Want to hear something crazy?
I was writing my column last night, cautiously making a case for Tech to beat Clemson on Saturday. I was about four paragraphs in when a transformer on the power line outside my house in Richmond exploded, cutting the power and wifi and not letting me finish the article.
Basically what I'm saying is that god thinks Clemson covers.
BUT, if you want to know why there's a glimmer of hope, it's this:
Last week Tech really destroyed Syracuse offensively with a backup quarterback, two backup running backs and a gimpy left tackle. The most success the Orange had on defense was a string in the first half where Tech:
- Punted on 4th and 1 from the 45 🙄
- Had a drive derailed only by a phantom hold and phantom block in the back 🙄🙄
- Saw Pry completely botch the end of half situation 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
They were MOVING the ball, basically at will. Now, you might say "but Clemson is better than Syracuse!" Okay sure. But Syracuse is tied for 94th in the country in yards-per-rush allowed. Wanna guess who they're tied with?
THAT'S RIGHT. Yooooouuuuurrrr Clemson Fighting Mega Churches.
This needs to be a Tyler Bowen game of all games. Control the ball. Get Tuten (hopefully) going, involve the QB in the run game, throw in a few reverses and weird misdirection plays. It was pretty amazing seeing what Bowen, Brent Davis and the rest of the crew cooked up without having the two best players on the team active. Even if we assume Davis has a firm hand in shaping the attack, this is exactly the kind of growth you dream of for a young coordinator.
Bowen doesn't get it right all the time, but he has gotten consistently better, and showed creative problem solving with wrinkles we hadn't seen before. If you're coming up with creative solutions to the issues ahead and developing a solid game plan, it's about all we can ask for.
Which is in stark contrast to...the other side of the ball for the Hokies.
This is why it needs to be such a big Bowen game. Because we should assume that it will be a repeat of last year's Florida State game otherwise (Clemson uses talent to build lead, let's foot off the gas, but then picks up seven yards a run and puts the game away.)
There's a larger conversation to have about the job a few people are doing. Maybe we'll have it next week.
With that being said, I don't trust Bowen as much as I distrust Marve and god has spoken:
Clemson 38 Hokies 24.
(buuuuuuut if it was 31-21 VT I wouldn't be stunned)
Comments
We all think they CAN win.
The only question is whether they can overcome injury and adversity and WILL win.
Will clearly take some correct alignment of the forces in the universe that have evaded the team in close games, and that the game to be close to begin with.
Can both the offense and defense have a good game on the same day?
I'm fairly certain this has been illegal in the state of Virginia for at least the last 20 years
in the last 20 years, we have had wins of 52-14, 42-13, 37-7, 38-0, 52-10 and 55-17
all actually within the commonwealth of Virginia, and all against UVA
:D
first - this is a great stat - thanks for sharing and LOL@UVA
secondly - if it wasn't abundantly clear (I thought it was?) I was joking
I call them The Righteous Clemstones
Amazing.
We absolutely have the horses to win this one. It'll be seeing how out matched our trainers are.
Respectfully disagree. We are a legit RT, RG, MLB, Safety away at minimum.
Their defensive line is in shambles right now. I think we'll be able to run on them fine, we've gone up against better DL this year. MLB sure but we have enough pieces to beat this Clemson team.
At no point did I say we have all the horses I want, we have enough talent on the 2 deep to beat this Clemson team.
LOL
On SZD this week, Richard (who is often critical of VT) said "Does anyone really think this Clemson team is better than Virginia Tech? They beat up on the bottom five ACC teams and lost to everyone else'
Fuente's loss to Clemson was his best 'win' as a VT coach. If Pry beats Clemson, this will be his best win of his tenure.
Does anyone think Clemson is better than VT??? Yes dcwilson40 does without hesitation.
I think most people think Clemson is the better team the gap this year is just much smaller.
Instead of beating us 10/10 times on paper this year they might only beat us 6/10 times
Are they better?
Yes.
But, they have exploitable weaknesses that do fit into our limited strengths
Anyone who thinks VT is better than Clemson didn't see our defense play last week. At this point, I think the only thing that could stop the Clemson offense is Clemson. Which, I mean they're a bit of a mess this year, that could happen, but I wouldn't put any money on it.
He wasn't saying VT is better than Clemson, he was saying he isn't sure if Clemson is better than VT. In other words, we're about the same level in his eyes.
*chants* peer tier peer tier peer tier
Yea; in context, it was less a compliment to VT, rather an indictment of Clemson.
I agree. It sucks that we are no longer competing for the ACC crown (especially since we should have gotten the W at Miami...) but a win against Clemson would certainly change how a lot of fans feel about the season. Even though this isn't the Clemson of recent years, they still have that aura, and casual fans would get excited by it. Clemson had a long enough run of success that beating one of their weaker teams still buys Pry some serious goodwill.
They are still Clemson. Dabo is still there. Fuente couldn't beat them in 3 tries. The last time we were nationally relevant they beat us twice in brutal fashion. I don't believe we have beaten them since 2007.
This season has been frustrating but I'd still prefer that the fanbase have something to be positive about. And as noted elsewhere - Vegas has us as 5.5 underdogs, meaning their models think we have a decent chance. I'm pretty sure last year against FSU we were 25 point dogs as a reference.
It would be a great win given where we are, yes. It would be Pry's only win over a good team for one. And we can certainly "compete" with this Clemson team. Louisville is not a playoff type team and they just beat them pretty good. So yes, play a clean game, keep the home crowd into it, and actually for the first time this year- get a late game stop WHEN YOU NEED ONE. Not when you are up 2 scores or down 2 scores...no, get a stop on defense in a tie game with 1:30 left on the clock. DO that. any we have a shot.
Despite all the disappointment this season, Pry still has the chance to earn his marquee win and start to change the perception of this year and his tenure.
Run the dang bawl.
Bowen really impressed me last week. That game convinced me he should definitely be back. The rest of the season, but especially last game, really has convinced me that Marve is awful and has to go. If Pry doesn't make any changes at DC then I will be fully checked out next season. More important things in life to spend my time on.
Vegas thinks this will be an interesting game with the spread at +5.5 so I will either make decent money or be happy with a nice W.
Posting things like this is how you get a Clemson win by 3 where controlled every aspect of the game.
Think we can actually win this game.... cocaine is one he'll of a drug
I just saw that Lane is wearing #25 this week. With that fact I expect a big play or two from him to keep it close so Pry can move to 1-12 in one score games.
I anticipate a good game where defenses have difficulty.
The point about The Righteous Clemstones DL is struggling which brings opportunity for our OL to have the good running game again.
I think we're capable. I'm going to be watching what the coaches do all game. I'm looking specifically at clock management and late 2nd/4th quarter strategy, and how aggressive we are when the odds are in our favor. Our fans also have another 3 1/2 hours to get set for kickoff, and things just get different in Lane after sundown... and we've played particularly well this season when the lights are necessary (ODU, Miami, BC). We're either going to get train wrecked, or we're going to be the train doing the wrecking on Saturday - i dont think there's any in between.
based on the title, I thought this was going to be a women's basketball thread
May I point you to your Miami preview. Just when you get hope the Hokies will win, DON'T.
Less likely the zebras need to influence the outcome in this one. Clemson winning this game doesn't do anything (atm) to the CFP picture with SMU and Pitt requiring the refs to look the other way a bit more than Clemson.
About that
The refs definitely had it in for us. I am not sure the office didn't call and say we have to have Clemson win, we can't get Miami out of the hole they are in.
There were some blatant calls missed last night on both sides that extended drives but Clemson was helped out pretty significantly by a few calls/missed calls.
I mean fair
But at the same time, we played so terribly that it didn't matter.
I think we eke out a victory tomorrow.
I think it'll be a +90 pt shootout. Bet the over. Skipper Crew better have extra charges.
If nothing else that should at least keep the students in the stadium.
Definitely think we CAN win.
Not sure we will.
But it would be the most VT thing to just straight up win this game after last week.
Agreed
Well...it was that. Just not in a good way