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Awesome read and analysis as usual.

Still get angry that we lost to Maryland. The athletic department there has been a shambles which has led to their needing funds to balance their sports budget. A university that is well connected leaving the ACC and leaving all its history within the conference to greener pastures. While desperation for funds may have been their driving factor, their logic and the examination of ACC management practices makes it clear Swofford should have been pushed long, long, long ago. I didn't think Maryland would be able to recruit AT ALL because of the dire management situation and Edsall as a football coach, but during this game I was surprised by the talent level that Maryland had. When it comes to light that GT, FSU, Clemson are (still) having discussions, I hope VT is not handicapped by the Steger, Weaver transitions. The hatred for Tobacco Road management runs deep across the ACC. If they can find an economic way out of the exit fee, I think two maybe three teams leave the ACC by choice over the next year. Yet I see no change in the way the ACC is treating its member institutions, no acknowledgement that change is necessary, no sense of urgency to improve the economics of the ACC. Stupid I know... losing this game effectively said VT is the losers and oh by the way our conference affiliation strategy is much better than yours... if we win, would I then have said... so long losers and your conference affiliation strategy sucks too? I dunno. Alot comes down to whether the ACC loses football teams or basketball teams and whether that impacts perceptions of recruits who do take into account conference affiliation. I do think that change is in the air and I hope our program is ready to take advantage of what comes when it comes. The ACC has blipped up this year due to FSU, Clemson, but how long will this last?

Bottom line takeaway for me is our players are learning how to play big boy D-1 college football on the offensive side of the ball. I don't believe for a second the prior regime knew anything about what they were doing. Hopefully we can retain these coaches for a number of years and over time build up the institutional football knowledge and memory needed to have more consistent execution. You don't build football savvy into your player base over night.

Feel for the guys on D. I think they generally played well. A little more athleticism (KyleF), a better kicking situation, fewer injuries on ST, etc, etc, and we win that game. Instead their momentary lapses in discipline are magnified.

Really want your assessment of JC to be wrong. I don't think he looks like the same back from last year. I want to imagine that it is the double high ankle sprains lingering. It is hard to be a little guy even a guy as strong as he is. When you have to make contact, if you lose leverage you will go down. One of the critical runs he didn't get I thought he had a huge hole to his left. No way he didn't see it, but he ran right into one of his blockers. Hoping against hope he just didn't explode into the hole because of the ankle(s). JC is awesome. Love him to death. Definitely seems to be struggling this year. I'm sure you know that kids don't discuss injuries. They just play and its the coaches job to see past the BS the players try to put past you (IMHO). Sure there are some who are honest but most want to play too badly. Unless they feel they are hurting their team the want to suit up and go.

>>the least access to elite talent to ever make a national championship game.

Maybe true but I don't buy into the conventional wisdom that VT is handicapped in recruiting because of location. Blacksburg is a great place. Beautiful. Diverse - Redneck hillbillies, country folks, beach people, Nova people, Jersey people, even some city people all come together in a big college town. I always could find fun on Tuesday through Saturday. Always could find something interesting to study and had some of my best professors in unexpected places there. Greenberg brought alot of talent into the hoops program. He could sell ice to eskimos and from what I can tell is a guy who will tirelessly work on something anything every day he gets up for the rest of his life. Prior regime had folks not interested in selling (ironically these guys are likely the guys who could sell best) and guys who IMHO didn't have enough credibility to sell well. Bottom line I think we'll see the new coaches exceed what most think is possible at Virginia Tech. Fck that "we are virginia tech" slogan... "Virginia Tech is awesome" should be the slogan. Unfortunately not enough of us believe it.

embarrasing the length of the post...seriously!!!???!@#$#%@!

I had that same thought when I read this but maybe he was just making the point of youth. Coleman is the same academic year as Trey Edmunds.

But I prefer cookie pies to cookie cakes.

That is better than I could do it. No matter what, you can't let him get inside you.

I was thinking that too. On the other hand, could just make our numbers look better by saying I'm number 6.

Great review french...I know I am looking forward a bit here but as far as the QB contain defense goes I can see that being a problem next year against tOSU. Braxton Miller and a string of other tOSU QBs have made a living on the scramble drill for big plays and easy passes. Can Fosters D contain a big play running QB and still be effective?

this video makes me laugh every time that fat guy rolls off. Hilarious.

I'm bored at work and this is more accurate.

I refuse to make the meme, but something along the lines of "one does not simply commit to Virginia Tech THEN get a ratings bump from Rivals" would accurately describe this situation.

Thanks again for the great read. If you look at that JCC third down play, not only does the linebacker not budge an inch, but JCC bounces back off of him like a ping pong ball to lose 2 yards before a pretty impressive 2nd effort almost picks it up anyway. You have to imagine that an RB who is more than a buck 90 or whatever JC is picks that up on first contact.

The end part is interesting, and I agree for the most part. What we have done is pretty impressive. The problem is that the program set the MNC expectations with the trophy case, and after 15 years, what was supposed to be an inspiration is more of an albatross.

We're not a national title program, we more than likely never will be. We are who we are. I think people would have been fine with being who we are if it meant in the years where we were better than usual, we got more of those big, signature wins, especially bowl wins. Things like that go a long way towards placating a fan base. But it seemed like we are just constantly coming up short in the bigguns, even though we were *so close* so many times. Peach Bowl vs. UGA, Orange bowl vs. Kansas, Sugar vs. Michigan...all of those were exceptionally winnable games. Win one and especially two more of those and so many fewer people are complaining.

As it stands, our two signature bowl wins in the last decade are over a 7-5 Tennessee squad with a fraud coach who was on his way out the door, and a Big East team. Our best bowl win ever was in 1995. I currently have two children, a wife, a mortgage, a decent job, and life insurance. In 1995 I didn't have a learner's permit.

I think you'll find that people are willing to tolerate lower lows if it means higher highs. People like the notion that you're building to something, and that the payoff at the end will be large. Regularly winning 10 games in one of the weakest conferences in the BCS is fine at first if you use that to build to something better. Just doing it over and over again is fine, and it's better than last year, but it gets old after a while, call it spoiled or what, but it's just human nature.

Losing now stinks, but I argue that the feeling right now as a fan is better than it was several years ago because you can see marked improvement in the offense in one year. It looks like were building to something, and that's exciting. For the last decade or so if someone asked how the hokies were gonna do this year you could ususally say "I don't know, they're probably going to win 10 games or so, compete for the conference championship and lose in a bowl." at least 50% of the time you would be right. Predictability is never fun, and I argue that "fun" is the point of watching CFB at all.

FWIW, two saturdays ago against Miami was the most fun I've had watching a college football game since probably that 2009 CFA bowl against Tenn.

Reconnecting with the fanbase needs to be a heavy priority (I know this isn't a unique thought.)

"Those guys wear MAKE-UP to games!"
He was all over this caller- AWESOME!