Recent Comments
Oops
I guess it was fun while it lasted.
I don't think we will get gameday, but I do think this game will get far and away more viewership than any other that weekend. Kinda of weird, but what would they cover up until kickoff, the games the previous Saturday? How would Katy Perry present her stellar Wikipedia one liners handed to her by her agent during the limo ride over the the grove? Wait, that has nothing to do with it. So many questions.
is that the 30L / 7.9 gallon?
6.5 gallon plastic buckets are tough to beat for price, but I'm tired of finding the airlock overwhelmed with foam after 12-16 hours after pitch. Something like this with more head space might just do the trick. That or putting some effort into controlling temps instead of just sticking the fermenter in a corner of the basement rec room and crossing my fingers...
Port City Optimal Wit is now available in 16oz cans.
Classic Leonard.
He wasn't very pro-Hokie prior to the Sugar Bowl selection in 2012.
I know you see the worst in everyone, but really? All American... and we saw how he changes games last year. The more I read your an OSU posts the more I see you as a Michigan fan.
As others have pointed out, our team was just as young last year. In fact, I believe even with Miller and Spence out the two teams were returning the same number of starters...
That same line was hardly flawless the rest of the year. While the run blocking improved, you guys still gave up 11 tfl and 3 sacks against Bama, 3 sacks against Indiana, and were 74th in sack rate on the season- perfectly average. Furthermore, you aren't really accounting for the differences in scheme and the skill sets of the personnel for the teams you mentioned. Perhaps most notably, Alabama and Oregon were 92nd and 75th in sack rate respectively. We were #1 in the country. Fairly different situation.
Others have pointed out the flaws in your second argument, but I'd like to point out that Brewer was named the starter exactly 3 days after it came out that Braxton Miller was going to be out for the season. And that was with him having been in the system for ~2 weeks compared to a full year and a half for Barrett. So, uh, yeah...
Another thing- no one on our team played the game of their lives. Brewer was about average in terms of QB rating and didn't really complete many "miracle" throws, he just had guys open most of the night. While he converted third and long fairly frequently, a lot of that was because of matchup advantages granted by your defensive scheme (primarily tight ends, fullbacks, and slot receivers on linebackers, nickel corners, and even safeties), a scheme which other teams we faced later in the year do not run. Overall, the offense and run game were below their season averages. The only thing that was truly above average was the redzone efficiency and a lot of that was because we ran plays that we hadn't shown before, which is likely to be true again this year.
As for defense, last year the defense as a whole was #11 in S&P+, #2 in FEI, #6 (I think) in ESPN's defensive efficiency rankings, and most importantly #2 in passing defense S&P+ and VT's defensive line was #5 in adjusted line yards and #1 in adjusted sack rate. While other teams who were better match ups schematically were able to take advantage of injuries on defense, the defensive performance that night was no fluke. They were just good.
Your argument in fundamentally flawed in that it presumes we went 7-6 last year solely because we were a bad/mediocre team while entirely ignoring mitigating circumstances and match ups. Also, nobody is arguing that we are the better team overall, but rather that VT deserves recognition for the talent and accomplishments that it does have as well as the match up problems that the team poses Ohio State.
Anyway, on to the mitigating circumstances.
From the starting lineup against OSU alone (along with some contributors):
Bucky Hodges
Michael Brewer
Cam Phillips
Shai McKenzie (tore his ACL two weeks after OSU game)
Marshawn Williams (missed ~6 games with injuries)
Sam Rogers (broke his arm in the bowl game)
Laurence Gibson
Jonathan McLaughlin (out for the year)
Augie Conte
David Wang
Caleb Farris
Ryan Malleck (missed ~3 games with ankle issues)
Defense
Ken Ekanem
Detrick Bonner
Kendall Fuller
Chuck Clark
Brandon Facyson (played injured for 2.5 games, out for the rest of the year)
Kyshoen Jarrett
Chase Williams (out for ~4 games, 3 of our losses)
Deon Clarke
Dadi Nicolas
Luther Maddy (played injured for 4 games, out rest of the year)
Corey Marshall (missed the game after Ohio State and was limited in two others)
Throw in that Mark Shuman, Brent Benedict, Kalvin Cline, Trey Edmunds, Jerome Wright, and JC Coleman were all expected to be starters at one point and were hurt in the preseason and we had 11 guys who were starters at one point hurt for significant periods of time. No one loses essentially half of their starters and doesn't miss a beat.
I'm not mocking you, but just thinking about any of the above possibilities. WTF are we talking about if any of these are the reason a kid is getting kicked out of school, even if a second offense. Forget football for a second and his status as a key player, this is crazy for any student at VT and the impact on their life.
What more does a DC have to do ? It's that simple: Bud Foster earned the right to be VT head coach.
If Bud believes Whit is the right man for the job, then by all means he should take over, but I'm open to other suggestions as well. I believe in choosing whoever can get the most success for Tech and take our program to the next level. If that comes internally, that's great, but if that has to come externally there's nothing wrong for that in my books.
Male-female-female; female-male-male; unicorn-female...aaand I'll see myself out.
> Stability brings multiple championships
We would be drowning in NCs if that were the case. I don't know a program more stable than ours the past 25 years.
I respectfully think a lot of people need to be more open with risks, especially in the college football environment now. A lot of VT fans seem too scared of change, and that mentality should go away. Stability is nice but stability also makes you complacent and too comfortable. I think the post-Beamer era is the perfect oppurtunity for Tech to take it to the next level and seriously try something new. I believe that whoever is the best for the job should take over, and if that is Bud so be it, but I'm open to hearing other possibilities as well.
I was already on staff when that happened. My understanding of the situation is that the online poll they did had problems with automated voting and/or people voting multiple times. They did a second paper ballot after the online poll, and that's why we ended up with wolves as the mascot. For what it's worth, I voted for Hellbenders both times, and at least we didn't end up with Ravens as the mascot.
That's like Mexico saying, "You know, you should immigrate to Mexico. We are in the highest GDP per capita continent in the world."
heheheh. At the moment, Franklin is still their darling.
leg for actually responding to my semi-incoherent rant and providing factual information that defuses (slightly) my hatred for UMUC
Where's the fun in that, though?
I've heard that one as well
It would look like great.
Sounds like you've won me over. I support Bud Foster as next head coach.
TG to DC. Play Find-An-OC. Win.
I actually kinda agree. I think he starts for any team in the country, but still don't think he's the unblockable game changing hyper freak that people make him out to be. People talk about him like they talked about Clowney or Suh. He's not at their level.
That being said, Tech's chances definitely improve with him not playing.