1. Washington State has been under the radar. This is largely because they are West Coast, have not been very good historically, and of course, Mike Leach is their coach. Mike Leach is more of a conservative type of guy, more old school, more traditional, so you know what that means in the USA of 2016. This means, the media by in large, does not like him. With the above written, he has a very dangerous team and a solid offense. I think this is Washington's loss, if they have one. I think Washington wins the Pac 12 title and probably will win over Utah, maybe Colorado in the Pac 12 title game, but playing against Washington State in the regular season will not be easy. Is Mike Leach my national coach of the year? No. Is he a top 5 candidate in my opinion? Absolutely.
2. Woody Baron. You are 6"1, and 265. You were a 3 star and your only other major big program offer was Arizona State, Louisville, and Syracuse. You are no defensive lineman. You are to slow. You certainly are not fast enough or strong enough and can't play, or at least start for a major program like Virginia Tech. Well? Somebody forgot to tell Woody Baron that. He may be the player most responsible for allowing VT to play for an ACC Title, if we do win the last 2 in the ACC. The guy had ZERO business doing what he did to a 300+ pound offensive lineman today. He TOOK, absolutely, TOOK the momentum from Duke not one, not 2, but 3 different times when WR's for Duke were running wide open, but Baron beat his guy and got pressure. Hats off to Woody Baron. Somebody forgot to tell Woody that he and the rest of the Hokies were supposed to go on the road, show up emotionally not involved, and likely lose. Woody would not accept that fate. Hats off to WB who put up an incredible and absolutely foolish effort.
3. The announcers. Is it me, or is it true that whenever we have a game, it seems that most of the time (not all, but most) we have an announcer who is simply and obviously not a VT fan, or at least, much more emotionally involved with the "other" team? One example is when Ford caught a pass for about 19 yards with a pass interference called as well. One of the announcers seemed to lose it emotionally and he emphatically stated two times, "there is no review on that?" He was arguing as to whether Ford caught the ball, but there was still the pass interference call which was a difference of 4 yards anyway. You could see by this clear example that the underlying emotion of the one announcer showed that he was much more "emotionally invested" with Duke compared to VT. With that written, the other announcer seemed pretty dang fair and straight down the middle.
Conclusion: Hats off to Woody Baron. If we are fortunate enough to go to Florida for the ACC Title, send this guy a thank you note. This is a game VT is supposed to lose. Much like Syracuse, playing on the road, injuries, in conference and against an opponent who is sky high and going to give you its best shot, and on top of that, not a huge gap in talent between us and Duke by recruiting standards the last 4 years. Credit the coaches and players for winning an ugly game on the road. Finally, keep you eyes on Wash State. They lost the first two games of the season by a total of 6 points. One of those games they got outplayed. The other game, they should have won, but since then, have quietly ran off 7 straight victories. They are much like VT of the West Coast this year in that they are quietly, under the radar.......winning. Mike Leach is doing a solid job this year and if Washington does lose this year before the post season, that loss will come to Washington State.
The above are only my opinions.
