That it's a team that has dragged itself by the bootstraps into the national elite they'll be lining up against makes this quite the high-potential game. A "why not us?" statement to the national stage:
CLEMSON PERSONNEL UPDATE
• Adrian Baker, DB, Knee, out
•Jake Fruhmorgen, OT, shoulder, personal, out
•Scott Pagano, DT, leg, out
•John Simpson, OT, leg, questionable
•Richard Yeargin, DE, knee, out
Not as many relevant games this time around. Mostly hoping that teams right in the Hokies' vicinity in the rankings lose. That would maximize a jump (or minimize the drop with a loss) for VT coming out of the week, which would be a nice positive heading into the biggest recruiting weekend of the year a week later.
If we beat Clemson, we go to Miami to play our Bowl Game as the conference champions and finish 10-3 prior to the Bowl Game.
If we lose to Clemson, it comes down to Louisville, FSU, and VT for the 2 and 3 spot. The second biggest bowl for the ACC is the Russell Athletic Bowl in Central Florida. The third spot is the Belk Bowl in Charlotte against an SEC team. Common sense says, FSU gets the highest bid over VT and Louisville as FSU is closer to Central Florida. That makes sense in my opinion. VT being less than 3 hours from Charlotte easily gets the nod over Louisville. Hope for Charlotte if we lose to Clemson! I don't care for the I4 corridor area anyway, the money is shared by the conference, and it's a win-win for VT fans to be picked behind FSU in the bowl pecking order so we can go to Charlotte and pack the house.
In my opinion, it's clearly Miami or Charlotte. Louisville is not getting the nod over VT or FSU for the bowl in Central Florida or Charlotte.
Winning ACC coach of the year gives him a 25K bonus. Making it to the ACC title game (winning our Division) adds another 25K. It's definitely not a shabby week for Coach Fu.
I see some DA has VT going to Belk Bowl in Charlotte to play Arkansas. ACC division champion should go to a bigger bowl than Belk Bowl. If Clemson wins ACC, then VT should take their place in Orange Bowl.
