There are a lot of questions looming for this Ohio State team. Getting into the College Football Playoff is going to be a challenge, especially with a weak nonconference schedule that includes Navy, Virginia Tech and Cincinnati and a conference slate thats missing Iowa, Nebraska, Northwestern and Wisconsin. But, with a veteran quarterback, a good recruiting class and one of the most successful coaches in the country, the Buckeyes are going to be difficult to ignore.
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
All three of those teams made a bowl this year. What an ignorant statement.
This was my first thought as well reading that...three teams that consistently have been to bowls the last five years....or 21 in some cases
Making a bowl doesn't mean sh**. Half the teams in college football make bowls. So playing in one doesn't make you a quality opponent. VT is a weak opponent for a team like OSU. Hokie fans need to accept a harsh reality and that is that we potentially have some hard times ahead, much harder than 8-4.
Couldn't agree more. Getting into a bowl game today isn't as hard as it was two decades ago.
That's just stupid. Makes you sound like a Wahoo. I agree that making a bowl isnt a huge deal. But playing teams OOC that did play in bowl games the previous year, makes your schedule infinitely harder than 80.0% of the SEC schools. I wont downvote you, bc everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but man who pissed in your cornflakes?
Making a bowl for 1 season doesn't mean alot...but making a bowl for 21 straight years DOES mean something.
I can't stand this "Chicken Little" attitude.
Two mediocre seasons and the sky is falling. Give the coaches and the team some time to right the ship.
I for one think next year will be better then you think. I disagree...VT is not a weak opponent for Ohio State.
After all, the Hokies play a weak out of conference schedule that includes William & Mary, Western Michigan, and Ohio State...
So to make a bowl game, you have to go 6-6 at minimum. Say we went 6-6 for 21 straight seasons - does that make us something? Bowls don't matter, BCS bowls matter.
Except for we didn't, in fact we haven't had less than 7 wins in any of the past 21 seasons. Throw in 8 straight ten win seasons (thirteen overall, and six 11 win seasons), and I think that makes us something
BCS Bowls...use to matter. not anymore thank god.
@I Miss Tyrod....The fact is, we HAVEN'T gone 6-6 for 21 straight seasons. We have done MUCH better then that. In fact, we have only won LESS than 8 games TWICE since 1993. We have won 7 games TWICE and 10 or more games THIRTEEN times. We have NEVER gone 6-6. Your comment is irrelevant to the Hokies and our history over the past 21 years. Making one bowl is not a big deal, but to have the level of consistency is quite an achievement. We have had two down years. Other big time programs have had down years also. Florida State, Alabama, Texas....FLORIDA.
Check out their records over the past 21 years. 8-5 and 7-6 are down years for us, but don't forget the 8 STRAIGHT years with 10 more wins prior to that. Now that is consistency. I admit, we haven't won "The Big One"...but we consistently put ourselves in a position to make a run at BCS bowls. We have done very well in the ACC, frequently winning the Coastal and going to the ACCCG. We have won 4 ACC championships since 2004. We have been to 3 Sugar Bowls and 4 Orange Bowls during that span. We have the winningest Active coach in college football.
Beamer took over a Virginia Tech football program that was largely unsuccessful in its first century, having reached only six bowl games to that point. Beamer has since built the Hokies into a perennially ranked team. Beamer has a winning record against the SEC (40-27). In 25 years at the helm of VT, his overall record is 209-98-2 (.680), making him far and away the winningest coach in school history.
During the 21 year bowl streak, Beamer has amassed a record of 20069 (.743).
In fact, from 2000 to 2011, we had the 5th most wins in college football with a record of 121-38.
The only teams with more wins were Boise St, Oklahoma, LSU, and Texas. Yup, thats right...more wins than Florida, Georgia, Oregon, Ohio State, Alabama, Auburn, Florida St, Clemson, USC, Nebraska, Miami, Michigan etc.
Florida State looks great now, but during that same span, they went 92-52. Alabama went 80-52.
Our winning percentage in that span was 76%.
So I ask you...would you take this level of success again?? Do we give up and cry wolf...scream that the sky is falling?
Or do we give Beamer some credit and faith that he can right the ship and set us back on course? I for one will believe in Beamer and have faith that he has one last run in him to return this program to what it was just 2 short years ago. I am really disappointed that so many Hokie fans have responded like this, instead of giving the support that Frank and the team deserve. They have given us many great moments and memories over the past 21 years...and even just since 2004, with 5 BCS bowl appearances. Did you forget that we went to the Sugar Bowl in 2011??
Have some faith, stop being so negative, buckle up your chin strap and start being the type of fan that Beamer deserves. Beamer is a man of integrity and honor...he does things the right way and is loyal to Virginia Tech.
Things could be much, much worse...
My two cents...peace.
I can't speak for everyone, but I would have traded lower lows for higher highs. Like in a heartbeat.
Being consistently very good is nice, but never really being great is sad. I would have sacrificed some of the OK seasons into bad seasons if that meant some of the good seasons would have been great seasons.
Perhaps that's just me. "10 wins" is nice and all, but I don't personally see the point of it if you aren't using it to build something great.
"I would have sacrificed some of the OK seasons into bad seasons if that meant some of the good seasons would have been great seasons."
Have you considered that these past 2 seasons might be the "sacrifice seasons" you talk about?
Maybe these are the bad seasons before the great seasons?
Judging by the fan reaction after the past 2 mediocre seasons, I would hate to see what happens if we went 5-8 or 6-7...
I will take the consistency...at least we have a shot every year we are consistenly good...it only takes one year to RISE UP!
This is just where we differ in opinion. We agree to an extent, that it only takes one year to rise up. Where we differ is that you see 10 opportunities to rise up, and I see 10 failures to do so. After 10 consistently good seasons, one of them should have been great, but none really were.
You see that as doing something right and I see that as doing something wrong. I think that sometimes you have to take risks to take a shot at being great, you (and Frank Beamer) see greatness as something that just happens to you. I would potentially sacrifice consistently good for a shot at great, you and FB would ensure you stay consistently good and hope great happens.
Well great didn't happen, and now were down to mediocre. Will good even happen again before FB leaves? I hope so, but it's hard not to look back at that 10 years and see a whole lot of woulda shoulda couldas.
You almost make it seem like it's easy to win football games...
I am certain that every single player for VT has tried their hardest to win football games. Winning such a high number of them should be seen as a huge accomplishment, because it's not easy. Yet you look at it as a failure. I guess you're just going to have to settle for always being disappointed in your sports teams, because I don't think it's possible for any team to have the level of success that you seem to expect.
I never suggested it was easy to win football games. This is a strawman.
My point is that you have goals, and you either achieve those goals or you don't. Each success needs to be used as a step to reach your ultimate goal.
It was my understanding that our goal was the MNC. Over time I think that stopped being the case. I think the goal at some point became 10 win seasons, that was just never communicated to the fans.
I think Beamer thought that if you shoot for 10 wins eventually greatness just happens, but I think the evidence states that this isn't true at all.
I don't agree with FB that greatness is something that just happens to you, I think it's something you go get. I don't think that hoping for soemthing to happen is a strategy, this is where FB, you, and I differ.
My points are very clear, there is no need to add nonsense like "you think it's easy to win games."
It's clearly not easy to win games, FB spent half a decade ignoring the festering wound that was our offense because "10 wins" eventually having a great defense and a terrible offense wasn't enough to win games, because winning games is hard. Unfortunately we had to learn that the hard way by amputating the leg rather than treating he wound when it first started being a problem.
I think the whole "ten win season" thing has been, and always will be a natural stepping stone towards a championship. You can't get there without it, so why criticize it? And yes, the offense should have been addressed sooner than it was, but if you're consistently 1 or 2 games away from the championship, is it worth it to change? Change is not always for the better- although I would agree it'd be hard to get much worse than some points in previous years.
But my argument is this: if you're consistently getting right to the doorstep, why risk changing and losing those opportunities. There's a lot of luck that goes in to getting to the championship game (look no further than Auburn this year). I'd rather have the consistency, and hope that the stars align one year, than "sacrifice" bad years for one good one.
Not really, look at the records of some previous MNC winners. *Does not include vacated wins since they cheated and factoring that in would just be a huge pain in the ass.
Ohio State: 2002, 10 win season before that was 1998 with 11-1
Alabama: Before the 2009 MNC they were 12-2 and were barely above .500 before vacated wins for years before.
Auburn: 2010, their previous 10-win season was 2006 and previously 2004.
LSU: 2007, two 10-win seasons before their MNC and before Saban in 2003 they had 2 10-win seasons in over a decade.
Texas: lots of 10 win seasons before their MNC
Florida State: Lots of 10-win seasons before their MNC
Florida: 2006 and 2008. Besides 2009 were their only 10-win seasons until 2000-2001 where they didn't play in the MNCG
Miami: 2001, one 10-win season in over 6 years before
USCw: 2004, 2 previous 10-win seasons and then a string of barely above .500 dating back over a decade before that.
And I'm going to stop there since getting all this data is a pain in the ass. Case in point, a lot of teams that have won the big one didn't have lots of previous 10-win seasons. FSU and Texas being the exceptions, they had a strong group of players and good coaching for years. A lot of times there were new coaches (Saban, Miles, Chizik, Meyer, Carroll, etc) taking over that energized the teams to win lots of games in a handful of seasons. My point is the pointing at 10 win seasons as something to be happy about and as a "stepping stone" to a National Title is pretty bogus. The teams that have had lots of previous 10 win seasons also had multiple appearances in the MNCG.
Also, in case you forgot the 10-win seasons were one of the major reasons we're in this mess in the first place since we could just stick our head in the sand, ignore the implosion to come, point at 10-wins for years, and say "Somethings got to be working if we can do that!"
This is in no way, shape, or form an endorsement for Beamer's retirement.
How about this: did any of those MNCG winners not win 10 games the season they won the championship?
How can you say winning 10+ games isn't part of winning the championship? The last team to "win a national championship" with less than 10 wins was Florida, back in 1985, who was awarded the national championship by the Sagarin Ratings back when we had multiple national champions.
So your claim that "10+ wins being a stepping stone to a MNCG" being bogus, is in fact, bogus.
As for me claiming that 10+ winning seasons are a source of happiness, yes, they are. I like to win. Winning 10+ games a season but not the big one, is still better in my mind than winning the big one and then being like Tennessee or Miami, and fading back into a mediocre team with fans just babbling about how great they used to be.
Agreed...and by no means did any of those teams win championships BECAUSE they didn't have 10 win seasons in years previous. There is no correlation. You have to win 12 games to win an NCAA championship, at least.
Getting to 10 is a nice goal and then taking it a few steps further. RocketHokie's point that you have to get to 10 wins to even have a shot. The Hokies have been 1 or 2 losses away from it many times.
You didn't say a "part of". You said "stepping stone". To say that 10 wins is a part of winning a championship is completely asinine as you need to play in 14 games to win one. if you lose more than 3 you aren't going to get that opportunity. But if you want to disprove what I said by taking it absolutely literally while you were speaking metaphorically there's nothing I can do about that.
My post was a response to the "stepping stone" part as many teams didn't have a string of 10-win seasons before they won the MNC. 10-win seasons are great and all but if you fall flat on your face on the biggest stages they're only a consolation prize to make you feel better. It's like trying to get a promotion, it going to someone else, but you get a 1% raise. It's acceptable, but not good when you were aiming much higher. 10 wins is a crutch used to make us feel better about not making the crowning achievement. Just because you can consistently win 10 times every year doesn't give you any better of a shot of winning a MNC than teams that previously didn't break that mark for multiple previous seasons. We are the absolute proof of that.
I would rather be like Ohio State or Florida State in which they are consistently good, have some turmoil, and then win it all. Don't tell me that if you could you would trade a couple 10 win seasons for a MNC.
Okay, so you want consistently good, have some turmoil, then win it all?
Would that be like 8 straight 10+ win seasons, followed by a 7-6 and an 8-5 season, then possibly winning it all in another couple of years?
My point is yes, I want a national championship. But refuse to be disappointed by winning 10+ games in a season, no matter what. I may be disappointed immediately after a loss, but to look back at the year and think it was a failure? No. I will not do that, nor do I see any reason to do that.
Thats ridiculous...The fact is, it doesnt' work that way. No one "trades" 10 win seasons for a championship. There is no sense in arguing this. If there was a way to sell the Hokie's souls to the devil to win a championship, then that might work. We can't trade those seasons for a title...so there is no sense in calling these seasons worthless or failure's.
I don't want to be like Florida State or Ohio State...I want to be like VIRGINIA TECH...proud to be a Hokie....I am proud of our program.
Winning ten games is a good benchmark of success...simply put, if we win a minimum of 10 games per season, we are in a better position to make a run at a championship.
A "few seasons of turmoil" could turn into many seasons of turmoil, from which we don't recover. Seasons of turmoil have a chain reaction...it effects recruiting, it effects fan support, it can result in NCAA sanctions.
Its just disappointing to see Hokie fans reacting like this.
Whoa whoa whoa! Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Chill brah. Don't get upset at somebody else's perspective that's different from yours. Here, have another shot on me (though not literally ON me).
"in case you forgot the 10-win seasons were one of the major reasons we're in this mess in the first place."
That statement makes no sense. You are blaming our current situation on the fact that we won 10 games 8 years in a row? The reason we had 7 and 8 win seasons is BECAUSE of the 10 win seasons?
This I can understand- he's saying the 10 win seasons covered up our big ugly weakness, which was our offense. As a result, we never fully attempted to address the offense, and it has since degraded further to create our current predicament.
The notion of a stepping stone necessitates that you continue escalating. When you no longer keep stepping up, you're no longer on the stairs you're just on a floor.
Now what you did is take my argument and try to make it absurd. I never suggested that every time you get close you change something. Risk for the sake of risk is just as pointless as consistency for the sake of consistency. What you do is try what got you there for a while until it becomes obvious it's not working, then you take a risk and change it up.
What's ironic is that Beamer did the extreme thing you suggests, just the opposite extreme. He kept doing the same thing over and over expecting the result to change. After 10 years it did, just not in the way he expected it to.
Which is exactly what Beamer did. It became obvious it wasn't working when we took a step back and went 7-6. So we changed it up.
WADR, it was obvious it wasn't working long before the offensive ineptitude manifested itself in mediocre seasons.
This is the whole notion of "risk" you take the risk and proactively address the obvious problem before it manifests itself in the dumpster fire we see now.
I understand that. What I'm saying though is regardless of how you get there, once you're close it only takes one or two lucky bounces to get you to the top, as I keep pointing out happened to Auburn this year. Regardless of if there's room for improvement or not, I have no problem with continuing to do the same thing as long as it kept getting us close. As we saw this year, the changes don't necessarily manifest themselves into wins immediately, and as a result we're not in the position we had been used to in previous years, although many would say the "dumpster fire" is being addressed now.
I still believe that you shouldn't make changes after a 10 win season. If we had made the changes after the Sugar Bowl, maybe we would have had a better record this year, but why on Earth would you make a change after an 11-3 season? I highly doubt anyone predicted what would happen the next year.
It's just a philosophical difference.
You say we were just 2 bounces away from an MNC those 10 win years. I say we were 1 or 2 bounces away from 7 and 8 win seasons.
I could have seen it coming, lots of is could. We saw this coming for a while, that's why you adress the wound while it's still a little cut rather than a festering gangrenous wound.
I say address the problem before it becomes a big problem, you say ignore the problem until you have no choice.
I understand what you're saying, I just disagree. I will ways favor pro-active over re-active.
Fair enough- I respect your opinion. Let's see how these changes pan out. I think we're all hopeful for improvements.
CFB MAKES things happen...
The past 20+ years is all the evidence you need.
^^Well said RocketHokie13...well said!
So winning the 5th most games in a 10 year span is failure....wow.
I agree. For as much optimism and hope (with recruiting turning around and what not) that we could be headed for greater things, I don't think any Hokie fans want to even think of the possibility that it is equally as likely that we have seen the pinnacle of Hokie football come and go already.
To make it clear, I do not believe the sky is falling, but either eventuality is equally as likely at this point. Which is why it would be silly to look back at those 10 win years and all of these bowls as "failures", as by that definition the season of every single team save one each year is a "failure". But I do agree there were some opportunities to be had that we just couldn't seize perhaps
AZHokie22...I definitely agree with you that we have had opportunities and didn't seize them. That is for sure. I certainly have regrets about games that could have gone differently...but I would never take them as a failure.
"I see 10 failures to do so."....I couldn't disagree more with this comment. To just discount our team and call it failure when we win 10 games for 8 straight years....Do you have any idea how hard it is to remain this consistent? To have the 5th most wins in NCAA football from 2000 to 2011? Come on...ridiculous.
Can you explain a little what your brilliant idea of taking risks means? Should we encourage boosters to pay our players? Should we cheat? What risks do you mean? The risk of winning our conference and going to 5 BSC bowls in a short time period?
Answer me this...why should you have to sacrifice being consistently good for a shot at a great year? You are saying we should purposely have bad years and that will automatically give us a great year? The two don't correlate AT ALL.
If you are consistently good, you have a MUCH BETTER shot at being great. Taking "down years" does not increase your odds at being great. If you think differently, please explain how...
I DO see that as doing right and I am sad for you that you see it as "doing something wrong."
10 wins as a stepping stone makes sense in that it creates higher ongoing expectations for the program. When a team expects to win 10 games, it makes perfect sense that they get rid of their offensive coaches after a 7-6 season. Which is the type of "risk" I think you are referring to here.
The element of luck cannot be overstated. A few big time players can make all the difference in the world.
The last part is $. Our program just doesn't rake in the $ that some other ones do and that makes everything more difficult (coaches salaries, recruiting footprint). See the Hokie Club thread. If there was a similar thread on a Bama or even a Clemson blog, it would look different. I am not hating at all with that last comment, just saying that resources are of paramount importance and that the program and staff are doing an amazing job with the resources they have.
Other than coaching changes (which most folks agree should have happened earlier but they did happen and could have easily been delayed and would have at other programs), what are the risks we are not taking?
Taking risks like firing your obviously yerrible OC and OL Coach even though you are winning 10 games.
Do I really need to spell this out? The offensive coaching was obviously inadequate, the recurring and talent level on that side of the ball were plummeting, but Beamer didn't want to do anything about it because he didn't want to risk losing the 10 wins.
Then he lost the 10 wins and had to fire the problems anyway, so what was the point other than delaying the inevitable for 5 years?
The point is because if you consistently get 10 wins, you may get 2 Auburn style bounces that go you're way, and suddenly you're in the championship picture.
We needed the bounces to get the 10 wins several of those years. So all we needed was a couple more bounces on top of those bounces?
That's my point, that's an awful lot of bounces. We disagree on the number of allowable bounces before a strategy becomes a hope/prayer.
ie - Auburn.
Auburn certainly had a great year....but they did not have the great year because of the bad year before. You can't attribute the great year to simply having a bad year.
Also, Auburn lost in the BCS championship...so the season was a complete failure for them anyway.
Very true - but they did have a very low low in 2012 followed by a very high high in 2013.
Correlation does not imply causation
post hoc ergo propter hoc
"after this, therefore because of this"
Yes, they had a nightmare year...really bad. Its amazing what a turnaround they had. By no means did they have such a great year this year because of the bad year however.
Correct. My response was more of an example of how a team went from an extremely low low, to a very high high.
Or you could look at FSU, a team that last year had a pretty good year (12-2), and then actually won the MNCG this year.
Yep - This^^
And let's not forget, Auburn was two lucky bounces away from being 10-2 and getting a BCS bowl bid instead of going to the championship. Sound familiar?
So true. The Georgia win was crazy...and the Alabama win was unheard of...unprecedented. Two bounces made greatness happen for them. They were 13 seconds away from the title.
I've heard that the bad season motivated their players to train extra hard during the off-season. They said something along the lines of never letting that happen again and that they were sick of losing.
Agree with this. If we had to survive a 3-9 year to have a MNC the next, I'd do it.
Heck, I'd even take two 7 or 8 win seasons to get to the MNC.
I'd gladly take an appearance in playoff #1, though.
Yes, we've had a great run over the last 2+ decades. That is awesome, Beamer is the man, and our program has been amazing. Going to the Sugar Bowl in 2011 was a a really great accomplishment in us being an at large invite. But non of that has anything to do with what happens in 2014 when the team hits the field vs OSU. Our history isn't playing OSU, the 2014 Hokies are. And in my opinion, we are not on OSU's level or really even close RIGHT NOW. We are a weak opponent for them in 2014.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope the OL doesn't suffer with Grimes leaving, I hope the RB situation is more settled and we have a strong 1-2 punch, I hope someone emerges as a strong QB for a full season, I hope our DL gets backfilled with players to replace the production we lost in Hopkins and Gayle, I hope our entire corps of first time starting LBs steps up early, I hope our secondary stays healthy and gets every bit of production from its potential All American soph corners, I hope we find a consistent kicker, and I hope we fix the big play problem on special teams.
But that's a lot to hope for. Maybe you disagree and think I'm being too negative. Maybe deep down you fear what I'm saying is true and it makes you sad. Being I don't think I'm being a Wahoo, a Chicken Little, or a bad fan for being a bit more rational about our situation than the fan who just wants to believe we are still right on the cusp of being a national championship caliber program. I think we've got work to do. I'm glad we have the coaches and players we do, they are all bought in it seems and I think we stand a chance to get to that top tier level by 2016. But in Sept of 2014, I think we're going to be a weak opponent for OSU and I think in 2014 we're going to have another down year before things start going up again. Hope I'm wrong.
So before you play the "you're a bad fan" card, please learn to distinguish between opinions on where the program is now vs. analysis of the entire Frank Beamer era. If you want to debate whether or not the 2014 Hokies are a team that can hang with OSU, sweet. I would love to see a plausible argument that shows we are gonna hang with them. But your entire reply is simply pointing out what we did in the past (which is awesome) and that isn't at all going to matter in 2014. It had in impact in the course of events that shaped our team, sure. But our team is what it is come Sept 2014 and being a great program which you and I are both proud of won't make any difference on the game itself.
I don't for one second think we are where we need to be. I know we have holes to fill and work to do. I know that no one expects us to hang with OSU.
My major bone to pick is with people saying our 10 win seasons were failures. I am not calling you or anyone a bad fan.
I don't think it is as bad as you seem to think, be that is debatable. The thing that is upsetting to me is the posters who are WRITING OFF our great past as FAILURE. (I don't think you said that)
I bet Auburn fans were saying similar things to what you said, just one year ago....A team can turn around quickly...it just takes players stepping up at key positions and things can turn around in a hurry.
I am not sad in any way....I don't sit around dreaming of the past. I understand that things go in cycles and we will have up years and down years. We have had a few down years....
I think its amazing that we have only had a few down years in a 21 year span. Even traditional "Powerhouses" like Alabama and Florida have had more down years then we have.
I certainly have a more positive view than you do on our outlook...either one of us could be right.
Lets meet right here one year from now and we can discuss this again.
The post of yours which I replied to was a direct reply to mine about the 2014 team being weak vs OSU. Your entire reply pointed out the past successes. But nowhere in my post did I say the current situation made the past a failure. You reply to mine was a knee jerk response to you inferring that my analysis of today's team was somehow an indictment of the past.
Soooooooooo... I forgive you, you silly passionate Hokie. ;)
Also in re "I am not calling you or anyone a bad fan" I'm not sure how anyone could interpret this other wise..."Have some faith, stop being so negative, buckle up your chin strap and start being the type of fan that Beamer deserves."
So..... I forgive you again, you silly passionate Hokie!
Also, I'll buy you a horse on a treadmill t-shirt in 1 year if you can point to the OSU game and show me how our past successes translated into us being a team that won the game. Hell, if we keep it within 10 and you can again show a connection between our past successes and the outcome of that game, I'll buy you the t-shirt.
Ok, I forgive you also.
You can be the devils advocate...the whistleblower...the critic of change.
You reaction is because you are upset about the state of the program...so am I. Its because we are both passionate about the team...that is good!
I bet there aren't many arguments like this going on the UVA boards.
Oh...I can't wait! How about you just buy me a t shirt if the Hokies upset OSU? :)
I tell you what...if we less than 9 next year, I will buy you a shirt?
If we win 10 or more you buy me a shirt? 9 wins is a push...
Deal?
I feel like I'm seeing a trend on every thread of the same people who are very pessimistic about our future..
Is that a problem? I mean can you honestly go up to them, look them in the eye and point your fingers at them? At the end of it all they feel what they feel as do you and everyone else on here. No amount of lambasting is gonna change that.
No it's not a problem, I probably should have reread what I wrote cus it came off as I had a problem with it, I meant that the same people keep arguing the same things on each thread and I think that doing it on one thread is enough and we should let everyone have their opinion without having to argue (sometimes aggressively) every time
This is why I'm not weighing in on this thread. I have my opinions, and I'm reading others', but honestly every time someone posts about the Hokies not getting respect, it just sets us up for the same battles to be re-hashed. Everyone here is making reasonable points on both sides of why we should or shouldn't have the reputation we do, etc. But you know what? None of it matters. All of us will be watching the VT-tOSU game, cheering for the good guys to win. That's what being a fan is. Maybe we'll win, maybe we'll lose, but we'll all be watching and hoping.
Ditto!
As you said, half of the teams make bowls, certainly, but only half of the Big Ten made bowls as well, so to say that the teams on their OOCS that did make bowl games are the weak link doesn't make a lot of sense. Cincinnati and Navy were both 9-4 this year, and Tech was 8-5. Its especially funny that the one team they didn't mention from the OOCS is Kent State, losing record and non-CFP conference. They also didn't mention that its weakened by having to play Maryland and Rutgers next year as well. So yes, you can make a bowl at 6-6 but none of the three teams mentioned were that base level of qualifying.
I agree that we have a tough row to hoe, no doubt there.
But almost the entire BigTeourteen is laughable as well. They're the ACC just with more money.
I would say they're more like the big east..with more money
With this logic, we shouldn't be complaining about playing ECU... They made a bowl!
....and they have given us stiff competition almost every time we play them. Whether that's an indictment of where we stand as a program or where they have risen to is the real question.
ECU has a wonderful offensive coordinator and have been able to develop talent at QB very well. Carden will probably be playing in the NFL in the not to far future. Mobility, and ACCURACY.
I can't help but think they're mistaking us with that other team from Virginia.
Are you talking about Old Dominion or our practice squad in the blue and orange uniforms?
Hey man, ODU isn't that bad!
VCU doesn't have a football team silly.
That's not the first completely stupid/ignorant thing I've read on Yahoo sports. They're almost as bad, if not (how is this even possible?) worse than the neck
That's ok. All the better when we win as tOSU fans look on in disbelief.
and I will be staying at my sister's place in Columbus, and, trust me...they are NOT worried about VT.
We're certainly no Clemson. lol.
Not worried :'(
exactly where we want them...
GRAB THE TORCHES
You know what, good. VT plays better in these situations, where everyone overlooks them or thinks they're an easy W. I'd rather be the underdog, and then kick tOSU's butt, and rub it in these "analysts" faces, no matter how they try and play it off.
If we were to win, I can already hear it now from E$PN....OSU just had a bad day, you have to give credit to them to losing this game.
Conversely, if we win, it will be because 'VT has really tried to create an SEC-type program.'
When we win I can hear my OSU neighbors saying "who took a dump in our driveway and wiped their bum with our ugly buckeye yard flag?"
Also says "... missing Iowa, Nebraska .... " I stopped reading right there.
Yeah, because Iowa is a power team of the B1G!
Even though they were winless in the conference this year...makes sense
Iowa was 8-5 (5-3 in conference), not sure what you are talking about. Iowa State? They sucked ass this year but even they had two conference wins.
mixed them up with Purdue- my Bad but still- Iowa shouldn't be considered a powerhouse and VT a cupcake.
My Iowa grad wife would downvote you if she were on this site for mistaking Purdue for Iowa.
theyre both somewheres out west similar colors, one of 'em has a buffalo, the other has corn, or potatoes...
GO HOKIES!
Iowa has a pretty good defense and a massive OL....perhaps we could poach their OL coach? And it's corn by the way. The best corn your lips will ever touch and your tongue will ever taste. I have no idea what you're talking about with buffalo.
Buff: CO.
Potatoes: Boise ST
Corn: Neb (or Iowa)
Purdue: (boilers?)
Point?: theyre all the same to me.
I live in Des Moines (not many of us Hokies out here) so I get to watch plenty of Iowa football. They remind me a lot of us. They usually field inept offenses that are run focused, and have swarming defenses.
Wife is from Des Moines....beautiful town. What part are you in?
I live in West Des Moines (by valley HS).
Wife is an Urbandale HS grad, her parents moved around several places before their passing...WDM near where the mall is now (it wasn't there when they lived out there), out on Hickman in Clive. My college roomate lived a few blocks from them at one point (don't know if he's still there or not). Her brother still lives in WDM, works for AE dairy. I love it out there, especially in the summer. We haven't been out there since 2007, and I miss it.
More like Purdon't.
Poor Do .... (not)
Yeah. We say this every time we play an upper echelon team, "we're more than due"
It's time to put the hay in the barn.
#ShocktheShoe
"It's time to put the hay in the barn."
...and burn the f#ckin' barn to the ground.
Go grab your pitchforks and torches and burn Columbus to the ground. I'll just stand here laughing at you guys.
We lost to Duke, Boston College, and Maryland last season. The previous season was even worse. As of right now we are not in the upper echelon of college football. Did we deserve to be there a few years ago: yes. Do we deserve to be there now: no. We've had two bad seasons in a row with a previous decade of being good but not good enough. Our defense has been good and our offense has been terrible. That averages out to be average at best. Even when we were good we still lost the big games.
Discounting us is like us discounting Duke, Maryland, and Boston College this year. They were probably good, but past years made them out to be not good. They're doing the same thing we've done with many teams for the past few years. It's not unheard of and completely warranted at this time, especially in our situation. Could we possibly hang with them like we possibly did with Bama? The answer is yes, but until we prove it the burden of proof is on us. Let it be used as fuel for the team, but to get your panties in a knot over it is ridiculous, because it's probably an accurate statement given the position of the program as of now. Remember popular opinion is not "what can you do for me?" but "what have you done for me recently?"
I get that completely, all valid points.
But let's break it down. We worship 18-22 year old men. We live and die for every Saturday.
To say having blind faith in the team when everyone is 0-0 isn't delusional.
Just college football man.
And stop laughing at me when I grab my weapons for a riot.
You're a killer turkey that likes to hack away buxom Pilgrims! I can't help but laugh at you with a weapon!
It's not the belief that we should be able to do it bothers me, it's how every time there is something negative written about the team (even if it's completely valid and substantiated) there is an outrage about it and at times calling it bad journalism. Especially when we have been doing the exact same thing to some teams for years.
I have faith that we can curb stomp OSU, but I still know that the world writing it off as them most likely beating us is completely reasonable at this point in time given all the evidence. Now get back to me the week of the game and we'll be almost invincible.
Not sure why you got down voted for this so I picked you up. Your assessment spot on.
Duke was good, BC was good, but Maryland wasn't a good team this year. They were average at best. It was the one game this year (not counting UCLA) where the defense just didn't show up with a plan to win.
We play our best when we are written off. I welcome this. Can't wait to see them after their loss
Give me an Alabama 2013 effort with improved receivers and an adequate special teams and we'll beat the living daylights out of tOSU. I like the sound of that. #BEATOSU.
I like the thought process, but our already less than average offense has more questions without Logan there. Personally I think we will need a knockout performance to hang in there.
Woody Hayes agrees that knockout performances are the best.
So did Ike Whitacre.
But hey, this time, questions is a good thing. No longer is it "How will we ever make it through the game if Logan rolls an ankle?" but now it's "Which of our many amazing quarterbacks will get the start?" We've got a million running backs, Malleck's back at TE, nice recruits at wide receiver with Moorehead at the helm, and almost everybody returning on the line (we'll find a good replacement for Grimes, IMO). I personally can't wait to see this offense come into their own...
Buster Douglas needed a knockout performance....Chris Weidman needed a knockout performance against Anderson Silva...JMU needed a knockout performance against the Hokies in 2010.
A punchers chance....that is what we live for...that is why we play the game.
Knock em out Hokies...Knock em out and shut up the critics.
First things first: Todd Washington, improved WRs and decide who will be launching it to them as they burn tOSU's backfield and give Meyer another heartburn thus sending him to another retirement.
Welcome to
sportsmedia. They exaggerate everything to get you excited, angry, or whatever else.First off I thought the Neck worked for ESPN?
I hope that these are the types of things that the coaches are charing with our team. I agree we aren't where we used to be and we need to earn back the respect we used to have. At the same time does anyone remember what happened when APP State went to Michigan a few years back? Never write a team off before the game clock reachs 00:00 at the end of the 4th quarter. This is why the game is played on the field.
Where's that "not a single fuck was given" gif?
I see no problem with that statement. We're going into next year unranked. A non-weak non-conference schedule involves at least one team that is starting the year in the top 25.
Wasn't this same OSU team hyping their matchup with the rough and rugged Northwesten school last year? That same NW school that lost almost all their games after that?
Big 10 is garbage.
More motivation to beat their asses
I hope this site doesn't get too worked up this off season by comments like this. Because like it or loathe it, I have a feeling we are going to be seeing A LOT of them.
As diehard fans, we need to take a step away from our VT perspective to understand where these types of comments come from. We have many many things to be proud of about our football program. We have one of the most respected (if not THE most respected) coaches in college football. We have stayed clear of even any sniff of NCAA violations as the coaches are doing things the right way. We have an above average graduation rate. Amazing stadium experience, fantastic defenses, beautiful campus, rails at TOTs, etc etc.
Unfortunately, there is a national perception that VT is a program that just can't get it done and does not belong in the same sentence as teams like Ohio St, and that began well before these last 2 "blah" years. So, if we want to take each comment like this and get all defensive about it, its going to be a long offseason (and potentially a very long season as well)
These types of articles are going to happen a lot over the next few months. If there's a post every time this happens it's going to be unbearable to be on these forums. It's going to be like how a few months ago the ESPN hate got extremely obnoxious. We need to preemptively just let the dead horse die and focus on stuff that makes a difference to the program.
The past decade just hasn't prepared us enough for this situation.
The horse isn't dead...its on a treadmill.
While I agree, it provides for some fun discussions. Quit trying to ruin the circlejerk. Walk away or join in. ;)
Its more fun if we get mad and get all worked up...thats what rooting for a college football team is all about.
I would rather be passionate and angry then passive, dumb, and happy....like UVA fans.
I would rather have the highs and the lows and feel something....anything.
Poor UVA fans just have a weak, crappy team with no chance of winning and feel nothing...
I would rather drink the sweat from the horse on the treadmill then Zima with skittles .... like UVA fans
(... like UVA fans needs its own thread)
Depends. Is it a lady horse?
isnt that your decision, HOAT?
I think we need to just settle down a minute, here. All we really need to do is, quite simply, go out there and BEAT THE HOLY SHIT OUT OF THOSE GLORIFIED ACORNS AND THIS F**KER WILL SHUT HIS PIE-HOLE IN A REAL DAMN HURRY!
OSU does not have...
1.) A Fuller
2.) A ManBearPig
We don't have a MANBEARPIG either (he graduated), and we are down to only 1 Fuller...
"only 1 Fuller"
---does not compute-----
Just as the lunchpail is passed from player to player, I'm sure we'll have ManBearPig 2.0.
Why is everyone so hot about this statement? I think we need to look at what they are saying. The message is this: for the vast sea of people out there not familiar with the VT program, VT looks to be weak. Stated a different way, the casual observer looking at college football from 40,000 feet, and sees VT, sees a team that is weak. The last two years have been horrible, face it. We have lost to "weak" teams. And lost numerous times to "weak" teams. I think the stereotype given to the VT program here is a wake-up call.
I don't think it's so much just losing to weak teams. Hardly anyone watches those games outside of VA. The main reason for that perception is getting blown out in big games (e.g. LSU, UCLA). Those games have a much wider audience and huge TV ratings in comparison.
Ummmm...I'm familiar with the program and I think we look weak. Especially in big games where we have this habit of not winning and sometime not winning really hard. That stretches back to when we were less "weak" of a team.
You are what your record says you are. Our record in big game and over the last two years speaks for itself. If people want to stop reading articles like this, all we have to do is win one of these games ever.
You hit the nail on the head. Outside of Hokie land, people only know us from the national, big games, which to your point, have been under average showings. You can state we played well against Alabama, but a loss is a loss.
come in under the radar and beat their asses. Frank has GOT to get the team ready to play and by that, i mean to keep from being our own worst enemy. Every time we step into one of these games, we end up shooting ourselves in the asses. 1 solid game Frank, just 1. The springboard we'd get from that would be something to rebuild on
catch them by surprise!!!
Was that something real? What the heck was that from?
Its from an old Fox Sports ad. something along the lines of 'bowling would be better... if it were hockey'
thats right probably around ten years ago
Do any of you remember FoxTrax?
definitely-
oddly it didnt seem all that cheezy at the time...then again neither did the 70s or 80s
It has a point.
tOSU has 0 (zero) Sam Rogers'
I don't care how good or relevant we've been recently, seeing this kind of thing makes my blood boil. We shall beat their asses, and do so again when they come to Lane.
Who the hell is Graham Watson? Some chick with a dude's name that no one has ever heard of. I'm sure her knowledge and insight are worth considering.