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.

Another Nugget from HD

Heather Dinich, everyone's favorite ACC Blogger over at The Ocho has another analytical gem for us today. Dinich has been running a series called "Hope and Concern" about each ACC team heading into next season. As if each fan base (outside of Duke, who could care less about what goes on outside of Cameron Indoor) doesn’t know its team’s most obvious strength and weakness going into the season. Dinich leads with startling news that the Hokies have a stacked backfield with Taylor, Evans, Oglesby...yada, yada, yada. After stating the obvious for most of the conference, Heather decided to throw a little curveball into second half of the Hokies edition today. By curveball, I mean to say that she pulled out a dead horse (circa 2003) to abuse with a Sammy Sosa corked bat (howdja like THAT 2003 reference HD?). Quoting the ACC Blog:

Biggest reason for concern -- Soaring expectations

There's national title talk. There's preseason rankings. There's uber-hype over the Alabama game. There's everything Clemson faced last season before its season unraveled. If Virginia Tech is going to finish the season where it likely will start -- in the preseason top five -- then the players have to breathe deep and take it one quarter at a time. Virginia Tech is the kind of program that tends to be at its best when the chatter is at a minimum. They were under the radar when Michael Vick got there as a freshman, and seem to struggle when ranked high. Last year, though, when the adversity was at a premium, the coaching staff was at its best.

I never realized you were a Pitt fan Heather! A guy in my old office from Pittsburgh liked to throw out the ol’ “Chokies” reference too…until his team lost 3-0 in the Sun Bowl. The early 2000s are gone, and the new Hokies are a team that has exceeded expectations. While 2005 was a blip on the radar (with the Miami and FSU games), Tech has seemingly performed as well as anyone could ask since joining the ACC, especially with heavy expectations thrown upon them year after year from a demanding fan base. After announcing their conference switch, people expected the ACC to be dominated by FSU/Miami year in, year out. It hasn’t been the case, has it? Tech started ’04 and ’08 slowly and improved throughout those seasons en route to ACC titles (They started 2-2 and 1-1 respectively in those seasons). The 2007 Championship team bounced back form an early loss at LSU (which few expected them to win) to finish the regular season at #3 in the BCS. The 2006 edition beat the eventual ACC Champs (Wake) handily in their own house late in the season. Every Tech team has finished with at least 10 wins for the past five years. How is that not handling high expectations? I understand that Dinich doesn’t directly reference the Hokies’ past in this post until of her second-to-last sentence, but it doesn't need to be said at all anymore. It’s been a pretty common argument echoed by our old Big East buddies, and it should have died a while ago with their respectability.

On top of that point, someone should let her know that we're not Clemson. Frank Beamer is not Tommy Bowden (and to a lesser effect Dabo Swinney). That comparison between the 2008 Tigers and 2009 Hokies is ridiculous because of the significant disparity in the stability of these two programs. Virginia Tech is coming off of back-to-back ACC titles and an Orange Bowl victory. Clemson hadn't (and still hasn't) won a conference title since 1991. Even before last season, Clemson had crumpled under expectations quite often, especially against Papa Bowden and big bad FSU. They fell while ranked #11 (and favored) at the hands of our Hokies on a Thursday night in Lane in 2006 (where I lifted Sean Glennon onto my left shoulder after I rushed the field...seemed like a good idea at the time). The next year when they had a shot at revenge, we beat them with our special teams and defensive scoring ALONE (29-23). They are not and have not been in the Hokies' class since joining the ACC. In other words Heather, if you're looking for a point, that's not the tree to go barking up. It's been thrown out there quite often and proven wrong many times over the last several seasons. If you're going to beat a dead horse HD, at least throw some venom at Stinespring for us. That will keep the "pitchfork and torch" carriers behind you. Do us all a favor and get a new shtick…the blogging community, and Sammy’s bat will thank you.