Tech has CFB's 4th-toughest non-con schedule in 2016. LIST via @ESPN_SEC https://t.co/BedfSJZXch pic.twitter.com/6kPVSON8xy— VT Football (@VT_Football) February 9, 2016
Here's the link to the story:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14739220/usc-trojans-okla...
With UT and ND both played away from home, we have a tough road schedule. Also, ECU....ugh.
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All the more reason for us to get into the playoffs when we are 12-1 or 11-2
Oh great! I see 7-5 on the way...hope better but not optimistic. Well, that's not true, optimistically I see 14-0. Go Fuente! Uhhh, I mean Go Hokies!!! LOL
I think 8-4 is reasonable, we catch UNC at a good time and Duke just lost their starting QB
Just curious, where are you counting our 5 losses from?
UNC, UT, Miami, ND, and Pitt?
Huh, funny. I really see UNC, Miami, and Pitt as extremely winnable and UT/ND as close games. What I am trying to say is...
I love the optimism but don't get your hopes up too much. Fuente is not likely to fix the offense over night and we have some pretty serious question marks throughout our defense. The front 7 has a lot of new bodies and we don't even know who is going to be coaching the DBs. I would be shocked if our defense didn't take a step back this season. I'm not expecting our offense to come out of the gate quickly either. We have talent but there are bound to be some growing pains whenever you have coaching turnover. I think 6-8 wins is realistic. I would love to be wrong and go 15-0 though. I just don't see it. UNC, Miami, UT and ND are definitely going to be tough games. I'll be happy if we got 2-2 against those 4.
Of course he won't fix the O overnight, but he's got all the way til September...should be plenty of time. /s
That is characteristic of Bud's defense though. You learn for two or three years then step up as a contributor. We have seen this for decades. Will there be growing pains? Yes. We likely take an early lump against UT, I'll yield that. But you can't call later in the season and a lot of it rides on depth and the injury bug. The team that stays healthy makes deeper runs. That's why I am all jacked up on our new S&C coach. Better strength and conditioning leads to more stable joints and fewer "stretch" plays where injury occurs.
I actually expect a modest step forward on defense with more depth and experience in our secondary, AM continuing to improve and not a big drop off on the defensive line.
I'm a bit more optimistic on the offensive side of the ball. We have a ton of talent returning, and IMO, we are finding one QB away from having a really good offense next season. Of course we will have to see how the spring QB battle plays out, but I think the competition will be intense. Evans looks legit, Lawson has loads of potential, and Motley a ton of experience. I think the offense might be the strength of this team. Loeffler isn't leaving the cupboard bare, and I think the guys are fundamentally sound enough to transition from the old to the new scheme. Better conditioning and a more refined offensive identity will probably help us play smarter and faster.
D still concerns me. I need to see the LB spots improve this spring significantly. A lot of young talent returning in the secondary, but also question marks along the DL. I'm really excited about seeing Settle at DT. We need to establish some depth at DE as well with Nicolas leaving and Dooley injured from the spring. Time for the freshmen to step up.
I think we end up winning one of the two big OOC games against UT and ND. I think we win one we shouldn't, and we lose one we shouldn't. I also think we may lose 1-2 out of Pitt, Miami, and UNC. I think some payback is due against Miami and Pitt after their recent victories, so I'm hoping we can win at least one of those and knock off UNC. 8-4 seems reasonable, but 9-3 possible if the cards fall right. Would love to see us challenge for and win the division this season.
Of course, this will be reevaluated after the spring. But I definitely think the potential is there if we can answer a few questions this offseason. We have some talent to work with.
We've been reasonably expecting 8 or 9 win seasons for 3 years now. Yes we have talent on offense, but they are playing in a different system.
The OL, which is the life-blood of any offense, is playing under their 3rd coach in 4 years (this can't be overlooked...OL is the keystone piece and if it's not working nothing else works).
We have a pretty big question mark at QB where the fan-favorite contenders have basically no experience at the P5 level.
We have 1 stud at WR and 1 capable and experienced WR. Everyone else has basically no experience against P5 teams.
Running back is, barring injury, the strength of our offense. My concern is that if the OL gets reshuffled again the running game will struggle to produce until the OL starts to gel. There's really no telling if/when that will happen.
The DL has one returning starter at DE and one at DT. There are going to be depth issues. Wiles likes to have 8 bodies full prepared and playing at about the same level. I don't know if we'll have that. I think having even 6 bodies on the DL ready for D1 football is optimistic.
The Linebacker corps is still young and inexperienced. I would love to see Moto take the next step. We sorely need him to. If he doesn't improve we're going to be in for a long and miserable ride at the backer position.
DBs, talent wise, may be the strength of our defense. What I don't know is how they'll adjust to having a new position coach. I'm not sure what the new coach will bring to the table in terms of technique and coaching style or what his preferred rotations will be throughout a game. Being as he's going to be a new face you have to expect there to be some hiccups along the way.
Bud's MO is to coach up the defense and make it better by the end of the season than it was at the beginning of the season. He has done that consistently as long as I can remember. But I think he's going to be starting at a lower benchmark than we're used to around here. There are a lot of concerns on the defense IMO and I wouldn't be surprised to see the defense struggle a lot early in the year.
I'm not exactly sure what to expect from the offense but I do know that it will take time to get moving. Even though we have a lot of returning talent the OL is starting all over again with a new OL coach (which seems to have become the norm around here for the last half decade). Offenses live and die by the productivity up front. It won't matter how good our skill players are if they OL doesn't give them time to operate.
With the desire to run 85-90 offensive plays per game the coaches have stressed that they need to get the young WRs up to speed and game ready. That is going to be a monumental challenge. I expect them to develop over the course of the season but they're not likely to be significant contributors in the early going.
We have talent and experience at RB. They'll be running within a different system and may have different assignments or rules to learn. It could take time for them to adjust. As I pointed out earlier, though, it won't matter how good they are if they OL doesn't open up running lanes for them.
It's rare for a QB to come in and be able to start right away with no experience in the system. The most successful cases of brand new starting QBs that I can think of had an important component that the VT offense is lacking. They were surrounded by talented and experienced players in their system. Right now, this offense is new to everybody so I don't expect them to be able to help the QB in the same way that other QBs have benefited from in the past.
Coach Fuente has preached patience to the fan base. I don't think he's sand-bagging. I think he knows much more about the challenges and the timetable to overcome those challenges than any of us fans will ever know. If he's saying that his offense isn't going to come out and light up defenses right away I'm inclined to believe him. I hesitate to bring up Memphis because of the stark contrast in talent but at the same time you have to realize that they were going up against similarly talented teams. They struggled for the first two years under Fuente. He did ultimately build a great offense there but it took 2 full seasons of rough performances before the offense started looking dangerous in his third year.
I think you're underselling the defensive line, while there is obvious concern behind Mihota and Eckanhem, at DT we should be fine 2 deep
maybe I am. Can you name the 2 deep? I can't
Williams, Baron, Settle, Walker(or Steve)
Nigel Williams is no slouch either
EDIT: Well, that might have been the Williams you were referring to...
The one thing I will say about the offensive expectations is that the foundation of talent he has to work with here at VT is light years ahead of what he started with at Memphis. He basically had to build a team from scratch and start out with the fundamentals on offense. Schematically, I don't think what Fuente wants to do is terribly different from some of the spread concepts Loeffler installed here. And Fuente has said all along he tries to mold his system around what his players can execute best. Maybe I am being overly optimistic, but I don't think there is going to be a massive rebuilding project on offense. Bucky will likely be used heavily as a WR, and I imagine the coaches will give Newsome plenty of looks as well along with the freshmen. New OL coach, but this is a veteran group. Coach Vice has some work to do, but again, I don't think we're completely starting over.
We saw improvement offensively last year, but the group lacked the ability to consistently execute the plays even late into the season. I think Fuente's spread will bring a much more refined philosophy and allow the players to play fast without their minds tying up their feet under Loeffler. Again, I need to see how things develop over the spring and offseason, but that side of the ball has tremendous potential.
yeah I don't think that the VT offense is in dire straits like the Memphis offense was. I don't think it will take Fuente two full seasons to build a capable offense in Blacksburg. I also don't think we're going to come out of the gate firing on all cylinders. I think it will take most of the first season to get going. I expect our offense to be pretty good (top 50) going into 2017 and then hopefully closer to the top 10 or 20 by 2018. I don't think we're going to see a top 60 offense in September or October of 2016. Maybe towards the end of November we'll start to see an offense that we can rely on to score at least 4 or 5 times in a game. Maybe.
Defensively I still think we're going to struggle early in the year. That's just natural when you have to replace some stalwarts up front. Our Linebackers have struggled for a couple seasons and we're still relatively thin and extremely inexperienced in that group. That doesn't seem like a recipe for success to me.
I expect both our offense and defense to improve over the course of the season but I just don't think we are going to go into the season with a team capable of winning 9 or 10 games. I think 6 games is our absolute floor and I'm tentatively hoping to win 8. I think we lose to UT and ND. I think we lose two of Miami, UNC, Pitt. I hope we don't drop any stupid games otherwise. GT is always a tough out for us. We lucked out with our schedule, mostly. Aside from UT and annual headaches with ECU and BC most of our tough games come later in the year. That at least gives the coaching staff some time to coach up the players and iron out some kinks. I'm not expecting to roll into November with a well-oiled machine by any means but I do think we can 3 of 4 in the last month of the regular season.
New coaching staff and culture combined with our schedule and anywhere from 8-4 to 4-8 would not surprise me. Fuente gets this season and next to turn things around and get us contending for the ACC again in '18.
`17's schedule is a cake walk assuming the coastal doesn't produce any world beaters.
For me, `16 is a big question mark/trial period, and `17 will be a really good confidence boost which we will need going into the 2018 schedule, which luckily is when the Fuente Death Train will hit full dipped.
14-0 is only possible if you think we'd somehow get left out of the playoff after an undefeated season.
#goACC
It's also possible when you schedule UVA. We've been over this!
Are we playing them 14 times?
Two more years and we will be 14-0
No, quite the contrary. We can't really count them as a win. The spring game is technically more impressive of a victory.
After we go undefeated NC, they'll say the teams we beat were overrated.
... while, on the same program, hyping up Alabama by saying they beat a really tough Tennessee team.
Impossible, Alabamas not beating Tennessee this year.
That's great...
Now take this shit to the UT boards.
Just for future reference we will usually stick a /s at the end of a post to denote sarcasm. It keeps people from thinking that you are making a ridiculously outlandish and just plain silly statement.
/s (kind of)
Oh no, this ones happening. Should have gotten them last year but couldnt stop a late 4th quarter drive. The series is always streaky. 7 -10 wins for Tennesee, followed by 7-10 for bama and then it swings back. It's our turn now.
So, I'm in the minority but I hope like hell you are right. I hope we kick the ever loving shit out of you then you turn around and whoop it on Bama.
My ideal record is 15-0 for the good guys and 12 (or more)-1 for everyone we play
except UVA....
I guess, but think about it. Wouldn't you like to be able to say, "Y'all had your best season in school history and still couldn't beat Tech"
Kind of like the last few years when I've been able to say, "Worst season in 20 years and we still beat y'all"
I actually would love to dismantle UVA's playoff hopes on Thanksgiving weekend. I would love that more than anything.
as enjoyable as that is, it's almost more enjoyable to be able to laugh at their ineptitude all season long. The years UVA goes 2-10 are the tits
I got into VT not more than a month after UVA beat us the last time and got so much crap. Ever since then:
On another note Baylor takes home the cupcake wars trophy with the weakest nonconference schedule.
I haven't looked at Baylor's non conference schedule, but let me take a guess at it....
SMU, Lamar, North Texas
I saw where they just finalized a home & home with the South Harmon Institute of Technology.
Followed by a neutral site game with ECPI
Does the University of Phoenix have a D-1 team?
Yes, but everyone plays online.
Yet they have a stadium...
Nothing feels as good as looking at your schedule and seeing you get to drop a good S.H.I.T.
But that way people can be amazed when Baylor puts up 70 against East West Tennessee State Technical College of California.
are they still starting Cartoons Plural under center?
In their defense, they do that to Big12 schools on the reg too.
Wow. Never thought I'd mention Baylor, Big12 and defense in the same sentence. Go me.
Baylor is 10 time repeating and future repeating champions of the cupcake award.
Who knew they had great cupcakes in Texas....
Until 2023, the hardest OOC opponent they have is Duke.
Don't know how great they are, but I guarantee Texans will claim they're the biggest...
We play Tennessee... of course we have a super duper tough insanely impossible OOC schedule, because everyone knows the SEC is a brutal conference where everyone is the best and they beat each other up every year which is why even a 2 loss team deserves to be in the playoffs, because the conference is so good, PAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWL
Is this a good time to link this?
Talk to your kids about the SEC myth
I'm not sure this was as good as the original undefeated Iowa, but the line about no one understanding except Vanderbilt is absolutely hilarious.
The guy who makes these is amazing with his content and was featured on ESPN for a while. Apparently, he got in trouble for his Halloween skit where a kid was dressed as him and said F*** Nebraska. The brass at ESPN got pissed and he got real quiet real quick.
But yet when a team beats a SEC team, they are overachieving on a day when the SEC team was looking ahead.
We have a tough schedule for a middle of the road team, but 4th in the country? UT has a problems coming out of the gate - love catching them early even if we have new schemes. Feel like we have a chance. Tired of this ECU crap - we start winning this again because we should. Same for Duke. Miami has a new coach too, and Pitt will be iffy, but they have been beating us because we stopped being the tougher team on the field. Hopefully new coaching mindset will change that and give us a chance. We have a lot of 50/50 games in my mind, with ND being the only one I would call an real upset when we win.
It is non-conference only for the ranking. UT will be a top 20 if not top 15 team when we play them. ND will be ranked because they are ND. Not many teams play 2 tough, non-conference games away from home in the same season.
This 100%
So what I took away from this is the formula: ND + three other teams = top ten schedule. got it.
I guess ND can't have a top-10 non-con schedule since they don't have a conference.
and they dont play themselves
Spring Game. Counts double on their resume
They do have a rough slate though. USC, VT, Duke, Stanford, MSU just from the list of 10 teams they provided in the article.
Would love a trip up to South Bend and watch an awesome away victory