I'm actually looking forward to this game for the first time in... ugh, how long has it been?
Looking up cosmological tables, it appears the scientific term is a Brynewsomloeffennium. Hm. Long, painful to say, overly complex at describing a simple process... those scientists know their wordsmithing.
Instead of worrying whether we'll survive another outbreak of Weaver's obsession, I'm actually excited to see the evolution of the Hokies under Fuente against a level of competition we haven't seen yet this year.
ECU is completely different from anyone we've played yet. And despite our player's assertions and their new coach, you can bet that, at least a little but, they are in our heads.
It's going to be educational to see how Fuente has prepared the team.
Comments
I'm still nervous about this game
I think ECU is, at worst, the second best team we will have played to date. And we all know what happened in Bristol. I'm worried the BC game is a red herring. That game was a nightmarish disaster for them. Their offense couldn't move the ball (which isn't surprising) and as a result their defense got gassed. I don't think it'll look as easy for us again this season. I would love to be wrong.
ECU is going to get points. What I'm interested in seeing is how this team responds to adversity. At the first sign of trouble in Bristol this team completely crumbled. When ECU scores (and they will) I want to see our team come out and execute like they did against BC..and not crumble under the pressure. But until I actually see this team bounce back from some adversity against a good team I'm not going to have tons of confidence. I'm cautiously optimistic this team can beat ECU. I just hope we don't have to get the perfect storm to make it happen.
I keep seeing this sentiment around here, but y'all must have watched a different game than I did (though granted even though I was in row 5 my view was not that great). I never saw a drop in effort the entire second half. Sure, our second quarter was about as bad as our first quarter was good, but after halftime the defense held way more often than not, and the offense kept moving down the field only to cough up the ball at just the wrong time. Even then, I never saw this team quit. Up until the muffed punt with 9 minutes left to play they were playing like they could still win the game, even down 31-17, after tons of mistakes. And then the defense allowed a 4-play, 40+ yard TD drive, immediately after having forced a crucial punt, but this was well after "the first sign of trouble".
What I expect to see is that same attitude, like the offense is going to come back and score whenever the defense gives up a TD. The only difference is that hopefully (knock on wood) we don't fumble it away, and actually stick it in. I think this team believes that they can score against anyone, given the right plays and good execution.
don't get me wrong..I never said, nor thought, that this team quit. Crumbling under pressure, to me, is not the same as just plain quitting. The problem is that this team fought too hard. They were pressing, and they lost focus as a result. They didn't need to press. It looked like they crumbled to me because when the first mistake happened (the fumbled exchange b/w Evans and Carrol deep in our territory) the team never again looked quite like the confident team we saw in the first quarter. They looked like they lost a little focus and they lost fumbles because they were pressing and fighting for every inch. They most definitely did not quit. I just think they fell apart from lack of focus and discipline. I think the 45-24 result supports my claim.
Reading comprehension fail. Leg.
I'm psychologically conditioned to dread and loathe this game. Do I have a little bit more optimism than past years? Yes. But I'm still not going to be breathing easy until the clock strikes 0:00 with the good guys ahead.
They're on the schedule. We're playing them. Prepare no other way than to beat them.
I agree. And the optimist inside me gets me excited for every game, regardless.
I am very optimistic about this game. I think our offense is a machine and because we can score points our defense can pin its ears back and attack unlike years before when we had to play defense to secure wins.
^^^This!!
This is the toy we couldn't have that we now do have! All teams we have played the past few years aren't going to grasp this fact well this year. This is the advantage we have every week for the rest of the season (with diminishing returns as the season moved forward). How the team grows along the way will be the difference maker in close games.
True, we've had a inept offense for the past few years and both losses to them still came down to the wire. With an offense that can score and give the defense a breather by being on the field longer than 30 seconds I think it will help tremendously. I think RBs carry the day in this game and secure the victory on the ground.
ECU last won primarily from winning 50/50 jump balls like 90 pct of the time. Torian is the man, but with the technique he preferred depended at least a bit on pressure getting to the QB.
This year we have more eyes on the football, and more pressure on the QB.
If we get beat, I don't think it will be as painful as seeing endless third and long conversions.
I hope.
ECU dinks and dunks down the field, completing short passes in an effort to keep pressure off the QB and get athletes in space one-on-one. It's GT's Death By a Thousand Cuts: Passing Eddition. If the defense can't make tackles in space and force a few key incompletions, this one could be plenty frustrating and painful.
I think one of their receivers had like 22 receptions for them last game...incredible.
I was amazed by that number, and then also amazed that ECU lost...by only scoring 15 points. Definitely corroborates the aforementioned "dink and dunk" method.
I am excited for this game for the following reasons:
1. We are not physically beat up on either side of the ball like last 2 years.
2. Ford
3. Faycson
4. We have a system on O and a coaching staff that is hungry to prove we are not a one hit wonder.
We are going to win by 17.
I think #1 speaks volumes to the new strength and conditioning program. I really can't remember a season with so few injuries in the preseason and first few games.
Exactly.
ECU is a loss until proven otherwise
That said, I hope we go all Kraken on their pirate asses
No.
I'd like to say it's a trap game, but since they won the last two, you can't really call it a trap. VT has shown it has the ability to play well. In the Tennessee game, VT played well, but in the end beat themselves on turnovers.
VT should win this one, but given the history, I'm cautiously optimistic. Until VT develops a solid lead:
Yeah ECU is legit and it'll be interesting to see how we match up.
Their new coach seems to do a good job and they shoulda beaten USCe.
Also their offense is quite a bit better than BC so interested to see how
our D does.
They got a bunch of gift PI calls in that game, to keep drives alive, so I'm not so sure that I agree with they should have won.
ECU will always be a lose-lose for any P5 team that plays them. If they were any good, a P5 conference would snap them up. Instead you either lose (NC State) or don't win convincingly enough (USCe). The only way we win this game is to utterly dominate them, which is exactly what we should be aiming for.
They're better than 3 ACC teams in NC. In the past, they were better than all 4.
They're good. Politics and academics are the problem, not talent.
I think he means that's the perception. They're perceived as being weak because they don't play in a P5 conference even though those that play them know it's not true.
Yes and no. Yes because they are certainly better this year (and recent years) than some P5 counterparts. No because we are getting more and more to a point where you will not be able to keep up without P5 money and no one has seen fit to include eastern Carolina in the party. They are a less successful VT from the late 90s. They will burn out and become as irrelevant as they are perceived if they can't make the jump to a big money conference and they know it (see: begging a conference centered 2000 miles away for an invite).
Better at 1 sport. Not any other sports, of which there are many, or academics, or a myriad of other ways.
I'll be excited in 2078 when we finally stop playing them.
FIFY: 3078
I work at ECU (I'm sorry) and got to see them play in their opener vs Western Carolina. Yes, it was Western Carolina, but ECU looks no different than they have the past 5 years. The preseason prognosis for the Pirates was that their offense would struggle under a new coach and their 3rd-string QB from last year, but they are definitely solid all around. I'm still as nervous as I always am for this one.
One of these schools has it right...
Twitter trolling commences when? Thursday? #beateasterncarolina
I'm good with today, let's get that sucker trending
**Looks at a map....North Carolina, South Carolina....**
Looks like both of them have it wrong.
Despite what the maps say, have no doubt that both Carolinas East of I-95 (outside of the tourist areas) is a COMPLETELY different country than the normal areas.
Until proven otherwise my feelings towards any VT football game are as follows
Yes it is called self preservation. I don't keep an O2 tank and defib unit by the TV anymore.
I actually have a defib unit in the closet just in case still but it's mostly there for legitimate non-football related issues
Something just occurred to me:
ECU is doing better than expected with a first year coach after the coach who built the program left.
ECU has beaten someone they were expected to beat (Western Carolina)
ECU has beaten a team they were expected to struggle against (NC State)
ECU has lost to an SEC team only because of committing too many turnovers (USCe)
This is getting a little creepy.
The difference is their fans will still tell you they're the better team based on the last two years.
They also think they could deliver the entire state to the Big 12....
Yes!
Looking forward to another one of these plays:
http://www.thekeyplay.com/comment/442138#comment-442138
I think that this is a big game a CJF and co. First game after a huge win. I want to see if they can pick up where they left off against BC. Obviously this has been a huge trap game for us in the past, can we avoid that and keep rolling? The Bristol lost hurts, but if UT turns out to be pretty good this year and we can beat the teams that we should beat, something we have struggled to do in recent years, then I will be happy with this year.
Sadly, I'm boldly predicting Tennessee will lose their next 4 games. At least 3 of the next 4.
Don't disagree on that. Not real impressive against Ohio then they
hit the SEC.
That NC State game is really deceptive. I thought NC State really gave that game away. They missed two field goals early, dropped like 3 Ints - one in which the LB would've scored, and tried a fake field goal on 4 and 1 instead of just going for it like a man. Additionally, penalties killed State. NC State got too cute on that game with play calling. Kind the opposite of the SC game where everything broke ECUs way.
Our receivers need to play really well this week - it's an opportunity for them to excel because that secondary for ECU is suspect. Do we pass to open up the run?
I don't think it's possible for me to get excited for ECU. If I was a billionaire I would pay them whatever it takes to cancel the rest of the games with them.
NEEDS MORE LEGS
I'm not going to fall into this FEAR EASTERN CAROLINA thing again.
The systemic problem against ECU has been our offense underperforming, leaving our defense up against it. NO MORE!!!! VT is going to score at least 35, probably in the 40's. We are going to shut down the run and tackle in the flats. Our DL is deep and has shown an ability to consistently pressure QB's (although sacks are way low).
VT 41-20
I love your confidence...it's kinda weird coming from you...but I like it
in any case, I'm gonna go with
36-35 VT (this score is completely based on PPG and not adjusted for opponent strength)
I said last week that if we scored 27 on BC, we would score 35+ on everyone else. Maybe that's a bit high, looking at UNC's offense last year as a comp, they did this:
USC(13), NCA&T (53), Illinois (48), Delaware (41), GT (38), Wake (50), UVA (26), Pitt (26), Duke (66), Miami (59), VT (30), NCSU (45), Clemson (37), Baylor (38).
My projections:
Liberty (36), UT (24), BC (49), ECU (41), UNC (27), Syracuse (48), Miami (30), Pitt (31), Duke (34), GT (40), ND (24), UVA (31)
Who or whom do they honestly have on their ENTIRE team that is better than us??
And when has that ever been the deciding factor in college football?
Uh, how about our game against Stanford, the Natty Champ we played in? Both those teams had MORE talent than we had.
I don't see how that's relevant. We have tons more talent than ECU but that's hardly translated to wins in the past few years.
Great, cool, two examples from the past...16 years? The point is that college football is won by so many factors. Talent might not even be the most important one either. We have lost to so many teams that are less talented than us in teh past.
I'ma go ahead and say it: our biggest win in recent history was a great example of scheme and coaching overcoming talent. anOSU clearly had the talent to walk all over everyone else in the country in 2014 and our coaches, Foster in particular, out-schemed the hell out of Meyer. Our players executed and played with incredible grit, but put anyone else at the helm and we're looking at a loss there.
No. l'm never excited to play against ECU.
I'm doing all in my power not to get hyped up at our team's performance last week. After Ohio State 2014, I can't let that heartbreak happen to me again.
Vegas is... line moved from VT -7 to -12, now at -11
LOLUVA 3.5 dogs at home to Directional Michigan
oh man, I would have been all over this at -7. Who am I kidding, still putting $10 on us winning outright, it's only money, right?
and back to 12 this evening.
I think we had the benefit of going against a guy we worked with for the last 3 years when we played BC this past weekend. I think this weekend week will be a true test of our defense
Honestly, I just want to see Lane full on Saturday.
I will die a happy man when we start filling up the top of the South Endzone and the corners in the East Stands.
It seems like even during sellouts people move down from the corners and highest rows to squeeze in at lower levels. I know they did that when I was a student. (Shoot, I did it too.)
That's because there is room to squeeze in at lower seats. I want it to be truly sold out where there aren't random seats empty here and there. It's been much more full this season, but still got the dreaded corners and SEZ
Oh, I was there for Thursday night Miami and Texas A&M, as well as Sunday night LSU. Legit sellouts, and people still moved down from the corners and the ZZZZ rows. (Unless the stadium security actually checked people's tickets, which they did at that Miami game.) Really, as long as there is bleacher seating, there will be people squeezing in closer.
What you want is the stadium to be over capacity. :)
Which is why I get the bleacher seats.
Can't get squeezed out and my daughters don't get squished.
Or fall into the cracks, as both my kids have done at baseball games.
I'm not nervous anymore
Yes I'm excited to play them...because I get to see us play again!
Being ECU it will probably be a tough game, but I hope we Beat the Piss out of them like 63-3
Why not keep the shutout streak going?
65-0.
Presumably their play calling is such that the only time they get in FG range on 3rd and long, they don't lose enough yardage to end up in position to punt (so, not BC)
But then we just block it and run it back for 6.
(and yes, that's Carol Lee Donuts)
It's ECU! Those one eyed, geographically challenged, scallywags always make my butt clinch a little tighter on gameday.
via GIPHY
The booty must have been to good to pass up for Weaver when signing that contract!
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That second one is a great clip, but I'd like to see more of it.
Weaver was a good man... but for ECU he deserved this.
Unfortunately, VT fans got it, in a certain sense.
I always feel about the same before the ECU game as I do the day before a colonoscopy. You know you have to do it, you don't want to go through it, but your greatly relieved when everything is over and you're ok. The biggest difference is that you don't have to go through another colonoscopy for at least 5 yr, maybe 10. ECU is every year. And the past two years things haven't turned out so well with ECU. So I guess that means ECU is worse than a colonoscopy.
I just read the word "colonoscopy" way more than I ever wanted to in one sitting.
You may have to take a break from sitting for a little while then.
With ECU games and a colonoscopy, all you're hoping for is something other than a negative result.
I am still very scared of ECU.... Past number of games against them, we beat them by a small margin and almost give us a heart attack during the game or it is a let down game and lose to them again when we know we shouldn't of had.
CAN WE PLEASE JUST BEAT THE HELL OUT OF THEM?!?!?!?
Ill be excited during the tailgate. Nervous as the effects of tailgating start to wear off, and either excited or sad again by the end of the game.
Coach comments about the team being very aware about ECU and knowing the history from the past couple of years gives me more confidence that we should take care of business . I think the players will be very focused in on this game. I'm pumped !
via GIPHY
I honestly think this going to be the best team we have played this year so far. I think ECU is a better team then Tenn. We lost to Tenn due to turnovers and penalties, not because they beat us.
As mentioned before, this will be a good test of the players resolve, because unless the secondary plays lights out ECU will score points.
I hope this game will be another step in the recovery of my Hokie mentality. The last few years have conditioned me that any game can turn into an incredibly heartbreaking or embarrassing loss.
The Liberty game was of no benefit to VT. We never got beyond page 2 of the playbook. Tenn. was a wake up call. See what happens when you don't practice well, you don't execute as well. BC is better than they showed on this past Saturday, the wheels just fell off early, but when you practice well, you execute well, lesson learned. VT beats ECU by 3 touchdowns because VT learned from their TEnn. mistakes. ECU says they no longer want to play us because it is no longer fun.
The best way to beat ECU is to keep the offense on the sidelines. We have the talent and the scheme to do just that. How many 1st downs have we had this year? I bet we didn't have this many by week 7 last year or the year before!!!!
This is probably a question for French but in the past when we played EC our DBs got criticized for not looking for the ball. Has the coverage technique/strategy changed?
Yes. Bud has been pretty adamant this year that he wants "more eyes on the ball." He's achieving that through scheme and technique.
Mitchell, new DB coach, uses a different technique than Gray. DBs play the ball/look for it, and try to rake if caught.
Although I have seen a few plays this year with guys face guarding. Old habits might be hard to break in game situations. I think defense has played very well so far. Offense has taken a burden off the defense. It shows.
First post here on TKP, decided a "hell no" would be a good first post. Dreading this worse than Tennessee because of the implications for how the program will continue to be perceived if ECU continues to have our number.
It's not VT's or ECU's fault that they don't get the respect they deserve in college football, but it is what it is. VT's road back to relevance goes through beating G5 teams not named Houston.
As much as I love beamer, I can't help but feel more excited for this game this year with fuente and the new rejuvenated attitude he seems to have brought to the program. The team came out in the 2014 game and seemed to think that they had already won the game because the anOSU win the week before. Then came the "preseason" statement Beamer made last year after the loss and I think this attitude about the game trickled down into the locker room as well the week before in practice. I just don't see that happening with this new staff, you can see the intensity and desire to win in Fuente and I think the players, Espicially the older ones who have experienced the last two losses will want to embarrass Eastern Carolina just like BC.
This ^^^^^
Death by Hokie bird!
No, never. Damn you weaver
My main concern is that we're riding a bit too high after the BC stomping. It's like we forgot how hard it was for US to score points under loeffler last year. I still think we win this but it might be closer than we'd hope.
We all knew to expect ups and downs this year. We just saw the 'up' last week... If we do win big though all aboard the hype train.
It's Virginia Tech mf'ing football. I'm excited for every game.