joe's blog

I stumbled on this GameDay segment on The Untouchables while sifting through HokieTapes' massive film collection.

0:00 - Remember when we called him "Baby Face" Fowler? No?

0:15 - "Kindred programs..." I can't tell you how many emails I received from Texas A&M fans who wanted Virginia Tech to come to the SEC with them, and be their divisional rival. After Maryland left for the Big Ten, one followed up with me to say, "you missed your chance."

0:39 - R. C. Slocum. That's all.

The only fireworks he needed were the ones he created in the backfield.

Our sincerest well wishes to everyone celebrating freedom and the anniversary of our beautiful America. Don't drink and drive. And come Tuesday if you haven't gained 5 pounds, well, you're doing it wrong.

*I posted this last year. I think it's appropriate to post again this year.

The crazy 2010 season has left us no time to sweep around our own porch. Things are now a little more relaxed with the bye week. So let's take care of some outstanding items.

2010 Memorabilia Contest Winners

• hokietriana
• Zegolf
• HokieGal
• Linze2

2010 Trivia Final Standings

1. Winner - VTJawo 14
2. vtbaz 12
3. The Miz 11
4. RonMexicoRules 4
5. magduffs 2
6. furrer4heisman 2
7. hokieshark 1
8. 1MoreHokie 1
9. hokie4u2c 1
10. Hokie_Wolf 1

Standby for an email if you've won.

The Davey O'Brien Foundation released their semifinalists for the 2010 Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award today. It came as a surprise to me that Tyrod Taylor was not among the final 16 quarterbacks. Through eight games I believe Tyrod can hold his own against any quarterback in America. No, he isn't going throw for 3,500 or even 2,500 yards in a season, he doesn't play in an offense that generates gaudy or even flashy statistics. However, he makes the most of his opportunities and produces big plays.

The last couple of weeks the film study has focused on things we did wrong. Enough of that bunk, let's take an in depth look at our five touchdowns.

1st and Goal at the Duke 14

This is a simple four man pattern off of the play-action fake. Boykin runs a 5-yard in, Dyrell streaks down the middle of the field to the end zone, Andre Smith runs a post to the corner of the end zone and with no one to block Kenny Younger is going to leak out of the backfield into the flats.

The first thing I noticed about this play was the great protection. The offensive line nailed their blocks and Darren Evans chopped down the blitzing linebacker.

Duke man covered Andre Smith with a safety. Smith ran a fantastic post route and split the safety and corner helping over the top. It was an all too easy touchdown.

My full ballot is after the jump. Here's a quick justification of the movers, shakers and frozen.

• Oregon or Auburn? Oregon has looked more dominate, but Auburn has beaten better teams. I'm going with the Ducks because I'm infatuated with the Blur.
• Mizzou travels to Nebraska this Saturday; both tagteamed the state Oklahoma over the top rope. We'll know a lot more about each team after they play. For now Mizzou gets a huge bump, because they're undefeated. Nebraska's loss to Texas is an even bigger blemish on their resume after the 'Horns got dropped by Iowa State.
• Florida State drops because I should have bumped them down last week after they struggled with BC.
• Iowa's losses are respectable, as soon as they notch a quality win they'll move up.
• I didn't think I'd rank Virginia Tech before we played Georgia Tech, but then a lot of other teams lost and we started playing offense.

I know this ballot is a mess. Let me know what I need to change before Wednesday.