After weeks and weeks of speculation, the new offensive staff was finalized and officially announced. On Friday, Scot Loeffler, Jeff Grimes and Aaron Moorehead will ride into Blacksburg like white knights on stallions.

Other than that, it's been a pretty quiet week. I mean, Shane Beamer did troll some people on Twitter, leading me to embark in a twenty-minute mental exercise as to what would happen if Bud Foster had an account. Could you imagine? Some UVA bro tries to troll Foster’s defense on Twitter, which is then followed by Foster’s threats of "total, soul crushing annihilation" while motivating Jack Tyler and Antone Exum to send a season-long message.

Speaking of Exum...

1. Saban is probably up watching film. So I'm hitting the field to get some work in! #AUG31— Antone Exum Jr. (@IAmSwag1) January 21, 2013

That was at 3 A.M. Monday morning. You know where normal people were at 3 A.M. Monday morning? Sleeping...or sleeping off a night at Big Al's. This man is insane, in such a good way.

That may have been all the news in Blacksburg, but lucky for us the sports world got weird (and awesome) over the past week.

The staple of Virginia Tech's offense in the Frank Beamer era for over two decades was a bruising running game. While we screamed about Logan Thomas's inaccuracy, the lack of blocking, and playmaking by wide receivers, the complete inability of Virginia Tech to establish a running game was the biggest impediment to winning football games. Virginia Tech had moderate success running off tackle power from the I formation, occasionally got the read option going from the spread, and once in blue moon they got 3 yards on a toss sweep. But, more often than not, the Hokie offensive line went east west, and the running backs went nowhere. The end results were a confused Frank Beamer and 3rd-and-12s.

If the Hokies want to return to dominance in 2013, the first task for new offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler and offensive line coach Jeff Grimes will be to establish a cohesive concept for running the football that Virginia Tech lacked last season, and then instill the attitude and fundamentals necessary to dominate using such a philosophy.

The Philosophy

The official release from Virginia Tech and following discussion is here: http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2013/january/18/official-announcement-....

Well, the day has finally come. As CBS Sports' Bruce Feldman reported, the Frankinator has hired Scot Loeffler to be his new offensive coordinator. Yep, that Scot Loeffler. The one handed the dumpster fire at Auburn. The one who threw a TOTAL of 198 passes at Temple in 2011 (for comparison, Logan Thomas threw 429 this season).

My three thoughts on the hiring immediately after it happened:

• Gulp.
• What does this mean in terms of Thomas' professional decision?
• How in the hell does Feldman know so many people, on so many different staffs? Was it because he wrote a book with Mike Leach, and now all universities have a fear of being boarded and pirated? Yeah, that must be it. If it happened to Craig James, it could happen to you.

But, after I did my research I started to feel more confident about his hiring.

Logan Thomas announced today on ESPN College Football Live that he will return for his senior season. Woo! And I need to celebrate for a minute with a GIF.

In October, Thomas had been adamant in his plans to play his senior year in Blacksburg. "I've always told everybody that I'm planning on coming back for my last one," he said.

However, after the Russell Athletic Bowl, he had this to say.

"I can't tell you now," Thomas said when asked whether he would return to Virginia Tech for his senior season. "I have a big decision in front of me either way it goes.

As first reported by CBSSports' Bruce Feldman, Scot Loeffler has accepted an offer to become offensive coordinator at Virginia Tech.

Va. Tech has hired former Auburn asst. Scot Loeffler as Hokies new OC, a source just told CBS.— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) January 14, 2013

David Teel reported last Friday (January 11th) that Loeffler was a candidate. On Monday, Mark Giannotto reported Loeffler and former Auburn offensive line coach Jeff Grimes were in Blacksburg meeting with Frank Beamer.

Last season Loeffler began as offensive coordinator at Auburn, and ended up going down with Chizik's sinking ship. The Tigers were ranked 115th nationally in total offense (305.00 yards per game), and 112th in scoring offense (18.67 points per game). These complaints by Auburn fans seem eerily familiar.

The ACC announced the 2013 football pairings, just home and away games. Tech's schedule is as follows:

Home

Duke
North Carolina
Pitt
Maryland

Away

Georgia Tech
Miami
Virginia
Boston College

With 14 teams, thanks expansion, playing an 8 game conference schedule, thanks Notre Dame, there was bound to be some repeat road trips by all the schools in the conference. Duke will once again come to Lane Stadium, and Tech will travel back to Miami and Boston College.

The games with opponents traveling to the same site as in 2012 are: Duke at Wake Forest; Duke at Virginia Tech; Miami at Duke; Georgia Tech at Clemson; Virginia Tech at Boston College; and Virginia Tech at Miami.

Before this release, I thought Tech would return to Pittsburgh, instead Miami and Georgia Tech end up back together in the home-away rotation.

Though the conference is releasing just the 2013 ACC opponents at this time, this schedule model may be used as the basis for a full, multi-year schedule in the future.