat plays either way.
💯

upset Index=50%

#wimps!

big John Moans=24, desperate hoowives=2o

LETS GO!

HOKIES!

bourbonstreet**

 

 

 

10 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Me thinks you are too nice to UVA on total defense. Once those corners went down, closer to C+ than A-. Perkins as A+ QB is interesting. I would go B+, as u force him to pass and he is not the same. I have no interest in projecting the gm score (since I have not done it once since we started turning it around), but I go with a higher VT score.

    1. Yah; I do feel that.
      My (remaining) worries are schematic. Btizy, in a word…

      b.street

  2. First down for VT very important. Agree with your assessment that we need to stay on the plus side of the sticks, make both run/pass an option on all downs. Will limit their blitzes.

    Also, got to think crossing patterns and double moves could be quite effective against a back-up secondary, though that only works when given HH time.

    Going to take a locked in effort. Feel that if turnovers are even then VT wins. If not, it gets dicey.

    1. Pretty much totally agry.

      You do NOT want to chase the chain-gang and free Bronco to Defensive risk max’ all the mo’.

      b.street

  3. What do you think the chances are they come out straight dirty again? Remember the last time in C-ville when boohoos were throwing punches and one landed on a ref leading to an Andrew Brown ejection? Bronco seems to have had them more disciplined but Bronco was known for dirty teams at BYU. Maybe they fight dirty on home turf?

    1. grate reset!
      Yah; Roger that. Hommie was voted ‘dirtiest’ by S.I. @B.y.u.

      If they do not? (and they could…)
      trailing=frustration(s) max’ and they eventually will.

      Refs=looooong day on Friday.

      b.street

  4. “22nd in Total D.
    25th vs. the run.
    39th vs. the throw.
    46th in Passing Efficiency D.
    39th in |zone| D.
    1o6th in fumbles recovered.”
    ^^This^^ does not grade out to an A minus Defense. B+ at best, more likely a flat B.
    ONE A minus minus minus and two lower letter grades do not average out to an A-.

    The rout is on.

    1. I added in their blitz kicker which ‘yes’, that would not grade in any layer rating sense.
      That is correct. Tho’ it is more than tacitly in play.

      b.street

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