Can’t Wait For Saturday | Hokies hoping familiarity means a run toward the top of the ACC

Jun. 23—***

Are you ready for the most college football ever? Twelve teams in the playoffs means eight more postseason games than before. What used to be three is now 11 to decide who is best,

The favorites might dominate in the first two rounds. Or the semifinals will be filled with bottom seeds. We can only hope.

Kick back, relax and enjoy every moment of it. As a primer, I will use this space over the next month and half to count down my preseason Top 50. I welcome complaints and disagreements I might even include them in future stories.

And away we go …

No team in the country returns more starters than Virginia Tech: all 11 on offense, eight on defense and both the kicker and the punter. Have to think coach Brent Pry is sleeping well. … All those starters are back from a team that scored 55 at rival Virginia and beat a good Tulane team by 21 points in the Military Bowl. … Quarterback Kyron Drones, a Baylor transfer, is a dual-threat who helped kickstart the run game. … Bhayshul Tuten returns at tailback after running for 863 yards and 10 scores. … Tbe strength of the defense is in the secondary, which helped VPI finish fourth in the country in passing yards allowed. … Four winnable games in the nonconference, with the toughest test a visit from Rutgers. In the ACC, the Hokies don’t play favorite Florida State.

Sure, the Hokies had a winning season. But they also dropped three in a row after an opening win, losing a pair of games to Big Ten schools Purdue and Rutgers. … They also got blitzed at Louisville. … The defense struggled against the run game at times and needed to go to the portal to fill line needs. … The No. 2 team in the ACC, Clemson, visits Blacksburg late in the season. The Hokies also have to play at Miami.

50. Maryland Big Ten

49. Colorado Big 12

48. Georgia Tech ACC

47. Tulane…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/cant-wait-saturday-hokies-hoping-145500082.html

Author : The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Publish date : 2024-06-23 14:55:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.