The ACC media is skeptical of Virginia Tech's chances to return to the league's conference championship game in Justin Fuente's debut season. The media picked the Hokies to finish fourth in the ACC Coastal Division in 2016. Of the 191 voters, three predicted Virginia Tech would conclude its regular season with a trip to Charlotte. North Carolina is the only Coastal team picked to win the conference.
ACC Championship Votes
- Clemson - 144
- Florida State - 39
- North Carolina - 7
- Louisville - 1
Atlantic Division (First place votes in parenthesis)
- Clemson (148) – 1,293
- Florida State (42) – 1,176
- Louisville (1) - 961
- NC State - 704
- Boston College - 441
- Syracuse - 426
- Wake Forest - 347
Coastal Division (First place votes in parenthesis)
- North Carolina (121) – 1,238
- Miami (50) – 1,108
- Pitt (14) - 859
- Virginia Tech (3) - 697
- Duke (2) - 597
- Georgia Tech (1) - 588
- Virginia -261
ACC Player of the Year
- Deshaun Watson, QB, Clemson - 164
- Dalvin Cook, RB, Florida State - 18
- Elijah Hood, RB, North Carolina - 4
- Brad Kaaya, QB, Miami - 2; Lamar Jackson, QB Louisville - 2 (tie)
- DeVon Edwards, CB/KR, Duke - 1
Share your thoughts on a potential fourth place Coastal Division finish for the Hokies.
Tags:
Section:
Comments
Just where we want to be preseason.
Wait the writers think NC STATE has a better chance of winning the Altantic than Tech does to win the Coastal.
that speaks more to the fact that the bottom of the atlantic is so bad... i think theyre saying that nc state has a better chance of finishing 4th, since tech did get 3 first place votes and the coastal is seen as having 4 or so teams playing for second
Doesn't matter where you start in the pre-season rankings, only where you end up in the post-season rankings.
And the two truly aren't linked only when we're talking about conference standings.
Let them rank us as low as they want...new coach, new system... just makes all the "new"s more enjoyable when we rock the coastal!!!
It's better to be an overachiever than an underachiever.
Wasn't that Stinespring's mantra?
I understand that psychology of being the little guy and fighting to prove you belong. It can be very motivational. But IMO we need to move past this.
This is what mediocre teams say in hopes to find some luck. Championship caliber teams simply believe they will win.
VT needs to get to the point where we win the big games, not because we play with a chip on our shoulder, but for the simple fact that we believe we can and should win them.
Wrong. It's better to know you're going to win and then do exactly that, because it's expected of you.
Remember, if winning was easy then losers would do it. Don't strive to overcome being a loser, strive to remain a winner.
I'll be the first to say LOL UVA
Anyone else notice uva is the only team where the dash is right next to the number? Well played, TKP...
#LOLuva
I wonder how many people read this, scrolled back up, scrolled back down, and liked the comment
20hokie20 made ya go back and look! Great catch!!!
Still too high
Setting up well for a good underdog story, which has been a successful edge in the past.
Now, if we play with the same chip on our shoulder that we did on our ACC-debut season...this could be a fun year.
Can't really argue with them until we see results from the new coach. D and Special teams has been pretty horrible the last few years and we are implementing a new system with the old coaches recruits. Hopefully we can make them eat their words but until proven...
The defense has not been horrible by any reasonable metric and certainly not "the last few seasons." I'm really growing tired of this narrative. We have had to play the type of break don't bend defense the last few years because our offenses have been absolutely terrible, plus the secondary has been tormented by injury and forced Bud to move away from more nuanced coverages to help the younger guys. That isn't to say we haven't struggled with running QB's (which is a common ailment to most defenses) and we have had some gap integrity issues, particularly last season and the 2014 games without Chase Williams. Even so, we had a highly rated and probably championship caliber defense just two years ago in 2013. 2014 was a good defense that injuries took a toll on. Even with our "pretty horrible" defense we have performed better against quality offensive teams than even the current golden boy of the ACC in Clemson, why don't you compare our last few games against GT and UNC with how Clemson has fared against them. See what happened to the other teams who played tOSU in 2014. I understand that we are used to totally stellar defenses, but it seems like you people live in this bubble of totally unreasonable expectations. We need to get better on defense, we have some troubling issues with gap integrity, depth needs to be addressed at some important positions, and we will likely need to adapt our defense moving forward (which is happening, by the way) as does any team to keep up with ever changing paradigms of offense. We have been spoiled for many, many years by great defenses who managed to hold strong under unreasonable expectations, and far too much being asked of them. You know what's been the achilles heel of Alabama's (often #1 ranked) defense? mobile QB's. Do you know what the achilles heel of Clemson was last season? Big plays, often playing poorly in space in their zones or poor reads against the option (excluding GT, when it was expected) see how a 5th string walk on QB for Syracuse ran a successful offense on the ground with some relatively basic option concepts.
Amen. There's been a really weird shift lately. When Fuente kept Bud on, everyone thought it was the biggest slam dunk of a coaching staff. But the last few months, especially since the Garbutt decommit, there has been a lot of ripping on Bud and saying we might have been better moving on and acting like hes struggling at DC.
This offseason can't end soon enough. All of this free time is making people say stupid things. So many people were acting like the recruiting world was ending a for the last few weeks and then we have a big recruiting weekend and pick up 5 (supposedly) commitments and everything is right with the world. Sometimes I think mood stabilizers should be handed out with Internet connections.
Well he's the best DC in the country but maybe we ought to consider firing him and looking outside the United States for a replacement
/s??
yes.
My biggest argument against that Bud is the Best is made pretty easy after last year. FIVE VIRGINIA TECH PLAYERS MADE THE 2015 WATCH LIST FOR THE BRONKO NAGURSKI TROPHY. Ohio State had 5 players also on the watchlist.
OSU finished a Top 10 defense, #6 in yards per Play allowed. VT was a Top 50 defense, and #61 in yards per Play allowed.
Bud is a great DC, but the game further evolved and there was never a game adaption for what was being played against him. Maryland in 2013 is a Loss? yea that was a tipping point
You do realize we ranked 8th in Special Teams Efficiency according to Football Outsiders last season right? I think you might want to reevaluate your metric for being good.
Not surprised. Not even upset. Also, doesn't matter. Preseason polls are kind of like political promises....I'll just leave it at that.
That's actually better than a lot of other preductuons, so I'll take it.
I like that the head man himself is using it for a little #MondayMotivation
This is the tweet he is referencing:
Being that Georgia Tech was predicted to win the Coastal last year.....I'm just glad we're not UNC
True that!!!
Anyone that looked in to the teams more than the previous season's record knew that GT would be worse. They lost all of their skill players except Thomas.
Good. I wouldn't have it any other way.
September 3rd can't possibly get here soon enough. I need more football games and less opinions from the likes of Paul Finebaum and Danny Kanell.
I've always liked their opinions...when we're winning!
So, apparently, Miami is bak.
Talk about a program that is rebuilding... We joke on Tennessee but Miami, yup...
Did someone say Miami's back?
that's not nice of you to post heather dinich's photo without her permission /S
Just a harmless giraffe picture. If it happens to bear any resemblance to a certain ESPN employee, that is purely coincidental. /S
If they say it enough, it almost starts sounding convincing. Don't get sucked in.
I'm telling ya, I have this weird feeling Georgia Tech is in for a bounce back year.
Yeah, maybe, but we're still gonna kick their asses.
Certainly from their 1-7 ACC record. I'd guess at least 3-5. Possible 6-6 overall. Good enough for 5th in the coastal at best
Let's just take a minute to soak this in:
BC - 441
LOLUVa - 261
BC, who set a record for going win-less in conference in both bball and football last season, is expected to do better in their division than LOLUVa. I know a lot of that is chocked up to competition in their division (meaning WF and SU just suck that bad), but still. Makes me chuckle.
I know it's just a pre-season poll, but I hope that UVA fulfill that prediction and finish at the bottom.
Every year for eternity
All I know, is that we had BETTER curb-stomp UNCheat and Pitt. UNC because f*k them AND we p*wn them, and Pitt because if we lose, they lead the series. I won't have that.
Why did you censor p*wn? I'm not actually even sure what it is supposed to say!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn
I feel like Wikipedia missed the key part of the origins of that term. It all started with those script kiddies typing to fast and misspelling 'owned'
I think it's pretty catchy, specifically when it pertains to our ownage LOLUVA & the false Tech.
Oh lol, yeah I know what that means. I just thought the * was a censored letter. In which I was lost.
hey we all know how accurate these mfers are.
I believe we are the only team in the coastal to not play any of the top three projected Atlantic teams.
We've had a pretty unbelievably easy cross-division schedule as of late (thanks, BC). We haven't had to play a top-3 projected Atlantic team since 2012, but we didn't take advantage of that until last year.
2013: UMD (5) - lost, @BC (7) - lost
2014: BC (6) - lost, @WF (7) - lost
2015: NC State (4) - won, @BC (5) - won
2016: BC (5) , @Syracuse (6)
EDIT: corrected BC's 2015 pre-season predicted finish
I don't remember us playing the Twerps in 2013 or Wake Forest in 2014. Never happened. Nope.
I wish I could wipe that Wake Forest game from my memory. Hopefully I'll be mentally recovered enough by 2026 to make a return trip for our next game.
I hate being reminded about how thoroughly we blew an 11 win season because we couldn't beat the Twerps without their QB or top two receivers. BC (four turnovers, one of which will probably haunt LT3 forever) and Duke (4 turnovers, two missed fg's, 180 yards of offense by Duke, and my favorite stat, they never converted a third down)
In summary:
:(
I make it to about one home game each year. And, I chose that Duke game debacle. Ugh.
I'm from out of town and usually only make one home game as well. I feel your pain.
First ever VT game... 2005 Miami
2014 game? Miami
Summary:
:(
Good spot! Could help us out during the season.
Pitt's defense scares the beejesus out of me. Offensively, I don't know where they get explosive plays, Their margin for error is going to be tiny.
North Carolina is the most talented team. Quarterback is a question, but Trubisky is good enough that Fedora was mixing him in with Williams. The defense gets back most everyone except Schoettmer. If their offensive line is adequate, they will be a handful. Pitt played them really tough, but they couldn't muster enough on offense to hang with UNC. And, now the Panthers don't have Boyd.
I don't buy Miami. The Hokies played like turd blossoms against them and that was still a game.
I do think by seasons end, Trubisky will prove to be better than Williams (he is sneaky quick on his feet to boot). Also, it is my opinion that they have the best and most oddly used RB duo in the ACC. Combine those two things with the fact that the D will be another year into the "Gene Chizik era", which I think will be good for the Heels. Things are set up very nicely for them this year (assuming Fedora doesn't screw it up during the game).
He said "turd blossom"!
Is that a 1st or 2nd evolution?
Out of pure curiosity if we were to make the ACC championship who would scare you the most? FSU might have a slightly deeper roster but Clemson has the best player in the country. Wild card if Louisville makes it, might have the most athletic qb in the country with one of the best offensive minds in the country coaching him. Defense should be good too
...and Pitt Happens.
Well VT is 1-5 against those three teams picked ahead of us over the past two years. I'm fully optimistic they can beat all three but objectively speaking it's hard to criticize the media for voting any differently.
Miami and Pitt were match up nightmares against the small front. Hopefully the bigger front helps there.
Unless there are radical changes in scheme, UNC presents all kinds of problems. It was a frigging miracle VT had a chance to win that game, especially after Deon Clarke giftwrapped 14 points by lining up wrong.
We got beat on an incomplete pass in OT last year vs UNC. I know they have some talent, but we should have beaten them.
Pitt will beat us if we try to run up the gut or wait forever in the passing game.
If the front 4 on D can hold up in the run game and get pressure on passes, we could win. Navy stomped them in the bowl. Misdirection killed them.
This is 100% based on last year. Who can really say? It's a new year, a new team, a new coach, offense, QB, etc. Could be 5th. Could win.
Meh. Voted for the homers. Can't say I've ever been overly impressed by the ACC writers.
The bigger question is whether or not the poor preseason perception is going to have a negative affect on the playoff committee's opinion on our way to the national title
I like the way you're thinking there....I think this can be summed up best by Al Davis whose words will be repeated by Whit within the year.
I think we're gonna surprise some people. Call me a homer, but we might just finish 3rd.
I think people want to believe in VT, but we have had bad showings against Miami, Pitt, and UNC the last couple years.
And GT is still going to be a bear, even with Foster knowing the system.
VT is always a better hunter than hunted, so I'm for it.
Clever girl
Doesn't seem like a bad thing. Better to be rated lower and do well
than rated high and not meet expectations.