Ranking the ACC

[Scapegoat]

Not sure how that's funny? @Scapegoat

I wanna laugh too.

There's no laughing on a message board.

 

[Edisto_Tiger]

There's no laughing on a message board.

Well, shit!! I've been doing it wrong for 5 years. Fuck me.

 

[Scapegoat]

Well, shit!! I've been doing it wrong for 5 years. Fuck me.

And there's no smiling at the north pole.

 

[Camfantasy]

You guys won that game in those conditions, and on that day y'all were head and shoulders above Carolina. But to act as though the weather didn't impact the game in a way that hindered Carolina at least equally as much as VT is absolutely asanine. You guys have a mobile quarterback, a good defense, and you played in a hurricane against a team who relies on their pass game and was without their leading rusher. The wind and rain drastically hindered UNCs passing game, and we don't know how that game turned out if the weather didn't make us one dimensional. Yes, UNCs defense (especially run defense) is pathetic and the weather highlighted that.

In no way shape or form did i even imply that the weather didn't hinder both teams equally. VT had and has a better defense. That was the difference. That difference would have still been present in good conditions. UNC did not lose because of the weather. VT's mobile QB rushed for 2.3ypc and 49yds. If you believe that was the wild card in us having some advantage over you in the rain then i suggest Fedora find an offense that is a little more versatile and doesn't have to be played in perfect weather year round.

VT won because it currently has a top-3 defense in the country and UNC lost because they are 88th. No other excuses necessary.

 

[ckhokie]

Holy shit...no way UNC can try to say they would have won if not for the weather. It's absolutely insane how many UNC fans (not just this board) are trying to claim this. You're not Alabama. There isn't a gap in talent and VT has better coaches.

As far as the weather goes and all the nonsense about how it hurt UNCs offense so much, did we forget VT runs a spread also? UNC has 13 TDs through the air, 13 on the ground. VT has 15 via pass, and 9 on the ground. We clearly rely on the pass to score points.

Hood has 67 carries this year averaging 5 ypc. Logan has 50, averaging 6.5.

VT's defense is historically good this year. We were in the backfield on every play and our secondary is the best UNC will face all year.

Not having Hood and it raining does not swing a (HOME) game 5 TDs. VT is the better team and it's not close.

Lets not forget, UNC is 2 plays from being 2-4. They might not even be that good.

 

[Jekku]

Hmmm i'll have a stab. After the top 2 it's actually a bit difficult.

Clemson
Louisville
Florida State
Miami
Virginia Tech
North Carolina
NC State
Pittsburgh
Wake Forest
Duke
Georgia Tech
Virginia
Syracuse
Boston College

 

[FSU rules]

I'm not 100% sold on VT but they have only 1 loss to a top 10 team and had several RZ TOs in that game...
FSU has 2 losses. 2 bad losses tbh.
UNC made a 55 yard FG otherwise they would have 3 losses
Miami hasn't beaten anybody

Clemson
Louisville
VT
FSU
Miami
NC ST
Pitt
UNC
Wake
GT
Duke
Syracuse
UVA
BC

 

[Deep Creek]

There's no laughing on a message board.

Maybe not, but there is frequently coffee all over my monitor because we can't laugh on a message board. And it burns like hell coming out my nose.

 

[RubinRock]

Welcome to tHoop. It's always like that in the ACC, the losing fans always criticize the refs, no matter what. Whether it's UNC fans Saturday or Georgia Tech fans there's always people complaining about something that they believe the officials missed. Conspiracy theories, Swofford hates them, the NCAA hates them, Ron Cherry sucks, there's something for everyone.

As far as that game specifically, I have no idea about the holds. I didn't have access to tv announcers showing holding penalties, and replays in which I could look for it. But, I know several UNC fans complained about a couple of PI calls that were called late in the game. It's just how officiating is, teams and fans always have complaints and think they see something the officials don't. If fans could throw flags there'd be a plethora of fans on every play.

To be fair, Ron Cherry is a god awful ref

 

[Scapegoat]

Maybe not, but there is frequently coffee all over my monitor because we can't laugh on a message board. And it burns like hell coming out my nose.

That's actually a set up for another post. It's related to a quote from Elf.

 

[uncfan103]

I'm not 100% sold on VT but they have only 1 loss to a top 10 team and had several RZ TOs in that game...
FSU has 2 losses. 2 bad losses tbh.
UNC made a 55 yard FG otherwise they would have 3 losses
Miami hasn't beaten anybody

Clemson
Louisville
VT
FSU
Miami
NC ST
Pitt
UNC
Wake
GT
Duke
Syracuse
UVA
BC

Three teams in between FSU and UNC? You can play the ifs and butts game all day long. If UNC doesn't convert all 4 times on 4th down against Pitt they have three losses. If UNC doesn't play in a hurricane they have two losses. If FSU doesn't block two XPs they could be at three losses even if UNC doesn't make a 54 yarder. NC States best win is Wake. etc. You can pick those kind of holes with every team in the ACC

 

[uncfan103]

Holy shit...no way UNC can try to say they would have won if not for the weather. It's absolutely insane how many UNC fans (not just this board) are trying to claim this. You're not Alabama. There isn't a gap in talent and VT has better coaches.

As far as the weather goes and all the nonsense about how it hurt UNCs offense so much, did we forget VT runs a spread also? UNC has 13 TDs through the air, 13 on the ground. VT has 15 via pass, and 9 on the ground. We clearly rely on the pass to score points.

Hood has 67 carries this year averaging 5 ypc. Logan has 50, averaging 6.5.

VT's defense is historically good this year. We were in the backfield on every play and our secondary is the best UNC will face all year.

Not having Hood and it raining does not swing a (HOME) game 5 TDs. VT is the better team and it's not close.

Lets not forget, UNC is 2 plays from being 2-4. They might not even be that good.

Again, I didn't say we win if we aren't playing in a hurricane. I said, it's crazy to think the hurricane hurt you equally as much as it hurt us. VT has a running quarterback which helps in those conditions, UNC dropped more passes in that game than all year combined, and not because of your secondary lol. We rely on the pass game to move the ball. When it came to this game we couldn't adjust to the wind and rain and you guys could. Simple. We don't know how that game would've turned out in clear conditions. Theres no way you think Bud Foster is so good the defense would hold UNC to 3 points in clear weather.

 

[uncfan103]

In no way shape or form did i even imply that the weather didn't hinder both teams equally. VT had and has a better defense. That was the difference. That difference would have still been present in good conditions. UNC did not lose because of the weather. VT's mobile QB rushed for 2.3ypc and 49yds. If you believe that was the wild card in us having some advantage over you in the rain then i suggest Fedora find an offense that is a little more versatile and doesn't have to be played in perfect weather year round.

VT won because it currently has a top-3 defense in the country and UNC lost because they are 88th. No other excuses necessary.

Hmmm, not sure where you found 88th. I would've guessed closer to 111th. We don't have a defense. Our only defense is waiting for the offense to run for 6, commit a penalty, drop a pass and then make a bad throw. No doubt we don't have a defense. But we have a damn good offense.

 

[VTgator]

Three teams in between FSU and UNC? You can play the ifs and butts game all day long. If UNC doesn't convert all 4 times on 4th down against Pitt they have three losses. If UNC doesn't play in a hurricane they have two losses. If FSU doesn't block two XPs they could be at three losses even if UNC doesn't make a 54 yarder. NC States best win is Wake. etc. You can pick those kind of holes with every team in the ACC

Doesn't make it true, UNC. VT would have beaten you on a dry, balmy day, but not 34-3...

 

[ckhokie]

Again, I didn't say we win if we aren't playing in a hurricane. I said, it's crazy to think the hurricane hurt you equally as much as it hurt us. VT has a running quarterback which helps in those conditions, UNC dropped more passes in that game than all year combined, and not because of your secondary lol. We rely on the pass game to move the ball. When it came to this game we couldn't adjust to the wind and rain and you guys could. Simple. We don't know how that game would've turned out in clear conditions. Theres no way you think Bud Foster is so good the defense would hold UNC to 3 points in clear weather.

Someone on another board (maybe 247) went back and re-watched the game. Of Mitch's 33 attempts, only 4 were drops. All others were over or under throws, PBUs, INTs, or batted at the line.

You may have scored more than 3 in better weather, but we'd have scored more than 34, as well.

 

[uncfan103]

Doesn't make it true, UNC. VT would have beaten you on a dry, balmy day, but not 34-3...

Possibly. Just like VT would've probably beaten Tennessee if they didn't have all those red zone turnovers.

 

[uncfan103]

Someone on another board (maybe 247) went back and re-watched the game. Of Mitch's 33 attempts, only 4 were drops. All others were over or under throws, PBUs, INTs, or batted at the line.

You may have scored more than 3 in better weather, but we'd have scored more than 34, as well.

You mean, the throws were affected by rain and wind? Shocking. The last four games he's been lighting it up on offense. His incompletions have been passes he's thrown away and a couple of drops or pass deflections. He hasn't thrown an interception etc. He didn't perform well, he didn't get help from receivers and our offense wasn't the same. You blame the defense, I'm going to continue to believe that playing that defense in those conditions wasn't something that anyone would've predicted before the game would've favored Carolina.

 

[VTgator]

Possibly. Just like VT would've probably beaten Tennessee if they didn't have all those red zone turnovers.

That's hard to say, but as a Hokie fan, I say the better team won that day, even though we out-gained Tennessee by a hundred yards. Multiple turnovers, like bad weather, is a lame excuse...

 

[uncfan103]

That's hard to say, but as a Hokie fan, I say the better team won that day, even though we out-gained Tennessee by a hundred yards. Multiple turnovers, like bad weather, is a lame excuse...

Better team won Saturday too. I'm not making excuses for the VT game other than saying the weather hurt UNC as much if more than it did VT and that's not crazy.

The poster I quoted had UNC 4 spots behind FSU and was playing ifs and buts games. So, I quoted him and said the same things. We can ifs and buts all we want, if we if and but every game we can say UNC should be 6-0 or 2-4. VT could be undefeated or have two losses. FSU could be 5-1 or 2-4. Etc.

 

[VTgator]

You mean, the throws were affected by rain and wind? Shocking. The last four games he's been lighting it up on offense. His incompletions have been passes he's thrown away and a couple of drops or pass deflections. He hasn't thrown an interception etc. He didn't perform well, he didn't get help from receivers and our offense wasn't the same. You blame the defense, I'm going to continue to believe that playing that defense in those conditions wasn't something that anyone would've predicted before the game would've favored Carolina.

But how many drops did VT's receivers have? At least four. VT also coughed the ball five times to UNC's four. The difference was that VT recovered four of their own fumbles.

Folks favored UNC because they were considered the better team before the season started. After all, they finished the season 11-3, while VT limped in at another 7-6 season, their third such season in four years. With a new coach on board, the 'experts" (including me) predicted that Fuente will need at least one season to transition the team to one that suits his style of play.

What the experts did not factor in was the performance of Jerrod Evans, a JUCO. When given a true dual threat QB, Fuente's timetable jumped forward substantially, and Fuente's aggressive offensive style freed up Bud Foster like he hasn't had in years.

VT has always been a team that is never touted as being as great as they are. this is due to Beamer's watching-the-paint-dry conservatism on offense while letting Foster and the defense do the heavy lifting. But that conservative style enabled VT to have a 170-65 record in the BCS Era. Let's see the compared against the other top BCS conference teams with at least 130 wins (so-called "bluebloods" in blue):

School-------------------------W/L record, 1998-2015

Ohio State...................................187-44
Oklahoma.....................................184-52
Florida State.................................176-60
Oregon........................................173-57
Georgia........................................170-62
Virginia Tech...............................170-64
Texas..........................................169-62
Southern Cal.................................168-64
LSU.............................................167-63
Alabama.......................................168-66
Wisconsin.....................................167-67
Florida.........................................166-66
Nebraska......................................158-76
Miami...........................................153-73
Louisville.......................................151-75*
Michigan.......................................149-77
Clemson........................................150-80
Auburn.........................................148-80
West Virginia.................................143-82
Kansas State.................................144-84
Penn State....................................141-83
Tennessee.....................................142-85
Michigan State...............................141-86
Notre Dame....................................139-85
Georgia Tech..................................141-90
Texas Tech....................................138-89
Oklahoma State..............................135-88
Texas A&M.....................................134-92
Mizzou...........................................133-92
Arkansas........................................131-94
Iowa.............................................130-95

Of all the teams in P5, Virginia Tech has been perhaps the most colorless and perceptionally least impressive. But as we all know, perception NEVER equals reality.