Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Go Long. Keep going.

I am back once again after a long break from blogging, but once again it is with a good reason... I got engaged! I was thinking about writing a post on the whole engagement story and breaking it down from a sports reporter type of angle, but then I realized that I have no idea how to do that. I guess you could say that it was like I called for a play-action pass (I pretended to be going to Colorado for New Years Eve, but I actually drove to Jacksonville to surprise my soon-to-be fiancee), then I threw long (did about 24 hours of driving combined for the trip), and the result was a touchdown (I successfully applied the ring to my fiancee's finger). Go football analogies! Top that, Bill Simmons!

Speaking of football, how about that FedEx Orange Bowl? I was somehow able to watch most of the game even though I was still in Jacksonville with a bunch of non-Hokies (I watched the game again later on DVR at my place), and I am once again forced to give Bud Foster most of the credit for this "W". The defense looked pretty shaky in the first half, but Cincinatti's vaunted offense only scored 7 points, and the Hokie D kept picking off Cincinatti quarterback Tony Pike in the 2nd half. 4 interceptions against a guy who had thrown only 7 interceptions (compared to 18 touchdowns) in 11 regular season games! Not a bad day's work for the boys in Chicago maroon. I have to raise my hands to the sky and praise the Lord that no top-flight college is willing to hire Foster as their head coach because that means VT will continue to do battle with arguably the best defensive coordinator in the college game. How do we keep managing to hold onto this guy? It's a Christmas miracle. Someone cue the dancing elves.

My game ball goes to Kam Chancellor, and believe me when I tell you that I never ever thought that I would be saying that on this blog. Kam has a knack for getting the big hit, but I remember him most often for missing the big hit and getting burned in the open field. Not in this game though... Kam was playing with his wits this time, and proved to be a constant menace for both Tony Pike and Cincy's smorgasbord of wide receivers. Kam had a nice interception in the 3rd quarter and should have been given another one on a ridiculous grab where he got a hand and a knee down in bounds before the rest of his leg landed out of bounds. The referees didn't see it that way, however, and so Kam only ended up with one pick, but I'm telling you that the guy had it inbounds. And let me talk for just a second about the first touchdown where some people would say that Kam Chancellor got "burned" or "beat". Neither is the case... you can't say that when the wide receiver has to lay out to catch the ball with his fingertips and barely gets one foot inbounds for the score. Kam actually had excellent coverage on that play and Tony Pike threw it where only his receiver could catch it... credit needs to be given to Cincinatti on that play and shouldn't be taken away from any Virginia Tech player. Sorry if I just put you in your place, but you had it coming. Shame on you.

The most surprising stat to me is that the Bearcats (seriously, what the heck is a bearcat) had 3 sacks against the Hokies versus zero sacks for our defense. Granted, Jason Worilds was not healthy enough to play and he's one of our best playmakers at defensive end, but Orion Martin and Nekos Brown were surprisingly quiet all game. Martin did end up with an absolutely superb grab of a pass that almost hit the ground to get VT's third interception and set up Darren Evans' touchdown run, but the 6'6" Pike was somehow too speedy for our defensive line to actually catch and drag down.

I remain a huge Cody Grimm fan and I think he might need to be a starter next year. This year he was mostly playing in the place of Cam Martin who battled an injury all season long, but I think that next year if Cam Martin is healthy again, we may need to move Grimm to the rover position and let him start there. Dorian Porch has been adequate, but I think Grimm would be a big upgrade. I know that Davon Morgan will be back from injury next season, and that him and Porch were neck-and-neck throughout spring and fall practice, but I really don't like Morgan's coverage abilities, I don't think he knows how to play in a zone, and I don't think he would be nearly as effective in run defense as Grimm can be. That kid plays like his hair is on fire. Someone get him a bucket of Gatorade. Orange flavored of course.

2 comments:

vt said...

All of the following may be classified as Bearcats:

1) http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/10/30/300_bearcat1.jpg

2) http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/de/Bearcatwright.jpg/200px-Bearcatwright.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearcat_Wright&usg=__ZF27Ucq8nugQI6il82rTzpBvPA4=&h=258&w=200&sz=12&hl=en&start=9&tbnid=vgorj48Qb0R00M:&tbnh=112&tbnw=87&prev=/images%3Fq%3DEdward%2B%2522Bearcat%2522%2BWright%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

3) http://www.air-and-space.com/20080517%20Chino/BL2_1986%20F8F-2%20NX14WB%20left%20front%20l.jpg

Anonymous said...

OK, so how huge was it that Macho changed his mind about going pro this time last year. Without him we don't win the ACC or the Orange Bowl and probably not the Duke game. Also he wouldnt have been able to inspire Kam Chancellor into returning for his senior year in '09. That was quietly the most important moment of the 2008 season.