SI's Mandell's Top 25 Preseason

No VT's placement is a mercy ranking. Don't forget who they play first week of the season. The team that in this ranking set are one above them, Alabama. So in fact for VT's true ranking add 4-8 onto their current rank depending on how bad they are beaten.

Don't get me wrong, VT winning would be useful to Tech in a way, but really odds are slim.
 
I hope VPI beats Bama. It would make that game at Bobby Dodd that much better.
 
Yeah, especially if we win. Would make it o so much more sweeter than a win over them would normally be.

Edit: That is if they haven't blown their ranking before playing us by losing to Duke or ECU again or something (sadly, would not be overly shocking).
 
I hope VPI beats Bama. It would make that game at Bobby Dodd that much better.

After seeing all the Hokie and Tar Heel fans clamoring about how they've "figured us out", and how Tech is so overrated, I'm looking forward to avenging both of those losses in a politically INcorrect manner

RUN IT UP, PJ!
 
After seeing all the Hokie and Tar Heel fans clamoring about how they've "figured us out", and how Tech is so overrated, I'm looking forward to avenging both of those losses in a politically INcorrect manner

RUN IT UP, PJ!

UNC and LSU are the only teams who deserve to have us run the score up on them. VT didn't run up the score, the refs did.
 
A team can only run the score up on you if you can't stop them...in which case, it's partly your own fault. LSU deserves a little payback - fake punt, deep tosses, etc. is a little over the top, but VT didn't run it up, we beat ourselves in that game and can only thank ourselves for the loss.
 
I'm more comfortable with this rating than I am in the Sporting News (hardcopy issue) preseason ratings that has us at #7. I'd like to believe TSN, but I still have lingering concerns about ACC teams adjusting to the TO after seeing how LSU handled it.

Yeah, I know the LSU score was deceptive and that yardage was almost even and we shot ourselves in the foot with turnovers & bad special teams play, but it worries me that a very athletic team (e.g., Miami, UNC, FSU, VT) might cope a little better with the option next year. Hope I'm wrong.
 
I'm more comfortable with this rating than I am in the Sporting News (hardcopy issue) preseason ratings that has us at #7. I'd like to believe TSN, but I still have lingering concerns about ACC teams adjusting to the TO after seeing how LSU handled it.

Yeah, I know the LSU score was deceptive and that yardage was almost even and we shot ourselves in the foot with turnovers & bad special teams play, but it worries me that a very athletic team (e.g., Miami, UNC, FSU, VT) might cope a little better with the option next year. Hope I'm wrong.

We had more trouble this year with heavy defensive lines than with fast ones. I think it is mainly due to the inexperience of our oline. They were trying a new blocking technique. LSU and BC pretty much just attacked our guys directly. Since our technique wasn't sound, our linemen got off balance and pushed aside (or back). Miami and FSU tried to avoid the blocks and ended up taking theselves out of the play.
 
We had more trouble this year with heavy defensive lines than with fast ones. I think it is mainly due to the inexperience of our oline. They were trying a new blocking technique. LSU and BC pretty much just attacked our guys directly. Since our technique wasn't sound, our linemen got off balance and pushed aside (or back). Miami and FSU tried to avoid the blocks and ended up taking theselves out of the play.

I disagree on Miami and FSU. They just couldn't sustain the discipline for the whole game to stick with assignments and not overrun plays. Speed, or rather reliance on speed alone, is thwarted by the TO executed properly.

LSU did two things right. They blew us up at point of attack to stop plays before they started. And they simply decided to let Nesbitt beat them if he could. But they were not going to lose in the same way as UGA with big plays by Roddy and Dwyer.
 
We had more trouble this year with heavy defensive lines than with fast ones. I think it is mainly due to the inexperience of our oline. They were trying a new blocking technique. LSU and BC pretty much just attacked our guys directly. Since our technique wasn't sound, our linemen got off balance and pushed aside (or back). Miami and FSU tried to avoid the blocks and ended up taking theselves out of the play.

I think this is the right idea. Because also consider that while ACC defense might adjust a bit better (not a lot, they won't get ready for us until they are about to play us) but our players on offense will also get better, especially the offensive line. Remember that half of our O line were moved to it because of injures, and two of them were r-freshmen (with conditioning having been focused for the their previous position).
 
LSU did two things right. They blew us up at point of attack to stop plays before they started. And they simply decided to let Nesbitt beat them if he could. But they were not going to lose in the same way as UGA with big plays by Roddy and Dwyer.

That's the same thing UNC did. And VT.

The defense that works best is "Let Nesbitt Run and Wait Patiently For The Fumble."
 
That's the same thing UNC did. And VT.

The defense that works best is "Let Nesbitt Run and Wait Patiently For The Fumble."

We beat ourselves vs. VT with fumbles and ill-timed (and perhaps questionable) penalties. VT really didn't beat us as much as we beat us...
 
That's the same thing UNC did. And VT.

The defense that works best is "Let Nesbitt Run and Wait Patiently For The Fumble."

Wow, I think that is a bit unfair. Nesbitt was playing his first full year at QB and as a comparison, had as good a sophomore year as Joe Hamilton (and Joe was a redshirt soph).

I do believe that Josh needs to keep the ball more but he also had bad ankles for much of the year.


By the way, everyone seems to think that our OL is going to be better next year. Why exactly? We'd still be extremely young, fairly small and definitely inexperienced.
 
Wow, I think that is a bit unfair.

I didn't mean it as a dig against Nesbitt. I think Nesbitt is an outstanding player, and don't think we could have asked any more from him this year.

But if you look at our offense statistically, what you find is that we have lots of short runs, lots of long runs, and a higher than average turnover per play ratio.

When the offense works, it's because we got a long run to make the drive short, so we risked turning the ball over less.

When it doesn't work, it's because we didn't get a long run, the drive was forced to have more plays in it, and we kept having to roll the dice on a turnover.

Look at Dwyer's yards. He had 1500 some odd yards this year. Take away his TD runs and he only had like 800. That's an indicator. It's awesome, I like it, but it's an indicator of what our strength is, and if the badguys can take away that strength (long runs) then our weakness (higher chance of turnovers per play) plays a bigger factor.

Nesbitt, due quite possibly to early injury, was not able to be the long run threat that our RBs were. Therefore, if you let Nesbitt keep the ball, it's the highest chance you have to achieve the defensive scheme I mention.

I think our OL will be better next year because we'll have people on the bench who can replace the starters if the starters suck. Period point blank. PJ said it himself in one of his call in shows ... "some players are not putting forth the effort because they know they can't lose their starting spot."
 
I was surprised to see Ole Miss in the top 5. I wonder if the other polls will rank them this high.
 
By the way, everyone seems to think that our OL is going to be better next year. Why exactly? We'd still be extremely young, fairly small and definitely inexperienced.

Repititions, Depth, Coaching, Off Season Strength Training. There's 4 reasons.
 
I think the consensus as to why for O line is depth and point of fact we had 2 injuries on the O line before the UNC game and as a result put guys from the scout team on the depth chart (something I've been told never happens). With more depth we at least:
a) won't get decimated by injuries so easily
b) won't have dead tired guys play in the fourth if we don't want them to

That and competition:
point of fact, Nesbitt played arguably his best game against FSU right when people were saying put Shaw in.
 
Beej,
ok. I will say that if we had to sustain a long drive, we normally didn't. We were a big play offense or limited offense and I think you're saying the long drive offense would stall and often stall with a fumble. Can't argue. But what I don't really know yet is that how it's always going to be.

I know we should improve on our turnovers, but does this offense tend to score big plays and otherwise bog down or not?


I hope y'all are correct about our OL but we sure seem young and thin to me. Does cut blocking create more shoulders injuries by the way. Do you reach out with your hand when you cut block and does hitting the ground extended cause more shoulder problems?
 
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