Head coach Justin Fuente and his Virginia Tech Hokies look to stake their claim to the ACC on Saturday night.
With Week 5 of the college football season upon us as the month of September comes to a close, we’re now just getting into the conference slates and the awesome matchups that accompany them. Saturday night in Blacksburg, Virginia, we’re being treated to an ACC bout between two heavyweights, and it might be the first of two times we watch these teams do battle here in 2017.
Clemson and Virginia Tech clash in ACC title rematch
Justin Fuente had an enormous task on his hands last season when he succeeded the legendary Frank Beamer as the head coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies, and as many had projected, he’s proven to have been the right choice for the job thus far. So far this year Fuente and the defending ACC Coastal Division Champions are 4-0, and on Saturday night within their friendly confines of Lane Stadium, they’ll look to exorcise a demon from last season.
It should be one of the most electric atmospheres of the season Saturday evening when the Hokies welcome the defending ACC and National Champion Clemson Tigers to Blacksburg. And yes, as most of you will remember, it was Virginia Tech — in just the first year of the Fuente era — who was on the losing end of the ACC Championship Game back in early December of 2016. But it was in that game they truly showed the entire country the program would be just fine in the hands of Fuente and his staff, as the future national champs only took care of their final piece of business for the regular season by seven points. Suffice to say, revenge is certainly on the minds of Fuente and his team almost 10 months removed from that night in Orlando.
When it comes down to it, while some may be looking for a game resembling the 42-35 shootout we got in the ACC title game, this one may come down to which defense plays better. Essentially, we could be setting up for a chess match between longtime Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster and Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables. Coming into the fifth week of the season, the Tigers and Hokies boast the third and sixth-ranked scoring defenses in the nation. Both teams do have efficient offenses, but on Saturday night in Lane Stadium, the defensive units may rule the roost.
Whatever the case ultimately does end up being, given what we’ve seen from the conference through the month of September, we’ll find out who has a leg up in the ACC race as we enter the month of October. And if we do get a classic in Blacksburg, it’ll be great to ponder the fact that we could see these two do it all again in December for final ACC supremacy in 2017.
Can Washington State be the one to catch USC napping?
Coming into the season quarterback Sam Darnold and the USC Trojans were a popular pick to come away with the national championship, and at 4-0 on the year, they’re still firmly in that race. However, you can’t exactly go out of your way to say those four wins were particularly impressive. They struggled mightily in the opener against Western Michigan of the MAC, they nearly lost to a Texas team at home inside the Coliseum and and were in a battle with Cal last weekend; although, to be fair, this Cal team might be better than most give them credit for.
This talented Trojans team has nearly been caught napping a few times this month, but they’d better be awake and on high alert Friday night when they travel to one of the toughest atmospheres in the game, Pullman, Washington to take on the 16th-ranked Washington State Cougars.
The eccentric, yet always enjoyable Mike Leach has this Washington State team entering Friday night with a similar 4-0 record to that of USC’s, and once again, his offensive crew is a scary one. Led by senior quarterback Luke Falk, the Cougars’ offense ranks within the top 20 in both total and scoring offense in the country. The sheer explosiveness of this Washington State offense was on full display a few weeks ago when they came from 31-10 down in the fourth quarter to take down Boise State on the blue turf.
Through some shaky defensive play, USC has been able to survive some scares so far early in the season. But if the Cougs’ offense is on point at home in Pullman on Friday night and the Trojans’ defense is — which currently ranks 64th in the nation in scoring — doesn’t fully get it together, then they might not be able to wake up in time to stave off Leach’s attack and could be staring at their first loss of the season.
Oklahoma State aims to recover
We all bought in for the most part, it’s perfectly okay to admit. We all bought in to the Oklahoma State Cowboys possibly being the top team in the Big 12 with their seemingly unstoppable offensive unit and improved defense. Then Week 4 of the season happened, where head coach Mike Gundy’s team and everyone who had hopped on their bandwagon were brought back down to earth. In a 44-31 loss to TCU, we learned that maybe the Pokes aren’t exactly where we thought they were in the conference pecking order, while at the same time coming to the realization that the Horned Frogs might actually be the class of the Big 12.
But one thing to remember is that not all hope is lost for Oklahoma State just yet. Sure, a conference loss is not what they wanted in the books, but it’s happened early enough in the year where they could regroup and continue the tear they started to begin the campaign. Also, the potential advantage is still there in the form of the re-introduced Big 12 title game, which they’re still in contention for.
That road to redemption starts on Saturday in what could be one of the best shootouts we’ll see all season long against the Texas Tech Red Raiders. In Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, you have the third and fourth teams in the country in total offense, respectively, so we could be well on our way to seeing a scoreboard outage in Lubbock Saturday night, which is always a treat.
But a hard-fought win might just be what this Oklahoma State teams needs right now to propel them the rest of the season as they still have Big 12 and even College Football Playoff aspirations in their sights. However, they need to emerge victorious, or else they might just pull themselves from the races altogether.
Georgia about to kick Butch Jones while he’s down
It seems abundantly clear that despite the Tennessee Volunteers holding a 3-1 record through four games, the future of head coach Butch Jones is anything but bright. The Vols were nearly 0-1 to start the year after Georgia Tech took them to the limit in Atlanta, they were humiliated by a Hail Mary loss to Florida, and most recently, they were in a fight with … UMass. All the while, the coaching of Jones has been less than stellar, sort of the main criticism of his during his stint in Knoxville.
Saturday, Jones’ approval rating could take one of its biggest hits yet as Tennessee welcomes in the team who thus far has proven to probably be the second-best team in the SEC, the Georgia Bulldogs. Kirby Smart’s Georgia team is firing on all cylinders, even with a freshman quarterback in Jake Fromm who has stepped in quite nicely for the injured Jacob Eason, with the latest proof of this coming in a 31-3 demolition of Mississippi State just one week after the Bulldogs handily defeated the LSU Tigers — another team that at one point was considered the second-best team in the conference.
Given the nature of this rivalry, neither fanbase takes well to a loss. Tennessee fans might find themselves on the wrong side of the fence in this one, because from what we’ve seen from both squads so far this year, this has the potential for the Dawgs to head into Neyland and put a severe beatdown on the Vols.
Not to mention, Georgia is probably still a little peeved over what took place in this game last year in Athens and are surely out for blood.
The assumption as of late has been that the Butch Jones era could be coming to an end sooner rather than later, and surely on Saturday the Bulldogs can put that process into overdrive if they walk into Knoxville and easily take care of their SEC East business as they keep their conference title hopes alive entering the month of October.