Wednesday October 25, 2006

Shoeless fearless prediction for VT

So we did it! We did it in convincing fashion! We put a whopping on them boys from Tech and now we are back! Right? To take a line from our new bestest friend Lee Corso… “not so fast my friend”.

As a reward for our hard work and dominating performance on Saturday our beloved Tigers get the pleasure of a short week, little rest and the daunting task of traveling to Blacksburg to face the Hookies of Virginia Tech. Yay! (cough cough)… now most of the Tiger faithful might be riding high and predicting a blowout but I have a few doubts. Not really against our offense or defense but instead our special teams…. Remember those? The thorn in our side that cost us BC and almost cost us WF and FSU? Yeah, that. Well, we’d better shape up or we could be in for a rude awakening when we travel north this Thurs night.

VT and Frank Beamer are known for their special teams dominance. In Beamer's 233 games as head coach, Tech has blocked 112 kicks (57 punts, 34 field goals, 21 extra points). Fifteen of the blocked punts were converted directly into touchdowns.

Tech has blocked three punts and a field goal this year. And we’ve have 3 fg’s blocked and also allowed 1 kickoff for a TD, another for over 90yards and 5 of 40 or longer to teams like FAU and Temple!

Yeah, this won’t be a gimmie by any stretch. We’ll have to play solid on ALL sides of the ball to get this victory in, what’s looking to be, a nasty game played in sub 40 degree temperatures.

The rest of the stats from the Hookies don’t really scare me all that much. Their rush defense is currently 22nd in the country… and their total defense is 6th. However, FSU’s rush defense was in the top 3 BEFORE we faced them, BC in the top 5 BEFORE we played them, WF in the top 15, BEFORE we played them, and GT was 6th… BEFORE we played them… now they are—13th, 17th, 27th and 32nd respectively. If James Davis is 100% this game might be another laugher. I really don’t know if there’s a defense in the country that could stop our ground game when they are on.

However, I’m not at all thinking that this will be a wash. If temperatures are lowered, and the ground is wet that’ll slow down our faster players and turn this into a grudge match that might come down to who wants it more.

On the defensive side of the ball we should be able to contain their offense for the most part. I don’t really see how they could put up more than 10 points on us with their offense which makes special teams that much more important! Any big turnover, or blocked kick or long return might be just what VT will need to stay in the game.

To say the least, I’m a little nervous about this game. Maybe even more so than I was the GT game… but that might also be b/c on Thurs, I’ll be missing my first Clemson game (home or away) since the 2004 Miami game. By the end of this season (in the last 4 years) I’ll have missed only 3 games total and we lost 2 of those 3… (NCSU on the road on a Thurs night and Maryland on the road in ‘03).

So, here’s to another Tiger romping and further proof that I get myself all nervous for nothing and our Tigers really are “back”.

Write it down, take a picture, call your momma, eat at Joe’s… The Shoeless Fearless Prediction for this week is:

Clemson 34 Virginia Tech 28

Now let’s recap last weeks games predictions:

I went 22-5 this past week making my overall record 182-47. Yet again… sometimes I think I get what I want to happen confused with what I think is going to happen lol. I wanted Florida State to beat Boston College (as did every Clemson fan) but yet again… FSU looks terrible and BC does enough to get the win and keeps on making our lives miserable lol. Well, I say forget about them and just win our own damn games from now on. If they lose “woo” if not we need to just worry about us.

Weekly Records:
Week 1: 28-4
Week 2: 24-4
Week 3: 20-8
Week 4: 25-3
Week 5: 23-5
Week 6: 18-9
Week 7: 22-9
Week 8: 22-5

Overall: 182-47 Clemson: 5-2

Let’s take a look at this weekend’s games:

NC State 30 Virginia 14
Michigan 54 Northwestern 13
Illinois 10 Wisconsin 38
Oklahoma 10 Missouri 12
Notre Dame 14 Navy 13
Penn St 10 Purdue 11
Auburn 40 Mississippi 10
Bowling Green 23 Temple 3
Vandy 10 Duke 9
Buffalo 10 Boston College 43
Colorado 10 Kansas 37
Kentucky 10 Miss St. 3
Georgia 10 Flordia 35
Southern Cal 40 Oregon St 17
Wake Forest 50 UNC 10
Miami 14 Georgia Tech 39
Nebraska 46 Oklahoma St 16
Minnesota 20 Ohio St 45
Arkansas St 13 Florida Atlantic 7
Portland St 10 Oregon 36
Florida St 20 Maryland 31
LA Monroe 10 Arkansas 29
Texas 42 Texas Tech 31
Texas A&M 56 Baylor 10
Tennessee 15 South Carolina 14
UConn 10 Rutgers 11