VOLUME 006 ISSUE 015

TECHSUPERFANS (TM) - THE NEWSLETTER
VOLUME 006 ISSUE 015 (2006.01.01)

Happy New Year!

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CONTENTS
Game Preview - vs. Louisville
Game Review - vs. Florida State/Season Review
The BCS Sham Cont.
TSF's Bowl Picks

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Game Preview - vs Louisville
by "Mad" Jay

The Big East conference would LOVE to see Louisville knock off Virginia Tech. The Hokies left the conference after the 2003 season and, along with the departures of Miami and Boston College, rendered it the worst BCS conference in college football. Revenge could come in the form of a Big East team beating the Hokies on national TV (the Hokies 11th appearance on national TV this season which is amazing).

The game brings an interesting matchup in terms of Louisville's offense against the Hokie defense. These two units rank among the best in the country but we will be robbed of a true elite matchup due to the fact that Louisville's starting QB - Big East Offensive Player of the Year - Brian Brohm won't play. Louisville is also missing a key player on their defense, Montavious Stanley, at defensive tackle. They do still have their All-Universe defensive end Elvis Dumervil. I can honestly say from what I've seen of Dumervil that he is the best defensive end in the country, but without Stanley in there to mix things up, the Hokies should be able to focus in Dumervil. I won't go so far as to say that Louisville is a one-man defense, but honestly, South Florida hung 45 points on them, and they kept Dumervil double-teamed the whole game, so I will say that if Dumervil is contained, the Hokies should have success on offense.

Virginia Tech has all their starters ready to play, with the exception of Mike Imoh whose ankle injury has led to a sad ending on the career of a solid running back. He isn't fast, or big enough to play in the NFL, and so this was to be his final ballgame. It is too bad he won't be able to play and Hokies fans everywhere need to appreciate Mike Imoh's contributions to the Virginia Tech program throughout his career - not the least of which is his Tech rushing game record 243 yards against North Carolina last season.

So let's be honest here (as I always try to be): there is no way that Louisville, without two of their biggest contributors playing, should be able to hang with Virginia Tech. Tech's offense is better overall than Louisville's (without Brohm), and Tech's defense is head and shoulders above Louisville's. But that doesn't mean anything as I have learned this year. The real issue is whether the Hokie football players can find the leadership and motivation to play this game at the level that is needed to win in today's college football. I'd like to think that the seniors will help guide the rest of this team to give their very best and beat a weaker opponent. I have seen evidence to the contrary, why almost a month ago, in Jacksonville, the site of this year's Gator Bowl.

Virginia Tech is in a tough spot psychologically. Not only are they playing in the same stadium where they laid an egg on national TV in the ACC title game against Florida State, but they are supposed to win this game considering all of Louisville's key injuries. If they lose it, it damages the psyche of the players for next season as well as the coaches and sets a pattern for continuing to lose in the post-season (VT is 6-12 lifetime in bowl games).

I can only hope and pray that if for nothing else, pride is what wills the team to play at the level at which they are capable and beat this Louisville team.

GO HOKIES!!!!


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Game Review - vs. Florida State/Season Review
by "Mad" Jay

Regardless of the outcome in the Gator Bowl that the Hokies are playing in this year, there is one fact that doesn't change - the team did not accomplish the goals it set for itself, nor did it reach the potential that the players, staff and fans all knew was there this season.

I have done some serious soul-searching in the past several weeks. A professional journalist would have given you a review of the ACC Title game and commentary on the season within a day or at most a week upon the conclusion of the game itself. As you can see, I am no professional journalist. I did not have the heart, nor the mental toughness to look at the game tape and watch the disgrace of the VT program on national television during the ACC titel game. Up until a week ago, I would still hear the echoes at night of that godforsaken Florida State fan chant - WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-HOOOO-EH-UH-OOOOOHHH, WHOAAAAA-OHH-OHH-HOO-EH-UH-OHHHHHHHHHH. Hell, I was calling the Gator Bowl the WhoCares.Com Bowl until two nights ago.

Now, my Calm and Beloved Reader, you know that I will always stick with the Hokies as long as the players and coaches don't give up on themselves. My mantra is that a football game is 60 minutes long and, as fans, we should support the team for the entire game. But in the ACC Championship game against FSU, trailing 27-3 and facing a 4th and 6 at his own 41 with 14 minutes left in the 4th quarter, Coach Frank Beamer gave up and decided to punt the ball. He gave up on the game and I decided that if he and the team were quitting then we wouldn't continue to support them that night. Fortunately for all of us, Florida State had 12 men on the field for the punt and the Hokies kept the ball. The Blonde, her brother and I who were almost out of the stadium, came back in as we heard the penalty call, and thankfully sat back down to watch the team give a VERY gutsy performance that almost led to an amazing comeback. Credit to all the players for that, but lost in the outcome is that Beamer DID give up on his team at that point in the game. Turns out that was one of the things that really hurt.

Since then, most of the time I spent contemplating the game was focused on one question - Why? Why wasn't this team able to beat an outmatched Florida State team? Why were the Hokies so flat for most of the game, and then were able to dominate the game at the end? The easy answer is coaching, but it goes deeper than that. It goes to whether or not Virginia Tech is an elite-of-the-elite football program yet, even when so many fans claim it to be, and the answer is clearly no. What separates the elite, always-in-the-mix-for-a-Top-5 finish teams from the rest of the teams is mental toughness. In order to be among the very top programs, you have to win some of the big games. Not all of them, no program wins forever, and even the USC dynasty will fall someday (maybe January 4th who knows?). But you have to win some of the big games. And you have to exhibit mental toughness.

Let's examine Tech's football program since 1999 - the year that most people became aware of Virginia Tech through the exploits of one Michael Vick. Since 1999, Virginia Tech has won exactly two big games. Now by big games, I mean, everything's on the line, gotta-have-it, whole-country-is-watching, big games. Those two wins are both against the same program - Miami, in 2003 and 2004. In 2003, Miami was #2 and Tech destroyed them in one of its finest performances. The Hokie team that year had all the talent in the world, but really only played as a true team that one night. In 2004, this time with the ACC title on the line, Bryan Randall led Tech to play focused football on the road against the Hurricanes for 60 minutes and they won the game. Tech has been in many other big games since 1999 - Florida State in the title game, Miami in 2001 (granted Vick was hurt), Auburn in 2004, and Miami and Florida State this year. And they lost those games.

There has been a pattern in all of the big games that Tech lost. The opponent gets out to a big lead and then Tech starts to play and shows a lot of heart (and its competitive talent) in coming back. Why is that? Why can't Tech come out and play great football from the starting gun? It's mental toughness. It takes an expectation to win, and focused effort and concentration to win games against other top college football programs. At the consistently Top 5 level, the talent is too close to make the difference in win or lose. It's the mental toughness of the coaching staff that can devise and implement strategies that take advantage of the opponent's weaknesses, and the mental toughness of the players that can execute those strategies.

You want another example of mental toughness? Look at turnovers and penalties. Those are factors in a game that are 95% determined by the player's concentration and effort and very little determined by the opponent. If you only looked at the 10 games that Tech won, it would have led the nation in turnover margin and been 2nd in the nation in penalties committed. But against the two opponents in the big games that really mattered (Miami and Florida State), Tech committed 8 turnovers (and had 4 more fumbles that they were able to recover) and 25 penalties. Does anyone really believe that the Tech football was greased against those two opponents? Did Florida State or Miami players stick electric shock devices on our linemen to make them false start or jump offsides? Of course not - these are mistakes made by teams who do not have the mental toughness to win these games. The coaches and players just weren't ready for the game at that level yet. And give credit to Florida State and Miami and their players and staffs for being ready in those games. Those are two programs that have been there and done that when it comes to college football and that attitude shows when those teams are playing for very high stakes.

So is all lost? No. Reaching the top of the college football heap is a process and Tech is very much on its way. The first step is winning the games they are clearly supposed to win and Tech has definitely done a great job of that in the past 6 years. The next step is recruiting the talent to play against the very best in the country and give credit to Beamer and staff, they have certainly done that. Jimmy Williams didn't even have the best season on this defense (Vince Hall gets that honor in my book) and yet he was Tech's 5th Unanimous All-American. The talent is also evidenced by the play of the team once the pressure of the game is off. Against Auburn last year, Tech owned the 4th quarter when the game all but lost, and nearly won. Against Florida State, down 27-3, the team played all-out and just dominated the Seminoles in all phases of the game. The talent is there.

It is time to overcome the final obstacle to joining the best of the best in college football and win the big games. Come out firing on all cylinders and win a BCS bowl game, better yet a national title. This group of players has developed great chemistry and many will be graduating after next season or leaving early for the NFL. They will have a legitimate shot to win the national championship now that Marcus Vick has declared he is returning for his senior season. The first step is to beat Louisville and give the coaches and players some confidence. The next step is to make a change at offensive coordinator. Bryan Stinespring does not have the scheme or the game-feel to beat the top defensive coordinators in college football. He has learned a lot, but it is time to demote him to just offensive line coach (which he can certainly do well), or more likely, let him move on to a mid-tier program as either offensive coordinator or head coach, where he can continue his development without such high stakes. Finally, the team needs to retain what they had in 2004 and for much of 2005 until their confidence was shaken - a real sense of teamwork and brotherhood. The coaches need to raise the standards and provide the expectation for not only an ACC Title but a national title as well.

My theme for this year was "The Hunted". Tech did well in that role and won many games, avoiding many of the pitfalls that other programs with top talent this year could not (Tennessee anyone?). My theme for next season is "Next Step". It all starts in the Gator Bowl January 2nd.

GO HOKIES!!!!


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The BCS Sham Cont.
by Brian "Where's the Ice?"

So another season as concluded with the BCS awarding bowl bids according to a teams ability to bring viewers and fans rather than their ability to play ball. We've listed to the complaints and rebuttals all over again as last year and years before. But if we fans really want change, then we need to make the BCS tired of hearing the complaints before we get tired of making them.

Getting down to the specifics, I'll begin with Oregon and Notre Dame. (You may notice TSF writers frequently replace the, "Dame," with "Lame." This topic contributes to why.) By the final standings and rankings, The Fighting Irish played a weaker schedule and earned a
poorer record than the Ducks of Oregon. The best game the Irish played ended in a near victory against USC. An almost victory against a team like USC means A LOT, but it cannot overshadow Swiss cheese of a schedule.

I stand by my conviction that Oregon deserves the bid to the Fiesta Bowl over Notre Dame despite their loss to Oklahoma. The Sooners only lost to strong teams of this season and steadily improved their young and inexperienced team and their schedule progressed. Oregon's loss to Oklahoma should in now way erase what they achieved in the regular
season. This Oregon team ran a dark horse race to finish behind USC in the Pac-10 capturing the number two spot in the conference. After all that hard work, they only have a bid to the Holiday Bowl to show for it.

By its own admission, the BCS doesn't not care. It exists as an entity to make money, so to keep this in perspective, we can't hate the BCS for this because they provide the product that we want every year: bowl games to watch. That said, if we as fans continute to tune
into the product they provide, they have no motivation to change. They worry about the bottom like just like you and I do at our jobs. Changing the BCS's special treatment of undeserving teams like Notre Dame starts with the fans.

So great, Where's the Ice?, this helps a whole hell of a lot. What can I do with this? First, and foremost, keep complaining. Keep sending nasty emails to the pundits. Keep voting the ESPN polls that query who should get the BCS bid and who shouldn't. But most
importantly, don't watch the sham!

Let's examine the match-up's we've got. USC and Texas have gone undefeated in the regular season. They've earned their appearances in the national title game. Although, FSU really didn't come out of the ACC as the true number one team, they came out on top of a conference playing by the system the conference established, not a fair system
but not too far from one either. Penn State finished the season two points from undefeated. They may even have a better team than USC or Texas. They've earned their trip to the Orange Bowl. Georgia might well have gone undefeated had DJ Shockley not sustained the injury that he did, and WVU's only loss came at the hands of the Hokies. So the Mountaineers captured the Big East title leading them to a Sugar Bowl appearance versus Georgia, well deserved for both of them.

This gives us three solid bowl games to watch over one sham. Notre Dame finished 9-2 with a schedule of one challenging game and ten middle of the road contests. Ohio State certainly deserves their bid for the Fiesta Bowl, but they shared the Big-10 title with Penn State.

Oregon just plain deserves the other Fiesta Bowl bid as the only team with one loss in the regular season not receiving a bid to a BCS bowl. If we ever want to have a BCS system that rewards teams based only on their achievement rather than partially upon their achievement and partially on their ability to bring fans to the game and to the tube, then we must make it a point not to watch Ohio State square off against Notre Dame thus reducing the value of the BCS product.


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TSF's Bowl Picks
by Brian "Where's the Ice?"

The BCS has made their picks for the 2005 bowls, but not without TSF
getting our word about how they should have handled it.

Rose Bowl:
Texas vs. USC
The only two undefeated teams should play each other.

Orange Bowl:
Georgia vs. Penn State
Both of these teams could have finished just injuries and a few calls
short of an undefeated season. They would give us a great game.

Sugar Bowl
WVU vs. Florida State
Florida State really didn't finish the season as the most impressive
team of the ACC, and WVU won the conference title of the under
renovation Big East. Each conference champion has their own
respective handicap, and for that reason they'd make suitable
apponents opponnents in a BCS bowl.

Fiesta Bowl
Oregon vs. Ohio State
If you have any questions about this, refer to the BSC sham article in
this issue.

Peach Bowl
Virginia Tech vs. LSU
Let two conference championship game losers face off against each other.

Gator Bowl
Louisville vs. Notre Dame
Again, if you have any questions, refer to the BCS sham article in this issue.

Independence Bowl
Miami vs. Auburn

Cotton Bowl
UCLA vs. Alabama

Liberty Bowl
Texas Tech vs. Boston College


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---Writers:
"Mad" Jason Oakley
Anand "EhhTee" Trivedi
Brian "Where's The Ice?" Wrenn


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