https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll
Who would have thought that in a ranked matchup between Liberty & VT that Liberty would be the one ranked?!
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Lol I already no longer care about the AP poll, but some of these "ranked wins" this season are pretty bogus. FSU got a top 5 win this year over a UNC team that is clearly not a top 5 team, among many others.
They are every season. This season is no different, there are pretenders every single season.
This season is materially different because two P5 conferences weren't ranked until recently meaning a bunch of teams slid up significantly in the rankings by default.
Upsets and poor preseason rankings happen every year, but not to this degree.
The AP Poll:
Biggest game in Liberty history in Lane this next weekend.
Good that Liberty is up there. Gives VT the opportunity to beat a ranked team. Seize the opportunity.
Just "love" that 0-2 Penn State has move votes than we do. Guess I should be glad they are not ranked. I honestly would not have been shocked if they were. If Notre Dame was 0-2 with the same schedule, they might be too.
Say what you want about penn state but they're probably better than we are.
So what? They are 0-2. "Probably better" means nothing
We have two losses to a mediocre unc and a bleak wake forest, their two losses are to a decent indiana and a pretty sharp looking ohio state and they played ohio state well. If we can actually play someone decent well I'll change my tune but ik not convinced we're all that good still. Yesterday was better but I'm still on the fence
Wake is #17 in Sagarin's ratings. We're 18, UNC is 19. Wake isn't as bleak as people think. UNC was overrated. And we aren't as bad as everyone thinks.
Yeah but we also have 4 wins against P5 teams. Penn St has none. 6 weeks into the season Penn State has no wins.
Wake Forest is not terrible. UNC is not as good as they were hyped but decent enough to still be ranked after 2 straight losses.
Who do they have wins over
Its a pandemic year, the leagues arent synced up. We have played 6 games to their two so the rankings are bound to be all kinds of weird especially the AP where its all kinds of meaningless. Who cares its a ranking in a honestly meaningless season where it wont matter until the last two or three weeks. We have football be happy and stop obsessing over whos ranked above VT when its more than reasonable for VT to be unranked.
The Big10 shouldn't be rewarded for starting later and having no wins. If they started with the other 3 leauges an 0-2 penn state shouldn't be ranked
Exactly. Look at how the Big 10 is playing out after just 2 weeks.
Ohio State is really good.
Wisconsin looks really good but Covid might derail their season.
Michigan - 1-1 and not impressive
Penn State - 0-2
Minnesota - 0-2
Iowa - 0-2
Northwestern - 2-0
Indiana - 2-0
Rutgers - still Rutgers but beat Sparty handily
Nebraska - Wanted to keep the game against Chattanooga in case the CFP committee needed it as a "data point". That fanbase is delusional, they will never be a major player ever again IMO.
Michigan St - 1-1 with an embarrassing loss to Rutgers and beating an overrated MIchigan
Maryland - 1-1 got absolutely murdered by Northwestern and then beat a bad Minnesota team
The conference is nothing special outside of 1 team, and perhaps Wisconsin if they get their QBs back. Getting ranked for doing nothing still means you have done nothing.
The truly great thing about this year though is that they can't behind shitty OOC games though. Usually the perennial favorites play their cupcake games to start out, get ranked higher up, and then by the time they start conference play they're getting their "quality losses" to other B10 teams who were propped up.
I am not so sure that Rutgers beat Sparty but more that Sparty beat Sparty. Didn't they have 7 turnovers in that game?
That rationale would in fact make the Big 10 look even worse.
I'll allow it.
And just like I posited a couple weeks ago when you and I debated this, it is all working out. Glad we finally agree haha.
Oh I agree. Probably are and would probably beat us if we played them next week. But I still cannot stand that team. Would root for UVa over them.
We were supposed to be able to test this theory this year, and I'm still pretty pissed at COVID for taking that away.
Ngl, I don't think anyone in the nation outside of VT fans cares about Liberty being ranked or takes it seriously at all.
Michigan is ranked at 1-1
🙄🤨😒😡🤬
EDIT: corrected the record. Still don't think any of the B1G teams should be ranked.
1-1, they beat Minny in week 1 for the Big Ten
Week 9 and a .500 record is ranked #23. It is just so 2020...........
Liberty is ranked and we aren't
Espn has us at 90.5% chance of winning
Got your ranking right here, flames.
lol at the Liberty Flames...
It is true that they're 7-0, but their opponents are a combined 4-28.
FPI's ranking has the Flames at 85. For reference, VT is ranked 16.
Bill Connely's SP+ ranking hasn't updated yet today, but last week the Flames were ranked 43 and VT was ranked 21. EDIT: rankings are up. Flames at 48, VT at 20.
I want us to beat them so bad they consider packing up shop and putting their money towards a championship squash team.
I want to beat them so bad that they are contractually obligated to raze the monogram up on candler's mountain and plant a Vt instead.
I want to beat them so bad we get footage of Hugh Freeze crying over a pizza while he tries to disable the school mandated accountability app on his phone so he can call an escort.
I want...well you get the idea.
Starship Troopers gifs will always get a leg from me...
How is this not green yet? I have but one leg to give.
The message to the team this week MUST be:
Bury. Them.......Forever.
This makes me gitty for 2025 when we can bury JMU forever and we should also bury ODU forever I guess... Need to let VA know who the Virginia football team is.
Haha that's how I felt about the ODU game last year. Time to exact our revenge and beat the shit out of these lesser VA programs! And then we found ourselves in a 1-score game in the 4th.
I think this team needs to be the underdog, when our guys were getting love from the media we went out and sucked against wake, who cares about rankings until the end of the year.
You know, people keep talking about what our identity is, and I think it might be this. Plucky underdog who always seems to have a WTF loss when they start getting positive attention.
VT is the dog that chases its tail. When we catch the tail we fall on our faces. Then it's back to chasing the tail.
Malik Willis scares me with our history of qbs that can run
#25 Liberty Flames @ Virginia Tech (-15.5)
Yeah that's an unranked team favored by more than 2 touchdowns against a ranked team. Vegas should be the only vote in the AP polls.
People have this funny tendency to be more accurate when they're financially incentivized to do so.
Just noticed your "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Jet Sweep." Where can I locate a copy of this publication and how much does it cost?
Unfortunately we're low on copies. I anticipate that we'll have a surplus again whenever Herbert leaves the program. It would normally cost $25 dollars.
Sure. But get ready to complain about a whole lot of SEC teams with losing records in the top-25. And an 0-2 Penn State team in the top 10.
Actually, here's a short article from the AP that says "a ranking is a reward and has no issues with rewarding teams for success. Otherwise, why even play the games?". And of the day, Vegas is about quality, polls are about rewarding success. I think both have value, personally.
https://apnews.com/article/college-football-cincinnati-bearcats-football...
Is anyone else terrified to play Liberty? Not because I think they're better than us, but because this will be those kids' Super Bowl playing against a top in-state team, and plus we have a terrible track record against non-P5 in-state teams...
Not really, that doesn't ever happen to us
Yes, but less so since we dropped the WtF game. Fuente can not only tell them they can't waltz out of any game with a win, he can point to how they experienced that against Wake. This is absolutely a must win and I really hope the guys get that.
I have no memory of this "terrible track record" that you speak of. Might be old-timer's disease, or maybe blank spots in my memory caused by some form of traumatic stress. I guess it never happened.
Even though I have many positive connections to Liberty, I will still enjoy watching them crash and burn in Lane Stadium come Saturday. May the flames of their failure and defeat warm all Hokie hearts. Go Hokies!
I am tired of hearing about them honestly. Our insecurities are incredible. With that said, I do have concerns for the game. Not because it is Liberty but because the types of games we are playing this year lead to very little difference between a double digit win and a double digit loss. Any game can be a toss up, but on average we are a pretty good team that is growing in the right places.
I'd be a lot more worried if we were ranked and going in with an attitude.
I seriously don't think that's the case this year.
I agree with this. VT has a dangerous offense and is aware of its fragile mortality thanks to Wake. I think the players will have their heads in the right place going in to this one.
I'm more worried that our defense looks capable and willing to allow every offense the rest of the way to run all over them. Combine their struggles with the inevitable Corny specials every year, and we are more than capable of losing to anyone, anywhere.
4-0 on the ACC Network this year. We good.
I've been on the Liberty side of this before with the WVU-Marshall series. Marshall has never won. Liberty will come out with a bunch of energy in the first few possessions, but once it actually settles down into a football game, we'll be okay. We just shouldn't go down 14-0 and allow them to keep that early energy.
I'm not terrified, no. This is what Fuente gets paid for. Beat Liberty at home. This is not Clemson or even UVA- it's liberty- an average Sunbelt type team at best with a thin roster. Win the game. Prepare your guys. Win. They have absolutely no answer for a James Mitchell- so use him. Their second team DL is like out scout team- pound them. If Fuente does a piss poor job in prep, sure we can lose. Also, "VT" as some landmark/super bowl game now is overstated. Liberty's kids aren't affraid to play VT. They saw us lose to Wake Forest and they saw UNC average a million yards a rush. They aren't scared. This isn't VT circa 2005. This is a middle of the road ACC program now.
Maybe it's because of my lack of confidence in these coaches that I am so nervous lol
Less so after Louisville. The defense was pretty good for the first two and a half quarters outside of one play. Then they did enough to hold on to win. Liberty does not have the speed that Louisville burned us with and the defense played reasonably well against Cunningham, a mobile quarterback who wasn't able to do much of anything until the mid-third quarter.
The game is also at home, which I think makes a big difference even without a crowd. Not having to travel is a good thing. More than anything though, Liberty's record, while impressive, has come against very not good teams and Liberty hasn't looked that impressive in those wins.
Hugh Freeze can coach an offense, but so far, Liberty has feasted on very very bad defenses and hasn't done much in defense themselves. Of course anything can happen in a football game, but outside of some nihilistic pessimism, I think the team is in a good place to handle Liberty.
Up vote for nihilistic pessimism.
Not really. They're the ones likely to come into the game thinking they're hot shit because they're 6-0 and ranked, even though it's against teams that are a combine 4-28. I think we come out of the gates and punch them in the face. HARD. Then keep punching (someone insert a gif from Kung Fu Hustle of the Beast punching the guy's face into the ground). Realize that for any criticism of this year, we have scored less than 38 points exactly once this season against entirely P5 competition. Their only P5 game was Syracuse, and that isn't saying much. Hokies by 35.
Here's the bad news: I think Liberty scores 21 against VT.
Now on to the good news: We still win by 24.
just 21? Any time Cunningham from UL had any time to throw last weekend he found a guy Danny-Coale-open 30 yds downfield. I think our secondary has been socially distancing all season.
good for them. safety first
too lazy to photoshop it, but the sword is a #25 ranking, the guy in black is Liberty, and the Hokies are Dr. Jones. The gun is Herbert racking up 200 yards.
honestly, the half-assed explanation is even better than the photoshop could ever be