Recent Comments
Sadly the ECUs and ODUs will stay on the sch. Think it will be the end of the FBS FCS games. The SEC will ostracized for still playing them.
That's what we said the last year we played them. Unfortunately, that epochly bad team beat us that year. :--(
I agree that the more mature defensive backs will give Foster the ability to rely more on single coverage islands or playing safeties closer to the LoS.
That said, I think the arguments against youth work against us when it comes to the DLine. Maddy and Dadi may have had middling years last year, but it's difficult to assume that our admittedly talented underclassmen can step into those immediately.
Case A: Houshoun Gaines, who has made a beeline for Fuente's doghouse. (for an action that should be legal, rabble rabble, can you tell im salty)
Granted, Ken Ekanem and Woody Baron really stepped into their roles during the meat of the ACC schedule last year. With their help, our line isn't THAT young, so hopefully the injury bug stays away and he can make the most of the schematic flexibility awarded by his more experienced free safeties.
This guy knows more about football statistics
Than anyone I''ve ever seen. Glad to see a possible up side of 9 wins. Let's go hokies, let's statistics the shit out of them.
It's coming
Fair point. But I have no doubt that there is strong East coast bias in the committee. Always has been with college sports, for the most part. Stanford was a top team and played a strong schedule, but it's hard to keep track of the PAC-12 if you're on the East coast.. If you aren't USC or Oregon (traditional powerhouse and flashy new program), you probably won't get the same attention.
Remember we are in the coastal I wouldnt be shocked by 6 wins or 10 wins. This division can turn on a dime. All it needs is for 1 team to significantly over achieve IE UNC last year and GT the year before
When I saw this article the first thing that ran through my mind is great....we gotta drop an out of conference game! Gooooooodbye ecu
Oklahoma, Auburn, Michigan State
The response to that would be Stanford last year. Easily one of the best 4 teams in the country, won the second most difficult conference, but got left out because of an early season loss to a strong OOC opponent. SOS definitely matters more, but minimizing losses still matters more than winning big games I'd say. Of course that very well could change.
9 wins doesn't seem outlandish to me at all. I'm not gonna be too disappointed if we don't win 9, but this year has a lot of unknowns that make it very hard to predict. If our offense is significantly improved, we should expect to stop losing to the teams we shouldn't ever lose to. If the defense is a little better, we should win more of the toss up games as well. Too early to tell obviously, but not a lot of reason to be too negative about this year's team in the preseason.
As a fan, I would gladly play a tougher schedule with more conference games, better quality OOC opponents and no FCS teams even if it meant we had a harder path to the championship. Winning is great, but as a fan I'm more excited about going to games and watching competitive football week in and week out.
And I'd be willing to bet that market forces would ultimately reward those teams and force other conferences to catch up as we'd be delivering a better product to TV/streaming platforms.
He can't stop them, but he may be able to slow them down.
I've been looking forward to this one, he does a really good job mixing hard data with some subjective analysis, it's been nice getting such insight on a lot of teams I know very little about.
I think his optimism for the line comes from his optimism for the defensive backs. While our secondary struggled, as he said, the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores. If you project that people like Edmunds, Mook, and Adonis continue to improve, and pair that with the fact that Bud is typically a lock to put up top-10 passing defenses, I could see us taking a step up, which will be a huge boon to the defensive line; 1) because better coverage leads to qbs holding the ball and taking sacks and 2) because a more experienced backfield allows us to mix in different coverage and disguise blitzes, Foster's specialty which was neutralized by youth last year.
I like that he seems all in for 2017, I can get behind that. I also strongly agree that we're likely a 7-5 team this year with a 9-3 ceiling if we get excellent quarterback play.
DBU was around long before Torrian Gray and it will continue to stay around because Buds defense philosophy is what creates great DBs not the DB coach solely. People forget we produced great corners before Torrian was here.
I second Oregon. I want to see what Bud would do to try to stop them.
Marshawn Williams TB 5'11, 243
Marshawn!!!??? Don't do this to me, brotein shake.
Worst
West bygodVa
FTFY. And I am appalled that you are so willing to just forget, overlook and shuck it like a dry fart. You should be carrying a chip on your shoulder.
Agreed, definitely not as tall. Since it won't be used for football, it wouldn't make sense to have the ceiling that high anyway. Looks pretty sweet when you drive by now that it's nearly finished. Ours is still top-notch, though.
Not anywhere as tall
-Boise
-USC(w)
-Cal Bears
-Michigan
-UMD
All coulda, shoulda, woulda's. Let's see what this new Sheriff can do in the coming years. He's got Tennessee, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Penn State, West bygod Virginia, and some others to make us forget those engagements.
Oregon, MSU, Texas
I want a rematch with:
-Boise
-USC(w)
-Cal Bears
-Michigan
-UMD (2 games so we can take control of the overall series)
I would like to schedule:
-Iowa
-Utah
I feel like these 2 teams try to compare and put themselves above us and we just need to beat them to settle it once and for all.
EDIT: I also feel like we owe MAJOR payback to squawk, balk, Jay-hawk. Kansas.
I think now with the committee being involved and SoS being such a determining factor, you are rewarded for tougher scheduling. So if you play a difficult schedule and happen to lose a game, it doesn't necessarily mean you are out of it. The days of the BCS rankings and gaming the system by scheduling cupcakes to ensure an easier path and rack up computer points are over. People are making the decisions now, and people want to see competitive games.
Good catch, thanks. I still hate that they changed it.