The Four-Letter released its 2017 preseason power rankings on Thursday and Virginia Tech is among the top 25 schools ranked.
22. Virginia Tech Hokies: A return to Beamer Ball is possible in Justin Fuente's second season, as the Hokies will lean on defense and special teams while the offense goes through a personnel overhaul. An excellent linebackers group and secondary should keep Virginia Tech in every game, but Fuente will have to work wonders on offense with few assurances other than receiver Cam Phillips. A tough schedule features West Virginia, an ACC crossover with Clemson and Miami on the road.
The ACC landed teams five teams in all.
2. Florida State Seminoles
5. Clemson Tigers
16. Miami Hurricanes
18. Louisville Cardinals
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
They bak.
Nope...
Goddammit. I wander off to do my job for a little while and miss the opportunity to post my favorite gif.
leg for you sir.
One of these days, people will not fall victim to the preseason Miami hype
(yes, I know its a repeat gif... but I feel like this needs to be reiterated every time I see this happen)
I may be in the minority, but a strong Miami helps us.
Sure, but I'd much rather them earn that respect on the field rather than perennially inflated in the preseason only to shit themselves during the year. They're a program that hasn't done a damn thing of relevance on the field in 15 years. They haven't won a single division title, and in most years they're not even finishing runner-up. Their annual collapse leads to this mindset that the Coastal is a weak-ass division that doesn't deserve any respect. I'd much rather see them start out unranked, then roll off a series of good wins coming into the game against VT rather than annually puffing their chests with good preseason hype only to come into our game a 3 loss team that is sleepwalking through the rest of the year. That doesn't help us, and if they're going to be a crap team during the year, I'd rather the pundits focus on the teams that are actually good.
I agree. For Miami to help us, they need to actually be good. 'Miami looks great' helps us a lot in November after we beat them, but does nothing for us in Jul...er it's August already? before they shit the bed and come into our game with the same respekt as dook and wake.
You want 2009 Miami, and I agree that was good for us. Also, it gave us Jacory Harris Heisman Watch and who didn't love that?
At this point I'm way more over Hokies fans griping at Miami projections then the media over hyping them (seriously, we're everywhere). Miami went 9-4 last year with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores while keeping up top 15 recruiting, that's a perfectly reasonable ranking.
WVU is a conspicuous #25. Gotta have that top 25 matchup for the opening weekend, right ESPN?
One of the two teams will be ranked the following week, but not both.
And my money says its the team who wins
Hot takes!!!!
This is a 5_Star_Comment
That's 100% the narrative. ESPN sees one of these teams as a candidate for a NY6 game. Adding an extra ranked win will help that campaign.
ESPN is not building any narrative. Unless you think they conspired with SportingNews, Athlon (#26), BleacherReport, Sports Illustrated to all have WVU as a top 25 team too.
Orrr....... ESPN just thinks they're a top 25 team.
ESPN had them at 53 in June. Bill Connely with SBNation had them at 69. It's crazy to see a 25 point jump out of no where.
Sources: https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/6hamlw/early_2017_fbs_rankings_com...
http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/19242379/ohio-state-buck...
They also had them 20th in May.
Don't care about defending ESPN but I'm going to offer a potential logical explanation. Will Grier was deemed eligible on June 20th and the hype for WVU has grown since then.
That said debating preseason rankings is ridiculous because it's mostly a guess heavily influenced by name recognition and (sometimes distant) past performance.
Edit: that ESPN ranking was based on their Football power index (FPI) model immediately after the end of last season (Feb 13). The Bill Connelly rankings were based on projected S&P+ Rankings and was published Feb 3. So those rankings were based on statistical models rather than subjective rankings, which would be influenced by Grier's hype and name recognition. If anything it should be good news for us as it suggests there's a good chance that the Mountaineers aren't as talented as the current preseason rankings indicate.
With your logic. We're talking shit about woovoo and the four letter here.
That's the Will Grier effect, he is the greatest QB of this generation, throws 50 yard bombs with the flick of a wrist.... TO HIMSELF! Single-handedly will carry WVU to a natty this year and next.
I wish you were joking but sure enough that seems to be what the Eers expect.
Yes, I've heard. Throws touchdowns by the hundreds, and if he were here he'd consume the English with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his arse.
I am William Wallace.
*Carries them to a Milwaukee's Best this year
Wouldn't the Kurt Benkert effect be greater than Grier?
Will Grier could throw a football over them mountains.
That 69th is actually S&P+, not Bill C who thinks they'll be closer to 50, but he also has nothing to do with ESPN. WVU has been in the 25 range all offseason, and it only helps us
West Virginia might be a little high, but you could certainly make the case that they should be ahead of conference foes Texas and TCU.
22 feels about right.
Seems way to high with all that we lost on Offense and the D-line but espin needs to hype us up for Labor Day...
I legitimately think we will end the season around 20-15. They are on the money.
FWIW, Bill C projects us to finish 8-4, 25th overall.
In all honesty I really hope Miami can live up to their hype again one day. The ACC is already on the verge of being in the convo for the premiere football conference, now that there's a couple recent champs in the fold. Most people seem to think VT will be climbing the ladder under Fuente, but it'd be great if the division had someone else to compete with so we don't get the "they ain't played nobody" junk when we get there.
I'd like to see Miami and Virginia tech put some distance between themselves and the rest of the ACC Coastal.
We'll see if that ever happens.
Although hopefully the coastal doesn't end up like the SEC East. The west, or Alabama, has won a bunch of natl titles however the East has done nothing since Tennessee won the Natl title and we've been in the championship more recently than any SEC East team.
I would hate to see the ACC be a premiere league only to see FSU and Clemson be the only people that compete for or at least make a run for the national title every year.
Urban Meyer and UF say what??
Ideally, we'd have FSU and Clemson being contenders from the Atlantic, and Miami and VT being contenders from the Coastal.
Then there's Notre Dame and Louisville who could also eventually be in the mix...
As much as I hate to leg timmy tebones, that's absolutely the correct answer.
If Richt does as well as he did at UGA, Miami will be able to pre-season rank perennially in the top 25. Any year Miami finishes top 15, the hype will increase to national contender level. Seems like Miami found the right coach.
Top 10 recruiting classes at Miami probably help a lot with that.
As they did at UGA.
I hope we get to the point to recruit like Miami is doing (keep the players from the 757 in state vs. keep the players from south Florida home)
I will agree to disagree. I want Miami to become the new Duke/LOLUVA of the ACC. A perennial laugh and team that manages to upset somebody for a single ACC win every other year or two. I hate Miami with a passion far more than any other team in the ACC and yes that includes LOLUVA.
Ah see that's how I feel about UNC.
Ah see that's how I feel about Pitt.
Ah see that's how I feel about UVA... oh wait they're already a perennial laugh that manages to upset somebody (usually Miami) for a conference win every year or two.
I applaud the hatred of a rival. But the 5 or 6 year stretch in the late-90s/early-2000s when Miami and Virginia Tech were both top-5 programs was an awesome time for the conference (Big East at that time) and both programs.
Ummm....has the season already been played?? Have they already won the coastal?? I know they're back and all but at least wait till mid-October....before their November collapse to teams they wouldn't be expected to lose to.
Usually, you don't see teams literally crowned champions in the preseason. But here we are.
By their logic, Duke is more natonally relevant than Miami since the ACC expansions.
I liken the "Miami is back" to the Tiger is back every time he shot a good round
Good, the talent we have his hidden from them. They are in for a surprise.
via GIPHY
That is just awesome. I want one in my backyard.
I don't know what that is, but I think I like it!
While we're getting hype about this, here's a twitter poll that needs winning (probably already in the bag, honestly, but I want to see 99.9%)
We have 96% of the votes so far. Total of 252 votes.
Nobody rallies to stuff ballot boxes on meaningless internet polls run by unknown outlets like Hokie Nation.
You're God damn right
Garden & Gun never knew what hit them
I wonder how many of the 268 voters have attended a game at more than one of those stadiums, much less all four.
How did this list get made up? Who has ever heard about an awesome gameday experience at WKU?
Dude said in a later tweet that the first round matchups were chosen at random, and looking back further at his tweets, looks like they just crowd-sourced on twitter for the 64 teams they chose to start with.
This guy...thats who
I think this was his best gameday experience...
Is there any possible scenario where Ohio State isn't #2 going into week 2, provided they can handle Indiana?
USC impresses voters more and leaps them?
Miami beats Bethune-Cookman 70-0 and jumps everybody?
Anyone know of a website that shows the statistical accuracy of preseason votes? I know it's mostly speculative, but there's always rumblings about Miami being overrated at the beginning of the season.
I found this from back in 2011: https://sportsdelve.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/college-football-a-historic...
Not sure if it's gotten worse or not (I figure it has?)
I'd have to really dig, but last statistcal analysis I found is that they are extremely good. People just get peeved because it's sports and we need to get mad at stuff
Coaches Poll is out...we're #22 in that as well.
I was talking to some PSU coworkers today...one said that he had perused the new top 25 and I asked him where we were at...
He said "I haven't gotten that far yet".
No joke, those were the words that came out of his mouth. But, also no joke, he meant that he hadn't opened the link yet. Innocent mistake, but enough for me to talk a little smack. Highlight of my day because my python wouldn't pass the gated checkin.
"my python wouldn't pass the gated checkin"
I mean, you're a horse, so it's to be expected. Still, nobody likes a braggart.
Hehe. Clever +1
Then he hasn't perused the top 25. Maybe he only got through the first six or so...
peruse
prooz/
verbformal
past tense: perused; past participle: perused
read (something), typically in a thorough or careful way.
"he has spent countless hours in libraries perusing art history books and catalogues"
examine carefully or at length.
Here's to hoping we climb the rankings like this 22