Over on SB Nation, the CFB staff has pulled together a plethora of articles diving into the 2007 football season, deeming it the best season ever. Bill Connelly specifically has an interesting feature on how he thinks the season would have fallen if the 4 team playoff was already in existence instead of the BCS. Since 2007 might be one of the biggest "What If" seasons in Virginia Tech history, I thought some might find this an interesting read as we work to survive the last few moments before summer practices begin.
Virginia Tech has wins over ranked BC, Clemson, and Virginia teams and an ACC title bump. The Hokies also lost to No. 2 LSU really, really badly.
The full article can be found here:
https://www.sbnation.com/a/2007-college-football-season/bcs-playoff
[ mod edit: Updated title and moved to proper forum. This is definitely the opposite of "off topic" :) ]
Comments
Tyrod vs Tebow
I'd take that matchup
Unfortunately it would have been Glennon vs Tebow. Tyrod only had 3 pass attempts and 5 rushing attempts in the game. In all he accounted for 9 net yards. As is typical, he came a looooooong way from Freshman to Senior.
I've always been of the opinion that no game is lost due to one player, but 2 interceptions by one guy (Glennon) sure didn't help in that case...
Edit: The pick-6 was Tyrod's
True, but you can lose the game if you abandon the f&%$ing running game at halftime against a defense that was allowing a ridiculous 7-10 yards per run to close out the first half.
I will never not be bitter over how that game played out.
Exactly! And I'm not saying the game would have been pretty, but Kansas scored 17 points off of those interceptions. I can't remember where their field position was after the two that weren't pick-6s so maybe they still drove the field a few times, but it's not like Kansas was lighting it up on offense.
That game just exemplifies that entire era of Hokie football. Complete offensive ineptitude that keeps trying to one up themselves in how badly they can screw a championship level defense and still pull out wins. It makes me want to throw up to think about where we would be if our defense wasn't as good as it was through that period.... or we had missed on a few offensive superstar recruits that basically just made stuff up to score at least some points.
Last year we had a total offense of 18th and a total defense of 36th
Now think about how good we would have been last year if we gave up about 75 fewer yards per game on defense. That's how good we would have been in the 2007-2011 timeframe.
that game was the game i gave up on steiny
Didn't Tyrod get hurt pretty early on in the Orange Bowl? I am pretty sure that is why Glennon stayed in as long as he did.
Maybe so. That would help explain that side of it for sure! I've mostly tried to forget that game and just looked at the stats knowing he was a freshman that year.
Edit: I checked. He got hurt, but it was with about 10 minutes to go in the 4th. He threw a pick-6 early and didn't come back until Glennon threw a pick-5.9 (returned to our 2) and promptly got hurt.
We dont win that ACC championship without Tyrod. It sucked to burn his shirt, but IMO it was worth it for the title.
That's assuming that we don't have a NCG run in his RS Senior season, of course. I know the whole "do we beat Clemson twice?" argument is done to death, but you have to factor that year in when talking about if 2007 was worth the burned shirt.
I've been working on my own blog post, taking a week by week look at that season. I've actually been working on it on and off for two years, so I might as well try to finish it this year.
The real interesting part is what would have happened had LSU lost the SEC championship game, but everything else remained the same.
Going into the final week, the polls had #1 Missouri (11-1), #2 West Virginia (10-1), #3 Ohio State (11-1), #4 Georgia (10-2), #5 LSU (10-2), #6 Virginia Tech (10-2), #7 Kansas (11-1), #8 USC (9-2), and #9 Oklahoma (10-2).
Ohio State, Kansas, and Oklahoma were all idle. Missouri and WVU lost. Ohio State was a definite lock for #1. Who would have been #2-4?
Heart says Virginia Tech, USC, and Oklahoma. Head says USC, Oklahoma, and Georgia, because We Can't Have Nice Things.
Something else that would have made this scenario bizarre was that this season was like the second year that the computer polls were used.
The computers saw that we had two losses, both to the #2 team at the time, and I believe at the end of the regular season we were still #1 in the computer calculation.
This may have worked in our favor, but I speculate we would have seen a pretty big compensatory human voter reaction to keep us out of the NC game.
We would have had a solid case to be included with the top 4, though.
I remember being devastated that we finished the year in third, especially in light of the BC game (fuck matt ryan) and initially being really depressed about what could have been. In retrospect I don't think we deserved to be ranked third, and I don't think that, even had we won the fmr game, that we would have played for the natty. If you introduce the human element of a selection committee and they see the ass whooping we got in baton rouge, there's NO WAY we make it even into a 4 team playoff.
There weren't 4 better teams in 2007.
Oklahoma would have been in had they not fallen apart with injuries. After that, West Virginia was only a shoo in because they were the only good team left with one loss (before Pitt happened).
Then they gifted the beat down to Ohio State, the "other" top team with one loss and their biggest win over post-App State Michigan (who actually wasn't terrible that season).
The Kansas team we were matched with only had one loss. They had a Boise-ish SOS that year and weren't taken seriously because they lost to the only ranked team they played that year (Mizzou).
That wasn't VT's best season, and we sure had no offense. But if you want to override the BC loss, good luck finding 4 better teams.
If LSU lost the SEC title game . . .
-they would have been 10-3, and most likely out of playoff contention. It probably wouldn't matter how close the game was, because there were too many 2 loss teams. (Remember, both of LSU's real losses were in 3OT.)
Tennessee also would have been a three loss team, and out of contention.
Ohio State (11-1) jumped from #3 to 1. The only other 1 loss team was Kansas.
Two loss teams were VT (ACC champ), Oklahoma (Big 12 champ), Georgia (SEC division runner-up), Missouri (Big 12 runner up), USC (Pac-10 co-champ), WVU (Big East co-champ), and Arizona State (Pac-10 co-champ).
I think WVU, ASU, and Mizzou are out. ASU lost to USC, while WVU's second loss came from a 5-7 Pitt team. Missouri lost to Oklahoma twice, so there's no way that they get set up for a potential third matchup.
That leaves VT, Oklahoma, Georgia, USC, and maybe Kansas on the outside chance.
-Kansas lost to the team that lost the Big 12 championship. They also had a crap schedule, so they're probably out.
-VT had the worst loss of the group, but also eventually beat everyone in their conference, even if it took a second chance.
-Oklahoma's two losses weren't that bad.
-Georgia's had two conference losses, and didn't even win their division. Both losses were kind of bad (12-16 vs. USCe and 14-35 to Tennessee).
I'd probably go with Ohio State, Oklahoma, VT, and USC. (Based on the BCS rankings, it would have been OSU, OU, VT, and Georgia.)
Bingo. Those who are saying we absolutely would have made it don't remember the attitude college football had towards us that year. The way we got our shit kicked in against LSU was going to hold us out of any playoff that year. The only system that didn't actively punish us for that loss throughout the season was the computers, who had us #1. The human voters hated us and voted in kind, pushing us clear and away out of any title game allowance. With a playoff committee, we'd have no shot. Hell the linked article above has us 7th after the ACC title game, which is pretty fair concerning how the human element punished us that year.
It's easy to forget just how awful that loss was. I have a hard time remembering a more embarrassing loss that we've taken. I know JMU, but after the way the Boise game ended, it was pretty easy to see that one coming. But the LSU loss was at night, on national television, 2 legitimate top 10 teams, and we just got pantsed. Never got off the bus, couldn't move the ball, couldn't keep them from moving the ball. Huge hype, only one team showed up.
Pops is class of '72, and his 'prayer' before games like that is 'just don't embarrass us on national television'. I never understood what he meant until that night, when we got embarrassed on national television.
And it wasn't just that one game that set the tone. That was the first time we were prominently boosted by ESPN as being a legitimate challenger on the national scene since that 2005 game against Miami in Lane. We got shithoused in both, looking like a team that did not belong on the field with their opponent. To many, and especially to the talking heads on ESPN, that cemented our status as a program who is never as good as their record. And the fact it took until 2014 for us to finally beat a legitimate power team despite nearly annual opportunities, just never helped our cause at all. But as a program, we never really cared about the perception or the eye test because we thought if we just kept winning 10 games per year everything would be fine. The problem is, after those 2 games, people were quick to discount our record because of our ability to wilt when it counts.
BCS Computers loved us and I've always liked to think if Erik Ainge doesn't throw that pick 6 we would have played for the national title. We snuffed out BC and were the next logical conference champion based on the polls going in. If LSU had lost to Tennessee that was our year, that Ohio State team just was not that good.
I have been rewatching the 2007 season on youtube and watched the VT & FSU game last night. It is interesting to watch older games thinking about the changes in rules. That game featured two hits that would have been called targeting. Tech is driving in the second quarter and Glennon gets pounded in his ear hole by the top of the helmet of a FSU lineman. He is loopy and sent off. Tyrod comes in and does his thing and they score a TD. FSU gets the ball and on like the second play of the drive the FSU quaterback, Weatherford gets decked by a high shoulder hit to the head from Brandon Flowers. He is very much out of it and sent out of the game. Talk about old school payback.
I remember that hit like it was yesterday. Rang throughout the stadium. Only one I've heard that was louder was when Darren Evans sent that Maryland player 4yds into the earth.
My god do I ever love the Darren Evans truckstick
God that Kansas game haunts me. My dad is a Kansas native and I've never heard the end of it since.
Tell me about it...
My sister in law went to JMU. Doesn't care about football at all but gives me a hard time anyway
At least that was the last time a JMU fan had any right to give a VT fan a hard time, am I right?
I lol'd
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This is such an unfamiliar thing to consider.
From another page in the feature.