2010 Virginia Tech Football: What to Watch vs. Central Michigan

Virginia Tech Hokies (3-2, 2-0) vs. Central Michigan Chippewas (2-3, 1-2)

The Team

• We're all waiting for the Hokies to come out, show intensity from the opening kickoff and play a complete game. This game, Tech's last non-conference game of the regular season, would be a good time for that first complete game. I can assure you CMU will come out ready to go from the start after being embarrassed at home last week by Ball State.
• The No. 1 thing I'm looking for on both sides of the ball is consistency. We've seen the Hokies at their best in the second half last week against NC State. Now it's time to see them show that level of play from drive to drive.
• As usual, a lot of stats are from cfbstats.com.

Virginia Tech Offense vs. Central Michigan Defense

• Don't get too wide-eyed by the 306 rushing yards Ball State had against CMU last week. The Chips haven't come close to allowing that kind of production this year, especially the 7.1 yards per game the Cardinals racked up. The Hokies should have a good amount of success on the ground, but don't expect the kind of pounding BSU managed.
• The Chips have two very good linebackers in Nick Bellore and Matt Berning. They could make it tough for Darren Evans to get the ground game going over the middle. However, if Evans is able to get big gains between the tackles consistently, it will be a very good day for the Virginia Tech offense.
• Where the Hokies should be able to make a living is passing over the middle. Every time I've seen CMU this year, team have been able to work the middle of the field against them. Northwestern was especially effective and I think Danny Coale and Dyrell Roberts should be able to have big games.
• Watch Tyrod Taylor's mechanics in this game. As I said after the NC State game, he's been missing high this year and it has cost him. That's not like the Tyrod we saw last year. What I noticed in the early games is he's afraid his protection is going to fail and he's not able to get his momentum going forward and he's throwing with his weight slightly on his back foot, as was the case in the INT he threw against NC State. The pass blocking has gotten better recently, so hopefully this problem will fix itself. I'm hoping Tyrod has a big game against CMU.
• Hopefully the Hokies' red zone success will continue this week. While CMU held its first three opponents (Hampton, Temple and Eastern Michigan) to two touchdowns in nine red zone trips, Northwestern and Ball State found the end zone in four of seven trips.
• CMU struggled mightily on third down against Northwestern as the Wildcats converted on 11 of 17 third downs. However, it's done pretty well in its other games, with those four opponents converting 19 of 60 (31.7 percent).