I feel like most people here are bracing for an up and down season, or at least an unpredictable one, but Sports Illustrated seems to like us.
Justin Fuente's third season was a step in the wrong direction, but Virginia Tech has the talent to turn things around quickly. Remember: Frank Beamer went 11–21 over his first three years in Blacksburg.
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WE BAK
before da U!
http://ismiamibakyet.com/
Who owns this website. I'm willing to donate
I know all fanbases tend to create some kind of relative victim complex in regards to respect/media/etc, but as far as rankings go we have been getting the benefit of the doubt when we haven't done much to deserve it since 2011. The media at large has been more bullish on VT through our slump than not.
Yep, it's the advantage of having the name brand that Beamer built up by winning more consistently than virtually any other team in the country for 2 decades, with the exception of maybe Ohio State or Miami or Georgia.
Just like, short of 2 or 3 consecutive horrible seasons, a program like Michigan is going to be ranked in the pre-season EVERY year.
I'd say it also shows a bit of faith in Fuente, who won at least 9 games in two of his first three seasons at VT.
I don't mean this to sound too argumentative, but I would say it has almost nothing to do with Fuente and everything to do with Virginia Tech.
I know this was SI and not the AP, but I guarantee you there are AP college football writers who can't immediately name who Virginia Tech's head coach is, but will still include VT in their top 25 when they run out of teams they are familiar with (Alabama, OSU, Oklahoma, etc.).
I think it has to do with both. I doubt there are any AP sportswriters who don't know who Fuente is.
I guess when I think about it I agree that it's both, but I just think it's much more Virginia Tech's name brand than Fuente. If I had to quantify it, I'd say it's 70/80% VT and the rest Fuente (just my opinion).
And I should have been more clear that I meant AP poll voters, rather than college football writers who work for the Associated Press. The AP poll voters are just a collection of beat writers for various teams (like Andy Bitter), as well as some national media (like Kirk Herbstreit).
As a former sports reporter I can guarantee you that there are at least some beat writers for other teams who can't name Virginia Tech's coach without looking it up (not saying they don't know who is he, but just that they can't recall it on demand). For instance, I just had to look up who the head coach for Colorado and USC are. These writers are focused on their teams, not all of college football.
Doesn't matter, really.
No rankings shouldn't come out before week 6 anyway, as they're mostly marketing, and a crapshoot.
Very true. Although it is still encouraging to me to see us getting some national recognition even after a down year.
We are always going to get a little bit of an inflation. We have the name recognition and were a legitimate nationally relevant program for a good 12-15 straight years in the recent past. That name recognition is always going to get us a bump early in the year, and will probably always lead us to be a couple spots higher than we probably should be throughout the season.
We could conceivably enter the ND game this year 7-0 or 6-1 with our biggest win either @ Miami or at home against UNC and easily be a Top 15 team. But that would be off the backs on wins over BC, RI, ODU, Furman, and Duke. But people will see VT and 7-0 or 6-1 and vote solely based on that.
I think a lot of people also rank in a way where they like to put the top few contenders from each division in the P5 up there. That's about 20 teams (4 per P5 conference, 2 from each division), ND, and maybe a G5 or two. VT isn't the worst pick in the world to end up there. The big question is, is this projecting or is it retrospective.
Retrospective, no way we are 22. Projecting, yeah, I can totally see this team end up at 22.
VT and hovering in the high teens to low twenties. Name a more iconic duo.
VT losing to AP Top 5 teams at home
Fixed it.
VT and the Commonwealth Cup
Coach Beamer and Coach Foster
Preseason rankings are garbage outside of maybe the Top 5. I'd rather go unranked all season and fly under the radar, it's when we seem to win the most games.
I would rather have a program that isn't scared to be the hunted.
So would I, but since we haven't been that program in close to 15 years, I would prefer Ws
Ain't nobody scared up in here... c'mon man.
Pre-season ranked!?!????
We're a football school again!
🤗
Free positive advertising - I'll take it. Unearned, speculative respect is still respect, and better to have it than not.
I mean, being ranked HAS to help with recruiting, right? And it's FREE!
Way too low for a 10-2 team.
I highly doubt that this ranking takes into account the Kabongo injury. I'd probably take us down a spot or two.
via GIPHY
😂😂😂😂😂...love what you did there...so much for the player coach situation...just coach