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.