Virginia Tech Football's Two-Week Take Meter

Two weeks of college football can lead to some of the hottest takes. Let's discuss some of the best Hokies related takes ahead of week three.

[Mark Umansky]

The first two weeks of the college football season produce some of the wildest hot takes I've ever heard in my life. Seriously, I hope ESPN Blacksburg has burned all the tapes of me calling Deon Clarke the next great Hokie linebacker and wondering if Scot Loeffler was underrated.

But the start of the season just does something to us, doesn't it? It feasts on preseason expectations, either confirming our biases or enlightening us to storylines we never saw coming. Fans were born to overreact to this stuff.

In my radio days, I learned a thing or two about hot takes. The most important thing? They're all about the balance between heat and truth. Coming on the air with a unique hot take is vital, but only if that take has a basis in truth. No one wants to listen to someone spouting off ridiculous things even a casual fan knows isn't true — I once had a friend openly complain that Josh Oglesby deserved more carries than Ryan Williams in early 2009.

But, if your take is factually accurate without any heat, then you're just reading the news. That's not entertaining at all.

So this year, I invented a scale for hot takes, rating them on a scale of 1-10 on the basis of heat and truth for the start of the 2021 season.

Let's take it away.

(I already regret the pun, I apologize to you all.)

REPLACE BRAXTON BURMEISTER WITH (fill in QB here)

Eye roll.

I don't think most people believe this, but I also know there are some quacks out on the fringes of Hokie fandom who want to make this thought a reality. Yes, Connor Blumrick operated a special rushing package to perfection against one of the worst defenses in college football. And yes, Knox Kadum deserves some credit for keeping Tech's first scoring drive alive after Burmeister sustained a bad hit.

And yes, Burmeister occasionally struggled finding open receivers (as French pointed out in his review). But if you can't see that he's the best quarterback on this roster — for better or worse — I can't help you.

Though the preseason passing game hype from Justin Fuente feels like it was just a coach trying to talk up his quarterback. The Oregon transfer looks significantly more confident than at any point in 2020, but will he do enough to push the Hokies over the top? Maybe not. But Burmeister is the guy, and no snarky Twitter thread or back handed compliment can change it.

Spice level: 4/5

Truth level: 0.5/5

Take rating: 4.5/10

The best player on the offense plays left guard

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