It’s Thursday already
We beat Georgia Tech on Saturday night. I’ve spent about 5 days savoring the trouncing of the jackets as if it has been some kind of bizarro hangover. It’s been fun, but holy cow it’s gameday again. How did that happen? Well the greatest schedule ever is rearing its ugly head again and now Virginia Tech is that head.
In general, I have a spot in my heart for Virginia Tech. It’s the hard-working, underappreciated little brother to an older and more pompous state university. You have to like Tech if for no other reason than it is the anti-UVA. But those warm feelings quickly disappear when I think about VT, Clemson, and football. I have nothing but bad memories when it comes to the Hokies. Tonight though, we have a good chance to exact some well earned revenge.
Virginia Tech comes into the game with decent looking defensive numbers. They’re also 5-2, so obviously they’re doing something moderately correct. But Clemson has already faced a lot of teams with good-looking defensive numbers and proceeded to show a complete lack of respect for national statistical rankings. Moreover, having watched a lot of their games, they have seemed to lack a spark all year. That was particularly evident when they were bested by Georgia Tech and a week later by the Eagles of BC.
Basically I’m left wondering if the Hokies can get points on the board. They haven’t been the special teams juggernaut for which they derive much of their respect. And their offensive numbers don’t pop off the board. Quarterback Sean Glennon is servicable but not great. And running back Brandon Ore has the ability to put up big yards, but those performances are spread out.
In short, I don’t see any reason why Clemson shouldn’t beat Virginia Tech tonight. Rob Spence puts together great game plans from week-to-week. As does Vic Koenning, which leaves execution as the key element. Against wake we saw what can happen when the team is pressured into making mistakes. As long as we can keep Virginia Tech with a long field, and don’t give them points on turnovers or special teams, they shouldn’t be able to score more than 17. Davis, Spiller, and Merriweather will be ready to run. Stuckey will rejoin Ford, Grisham and Kelly to catch. If Proctor stays sharp we’re in good shape.
My forecast says we should win by an easy 20. But I’ll predict the final score of 20-17, with Tech getting 7 off gimmes.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out this game. Part of me says it’s a trap game, circle the wagons game, or whatever the media wishes to dub it. The rest of me says we’re facing a generally anemic offense, a good D, and special teams squad not as good as it used to be.
I did the flip-flop thing on the blog and gave two predictions, relying on the performance of our passing game to keep the d honest to determine if we win or lose.
I’m not worried about the nationally ranked rush D, we have trounced them in the past so far. I’m not worried about the pass D, we won’t need it with the rush we have. I am worried about the lack of time for preparation and Lane Stadium on a Thursday night. I am still in the “fear Thursday” mode and that Stadium seems to have an undaunting aura about it. VT is like a cornered Wolverine right now and they know that if they an beat Clemson, who just beat the one team ahead of them in the division, that they will have it a little easier getting to the ACCCG. This game is unnerving in that, like Chili said, on paper and by the gut we should win but this being Clemson football……anything can happen.