LULZ

1-0. I cannot tell you how good that feels to write. Again, we're one-and-zero. That hasn't happened since 2008, but you don't need me to remind you of that. You were there for the losses, and you felt the pain and frustration. It's been a disappointing start to the last three years of Hokie football. But today, we got off on the right foot, finally. I'm ecstatic.

I hope this post will be a place where we can share all of our thoughts from the game. Mine are as follows:

-- The offense didn't look that much different than those called by Stinespring, but the execution was that much better. Rolling up 518 yards is all well and good, but not turning over the rock once, especially when the game was over two minutes into the second quarter, shows me the focus was there.

-- Logan had just an OK debut. His numbers were average, and he didn't make any costly mistakes, but he missed some wide open guys, over threw some balls, and fired some lasers when touch was needed. Tomorrow though, the only thing I'l remember is him lowering his shoulder and trucking some mountain-man back to Appalachia.

-- Gayle is going to live up to the hype. He dominated the line of scrimmage.

It's hot hot hot, and start at 12:20. The chat client is after the jump.

Who: #13 FBS Virginia Tech Hokies (11-3, 8-0 ACC in 2010) vs #2 FCS Appalachian State Mountaineers (10-3, 7-1 SoCon in 2010)

Time: 12:30 PM

TV Coverage: ACC Network/ESPN3 (Steve Martin, Dave Archer, Mike Hogewood)

Venue: Lane Stadium, Blacksburg, VA (66,233 – Grass)

Series History: Virginia Tech leads 3-0

• Last Meeting (1982): Virginia Tech 34, Appalachian State 0
• All three games in the series took place from 1979-1982 in Blacksburg
• This is the first time Tech has opened at home since 2007, having lost 3 straight neutral-site openers

Injury Report

• TE Eric Martin – Probable (shoulder)
• RT/C Michael Via – Out (sprained knee)
• FS Theron Norman – Out (shoulder)
• OT Mark Shuman – Out (knee)

The Opponent: The Appalachian State Mountaineers come into Lane Stadium ranked No. 2 in the FCS polls. The six-time defending Southern Conference champions were the No. 1 seed in the FCS playoffs last year, but lost to Villanova in the quarterfinals. ASU won back-to-back-to-back national championships from 2005-07, and also upset No. 5 Michigan in the season opener in 2007, blocking a kick on the game’s final play to secure a 34-32 victory.

We picked the outcome for each game, as well as, a confidence of win percentage. Basically we assigned the percentage chance (0-100%) of Tech winning a given game, and then derived our expected wins for the season by adding up the confidences and dividing by 100.

Some commentary follows the table after the jump. Feel free to agree or disagree with us, and leave your picks in the comments.

Mike London provided video of himself dancing to Comcast SportsNet. I bet you know what comes next.

Thank you Coach.

via http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/post/mike-londons-danc... H/T @nickjeffress

Welcome back, It's time for college football. I said, IT'S TIME FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL ... and with that, I present you the 2011 Six Pick, a hand crafted selection of the finest national games of the week. For you newbies; each week on our lil corner of the interwebs I take six games to task, discussing, making japes and prognosticating against the spread. I invite you, Hokies and non-Hokies alike to make your picks against me. I use Yahoo to set the spread. Each week I will tabulate the results and keep a running count as the season progresses to see who does the best. The end of the year winner will get something special, as determined by myself, joe and our schwag/cash flow. Enough about this, the scandals, realignments and east coast humidity, COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK! Give me intense rivalries, silly GameDay mascot heads, drunj bands, drunjer fans, hot cheerleaders and bad Nike & Under Armour uniforms. Give me College Football.

Now that the new season is here, the college football gods have decided to ease you into the action with a couple of very good games surrounded by ok matchups. Yes, I know the season starts Thursday, but somewhere along the line the worldwide leader dropped the ball and could only schedule UNLV at Wisconsin. Are you kidding me? That's no way to kickoff College Football! So out of protest, that game will not be included. Clearly the Saturday night games are the main event of the weekend, even with a few stars missing in the Cowboy Classic and the abomination Nike is outfitting the dawgs in the Chicken Sammich Game.

Let's get it on ...

With the football season now just days away, it's prudent for all of us to take a quick timeout from watching Billdozer's video on loop and talk about something one last time.

Logan Thomas is a rookie quarterback.

Logan's physical presence and potential has earned massive amounts of attention for someone who is entering his first season as a starter of the No. 13 team in the country. And while the schedule is easy and things look insanely promising, we need to take a quick step back and look at all of this one more time and enter the season on a sane mental note.

Jayron gets Sport Science'd

Both Appalachian State and the Hokies will rely on contributions from freshman during Saturday's game. Caleb Farris (center), Mark Leal (quarterback), Zack McCray (defensive end), Duan Perez-Means (defensive end), Luther Maddy (defensive tackle), Corey Marshall (defensive tackle), Boye Aromire (rover), Detrick Bonner (corner) are all listed as backups on Tech's two-deep. Appalachian state is starting freshman at left tackle, left guard, receiver and right defensive end. There are 290 starts among the 57 players listed on their roster, an average of 5 each. Their backup left tackle is also a freshman, his name is Shaq Counts. Finally, excerpts from the pronunciation guide, my favorite section of the game notes. Say 'em slow now: DRAY-gurr, Daddy, JARE-in Goo-VAY-uh.

David Teel chronicles the decision that led to Frank Beamer being our coach these last 25 years and not Bobby Ross.

Introduction

My idea behind this series of posts was to come up with some unique dishes that shared a theme with each opponent, or their regional food. I designed dishes that are moderately easy to make, even for someone who normally does not work a grill. This will provide the least amount of work, maximum amount of flavor and freshness, and the ability to change up your weekly eats.

All of these recipes can be cooked on a gas or charcoal grill. I will let you know cooking times for each if they differ, and/or which grill I prefer to use. I will provide a list everything you will need to take with you for each recipe; an essential list is below.