WELP, that was a fun week! I dunno about you guys, but beating GT THAT way was pretty satisfying (and on national television no less)!
I'm just giddy, but I digress for we have a team on our hands that can be a tricky opponent. UNC was one of the coastal favorites headed into the season (1 of 4 depending on who you talked to). There is definitely some talent on this team, and I wouldn't sleep on them despite them not looking so hot thus far. They may be especially motivated this week, because they were flat out embarrassed by a directional team in their state. It'd be like us losing to UVA - it just shouldn't happen, and I can imagine we'd be pretty pissed afterwards. That's why I'm worried UNC is going to come out swinging. Hopefully we do too for homecoming!
Now I'm here to do my thing, and I have some new tools to play with! I now have a legitimate forecasting and modeling tool called "Eurowx" (it was on sale) which means hopefully my reports can be more accurate and easier to make for the future! This couldn't have come at a better time because...well I can't get to many radars due to the whole government shutdown-abject-failure-thing (sorry to bring this convo to a football blog). Luckily, I've got these models and these mathematical programs are usually pretty accurate at predicting pressure flows and should be able to use them to generally predict anything beyond 4 day storm tracks. What does this all mean? well I can confidently say that this weekend is going to be CLEAR SKIES and cool fall football weather!!!
Earlier in the week, it looked as though that pesky Canadian Fall cold front was gonna bite us in the butt pretty hard around Saturday, but then some winds began pushing the front northward knocking its path away from us, and further northwards. Now if you had asked me as recently as a day or two ago, I would have almost guaranteed you that it was gonna rain but now it looks as though a high pressure system is heading southward and acting like a shield to that bad weather and rain! so all the rain and crappy weather is heading north.
I do have some goodish badish/news (depending on what kind of person you are). It's gonna be kinda chilly come Saturday afternoon - the fall has finally arrived! Now the goodish part of this news is since it's a noon kickoff (yay ACC) we will have the lovely opportunity to enjoy the high temperatures of the day! So around kickoff, I would expect temperatures to be in the mid to low 60s with a low of around 55. There's also more good news! Due to the high pressure system flowing in (I feel like a freaking broken record with this stuff seriously guys we've lucked out aside from the Marshall game), it should be another sunny or mostly sunny day in Blacksburg for gameday!
And it should be another ugly day in Hooville, because they're about to lose to ball state (I looked online and Ball is definitely not a state) so UVA's bowl chances will be looking rather slim... With 2 losses already, a pending loss to Ball St, 3 games against currently ranked teams (UMD, Clemson and the Canes), as well as an incoming tail-kicking courtesy of Foster and company to end the season, the Hoos might want to start practicing this little number for bowl season:
Seeing as the weather is kind of generic this weekend again (guess what, it's still nice), and the government shutdown has rendered any fun radar charts unavailable, I wanted to dive into some more obscure topics. If you're easily bored, skip down a paragraph.
Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis was this crazy guy with an even crazier name. He was a man of science, who was terrific at staring at things
I mean just look at those eyes....kinda frightening
Apparently, when he wasn't trying to bore his eyes into other people, he sometimes liked to stare at water wheels instead. I can't blame him - can you imagine a more fun time?
Anyway, from his countless hours spent staring at spinning things, the man realized that things operate and move differently if they're being rotated in a circle. Since by at this point people had discovered we didn't live on a linear flat plane, Coriolis determined the same held true for the Earth. In other words, because the Earth is spherical and rotates, the winds on the northern hemisphere do not move the same way as the ones in the South...well they do but not on a map. You see, a map is flat and doesn't accurately portray the movements the winds make. So on a map, it appears as if winds in the South flow the opposite directions as the ones in the North (from East to West in the South, and from West to East in the North). There are also a few other variations, but we'll keep it simple for now. All of you who have heard the toilets in Australia flush backwards...well not quite they flush correctly, but the air moves backwards. So yeah Coriolis was a smart dude and loved him some water wheels. As for what impact this will have on our game... none what so ever.
Welp - back to the football field and how this all plays out:
I do believe that this lack of harmful and bad weather will not play into either teams advantage, both teams once again should be able to play without mother nature messing with us too much. I expect this to come down to execution and talent, which I believe gives us the slight edge. Up to this point we have executed to a near perfection on D and our offense looked very good last week as well. If we can execute that well every week, we're going to be very tough to beat. In addition, this little mini half extra week will give us more time to prepare for a UNC offense that made Bud change his defensive scheme and look a little silly last year (how much of that had to do with Giovani Bernard we don't know). Anywho, Bud will have these boys ready to play, and I'm sure and he feels like he has something to prove after the way last year went down. We need good corner play and our Linebackers have to bring their A-game as well, but I think we're more than capable of slowing this offense down this year. I believe our O will continue to grind games out and hopefully finally get that mojo going on the ground game without putting LTs life in danger every play. Fact of the matter is on a beautiful fall day in Blacksburg I'm feeling like this is going to be another tight affair.
VT - 23
UNC - 17
High - 80 degrees
Low - 55 Degrees
Winds - 5 MPH from the west to the east
Relatively clear skies
Relatively low humidity
PS shoutout to the Womens soccer team, they play tomorrow evening against Clemson, key game in ACC play and our women are ROLLING right now, just came off some really impressive play in a road trip in ACC play (top soccer conference) so go hokies and good luck to my friends and fellow hokies on the field go show em some love if possible!
Comments
We're playing UNC so it will probably snow
Is it bad that I want a Thursday Night Snow Bowl in Blacksburg?
That actually sounds pretty cool mrfisk!
Were you in Blacksburg for the 2011 UNC game?
probably the coldest effing game I've ever been too.
Duke 08 I think it was...dear god maybe 09
Duke 2008 was by far the coldest game I've ever been to after the ECU, GT, and Furman games at the beginning of the year were the hottest I've ever been to. Hell, the Duke game had snow and ice piled up on the side of the field. No amount of layers could keep you warm that day.
Accidental downvote!!! Curse my fat thumbs someone upvote this poor fellow at least twice for me
Upvote for the weatherman :)
I remember Macho kind of saving the day
I remember every piece of exposed skin burning. The players were so cold, there was something like 8 combined fumbles, and the passing game was non-existant. Eventually Frank had to pull Glennon (because nobody could throw or catch) and put in Tyrod, who just ran around a little (presumably to stay warm). Macho iced (heh - get it?) the game with a pick-six.
By the end of the game, We pretty much all looked like this:
Duke threw 4 interceptions, we had 3 (2 from Tyrod, 1 from Glennon) as well as 2 fumbles. Each team also had another fumble that was recovered by the offense, so you're looking at 4 fumbles and 7 interceptions in 1 game.
actually, wasnt it ty who got benched in that one at half in favor of sean? or am i remembering it backwards?
Maybe? I could be wrong. I just remember it was cold as hell, and nobody could move the ball at all. I think Duke ran some sort of triple option offense they have never run before or since.
Glennon started, Tyrod came off the bench.
I remember not getting past midfield until the 2 minute drill going into the half with a 7-3 lead....that held until the last 2 minutes with macho
PS it was glennon who came in, and he threw our first TD to a non TE (danny coale) of the season...nearly 8 weeks in i believe
It's a horrible box score to look at. Our possessions went INT, punt, fumble, INT, fumble, punt, INT, and then the first TD right before the half. Duke's last three possessions ended in INTs.
I could have sworn that it was Boykin who caught his 1st Tech TD on that play.
It was Boykin, per Hokiesports recap.
This was my first game in Lane after the 05-06 remodel and the only time I have been able to sit in the west stands. I had 3 layers of socks on and I still couldn't feel my feet. But Macho's pick six seemed to warm everyone up.
YESSSS. Four layers of clothes, thermals, two pairs of gloves, hot hands in my gloves and shoes, and two turkey legs couldn't keep the cold away that night.
Sweet win tho. Worth it.
Yeah, that was my sophomore year and as proof (rockin' the fake vintage Tyrod Jersey)..
I remember it flurried during the day, but I wanted a consistent snowfall by the time the game started
Was it really that cold during that game? I remember just wearing my orange effect t-shirt.
IIRC, I had a thermal, the orange effect shirt, a hoodie and that jersey on and I don't remember being too cold. Maybe because we were so packed in that we could share body heat.
Oh good point. My section always had at least an extra 10 people because we were so close to the field and right behind the MVs.
Wouldnt count on it...but yeah mother nature has not been forgiving the past few years ill keep yall posted if anything changes
i really, really, really dont want to bring the collection of dickholes we refer to as our government into this. but you say you cant see many radars and stuff because of the shutdown. i thought i read somewhere that the national weather service would be operating at full strength because the forecasts help protect lives and property and all that jazz? are they not releasing info like they usually do? or did i just read it wrong?
Here's the site. Take the information as you wish.
http://www.weather.gov/
Weather service is up but NOAA is down and the NOAA has a ton of really good info
The weather channel has a high of 83 for Saturday, but you have a high of 65 on here. Why such a disparity?
whoops still getting used to the european model, I was looking at surface temperatures a high of around 80 is correct, sorry I was trying to churn this out last night its been a busy week and if you havent noticed im still learning thanks for double checking
Low is closer to 60
Thanks for the write up. Entertaining and informative.
100% chance of Sam Rogers
Glad I dont have to huddle around my grill to keep warm while cooking eggs and bacon
Nothing goes better with a hoarse voice than a half burned face
true story, i dont remember what game it was but it had to be in 08. my wife was about to get her master's and was interviewing for jobs. we tailgated and then sat in the east stands, so we were out in the sun all day. we had forgotten sunscreen and she had two peel off tattoo vt's on her cheeks. she had to interview that week with a tanline vt on each cheek. classic.
Mmmmmm........tan lines........
the cheeks on her face shoog!
*Insert disgruntled comment about another noon game*
I like noon games.
I think they should be written into the contract.
Where do we keep the sarcastifonts?
rabble rabble rabble noon kickoff rabble rabble rabble
Forget about the Gelgameks? rabble rabble rabble!
Stay tuned..the weather will change but the game should be ok....a tropical system is forming in the gulf that is expected to move up the mountains from the south but it appears to have a larger affect on Sunday.
monitoring it
UPDATE: as 92 said there is a tropical system heading north but it shouldn't really hit to effectively due to the high pressure system thats going to get stuck over VA, expect rain but nothing to serious unless you live west or south west of the Appalachians it looks like most of it is going to break up over there again I'll keep you guys posted and the rain/storm is expected to hit late sunday night into monday afternoon
I was just about to ask about that tropical storm. I saw that it was likely to form, but hadn't seen a projected path yet
100% chance it at least forms a tropical storm, looks like we might have our first chance at a legitamate hurricane for this season, going to at least get some serious rain early next week if their predictions and my predictions hold true, ill be keeping an eye on it and will get you a better estimation over the weekend
Is the Eurowx software used to make the EURO model? How do you think it compares versus other models like the GFS?
yes Eurowx is the european model, and frankly from everyone I've talked to and my experiences thus far its the most consistently accurate particularly in the short term
phew...this weather model cannot make up its mind, looking like heavy rain monday now... crazy heavy rain west of the Appalachians
The 10am update from the NHC looks like they have Karen slowing down considerably over the gulf.
yeah its still a little far off it definitely wont be a hurricane force storm by the time it comes north but it does look like its gonna hug the coast up (all the different looks the model has given me says its gonna suck to live in carolina in about 5 days)