FOOTBALL!: VT-UCF report, VT-JMU preview
The time for fun is over; the time for FOOTBALL! has come.
More specifically, the time for Virginia Tech football has come. Believe it or not, I had never attended a football game in person prior to the home opener my freshman year, VT vs. Syracuse; this sad state was mostly due to the fact that my high school contributed a total of one player to the football team we shared with the Richmond City school above which the school then lived. My interest quickly grew, though, and I proceeded to go to the next three bowl games in which the Hokies participated, culminating in the 1999-2000 Sugar Bowl national championship loss to Florida State. I now have season tickets (albeit on the “old-people” side of the stadium; perhaps my luck will improve next year), and spend seven game days a year traveling 3.5 hours each way to Blacksburg.
So what does this mean to you, the BTN reader? For the next four months, expect football. Lots of football. I don’t pretend to be the football mind that TechSideline.com proprietor Will Stewart is, so my game reports will usually be full of short-shot observations rather than long-winded analysis. (You there in the back! Sit down and stop cheering!) So, without any further ado…
Tech opened its season Sunday, 31 August with a 49-28 dismantling of UCF (the University of Central Florida, which tries to get around the “directional school” stigma by requiring that media outlets use its initials only when reporting on its sports teams). Things we saw today:
- Kevin Jones still hasn’t learned to quit dancing and run forward (“north-south” instead of “east-west”). The stopping, taking two steps forward, spinning around, sneaking behind the next OL, repeat, etc. probably gets him two or three SportsCenter touchdowns a year, but it loses the team two or three first downs a game. This is something we were told he’d worked on during the summer, but it wasn’t in evidence Sunday. In past years, Tech has had the luxury of having one strong, straight-ahead runner (Shyrone Stith, Lee Suggs) and one lighter, more mobile back (André Kendrick, KJ), and both backs received a good share of playing time. If Jones wants to be the exclusive #1 guy and make a Heisman run, he’d better learn how to accept a 2-3 yard gain when it’s needed, or the coaching staff won’t hesitate to drop to Cedric Humes.
- Bryan Randall should start. Period. If he gets hurt, I’ll be confident in Marcus Vick as the backup, but as long as Randall avoids turning the ball over, he’s the superior quarterback now.
- That said, when MV2 gets the ball for good (which may not be until 2005), watch out, ACC.
- The defensive second team should never come in before the third quarter. Respecting one’s opponent goes two ways — I understand not wanting to beat up on them, but give them some credit as the threat that they are.
- The end zone (where my friends had student tickets) is a terrible place from which to watch a game. Perfect passes like Vick-Clowney in the fourth quarter look unbelievably dangerous because you can’t tell that they’re flying 10 feet above the heads of the three defenders on a line between QB and WR.
Next up is the game that ordinarily would come first: a virtual scrimmage against I-AA JMU. The most interesting part of this game may well be at halftime, when JMU’s band, the Marching Royal Dukes, takes the field. Those folks are competitive… and their football team won’t be. Adding to the boredom factor, Marcus Vick has been suspended for “a violation of team rules.” Second-string WR and third-string QB Chris Clifton moves up to take what will probably be an entire second half of snaps. Maybe Beamer will even let him throw the ball once or twice.
I don’t do score predictions, so let’s just say VT a lot, JMU not many.
UPDATE: Tailgate Fever has the final word, with an interview (well, sorta) (scroll down) with JMU quarterback Matt Lezotte. First-class stuff.
3 September 2003 / 12 Comments / Tags: football