Virginia Tech Boston College football preview!

#23 R.P.I. Boston College @ #45 R.P.I. Virginia Tech:

Virginia Tech hosts Boston College Saturday afternoon in a just beyond peak foliage New River Valley at 3:45 pm on Raycom Sports Network (check: your local channel guide here).

The Hokies are coming in off of a true peeling by the visiting (-3) three-point dog Y.Jackets of Georgia Tech. Whereas the Flying Eagles are swooping down 703 miles So-by-So-West after upsetting Miami at home on Friday night as a (+3) three-point dog themselves. In this one, our beloved Hokies are actually the home betting ‘dog. As Boston College is actually favored by two (BeeCee-2). Our Hokies really do serially need to win here or they have to play .667 ball just to extend the bowling-streak to close. The use of 31st Oct. timely American Lit’ R. Van-Winkle 9-pins metaphor notwithstanding… this is just not our best look match-up(s) wise. Let’s get that R.A.T.T. honestly outta the way right away. Still yet, you and Washington Irving wanna know who is gonna win, correct? Read on, to find… out!

Today’s Idiom of the day is… Jiminy Crickets

proper noun: (circa: 1940), Pinocchio,

  1. minced oath for “Jesus Christ,” expressing surprise, shock, or astonishment.
  2. the Walt Disney version of the Talking Cricket (Italian: Il Grillo Parlante).
  3. A way of swearing, without swearing. (Urban Dictionary).

Boston College Head Coach: Steve Addazio: age=59, (37-35 @BeeCee, 50-46 overall); has a rep’ for toughness, rigidness, more toughness, and offensive lines.
$2,600,000.oo.

Steve the person came up in Farmington, Conn. and later on the baller Addazio was a four-year starter at Central Connecticut from 1978 to 1981 and earned tryouts with the NFL’s New England Patriots, USFL’s Jacksonville Bulls and CFL’s Ottawa Rough Riders. He earned his bachelor’s (1981) and master’s (1985) degrees from Central Connecticut.

Then Steve broke into coaching as the head coach of Cheshire High School in Connecticut from 1988 to 1994. He led Cheshire H.S. to 49 consecutive victories, the second longest streak in the nation. Cheshire also won three consecutive state titles and was ranked in the Top-25 high school football teams in the country under Addazio.

In ’95 Coach Addazio began a 15-year assistant coach sojourn under the likes of: Bob Davies, Gary DiNardio and eventually Urban Meyer at Florida. Assistant coach Addazio mostly coached oLines and Te’s.

Coach Addazio previously spent two years as the head coach of Temple University. Prior to his stint at Temple, Addazio spent six seasons as an assistant coach, assistant head coach and offensive coordinator of the Florida Gators football team and was a part of two rings taking B.C.S. National Championship Game-winning coaching staffs under head coach Urban Meyer. Then he got the big whistle job up on Chestnut Hill and he has wedged his way into bowl games 75% of the time at Boston College; going 7-6 in each of those three bowling seasons in which he did advance into December play.

Daddy Addazio is married to the former Kathleen Donoghue. They have three children
–Nicole, Jessica, and Louie.

2017 record: 7 up 6 down and 4-4 in the A.c.c.

Boston College Defense: (starters back=8)

  • 52nd in Total D.
  • 66th vs. the run.
  • 50th vs. the throw.
  • 69th in S&P+ D.
  • 21st in defensive Explosiveness!
  • And 17th in Pass Efficiency D.
  • 7th best in red-zone D.
  • 19th in defensive TD’s scored!
  • 4th most in Qb’s sacked!
  • 23rd in Tackles for a Loss (TFL) inflicted.
  • Though 4th from last in Passing Down rushing rate. (very loose/deep coverages).
  • 28th in dLine Havoc. De, Zach Allen is a fringe N.f.l. defender and that makes him an all-conference contender at this level. 174 career stops with 37 TFL, 17 sacks, 2 INT’s as a De, and a blocked kick on The Heights says so! The BeeCee Dt’s are solid as starters (Ng, Smith and Dt, Karafa) although depth is downright scarce here. 320 lb. r-Fr., Dt, Ryan Betro looks like a stronger Hewett and that’s saying something. If/when the quad-r-shirt play him again. And oh yes, the other Eagle Sr., De (Wyatt Ray)? He only leads BeeCee with 12 TFL and 9 sacks! w0w!!! (although he is vastly better vs. the pass than his decent run-stopping | and he does run a bit hawt-n-cold; as his hot is boiling hot, scalding; actually). And oh yes… did I mention that 75% of the BeeCee starting Dline tips the Toledo’s at 286 lbs. up to a burly 3o9 lbs.; yet?
  • 51st in Linebacking Havoc. Lb got really beat-up for BeeCee last year and per a result of that is better/deeper this year for it. OLb’s Max Richardson with 2016 leading tackler (knee last year) Connor Strachan (team tacking leader by nearly 20%) are strong edge defenders and Mike-Lb Isaiah McDuffie is at least solid here. Albeit an unexpected starter at MLb1. Lb’s will utilize a most strange double-offset horizontally to the short side of the field. Whereby the Will is lined-up as the true Mike and the rest are displaced even further to the short-side accordingly. I have zero idea why/what this look means/does? Other than inviting things to the field-side… either way, two qualities and a solid live here.
  • 29th in Secondary Havoc. Sr. Ss, Lukas Denis (9 career picks) and Fs Will Harris defend the mid-field at a high level. Cb or edge pass-defense does tail a bit comparatively for it. Though rookie (r-Fr.) Cb Brandon Sebastian and his team-leading defensive efficiency (38%) have been a pleasant surprise breakout baller so far. Not a very sizey hind-4/5… only one guy is north of 5′10″! Both Cb’s check in at 185 lbs. or less. Might be some Outside-Wr match-up advantages, plural, to stack up here. There are some natural ball-defenders here, though Eye also saw this secondary go for the hit; not the man and not the ball; the hit more than a few times on tape. Secondary plays a lotta halves and medium-man; though as said, it goes very tight man in the red-zone and on 3rd downs alike.

    Base: fortythree set.
  • D overall: in big-picture terms, the starting-11 here is said to be just fine, although defensive depth is wanting to damn near invisible in spots. So Time of Possession (TOP) is a bugbear for these Eagles. As most sources seem to ratify that the Eagle D is better in the front-7 than it is in the hind-4 and you need to be able to throw the ball if you wanna deal successfully with this BeeCee halt-unit in 2018. Most likely to the outside or the edge of the field at that.
  • ∑ (summary): 19th in overall Havoc for a very thin defense does not suck. Now just imagine them if BeeCee rolled anywhere near a catch-22 deep on D? dLine has a few different facets to it in breaking-tape. Including a red-zone 30-set with a true Ng where they will cheat both the Sam and Will up for an even fifty-two look if need be. In addition to a 20-set with the Ng removed for a 2-4-5 whacko Nickle look. There are red-dog Lb run blitzes here, ditto vs. the pass. BeeCee will deal from the 2nd-layer and this does vacant a hook-zone behind said gunning Lb— if/when you can hit it quick enough. With a lotta jam/press man coverage on edge when the field contracts; or vs. Lo.FM’s. I found BeeCee’s tackling to be normalized to maybe even C+++, however, it was a little lesson on the edges, as the big guys inside lumber a bit East-West (and the Cb’s are just Sammy Davis Jr. “s, m, all”; as Dean Martin used to quip). BeeCee does use seldom seen double-same-Gap blitzes. With an Lb and then a Safety BOTH hitting the same gap vertically. Talk about an overload, if you are caught in a long-protect set. Overall, this is a solid D, it is an improving D, it is not a boring D— it is an experienced and coached-up D that does not beat itself. It could use about 1 or 2 more studs; as not much more 2018 blood can be squeezed from this downright solid though anhydrite rock.

Defensive letter-grade:

Bee Cee Offense: (returning starters=10)

  • 36th in Total O.
  • 24th in ground O.
  • 85th in aerial O.
  • 32nd in S&P+ O.
  • 11th in passing explosiveness!
  • Although 15th in Passing Efficiency O.
  • 16th hardest ‘Backs to tackle in D-1!
  • 40th in sacks allowed | 79th in TFL allowed.
  • Tho’ 122nd in 3rd-n-long rate. (i.e. go git ’em, here!)

    Complex… much?!?
  • O overall: As things stand at nearly the 2⁄3 complete marker of the regular season… one could dare to opine that the Eagles like to share the throw-game nest. As an absurd 19 different Eagles have caught the ball thus far this year. That’s called spreading the love around indeed. And yet -as the erudite among you already know- and yet the Eagles ironically love their ground-game even more. As the top-2 Eagle ‘backs combine to be an impressive 12′3″ in height and an imposing 490 lbs. even. Or to put it another way… they are (nearly) bigger than five of Bud Lyte’s front-7. Yah; yikes indeed and #me3 on that! And as specimen as BeeCee’s bruiser of an ex-Lb, one #2, Algiers Jameal William Dillon (5′12″, 245 lbs., said to be a very: “humble and smart kid”, in addition to being the no.20 Rb in America per rivals on a Sr. year broken-leg) as specimen as Dillon truly is… BeeCee’s second-leading rusher, Wr/Te/H-back hybrid (Benji Glines) has not averaged less than 9.5 ypg in any game in which the Eagles have given him the rock! Glines mind you of kneepads worn well into his quadriceps and prolly a $1,000+ worth of ink on each arm. And yah; Rb1, A.J. Dillon only has 2,000 rushing in his last 17 games. With ZERO fumbles in his most recent 8 games. He sucks! Cut him right now. Ditto the slowly yet mostly surely improving Qb1: Anthony Brown. He of the “great” Scot’s latest protegee fame and he of the now more than serviceable 59% passing, the 15:5 passing ratio and a now more daring to run than in the past with 210 yards amassed for this Jesuit Catholic school already on the floor if you need him. That with the nasty full-hinge St.Nikhon help, right-knee brace from 2017 in tow. Mid-Script: Brown outweighs the G.Tech Qb2 by 44 lbs. of, sinew— I’ma jus’ sayin’… And yet he (Brown) still forces a few “easier to pass” threw the eye of the needle got humped type of throws here and there. Although this is not a dominate catch-game between the aforementioned improving Qb1 Brown and Te Tommy Sweeney, Wr Kobay White and Wr Jeff Smith; as there is no superstar here, there are three quality and rather experienced pass catches here and they work all 3-levels of the throw-game adroitly enough for it as well. Additionally, the whispers say this is coach Stevie’s best catch-game-crops ever.  Strange though that no Wr fields a >60% catch-rate. Go fig’ on the greatness of that? The Eagle oLine was hurting last year and they enjoy a now veteran ’18 offensive line for it. As this loaded blocking-unit deploys a lucrative seven players with a combined 138 career starts! Although currently, the 66th ranked oLine in America per S&P+ (or a centrist oLine according to them). And yet a 220v oLine at 22nd best in power-rushing situations. Bear that in mind folks. Guess that might have a little sompthin-sompthin to do with the science-fact that BeeCee fields only one oLine starter south of 311 lbs. (and their oLine runs narrow splits
    -same as P.Jay just worked- and a C.F.L. looking offset from the LOS proper at times (see: pic)). Finally, this oLine wins a lotta hat-on-hat individual battles as the run-game wears on. As this is as close to man-blocking as I’ve seen in a minute or three.

    How many peeps are on the LOS, here?!?
  • ∑ (summary): …as for film-study itself… at first watching the Miami @BeeCee game live, Eye had the feel that Scot had finally gotten outta Scot’s very own way and simplified things a bit. Or at the very least had found a Top-10 to a Top-15 of plays that his O and personnel can execute well and leverage into good things. Upon breaking tape, however, I saw more of the old S.A.T. bowl whiz kid with something cerebral to prove Loeffler. As there may be a few fewer sets overall, nonetheless, Scot just has to flash this-n-that no matter whether it fits (or juxtaposes) the whole shebang or not. Among them were: an odd-side Quad’s look— (although he did successfully Qb-pass throwback trickeration here). This bulky oLine moved well enough -if not surprisingly well- in space and Loeffler has a lotta throwback(s) across the gain or behind the direction of the scripted Brown set-up or rollout here. Like a passing/screening crossbuck or counter-trey. And as said, there are all kinda Wr combinations here, Quads, Trips, doubles, whateve’… as Scot just has to flash, Scot. Nevertheless, there some sharp/smart picks and rub routes and a buncha angular works off of cut-points and hips. This is not a fun O to defend once Scot gets Dillion all wound-up. Scot does have the now standardized shotgun Spread looks here; although he still stockpiles some 1970’s Qb under C seven-step drops. And make no mistake here Hokie fans, Loeffler is emptying both barrels of the trickeration gun in addition to his more conventional (Dillon-left, Dillon-middle, play-action-Dillon) works. Lotta movement in the throw-game here, both from the Qb and from the Wideouts. A short(er) to more medium passing look. There are also real live Fb’s, Te’s, and H-back hybrids in regulation Pro looks and in a wild-ass bunch/group looks. This from I-formations, split-backs, pre-snap motion(s), et al, etc… As Scot the jumped-up offensive coordinator is a lotta lotta things men… and “dull” sure as bleep ain’t among ’em.
  • 65% run:pass 35% mix. (very run-heavy in 2018 playbook vernacular)

Offensive letter-grade:

F’n Eagle Special Teams: (return)

Boston College is a third from last 127th in Net Punting. And so is r-Soph. P, Grant Carlson. Grant was named Texas APSE Class AAAAAA all-state punter second-team honors in 2015. He r-shirted when he got to BeeCee and did not play last year in addition to that. Grant is surely the New England version of the Swiss Army pocketknife, as he back’s up as KO specialist and place-Kicker alike. He has a long of 54 and yet that is his only punt in excess of fiddy yards. As Grant is more of a directional/hang-time coverage punter by trade. He was, however, team captain of his high school team and as everything is bigger in Tx., that’s no small thing for a specialist to be named. Grant seems more parts a serviceable punter— though a few bricks shy of being a weaponized punter at this stage of his career.

  • 32nd in Punt Returns | 32nd in KO returns alike.
  • 87th in punt coverage | 71st and in suicide-squad.
  • BeeCee has blocked 4 kicks!!! And allowed another 4 kicks to be blocked!
  • B.C. has blocked 2 punts and allowed punts to be blocked.

*the* Joe Tessitore of ESPN boxing fame’s son kicks here… or at least he did. As Joe’s son got Dear John’ed a couple of weeks ago. Taking over a FG-Kicking spot that is in flux after having been fluxed up is one Colton Lichtenberg. Colton is a compact mighty-mite K at 5′9″, 195 lbs. of fireball far right FOX yuppie looking bootie. Seriously, this dood is on his  Mary Matalin or  ΩΘΠ Douglas C. Neidermeyer, “biff”, or “chip” way. No word yet from Larry Kroger, Jugdish or flounder…

Anywho… Colton was a 60% Kicker last year, a 0% Kicker before that and a 50% Kicker when he began. Which is why when this season kicked-off BeeCee kicked their former Kicker to the curb. Though at least Colton is heavy experienced, and he is up to 80% this season thus far. Although his colligate long in four seasons of misses and makes is only 43 yards. (yet he did net a 53 yarder in high school as 3-point range goes | and he did KO for BeeCee, so it would appear there is leg-strength here, although it sure is hard to makeable find). In point of fact, he only courts two ≥40 yard makes! Colt’ has missed 3 P.A.T.’s thus far in his career. Colton’s never had a kick snuffed out and you do have to aim your block-point lower vs. him.

Special Teams letter-grade: 88th in S&P+ ranking nearly seems just a little high to me. As the Eagle ST’s are nothing short of exciting. As in extremely, as in very, as in exceptionally as
blocking of kicks in either direction goes. The rest of this ST’s squad is quite serviceable
to underwhelming. Tough ST’s unit to grade as kick/punt-blocks are available here.
Though C seems about right at this moment. As VT does have two
full leg advantages in this one.

Unit Rankings:

  1. BeeCee O.
  2. VT O.
  3. BeeCee D.
  4. (…gap…)
  5. VT D.

X-factor(s):

  • motive: Do you recall what Scot Loeffler did to his old boss from “the” Oh.State? I wonder how he will respond to his hallway arm-punching old-O&M rival here? EDGE=Scot.
  • weather: (there is an early chance of rain here and that favors the better trench-fighters and/or the better run-fits). Possible massive EDGE=BeeCee.
  • health/off-field: BeeCee has far more big-Mo’ and VeeTee ship is shipping Duck Pond water as I type. And oh yes, BeeCee has one, that’s (1) injury listed. XXL EDGE=BeeCee.
  • penalties: BeeCee (under the slight ogre looking) coach Stevie is a surprising 78th best in yellow laundry this year. EDGE=VT.
  • intangibles: The Eagles are not much on TOP (time of possession=98th), 3rd down converts (97th), although they are 28th in Résumé S&P+ Rk. And 69th in strength of schedule (well in advance of us). So, I’ll call this one a… PUSH.
  • fatigue: VT is up +1 here on the calendar and with Bee.Cee having to travel this far the Hokies are really closer to being +1.5 as perp’ times goes. EDGE=VT.

R.A.T.T.: ...the home dog Hokie Bird grounds these Flying Eagles... how???

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Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:

Number of Eagles who could soar @Tech=13.

the takeaway:

The takeaway here is… that in the last calendar year of football, 38th ranked S&P+ BeeCee has accrued a rather shiny 11-4 record whereas our beloved Hokies are now officially one game south of .5oo. This is a 100% already bowl eligible team vs. a .667 post-season probable team.

As they say in England proper and as colonists up in the New England area itself… that’s a program “on the come” vs. a program not far removed from landing on its… “bum.”

permutations:

  1. Δ1=70%, well, honestly enough… how does one say -and then cogently defend- that Virginia Tech is the better football club at the moment? The short answer is they… ain’t. The longer answer is… we had a much better chance to upset (Boston College-2) before the stud Rb Dillon’s ankle heeled, I mean healed-up for this one. As he looked pretty sporty vs. Miami last Friday night to my Eye. Because without him I found BeeCee to be plausibly within reach @home in Lane Stadium. With him? Well with him we are gonna need some R.A.T.T., BeeCee help(s).
  2. Δ2=30% there is a chance here that B.College may overlook us with all-World and quad play-off litigious Klempson heading up to Boston Legal next week. This is not clinically umpossible. As they surely present a greater threat-power and more raw national ranking motive than slumping Vah.Tech does at the moment. The game is on Worsham Field and BeeCee has never been a world-beater on real grass/dirt either.
the skinny

Well, in our last 8 quarters of scrumming, V.Tech has been outgained by right at a tricentennial (297) total yards. The Hokie Fu’fense has only busted the basic 3-play barrier of 23 points once since September. And since that very same seventh prefix though ninth month? V.Tech has been out-rushed by a backbreaking 1,377′ worth of rushing (or right at 460 yards). This after having not be out-rushed by anyone in just a fortnight short of a calendar year. This while BeeCee rang up a +278 yard rushing advantage.

Do you see what I mean yet?

As try as we might… “football still ain’t rocket-surgery” men— and as Vincent Thomas Lombardi himself said in the paraphrasing of St.Paul… “you run to daylight.” i.e. you run to win.

And quite Frankly?
This one looks at least partly-cloudy to me.

the call
One of the things that this Eye subtly opened to and detected was a modest although a noticeable tightening or constriction of the Flying-Eagle halt-unit of late.

The BeeCee run game and Dillion and Brown at Qb will get a lotta press for this one. Rightfully so per flashy/splashy Q-score, sex-appeal and 2018 cosmetic concerns.

Thingy is… there is not enough lipstick for this Bud Lyte pig.
And after many a year of Foster porking whomever he wanted?

To extend the allegory… there will be no shortage of opposing coaches from here on out who wanna go SlaughterHouse 5 and Coach Vonnegut Bud for all their previous troubles being force-fed a keg of Bud Böck most campaigns.

Steve Addazio indicated he would like to give his sophomore Rb (Dillion) an even greater workload against Virginia Tech’s suspect run defense.

Virginia Tech has dropped three of its last five while allowing an average of
47.7 ppg in the three defeats.

Good luck if you wanna enter an arm-punching contest with this oldman. LOL!

Then we come to the -at least to me- the somewhat “o-ver-ra-ted” clap-clap-clapclapclap principal of: experience.

Winnie Churchill once defined experience as: “Experience is when you have learnt from your mistakes. And pride is when you have not.”

Aye, this is true, however; this is not just a very experienced Chestnut Hill crew. This one is a real live experience GAP!

Of the 22 Boston College starters, 16 in total are seniors (8), r-seniors (3) or g-seniors (graduate, (5)). According to my 36 hours of McBryde Hall calc’ and stats that equates to ~75 years’ worth of collegiate scrumming experience between ’em!

Whereas Virginia Tech has a whopping seven -that’s (7) sports-fans- seven remaining seniors on the entire 2018 football roster! (of whom six actually do contribute on the regular). BeeCee lists 20 seniors on their travel roster— and prolly a couple of scrubby ones who dress out at home. Think about that for a little minute before you say anything below, or before you lock in your OPT, digits.

***

Finally, think about this… the Boston College defense improves by nearly 200% in terms of points/half allowed 2nd-half compared to the opening 30 {sic: minutes}. Loeffler is the same now as he was @Tech, as he typically writes a very erotic/exotic opening 10-20 play script and the Eagles tend to quick start for it. 50 shades of… play(s); if you will. Then he pockets a few more: “plays that will go” for upon occasion if/when he 4Q tight game needs ’em.

Man‘s game“… son!

V.Tech, on the other hand, is nearly 40% worse on D to close the final 30 minutes of play this season. Whereas the Fu’fense dips by right at 30% as the final 50% of the game goes.

In our last three games, the Fu’fense is averaging 2.3 ppq for the third-quarter of scrumming. And the Flying Eagle D? Well, it is allowing the very same 2.3 ppg in the third inning of fight.

i.e. here’s the drill… V.Tech must lead early here— or at worst be all evened up at the intermission. Confidence maintenance or confidence maintainment, if you will, 1o1. Or f0r that Narcissus matter, maybe “great” Scot forgets how to swim, and just has to show out “GREAT” scot? Maybe… and yah; we prolly do need him to get in his way in this one. Inasmuch as our Top-4 Dt’s are all cut down to size, hobbled, or recovering… that vs… ^this^!

Because; erstwhile, and should Scot try to slice Bud Lyte up with Occam’s Razor and give Bud a death by a thousand K.I.S.S. paper-cuts? The influences here posit, aver and connote that Boston College is finishing far far stronger and far harder and far deeper than VeeTech is in the last combined month of work.

Get dat work!
Ôy!

…weeds-tumbling,
J.Cricket: … “chirping“.

upset Index=39%

#wimps!

Virginia Tech=24, Boston College=36

LETS GO!

HOKIES!

bourbonstreet**

 

 

8 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. We stink, BC will steamroll us and then will have to pick up the pieces. Positive note: BC plays best when they are up and able to get after the QB and ignore the play action fakes on D (who doesn’t?). But if the game can somehow stay tight and give our guys confidence, then maybe Dax and Ashby can get after the run game and press BC into mistakes. Easiest way to beat BC is to score early and often and make them pass to come back. BC 42-24 (breaks my heart to write it).

  2. Well, any FINISHING type of BIG-back with a lead is a bad bad look.
    Even worse for a small on experience and metrics and slumping
    unconfident D all the more.

    So… yah; gotta stay tight.
    Put some pressure on them.
    (because ALL that bowl-streak and uva
    pressure is about to burst diamond filled pipes all over us!)

    b.street

    1. Beantownne … coffee, party?
      No wait, even Dennis Johnsons’ …freckles, know that’s not it…
      ; )

      b.street

  3. Tea Party in Lane..BC will get it Done. Fuente and Bud will be Christmas Shopping early this year. Sad to see VT anymore..

    1. Well, tomorrow nite, will provide much more evidence, be that either way…

      Pitt @hooVa is a very intriguing scouting opportunity for all.
      As we ain’t taking Miami’s best punch -should they actually mentally choose to throw it- well.

      That leaves a good rushing tho’ not defending well at all visit to Pitt.
      And the hoos smelling O&M blood in the Duck Pond, h20…

      b.street

  4. Fuente doesn’t lose twice in a row, and a lot of Hokie Nation is reading way too far into last Thursday.

    Hokies get a big play on D early, and the rout is on.

    38-17. Hokies.

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