First and foremost, congratulations to Frank Beamer on his 200th win at VT. That number would be amazing even if it was the only wins he had, but the fact that he has done it at one school says a lot about him, the school, and the fan base. Without tremendous support from everyone, that doesn't happen no matter how good of a coach one is, and he is one of the best, on and off the field.
Second, congratulations to Jarrett Boykin on setting the VT career receptions leader. For a school that isn't known as much for its passing, it is special when those records get broken, even if they might not be as high as at other schools. It shows how much skill and consistency he has displayed over the past 3+ years, and the final numbers he'll be at after this season will probably stand for a long time.
This isn't going to be a "the sky is falling" type of recap. By nature I am an optimistic kind of fan, and even if I thought the team did everything wrong this weekend (which they didn't) I wouldn't jump of the ship after just one bad game. Sometimes you have to put things into perspective. The Hokies got the win, so everything after that can only be so bad, and I like to use those as a learning experience.
This was The Lieutenant's first road start, so it is ok with me that he has a lot to review and improve upon. If the game had been lost, that is what could mess with his confidence more so than having a few bad throws or decisions. When you have the confidence of the guys around you picking up the slack, you can take away some of the pressure that is put on the QB, and allow him to grow into a great leader and player at an appropriate pace.
One of the negatives that did worry me to some extent is the number of dropped balls by our experienced receivers. For all I know it could just be the adjustment of catching balls that are thrown at a much high velocity than these guys have been used to in the past couple years. If that's the case, we have to assume it will be fixed with experience like most things. If it is some other reason, or anything psychological, then I can't speculate on what needs to be done to fix it.
Penalties is another issue that seemed to play into the closeness of the score yesterday, but I'm never one to blame a ref, or a handful of 5 yard penalties to the overall outcome of the game. It disturbed me that there were zero penalties called on the Pirates (they were using C-USA refs), because they definitely did not play a perfectly clean game. The interception turned pass interference call on Hosley was a bit nit-picky, especially with someone of the other non-calls that went against us. Still, that shouldn't be what matters as long as we fix the penalties on us that were in fact our fault.
Keep in mind that while the final score was close, and that is all most people in the country probably saw, VT did leave a number of points off the board. One, two, or three plays/playcalls differently, and this game is 31-or-so to 10 when people just see the boxscore. Frustrating as it may be, that is the truth, and could be the fine-line difference in how some fans were feeling afterwards.
I cannot begin to say enough good things about our defense. After having a sub-par year in 2010, the one thing most Hokie faithful were probably hoping for this year if they could pick, is to have the defense back up to the normal Bud Foster standards. While they were dominate in the one half they played against ASU, it took this kind of game to make me personally not worry about the first team's ability to stop just about anybody. Playing a quick tempo offense that is known for putting points on the board, and completely shutting them down the way they did takes away any concerns I might have had about any other team we'll play this year. Without a great punt downed at the 1, followed by a short field on their next possession, the Pirates might not have seen the endzone all day.
Most coaches like to say you get the most improvement between game one and two. That is not the case obviously right now, but we'll see how much improvement there will be for the Hokies' offense between the first game they were challenged and the next one. Luckily this learning experience comes at a time we have a couple more games to iron out the wrinkles before more important and tougher competition comes into town.
Thoughts Around The ACC
As of right now, the only team in the conference who has played two games without any real negatives is the Noles. Of course they have played two teams that shouldn't have provided any real threat, and the real test will be next week against the #1 team in the country. Then we'll finally know where they're at as a program this year.
Biggest surprise for me this week was the performance by Wake Forest. After coming off a devastating loss, they turned it around and played well enough to win in their conference opener against a divisional opponent. They might not be the worse team in the conference this year after all.
On the other side of that coin, the biggest disappointments after Week 2 are the Wolfpack and Tigers. I'm not saying the Wolfpack are a disappointment because they lost, and not even because they lost to Wake Forest, but because they clearly had questions after Week 1, and then lost in Week 2. Clemson, while undefeated, also has plenty of questions and concerns to how they'll perform when not playing a low level 1-A or 1-AA team. Not lucky for them, but luckily for those of us trying to judge teams' capabilities, they play three straight ranked teams next, so we'll be able to gauge them more accurately after a couple of those.
This week I went 8-1 in my ACC game predictions, bringing me to 18-2 overall. I'll probably need most of those correct picks later in the season to keep my percentage up now that just about all the easy games to pick are over with. Next week begins conference play for a number of teams, and ranked opponents for another few. No one should be too impressed with me until I'm able to consistently predict the outcomes to those kind of games.
Final Parting Shot
Last week's final parting shot went to Notre Dame after they started off the year losing to USF. Now for (hopefully) everyone reading this, it is well known how they let an early lead, and eventually a final 30 second lead, slip away from them as they lost to Michigan at the first ever night game in The Big House. Of course it would be pretty petty and immature of me to pick the Fighting Irish again for this segment of my weekly thoughts.
Luckily for me however, my current #1 goal in life is to never grow up. So once again Notre Dame coaches, players, and fans, this message of condolence goes out to you.
Remember to follow along on twitter @UtProsimGobbler for blog updates, and live tweeting on gameday
H-O-K-I-E-S HOKIES!!!
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