The game won’t be played for another 10 days, so I’ll get out in front of the rest of the pundits and call it right now: Virginia Tech’s contest with Boston College sure looks like a trap game.
I know, it’s kind of ironic since of all the ACC opponents the Hokies have played over the years, BC has probably been the most pesky, and delivered some of the more surprising, heart-breaking losses to the team in both Blacksburg and Chestnut Hill.
I say this because we now find Virginia Tech in uncharted waters. They played well in Miami and won, er, should have won in Miami, then had a dominant victory out on the West Coast against Stanford. You are starting to see that in their demeanor, body language, and comments being made by staff and players.
They are becoming a confident group.
Conversely, Boston College is coming off a loss to Virginia where they had a 14-0 lead and lost 24-14. Quarterback Thomas Castellanos was impressive early in the season, but suffered a concussion in a 23-19 win over Michigan State on September 21. He was held out of BC’s 21-20 win over Western Kentucky the next week, then returned for last week’s game against Virginia.
His stats didn’t look bad, completing 22 of 30 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns. But down the stretch he threw two interceptions and didn’t seem to be the QB he was to start the season in a win over Florida State, suggesting he may have needed another week to recover from injury. Even with all that, Boston College has a better record at 4-2 than the 3-3 Hokies, and one of those losses was a narrow 27-21 defeat at the hands of Missouri, who at the time was ranked No. 6 and undefeated until last week’s upset loss at Texas A&M.
The combination of a healthy Castellanos in 10 days and a very confident Virginia Tech team could be interesting. In my 50 years of watching them, the Hokies tend to play their best when their backs are against the wall, and tend to be less than impressive when everybody thinks they’re going to win. Some of Virginia Tech’s best performances have come when every member of the panel on ESPN Gameday picks them to lose.
So don’t get too confident, Hokies. This could be a tough one.
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One of the things fans were concerned about in the transition from Kenny Brooks to Megan Duffy as head coach of Virginia Tech’s women’s basketball program was Duffy’s ability recruit. It was kind of odd, given Duffy successfully recruited many very good players at Marquette, but there was a general impatience back in the spring along the lines of “you’ve been here for 8 days so why haven’t you recruited any big names RIGHT NOW.”
With the commitment of Aniya Trent yesterday, the Hokies have now garnered three commitments in Trent, 5-9 point guard Kate Sears out of Boone, NC, and forward Amani Jenkins from Johnston, Iowa.
All are 4-stars, which unless you’re UCONN or South Carolina, is a pretty impressive feat. The only thing that could make it better, obviously, is to sign a 5-star or two. And the best way to get a 5-star is to have a roster filled with 4-stars so they know they’re going to a program with very good existing talent that puts them in a position to win.
So relax. This staff already seems to know how to recruit and attract great talent.
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The New York Jets decided to fire head coach Robert Saleh today, and I can’t say it’s a terrible decision. Saleh has always been a great defensive mind, but his teams have ended up being good on defense and struggling on offense. To get better, the Jets have needed to improve on offense, particularly since they went out and got Aaron Rodgers as QB.
Yet despite that bit of “Captain Obvious,” the Jets designated as the interim coach current defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. That’s kind of like saying the restaurant was suffering because they hired the fry cook from McDonald’s instead of a chef. Then you fire him and replace him with the fry cook from Wendy’s.
Granted, the Washington Commanders have a “defensive guy” in Dan Quinn as head coach. But he copiously went out and found assistants who were subject matter experts in the various disciplines of the game of football, then lets the likes of offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury do their job without interference.
That doesn’t seem to be the case with the J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets.
