On ESPN's "Bowl Mania" show tonight, analysts Robert Smith, Todd McShay, and Ed Cunningham weighed in on the upcoming bowl games, with McShay ending the show with his prediction (literally...I had to wait the whole damn show to see the last pick).
They ranked their confidence in each bowl pick by assigning it a number 1-35, and McShay has UCLA over VT
at 22 points.
He believes that LT is going to have a LOT of trouble with Anthony Barr, and noted that's going to be the most overwhelming factor in the game.
A look at 'America's Choice' on ESPN's Bowl Mania website shows that 90% of voters have UCLA over VT, with an average of 21 confidence points.
Also, I was surprised to see the game that all the analysts agreed on at 35 confidence points was Baylor over UCF, and not A&M over Duke.
Comments
Shmexperts
Story of the season...I like it!
Time to prove him wrong!
Luckily the game is won on the field and not on paper or by what "experts" have to say about them
Tech players will hear a lot in the next couple weeks about how amazing UCLA is and how they don't stand a chance. I love it. Hope these experts will be eating crow around 6:00 PM 12/31.
Was it over when the Germans bombers Pearl Harbor?! Hell No. And it Ain't over Now...
The Germans?
.
Forget it, he's rolling.
Animal House reference.
as was 2hokiesin1's comment.
Not sure what the issue is really.
Living out here in PAC 12 land, I saw a lot of UCLA this season. I would say they right now are a better football team (and considerably so offensively even if Edmunds was playing).
I don't care abou any of the talking heads on ESPN in terms of their thoughts, but no reason to take any slight for these types of picks. Whether we like it or not, VT is not currently seen as a strong football team. And I think it can be argued that that is pretty close to accurate.
I 100% agree with you on that.
Brett Hundley was in Heisman contention for a majority of the early season and is a projected #2 round draft pick, and Anthony Barr has outperformed Jadaveon Clowney for the #1 defensive player in the draft IMO.
I also read an interesting stat that VT is 0-3 vs. PAC-12 teams under Beamer.
It'll be interesting to see how the match-up goes, but I think everyone should keep in mind that VT is seemingly outmatched...especially without Edmunds, as you said.
Yep, 0-3, Stanford with Luck, USC with Reggie Bush and Leinart when they were #1, and one loss to Cal in a game that had over 100 combined points (if memory serves correctly). Only one of those was a game we were favored in (Cal).
Ugh. Damn Aaron Roger' s oily hide.
Dude you're harshing my mellow
Woh. That's a bit harsh. ALL of his bacon? That's just wrong.
All of my bacon?
That makes me sad
We still haven't gotten that shutout win this season...
Because Kyshoen Jarrett doesn't know how to call a fair catch (*See muffed punt vs. Western Carolina)
i'm not saying i disagree, but fuck todd mcshay right in his ear.
ear penetration. giggity.
Stick it in! Stick it in! Stick it in!
Too whoever down voted this... WHY?!?!
Yeah, seriously, that dudes a douche of the highest order. Huge Mike London fan, nuff said.
Eh, let them pick whoever they want. VT and UCLA will decide it on the field. I didn't see the show, but based on the description above, it really just sounds like the Sun Bowl is so uninteresting to them that they just picked the headline player from each team and picked based on who wins a 1-on-1 matchup between the two. Barr is a great player and I think he will give us a lot of headaches, but I think we stand a chance because our D will give Hundley nightmares. I know we have problems with mobile QBs, but I think our guys will come to play.
Yeah but they chose a 1-on-1 matchup and rated them based on their kickball skills.
Ah, it all makes perfect sense now.
I wouldn't go as far as to say our D will give Hundley fits. Did you see Maryland's Qb run all over this D @ Lane. It was one of the more perplexing things to watch as a fan, seemed like we couldn't figure out how to stop him and I don't think its too far of a stretch to say Hundley is much better.
We waited until halfway through the 3rd to put a spy on him. The earlier we do that the less we'll see out of him.
im hoping that since we are getting no good press that we'll come out with a chip on our shoulder and punch them right in the mouth. ucla is good so well have to play lights out in order to win.
I hope McShay's wrong, but I sort of agree. I've watch 4 or 5 UCLA games this season. Their offense is good, and without Kyle Fuller at 100%, they're a matchup nightmare for us. Hopefully Bud can work his magic and Logan and Co. can string together some drives and be successful in the redzone.
I've seen a good bit of UCLA too and I have to say this is a great game for us to be in. Two teams that are good but not great, although I think we have seen our team play better than UCLA has this year, but they are more consistently good than we are.
They obviously haven't heard of our new game plan:
Play our defense ALL THE TIME on both sides of the ball.
It will give a preview of VT football when Bud Foster officially takes over in 2017.
Winning is guaranteed.
I'll be in San Francisco during this game (so it's an 11 am start for me). Anyone know any bars in that area with a bunch of UCLA fans? I wanna get some good heckling going.
wait, so el paso is in the mountain time zone? so its a noon kick? gah thanks weaver! (just kidding, just kidding)
It would only be right for Weaver's last game to be a noon kickoff on the last day of his AD tenure.
Our D will get after them as their O line is suspect and will cause turnovers. Could be low scoring game. Not sure if UCLA has played an agressive D as good as the Hokies (Standford maybe, but they lost to Utah).
There's a chance UCLA is gonna do the normal Pac-10 thing and show up waiting for the track meet to start, then get all offended when we punch them in the mouth.
What I think about most E$PN predictions
I wish Vegas had the line at 22! I would take that ALL DAY LONG!!
24-20 good guys.
Todd McShay is a blithering idiot. Before he was drafted, the guy said Jayron Hosely has short arms and that would hurt him in pass coverage. And that was after ESPN did a sports science thing on Hosely that gushed about his wing span. The guy just talks out his ass and hopes no-one really knows enough to call him on anything. ef him
Ahem! Todd McShay and all of $ec$pn:
That's what I said.
UCLA will come into this game thinking its an easy win. Bud is going to have a month to game plan which I believe will confuse UCLA for a half. If we are able to make a few big plays on offense, get a turnover, and shut down their passing attack; we should get a lead. Teams have not had much sucess when we are leading this season.
Once again, VT has a great opportunity against a high profile opponent in a bowl game.
Man, I want to win this, but I can see a lot of reasons why we won't (looking at you, Trey Edmunds....get well soon.)
I'm just a little tired of:
Of VTs 4 losses only one was by a margin above 7 points, Bama. Hokies have played to the level of the competition all season... it will be a close game. GO HOKIES!
Well, we'll have a kicker at this game.
Anyone remember Todd Mcshay when he was a 3rd String QB at U of Richmond? Yeah, me neither.
Apparently none of you remember when McShay picked VT to beat Stanford in the 2011 Orange Bowl. This means one or both of the following:
1. We are putting too much stock in what talking heads say about our team. When they pick us, we are happy. When they pick against us, we scream about the lack of respect. In the end, the game is played on the field and nothing these guys say matter.
2. McShay has a history of being wrong and it is our job to continue that trend.
I will leave you with this: my favorite part of the NFL draft is watching McShay vs. Mel Kiper vs. Mel Kiper's hair. I do think we need to get them all in the ring and let them finally declare a winner:
if its any consolation to mr mcshay, i have VT over UCLA as my 35 confidence pick.
I'm probably gonna get downvotes for this but, where's the dude that puts up all the "not a single fuck was given" gifs?
here's one... GO HOKIES!