NC.State @ #15 Virginia Tech

TV Coverage: ESPNU
Announcers: Todd Harris and Charles Arbuckle
Vegas Line: VT-21 O/U=58.5

An NC.State football squad with nothing tangible left to to play for is coming to town for our 2009 Senior Day football game folks.

Recalling Sports Psych with Dr. Minnix at the University of Illinois … there are two distinct possibilities in play here. First, will the Wolfpac simply mail this game and for that matter their remaining season right on in? They have long been out of the A.C.C. pecking order for a chance to play for our conference championship; and now they have been mathematically eliminated from post-season contention thanks to having played two D-1aa teams already.

Or secondly, does this make the Wolfpac a cornered wounded animal whereby taking down #15 Virginia Tech on the road becomes their redemption and season saving game all rolled into one?

If you say State is finished you really should align yourself with Mr. Phil Martin’s preview and say that VT wins rather comfortably; as the State defense is that porous.

If you say the Wolfpac is playing with a nothing left to loose mentality; you need to parallel what Will and Chris wrote and call for a pretty close game; as the Wolfpac offense is that dang good.

This member of the prognesenti??? Read on to find out… (more…)

Happy Birthday Cheryl Beamer!!! Ain’t easy being the coach’s wife; kinda like the being Pastor or Rabbi or whatever Affiliations wife. God Bless and enjoy your special day.

Our next O-Cord???

That said; there was rumored to be a second-half of football up in College Park Maryland last Saturday afternoon. No matter how anticlimactic it twas.

This final 30 minute stanza was very reminiscent of the legendary Teddy Atlas’ of ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights color-commentary fame. Teddy is want to describe a fight with a lot of leaning and clinching and precious little action as a “silent contract”.

If you do not take any major offensive risks and don’t hit me overly hard I won’t either. Lets just make it to the final bell, get paid and get outta town.

Our final 20 minutes or so was pretty much a silent contract. Well, right up until the final 3 minutes when things got very chippy for both sides.  Frank and Coach Fredg’ both took the air outta the ball and there really was not a whole lotta action as mutual best friends appeared happy to get this one over with A.S.A.P. As such, there were precious little steals and precious few dynamic plays; well until the feisty ending that is.  So lets examine the few plays that were and pay a little homage to some senior Hokies that you will being seeing at home for the last time on Saturday vs. NC.State. Then lets vote in the Stiney Poll! (more…)

After a winning Brown Bear hunt that got a little closer than we would like; our Men’s hoops team goes N.B.A. with two games in three nights time. This only allows for one practice in between and the whispers say that Coach Greenberg was not happy defensively; especially in the low-post and all the more so in the second-half.

Could that lead to tired Hokie legs?

Could a middleocore University of North Carolina-Greensboro (UNC-G) be catching VT at just the right time?

Does Hokies all-Access have more Kinks in it than the 1970’s-1980’s band or a UKSJ bachelor party?

Yes. Yes. Yes. And Yes.

Is that enough to account for an upset? Lets take a closer look to find out… (more…)

That’s what I call a fine first-half of Virginia Tech football folks!

God Bless our Vet's.

Is some of that because Maryland is not all that great? Yah; prolly so. Though our pet Hokie Hotline drinking game word or “execution” was indeed better in this game. Our Defense was better in this game. Our Punt Return game was better in this game. T-mobile (other than 3 throws) was better in this game and not coincidentally our pass-blocking appears to be on a record setting Time To Throw pace; 2nd-half detailed film-study verification permitting.

A blow-out is just what the O&M infirmary Doctor ordered. We needed that before we play a multi dimensional NC.State offense and le` team that is smarting on numerous levels (no University pun intended).

So lets take a look at Uniform Derby 2009’s first 30 minutes of play and examine some important plays and a few that you may have missed. (more…)

WAR Hoops!!!

"DE-FENSE!"

Easily my favorite team sport to play and to watch. Why?

Hoops has the highest responsibility percentage of any major USofA team sport. 20% compared to all the rest. Far less hoops schoolies for such; making hoops the hardest sport to break into for a given baller in the Americana landscape.

What am I babbling about this time you ask?

Well certifiably it is not about the Ivy League Brown Bears. I could write a better preview on the Giles County Spartans vs. VT than I can on Brown. Info is few and far between for a D-1 team with only a s-e-v-e-n that’s only a 7 page media guide. Though I have looked all day and finally found a few tidbits. So lets look at that and then segue into a VT Men’s 2009-2010 season prediction. (more…)

#21 Virginia Tech @ Maryland:
TV Coverage: ESPN36o
Announcers: Davey Rose and Danney Kanell
Vegas Line: Terps+18, O/U=48

Just like Carrie Prejean, couple of my picks this year have not known what they were doing. They have either been naive or the victim of a vast left-wing Word Press conspiracy. Take your pick. ; )

I may be a Dem', yet I'm willing to be very democratic with Ms. CP.

However, and in all seriousness folks, this has easy been the most uneven VT football team in a long long time. Are we really truly madly deeply the Marshall, Miami and Boston College football team? Or are we the 1-2 Nebraska, Gah.Tech and UNC football team? Or is the preview taking entirely too long as I am lost in the bikini Google Images return pages of Ms. Prejean?

Either way, the TSL message boards, article votes and poll voting are all down. Way down; and not coincidentally so are 2009 post-season expectations.  All of the pre-season melodrama about a potential MNC run was really only a hype bubble that went “pop” down in the ATL. The trouble is that that MNC bubble had a smaller concentric A.C.C. championship bubble that went “pop” at precisely the same time.

Leaving us to play for anywhere from the 3rd to 5th best A.C.C. bowl game this year. Which brings us rather uneloquently to a 2-season Maryland football team that is just not very good and is hurting at this time. This tells me that Maryland is either just what the O&M infirmary Dr. ordered and we get well soon. Or our “funk” “malaise” and all together ho-hum 2009 football season that has resembled a yawning-festival since GT continues to underwhelm. (more…)

It has been 28 days since VT played on a Saturday folks.

Where is the Bandit when we need him?

Seems like longer than that to me as well. Though getting 9 days after playing a team that hits even harder than #15 of New Mexico’s wimminz soccer team is no bad thing.

ECU did have a few shots in the final 30 minutes. They may have even left 3-7 points on the field. Though we/VT could have had more as well. So wining by about two full scores appears to fit this game rather neatly.

Oh … and one other thing … please for the love of all things great and small … find more ways to get R.freakin.Will the rock! Dood was on fire and major kudos, felicitations and adulations go out to #34 for such a redemptive night.

So lets take a look a a few plays you may have missed and a few good ones as well…

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That was a fun one folks.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

Our Hokies came to hit and keep on hitting all night long. Most hitting I’ve seen out of VT since the Boston College championship game at the end of last year. Very physical high-velocity game that was played with the “fast-forward” button depressed for the entire 60 miutes of play.

9 days off is no bad thing right about now as I’d bet the over on VT whirlpool use in the next couple of days by the 2009 VT football team. That was indeed a Rock-em Sock-em night of football and ECU is no bad team. VT was just better. Feels good to get to say that yet again.

So lets take a look-see at a few fun plays; a couple of very very rough ones, and one in particular that really bothered me. (more on that below) (more…)

#23 Virginia Tech @ East Carolina:
TV Coverage: ESPN 7:30pm
Announcers: Reese Davis, Coach Holtz, Mark May and Todd Harris? (FREE E.A.!!!)
Vegas Line: ECU+13, O/U=51

New uniforms.

A new mid-field logo of a pirate superimposed inside the boundaries of the State of North Carolina.

Clearly the ECU Pirates are gunning for VT with the 18“ big guns of the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamato fame. ECU has been laying in wait for a program introducing national spotlight game like this and you can bet your bottom dollar that we will take their best high caliber shot flush on our chin on Thursday night.

That said; is that good enough for a 13 point underdog to pull the home upset? ECU is not feeling any pain when it comes to confidence after already upsetting us about 14 months ago.  It’s gonna take a lot to beat ECU on ESPN folks. I personally have this pegged right at a coin-flip could go either way game. If you know me you already have figured out that that means Overtime. But who will win?

Official Prediction Thread:

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Second-half was not all-bad. Though our road home from here now looks a bit tougher than I had forecasted way back in August.

@ ECU
@ Maryland
State
@ france

Suddenly our closing docket does not look as inviting as it did right after Boston College. Suddenly we are knee deep in our own O&M blood as the 3 L 2009 Hokie ship continues to take on water. How much damage did UNC do to our collective psyche?

I do not know about you; though I am v-e-r-y curious to see how our Staff and our baller’s respond to this much adversity.

You just do not learn as much about people when then win.

You learn a whole helluva a lot more about folk when the get beat.

Looks like school is in session this Thursday night down in Greenville. Yet lets take a closing look at the final 30 minutes of play from last Thursday night in Lane and see if anything from UNC suggests anything to us regarding our ECU chances. Then lets hope that we are not operating under TMI (too much information). (more…)