Boise State

Those of you who logged on to Beamberball.com this morning were greeted with a positional breakdown of the coaches' biggest concerns heading into fall camp this week.

Pretty standard stuff. I won't reveal too much, as I'm worried Greg Roberts' smooth question-asking abilities will haunt my dreams. What I will reveal is that every position has its usual football concerns: depth, injuries, experience, etc.

Well, every position but one: Wide receiver.

ESPN drew a 6.8 overnight rating for Monday's Boise State/Virginia Tech game, up 21% from Miami/Florida State last year (5.6), and easily the highest overnight of the weekend for a college football game on the ESPN family of networks.

No other college football game on ESPN/ESPN2 or ABC drew even a 3.0 overnight, with LSU/North Carolina coming the closest (2.8).

To put the numbers in perspective, the most-viewed college football game ever on ESPN -- USC/Ohio State last September -- drew a not-much-higher 7.2 overnight.

The positive is we put on a show for America. The negative is we lost. What's to be determined is how the game will affect our national profile.

ESPN Earns Hefty 6.8 Overnight For Boise St. Win [Sports Media Watch]

I was confident in a Hokie win going into yesterday's game. In fact, I'd assured myself there was no chance we'd lose to Boise State, and for no good reason too. Oh sure, if you had asked me I could've given you specifics: Ryan Williams, a matured Tyrod Taylor, my faith in Bud Foster, etc... But really I believed, like everyone else, that fate had our back.

Over the course of sixty minutes Boise State proved fate doesn't win football games. It didn't matter that we set FedEx's proverbial roof on fire, or that we wore black uniforms, or that we were playing in our backyard. Nope, the Broncos reaffirmed for me that blocking, tackling and effort win football games. And on a beautiful summer night, that felt like it was on loan from fall, on the outskirts of D.C. Boise did those very things better than us.

From where I was sitting it looked like they controlled the line of scrimmage all night long. The Broncos confused and opened interstate wide running lanes against our young defensive line and held their ground against our veteran offensive line. Their running backs ran downhill, aggressively and with a purpose. Austin Pettis and Titus Young were magnificent at finding soft sports in our secondary. And Kellen Moore is worthy of every compliment thrown his way.

As for the Hokies, when your program's philosophy is predicated on tenacious defense and special teams you can't arm tackle, miss a field goal and have a punt blocked. Aside from an atrocious decision by Bryan Stinespring to call a designed Taylor run on 2nd and 6 during our second to last drive I thought the offense played well enough. We controlled the clock for 34:20, got Ryan Williams his touches and let Tyrod zip the ball around. Simply put we looked like a team that hadn't played a football game since New Year's Eve and need to execute much better going forward.

Don't be confused, because this isn't a eulogy about the 2010 season. This team showed grit and character by battling back and not folding down 17-0. It's only September 7th, we've got 13 more games to play and all our flaws are fixable. Even though the losses to USC, LSU and ECU should make me think otherwise, the day I stop blindly believing that it'll all come together is the day I stop being a Hokie.

Once again magduffs is providing us with 100-pounds of awesome crammed into a 10-pound sack. Please thank her for all of her hard work on this video.

My weekly column highlighting the most important things to lookout for on offense and defense.

The Hokies on Offense

Pass Blocking

Protecting Tyrod is a concern and not just at left tackle where backup Andrew Lanier is likely to play most of the game. He'll have his hands full with All-American defensive end candidate Ryan Winterswyk. Lanier has made one career start. Last season against Duke he held up pretty well, so he isn't a total liability. I am more concerned with the unit as a whole, handling Boise's lineman and linebacker stunts and blitzes. The same old problem for Tech's offensive line. Giving up sacks, is not a way to control the clock and the game.

Red Zone Improvement

Much has been made of former Hokies and current Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks coach Kevin Rodgers three day "vacation" in Blacksburg during the off season. He along with the offensive coaching staff "holed up" in Merryman and made tweaks to the Hokie-O, most notably the red zone strategy.

Rogers runs the red zone -- from the opponent's 20-yard line to the end zone ... explained to Tech's coaches that he splits the red zone into four yardage areas: the 20 to the 16, 15 to 11, 10 to 6 and 5 to 3. Rogers told them he assigns certain plays for each area, because other plays from the broader game plan have no "credibility" that close to the goal line. He diagrammed a play on the board, then showed video of it, so Tech's coaches could see how it works against a certain defense.

Now, I am not stupid enough to say VT is suddenly going to transform from conservative to wide open play calling in the red zone, but I believe the offense will be a bit less predictable. Goal line and short yardage are a bit of a concern with the second tight end and fullbacks being less serviceable than in previous years.

Tyrod Turned Loose

Last year due to young, less dependable backups, the staff made an understandably conscious effort to keep Tyrod in the pocket more. It certainly helped that Ryan Williams was amazing and took pressure off the offense. This year, even though he is in tune with the receivers and goes through his progressions much better, Tyrod has the green light to run. Boise State has not seen anyone like him... ever and Coach Peterson is rightfully concerned.

You've got to play great team defense, stay in your lanes, and when he takes off, you'd better have 11 guys running after him. It's probably nothing more concerning than a guy who can run like that.
Everything you spend all day long on is designing coverages for this route, that route, for this run, for that run. And, all of a sudden, you get a scrambling guy taking off and doing some things, all those plans are out the window. It is concerning.

Tyrod's athleticism makes him the x-factor and we'll need him to bust a couple of big plays.

The Hokies on Defense

Wide Side

Boise will take their shots downfield, but they are more of a West Coast offense. They'll run screens and throw short. Cincinnati's offense is a little more wide open than the Boise State offense, but the production is similar. Both teams do run a lot of screens and they like to get the ball to their playmakers.

via: TSL

Jeron Gouveia-Winslow at whip, Jayron Hosley at field corner and Davon Morgan at rover are all going to be attacked by Boise's efficient offense. As Bud said, Boise's scheme is getting their playmakers, be it running backs or wide receivers the ball in space. They attack the field (wide) side much more than the boundary. It's up to those three to shut that junk down. If GW can't make plays in space Morgan may slide to whip and the athletic Antoine Exum will fill in at rover in order to get more speed and coverage on the field.

The Line of Attrition

Many people were surprised when Doug Martin was named Boise State's starting running back. The Broncos have three more than capable running backs, all but Martin are under 200 lbs. They all will play, but naming the biggest as the starter may be a sign that they want to pound the rock. Our defensive line features three new starters and they are relieved by even less experienced backups. Trying to wear down the front four, if that is the case, should be an interesting subplot considering the Bronco offensive line is not overly big or physical. There is no starter over 300 lbs and one may play at 270 lbs, but, they do have a lot of starts under their belts. However, the starters at left guard and tackle are still to be determined, so this matchup needs to be watched very carefully.

The Game within the Game

Expect to see adjustments and counter adjustments galore on Monday night. When you matchup arguably the best collegiate offensive mind in Boise's Chris Peterson versus arguably the best collegiate defensive mind in Tech's Bud Foster with eight months to prepare, you know you are going to see them working with their full allotment of tricks.

BCO's College Football TV Viewing Guide

For more than a decade I have been picking which games people should watch each week over the course of a season. At first it was a spreadsheet put together at the beginning of the season for my family, friends and coworkers. It eventually grew into a weekly column for the masses on my previous blog. There, I could pick from week to week, publishing with up-to-date info and the cheap shots stayed current (no one is safe). It's my favorite thing to write, even it entertains no one else but myself. Each week on TKP I will write my Six Pick of must see games. Admittedly, there will be personal bias towards VT, ACC and other teams I like. That said, many weeks I will not have a Hokie game on the list. VT versus The Sisters of the Poor is not must see TV. Potty mouth alert... If bad words offend your sensibilities read another damn column.