Grantland's Holly Anderson wrote an extremely enjoyable ACC preview.
http://grantland.com/features/2014-acc-college-football-preview-florida-...
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Grantland's Holly Anderson wrote an extremely enjoyable ACC preview.
http://grantland.com/features/2014-acc-college-football-preview-florida-...
Comments
If you start reading this and expect there to be any mention of VT, there's 8 lines about us right after the Cutcliffe picture. Thaaaaaaaaats about it.
Its becoming very, very obvious that not a single person at ESPN is taking us seriously this year.
You gotta look at what the Hokies look like to the national scene.
1. 8-5 last year. Lost to Duke and Maryland at home. Needed overtime (and a bit of luck) to beat Marshall at home. Got shellacked by UCLA in their bowl game.
2. Offense looked shaky at best in EVERY game except for Miami, and Carolina.
3. There's no proven QB.
4. 3rd OL coach in three years.
5. Run game next to last in the ACC, just barely skating over Wake Forest for dead last.
6. Everybody in the D front seven not named Maddy or Dadi has never been a consistent starter in D1 football.
I could go on, but hopefully you see my point. Personally, I like this team. I always trust Bud Foster, and I think the pieces to the recruitment puzzle are coming together. I don't think the Hokies will be filling the trophy case this year, but they'll be getting more than 8 lines in this article this time next year. Bank it.
Don't forget that Frank UPGRADED to a new OC last year, and we had the 98th ranked offense. So... we've got that going for us. ESPN shouldn't take us seriously yet. We should prove ourselves on the field, because most of what they said might sting, but it isn't that unfair. Look how we did last year with our weak offense and strong defense. They're essentially predicting we do at least as well this year, based on our schedule in conference. They're also saying our offense doesn't have to be lights out for the team to succeed. Who among us doesn't echo those thoughts? I wasn't offended, because I think our players & coaches relish the opportunity to prove themselves. We talk a lot about 'earning it' and 'playing better with a chip on our shoulders' and 'loving the underdog role'. Well, here it is. Now we get to prove it.
Perfect!!! I see a good week 1 and an upset in week 2! However once we upset Ohio State I'm sure they'll call it a fluke/trap game and give us no credit. It will be all about what Ohio State did wrong not what the Hokies did right.
I don't think we're as keen to fire Frank as Ms Anderson seems to think we are.
Anderson... are we talking about Pamela by any chance!!!
Well, the mention of VT is really a trashing of VT.
Not to mention the pick of GT winning the Coastal...
I want nothing less than the ACC title this year, now...because somehow after a couple of mediocre seasons (which are good seasons for other teams), VT became the Nickelback of College Football.
Woah now
So if I read this correctly, CPJ is a bad influence on Jameis Winston (@Jaboowins)?
I can think of 3 teams besides us that could be chosen to win the Coastal, but GT? Grantland should stick to covering the NBA.
Yeah, this was pretty much everything everyone has ever said ever about the ACC this year, with a whole lot more put into the gap between FSU and everyone else (not to mention that "FSU and then everyone else" wasn't even a thing until this year. Seriously?). Pretty evident that what we have here is a good writer who knows diddly squat about college football.
Crabs and no Winston reference?? C'mon, you know they wanted to say something. But really GT?? No way. They have nowhere near the talent this year.
So the question now becomes, did Anderson inspire FifthFuller, or did FifthFuller inspire Anderson for articles like this...
She tooooooooooooootally copied me. Embarrassing, really.
In actuality, I love Holly Anderson. She is formerly of EDSBS, and if you guys ever read Spencer Hall and Ryan Nanni (celebrityhottub) those guys are great, even if they are Florida fans. They have a much less serious approach to covering college football while still making good points. Just like with any writer covering the national scene, it's much harder to know in depth info about 120-some programs, particularly when (as someone pointed out already) we were not so much good last year. I'd wager 80%+ of the people here can speak intelligently to the battle for the backup DT position at VT, while most national writers probably don't have the memory bank space or exposure to be able to name Hokie players period beyond Kendall Fuller, Luther Maddy and Kyshoen Jarrett off the top of their heads.
That being said...
Previous comment edited to include Anderson's name and your awesome as always response has been legged.
Personally, I am trying to be better about not feeling slighted about little things like VT not being mentioned "enough" in an article.
As someone who thoroughly enjoys EDSBS and Spencer Hall's writing, I've tried to read Holly's stuff and just can't get in to it. It comes across too hackneyed and cutesy for me. "Oh a crab metaphor...cuz Jameis Winston right?"
woka woka
I enjoy reading your stuff a lot more.
Sorry, 8300A, only really the first paragraph was in response to you, the rest was sort talking to the people saying elsewhere that Holly hates us.
Although, she DID go to Tennessee, so she's associated to a history of ducking us...
OK, so not as many of you liked the article as much as I did. I can say after reading a billion ACC previews, it was refreshing to read something playfully framed as a tight narrative. FSU and Clemson got the most ink because they are the two teams that have gone out and won big time national games, and they're the ACC teams with the best chance to factor into the playoff.
I enjoyed it pretty well. I only took issue to the Frank Beamer hot seat discussion, but hey. I thought the Georgia Tech prediction was entertaining.
I didn't mind it, as I found most of it to be pretty close to accurate. Not all, but most. It's way better than the boring ones that were written in April and published in June. I did think the footnote(not the hot seat stuff) about Frank was funny, and accurate. He's been the head coach all my adult life, and the same is true for virtually all of us. Many of us, he's been the head coach all our memory. He's like Obi Wan Kenobi.
It was some of the most entertaining sports writing I've seen in a long time (entertaining, I said, for the informative stuff I'll always stick to my TKP #sources). I lost count of the amount of times she literally made me laugh out loud. Not mention that she really only predicted/observed what most writers/prognosticators have already said about the ACC (the reasons for which have been adequately stated above in this thread).
Just in terms of sheer entertainment value, that article was worth it. It oozed with wit and cultural references that amused my inner 8-year old to the point where my fiance had second thoughts about having said "yes" to me. For those less inclined to read the whole-damn-thing, here are some of my favorite clips:
and well get our first look at the rebooted Petrino regime on Labor Day, when Miami wades through the garlic butterslick concourses of Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium to play the Cardinals
This years Clemson squad travels to Tallahassee in Week 4, sans NFLers Tajh Boyd, Sammy Watkins, and Martavis Bryant. Things could get gross.
And lest we forget, this is the ACC. Waiting for the goblins who infest league play to grab some team by the ankles at the most inopportune moment has historically been a not-unreliable strategy.
Who the hell knows whos quarterbacking Miami? (Without looking, were going to guess it ends up being somebody named Kyle.)
And the crowd-pleasing favorite:
And since today may be the last time we discuss Virginia football for a while, can we go ahead and get in our annual plea to please resurrect this horrifying Heffalump of victory? Thanks so much.
...if you don't know what that Heffalump is, well then today is your lucky day:
I mean, it was a fun read, but she definitely overplayed the "chasm" between FSU and Clemson. And GT? Really? C'mon, (wo)man.
#ESPNHATE #ESPNHATE #ESPNHATE #ESPNHATE AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LOUD NOISES WHY DOES ESPN HATE TECH WHY DOES DISNEY HATE FRANK BEAMER WHY DOES MICKEY MOUSE HATE THE HOKIE BIRD ARE THEY STARTING A BLOOD FEUD #ESPNHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTEEEEEEEE
We're enjoying the show
Micky Mouse hates the Hokie Bird? The Hokie Bird likes Mickey...
all goes back to that loss to Kansas in the Orange Bowl. Hokie Bird took it particularly hard, went lights out on bourbon and woke up in an disney backlot in orlando next to a clearly satisfied Minnie Mouse. It's been a blood feud ever since
all i'm saying is Hokie Bird could do a lot worse than Minnie
Really, it was the paparazzi photos that were most damning...
and the aftermath. The thumbs up was just pouring salt in the wound as far as Mickey was concerned...
+1
No, no... it goes back to the time Mickey decided to put on this huge party for the HokieBird back in 2005. Mickey brought all his friends, made sure to advertise the hell out of the event, hyped it up to everyone that it would be the greatest thing we've ever seen. The HokieBird made quite an entrance, but then dipped on the party about 5 minutes into it, leaving the Ibis alone to be the focal point, and as we've all seen in the years since, you just don't leave the Ibis alone as stars of the party. He simply just cannot handle the pressure of being there.
Justifiably so, Mickey has been pissed at the HokieBird ever since.
Is Mickey Mouse a bust? Or is Mickey Elite? Next, on First Take.
That's 3 minutes I'll never get back...
Ha, I love how even the rational readers of TKP can get so piqued at the vaguest slight from ESPN. They didn't write much about us? ESPN HATES US.
I'd rather they had written nothing, than what they did write. The "can we just fire Frank Beamer" comment was uncalled for. It's not like he had TIMECOP seasons.
ESPN, especially the ACC blogger (Giraffe) has always had hate for us. Even when we were making the conference our bitch it was always "FSU and MIAMI need to get back on track for the conference to be respected". The commentators had some love for us but not much. For some reason, Phil Steele has always liked us. He almost always predicted us to be better than we really were.
In all honesty we don't deserve any recognition yet. Sure, we can go on the moral victory route and say that our down years are better than most people's, or that our D held the mighty Alabama to less than 200 yards blah, blah, blah. Take a look at our BCS bowl record, or our win/loss record against top 10 ranked teams, or against high quality OOC teams. I think we're on the right track, but until we win some bowl games and beat some top ranked teams...this what we can keep expecting.
The only national news personality that I've ever heard that specifically throws vitriol our way is Wilbon. Every time VT came up on PTI, he always called us garbage.
I have a lot of respect for the guy, and grew up reading him in the Washington Post, but he really doesn't have any respect for us. I'd bet in week two, they'll briefly cover the weekend college matchups, including our vs. anOSU, and he'll probably do the same thing.
His wife sits on some board at UVA, or at least used to. I think there's a little snobbery coming from a Northwestern grad influenced by his Hoo wife. It's interesting because I really like PTI, but Wilbon is a card carrying Hokie hater.