Month: September 2018

Week 4 recap/week 5 preview

Posted on by bigbeergame

There is not much to say.  We got absolutely abused by ODU.  Tackling was horrific.  Coverage was horrific.  Gap fits were horrific.  Defense was horrific, in pretty much every way.  I’m pretty sure I read that it was the most yards a Bud Foster defense has ever given up, but I am too depressed to actually try to find out if that’s true or not.  So I will just assume it’s true.  632 yards.  To ODU.

In other depressing news, we lost 2 of our best players during/after the game.  YAY!!!

QB Josh Jackson suffered a broken Fibula.  They haven’t officially said how long he is out, but I think it’s safe to say it is a season ending injury.  He will be replaced by r-JR Ryan Willis (#5, 6-4 223 lbs), who sat out last season after transferring in from Kansas.  His numbers at Kansas as a t-FR and t-SO were pretty horrid, but Kansas is a pretty horrid team.  The scouting report on him is that he is high-risk, high-reward.  He can/will make a lot of throws that Josh Jackson can’t/won’t, which unfortunately often includes throws to the other team.  Things will probably get a lot more exciting on offense with him at QB, both good and bad.

Also, VT announced on Sunday morning that r-JR DE Trevon Hill had been kicked off the team.  Apparently, there was a bit of a locker room kerfluffle after the loss to ODU involving Hill and a couple of other players, and also some less-than-smart interaction with the coaching staff during/after said kerfluffle.  He’s been on short leash for a while, and apparently this was the last straw.

So yeah, not a good week.  On to other topics…

Recap of our conference mates/season opponents in week 4:

The ACC went 5-3 this week out of conference, but it was a very bad 5-3.  #13 VT and #23 Boston College lost on the road to huge underdogs, and Wake got clobbered by Notre Dame.  The wins were all of the “ho-hum” variety.

Our season opponents went 7-5 this past week, and are now 26-19 on the season.  Our OOC foes are a collective 7-7 after going 2-2 this past week.  Basically, ND is good and everyone else is bad.  But we knew that coming in.

Conference mates/opponents in the AP Poll:
#3 Clemson
#8 ND
#16 Miami
#22 Duke
(others receiving votes:  VT #28, NCSU #35, Syracuse #36)

This weeks game:

Virginia Tech will travel to Durham NC to take on the #22 Duke Blue Devils (7:00pm, ESPN2).  Duke is 4-0, but this will be their first game in ACC play.  They have looked very good this year, winning their 4 OOC games by a combined score of 150-61.  They lost starting QB Daniel Jones to a shoulder injury in week 2, but backup QB  JR Quentin Jones (#18, 6-1 195), has been solid in relief.  He is also a threat with his legs, with 26 carries for 141 yards on the season.  Duke head coach David Cutcliffe is a master strategician, and he’s probably licking his lips with glee watching the film of the horrendous VT defense last week.  Duke opened as a 3 pt favorite, and the line has since moved to -5 for Duke after the news about Jackson and Hill.  I don’t feel good about this game at all.

Week 3 Recap / Week 4 Preview

Posted on by bigbeergame

Well, that was a bit of a washout weekend for local/regional football games.  VT’s game against ECU was “postponed” due to Hurricane Florence, though it is unlikely to ever be played so “cancelled” would probably be the more appropriate term.  The hurricane also affected several other games in the area (time/location changes for Wake, ODU, and uva; postponements/cancellations for NCSU, W&M, UNC, and South Carolina).  Best wishes to our friends in GreenvilleNC, and across the Carolinas.

Now, with the niceties out of the way, there was a weeeeeee bit o’ controversy around the cancellation of the game.  On Monday, VT announced that they would announce a decision on Wednesday morning, once they had a better handle on the track of the hurricane.  ECU decided they didn’t want to wait that long, and announced on Tuesday afternoon “ECU will not travel to Blacksburg for the game”.  So…technically it wasn’t their game to cancel, since they aren’t the home team.  That’s VTs call to make, but ECU decided to make it anyway.  In the strictest sense, it could be considered a forfeit I guess, but of course that won’t ever happen.  Plus, I am 95% sure VT was just going to announce a cancellation on Wednesday anyway.  Just kind of a bush league move by ECU.  ECU, by the way, proceeded to load their team onto buses and head down to Florida instead of over to Blacksburg on Wednesday.  The game wasn’t likely to take place, but it could have been handled better by all involved.  VT kinda looked like asses (and I kinda loved the snark, haha) when they appeared to mock the ECU decision with the following tweet (later deleted) shortly after ECU announced the cancellation:

Enough about the game that never was, on to the games that happened and will be happening…

Recap of our conference mates/season opponents in week 2:

The ACC went 5-0 this week out of conference, but the 5 wins were all pretty “meh”.  The 2 hardest games — #18 UCF at UNC, and #14 WVU at NCSU — were both cancelled due to the hurricane.  dook picked up another P5 win for the conference with their 40-27 win at Baylor.  The ACC is now 24-7 OOC, and 3-5 against P5 teams (with 2 of those 3 wins coming from dook).  There are 8 OOC games this coming weekend:  2 P5 (BC@purdue, #8 ND at Wake), 5 G5, and 1 FCS.  I expect the ACC will go 6-2, maybe 7-1.

Our season opponents went 6-3 this past week, with 3 opponents having games cancelled due to the hurricane (ECU, W&M, UNC).  FSU lost 30-7 at Syracuse, and it really wasn’t that close.  They are a really bad team right now, and that opening win is quickly losing its luster.  Our season opponents are now 20-13 on the season, and our OOC foes are a collective 5-5 after going 1-1 this past week.

Conference mates/opponents in the AP Poll:
#3 Clemson
#8 ND
#13 Virginia Tech
#21 Miami
#23 Boston College
(others receiving votes:  dook #28, NCSU #34, Syracuse #41)

This weeks game:

Virginia Tech will travel to the 757 to take on the mighty Monarchs of Old Dominion in Norfolk VA.  ODU has struggled their way to an 0-3 start with losses to Liberty (10-52), FIU (20-28), and Charlotte (25-28).  The good news for the Monarchs is that they have been getting better in each game; the bad news is that they are about to take a giant step up in competition.  Last year, VT won in Blacksburg 38-0 in the first meeting between the teams since ODU moved up to the FBS level.  ODU doesn’t appear to do anything particularly well, in any phase of the game.  In fact, they rank 104th or worse (out of 130 teams) in nearly EVERY major category: scoring offense (116), scoring defense (109), total offense (109), total defense (119), rush offense (114), rush defense (104), pass offense (71), pass defense (110), and even punting (113).  VT is an early 28 point favorite, and honestly I wouldn’t expect it to be that close.  The game is scheduled for 3:30 pm on CBS Sports Network.

 

2018 Home Season is Underway! Week 2 Recap / Week 3 Preview

Posted on by bigbeergame

The first home tailgate of the season is in the books!  The forecast all week was looking a bit bleak, but it turned out to be a very nice day for the entire pre-game tailgate…with perhaps a slightly (ok, *significantly*) truncated post-game tailgate.  With Craig off to NC to rescue his boat from the approaching Hurricane Florence (more on that li’l bitch later), we found ourselves having to host a grill-less tailgate.  Which has happened a few times in recent years, and really isn’t that bad of a situation.  Fried Chicken, 7-layer dip, and Jersey Mikes subs were more than enough when combined with other random contributions as the day went on.  The weirdest thing about this tailgate was Friday night…which I spent all by myself.  Nary a guest in sight :-(.

Anyway, we got to our spot around 9:30, tailgate weather was good, and none of us were hungover / still drunk from Friday night.  For a while, it was just the three of us (Katie, me, and Jason), then we were joined by Pam n Stork, then others started trickling in as the day went along.

lonely

so lonely…

It never turned into a very big tailgate though, and in the end we had just 11 people for the Big Beer game at 12:30.  We were originally just 9, but at the last minute Joey showed up with his friend Dave from Richmond, who had never played the Big Beer Game before.  Care to guess where I’m going with this?  Chris from Lynchburg drew the joker, challenged Dave from Richmond, and Chris won a thrilling 2-1 decision in RPS.  And guess what’s back?  It’s not available in 24oz cans, but….

zima

Zima is back, baby!

the game table
one two three shoot!
sweet victory!!
bring it in…
the shame of defeat

The football game itself was pretty much a clinic…the Hokies fumbled on their first possession, but then forced a turnover right back and proceeded to score on each of their next 10 possessions.  Bradburn never had to punt the ball all day long, as the Hokies simply ran out the clock on their final possession of the game.  All 3 QBs played, and backup Ryan Willis even made it into the game before halftime.  It was hot-hot-hot in the first half, then right at the start of the 4th quarter there was a brief, blissful rainstorm to cool off those of us that stuck around.  As the game ended, the jumbotron displayed a warning that there were thunderstorms in the area and that we needed to clear the stadium immediately.  We headed back to our tailgate, ate everything in sight in about 25 minutes, then packed up and headed home.

Oh, one last random observation:  VT decided this season to crack down on tailgating that encroaches on the driving lanes, resulting in them painting lines in the lot behind which your tailgating fun cannot extend.  For the people near us with full-sized pickups, this left exactly ZERO room.  I forgot to take a picture, but it was pretty ridiculous. And they were actually enforcing it…enforcement staff came through around 11 warning people that were over the line, and much outrage ensued.  Not surprisingly, VT sent out an email on Sunday saying essentially “oops!  that might have been a bit much…we will continue to tweak this (poorly thought out) plan as the season continues”.

Recap of our conference mates/season opponents in week 2:

++ACC went 10-4 this week OOC, but was once again weak against P5 opponents (2-2, with wins by dook over Northwestern and Clemson barely over aTm, while Pitt got shelled by PSU and uva lost to Indiana).  The league record now stands at 19-7 OOC, but just 2-5 against P5 teams.  There are 8 OOC games this coming week, with 2 against P5 teams (dook at Baylor, and NCSU hosting WVU).  Also, unc is going to lose to another non-P5 opponent this week when they take on UCF.  I expect the ACC will go 6-2 this week.

++ our season opponents went 7-5 this week (14-10 on the season), and 2-2 for our OOC foes (4-4).  ECU rebounded nicely this week from an embarassing loss to FCS foe North Carolina A&T by curbstomping the hapless tarholes of north carolina 41-19.  Ha!  Speaking of ECU…

This weeks game:

ECU (maybe).  ECU is 1-1.  That’s about all I know about them.  They lost to an FCS team, and crushed unc.  Their QB has minus 8 yards on 8 rushing attempts through 2 games, so that seems like a good thing.  I hate playing mobile QBs.  In 2 years at VT, Fuente has beaten ECU 54-17 and 64-17.  I expect similar results this year, though scoring may be suppressed by rain.  VT is an early 28 point favorite.  The big news this week is not so much ECU as it is Hurricane Florence.  Most forecast models seem to have it making landfall between Charleston and Hatteras on Thursday night or Friday morning.  It is currently a category 4 hurricane.  The models also suggest a POSSIBILITY of it stalling out over central VA and dropping 1-2 FEET of rain here over the weekend.  That would not be good.  Whit Babcock tweeted out on Monday that VT will have an announcement about their plans for playing (or not playing) the game on Wednesday sometime, but not likely any earlier than that.  As of now (Tuesday morning), it seems reasonably likely that the game will be cancelled / postponed.