2010 Virginia Tech Football: What to Watch vs. Boise State

The Team

• In the last two season openers, the Hokies came out flat and relied on their defense to stay in the game. I don't think they can afford to do that this year because of the explosive nature of Boise State's offense. The Tech offense needs to be effective from the start.
• It's the first game of the season, so there's going to be a lot of little mistakes on both sides. You'll see illegal formations, illegal substitutions and false starts. It'll be interesting to see how having 10 returning starters on both sides of the ball will help Boise State avoid these problems. The team that doesn't let penalties like this derail drives will have the upper hand.
• Field position will be key early on. The Hokies have a new punter, but their return game was solid last year on both punts and kickoffs. They also have Justin Myer back as the kickoff specialist and he is pretty consistent at getting the ball into the end zone.
• I don't think the heat and humidity will effect Boise State. Hopefully, the crowd noise will. I expect there to be a lot of Hokie fans in Landover and I expect them to be loud.

Virginia Tech Offense vs. Boise State Defense

• What I want to see is how the touches get distributed. If the Hokies are lucky they'll get 60 plays against Boise State. I think between 20-25 of those will be passes, leaving 35 touches to distribute between Ryan Williams, Darren Evans and David Wilson.
• I think Williams will get most of the carries early and end up with about 20. You'll see 10 from Darren Evans, most of them coming later in the game with five for David Wilson. I'm interested to see if Wilson gets his spread out through the game or in a cluster as a part of a special package in one or two possessions.
• The Broncos have a strong front seven, so the Hokies will need to use the advantage they have speed-wise and create mismatches where they can. I'd like to see some sets with 3+ receivers to take advantage of the fact that we are pretty deep at both receiver positions and have Wilson at our disposal.
• I'm interested to see how the Broncos secondary plays with Kyle Wilson out of the starting lineup. Kyle Wilson was obviously legit, but has moved onto the NFL. We'll see how the secondary performs without its best player from 2009.
• Finally, I want to see how many designed runs there are for Tyrod Taylor. We have some depth at quarterback now, so we could see the coaches take more chances with Taylor and his ability to run.