How Do You Want Virginia Tech's 2011 Football Schedule to Look?

Virginia Tech won't have its 2011 football schedule finalized until the league schedule comes out in about three to four weeks. Last year, we didn't get the schedule until Feb. 4. In 2009, it didn't come out until Feb. 12. Meanwhile, the Big 12, Big Ten, Pac 12 and SEC have known their conference schedules for months and in some cases well over a year.

The ACC and Big East are the last of the BCS conference to know their 2011 schedule, but they are also the ones that have to bend over backward to get their teams on ESPN. So, while ESPN figures out when it wants the ACC and Big East teams to play, we get to speculate on what the schedule will/should be.

We already know when Virginia Tech's non-conference games will be. the Hokies are scheduled to open their season with their four non-conference foes: Sept. 3 vs. Appalachian State, Sept. 10 at East Carolina, Sept. 17 vs. Arkansas State and Sept. 24 at Marshall.

The App State, ECU and Marshall games are all listed on HokieSports.com's future schedules page. The Arkansas State date was announced last summer by A-State and is listed everywhere else imaginable.

That's good considering the Hokies will be breaking in a new starting quarterback, probably Logan Thomas. My hope is that the conference schedule will also help Thomas' progression. Our conference home games this year will be Boston College, Clemson, Miami and North Carolina. We will play Duke, Georgia Tech, UVa and Wake Forest on the road.

That's a pretty favorable road schedule for a first-year starting QB to face. Here's how I'd want the schedule to look like, assuming the UVa game will be after Thanksgiving. Keep in mind that like this past season, there's only room for one bye for conferences with a title game this year:

Date	Opponent
Sept. 3	Appalachian State
Sept. 10	at East Carolina
Sept. 17	Arkansas State
Sept. 24	at Marshall
Oct. 1	at Duke
Oct. 8	Boston College
Oct. 15	at Wake Forest
Oct. 22	Clemson
Nov. 3	at Georgia Tech
Nov. 12	Miami
Nov. 19	North Carolina
Nov. 26	at Virginia

I'd like the see the two easiest road games (Duke and Wake Forest) at the top of the schedule with one of the Atlantic Division home games (Boston College) thrown in there to keep us from playing three consecutive road games.

Having Georgia Tech as our only Thursday game gives more preparation and recovery time for facing the option. However, I seriously doubt that we won't have a home Thursday game considering we've had one every year since 2002. If that's the case, the Clemson or Miami games would have to be on a Thursday in the schedule I made up above.

Honestly, I'd rather have more time to recover from all the cut blocking you face against Paul Johnson's offense than have more time to prepare for it. So, you could make the Clemson game Oct. 20 and the Georgia Tech game Oct. 27.

How do you want the schedule to look this year?