Defense good, blah blah blah, held the Herd (which had no Thunder to speak of) to 6 rushing yards. Running game decent blah blah blah, maybe try to run DW less up the middle and more around the edge, plus get him involved in the short passing game to take advantage of his speed, LT better but still a little shaky blah blah blah, special teams atrocious. Demler blah blah blah awful blah blah blah, benched for Coale who didn’t look much better. Mark my pessimistic and cynical words that this is going to come back and hurt the Hokies, and soon.
And that’s it for the recap. I had lots more to say earlier in the week, but it’s already been said by now and nobody wants to continue beating the same old tired horse, right?
Now, onto the preview:
Clemson. Haven’t worried about playing these guys in several many years now. Here’s a handy chart showing why I didn’t worry:
1998-VT 38, Clemson 0
1999-VT 32, Clemson 21
2001-VT 41, Clemson 20
2006-VT 24, Clemson 6
2007-VT 41, Clemson 23
And then there’s this:
So, in my mind before the season started, the Clemson game wasn’t one that I knew was going to give me a nervous stomach. Then they had to go and beat Auburn, and the hype machine was off and running.
Is Clemson really any good this year? Maybe. I don’t really know. They played two easy teams to start out and struggled with one of them. They beat Auburn, but I’m not sure what that means now that there’s no Cam Newton there anymore. They beat Florida State, who should NEVER have been ranked as highly as they were (hype machine strikes again). But, they have a 1st year quarterback in Tajh Boyd, who is making a pretty important road trip to Lane Stadium, at night. How have first year quarterbacks typically done at Lane? I read it yesterday, but can’t remember where, so I can’t tell you exactly. Suffice to say, however, the answer is: not very well. And this defense looks like the real deal. (Sort of like what Heather thinks of the Clemson offense).
The Hokie offense and special teams, however, are not quite the real deal yet. There are flashes of good, maybe a few glimpses of great, and quite a few stretches of pretty bad. It could probably go either way, depending on how well Thomas performs, if the receivers are able to hang on to the ball, and if Demler somehow learned to punt this week. If we play the game on paper, Gobbler Country tells us that the Hokies will win it. They’s been doing an interesting series using statistics to predict game winners, which even though I don’t understand the specifics, I find strangely interesting. I’m pretty sure it won’t be played on paper though. But, I’m an optimist by trade, and a Hokie fan by choice. So, Hokies it is.
No excuses. No explanations. Do it right. Win. Believe.
The Football Girl 