Virginia Tech-Florida State

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, it's Championship Saturday and this is your open thread for tonight's festivities.

For those of you who need wakeup music.

The BCO is on the ground in Charlotte and emailed in his thoughts for the game:

X's and O's matter, as does talent and execution, but to me this game is about the moment. This game is heavy, not unlike the Boise game where the team shrunk from the spotlight, made mental mistakes and played too hyped. You want the team to be confident and excited but not so jacked where they lose sense of responsibilities and don't play within themselves and the structure of the gameplan. I feel confident knowing they respond well when punched in the mouth, but this game is a different bird. This is the most important game in terms of leadership for Tyrod and Graves.

The moment also includes the coaches, mostly on the offensive side. There is a formula out there that good teams do to dictate what the Hokies do on offense. You can almost sense FSU is going to roll their corners up, take away the run as well as short and intermediate passing routes and dare VT to beat them deep. This is the opponent's formula for plenty of big game losses, where Hokie wideouts couldn’t shake free or Tyrod couldn’t hit them deep in low percentage pass plays. We need to be creative and find other options.

Dear God, please don’t let the Jack Childress crew officiate the ACCCG.

Thank you,

Love the BCO

Here are my observations:

• Florida State is only surrendering 123.67 yards per game on the ground, while VT is gaining an average of 211.42. The 'Noles also lead the nation with 43 sacks (2nd average per game). We must win the battle in the trenches.
• According to Bud Elliott of Tomahawk Nation Christian Ponder is very adept at handling blitzes and the way to neutralize him is to rush 4, drop 7 and harass the wideouts. Left tackle Andrew Datko has only given up one sack all season, so watch the matchup on the outside between him and Friday. Florida State is still without running back Jermaine Thomas (85 carries 484 yards 6 touchdowns).
• This is going to be a close game, we need to play smart and finish.

Leave your pre, in and post game thoughts here.

Let's Go!