Hokie Dreams.

This weekend my beloved Hokies tookhost to one of the most over hyped teams in all of college football. Saturday Miami, a perennial under achiever, came in to Blacksburg expecting to get a win and continue their unbeaten season. It has been years, 2005 to be exact, since Miami was in the top ten rankings and of course they were very excited to believe they had regained the glory of years passed. What Miami had to do to continue their great season and national championship hopes was to beat Virginia Tech.
However, they failed. The Hokies completely dominated one of the “best” teams in the nation and shut down a much heralded young quarter back in Jacory Harris. Although I was not in attendance, darn you ticket lottery, I watched this tremendous game on TV with the roar of Lane echoing in the background. Virginia Tech out performed Miami on every side of the ball. The Hokies’ defense, offense, special teams, and coaches all put on an impressive show and dominated Miami. Some things about this game that much excited me where that this game seemed to be the return of Tyrod Taylor. He finally showed up and played with the skill and explosiveness of the years past but he also showed much improvement in his passing game. This aspect is very important for Virginia Tech because Tyrod is a leader of the offense with a lot of young players around him. Tyrod must stay poised and perform well so the team will play well. Also, when he plays on this level it opens up the offense more, it gets a rhythm going, and it gives the rest of the team confidence.
Another thing that was very impressive about Virginia Tech’s performance was that the defense, which had not performed well all season, bounced back and played on an extremely high level. Virginia Tech’s defense is usually one of the best in the nation and typically out performs everyone and leads the team to victory but s far this season the Hokies’ defense ranked in the 100s which is unacceptable according to defensive coordinator Bud Foster. All week before the game Foster put up the stats of the season so far in the locker room to remind the players of how poorly they have been. Foster also trained them harder than before and clearly his efforts paid off.
Something else that caught my eye about this game is the performance of Ryan Williams. Every game he just keeps getting better and better. Williams has such a heavy work load, running the ball 35 times on Saturday, but he continues to play very well and impress me. it seems to me like he just keeps getting faster and strong and his moves keep getting more exciting. Also, it blows my mind that he is just a redshirt freshman and he is playing like he has years of NFL experience. Williams stats just keep getting better too. He is already the best running back in the ACC as far as yards per game goes and he is approaching being one of the leading rushers in the nation.
All of these things from this weekend’s game get me especially excited for what im about to move into. National Championship hopes. This year Virginia Tech came into the season feeling like we could be Championship contenders if we beat Alabama. Clearly we did not win that game but because of the top ten performances on Saturday which lead to many upsets it seems like us Hokies still have hope. Virginia Tech has already moved into the number six position and are waiting on the door step of top five status.
Our hopes are only brightened considering the teams ahead of us. Boise State falls just ahead of us in the number five spot. This is good news for us Hokies. Although the Broncos remain undefeated they play in a non-BCS conference. This means that they do not automatically qualify to be in a BCS bowl if they win their conference title. Because of this many of the coaches and voters for the BCS rankings will not vote for Boise State even if they deserve it more than we do.
At the number four spot sits the LSU Tigers. This weekend the Tigers were almost upset by Mississippi State and in two weeks they have to battle Florida, the undefeated reigning National champions. If somehow by some miracle LSU makes it out of that game they still have to battle the number three ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. At number three spot is Alabama who we fell to earlier in the year. If somehow Alabama makes it out of the regular season unscathed they will still face Florida, who falls at number one, in the SEC championship game. Either way this game goes we will be moving up. The biggest problem we face falls at number two in the nation. The Texas Longhorns remain undefeated in a conference which they dominate.
Texas has looked unbeatable almost in every single game. Their offense has been explosive and they do not seem to lack on any phase of the game. For us to move ahead of the great Longhorns they must lose. Texas still has some chances to lose. Texas still has several ranked opponents left on their schedule and the best chance for them to lose is most likely when they must play Oklahoma State. The Longhorns have the best chance of losing that game because they must go on the road to play against the Cowboys. If somehow Texas manages to make it through that tough game they still have the Sooners and Kansas to play against and the big 12 championship game.
If all these games go our way we still have one thing we must do though. Virginia Tech must still win the remainder of the games. If we remain a one loss team we have a very good chance of winning our first National Championship.