Hokie Football Thoughts on Miami Gameday

Posted by hokieg

November 13, 2008

Its Thursday night gameday vs Miami. Whatever your routine was last week, plan to do it again tonight so there’s no possibily of a jinx. We want the same strong performance we saw against the Terps. The Canes program might be down, but there is still something extra intense about playing Miami. Some of my most memorable Virginia Tech football games, both wins (13-7 in 1995, 31-7 in 2003) and losses (27-7 in 2005), are against the Canes.

There’s tons of analysis out there on the game on various sites if you check out our links, so instead of a breakdown on tonight game, here are some random thought on Virginia Tech football and college football in general.

I’m nervous about the Hokies special teams tonight. There is something wrong with that. Special teams should be a Hokie asset, not liability.

Apparently, Miami is breaking out some old uniforms tonight. Does there not seem to be a lot of that going on the last few years in college football? Must have something to do with royalties.

There are not a whole lot of marque matchups in college football this weekend. I read that the only game between top 25 opponents is #19 UNC vs. #23 Maryland. So watch, they’ll be tons of upsets on Saturday.

I think the University of Tennessee coaching situation will be a very interesting case study on fan base expectation vs reality. My take on the situaiton is that the fan base perception (i.e. that UT should be a top regular 10 team that competes for the SEC championship every year) vs reality (that UT is going to struggle to keep up with Saban, Meyer, Miles, Richt not to mention Auburn, improving Kentucky and Vandy) is going to put some new coach in a no win situation. This makes hiring a good one tough.

Hearing Mike Gentry on the Hokie Hotline was interesting. I’m still convinced that the Virginia Tech strength and conditioning programs is a real advantage. It may be rose-colored glasses, but Tech players, especially on defense just always seem to be more athletic, faster, stronger, and fresher in the 4th quarter. Its closely tied to their recruiting strategy in that Virginia Tech focuses on hiring solid players close to Blacksburg who want to be Hokies, and if they aren’t the strongest or fastest in the country, take a redshirt and our strength and conditioning program will get them caught up.

Speaking of recruiting, I’m not a die hard follower but the Hokies got a key on this week in Logan Thomas. Thomas is thought to be #2 in the state and the #1 tight end, though the Hokies may play him elsewhere. When it comes to recruiting, I believe you must: 1) focus on depth 2) find mid-level guys who becomes star players (i.e. 3 star guys who become 5 star guys - see Daryl Tapp, Kam Chancellor) 3) sign a few 5 star guys (see Tyrod Taylor, Kevin Jones). Thomas is one of those 5 star guys.

What are your thoughts on the game tonight???

Go Hokies!!

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