This board ought to be coming to life any day now.
- Thread starter Gr8spur
- Start date
VT went 6-7 last year. They are not a strong team. A loss to them would be a very bad omen for the season. If Shane can't win 6 games with what amounts to 5 gimmes, he may need to look for something else to do in life.
I agree with you, but never underestimate our ability to come out flat and underperform in an opener. I don't know that I can recall an opener where we dominated, or won in convincing fashion. I fully expect a nail-biter.
This is what concerns me. The weird "first game flatness" is fine when you play a patsy and still win. VT is not a good team, but they can take advantage of us being flat, if we come out like that.
It's a winnable game that I would hate to look back on, frustrated that we blew it. Especially with our schedule ramping up in the second half of the season.
Especially if we pull off upsets in the second half of the schedule and have to look back on it as costing us a playoff spot.
Last edited:
We usually look flat in season openers, VT had 31 transfers out, but 30 transfers in, projected to win about 7 games, all in all this should be
a game where we take of business, with that said, I do feel a bit of trepidation.
a game where we take of business, with that said, I do feel a bit of trepidation.
And we were 5-7 in 2023. Our fan penchant given our pedigree for disrespecting opponents is what makes US disrespected and ridiculed. A loss to Virginia Tech in the opening game is no more an omen for the season than would be a win.
Imo, it being a bad omen would boil down to the fact that we have many teams better than VT on our schedule. And a loss to them calls all those games into more doubt then.
I guess you see Carolina as a 5-7 type program. If we want to take that next step, the team has to start winning games against mediocre opponents on a regular basis. A team coming off of a 9 win season that thinks it was slighted by being left out of the CFP needs to win these games fairly easily. Losing a game to a 6-7 team with a rebuilt roster would definitely be a bad omen.
I always thought we would come out and blow teams out like other schools do in the first week. ODU comes to mind. We never have. We play to the level of our competition for some reason. VT lost their games by a very close score so they do not think they are what there record indicates.
Many could have said the same thing about us going into last year. Have you kept up with what VT has acquired since last season? The first game of the season in a neutral location like this is not a given by any stretch.
Who in the world are your 5 gimmies for the year? We're currently at #7 for the toughest schedule in the country.
Why do you believe Shane is on a hotseat? He just received a big contract extension following a big year. He's tied with Spurrier right now for all time wins. Spurrier went 7-6 and 3-5 in the conference in Year 5 - including a loss the UCONN in the Papa John's Bowl.
Last edited:
Probably the most naive post I’ve ever seen, and indicative of what makes logical discussion on message boards rare.
VaTech may be improved, but a loss to them would certainly be a bad omen for the season. Much like the UNC opener a couple seasons ago, this is a game we need to win to have a good season.
This is such an obvious take that one has to wonder why someone would get so worked up arguing it.
Kickoff can't get here soon enough. I think we're all just itching for it to start.
Not saying gimmies but here it goes: Virginia Tech, SC State, Vandy, at Mizzou, UK, and Coastal Carolina. Six wins and a Cheesy Bowl. The rest is gravy.
I agree with you.
Losing to Virginia Tech would be a major blow to the season's goals, but we looked like crap last year against Old Dominion and did everything but lose that game. Who would have thought that team would go 9-3 and beat multiple ranked teams and finish a couple spots outside of the playoff?
I strongly disagree with Missouri as a "gimme." I have no idea why you'd even think to include them on this list.
I less strongly disagree with Virginia Tech, Vandy, and Kentucky as "gimmes," though it's hard to include any P4 team as an easy game. I imagine Alabama thought Vanderbilt was a gimme when the season started, and I imagine Ole Miss thought Kentucky was a gimme before they played as well.
It's hard to see Missouri as a gimme. They have been consistently better than us since they joined the SEC, the only exception being those 11 win seasons under Spurrier.
Especially on the road. We haven't won in CoMo since 2017 and have beaten them only once since 2018.
Of course it is; duh.
But for us to regard a program like Virginia Tech as an inferior program to be stepped on like a cockroach is why fans get hysterical when we don’t savagely beat the Old Dominions by multiple touchdowns. Football teams with good leadership ideally grow, learn, and adjust from every game, like we enjoyed last season. If you regard programs like Virginia Tech as a gimme at this stage of our program’s development, you likely seek that which you will not find.
I dont really see VT as a gimme, like ODU should be.
But I do see them as a very good measuring stick. (Another way to call that game an omen)
Our schedule is littered with teams that I think are better than VT. So a loss to them would be very concerning.
The only qualification I'd add is that we typically play badly in the first game. So hopefully even a loss could be flushed from memory in a few weeks. But that first game funk is why I like to play true patsies (like ODU) for that first game. Worrk out the kinks, etc.
And despite ODU being a true patsy we just about lost to them.
The good thing about Shane Beamer teams so far after four seasons under his leadership is that the teams have improved every season from start to finish.
A loss would be devastating to any hopes of championship contention, but it definitely doesn't signify that the team would be terrible the rest of the way.
SC State and Coastal are the closest things to gimmies on our schedule.
UK has won the past 7 of 11 against us.
Missouri has won the past 6 of 10 against us, the last 3 of 4, and we've playing in their building where we've won a total of 2 times in the series history.
Virgina Tech in the first game in Atlanta is the great unknown.
Agreed. We have that first game funk, but get better as we go along. I just prefer to have that sloppy game against ODU lile teams, rather than UNC or VT. We can play sloppy, learn a lesson, but still walk away with a win.
The posters (typically those in the BOT fam) who are already internalizing wins are the same posters who will have a meltdown if we lose a game they had us winning in their head.
These will be the first to start bashing Beamer and Ray at an apocalyptic pace.
If you appreciate our history, you don't take any game for granted but rather appreciate success when it comes our way.
These will be the first to start bashing Beamer and Ray at an apocalyptic pace.
If you appreciate our history, you don't take any game for granted but rather appreciate success when it comes our way.
You can't have it both ways. You can't talk about having a Heisman hopeful qb and improved OL and a D that is talented and well coached and a coach who is really putting together a strong program that is heading to the CFP and also act like a UK team that won 4 games last season and is traditionally an SEC doormat or a Missouri team who has never been a legitimate SEC caliber team or a 6-7 middling ACC team in VT pose a threat. To say those things is to admit that 9-3 was a fluke last season and Carolina football is, as it always has been, a mediocre program that lives off of hope for next year in perpetuity.
And then you realize that Missouri has been to Atlanta for the SEC championship more times than Carolina in about two decades less time as a member.
We can very easily lose to any of the teams you've mentioned above.
They are not "gimmies" on any scale.
In fact, Missouri will likely look at our game as a "gimmie" in their building.
We needed almost divine intervention to get a win against them last season when we were on a roll.
Oh, lawd, here we go again! "Divine intervention" sounds eerily similar to "miracle" and that was beat to death in another thread, lol.
I agree though.
I noted the miraculous nature of our wins against Clemson and MIzzou and another poster went postal about it.Ha. I wasn't around for that one.
Are we going to argue the definition of amazing or miraculous again?