Editor's Note: I'm out of town and friend of the site Furrer4Heisman did me a solid and wrote this for y'all. --Joe
After numerous pleas, threats and bribery attempts, the ACC has finally released its 2013 football schedule, a mere four months after the SEC, three months after the Big 12 and a month and a half after the Pac 12. Oh, and the Big Ten? They got their 2013 conference schedule in April ... of 2011.
But, hey, at least we finally have this thing and can start booking hotel rooms and RSVPing or not RSVPing for weddings. Sorry, Ron, but I told you not to get married during football season.
On to the schedule, which sucks.
Aug. 31: Alabama (Georgia Dome)
Sept. 7: Western Carolina
Sept. 14: at East Carolina
Sept. 21: Marshall
Sept. 26: at Georgia Tech (Thursday)
Oct. 5: North Carolina
Oct. 12: Pittsburgh
Oct. 19: Bye Week
Oct. 26: Duke
Nov. 2: at Boston College
Nov. 9: at Miami
Nov. 16: Maryland
Nov. 23: Bye Week
Nov. 30: at Virginia
The date everyone will immediately be up in arms about is playing at Georgia Tech on short rest. I'm really not that concerned about it. If anything, it gives the defense more time to recover after facing 60 minutes of cut blocks, which could be more important than having more time to prepare for the option.
Jacket fans are usually quick to attempt to bust the myth that having more than six days to prepare gives opposing defenses an advantage against its offense. Honestly, I don't care anymore. Now that Chan's players are gone I really don't worry about Georgia Tech's offense. I'm a lot more annoyed about having short rest for the conference opener in general than I am about having short rest for Georgia Tech.
The other reason we're upset is the lack of a Thursday home game for the first time since 2001, when the Hokies were in the Big East. The prime candidate was the North Carolina game, which conveniently is right after Tech's Thursday night road game. Alas, it's on a Saturday. No YouTube clip of Rece Davis fawning over Enter Sandman this year.
Not only is the ACC schedule bereft of a Virginia Tech Thursday home game, FSU appears on the Thursday night schedule a total of zero timesbecause #goacc. It's as if this conference wants bad ratings and/or ESPN has given up on Thursdays because of the NFL.
The next item of business is finishing with three out of four road games. This is the third straight time we've had to do that when our schedule ends at UVa (2011 and 2009). Of course, we went 4-0 during that span in both of those years.
This year, that final stretch includes trips to the two farthest outposts in the ACC in consecutive weeks. I think that's what annoys me most about this schedule. Not only are we the only team in the league that has to go all the way to Boston and Miami in the same year every other year, but this time the trips are back-to-back. The only thing that would make it worse is if either of those two schools had fans. Fortunately as it stands now the Hokies only have to contend with the high intimidation factor that comes with piped in noise during play in Boston and tarps in Miami.
So what's good about this schedule? Well, we'll know by the second week of October whether this team is any good and if they have a shot at making it to Charlotte. Also, it's a sports writer's dream with not one, but TWO trips to Cheetah, trips to Beantown and Miami and no trips to Tallahassee. The only thing that could have made it better is if the national college football schedule (this means the SEC and Big 12) wasn't awful during the two bye weeks.
What's bad about this schedule? Basically everything else. The list of grievances is long (and should be read while listening to this nsfw song - http://youtu.be/SCwzcrG7EsM): We knew FSU was off the schedule and replaced by Maryland, we knew we were going to have to play in Greenville (which is so, so stupid), now we know we have short rest for the conference opener, NO THURSDAY NIGHT GAME IN LANE BECAUSE WE SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO ENJOY COLLEGE FOOTBALL AT ALL, we finish with three road games out of four and have to go from BC to Miami in back to back weeks. Some of those things are our own fault, some of those things are the conference's. You can figure out which is which.
Does that about cover it? We waited all this time for the ACC to release this thing and this is what we have. It could be worse, we could be in the Big East and not get the schedule until sometime around Memorial Day. Actually,, now that I think of it, that still gives us time to trade BC for UConn or USF. Or maybe we can amnesty BC's contract. That's how that works, right?
Well, see you in Blacksburg ... oh hell, I don't know ... Nov. 16 for the @D1scourse Farewell Tour ... maybe? Oh and since you asked: 8-4.
Comments
#goacc
Nothing else to say.
We have TWO BYE WEEKS
And neither of them could come before the GT game. And they come before two of the three easiest conference games on the schedule. This is ridiculous.
Every time the ACC has released something about the schedule, it has been terrible.
First, it was the matchups. Our rotating-crossover game is Maryland? Are you kidding me? AND we have 3 games that repeat sites from last year?
Whoever was in charge of the scheduling process really hates us this year, wonder what we did to piss him/her/them off...
Blech.
Atrocious. One (official) home game in November. ONE, and it's against Maryland. The highlights of the home schedule are UNC and Pitt, and we're done with them before we hit mid-October. The conference couldn't have screwed us harder with this schedule if they'd tried.
Young
Who knows, we could be facing a former Tech player at QB come the maryland game.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/terrapins-insider/post/qb-ricardo-yo...
East, West, North...
Clearly we needed to add South Carolina to this schedule...
ARGGGGGH! They're killing our primetime to shine!
literally about, 20% of my trailers involves shit getting real on thursday nights.
can't wait to show fans trying not to spill their starbucks during entersandman at noon in next years trailers.
Those loathsome bastards that slighted us like this...
For the past 7 or 8 years, the bye week or the Thursday night game week has fallen on the last weekend of October or the first weekend of November. I know this because it's how my wife and I planned our wedding date 3 months before last year's schedule was released. Very interesting that the Thursday night game (albeit away) is so early this year.
True Hokies.
Anyone not scared of GT's offense. on 5 days rest is living with their head in the sand. God forbid they get a respectable defense this year too.
Vad Lee is going to be a really good QB for that team, GT is going to be problems.
Honestly, I'm more worried about their D than their O
Our D held them in check the entire game last year, and most of those guys return. And I'm sure they'll get some option work in during the preseason and even during the weeks leading up to the game. I'm sure Marshall won't be demanding 100% of our attention all week...
Marshall
They'll get after 'ya
Foster had an entire offseason to prepare for them. Bud tried to play it cool and act like he didn't spend a ton of time with them focusing specifically on that offense, but Jack Tyler let the cat out of the bag when he talked about just how much time he and Foster spent watching tape to get his reads right.
Unless the Offense has a dramatic improvement under Loeffler (and it might), I would be very, very worried about this game. GT is going to be a problem this year for everyone in the ACC.
Vad Lee may be good, but they lost Orwin Smith, they have no standout WR to occasionally throw to like Hill or Demaryius and Vad is no Tevin or Nesbitt. Systematically, their offense is threatening, but the current personnel is not. Yeah, they still have Sims and Laskey, but Smith was their threat across the board.
Vad Lee is a much bigger home run threat then Tevin ever was. And he has a better arm, strength and accuracy wise.
Tevin really lowered the ceiling on that offense, because he had zero home run threat with his legs. Lee could easily dominate in that offense, especially if he can make the correct reads. Count on him taking the next step this year.
But GT's offense needs more than 1 home run threat. David Sims is the only legitimate threat on the offensive side of the ball for them. Besides, saying Lee has a good arm is like saying Oregon has a good punter. They may get used, but it's not going to be their first choice and it's not expected to produce incredible results.
We better hope for that game-losing GT interception that happened a few times recently.
Ordinarily I would say that should be the case, but looking at the ACC overall schedule, GT also has 5 days to prepare, after what will be a much tougher UNC team compared to our preceding Marshall game.
While playing GT on a shortened timetable always sucks, I think we get the better side of the draw here, since they'll hopefully be more burned out after UNC vs us after Marshall.
Agreed, best QB PJ has had
but I do feel good that our defense is very experienced and most of these players have gone through this again and again. Tyler, Fuller, Exum (by then?), Gayle, Maddy, Skip, Collins, Jarrett.....those guys have been through this drill multiple times now
I may be mistaken, but...
With 6 Coastal games every year and with BC chained to us, does that mean that only one conference game will change every year? Meaning we'll have the exact same conference schedule next year, home and away reversed, and someone else replacing Maryland? Because that will be awful.
That's the most likely scenario
Only other option is that the people who vote on such things realize how terrible of an idea it is only having one rotating opponent, and give us an 9th game. Yeah, it sucks for FSU, Clemson, etc who schedule a big OOC rival annually, but that just means that the years they play ND they can't afford to schedule another big OOC game. Most teams are trying to get to 10 BCS opponents anyway, from what I can tell...
Cheetah
I'll be there again! Last time we played bama, they played enter sandman in the Cheetah Lounge and for 45 seconds we weren't all eye-f*cking the naked women. It was awesome.
We need to step up
There isn't much like a night game in Lane. I love it. We need to step it up and try to get a few primetime game slots. It would be amazing to have College Gameday in the burg again.
At least the athletic department can save money on fireworks and put it towards some maroon pants.
actually...
word on the street last fall was that the players get some input on the uniform and dont like the maroon pants...shame on them
It is possible....
The UNC game would definitely be primetime and potentially GameDay material if both teams come in undefeated. UNC opens this year against USCe and both teams play GT before this game, and we all know that we have to BEATBAMA to enter the UNC game undefeated. Both teams would be top-15 at a minimum.
NOOOOOOO
The only Thursday I'm busy in the fall is the night of my rehearsal dinner: September 26th. Damn you Weaver & Swofford!
Bonus: the dinner is held at a brewery/bar and everyone will be hungover the day of the wedding.
Dear Liver,
It looks like another year of 10 noon kickoffs on our favorite network.
FUCK!!!!!
...a bye week
before playing UVA?????? Genius.
They don't have a snowball's chance in hell now.
Nope. Wyatt Teller will pancake whoever lines up in front of him.
Gayle's gonna eat whoever plays quarterback for the Hoos.
Mike London will quit at halftime.
Depending on how their season goes, he may not be there by the time we play them. They have a good interim head coach sitting on the staff now.
I think this just fuels the fire for #VT4SEC.
One positive
Once we #BEATBAMA, its a pretty easy road to the NCG. If the team is good enough to beat the twice defending national champs, every other game is very winnable. Because that always means we come out on top, right?
#VT4SEC
I want out. I want out now.
This is pathetic.
Thanks, Swofford, for ensuring that the ACC has zero viable Top 25 teams. Awesome. Let's just bust some more holes in the bottom of the sinking ship that is the ACC. Let it sink faster. Maybe Weaver will jump ship sooner.
After the season we just had, I will not be surprised if more people drop their season tickets and Hokie Club memberships.
Wouldn't be surprised...
Our sellout streak will likely come to an end on September 7, when we host Western Carolina...
KRUSTY WANTS OUT
Extra time to prepare?
I haven't looked close enough at the whole schedule but at least this snooze-fest can't be as brutal as last season where 6 opponents (7 if you count the opener) had more than a week to prepare before playing VT. 5 of those ended as losses; Pitt, Cincy, Clemson, FSU, and Miami. Want a home Thursday night though.
Everybody join in!
S-E-C!
S-E-C!
S-E-C!
S-E-C!
S-E-C!
#VT4SEC!
Like it would be better there?
Look at the schedules A&M and Mizzou got. You think the SEC would gift-wrap a cake schedule to VT?
You mean play a schedule in a conference that takes football seriously across the board? A conference where we don't play the snoozers of duke, Maryland, and wake forest (we can't help it with uva)? A conference where our level of play and recruitment shoots upward? A conference with lovely Southern coeds at each venue?
Yeah, I'd like that a lot, actually.
Every conference has doormats
I'm sure VT- Mississippi State and VT-Kentucky would be thrilling games.
Mississippi State and Kentucky > ACC bottom feeders
LSU, Alabama, Florida, Texas A&M > ACC top feeders
This is what is wrong with the current state of VT. Fear.
I don't want cake schedules. I want the awesome matchups that I play on Playstation. I want to play the best teams in the country, win or lose, because thats what I want to watch on TV or go to in person. I want our players to have the opportunity to play in marquee games in front of College Gameday. I don't want to play Duke or Wake Forest ever again.
This is the kind of thing we reap when we fire O'CaiNewSpring about 3 seasons too late, once the dumpster fire has already burnt out.
Shit happens, let's just take it out on our opponents!
Our only chance at a night game in Lane is if Duke or Maryland are undefeated and so are we going into that game and we get kicked to a Primetime spot because of it. To end, no night game this year :(
The reaction I've seen from current students on Facebook and Twitter, while negative, has been amusing. It's quite ironic to see people who could care less about the team and just want to "hang out with their friends" or pregame before going DT or to a date party complaining about the schedule and lack of Thursday night games. Some people just don't understand the value of being able to go to those games for 4 (or more) years as a student. The funniest part is that they say they want the price of tickets to go down because of the poor schedule. If I had tickets for $10 a game, I'd be pretty damn happy about it personally.
I agree, there are way too many students like that. I love going to football games here, as a lifelong Tech fan it feels like a honor to be allowed to pay $60 and go to 6 games at Lane per year. I wish more people would feel that way.
As for the Thursday night game, I think what sucks the most is that it's my Senior year, so coming back for those Thursday nighters could be tough depending on where I'm working after college. I just wanted to see Lane at night one more time before I left. I guess there's only one solution, #BeatBama and root for UNC to be 4-0 when they play us.
As a student
I hate this year's schedule, but I like what it sets up for my senior year. GT, Miami AND UVA at home? I guess I can only complain so much..
@Miami @BC
VT played Miami away last year too, I thought it alternates between home and away, at least in division? Maybe I assumed wrong? Maybe this is just the ACC at work. We play at BC too and I remember we played their last year because their high school stadium stood out.
Supposedly it was "unavoidable"
There are 6 such ACC games being played at repeat sites. We have 3. In addition to @Miami and @BC, we play Duke at home again. Joy.
I sat here one day and figured out a way to maintain the current matchups while also maintaining the home-away cadence, but I think I heard something about the ACC wanting to go to a system where all "annual crossover" games are played at the site of the Atlantic Division team one year, and the Coastal Division team the next. In years past, it has always been 3-and-3, where each division had 3 home "annual crossover" games each year. Changing this around apparently changed a few other things around too.
i think just the @BC game is unavoidable because of the all atlantic or coastal home thing. We have miami away and duke home again like you said. If we wanted those two to be switched then miami would have to find a new home game and duke would have to find a new away game. What do you know, miami is playing a repeat away game against duke! Switch those three games around and that takes care of two of our three repeat games...I may be wrong or not know what I'm talking about, but it makes sense to me
Really!? I hadn't noticed that...
Maybe another thing that Weaver had asked for "in the best interest of fans" was getting UVA and Miami at home the same season. Or something along those lines.
Death of Thursday Night Home Games
This is about the year I thought Thursday night games would've ended. However, I thought that would be because VT was playing Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky on Saturdays. No Thursday night home games while still in the ACC is like taking Turkey Legs out of Lane Stadium. If you're going to kill a tradition, do it for the reason of making VT football better.
When are the students going to take their OJ bottles filled with 1/2 vodka to their 9am classes, skip all classes after 12, and appear hungover at all Friday classes?
This could definitely be a help to us if true considering he destroyed us last season up in Pittsburgh http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/3/27/4152750/rushel-shell-...
that sounds fantastic.