It's our bye week so I'm bored and forced to think up hypotheticals (I'll worry about Duke starting on Monday next week). So that got me to thinking, what if we played Alabama this week? I think it's obvious that our team has gotten a lot better on both sides of the ball since week 1 (and our defense was pretty damn good that week), plus our kick coverage isn't getting balled up in the middle of the field anymore.
So what's everyone's thoughts on this? What would the score be?
And that thought led me to another hypothetical, what would we be ranked if we had beaten Alabama? Do you think the polls would have still given a one-loss SEC team a higher ranking than us?
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Not sure we'd be able to run the ball as well, not with how banged up we are. On the other hand, our receivers are actually catching the ball. We would also (maybe) have Antone back for the game
If the Hokies had beaten Alabama, they would have been moved into the top ten that day. They would probably still be hanging around the 6,7,8 spot if the other games had turned out like they really have.
I think if the Hokies played ANYBODY in the country right now, it's a toss-up. Just because of the defense.
I don't know...what about Oregon & aTm?
Oregon would match up tough, but aTm I see that one being a toss up. Manziel is good because his receivers improvise well when the pocket breaks down. Our defense is just as good against that and I could see them 'shutting' that offense down, to the tune of 21-28 points. Their defense isn't too great so I don't think the Hokies would have too much trouble putting points on them.
Oregon probably would scare me the worst. They have the players and coaches to truly run the spread. The Hokie D could definitely slow it down..., but I'm not sure the Hokie O could match 21 pts right now.
If the offense just managed field position, I think the Hokies would slap Johnny Football all over the field.
Closer to what the score would have been if not for the special teams miscues.
21-10 or so.
Alabama's D is still nasty. They've alowed 1 TD since the Texas A&M game.
They shut out Ole Miss... and Ole Miss has some playmakers.
If I were making a vegas line for the game , assuming it would be played this weekend, it would be 13.
That's a lot less than the 19.5 I saw it at when I was in Vegas a week before the game.
I think that's because no really knew what to expect from our D this year. The D has played well above what people thought they would coming into the year. The O has played about as expected.
The D gets credit for the 6.5
Closer than the experts think. We wouldn't run the ball once. And from what I'm hearing from the talking heads, Alabama's offensive line is MUCH BETTER than they were against Virginia Tech.
17-14 Alabama victory
Yeah, well..they're not playing the Hokie defensive line any more.
The Hokie line is better than it was when they played them as well. The offense continues to improve. I say we just go ahead and rematch them in a BCS game at the end of the year. After they drop one but still get an at large bid. Revenge is sweet. Hokies 16 - Bama 10.
I think we match up better against Alabama than Oregon and TA&M. Mobile QBs has always give Bud's defenses the most trouble. I think UNC knew that earlier this year and played their QB that gave them the best chance to win.
Even so, Alabama still beats us if we played this week, something like 21-10. They're hugely talented, and they were working some bugs out against us in the first meeting. BTW, they are one of the best teams in the history of college football with McCarron back for his senior season.
Unfortunately, Oregon beats us by a similar margin. We score 10 more points but so do they. TA&M, that'd be a toss-up. I could see both teams scoring about 30. Ohio St, probably better all-around but we might be able to hang with them too.
I like the way we match up against almost anybody that doesn't have a mobile QB. Luckily there are a lot less of them at the end of the season than at the beginning.