Here are the opening weekends games. Jerry Kill may have made the Hokies opening game at Vanderbilt a bit more challenging as the Commodores got a commitment this week from New Mexico State QB Diego Pavia. Kill was recently made the Chief Consultant to the Head Coach at Vandy.
๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ข๐ง๐๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐จ๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ ๐๏ธweek one drop ๐๐ฐ https://t.co/VdiFxJhmhf pic.twitter.com/ElROhwkzIRโ ACC Football (@ACCFootball) January 22, 2024
The remainder of the schedule will drop Wednesday at 5pm on the ACC Network.
๐พ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐จMark your calendar - the full 2024 ACC Football schedule will be announced Wednesday, January 24 on @ACCNetwork!๐ https://t.co/RIdJg0WKF1 pic.twitter.com/KkH7iKbzDEโ ACC Football (@ACCFootball) January 19, 2024
Comments
"Chief Consultant To The Head Coach" sounds like a Dwight Schrute job.
I didn't realize Kill took a consulting job there. That makes the Pavia transfer make a whole lot more sense.
It also makes that matchup appreciably more difficult.
I'm not totally sure about that. Pavia was productive stat-wise over the course of the season, but New Mexico State played a LOT of bad teams in 2023. Their schedule makes ours look like we play in the Big 10 East and SEC West at the same time.
He feasted on some real chumps, and had more than a couple poor-to-mediocre games. I'm not sure he's any better than whoever Vanderbilt already has.
Also, we don't have the CornFu (cornflu?) offense anymore so Kill has to account for VT actually trying to run the damn ball.
Jet sweep to the boundary?
Fake jet sweep to the field, reverse to the boundary.
He does have a cool name that sounds like he'd be a compelling recurring character in Breaking Bad...but hopefully that won't correlate to any on-field success against us!
I was referring to Kill being on staff at Vandy...
As far as the week 1 matchups:
It's a weird one, UC Davis uses the Cal Ag logo for athletics.
It seems odd that Stanford-TCU is on Friday.
3 Thursday games?!
Yeah, two Friday games and a Monday night game too. Will be curious if that is consistent or just an opening weekend one off.
I'm just confused on how those 3 games are going to be scheduled. How do you slot 3 games on a Thursday for maximum viewers for all of them. There are no good 'After Dark' teams on that list.
Games on the rest of the weekend is fantastic to stretch out conversations for past opening weekend.
The Minnesota-UNC game probably falls under the Big Ten TV deal, so Fox/NBC, then the other two are probably an ACCN/ESPNU split, or maybe even one on ACCNX, since they're not the tastiest matchups.
UNCheat at Minnesota is probably going to be on Fox, Foxsports or B10 Network.
Two ACC games will probably be ESPN/ESPN2 or ESPNU or god forbid the ACCN.
NC State and Wake both did Thursday night openers last year, and there were two in 2022. They've been on some different networks (NC State v UCONN on CBSSN), so looks like some filling in for TV programming, but only one marquee game at most.
It's definitely because it's opening weekend (Labor Day weekend). I believe it was similar this past season as well.
And the NFL has moved out of that space, opening later than they did in years past.
The NFL moved back to get out of Labor Day weekend and to get the start of the playoffs clear of the bowls/championship game.
Right, which opened up the weekend for college to play all over the place
O/U: 2.5 non-Saturday games for the Hokies?
For just regular season? I'd go under(1-2 Thursday or Friday night games). If you include postseason? over as bowl games can be on any day
I'd say 2, unless the ACC is going all-in on Friday games this year. Who knows maybe the ACC is going to go wild with some midweek ACaCtion.
Nailed it. No ACaCtion though
Please don't tell me that this is the first time. We have had a Thursday night game in Lane stadium against Boston College since the f*** Matt Ryan game.
Edit: It is 1 week before the 17th anniversary of that horrid, PTSD-inducing night.
A not so fun fact for me..... The very first game I went to in Lane my freshman year in 95 was a Thursday night game against Boston College. We lost. The last time I was at a game in Lane? The above mentioned debacle. Don't worry, I will not be attending this year.
My freshman year was 2007, back when season tickets were only available to sophomores and up. Only way freshman could go to games was by way of the student lottery and it was pretty hard to get tickets.
Only home game I was able to attend was BC Thursday night...
I went to the Matt Ryan game with some friends who were in grad school while I did my super senior semester. My girlfriend, now wife, was in the MVs. After the halftime show my wife's best friend showed up at my seat high in the east stands to tell me that she went back to her dorm because her grandmother had passed, and that I was under no circumstances to leave the game early. Talk about emotional duress all around.
The first VT game I attended was the sugar bowl in 2012 in New Orleans. After that my wife surprised me with a trip to Boston to watch us lose to Boston College (fuente's last year* double whammy, that same weekend we flew to Dallas and I watched the Red Hot Dallas Cowboys go ice cold and lose to the Denver Broncos) The next game I would attend was the ODU game in 2022 in Norfolk... Very fun. A few weeks later I drove down to Blackburg to watch us get waxed by West Virginia.
Think I got most people beat in the bad luck department. Never seen any of my teams win in person... Yet.
Ha, that was my freshman year and first ever Hokie game as well, followed up by the home shutout loss to Cincinatti (to this day still the last time we got shutout in Lane Stadium). I was not looking forward to four years of Hokie football, but fortunately things got a lot better from there.
I remember going to that game.
(lol no i don't)
So let's recap shall we. VT joined the Big East football conference full time in 1991. With Boston Fucking College. Large southern land grant connected to insufferable tiny IVY wanna be. That's fucking awesome. VT finally gets invited to join the ACC in 2004. With Boston Fucking College. Not WVU, Not Memphis, Not anyone fucking else on planet earth. That's fucking awesome. The ACC goes to divisions, but we are going to flip a coin and close are eyes and HOLY SHIT VT, lookee there, Boston Fucking College is your cross over rival. How did that happen? The ACC finally goes division-less and puts together a random schedule, we avoid BC in a 3 team pod- but loow and fucking behold!!- you won't fucking believe this... we play..drumroll Boston Fucking College. So fucking great. The ACC then adds random colleges from literally all accross the country, goes to DIFFERENT Pods and - you better be sitting down.... we play Boston Fucking College. It's just great. It really is.
We however only play them 2 times over the next 6 years. '24 and '26.
24 is total coincidence
Really excited to see all 25 people at Hard Rock for the Friday night spectacle.
nice ๐
Am I doing this right?
That's not how it works anymore. They pack that place and the new roof makes it loud.
Last season average attendance was 11K under capacity at 54K average attendance. It's better than before though. In 2022, it was 43K average and 2018-2021 excluding COVID was 38K. It's still a Friday night so students choosing between going out or going to the game. No brainer if this was a game in Blacksburg but Miami has a few more distractions.
Ok, I use the term pack loosely, but it seemed like when they did all the upgrades and it became Hard Rock Stadium, the narrative went from "the students don't want to go to games off campus and there are too many other things to do in Miami," to, "it's so loud in here, this place is packed, the Miami fans are going wild over the turnover chain."
I mean, that 2017 game where Josh Jackson was getting absolutely pummeled and Braxton Berrios looked like Jerry Rice was rocking, but that was Saturday Prime Time Special between an undefeated Miami and a one loss VT team relatively late in the season.
I don't recall the 2019 crowd being special and the 2021 crowd was practically nonexistent thanks to very heavy rain.
You're right about the 2019 crowd, but I went back and watched highlights of the 2021 game. Tyler Van Dyke went off on us and the crowd was abysmal due to the weather, but the TV broadcast must have had the crowd miked up because it sounded packed. I remember watching it in frustration wondering how it was so loud.
Tre Turner had a ridiculous TD catch that night. One handed over the shoulder grab while falling with two feet into the end zone.
I was at the 2019 game. It was nowhere near full to start and most of the crowd left at halftime when we were up 4 touchdowns. But I will say that when we almost blew it at the end and Miami was pushing, it was very loud in there
I know my eyes are getting weaker in my old age, but everytime I see Miami on TV there are scores of empty blue seats in there- as in looks like Pitt at Heinz, etc. Every time. Even FSU has plenty of empties when they play there.
Attendance numbers are usually reported based on tickets sold...not actual people in seats and I imagine Miami has many games where they sold and didn't come similar to Cassell last night where there were a ton of empty seats in the season ticket holder areas. I agree though, watching many of their games the seats were empty.
And 11K under capacity means 1 in 6 seats is reported empty.
I'll be one of them! Last game I went to at Hard Rock was 2019 and the crowd was pretty lame.
Friday night games? What are we a high school now
Miami will be 4-0 heading into the matchup . Generally, I think facing Miami later in the year is better after they've given up. But perhaps, with Miami likely hyped and ranked, VT can get national recognition for a win in stand-alone game that should garner the eyes of CFB media.
They national media hype train for Miami was started as soon as Cam Ward signed. And, well, I think that's fine. He's good, but, he's also had some inopportune TOs.
Cam McCormick is playing his 9th season. That is going to be a tough matchup for our defense. His near decade of experience is going to be tough to deal with.
A look ahead at the game...
Was that Caitlin Clark knocking that guy off his feet?
Couldn't have been, no fake injury afterwards.
I think the first month of our schedule is actually pretty tough now with the Miami game being announced. Opening on the road at Vandy isn't going to be a cakewalk, and then we have Rutgers in mid-September which will be a very physical game and big challenge for both our O and D. Then have to turn around on a short week and go play at Miami on a Friday. I feel like there could be potentially a couple of losses in September with the way the schedule is shaking out.
Conversely:
Win those early games in September that you should. "Steal" one from Rutgers at home. Beat Miami on the road.
All of a sudden, 5-0 with big MO and things start looking pretty exciting!
16-0, bro.
Short week with long travel to Miami, in a time of year when it's still hot there... meh don't love it
But really, it's only a 2.5 hour flight. No worse than Syracuse, BC, or bus rides to Carolina schools. Now the western ACC teams......
I just flew from Tampa to Pittsburgh in 2:15 this morning. Sort of related - nice that the airport bar is showing the ACCN right now!
Boston College on a Thursday night. What could go wrong?
Have they always made such a big deal about this? I don't remember as much attention being given to the 355 schedule announcement. Seems odd to give 3+ days of hype to the ACC logistics team.
I guess trying to squeeze whatever ratings they possibly can out of ACCN. Agree they are really milking this way too much this year. Just release the schedule in one night and have a show and be done with it.
I mean, you gotta fill that time some how.
It's like Bitter said......could've been an email.
I couldn't care any less who tech plays in the acc, your job as a team is to whip their ass. Not interested in playing chump teams out of conference, he'll play more acc league games. Football is a tough sport, play soft ass teams and you end up who you play-soft. Plus side is we get to see great games,and the team will get better for it.
Not sure why everyone wants to play Wofford and the likes.
Clemson is 11/9 in case anyone wants to get a jump on hotels
This guy....doin' the Lord's work.
Can you tell me which game will be MV Alumni weekend? /s
Can you also tell me what our record will be leading into that game so I can decide if it's worth it?
It will be better than clemsons
My sister is getting married that exact day.
I may have to estrange myself from my family if we roll into that game undefeated.
The last time we played Clemson at home, a co-worker of mine was marrying a Hokie (groom). Almost half the tables at the reception had a phone or a tablet playing the game. Bride was a good sport and understood, but you could tell she didn't like the attention being drawn away. My wife and I (both Hokies) agreed that you can't schedule your fall wedding on a day where Tech plays anybody where it has a chance of being a good match up. My wife's best friend (another Hokie) got married the day of that rainy ECU game where we lost. I couldn't watch the game because the wedding was out at Beliveau Winery outside Blacksburg, where we barely had cell reception. During the reception I went outside to check the score and saw that we somehow lost.I decided then I was going to get obliterated on the sweet red. So I did.
I bet that was a fun hangover.
I don't remember the hangover specifically. I usually try to end nights like that with a lot of water, which gets more important the older I get.
when I asked my father-in-law-to-be (a Hokie) for his daughter's hand in marriage, one of the first things he told us was that if we had a fall wedding he wouldn't be there. Wasn't a huge threat, since my wife and I (both Hokies) never dared to risk scheduling a wedding around Hokies football (got married in May) anyway. We thought it was funny, but unnecessary. We were never going to have a fall wedding for that very reason.
I don't know what their deal was scheduling on that date. He should have known better and even she was a big college sports fan having degrees from UNC and UGA. They're divorced now, but anyway, your father in law is wise. Big weddings are a racket anyway. I tell everybody I can, the 3 best words for weddings is elope and destination wedding. Save money for other, more important stuff. Especially now with inflation.
you hate to see people get married and divorced. I've had two friends get married and divorced already. I was at one of the weddings and, frankly, I'm not all that surprised it ended the way it did. Sometimes you can just kinda tell. ยฏ\_(ใ)_/ยฏ
I'm my wife's second husband. It's kinda like getting someone out of the portal who should have committed to you in the first place.
I was a groomsman in a wedding back in the 80s. Lavish affair in Cambridge MA. Big wedding, dinner, DJ and open bar, plus another reception at the bride's parents' house after that. Groomsmen and bridesmaids each got their own limo, bride and groom got a Rolls Royce. Had to cost mid-5 figures.
Divorced in 3 years.
My cousin got married about 25 years ago. His new wife had come from some money in Jersey. Fancy wedding, reception at the Jersey shore in a private club. I blinked when I met Steve Forbes at the reception. They waited until the youngest was a senior in HS to divorce.
The only acceptable fall wedding is during the bye week(s).
Weddings don't HAVE to be on Saturdays. When my step brother got married they did it on a Sunday, and got the venue at half the price they would have if they booked it Saturday. Of course, if you want to get married in a church then that would be tougher, but for most people that need to travel you end up having to take off Friday anyway, so in this case people would just take the Monday off instead.
Yes but traveling with a massive hangover is rough.
VT has a chance for primetime Nov. 9 and that's pretty much it besides the Th/Fr games. Maybe Oct. 26 against GT, if FSU/Miami get an ESPN/ABC spot. It's honestly a pretty boring schedule seemingly ripe for nooners.
Boring = ACC Championship!!!
The schedules for FSU, UNC, UL, and NCSU don't look hard either. ACC, already a mid-level product, added three mid teams diluting the number of top tier matchups.
5 of the top 10 easiest schedules per 247 are ACC teams. Butter melting butter
The acc is garbage narrative begins early! Despite GT almost beating the vaunted UGA team or the bottom 3/4 of the SEC AND BIG ten being equally as bad as the bottom of the ACC.
Yeah, but this is actually smart scheduling and exactly how the SEC built themselves up back in the 2004-2010 timeframe.
Don't play anyone. Don't play true road games. Keep OOC cake and make sure your only tough games are inside the conference.
Repeat for 3 or 4 years and suddenly people are only talking about records and not who you've played.
Except Phyllis from Mulga, RIP
Our schedule last year was a snooze fest and I feel like we barely had any nooners. With so many channels airing games, I feel like we are primed to have many mid afternoon kick offs.
yea, that's true. WF, BC, Duke, Pitt, Cuse, SMU, UVA, and GT will eat up a lot nooners. Any Stanford/Cal game should be an afternoon or later game, though.
I had WAY more nooners than were scheduled. Way.
Absolutely love the open date going into a thursday because you get two longer weeks.
And also back to back weekends the staff can get out to high school crootin'-wise
Also we only have only one asymmetrical post-bye game. We have a bye the same week as BC before our matchup and only play Duke after their bye which shouldn't be bad.
Duke shouldn't be very good next year. But getting them late in the year will let Diaz and their coordinators establish their scheme and coach up the young team.
Didn't know he could coach up any team.
Theme is washing the stink off this year. Can we win at ODU and Cuse? for the first time in eons? Those two are pivotal games.
Is it bad that I only see two potential losses
I see the same
One of them is understandable, the other infuriatingly predictable but shouldn't happen.
Counting both Marshall and Rutgers as wins after last year? yeah- risky.
at ODU 9/14
Redemption
2 bye weeks this year? Is this from Leap year shenanigans?
Probably because Labor Day is super early.
We play UVA in Lane? damn thats new
Nah- we play them in Lane EVERY year...just sometimes it's Lane NORTH1
I'm going to the Stanford game!
I'm not saying the schedule is easy, I'm just saying based off what I saw this past year, most- if not all- of those look winnable.
Travel to Miami then back to Blacksburg then travel to Stanford that's brutal.
Now for the important analysis.
Virginia Tech opens up conference play on the road in Miami, who will be coming off a road game against USF.
Then the Hokies travel west to be Stanford ACC home opener, who will just be done at Syracuse and then Clemson, before going back on the road to face Notre Dame. I don't envy that four game stretch.
Hokies then have a bye before their ACC home opener against Boston College, who will also be coming off a bye, splitting up their yo-yo trips to the Commonwealth.
Then it's TECHMO BOWL against GT, who will be coming off a home game against Notre Dame.
Beginning November, a House of Horrors awaits in Syracuse, who will have just come back from their I-90 to I-79 trip to the Steel City.
Coming home to the big ticket game, Virginia Tech welcomes Clemson, who will have welcomed Louisville the week before facing the Hokies.
After the second open weekend, the Hokies will close out their road schedule in Durham, where the Duke Blue Devils will also be coming off an open, after having had Miami and NC State back-to-back on the road.
Closing out the regular season in Commonwealth Cup fashion, UVA will have had a home game against SMU.
When the opponents from 2024-30 were released a few months ago I seem to remember Bitter or another media member calculating the travel milage for each of the ACC teams for the next few years. Does anyone know where to find that tweet or article?
Don't have a link but I remember the TSL crew discussing this on one of the podcasts. Seem to recall VT's average travel was somewhere in the middle of all the teams, with the Carolina schools having the least since they all play each other, and the three new schools having the most being so far away. But this season with having Vandy, Stanford, Miami, and Syracuse on the road, this was the most travel ever for VT in a single season by a good margin. I think the next most travel in a season was in 2002 where we went to Texas A&M, to Western Michigan randomly, to BC, Cuse, and Miami. And then out to California if you throw in the bowl game which was a lot.
Fuck the Carrier Dome. That is all.
Hear me out, what if we all become big time donors to Syracuse so we can get them to tear that place down
Only if I get to push the button.
I think you have to beat Bud Foster for that right.