The reigning national champion @ClemsonFB is the preseason favorite to claim its fifth consecutive #ACCFootball title.@UVAFootball is favored in the Coastal Division. π° https://t.co/Z0cFFqvyDB pic.twitter.com/EE6eAMiqOxβ The ACC (@theACC) July 22, 2019
On one hand, they are the only team to not win the coastal in the past 6 years, so it seems like it could be their turn. On the other hand, they are also UVA.
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Someone actually voted for LOLUVA to not only win the Coastal but the ACC as a whole.
Imagine being that stupid.
Edit: I don't even mean this as a jab at Uva, them winning the coastal is completely possible. ... But the ACC? Lambs to the slaughter. Clemson is running things for a while, man.
I'm not saying it's right. I agree Clemson is running the ACC. But people said Bama would roll in the championship game. Saying it would not even be competitive. So there's that
Talent wise Clemson and Alabama are on par with one another. ... No one in the ACC is even close right now to Clemson.
Miami and FSU actually are fairly close in terms of raw high school talent. I think coaching at Clemson is much much better.
In addition to this, I think the administration buy in and fan support at Clemson is also way ahead. Miami and FSU have the attitude that they should just be good, Clemson went through years of taking stupid Ls while building a locomotive infrastructure that would now take years of disappointing seasons to undue. Maybe down the road they fall into the same trap, but hard to see an end in sight unless coaches start leaving.
Who the hell gave UNC and GT votes to win the Coastal?
Not as insane as the two people who picked Syracuse to win the Atlantic.
True. Even if Cuse black magics their way to beating Clemson in a fluke game, I highly doubt they don't have two other ACC losses somewhere on their schedule.
Agree. the media see "syracuse" as say, welp they put up 50 points a game, they must be better than Wake, etc. That's all this is.
Well that pretty much cements that they won't actually pull it off.
Every Coastal team with a first place vote. #GoACC
Pretty much nobody knows in the Coastal.
Since 2011
Perkins situation reminds of LT in 2011-2012. Solid QB, but losing a ton of offensive weapons, I think he'll have a solid year but he's gonna have to do it with a lot of new faces around him.
You the mean 2012/13 season? 2011 we had a ton of returning talent.
Also, I think Perkins is a better QB than LT was.
Yeah, maybe if he holds onto the ball long enough, lmao!!!
Man, that's beautiful!
I gotta put a larger part of the blame on Ellis. He swerves to his left at the last second to either avoid a hit, or try to help with a block. But he got to close to Perkins and knocked the ball out.
On the surface, it's not crazy. For the past 10 years, the team that had the best QB and sucked the least everywhere else typically wins the coastal. It's a crap shoot. Having said that, UVA can't beat VT- which puts them behind the 8 ball. Much like us recently with GT. We weren't winning that game, so there is 1 coastal loss right there- reduces your margin of error.
Call me crazy but I think Ryan Willis is the best QB in the Coastal
I don't think it's crazy. He will break records this year if healthy. Bet.
Yards for loss is a record I guess
Glennon has that one wrapped up for a while due to the athletic Swiss cheese O-lines
CavenaughNewsome put on the field.You mean Newsome, friend. Coach Cav coached running backs, back when our running backs were as mean as the linemen.
No, no, no:
Newsome Coached OL
Billy Hite coached RBs
I think Cav was Whips - I know he was defense, could be mistaken.
Right you are. I can't remember which old guys coached what. I guess I'm turning into an old guy.
That was it. 2am TKPing got after me
I'll also be surprised if anyone in the coastal can catch Ryan Willis this season statistically unless Perkins is forced to throw a ton to make up for their very inexperienced running back room.
I just don't see that many weapons surrounding Perkins. They lost their top two contributors outside of him and really no skill positions on that roster scare me that much. If he's forced to be a one man show I have questions about his ability to stay healthy, as he had some injury issues last year with a better supporting cast. Call me a bit skeptical. He's a great player but I don't think he can do it on his own, and if him and Willis are in the same ballpark skill wise, our supporting cast of returning offensive talent should give us a distinct advantage there. That's assuming we miss on Feaster, who would put us over the top and really up our firepower.
Their receivers have stunk overall for about 15 years. Terrible.
If you intercept a pass from Willis...he just may tackle you.
And run over the ref.
not crazy, and I would say he is 2nd best in the conference behind trevor lawrence.
Next, you'll be telling me dogs and cats are living together
MASS HYSTERIA!
lol fixed
What a joke! I don't care how wide open the coastal seems this year. You cannot vote for LOLUVA when they've only finished above .500 in conference twice since the divisions were created.
Also, going back to 2011 the preseason poll only predicted the Coastal champ correctly twice (2011 and 2017). That is 2/8 or 25%. Therefore, statistically speaking, LOLUVA has precisely a 0.00000000000000000001% chance of winning the Coastal.
It's science
Major League quotes/memes will always receive a leg from I. Well played, friend.
Good. Being picked to win the Coastal makes it statistically unlikely.
I'm good with it.
I love it when we play UVA and they're expected to win. We come out fired up. 2011 with David Wilson was one of those games.
Underdog is a good spot for us and I really think people are sleeping on us this year. Defense will be better and the offense has more experience now....the offense could be really dangerous IF we get a certain graduate transfer at RB.
I also think us playing on the road against Miami and UVA played a part in this, too.
We only play home games against UVA.
You know that, and I know that, but the media sees "in Charlottesville, VA" and doesn't understand what that means.
I think you misunderstood the meaning. We paved over their stadium years ago but you know how long highway construction projects last.
I don't see Perkins holding up an entire season. He has serious injury history, and will be relied upon to carry the team. Also consider the first half of their schedule, when a team is still trying to find newcomers and relies heavily on known quantities (Perkins):
Week 1- @Pitt
Week 3- FSU
Week 5- @ND
Week 6- @Miami
The first two are not remotely like the second two...
Pitt "will get after ya". They are also defending Coastal Champs.
They were a .500 team that lost two 1500 yard running backs and 4 starters on OL.
We are 3-7 against them out of the last 10 so...
That's......damn
1 yard away from being 2-8. Thanks, Reggie!!
My heart rate during that drive
Had to quit jumping, thought something bad was happening with my chest lol
Mook with the ole, try to "tackle" their huge WR without his hands... Always works.. s/
400 of those yards were against us. I think we might want to beat them before we start trashing them.
And they went balls deep on our defense on every play.
They also play in Heinz field, where VT sucks wind and pisses on ourselves every time despite there being 6,000 people there, tops.
Remember last year when Syracuse was dead last in the Atlantic, Miami was a 122 first pick run away, and Virginia as in last place? These are totally accurate and we might as well not even lace up this season.
What sort of savage bizarro world bullshit is this?
A very sick, jaded, twisted part of me hopes that Syracuse and UVA play each other in the ACCCG this year.
.... Why though
As long as we still lengthen the streak, and Syracuse blows them the hell out, there are far worse possible outcomes to this season.
Exactly.
Going to the championship game over us would sure take a lot of the sting out of losing to us. And I don't want anything to lessen that sting.
I think the real-life gap between 1 and 4 on that Coastal list is really small, and I think UVA, Miami, Pitt or VT could each win the division.
That being said, I hope the folks on TKP screaming that we'd better win 9 or 10 games realize that's not what people outside the VT fanbase expect to happen.
I think most educated people (Bill Connelly, Athlon Sports, Phil Steele, etc) picked us to win 9 games.
Bill Connelly's S&P+ rankings expects us to win about 8.3 games. Using his game-by-game projections, that gives us the following likelihood of each regular season record between 0-12 and 12-0:
Meaning we're just as likely to hit 7 or 8 wins as we are to hit 9 or more wins, and there's about a 10% chance of going 6-6 or worse again.
didn't you get the memo? S&P+ is useless
Me when I see S&P+ rankings.
Oooooh a Jojo meme. Spicy.
You thought it was Fencer, but it was me, Dio!
via GIPHY
Ah, right of course, why didn't I remember that?
I'd buy one because it's so shiny.
condensing this a little bit.
chances of "meh" season (6 or 7 wins) = 24.7%
chances of "yes, alright that's OK, on the right track" season (8 or 9 wins) = 52.5%
chances of "awww yeah" season (10 or 11 wins) = 19.9%
Just pointing out that 6-6 is much worse than a "meh" season, it either means the end of the bowl streak or a loss to either Furman or Rhode Island.
Pitt might struggle to go to a bowl this season, they will not challenge for the Coastal.
obligatory
I'm not saying I expect it to happen (because I don't) but I could conceive of a scenario where the fighting bow ties and us face off for the coastal crown (and possibly even both ranked). Ultimately I hope UVA loses every game until the end of time but it would be fun for the game to actually have some conference impact/national spotlight again.
Not trying to drag the annoyance of the Feaster Thread over to this thread, but it would be interesting to see how voting might have been different if it was done after Feaster's announcement and if he picked us.
I honestly don't know where all the hype for UVA came from. Did I miss somewhere where they gained a whole lot of talent from 2018 to 2019?
Perkins could be the biggest offensive name in the division, Miami doesn't have a QB to go with their team that otherwise has the most talent, and no one else in the division stands out on paper.
So, Miami isn't back?
Are we gonna have to put off the "oh shit, they're bak!" posts another year....?
Remember that Tate Martel- since he was not transferring to VT, was ruled immediately eligible for Miami. He was a very sought after recruit. I do think Diaz is not going to be a great coach there. So who knows.
I am hoping that Diaz is a bigger failure than Golden was.
They've steadily improved each year under Bronco. Combine that with the weak division, they have just as good a chance as anyone does.
I remember when they said the same thing after London's first two years. We all know how that turned out.
If you can't hold on to the rock, the only thing you'll be able to beat is a paver
Is Perkins really that good? I remember him missing several throws against us last year where his receiver was wide open and thinking "man, we're lucky this guy can't hit the broad side of a barn." Their offense also was pretty underwhelming against us when our defense was at their absolute worst last season. Then he goes 7-17 in his spring game (I know spring game stats aren't super reliable but still), and we all know he's lost plenty of talent around him. He's a great runner, but I'm afraid UVA might run him into the ground similar to what we tried to do with Logan Thomas after Coale, Boykin, and Wilson were gone. LT had a great year in 2011 when he was surrounded by good playmakers, had a good line blocking for him, and receivers could make tough catches on inaccurate throws. He was really exposed when all of that was gone, though. I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar fate for Perkins this season.
Their defense will probably be better or at the very least the exact same as they were last season, although losing Thornhill was a big hit. Our offense should be better this year, though, Feaster or not. I think the addition of Feaster would make our offense elite given how much talent we have at receiver, quarterback, and offensively line, but McClease, Wheatley, and Holston should suffice otherwise.
Our defense can't go anywhere but up, and I think they will. Dax should be in better shape and more suited to play backer. We know what we have with Ashby. Farley was a decent cover corner by the end of the season, so hopefully he worked mostly on tackling during the off-season. Then the rest of the secondary fills out pretty nicely I think given the depth at safety and the addition of Webb. The defensive line is really the X factor on this defense. Hewitt is reliably, and hopefully the JUCO DTs can make some noise. I'm confident Garbutt will have a good year on one end, but I'm seriously worried about the other. That's the one glaring weakness of our defense I think.
With all that said, I think this is the best chance we've had to win the coastal in the preseason since maybe 2011 or 2012 (even though 2012 ended up being a disaster). I already said how I feel about UVA. Miami, UNC, and GT are all breaking in new coaches. Duke and Pitt are losing quite a bit of offensive production. Hopefully we can realize this potential, and it'll help correct our recruiting for 2021 and so on.
It's a game of inches, and he goes for that extra inch and make busted plays work.
I don't know if that makes him "that good", but he does have to be accounted for on every play.
You could say the same about Logan Thomas and what he did in 2012 and 2013, namely 2012, and I still don't think you're going to hear anyone say we had a legit shot at winning the coastal either of those seasons. Logan's inaccuracy led to a lot of interceptions, his lack of talent around him led to a lot of forced throws that led to interceptions, and the lack of a running game led to him getting run like a battering ram over and over again. Perkins is inaccurate, lost some weapons, and will likely be running more this year than he did last year.
Disclaimer: not bashing Logan. He was the victim of horrible quarterback recruiting and should have been the next Kellen Winslow Jr. minus the personality.
The general expectation going into 2013 was that we'd end up second in the Coastal to Miami.
Heh the Miami game was the highlight of that whole year
α΄α΄α΄ Ιͺα΄Ι΄ α΄Κs
fumbling the game away, making it 15 straight!!
I kind of wonder if he might have fumbled anyway had his own teammate not knocked it loose. Ashby DRILLED him.
Perkins, even though he doesn't throw very well, has two things going for him...
1. The system. They run sort of a Triple Option thing out of the pistol, and so on the RPO's that come out of that, the D is already moving like crazy. What that meant last season is that it was fairly easy for his WR's to slip into open spots on a disoriented secondary, that allowed Perkins to have some really good numbers in the passing game. They do not have good talent at the skill positions, so he will be challenged a bit more this season.
2. Perkins is very strong and very slippery. He hardly ever goes down on first contact and if someone on the front seven gets through the porous OL, that person must square up and wrap up or Perkins will likely get away. This also helped contribute to his success as he kept plays alive.
The second point you made is what I believe will be the most important key for our defense this season: gang tackling. It seems like the only time we had 4 or 5 players surrounding the ballcarrier last season was 10 yards downfield. We need to go back to swarming ballcarriers in the backfield. Yesterday I watched highlights of the Clemson game from 2007. Every time they tried a screen or run play, the backfield was just swarmed with white jerseys. I know that team was more talented than what we have right now, but playing with high energy and never stopping pursuit of the ball till you hear the whistle goes a long way in gang tackling.
There is a small part of me that wants our Athletic Department dealing with a UVa that just beat us for the Commonwealth Cup, just won the
AtlanticCoastal (I'm a moron for getting that wrong... That said, I still believe all rivals should be split between divisions), and is the reigning National Champions in basketball.We have been sitting on our non-existent laurels for a very very long time patting ourselves on the back for this and that while everyone we consider to be our peers have been improving to the point where we are rapidly falling way behind while convincing ourselves we are still close. Maybe if this kind of doomsday scenario happens our boosters will have the veil finally removed and Whit will get the pressure on to really push the envelope to improve to keep pace with everyone who seems to be determined to compete to levels we currently tell ourselves it's ok to never achieve.
You wouldn't rather have the light bulb click on for the defense, Ryan Willis to have an All ACC kind of year, the Hokies win the Coastal at 11-1, 10-2, heroically lose to the Tigers in the ACCCG (Hokies aren't beating Dabo) and have success in a decent bowl game?
Tell the small part of you to keep himself quiet please.
What on earth are you talking about? "Sitting on our non-existent laurels for a very very long time"? Virginia Tech was an independent in football until 1990, at which time we had to literally pay the now defunct Big East to join as a football only member. Don't worry though, in most other sports we were competing in the powerhouse Metro and Atlantic 10 conferences up until 2000- that's right, we weren't even a full member of the Big East until after we played for a national title in football. I know it's fun to joke about #goACC, Swofford, our awful Raycom deal, and everything else, but the first time we were ever on equal ground with "everyone we consider to be our peers" was 2004 when we were essentially forced into the ACC during conference expansion, or else we likely would have languished even longer in a far inferior conference.
Now I wasn't the biggest fan of Jim Weaver's hesitancy to take risks on coaching hires or program investments but the claim that we are "rapidly falling behind our peers" (who, again, didn't become our peers until 2004) considering the overall improvements we have made in our athletics programs and the additional investments/commitments Whit Babcock has made since taking over seems ill informed at best considering where VT athletics was as a whole 20+ years ago. VT beat UVA in the athletics wide Commonwealth Clash- a competition that was so lopsided when it was first conceived as the Commonwealth Challenge in 2005 that it was discontinued after two years- for the first time ever literally last year. Of course our athletic department hasn't been perfect, and can and should continue to improve, but one year later UVA wins a basketball title and the entire VT athletics program is on the brink of a "doomsday scenario"? I'm sorry but I find that to be complete reactionist, chicken little nonsense.
IMO, resting on our laurels is more about the football program essentially declaring we have arrived after joining and winning the ACC right off the bat in 2004. We never made a concerted effort to expand or grow the Hokie Club other than just a means to secure football tickets, and the program never fully invested in recruiting and was far too late to the table in the facilities race. It was very nearsighted and in a large part created the situation we are in now of playing catch-up. Whit has done a good job of improving the overall athletics department profile, but football decided to almost go on autopilot in the mid 2000s, and we are now paying for it years later.
I agree that the VT athletic department missed opportunities by not capitalizing more on the national championship appearance, joining the ACC, and routinely winning conference titles. If people still want to complain about that and call it resting on our laurels, so be it; however, Jim Weaver retired 5 years ago and I think it's fairly obvious that Whit has taken a significantly more aggressive approach since his hiring with regards to the fundraising, facilities, and investing in our athletics programs.
Whit has definitely been more aggressive with facilities improvements, coaching hires, and investment in various sports programs across the board. However, the fundraising efforts of the Hokie Club are still sorely lacking. Football struggling as of late isn't helping matters, but this is still an area with a lot of room for improvement. Whether that means researching and tapping into new potential donor bases and/or better leveraging corporate partnerships, more work needs to be done here, and I think many of the problems are institutional and can't be solved alone by the AD.
Yes and no. The Hokie Club has had amazing growth in both total membership and monetary growth for the scholarship fund. Where the short falling occurs is for capital improvement projects, getting people to fund endowments for coaching positions and scholarships.
To his credit, the most obvious candidate "to fund endowments for coaching positions and scholarships" would rather donate his money for a signature engineering building.
On another note... What do you mean by "non-existent laurels"?
Is that a metaphor, or are you inferring that Hokies have small butts?
You must have misread. I see "non-existent yannis."
Who do you believe to "our peers?"
I mean, we are NOT a blue blood team or program. We show up every year and play 12-13 games with the hopes of making a bowl game. Not sure what you believe to be success or failure here, or what others are doing to rapidly surpass our level. But also understand that in 1992 we were a 2-8-1 program. Not even 30 years "on the map" and not in bold big font print either. We poked our head into the Natty once.
oh boy...so what "chip on your shoulder" gimmick will Bronco try to use for this season? He's so screwed....he can't motivate his team so look for a last place finish from the cheese eating surrender monkeys
Can't not laugh when I read this. Thank you for that.
it's the same as it has been. "Think about beating Tech while we're poopin'"or something
There's a MacGruber joke in this comment somewhere
There's a MacGruber joke in every single one of my comments if you can find it...
My wonderful UVA boss is already trash talking since he saw this poll, this season cant get here soon enough.
Wasn't it just last year Mendenhall said he only had 27 ACC caliber players on the team? lol no chance
It's a down year for quality in the ACC.
On one hand, you can count the number of times loluva has beaten us in the last 16 years!!!
FIFY
The Media picking the winner is just about the Kiss of Death for the Coastal Division since 2004.
Because I was curious:
2018: Picked Miami (came in 3rd)i; Pitt was 4th
2017: Picked Miami
2016: Picked UNC (ended up 2nd); VT was 4th
2015: Picked GT (came in last); UNC was 5th
2014: Picked Miami (came in 5th); GT was 5th
2013: Picked Miami (came in 2nd); Duke was last
2012: Picked VT (came in 4th); GT was 2nd
2011: Picked VT
2010: Picked VT
They had a decent run before the Coastal turned into a Wheel of Destiny.
This is the best possible thing that could happen.
I hate these polls. And I definitely hate UVA. I want to hear some pads popping. Let's play some football!
Massey Composite sees things a little differently.
According to this, Coastal goes:
Miami, VT, Duke, Pitt, UVA, GT, (ostensibly UNC but they don't show up in the top-62)
Only reason GT is up there is because the numbers don't understand changing from a triple-option coach to a non-triple-option coach.
This formatting, right here, is what
causedfailed to prevent the challenger disaster...I was about to say...
I'm pretty sure the explosion was caused by O-Ring compression and joint temperature which reduced the effectiveness of said O-Ring to create a seal between the SRB and External Fuel Tank.
EF 1015 baby
There's something poetic about Arizona State (the team Bryce Perkins left) being ranked exactly one spot higher than UVa (the team Bryce Perkins went to)
App State? Hm.
Sad,isn't it?
For those not following Dax on Twitter I highly recommend as he has some UVA accounts at max butthurt levels
Hewitt off the top goddamn rope!
Dude pulled out a your mom joke in this twitter thread wtf.
He just blocked me after the weakest comeback of all time...
He blocked me too...not to sure what the point of taking constant jabs at Hokies on their twitter content is then blocking anyone that responds.
I think he is getting some off-season reps in with James Gayle