Hokies Get Prematurely Assessed

The Doc is only few premature assessments deep this year, but he's already chosen Virginia Tech as a target. Hinton takes a close look at Tyrod Taylor and how he actually regressed in his second season under center for the Hokies (sophomore jinx?). His main point is that if Tyrod doesn’t improve in his junior year, we’re looking at basically having a fast Glennon as our QB (my words, not his).

He also looks at our love of Bud Foster and disdain for Bryan Stinespring and brings up a couple of good points. Foster is beloved because the defense remains strong despite losing key players. However, despite Stinespring not having much to work with our fan base still loathes him and blames him for our losses with no praise in victory.

The Hokies have finished in the bottom 20 nationally in total offense three years in a row, a cruel inverse to the success of the defense. It's hard to be creative, though, when you're so limited in the passing game -- all the way around: Tech struggled not only at throwing and catching, but allowed more sacks last year than any other offense in the ACC -- and when your most effective strategy is hurling a 215-pound hammer at the line of scrimmage.

The Doc’s bottom line is that we’re a dark, dark horse for the BCSCG. Our margin for error remains very slim going into 2009 and Tech fans should be more excited for the possibilities in 2010.

My only disagreement with Hinton’s view on our season is on the Alabama game. Yes, Alabama started 12-0 in the SEC last year. But I think it lost too much from that team to just come out and smoke the Hokies like it did last year against Clemson.

And the LSU comparison isn’t valid because we faced the Tigers at their zenith on the way to national title. LSU had yet to suffer the injuries it did that caused it to lose two games. They were healthy, we had no offensive line and we walked into a hornet’s nest in Death Valley that night that in hindsight we had no chance of surviving.