Just keeping the season in perspective, the Hokies are the only Coastal team to control their destiny.
The other one loss teams (conference record only) are UNC, Pitt, and UVA. But, UNC lost to us, Pitt lost to UNC, and UVA lost to Pitt. Therefore, assuming any of those teams win out, they need the one above them to lose a game to gain control.
Miami has two conference losses. If they win out, they would need UNC to lose two more games to get control.
GT is pretty far back, and Duke just needs to start winning in conference for me to care about their chances.
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
Losing to Cuse in the Dome again was disappointing to say the least. That being said, while playoff aspirations for this team were fun to have, they are unrealistic for this team right now. We knew there would be bumps in the road, we just didn't expect them to happen on the road against a manageable Cuse who played great. I still believe that we can win the rest of our games, win the Coastal, and face Clemson for another chance at an ACC championship. I'm still behind this team 100 percent and they'll be ready to open a can of whoop ass on Miami in the Terrordome.
So what you're saying is...Syracuse was almost like a preseason game?
Seriously though, I was hoping to get through this season without having to play the "rely on the collective crappiness of the coastal to get to the ACCCG" game
They should should have won this game. They got outplayed by a Cuse team who came in with a great game plan. There's no such thing as a good loss, and frankly it was embarrassing. I think it'll wake these guys up and they'll react to this loss on Thursday.
We're not relying on the crappiness of the Coastal, though. If we win out, everyone else in the division would have at least one loss, and we will have all of the tiebreakers.
If we win out, there's only one tiebreaker (UNC).
Yesterday on Gameday and Friday on PTI, David Pollack called us the best conference in the nation. Sure the Coastal is weaker than the Atlantic, at least at the top. But this conference is better than people think, despite our loss and Miami losing yesterday. A one conference loss VT team is pretty good, assuming we win out. Can't believe I'm assuming anything at this point after yesterday, but still whoever gets to the ACCCG isn't a crappy team at all IMO.
We control or destiny with a first year head coach leading a team that struggled to finish with bowl eligibility the last few years. The season isn't over by any stretch and the next 2 games could wrap up a trip for us to Orlando.
I'm going to take us on a trip down comparison lane here for some perspective that might make everyone feel a bit better.
Let's look at 2011 Clemson, very comparable to this team so far, they were coming off a 6-7 campaign with one of their worst and most unreliable offenses ever. They hire Chad Morris in the offseason to fix the offense, early on, the offense is totally revamped, Clemson looks like a brand new team, they are scoring with ease and creativity. Then they go to play a big night game with GT. They weren't ready for the big stage and lose 31-17. Then as they are licking their wounds over the next few weeks they get blown out by a bad NC State team on the road 34-6 (sound familiar?) fans questioned how their offense could look so good and suddenly be so bad. But they managed to regroup and seal the Atlantic division in the last week and they played us in the ACCCG. Overall that season was pretty great for them, it ended in a disastrous loss to WVU, but I don't think that one will come to fruition for us.
Overall, it was the beginning of a huge turnaround and we have been following that narrative similarly. We knew it'd be unlikely that a 7-6 team would be a 12-1 playoff team, there's just a lot it takes to become a truly great team. We lack some of that now, but we're moving in the right direction for sure.
Yeah, but what have they done lately? /s
Ah, yes. Thank you for reminding me.
This is kind of cool, I have to admit.
indeed. West Virginia's troll game was on point with this. I can only hope the state of Virginia is willing to pony up should we be in a similar position.
Great post. Improvement (in any aspect of life) isn't linear; there's peaks and valleys.
Thanks for the optimistic post after a tough loss. It'll be
interesting to see how we do in the next few games.
Maybe it's also good for the team to know any team can be
dangerous on a given day.
As long as they don't f*k up anymore, yes.
The most important game of the season is now the one on Thursday.
This week the record is 0-0. Let's hope by Friday the record is 1-0.
It's too soon for this nonsense and I hate the phrase "control your own destiny". Beat Miami, that's all I care about.
via GIPHY
NOTHING CAN STOP ME; I'M ALL THE WAY UP
Not to be negative Nancy but UNC's remaining schedule is a lot more favorable then ours. They have gone through the tough part of the coastal and only have Duke, GT, NC State, and some other College that for some reason counts as a Coastal game. We still have Miami , Pitt, Duke, GT, and that same college that for some reason counts as a Coastal game.
So as it appears that we are "in the driver's seat" I would say that UNC is the favorite to win the Coastal until we get through Miami and Pitt.
At least we could be playing a 3-7 ND instead of a 10-0 ND which every one of their fans was predicting in the preseason.
I REFUSE to believe that ND on the road will be a cakewalk, regardless of their record. I think it has the makings of a "trap" game.
Yup. Especially if they improve here out.
NCSU will not be a cake walk for them. And as long as Larry Fedora is in town, they have a chance to give any game away.
David Hale of ESPN tweeted the chances of winning the coastal before this week and after. UNC is at the top as far as the prediction goes.
https://twitter.com/DavidHaleESPN/status/787762132603449344?s=09
Just win and the percentages take care of themselves.
Which is what UNC was saying last week, and look what happened!
The games are played on the field.
Last week UNC beat Miami. Doesn't that just make my point? What am I missing here?
I was agreeing with you. :)
We control our own destiny, but the margin for error just evaporated. Losing one more conference game will pretty much do us in. That's a bad position to be in with five conference games left.
This. I agree with this viewpoint. After losing to a team as bad as Syracuse I am having difficulty being excited about controlling our destiny. We haven't even gotten to Pitt or Miami yet.
Yeah, I'm not even thinking about the Coastal. I'm thinking of 3+ hours of football this Thursday night. I wanna get back to how we looked in games 3-5 and go 1-0 this week.
Shhhh stop talking sense!
Despite being extremely frustrated yesterday I still like the direction our program is going. Just beat Miami, ND, and UVA, and I don't care what else happens, I'll call this season a success.
What about Pitt? If we lose they tie up the overall series.
FTFY
This works for me.
I just got back from Syracuse and I after driving 7hours, I got to put things in perspective. First off, I was very disappointed in the way this team played. They came out flat and Dino B beata them in every aspect of the game. They deserved to win. The guy sitting in front of me, said this was their bowl for 2016. They came to play, we didn't.
But this is year one for our new coach, who is still putting together his team. It will take a couple of years to do, but we are way ahead of schedule. We will be fine but I really don't see a trip to Orlando in the caards. If we do, then CJF should win coach of the year.
I don't have enough legs to post a new thread, so maybe I can get someone else to do it :-). This was a tough game and many of us are frustrated. However, that should never turn into our players or coaches being derided and feeling we don't support them. How about we show our team we're behind them and love them just as much today as we did Friday. Post some positive comments of support.
I got you, fam
Just beat Miami.