#32 Boston College @ #6 Virginia Tech:
TV coverage: Raycom
Announcers: Tim Bryant, Doc Walker and Mike Hogewood
Vegas Line: VT-13.5 O/U=44.5

Boston College has been the talon in the Virginia Tech side for several years now. But why?

This year will tell the tale.

If it was only personnel (i.e. the B.C. interior defense); that should show itself this Saturday as the VT internal-zone running plays should open up for R.Williams and Josh. If it was the scheme and or being out-coached … VT will yet again struggle with the 2009 Flying Eagles.

If it was personnel this was just a blip on the O&M radar scope. Albeit a rather oversized blip at that. If it was scheme, you should look for some X’s and O’s copycatting to occur as other teams parrot and piggy-back what B.C. does to VT on offense and defense down the road.

Official Prediction Thread:

Saturday 3:30pm or so and we should know … either way. Though said knowledge will play a huge determining factor in this games outcome. Unless the B.C. injuries postpone discernment until 2010.

Top-10:

1. One. As in the starting VT OLine has only played 1 full game this year. Unlike last year when they had to go the distance a staggering 7 times!
2. One thousand five hundred twenty-five. B.C.’s OLine weighs in at a whopping 1,525 lbs. if you need ‘em.
3. Third. As in VT’s 1o3rd vs. B.C.’s 1ooth Passing Offense:
4. Forth. As in VT’s 45th vs. B.C.’s 45th Turnover Margin:
5. Five. As in B.C. is only 5 games above .500 on the road in their last 10 years (26-21).
6. Six Six. As in the B.C. OLine goes 6`6“ on average. A truly mammoth OLine.
7. Seventh. As in BC is 1o7th in generating Sacks.
8. Eight. As in VT only has 8 ACC L’s since joining the conference. B.C. has accounted for 37.5% of ‘em.
9. Ninety-first. As in B.C. is only 91st in 3rd Down conversion rate.
10. Grass. While grass many not have 10 letters; this is one of B.C.’s rare games on the real stuff as B.C. has a synthetic carpet to play on up in Massachusetts.

B.C. Offense X’s and O’s and match-ups:

The Flying Eagles have a re-tred MLB minor-leaguer at Quarterback (Qb). When you need someone to go buy the keggers you turn to 25 year-old true-Freshman Qb Dave Shinskie.

B.C. tends to opperate out of a base 3-Wide Receiver (Wr) offense with a single Running Back (Rb).  As you can see above, the B.C. OLine is super-sized. It answers the 1980’s “Where’s the beef?” marketing blitzkrieg rather well. All four OLinemen are upperclassmen, at least 3 of them are legit all-star candidates. The right side of the B.C. OLine tips the Toledo Scales at just over 7oo lbs, and yet the left side might just be a tad better.

B.C. has two at least B- quality Rb’s and a serviceable set of pass-catchers. This may not be an epic B.C. offense, though it is a steady one that like our own has improved week by week. Film study shows that B.C. does not run outside very much; ergo, block-shedding from ‘Quell and Jake -which they have struggled with- will be at a premium inside the so-called Box this week.

Also, do be fully awares that the VT Defense tends to put points on the board on the B.C. offense. 4 VT defensive TD’s in our last 3 games vs. B.C. if you are keeping score at home. However; that was with the Coach Jag’s style of offense which never meet an Out Pattern it did not like. That lead to clear sailing in front of our Defensive Backs (Db’s) when they jumped a B.C. Out Pattern. Coach Tranquill is the Screen-Pass Meister. Though Coach Tranquill has done some smart work on elongated Boots or Crossing Routs that terminate towards the sideline this year; as Dave Shinskie has the cannon to deliver the rock pitching the ball 40+ yards in the air on a pattern that only gains 15 yards. Ergo, I do not foresee as many opportunities for a Pick-6 for our Hokies. I do however expect more running outta B.C. and even some more Wildcat formations with the B.C. Rb’s (Harris or Hadden) taking the direct snap.

B.C. Defense X’s and O’s and match-ups:
Coach Spaz may be the Cup Stacking champion of Camp Mohawk fame sans the black plastic glasses taped together at the nose. However he is a dang fine Defensive Coach folks. To begin the year B.C. opponents did not score on the Flying Eagles for the first 117 minutes and change! The Klempson game looks pretty shoddy at first blush. However; the Tigers did not score a TD, even with starting possessions on the B.C. 42, 17 and 8 yardline! Now consider that 3rd Down conversions are few and far between vs. the Flying Eagles; as B.C. has only allowed 3rd Down conversions at a 28% clip; good for 12 best in all of D-1. On top of that B.C. has tallied a phenomenal 56 Picks in their last 33 games. Best in all of D-1 over that two year and change time period.

Now for the fun part:

• 2009 107th
• 2008 26th
• 2007 30th.

That’s B.C.’s sack ranking by season for the last three years. You get that many sacks and yah; sure; you should pick some passes. This year a good portion of the B.C. pass rush has left the building. All the more so if all-conference quality Defensive End (De) Alex Albright (6`5“ 245 lbs.) and his ailing Achilles can not go on Saturday. That typed; my sources are not as tall on our recovering the services of DeChris at right-Offensive Tackle (r-Ot) as they are on getting Graves back at Defensive Tackle (Dt). So that edge insalubrious trade-off would be a wash if both players can not go. As you have already read, B.C. loves to Zone the playing-field in pass coverage and utilizes deeper (than normal) drops for both their Linebackers and their Defensive-Backs. What has not been given any or enough attention is the fact that all 3 August starting Linebackers are out or injured. Stud SLb Mark Herzlich has cancer. God Bless on that. ESPN.com reports suggest he is close to 99% cancer free as of last week. EPIC news is there ever was such; and kudos to Beamerball.com for raising to assist Mark in his fight to survive.

To make matters worse, #34 Mike McLaughin who is a man’s man and a true warhorse of an old-school football throwback has a bad Achilles and the WLb one William Thompson has a bum shoulder. That all consipres to tell me that there could be some Inside-Zone running room for Josh and R.Will IF the B.C. second-layer is unable to play on Saturday.

Conclusions and illations:
B.C. is 13th best in fewest penalties per game. 10th best in offensive Red Zone efficiency, and 27th best in Red Zone defense. In other words; this is an extremely well-coached football team that typically does not beat itself. You will have to take the game from B.C folks; the Flying Eagles won’t be giving much of anything away. That said, check this out … B.C. and us/VT are both terrible at TFL allowed. B.C. is 99th worst and we are 95th worst. Now, lets break that down a little further because you are very likely in store for bu-cu Longfield Management® situations or Lo.FM’s this weekend.

Virginia Tech:
* 35 total Lo.FM’s
* 133 yards the wrong way!

Boston College:
* 36 total Lo.FM’s
*  116 yards the wrong way!

OUCH! Now lets take that all the way. B.C. is 38th in Sacks allowed whereas VT is 92nd. Ergo,

our/VT pass-blocking is entirely critical to predicting this outcome. If we give TT even adequate Time To Throw® (T3) we should have a net advantage in that we will face fewer Lo.FM’s than B.C. will. Why? Because as you saw above in the Top-10 and in the bullet list; B.C. is down a bit on sacks this year. No make that way down. A drop or rather a fall off of a staggering 81 spots in Sacks this year.

In other words if B.C. gets after TT -and the fact that DeChris is not 100% is not helping- B.C.’s odds to win go way way up. If we protect TT and give TT time to read the deep stationed Unbreall B.C. Zone coverage our odds go way way up; because each team is gonna produce some TFL against the opposing running game and that means Lo.FM’s. Lo.FM’s tend to indicate a need to throw and that means we must keep B.C. off of T-mobile at all costs as TT will not beat that many B.C. defenders dropping into zone coverage with his wheels.

Prediction:
This is the most schizophrenic VT football team I’ve ever covered. Two great rushing days, one great passing day and two days where our offense basically got stuffed. On defense we hold an epic deep throwing Miami team to a buck-50 (15o) throwing; then allow a vastly under-talented Duke team to torch us for the second most yards that VT has ever given up since entering A.C.C. play! Then to begin the year, we allowed three consecutive 100-yard rushers in a row. Go fig on that?!?

Will the real VT please stand up.

That said; I am confident that this is gonna be a fast game and that you will get home in time to see some of the mid-afternoon games if you live in the N.R.V. Why? Because Coach Tranquill ain’t exactly Jane Fonda and left-of-left on offense. He is pretty conservative by nature. Playing his play-calling cards close to his vest. All the more so on the road vs. a Bud Foster defense in a difficult to play in Lane Stadium. I am told that even for being rather mature as a rookie Qb goes; that Coach Tranquille has still not implemented the entire B.C. offense up on Chestnut Hill. Shinskie is still indeed a bit wet behind the ears at the line-of-scrimmage when it comes to reads and shifting to the correct play or formation. This is therefore an ideal opportunity for the wizard of coverages (one Bud Foster) to mix coverages and disguises to bait Shinskie into some misQ’s or misreads and therefore hopefully some mistakes and or Turnovers. Further, Shinskie went the finally 33 minutes vs. FSU with only 2 completions. Dude can run a bit hot and cold or what we would call a streak shooter in hoops terms. Therefore getting to Shinskie early-on and disrupting any potential rhythm is paramount. We do not need him to get hot or start feeling good about himself. We must lower his offensive self-esteem early and often.

However, it is no secret that TT has not been extremely efficacious vs. Zone based coverage defenses. TT thrives on the edge vs. man-to-man where his athleticism forces a given OLb or Cb to make a choice between attacking TT or defending the pass.  That is not the case with B.C. though we are catching B.C. at the right time as they are pretty banged up at critical stop-unit positions. My B.C. sources are hinting that De Albright, Dt Scafe and Db Rollins are all back at practice and that De Ramaella has a busted hand. If they are unable to play or preform south of their standards, there will be space in the B.C. second layer for R.Williams to hit a few gainers. Cracks will become seams, and seams will become holes. If they are good-to-go or good enough; this game -just like the middle of the field- will experience some D.C. style beltway congestion and there will be no O&M elixir for such vs. a Zone based Flying Eagle defense.

Boston College is.... The new Pitt. They have figured VT's X's and O's out. A fluke. We now go back to dominating B.C. A team that had the player match-ups to give VT a fit. View Results  Loading ...

I fully portent an ugly meat-grinder of a game that goes by pretty fast due to a run game binge by both teams. All the more so if Blacksburg Virginia is wet on Saturday. That said; I can not shake this bad feeling. The one thing I’m not seeing anywhere else is B.C.’s penchant for forcing and recovering fumbles this year. D.Roberts and his bad hammie vs. the 5th best Kickoff Coverage unit is not helping either. This has all conspired to move me pretty close to even. I will have my prediction later once I get a real feel for the Blacksburg weather as rain would have to favor the bigger and the better OLine. That would be B.C. and that would push this game to a toss-up or a coin-flip if you will.

UPDATE: the weather may not be perfect; though it is not as severe as it could have been looking at Friday’s forecast. Still; I just do not have that golden feeling that everything is in its very own O&M groove for Homecoming 2009. I can not put my finger on it; nor can I go ESPN2 made for TV spelling-bee and spell it precisely out for you. I need to buy a vowel to solve this perplexing B.C. puzzle. I can tell you that my last update (9pm last night) suggested that more of B.C.’s walking wounded would play than I had originally thought. That has pushed me right to a coin-flip or even game. Might even be a chance for some OT here folks as both teams have critical points of attack that will surrender points.
Virginia Tech=24, Boston College=23

“LETS GO!”

“HOKIES!”

b’street

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