I figured after what happened last year, ODU would have VT's full attention. I felt like Tech would want revenge and that we'd dismiss them fairly easily. I'll take a win anyway I can get it, but it wasn't as dominant as I would've hoped.
I'm not quite as confident about Furman as I was about ODU. Despite being an FCS team, Furman might be a little better than ODU. The Massey Ratings have ODU rated about 1.5 points better than Furman, but the Sagarin Ratings have Furman about 3 points better than ODU.
Tech was a 28 point favorite against ODU, but only a 21 point favorite against Furman. ODU's probably a bottom 15 FBS team while Furman's ranked #13 in the FCS Coaches Poll. Georgia State had to fight like hell to come back against Furman in Week 2, a week after GSU went to Knoxville and beat the Vols.
I obviously want Tech to win 52-0, but I think we're in for a tougher test this week than we had last week. Maybe a better way of phrasing it...I'm more nervous going into this game with Furman than I was going into the Old Dominion game. Should I be?
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No you are 100% correct. We have a good offense coming into Lane tomorrow to test a shaky defense.
Go watch highlights of Darren Grainger - if you aren't scared now, you will be.
I get your point. Furman does have a good offense that will will really get after our defense (sorry. I had to say it.) But I'm much less worried that I was against ODU. ODU knew that they could beat us because they stomped us last year. If you're a big underdog, you can't buy that level of confidence. And I'm not sure if Furman has the same mentality ODU did.
Last week I said that the 29-point spread vs ODU was ridiculous, considering we lost by 2 touchdowns the year before.
But I feel like a 21 point spread against Furman seems about right. I wouldn't be shocked to see us struggle against what sounds like a very good FCS team, but I think something like a 31-14 win is most likely.
I expect Furman to score some points tomorrow because they have a good offense. But their defense is much closer to that of a typical FCS team. Our offense should be able to easily put up 40+ points and give us a comfortable margin of victory. If we can't that is very telling of how the season will be.
Uh... it's Furman.
Furman.
'98 was a great season.
I just checked Wikipedia and I did NOT remember that we lost our 3 games that year by a total of 10 points.
And then in 1999 we won all 11 regular season games by the following amounts: 47, 21, 20, 24, 38, 62, 13, 2, 33, 55, 24. Our first 6 wins were by an average of 35 points, and for the season we outscored our opponents by 30.6 points per game!
After the 2 point win, some of the nuts that are now on this site were probably asking when CFB would be fired.
The fact this is even a thread is all you need to know about how far Virginia Tech football has fallen
Except out only FCS loss ever was an ACC championship team. Not saying we havent fallen, just pointing that out.
And that was a total fluke. We had Tyrod and Ryan Williams on that roster. Those guys ain't suiting up Saturday. We're saying it today bc our team is bad and legitamenty may lose to an FCS team.
As opposed when the team lost to an FCS steam a team that only won 6 games?
Well, not really.
I'm used to VT fans being 1) nervous about our games, and 2) our worst critics.
I've been a hard core fan since 96/97 how people aren't used to losing games the team has no business losing to anyone in every season but 1 at this point is beyond me.
Nobody should be worried about Furman.
Period.
It's not like VT should be cocky at this point. Just gotta take care of business, and I'm hoping the defense will start to jell.
While you're not wrong I think there was a similar amount of anxiety when Appy State came to town in 2011.
Glad you brought this up, because I think deep down everyone was thinking this. To be fair, I always worry about Tech because I'm a diehard fan and I worry about every game - that's what I do.
It pains me that we have to even have a thread like this, but this is absolutely no disrespect to you and solely due to our "uncertainty" right now.
That said, I think we open the flood gates tomorrow and hammer them and here's my slightly buzzed reasoning: Our win against ODU reminds me a little of when anOSU got revenge on us in 2015. No, it wasn't as big of an upset when we beat them in the Shoe in 2014 compared to ODU beating us last year, not even close, but my no-facts-backed opinion is that it's really hard to avenge a bad loss because it gets stuck in your head. Every human is heady and 18-year old college football players aren't exempt. OSU came into Blacksburg in 2015 as a much better team and it took Michael Brewer getting KO'd to give them the upper hand. Sure wasn't the revenge they envisioned until our starting QB was out.
Anyway, tomorrow, that monkey is off of our back and we can line up as a football team with superior players and 2 Saturday's under our belt to go out a let it loose. I'm going to keep this blind optimism up until I can't say "Go Hokies" anymore.
I'm sure they'll score. I don't think it will be as nerve racking as it was at times against ODU. Andy Bitter made a good point in one of his articles or in a comment that when Tech only led by seven against ODU, Tech had the ball the entire time. There was no point at which the ODU offense had the ball with the ability to tie it up.
This may not be a game of fireworks and may end up to be one of those games which we watch and at the end say "when did we score that many points" I don't think it'll be in the 50s or anything like that but I think the offense will be able to hang 31+ on Furman as well. I think get defense gets enough stops to keep the good guys on top.
I'm nervous because of their offense with its triple option component and a pretty good passer - a combination that has caused us some considerable angst. What gives me hope is that their previous games have been against weaker teams than I believe they will face today.
I am confident because our offense can score points and their defense has given up 55 points against weaker teams than I believe they will face today.
Go HOKIES!
Triple-option? Oh boy, hope we're ready for that. If not, this could be bad.
People are worried about Furman because we aren't a good team right now. It's ok to admit that.
What's not ok is to accept it. If VT sleepwalks thru the year again major changes need to take place.
This aged well