Lol Hokies: Week Seven

This week's edition of LolHokies comes with a side of anger directed at the stupid bumble bee. h8u other tech.

Welcome Back Stiney: Hokies Lose 28-23 in ATL

Could've seen this one coming from a mile away. What were the keys to the game for Georgia Tech? Abuse the young VT linebackers en route to a strong rushing effort...check. Force turnovers early (slash keep the crowd in it)...check. Have Kam Chancellor screw up...check. I wasn't able to watch this one, thanks to marching band as mentioned earlier, but I had my trusty Blackberry in hand (and ready to throw against a wall). From everything I've heard, and the highlights I've seen, it seemed as though we couldn't get any real key stops, and Georgia Tech came in with a great gameplan. I expected no less from a well-coached team. Frank Beamer's teams now are 0-1298483 when ranked in the top five in a game that matters, and 0-82012948 in Atlanta. Ok, not that bad, but it sure feels that way.

I could get into the stats on this one, but it just doesn't feel worth it. Maybe I'll take a little extra time this week to dive in with the week off (Redskins too), but my heart isn't in it right now. I'll just wax poetic on our relationship with the other Tech for now. I hate you Bumble Bee. You can go straight to hell. You rushed your field and punched out some of our staff members. You are classless. I hate to say this, but we have a rivalry. For the forseeable future, we will slug it out every year for the ACC Coastal crown, and I will be happy to have our boys come back to Blacksburg next year and kick your asses. But furreal, since WVU is irrelevant/off the schedule, looks like GT gets kicked up a notch. Go f*%# yourself Bumblebee.

Week Seven: Bring on Gah Tech

So maybe I was a little harsh yesterday. I mean, Georgia Tech is a solid program with a history worth discussing prior to the Clinton administration. They've beaten a team by over 200 points before. Not bad. It doesn't mean I have to like them though. In reading message boards and blog posts this week, I've seen a lot of cockiness that resembles Miami circa week four. We can't have any of that business. Georgia Tech is a solid team with a solid coach, playing at night as a home dog. Nothing about those last three sentences gives me the warm and fuzzies this week. How do we ever feel when we're a legitimately good team that gets no credit at home? We stomp people. That's the mindset that the Yellow Jackets must be taking this week. Here are three keys to the game for each team on Saturday.

The Ramblin' Wreck will win if:

• Paul Johnson wins the chess match with Bud Foster. Unfortunately for us, Bud's pieces include two very young linebackers that have been known to play a little too instinctively. We all saw what happened the last time we were in Atlanta when Jake Johnson followed his instincts (hint: touchdown Upchurch). If GT wants to dominate the Hokies, they have to exploit the overaggression of the young linebackers and set up some timely throws over the top to Bey-Bey Thomas. I believe Johnson will find some yards out of the Tech D, and there are two ways this could go: Either the bend-but-don't-break Nebraska type of game, or the bend-then-break Alabama type of game...defensively speaking of course. If the latter takes place, the Hokies will have another long trip home from the ATL.


• They force a turnover or score quickly. While Homecoming isn't sold out just yet, the "other" Tech fans that will be in attendance will be pumped. Georgia Tech's defense hasn't been able to slow anyone lately, but a loud crowd that helps cause early mistakes (e.g. turnovers, penalties, coverage breakdowns) could spell disaster for the visitors on Saturday.


• Kam Chancellor acts like typical, overaggressive, "blame everyone else" Kam Chancellor. Saturday is about playing disciplined, assignment football. Chacellor has proven that this is not his strong suit. The fact that he sells out for plays leads to big hits, and sometimes interceptions, but it also has caused major lapses and big plays against the Hokie defense. Chancellor's blown assignments also tend to snowball when he initiates finger pointing and bitching (Jimmy Williams anyone?) as a result. If Chancellor makes mistakes early and often, Thomas and the Jacket offense could be in for a big night.

The Hokies will win if:

• Bryan Stinespring continues his recent trend of calling effective, game-managing type games. Because Georgia Tech will run the ball over 70% of the time, they will look to wear down Tech's defensive line and time of possession will be big. Stinespring might think quick strikes are great for morale, and obviously the points (much like Boykin's touchdown last week), but our defense needs the offense to try and hold onto the ball as long as possible. The last thing the Hokies want is to get into a shootout mentality, because the defense will not be able to hold up. Luckily, Tyrod Taylor has been managing this gameplan to perfection over the last several weeks.


• The defensive line gets penetration against the Jackets and hits Josh Nesbitt early and often. Nesbitt will be jumpier if he's forced into early decisions, whether pitching, keeping or throwing. It is important for the defensive line to neutralize the inexperience of Johnson and Rivers by dictating how the Jackets run their offense.


• The special teams continue to pull their weight and control field position. Bowden is first in the ACC in net punting average, while Dyrell Roberts sits second in the nation in kick return average. If the Hokies can control field position, and take points when they can get them (kick the damn field goal, Frank), they should help control the tempo and keep the crowd out of the game.

The key stats for Saturday are time of possession, Georgia Tech's first down YPC, average starting field position, and red zone conversion percentage. Overall, I just don't feel great about this game. The hype and the pundits are weighing on our players' ears. If they buy into their hype, even a little bit, this will be a close game, or we will lose outright. The intangibles point entirely toward Georgia Tech. However, I'd say that I consider the VT Offense/GT Defense an advantage, the VT Defense/GT Offense a push (with a slight edge to GT), and Special Teams to heavily favor VT. With regards to talent, the Jackets just don't have it on the defensive side of the ball. I think if Bryan Stinespring can stay out of his own way and coordinate like he has recently, the Hokies should win. Georgia Tech will get their yards, and probably their points, but the Hokie defense has to be opportunistic and force turnovers. I think this will scare us all more than we'd like, but I'll go ahead and make my standard homer prediction:

Hokies 27
Ramblin' Wreck 23

Let's do this thing.

I Have a Bone to Pick With You Bumble Bee

You know, I put up with Calvin Johnson. I've lived with the fact that we're repeatedly called "Vah Tech" by the media and the Jackets never hear "Gah Tech." I even let the whole '2008 Championship Banner for the Yellow Jackets' thing fly. No more of this rubbish bumble bees. This disrespect must stop. Apparently, Georgia Tech decided that we would be the most appropriate homecoming opponent for them this season. That stings a little (pun intended).

We all know that collegiate homecoming games are supposed to be scheduled against scrub teams. Maybe they're trying to pay us back for scheduling them as our homecoming guests back in 2005, and also for whipping them 51-7. Whatever the case may me, Virginia Tech should not be anyone's homecoming opponent. To make matters worse, they haven't even sold out the damn game, and it's a 6:00 PM start time. I would do horrible things for a 6:00 PM kickoff in Blacksburg on a Saturday. I wouldn't normally be so fired up about this little injustice, but in context with some of the other garbage we've heard spewed from and about the Jackets since last season's supposed "fluke," I think the Hokies should be a little mad about this. Let's hope we can party like it's 2005. We are no Western Kentucky.

HD Gives Herbie a Thumbs Up…Shocker…

Image Courtesy of Planet Blacksburg

For those of you all that are regular readers of the crap that ESPN puts out (like me) or the great Hokie blog “The North Endzone,” you read that Kirk Herbstreit decided to do all but leave Virginia Tech out of his annual Herbie Awards. The Herbie Awards are an arbitrary list that Herbstreit has designed and filled out each year for the past few seasons, usually highlighting the best players at each position, picks for each division and conferences as well as a few superlatives. Anyone that knows Herbstreit knows his undying love for the Big 10(11) and the SEC, so it’s no surprise that this year was littered with guys from those two conferences. However, he managed to pick Georgia Tech as the Coastal Champion as well as eventual ACC Champion. That’s not even my big gripe. His “Best Student Section” award had one team not in either of his two favorite conferences (and I’m including ND in the Big 10…they fit): Oregon. Vomit.

What’s more is that that Dinich, our favorite ACC “blogger” gave her big, fat stamp of approval for Herbstreit’s thoughts yesterday:

ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit unveiled his annual Herbie Awards, and he shunned the preseason Virginia Tech hype by picking Georgia Tech to win the Coastal Division and the ACC title.

Smart move.

You can't go wrong with that pick, especially since the Hokies lost Darren Evans for the season, and Georgia Tech returns just about all of its skill position players from a year ago. Still, the one thing that separates those two programs for me is up front, and until we see how the Jackets fare in that regard on both sides of the ball, Virginia Tech has the edge there. I've got no problem, though, saying Georgia Tech can beat Virginia Tech and win the ACC title this year. In case anyone forgot, they were co-champs of the Coastal last year.

Smart move?! What?!!!?!?! How does picking against the reigning two-time ACC Champs constitute a smart move? Oh, besides the fact that the Jackets are replacing THEIR LINES, they’ve got every shot to beat the Hokies. Of course. I’m sorry but they HAVE to stop claiming a share of any sort of championship from last season. If the tiebreaker did not involve directly losing to the Hokies, maybe they would have an argument, but they lost head-to-head, and that was it. The Hokies tied them for the Coastal in 2006 but lost the tiebreaker head-to-head, but you didn’t hear one person claim that we were ACC champs or even co-champs. That’s an absurd thing to argue. That season, the Jackets only won on the back of Calvin Johnson, who was a once-in-a-generation talent. Without him, they had no prayer of winning that game. Last season’s matchup was the closest its’ been in a while, but I don’t think it indicated that the Jackets were the better team since they still lost.

Jokes...

Of course she also has commented that the Hokies had the advantage of playing at home last year, which GT fans loved to point out in the comments. However, since entering the league the Hokies have played in Atlanta two times (winning both) and in Blacksburg three times (going 2-1). The schedule is regular again with the Hokies travelling to Atlanta this season. Since they’ve already won there twice, I’m pretty sure it’s not unthinkable that they can do it again.

To talk about the Hokies as if they have to prove something against Georgia Tech is crap. The Hokies have won the conference three times in five seasons while GT has only played for one title and lost. Despite ESPN’s opinion, Georgia Tech does not have superior talent or personnel. People love to harp on Tech losing Darren Evans in the preseason (like it will be their ultimate downfall), but no one talks about how significant Georgia Tech’s losses were in the offseason. Georgia Tech’s philosophy emphasizes strength in the trenches along with a bit of deception, so losing their two starting tackles and 75% of their defensive line will not help their case in winning a game against a physical team like the Hokies.

I would love ESPN to just take a look at some of the crap that their employees put out in the preseason, just so we don’t have to hear, “oh, we shouldn’t have slept on the Hokies” at the end of the year. ESPN analysts always justify passing over Tech, and when they’re proven wrong at the end of the year, they jump on the Beamerball bandwagon like they were there all along. It’s a freaking joke.

Last Week's Poll: Georgia Tech Will Be Tough

Georgia Tech came up tops in our vote this week as the most likely blemish on the Hokies’ ACC Schedule for 2009. Virginia Tech travels to Atlanta to face the Yellow Jackets on October 17^th, one week after squaring off against the recently meddlesome Boston College Eagles at home. This game doesn’t seem to set up as a trap game, as the Hokies get twelve days to rest before a big Thursday Night ESPN date with the Tar Heels at home. I fully expect this year’s installment of the “Battle of the Techs” to be one of the biggest challenges on the schedule, and the toughest road game for the Hokies. Georgia Tech’s running game (and crazy triple option offense) gave the Tech front seven a tough time last season, and while they were able to contain stud RB Jonathan Dwyer, Josh Nesbitt ran wild. With two new starters at running back this fall, Paul Johnson’s crew has a big chance to take away the Hokies’ stranglehold on the ACC with a win in this game, so it could turn out to be a nail-biter.

I was a little surprised that nobody considered Virginia as a possible upset and that Maryland only received one vote. As much as I love when my Hokies beat up on the boys from Charlottesville, the series has been a little too one-sided recently, and while I don’t feel like this year is right for the upset, anything can happen in a rivalry game. Maryland will also be tough, although I expect a large contingency of Hokie fans to raid Byrd Stadium to show their support. Tech struggled out of the gate the last time they played in College Park, and it wouldn’t shock me to see that happen again, but I believe their experience will carry them to a win. North Carolina also received one vote, but I have to think that Tech will be up to the challenge of a Thursday night contest against the vastly improved Heels. Basically no one outside of Boston College has been able to come into Blacksburg and win on a Thursday night, and I doubt that will change this year.

This week's Poll: How will the Redskins rushing attack perform in 2009? Let us know what you think in the poll on the right!