So what did we just witness? Talk about swing of the pendulum. The Hokies, specifically their offense, shrugged off a miserable and forgettable week 1 against Alabama and go nuts on the Herd. Ryan Williams and David Wilson have us giddy. The passing game was at least serviceable but nothing special. And the defense, minus a few plays, looked more or less what we are used to.
So what did this game tell us about the 2009 Virginia Tech football team? In my opinion, not much.
Don't get me wrong, yesterday's win over Marshall was a breath of fresh air. These games over Furman, ECU, Ohio, Central Florida, etc. don't always go this smooth, or give us the sense of comfort we are looking for and that we got yesterday. 600 hundred yards of offense is 600 yards of offense, and I've witnessed plenty of Hokie football games against bad opponents where VT still had to rely on defense and some special teams plays to win.
But in college football, so much is about your opponent. In fact, more than half of the discussions (aka blabber) that goes on during the season has to do with opponents: who you've played, who you've beaten, who's on your schedule, what your SOS is, how strong your conference is, on and on. Of course the ACC has tried hard for 2 weeks to show that its just as hard to beat bad team as it is to beat good ones, but that's a whole different blog post.
So what we know is that the Hokies have played very hard, competed, but fallen short to what appears to be a very good Alabama team, and have played hard, overwhelmed, and beaten soundly what looks to be a much worse Marshall team. So if you are trying to analyze how good these 2009 Hokies are based on those 2 games, that leaves you a pretty broad spectrum and scant empirical evidence.
Luckily there are more games, and the next 2 specifically will tell us a lot more. Both Nebraska and Miami are somewhere on that dial between Alabama and Marshall so we'll some have some more empirical data to look at. Regardless, let's talk about what this Marshall game showed us.
Virginia Tech Football's Offense is Not a Hopeless Cause
The Ryan Williams hype train rolls on, and he showed us even more that he will be cornerstone of the Hokie offense for the next few years. I'm ecstatic about the kid, he's exactly the type of runner VT needs to have consistently to win and continue its 'Running Back U' tradition. Frankly, he will hide a lot of warts on this offense. (I read a post game comment from Bryan Stinespring something to the effect of RW "being the type of running back you need". You should thank your lucky stars, BS!).
Yesterday was also the coming out party for Williams' dynamic backfield partner to be David Wilson. Wilson had just as little resistance as Williams had as he ran through and around the Herd defense, and now also has the Hokie football fanbase drooling over the true frosh potential. While the gaping holes in Marshall defense that these "W boys" (I suspect some sort of catchy name for the 2 is forth coming) were running through were large enough for Billy Hite to gain 100 yards, it certainly will be exciting to watch those 2 develop in years to coming.
So what of Tyrod Taylor and the passing game? Do you feel any better? Well, we established the fact that we can throw and complete passes to a wide receiver. We can even throw an occasional touchdown pass. But the passing game still seems 'choppy', and rough around the edges. To me, most of yesterday's success seemed more due to Tyrod running around and athletic WRs making plays than a fine tuned operation executing on all cylinders.
Virginia Tech Defense
Its hard to complain too much about this group. Sure, there was the big running play, and you'd like to see more turnovers. But Bud Foster seems to be sculpting them into the type of group he likes. Its not the quarterback terrorizing or run stuffing group of the same caliber of his best defenses, but its good and will get better.
Overshadowed by the excitement of running back potential is the depth of quality at defensive back. With Stephan Virgil out of the game yesterday, we got a glimpse of how many other high quality DBs are in the stable: Rashad Carmichael, Cris Hill, Eddie Whitley, Jayron Hosley, plus the rovers and safeties all made plays, and impressed me.
Also interesting so far this year is how content Foster is with rushing 4 on the quarteback, certainly more than in the past (except for his usual tendency to send blitzers on 3rd and long). If DB play continues to improve, blitzing may increase.
Speaking of Hosley, I think we found us a punt returner. He's a natural.
Virginia Tech Throwback Helmets and Uniforms
I probably like many watched this game on ESPN360, hooked up to my big screen, so the picture was grainier than usual. Even so (I'll go ahead and say it) I hate the throwback Virginia Tech uniforms. Now I didn't mind the helmets, those are pretty cool. But I'm tired of seeing the shoulder-flared circular striped jerseys - I was shocked we wore them in the Orange bowl last year.
I get why wore them for this game, the tribute to Frank Loria, being the against Marshall and all that. Throwback uniforms are great once every few years for special occassions like this. But please, lets pack them up and go back to wearing our 2009 style maroon and orange. End of uniform rant.
Virginia Tech Hokies (1974) Mini Throwback Football Helmet from Schutt
Price: $30.82
The Virginia Tech Hokies throwback mini helmet with a metal facemask.
So what did this game tell us? Again I contend it depends more on what you think of the opponent. Also FYI, it may have looked like Alabama was struggling with FIU early on. But in checking the stats, Bama ended up rolling 516 yard on them and giving up only 214, including minus 29 rushing. Once again, Bama wore down an opponent in the final quarters.
What did you take away from this game?
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