FLCLhokie

I gotta defend my team's entrance. Other teams play rock songs, some even play Enter Sandman, but no one does it like VT. I dare any team we play on the road to play it. I remember Wake Forest played it a couple of years ago and it ended up being like a home game, with the fans and players being pumped. Heck, when we played Tennessee in softball we were down and they played Enter Sandman and the players started jumping up and down in the dugout, going crazy, etc. Long story short, we won.

Wasn't there some sort of call like that during a Texas game a few years back? If I remember it was a safety off a fumble, or something equally crazy. The refs had to stop the game in order to look at the rule book, and in the end Texas was awarded one point. Anyone else remember this? I got your back man, I remember that. I think it was a blocked extra point where the kicking team touched it and Texas recovered in the endzone for a point. Something like that. Anyway, it happened.

Yeah, the stats for our game don't mean much. However, it's very positive for us when compared to our offense last year. Last year our maximum amount of points was 35, yards was 400, and we had more big plays than we've had in a long time. It was simply very encouraging, nothing more.

I'll throw in my 2 cents as well. With regards to the RB blocking, if they can't, they won't play. A big part of being a RB for VT is being able to block and not fumbling. Our RB coach, Billy Hite, is really big on those two attributes and receives quite a bit of flack for it actually. Ryan Williams, one of the RB, redshirted last year solely because he struggled blocking. He worked on it quite a bit in the offseason and improved dramatically. Another one of the RB, David Wilson, saw what happened to Williams and also worked hard to make sure the same thing wouldn't happen to him. The word is that Wilson really gets after you. This isn't to say that they are amazing blockers, but they are better and have certainly worked at it. Just my knowledge on that subject; Hokieluv has touched on everything else. Hope for a great game.

Running the ball will be important in this game. VT's record when outrushing our opponents is something ridiculous. I'll get back to you with the exact stats. The thought that you guys would have beaten us late in the season seems to be common sentiment for Nebraska fans and something that most Tech fans would disagree with. Our defense didn't really start clicking until the last 5 games of the year, giving up 250 yards and 10 ppg. Also, there seems to be a general misconception that we start slow. It's true that we've lost a game in September the last two years. However, since 1999 we've started 11-0, 8-0, 6-0, 8-0, 7-1 (6-0), 10-2 (2-2), 8-0, 10-2 (4-0), 6-1, and 5-1. So we've gotten off to some pretty good starts before. Should be a good game. Good to see y'all again!

The teams that have been successful against us have had some incredible players, see Calvin Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, Matt Ryan, but the newer Foster defense is very hard to consistently defeat. I will concede that dump off passes could definitely work, Furman did a ton of that with decent success. However I wouldn't place too much hope on Swift being open on in routes, that's just asking for a pick 6.

LSU last year doesn't really play into planning about this game at all. Pelini didn't expect to see Tyrod and Tyrod didn't expect to play. All things considered though he did pretty well. He isn't the horrible passer that you guys seem to think he is. He does need to make reads faster and the receivers need to do a lot better with routes and getting open. He doesn't play stupid though, he probably won't throw too many interceptions. A spy won't work, period. FSU tried that last year with absolutely terrible results. i just can't think of more than maybe 1 or 2 players in the country good enough in the open field to consistently tackle him. Your best bet is to blitz, a lot, like Kansas did and force quick reads from him. Also, run a lot of zone. Man to man will let him make reads more quickly and let the receivers make plays. Mixing up the coverages is a must. Everyone has and will stack the box against us and we have still run the ball. So that isn't exactly a foregone conclusion as a perfect answer. Hey, BTW, Georgia Tech has a really, really good defense. I'd put their defensive line up against any in the country. I think that they're the best. They've got three seniors and two probable or definite first day picks. What VT fan posted how bad our defense is, is dead wrong. We actually did get a ton of pressure on the QB, so you're wrong there. The linebackers are very fast, plenty fast enough to play, so you're wrong there. The only problem that I have seen has been tackling on occasion and the safeties. Oh and the backup linebacker Jonas Houseright, he gave up that big touchdown last week and another big play against Furman. If Brett Warren can stay in we should be fine.

While it's hard to disagree with the assessments of our offense, it's pretty dumb to say that we don't have anyone to run the ball. The only reason we don't have a "go-to" RB is because we have more than one. We run the ball at least as well as you guys do running the ball and against constant 8 men in the box. To say our defense isn't good is pretty dumb too. I could say the same thing about yours because of your stats but then I would be wrong. Anyway, our offense is still pretty bad. Good luck with the game!

It wasn't even always the O-line's fault. Often the receivers couldn't get open and Tyrod just took off to get SOME yardage.

I'm not sure if anyone's worried about Furman, but they did use to be a FCS powerhouse. They had a down year last year and are still pretty young. I don't know about Tyrod being rattled. He did play at LSU at night, at Clemson at night, and uh... at Virginia. Not sure if the last one means much but LSU and Clemson at night are pretty tough venues and he maintained poise. Pellini has faced Tyrod and Virginia Tech before. However, this was with completely different personel on both sides and in a different situation. It will be interesting to see what both sides come up with though. I believe Florida State tried to use a spy for a little bit with no success. How complex were the coverages that you guys used last week, especially in terms of disguising them. Good luck with the game and with your game this Saturday!

Uh, while I don't necessarily disagree with your implyed prediction, you're off on your facts. Technically, yes we do have a receiver returning with catches, not many but some. We are in absolutely no way thin at RB. All of the backs are healthy and we have five very good players battling for playing time, that it one position where we are really deep. Anyway, CFN does a pretty good job with their previews, but their predictions are always absolutely terrible.

Just a quick note, the two injured running backs, Kenny Lewis Jr. and Jahre Cheeseman, have been cleared for the start of fall practice on August 4th. All reports say that they're near 100%. I'm willing to say that we'll probably be favored; whether or not we will deserve to be is a different matter. Most Tech fans think that we'll lose to FSU and to either you or Miami. Good luck to everyone!

Cheeseman, Shuman, and Wheeler should all be healthy though. They were only supposed to miss the spring. Luckett and Whitaker played pretty well in the spring game. Also, no chance that Holt starts, Zach Luckett has the other spot all but locked up. There's plenty of talent at the position, just virtually no experience.

Yeah this does hurt, especially with the depth at WR being what it is. However, this team was already prepared to have problems at that position, so it may not change the offense much. We are putting every available athlete we have at wide out though. We had one player kicked off the team and now two players, Kenny Lewis and now Dillard, are injured with a couple of guys just coming off of injuries. In any case, no excuses from me. Good luck!

Yeah, I've seen and heard some great things about you guys. That's sort of the thing though. I don't think that we were necessarily unprepared. It was the weirdest thing in that we seemed to be scared. We were hesitant and didn't get off the ball quickly at all. Glennon made the comment that he was scared and he and the rest of the team got eaten for dinner. We had some weaknesses and they exploited them tremendously. We had two new players at two key positions, Kam Chancellor at Rover and Cam Martin at Whip linebacker, and they got abused all night long. They were a step slow and out of position, thinking instead of doing, and got burned repeatedly. One of our defensive ends had a tendency to not stay at home and that got exploited over and over again. We had a #3 corner, a former starter and star, become academically inelligible and the replacement #3 corners, along with the Whip linebacker, got destroyed in the slot a bunch. They got into the seams when we were in zone. We had trouble getting off of blocks and they did an excellent job. They had the personel to do whatever they wanted to and did. Plus, we kind of have up in the fourth quarter. What was proved to me is that our young players, the ones starting this year, have the capability to be great and that our corners were for real. Not on a single play could it be said that it was one of the starting cornerbacks fault.