Where does Virginia Tech really rank??? (part I)

The 2011 college football pre-season magazines are hitting a newsstand near you in full force.

 

Among those already published would be the much vaunted Phil Steele College Football Preview, Athlon, The Sporting News, and Lindy’s. Additionally, ESPN.com has had their post-spring Top-25 out for several weeks now.

 

VT is ranked as high as 5^th best -by my boy Phil Steele- and as low as 23^rd nationally by Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com. As with all things the truth tends to lie somewhere in the middle…

 

Well, that is unless of course it does not –read on to find out where VT really should be ranked nationally. According to Will, Chris and myself and the national college football media.

Before going too bonkers while kick starting the pre-season O&M hype machine, let us pull a Samuel L. Clemens “…and realize that is is time to pause and reflect”. As it is my longstanding experience that most pre-season publications purely look at what’s coming back; while mostly –if not entirely- ignoring that which has recently departed.

VT just departed metric tons (plural) of starting experience, good judgment and dual-threat play making savvy at the all important Quarterback (Qb) spot. Not to mention that the VT Tailback (Tb) position is much much thinner now that D.Evans and R.Williams have turned pro. Then there is the matter of likely N.F.L. Tight-End (Te) Mr. Smitty and his blocking acumen, ditto our starting Fullback (Fb) which along with our starting Center have all left the O&M building. On defense Bud Foster must replace 3 out of 4 starting down-linemen, a starting Linebacker (‘backer), one very solid secondary performer at Cornerback (Cb) in addition to another well-seasoned defensive backfield starter at Rover (Rov). On top of all of that both of Frank’s Beamerball starting legs (Kicker & Punter) are very likely to be rookies this season. (see: Pay side message-board for the scoop on that). Cumulatively, by my count that adds up to…

6 back on offense
5 back on defense
0 back on special-teams

That’s not a whole lotta returning O&M starters according to my maths people. Further, VT returns 45 2010 lettermen, compared to the A.C.C. average of 44 itself. Additionally, the A.C.C. averages 7.41 returning starters on offense, and 6.83 returning starters on defense. Finally, and just in case you are wondering; the A.C.C. averages 1.17 returning specialists for the 2011 campaign. Or in other words, the one thing VT does not have a lot of is experience –and lack of experience tends to be code for “mistakes” the last time I checked.

However, VT is indeed 100% experienced at Wide Receiver (Wr) and does return the thirteenth most offensive-line (oLine) starts out of all 120 D-1 football schools. 98 if you are keeping score at home. All of which conspires to tell me two primary things:

1. first, the future is now for the VT oLine –as 2012 looks dicey already with only 1 starter back.
2. second, the VT dLine is at least one full year away from maturity; maybe two closer to two years away from reaching their zenith. Ditto the VT defensive front-7 on the whole, what with 3 dinged and dented Mike’s (MLb’s) coming out of springball; a new ‘backer and some roiling still going on at Whip. Whereas Coach Gray does enjoy a very talented starting-4, albeit it with a rather thin set of secondary ball-hawking back-ups behind them other than Mr. Hill. All of this playing behind the primary run stoppers who were twenty-fifth best out of Frank Beamer’s 25 hall of fame seasons in Blacksburg VA just six months ago mind you.

So as you can see, things are mixed on paper as inexperience could very well cause some mix ups on both sides of the ball early on during the 2011 regular season, possibly into October when all things O&M need to be ironed out and V.T.C.C. squared away. Which segues me neatly into what I really wanna type about … the 2011 Virginia Tech regular season football schedule; or lack thereof…

 

September:

• Four dash nil.
• Four hyphen zip.
• 4-o.
• Take thy pick.

Seriously, there is nobody on the opening month’s docket who should be able to beat Virginia Tech. Not even without Logan Thomas or my boy David Wilson; possibly not even with both in civies along the VT sideline’s. That’s how lopsided these first four match-ups of the 2011 campaign are on paper folks.

(o9.o3) Appy.State is a handsome 10 win D-1aa football program in its own right, although their lower-shelf airplane bottle sized version of Mike Vick is long gone and VT will indeed be playing J.M.U. twice. As much as I like Red Dawn, that’s just not good news if you are an Boone North Carolina University fan, because playing Virginia Tech on their home turf in Lane Stadium is not code for the previously domesticated species otherwise known as the Michigan Wolverines. Yes senior Qb DeAndre Presley is a slick little (5`10“ 169 lb.) huckster both running and passing the football. Yes Appy.State and their 17,222 students are getting a brand spanking new state of the art playing field installed at Kidd Brewer Stadium in what suggests a march towards an eventual D-1 deceleration in my book.  No, Appy.State and their formerly 82^nd best D-1aa run-stopping unit will not be beating Virginia Tech on the day that witnesses the dawing of the O&M L.T. era in Blacksburg VA. Virginia Tech=42, Appy.State=13

(o9.1o) @ East Carolina these Pirates may have the best Wide Receiving corps in the entire Conference U.S.A. (C.U.S.A.) land. Yes they will be sky-high like the Shuttle Atlantis will soon be (o7.o8) to play Virginia Tech at home during a FSN (FOXSports Network) game that seems fated for a nighttime kickoff. Yes Coach McNeill’s knock-off Texas Tech so-called “air raid” pitch-n-catch combinations will throw the ball early, often and late vs. mighty Virginia Tech. However, this E.C.U. front-7 on defense (Pirates dLine+Linebackers) has nobody ready to walk the 2011 plank as their mutual 12^th outta twelve Conference U.S.A. team unit rankings suggest. Ditto the fact that they allowed a whopping 44 points per contest in 2010 on average! Good, errrrrr, arrrrrrgggghhhhhh, I mean bad for next to last place in all of D-1 in scoring defense a year ago. Dead last in a relatively weak non-A.Q. conference is not a good place to be last time I checked. Next to last in all of D-1 is even worse. Ergo, go ahead and expect the VT offense to be averaging right at 40 points after the opening 120 minutes of 2011 play. Virginia Tech=38, E.C.U.=16

Arkansas State (o9.17), last year Coach Huge Freeze cooled things off with only 4 wins down at Arkansas State; and yes, that is his real name. However he does return the best front-7 in the Sun Belt Conference on defense and he did drop 5 games last year by 6 points or less. The Red Wolves have one of the better small-college Qb’s that you will never hear of (Ryan Aplin) and if they can somehow cobbled together a decent enough oLine –that returns only one starter; they have a fair to middling shot at sneaking into a Bowl game this post-season. If you asked me to nominate a quirky little early-season regular season football game; I give you Virginia Tech=33, Arkansas State=13. In a game where the wannabe Dire Wolves (Game of Thrones reset, insert here, check) nip at the Hokies heels for a lot longer than you would initially expect.

@ Marshall (o9.24), after that VT travels to a place they have not been since before WWII, 1940 to be exact in fact. Up to Huntington, WV., where the Hokies will play a pretty good coach with a very cool wild wild West of a name (Doc Holiday), who recruits rather well, and does enjoy the best secondary and one of the best dLines in all of C.U.S.A. The Thundering Herd is catching VT in the classical sports-psych look ahead trap game and they do enjoy 9 starters back on defense. Other than that Marshall does not have much at all; well, unless you count their artificial surface playing field upon which I hope Frank Beamer will pull his starters early in a effort to keep their legs fresh for 120 minutes of Identity Crisis football where the 2011 VT football team will finally find out who they really are. Virginia Tech=33, Marshall=10

Beating uva as a 3 point on the road is really all about ... what? Managing, focusing and lasering our Final Frank O&M emotions! Coaching. Frank and Bud vs. London. You do the maths. MisQ's. Two average teams? Fewest mistakes, wins. View Results  Loading ...

Namely at home vs. Klempson and then vs. Miami where all pre-season speculation, hype, or hyperbole will be laid to rest and where we will begin part II next time. That said, VT will be riding high and feeling no pain at 4 up and 0 down and possibly ranked in the very high single-digits at this point in the season.

“LET’S GO!”

“HOKIES!”

b’street