Virginia Tech's 2016 football schedule features 10 Saturday games and 2 Thursday contests, a model which satisfies Whit Babcock's request to the ACC.
"I've not been told anything about a Friday game, I was told last year that we'd like rotate out of that and hopefully we will," Babcock told The Key Play in January. "We put in our annual request to ideally play a Thursday night home, so other than that, right now we're just saying Saturdays and a Thursday night home game. We'll see what the ACC gives us."
| Date | Opponent | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 9/3/2016 | Liberty | Blacksburg, VA |
| 9/10/2016 | vs. Tennessee | Bristol, TN |
| 9/17/2016 | Boston College | Blacksburg, VA |
| 9/24/2016 | East Carolina | Blacksburg, VA |
| 10/8/2016 | at North Carolina | Chapel Hill, NC |
| 10/15/2016 | at Syracuse | Syracuse, NY |
| 10/20/2016 | Miami (Thursday) | Blacksburg, VA |
| 10/27/2016 | at Pittsburgh (Thursday) | Pittsburgh, PA |
| 11/5/2016 | at Duke | Durham, NC |
| 11/12/2016 | Georgia Tech | Blacksburg, VA |
| 11/19/2016 | at Notre Dame | South Bend, IN |
| 11/26/2016 | Virginia | Blacksburg, VA |
| 12/3/2016 | ACC Championship Game | Charlotte, NC |
After an initial glance, the Hokies' slate of games for the upcoming football season seems relatively manageable. However, Tech's past few schedules have appeared more conducive than .500-ish football.
Superficial analysis is as follows:
Snagging Boston College early is an underrated perk.
A bye week for Tech to get their legs back underneath them after what should be physical contests against Tennessee and Boston College is a bonus. Also, consider that North Carolina travels to Tallahassee while Tech will be off. There's a drawback to having the off week four games into the season, but Tech gets a few extra days rest after it travels to Pittsburgh.
There is a Thursday night game in Lane Stadium. That's good. Unless you prefer a Friday night game, then that's bad. (Either way the Thursday night game contains potassium benzoate.)
The Thursday night game is against Miami — one of the premier opponents on Tech's schedule. Tech being able to market Miami as its marquee home game is solid, and the environment in Lane will be juiced. However, if I was in charge of creating the ACC schedule, and I did so in the best interest of Virginia Tech, the Hokies would play Boston College on Thursday night. I would take the implicit exposure of Thursday night's primetime audience, and hedge my bets that Virginia Tech-Miami could draw a timeslot on Saturday better than the de facto noon or noon-thirty for VT-BC to maximize exposure.
Virginia Tech does host Miami on a short week after a visit to Syracuse. Even though it's a long road trip, at least Tech will arrive at the home of one of the ACC's worst programs.
The few days breather before the stretch run of at Duke, Georgia Tech, at Notre Dame and Virginia should be a nice respite.
The complete ACC schedule is also available for your consumption.
Comments
Do conferences usually have teams play in such a short span? I seem to always remember having a bye week before the thursday night game. I find this not to be in our favor even if Syracuse is a cellar dweller
Edit: we did have only a 5 day break before the Georgia Tech game in 2013, played well. Still worries me
Especially with the prior game being away. #GoACC
Miami has it worse. Play UNC then short break and travel up to Blacksburg.
We often have requested a bye week prior to the Thursday night game but we do not always have one. For example, in 2006, we did not have a bye week-- we knocked off Southern Miss on Saturday and then took down a Top 10 ranked Clemson team on Thursday. In 2013, we beat Marshall in 3OT on Saturday and then turned around on the short week to win at GT on Thursday.
So the team should be running like a well oiled machine byou November. I'm predicting 10-2, 6-2 in conference.
I assume you have us winning the Coastal? ;)
The short week for Miami is initially worrisome to me. However, we had our most dominating defensive performance against GT on a short week so who knows.
edit: Miami plays FSU UNC VT ND in a row so thats the real yikes.
Miami is also on a short week with UNC at home before the Thursday night game
This years GT game wasn't on a short week. But 2013 was and we played a hell of a game so it works out.
I was referencing the 2013 game
I thought so. I thought for sure we'd get run out the stadium considering we lead into that with the 3OT matchup with Marshall. Ugh.
We also played JMU on a short week....
I think the ACC did a good job making what should otherwise be a pretty easy schedule pretty tough...I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Tech stumble into another 6 or 7 win season
You misspelled 6-7 straight National Championships my friend.
Miami plays FSU, UNC then at Virginia Tech in a span of 13 days.
yeah I hadn't seen that. that's rough. I don't feel bad for us. I just hope we WIN GAMES BABY
Yeah... Miami got hosed, bigtime. and could easily come limping into our game. @GT-FSU-UNC-@VT in the span of 21 days. That's BRUTAL
Also worth noting everyone who plays us this year (outside of Miami) is on the road before our game. Considering those road opponents for everyone in the Coastal are GT, FSU, or UNC, that could very much play into our favor.
I think the opposite. Our schedule sets up rather nicely. Outside of the Miami-Pitt week, most games are likely winnable or at least separated by winnable games. We don't have any killer 3-4 week stretches of games.
We better beat ECU this year, otherwise that bye week afterwards is going to be excruciating.
Looks like we will have 3 games in NC.
I see what you did there
Full ACC Schedule:
From theACC.com
Of course Clemson gets a late bye week before FSU. UGH
Hooray, two weeks to hear about this year's Game Of The Century!
They both get a BYE. The ACC set that one up to be a big game, that's for sure.
3 of GT's division opponents get bye weeks prior to their games with GT.
Does UNcheat have two FCS teams on their schedule?
Yup... they didn't learn from last year
BC scheduling for a bowl game:
OOC is UMASS, Wagner (?), UCONN and Buffalo.
For some inexplicable reason, they are playing @ UMASS.
Forgot UMass was FBS now, albeit independent. Thought they had scheduled two FCS teams.
Oh yeah, I forgot they were FBS as well.
But, still, Wagner.
That was what I noticed as well. What a pathetic schedule
They do, for the second straight year, but I don't think it was intentional. I believe someone else backed out of a home-and-home, leaving them to scramble for a schedule filler.
Thats exactly what happened but its easier to make fun of them
They gave both FSU and Clemson bye weeks before they play each other. I cannot believe I am typing this, but shrewd move by the ACC.
What are the odds on me getting up at 4:30AM to watch BC v. GT on opening day weekend? Yeesh.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 0.000001%
you gotta give him more credit than that!!! he's not a Wahoo...afterall
Positives: Two ACC opponents. Decent quality football for week 1. Beermosas.
Negatives: 4:30 in the frickin' morning!!
If it were the Hokies, I'd probably even go to the bar that early. But, I don't know. The chances of me getting up for BC/GT are probably slim.
As bad of football withdrawl I will be going through at that point, I would seriously consider it. I will probably be up at 7:30 to watch it myself. 18 hours of football watching will be the goal that day.
Edit: ignore, double posted
Cool, Pitt plays PSU. They also play at Okie St and @ Clemson.
Also....oddly attractive matchup with L'ville @ Houston in late November.
UVA fan (?):
Shooting for 4 wins?
The one downside to playing them at Thanksgiving, not having the satisfaction of being the team that eliminates them from the post season.
Potassium benzoate is responsible for the whistling sound in fireworks. Let's hope that Joe's assessment is actually a predictor of lots of Hokie fireworks on those nights!
#AllMaroonEverythingThursdayNight
What could go wrong.
Why does it seem like we're always at a disadvantage going against Pitt? They had an extra week off before they played us last year and they have an extra 5 days before they play us this year.
Someone is going to get extra time, it just happens to be Pitt twice in a row. Better than some alternatives.
Four GameDay weekends in a row (including Bristol) to start the season and a Thursday night game vs. Miami? I'll take it.
I do like having GT home later in the season as compared to so early like back in 2013. Also, it'll be nice to get Fuente's first win over UVA in front of the home crowd.
However, I am slightly disappointed that there isn't one Saturday game in October - the most beautiful time of the year in Blacksburg.
Posted this on the other thread...
Printable Helmet Schedules
Key takeaways:
All in all, we actually got dealt a good hand this year. Pretty much everyone will be coming into our game beat up, and our tough games are split up until the very end. Looking it over, everyone we play in the Coastal gets UNC, GT, or FSU before us, which should lead to a bunch of beat up opponents for us. Only Pitt gets a BYE, but even they got kinda screwed with it being a Thursday night game, and us playing the Thursday before. We're one of the lone few who doesn't have a murderer's row of sequential games this year. I like it.
Does this make BC a preseason game?
Does Miami have a bye week before us? Otherwise, I don't see any complaints to be had here. We knew BC would be in September, coupled with ECU/Liberty home games and UVA/ND games set for November, we had some set dates to work around.
No, Miami plays UNC the week before us.
Yup. We pretty much could either have a Thursday night game or a October Saturday game. Everyone would complain about not having a Thursday night game again, but now people are also complaining about not having a Saturday game.
Speaking of Miami, their first three games are pretty damn comical...but I kinda wanna go to the App State game, Boone is gonna be rockin.
I think the BC game is going to be about as low scoring as a game can get.
I talked about this in another thread but due to the complexities of the non-conference schedules of VT & their home ACC opponents, the only game that could be slated on September 24th was Boston College. Unless you'd rather have a bye that early into our schedule, there was no other alternative to fill the 9/24 slot.
I appointed myself ACC dictator, I could make it work.
Virginia Tech plays Duke in Lane Stadium agains this season.
/Moves the rest of the pieces around, repeats as many times as necessary.
Wow - we have no Saturday Home games between 9/24 and 11/12.....
I've noticed that October always seems to be a feast-or-famine kind of situation for us. Either we get 3 really good home Saturdays or none.
Yea, and probably just my own bias towards October home games - it's the best time to be in Blacksburg for a game as far as getting the full on Hokie Colored Tree Effects.
Yea that absolutely sucks from a recruiting standpoint. No saturday games to host prospects for and the only home game is on a thursday which i can't imagine many prospects would come to seeing as how they have their own games the next day.
Very valid point, unless we are inviting recruits to away games at UNC and Syracuse. /s
The bye week before UNC is good. They could be one of the toughest teams on the ACC schedule.
First game is on my 35th B-Day. That makes it a little better...
Bristol is day after mine.
I hope there are four other ACC schools right now saying:
We must protect our home field.
Which we have done an absolutely horrible job of doing recently. We used to be a consensus top 5 toughest place to play. Coaches voted us number 2 behind LSU somewhere back in the 2005-2007ish range
Think about how different the last four seasons would have been if we could have won at home.
Nothing to do with complaining about the ACC (so feel free to ignore), but seeing a trip to the Carrier Dome just makes me think about the Donovan McNabb game in 98 and goddammit, now I have to fix the hole I just punched in the wall. F McNabb just as much as F Matt Ryan. Why do we even play stupid schools in the Northeast, they ruin my life.
and not to mention two schools that should be in the AAC, not the ACC.
I'll share in the sentiment: had a full beer spilled on me during the long 4th down run by McNabb...
Me too. Ruined a fried shrimp dinner at Billy's in Fincastle (of all places) by knocking a glass of water into my plate. I didn't ask for, or want, that glass of water, either, the barkeep just brought it. If I had knocked over my beer, I could at least have eaten the dinner. Couldn't get the bartender to go me another meal, though I had mostly lost my appetite and gained some attitude. Tough game, but I've never been able to hate on McNabb. I always just respected him, to be honest.
I miss Fincastle, I lived there in High School.
We used to go out of our way to hit Billy's Seafood whenever we could. The day of the game in question, my wife was selling at an arts and crafts show in town, but I remember making Billy's a must do after float fishing the Jackson River, even when the most direct route to Giles was through Paint Bank, West B'God, and White Rocks to Pearisburg. Our biggest issue was, as usual, who's driving home after Billy's? Ahhh, the good ole days.
I agree, I don't care how bad Syracuse is, I hate playing up there. I think of it like Pitt, for some reason we never play well there
I wish we never had to venture into that awful place again.
We are the only team in the Coastal to miss out on the top 3 of Clemson/FSU/Louisville on our crossover games. Have had the same thing the past few years and haven't been able to take advantage though.
Woooooo! WHO ELSE IS READY TO START JUMPING!
Damn. It seems like we never have October Saturday games in Blacksburg anymore. Guess I won't be attending any games this year either.
That was entirely dependent on whether or not there was a home game in October?
Uh oh. Gt on a Saturday. Recent history makes that a bad thing
2015 - W on a Thursday night
2014 - incredibly painful L on a Saturday
2013 - W on a Thursday night where fullers go ham
2012 - W in OT on Monday night
2011 - W on a Thursday night (thanks attouchu or however you spell it)
2010 - W on a Thursday night
2009 - gut punch L on a Saturday when we were #4
Time to break that trend
Is it too late to get BC out of the ACC? I mean, really, what do they bring?
The Boston media market.
"Did somebody say Boston Market?"
Valid point. I mean, they bring tea with them, but we still have to provide the damn sugar.
They won the Atlantic a couple of times in the early years after initial expansion. They had huge upside at one point.
I had planned to make it to both UNC and Duke this year.
Duke is still on the calendar. UNC, I'm not as sure. I might be busy that weekend.
Joe, can I just say that I really appreciate the Simpsons gag in the middle?
It is one of my favorites to bring into every day conversation.
Thoughts:
1. Not sure how I feel about BC right after Tennessee, but I like that it's way early.
2. I like having a bye between UNC and ECU.
3. Syracuse is an obvious trap game.
4. The short week before Miami is slightly concerning.
5. I LOVE Notre Dame being so late. Especially since they decided to play both Army and Navy the two weeks before us.
We finally see some light at the end of this snowstorm, a football schedule.
Already got the RV rented for Brisol, not just need to convince my wife that flying to South Bend is a bucket list style away game for VT.
This is a nice schedule, love the Miami Thursday nighter.
Come join us there. Fly into Chicago and take train over to Southbend. Take her out in Chicago.
I think that is a great idea. I was trying to think of logistics of getting there, didn't think about a train there. But I am definitely going one way or another, I think the next away game @ ND would be something like 2050.
http://www.nictd.com
My two options from Raleigh would be to either fly RDU-Chicago and then take a train to Southbend or fly RDU-Detroit-Southbend. Both are similar in cost and time.
But then the cost of staying in SouthBend plus just finding a place would be higher I would assume.
Where are you renting the RV from? Did you reserve a spot at a campground? If so, which one?
Have not reserved a campground spot yet (probably should get on that now actually).
Got the RV rented from a place called El Monte RV rentals in Roanoke. But I rented it like 4 months ago and they said that it was one of the last ones. Tried to get a 12 person RV, ended up with a 6 person RV. Told my companions that I get the Queen sized bed and they can sleep anywhere they want. Perks of being the leasee I guess.
what service did you use to rent the RV? I am still planning my weekend in bristol.
Well, once again, long-distance season ticket holding alums have to travel effectively 4 weeks in a row in Sept. counting the Bristol game and no Sat. game in Oct., the best time for football at Tech. I like that we only have one weeknight game, but front loading the home schedule sucks for the traveling fans.
Psst...you already knew about 3 games in September before the schedule release since all OOC games had dates and venues. The addition of BC there is better than a bye week on week 3 because every other ACC team has a game already scheduled that day.
Interesting that our only home game in October is the Thursday night.
Anyone know what this means for our Homecoming game (AKA the single game where most of my alumni friends all come back to town at once)?
I'd hate for it to be against ECU, but I also doubt they'd wait till November to have Homecoming.
They certainly didn't do us any favors by scheduling Miami on a Thursday with no bye leading in. Fortunately, we get that one at home and Miami doesn't get a bye week either. Catching them after they host UNC could be a boost as well.
I like the schedule. Ten games easy. But can I play Jesus's Advocate for a minute?
My grandfather was a huge Notre Dame fan, and, as such, my dad is a huge Notre Dame fan and, as such, I am a huge Notre Dame fan. Given that my alma mater is traveling to South Bend this year, I'd like to give my dad the greatest Father's Day gift of all time and get two tickets to the Notre Dame game.
If anyone gets two of those tickets that they can spare, I would be pleased and honored to take them off their hands. Thanks
FTFY
Nah, I was a Notre Dame fan due to my upbringing. I CHOSE Virginia Tech independent of that.
Have you been eating fermented alfalfa or something?
Edit: it would be an awesome once in a lifetime opportunity for you and your pops.
Fermented alfalfa is a rare delicacy. I've been sticking to a weird brew....something with hops and barley, not sure what they call it.
If Fuente Offense can manage 42 points per game, Bud Foster defense could take VT to the playoffs.
"If Fuente Offense can manage 42 points per game, Bud Foster defense could take VT to the playoffs."
If his offense can manage 42 points per game for the entire season, I'll drink four rails in one night.
one game at a time. We can/should pad our average against liberty in week 1. It's not running up the score if you do it all in the first half, is it?
haha do we need to report this to the hotline? You have a lot to live for man!
Thursday night game. YESSSSSSS!!
A good way to welcome Mark Richt into the ACC with a Thursday night game in Blacksburg.
I think this game will get a lot of attention. The early media response seemed to be that the Fuente hire was one of, if not the best move. Seems as of late the Richt hire has gained considerable attention at potentially getting them back in contention by the likes of Mandel, Schroeder, Wolken, Feldman, etc. through their podcasts. In any case, could be some meaningful commentary leading up to it assuming neither team stubs their toe too badly early on.
Yep - I agree. Two new hires, in Blacksburg, on a Thursday night. Should be absolutely electric.
I'm keeping optimism an a minimum until we know who our QB is...we've had possible 10 win schedules the last two seasons but a wide variety of bad luck hit the team. First glance this looks like a 9-3 schedule for the good guys, but there are so many unknowns about this season it's hard to gauge.
12-0 seems about right
I can's wait to watch VT against ND on NBC. Hopefully it's not at noon.
All aboard the hype train. Choo. Choo.
The last time I doubted a Football team I said the Panthers should play for draft position because losing Kelvin Benjamin was too much...
I think we are going to struggle to make a bowl this year. Better to focus on recruiting to build for the future...
I share the exact same sentiment, I really only have two words 'dumpster...fire'
(pssstttt dumpster fire = nat. champ in reverse psychology, am i doing it right? )
Pretty excited to see what happens this season, living in Michigan has its perks, I already have tickets to ND lined up through a family friend and ND alum. Plus moving to CH for my wife to complete her masters so we will be at the UNC game for sure.
Similar to the 2000 schedule. Seven of the twelve opponents are the same.
Taking a second look...
Out of Conference games could be tough matchups:
ND could be tough across the board
Georgia could be tough
Houston could be a tough matchup for Louisville
Tennessee is going to be a tough game
Ole Miss and Florida could be tough games
Oregon has potential and its against UVA, not sure how that will work out
Really the biggest question marks right now in late-January are what USCe and Auburn teams are going to show up from what I can see, spring might clear some things up, but it will be a good look if the ACC can pull of the majority of those wins.
Ga. Southern should be better than they were in 2015 with most of the offense returning. They just barely lost to GT in Atl in 2014 so keep an eye on that one.
Luckily my sister and her husband moved to south bend (and only 5 minutes away from the stadium) because my brother-in-law took the the ND's crew coach position
Tickets... check
Place to stay.... check
So what are the odds that we lose a heartbreaker to ECU after beating Tennessee and BC to send the season spiraling out of control and derailing our hype train?
I don't downvote on principle, but you are testing my resolve here
That's impossible because we are going 15-0!!!
This is not an acceptable comment.
I laugh and agree with your sentiment, but I hope that kind of crap stops with the Fuente era.
Nice. The national champ game is in Tampa this year
FWIW, ESPN punditry says we have the most favorable conferences slate in the ACC.
http://es.pn/1PBlFVv
Probably depends on how quickly the guys on offense transition from Lefty's scheme to Fuente's. And linebacker play. Obvs.
It really is hard to tell the impact a new coach will have. Sometimes it takes a great coach a few years to get the ball rolling, sometimes the impact is immediate. Harbaugh took an almost identical roster to the last year with a very average QB (Jake Rudock, who?) and made them 5 wins better (with a bizarre heartbreaking ending keeping it from 6) and when Chad Morris came to Clemson he helped turn a 6-7 team with one of the worst offenses at Clemson during that time period in 2010 into 10-4 ACC champs with the best offense in the ACC in his first year in 2011. So there are examples of quick turnarounds. Both of those programs had lots of talent to work with, BUT that doesn't mean that scheme can't be installed quickly and effectively. Chad Morris admitted he only had a fraction of his offense installed that first year and the change was very noticeable and the results were immediate.
That said, we have had very favorable ACC schedules the last 3 years and have failed to capitalize.