The Commonwealth Cup: Hokies vs Wahoos - The Rivalry that was and Could Be Again

Saturday at noon, Scott Stadium, Charlottesville, Virginia some 144 miles from Blacksburg, oddly enough on exist 118B on I64 (Blacksburg/Virginia Tech is Exit 118B on I81).  I don't know when the trip actually starts, if the busses will leave early on Saturday, or on Friday afternoon with a hotel stay in Hooville.  With a 12:00 kickoff and it being the Thanksgiving holiday weekend I'd opt to do the hotel and have everyone up and moving on a fixed morning schedule of final walk through work breakfast, and study.

This game means more than most folks would like to admit.  It really shouldn't mean that much because UVa hasn't put a consistent winner on the field in almost a decade, now.  I don't know if it's lack of trying since it certainly doesn't lack the talent.  Virginia seems to do pretty well for itself in its recruiting rounds.  If it's the coaching, game planning, or some level of ambivalence to football at the institution, I don't know.  Virginia shouldn't struggle this much, and the game should be a good deal more difficult than it has been, recently.  They have played us close, but we haven't been in real danger or lost for the last 11 years.  At some point the rivalry starts to fade when that happens.

EXCEPT, this year and last year we have something hinging on winning the game.  We shouldn't, but we do.  This year, we have bowl eligibility at stake.  It means the probability of getting something better in the post season bowl seeding.  There is a really interesting and annoying issue going on this season.  Five and 7 teams are going to get consideration because there are 40 bowls, and there don't look to be 80 winning teams to fill them.  This means that win or lose, the Hokies might be eligible, but only winning will guarantee something.  It also means Frank Beamer's last team wins the last regular season contest against a 120 year rival for football supremacy in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Here is the record that Frank Beamer has amassed against UVA during his tenure as Head Hokie:

Hokies and the Wahoos in the Beamer Era

Season	Date	Site	Score	Rank	TV
2014	Fri., Nov 28, 2014	Blacksburg, Va. *	W, 24-20	NR/NR	ESPN
2013	Sat., Nov 30, 2013	Charlottesville, Va. *	W, 16-6	NR/NR	ESPNU
2012	Sat., Nov 24, 2012	Blacksburg, Va. *	W, 17-14	NR/NR	ESPNU
2011	Sat., Nov 26, 2011	Charlottesville, Va. *	W, 38-0	6/24	ABC
2010	Sat., Nov 27, 2010	Blacksburg, Va. *	W, 37-7	13/NR	ACC Net
2009	Sat., Nov 28, 2009	Charlottesville, Va. *	W, 42-13	14/NR	ABC
2008	Sat., Nov 29, 2008	Blacksburg, Va. *	W, 17-14	NR/NR	ESPN
2007	Sat., Nov 24, 2007	Charlottesville, Va. *	W, 33-21	8/16	ESPN2
2006	Sat., Nov 25, 2006	Blacksburg, Va. *	W, 17-0	17/NR	Raycom
2005	Sat., Nov 19, 2005	Charlottesville, Va. *	W, 52-14	7/NR	ESPN
2004	Sat., Nov 27, 2004	Blacksburg, Va. *	W, 24-10	11/16	ABC(r)
2003	Sat., Nov 29, 2003	Charlottesville, Va.	L, 21-35	21/NR	ABC(r)
2002	Sat., Nov 30, 2002	Blacksburg, Va. 1	W, 21-9	22/NR	ESPN
2001	Sat., Nov 17, 2001	Charlottesville, Va.	W, 31-17	18/NR	ESPN
2000	Sat., Nov 25, 2000	Blacksburg, Va.	W, 42-21	6/NR	ESPN
1999	Sat., Oct 2, 1999	Charlottesville, Va.	W, 31-7	8/24	ESPN
1998	Sat., Nov 28, 1998	Blacksburg, Va.	L, 32-36	20/16	ESPN
1997	Sat., Nov 29, 1997	Charlottesville, Va.	L, 20-34	NR/NR	ESPN
1996	Fri., Nov 29, 1996	Blacksburg, Va.	W, 26-9	17/20	CBS
1995	Sat., Nov 18, 1995	Charlottesville, Va.	W, 36-29	20/13	ABC (r)
1994	Sat., Nov 19, 1994	Blacksburg, Va.	L, 23-42	14/16	BIG EAST (r)
1993	Sat., Nov 20, 1993	Charlottesville, Va.	W, 20-17	25/23	J-Pilot(r)
1992	Sat., Nov 21, 1992	Blacksburg, Va.	L, 38-41	NR/NR
1991	Sat., Nov 23, 1991	Charlottesville, Va.	L, 0-38	NR/20	J-Pilot (r)
1990	Sat., Nov 24, 1990	Blacksburg, Va.	W, 38-13	NR/17	ESPN
1989	Sat., Nov 11, 1989	Charlottesville, Va.	L, 25-32	NR/18
1988	Sat., Oct 29, 1988	Blacksburg, Va.	L, 10-16	NR/NR
1987	Sat., Sep 19, 1987	Charlottesville, Va.	L, 13-14	NR/NR

(r) Regional Broadcast

University of Virginia Cavaliers:

Head Coach Mike London isn't the most popular man in Charlottesville's football fan circles, but those circles seem to have gotten ever smaller as the success of UVA wains on the gridiron.  Virginia has always been known as a "Basketball School" in a "Basketball Conference".    Their baseball team is world class and boasts star players at almost every level of professional baseball including the Washington Nationals' Ryan Zimmerman.  Their men's lacrosse team though PR challenged by a recent scandal, is first rate and routinely plays at the top of the NCAA.   The Wahoos seem to be really proud of those teams and their accomplishments.  It's just really interestingly difficult to find dedicated Virginia football fans.  They are out there, but their presence seems to be stealth characteristic.  While there are hundreds of cars sporting Hokie bumper stickers, flags, and window decals the UVA paraphernalia just doesn't stand out all that much.

Maybe it's the team's recent performance, but as the other half of the family feud, it's kind of fun to poke at your brother, cousin, best friend from high school, or pal from church, and give him a rib about the upcoming game.  Lately it seems like the response has been more along the lines of "yeah, so what?  We won the College Baseball World Series, and where were you?"

So how does a coach motivate a team of football players where the school is sort of interested in their play quality and record, and sort of not?  It's not for lack of talent.  Matt Johns is a reasonably good quarterback.  He's pretty big, reasonably athletic, and hits 2/3rds of his passes for an average of a touch over seven yards.  That's not terrible.

Virginia Cavalier schedule and scores:

Sat 9/5	UCLA	@ (13) UCLA	L 16 - 34
Sat 9/12	Notre Dame	(9) Notre Dame	L 27 - 34
Sat 9/19	William & Mary	William & Mary	W 35 - 29
Fri 9/25	Boise St.	Boise St.	L 14 - 56
Sat 10/10	Pittsburgh	@ Pittsburgh	L 19 - 26
Sat 10/17	Syracuse	Syracuse	W 44 - 38
Sat 10/24	N. Carolina	@ N. Carolina	L 13 - 26
Sat 10/31	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech	W 27 - 21
Sat 11/7	Miami (FL)	@ Miami (FL)	L 21 - 27
Sat 11/14	Louisville	@ Louisville	L 31 - 38
Sat 11/21	Duke	Duke	W 42 - 34

UVA lost some seriously close games; Miami by only 6, Louisville by just 7, Pitt by only 7.  They even hung in with Notre Dame for just a one score loss.  Their 4 and 7 record could just as easily be better than our 5 and 6 record with a few breaks.  Much like I hear from my fellow Hokies regarding our disappointing season of ‘stunningly mediocre', again.

Besides Matt Johns being a decent enough quarterback, UVA has a few running backs and a running game that has put up mearly 1500 yards this season.  If you pull out the fact that Johns is not a running and has far too many rushing attempts (ok, we are talking sack pressure scrambles, here) The Hoos are averaging around a 4 yard schedule on rushing attempts.  Taquan Mizzell is both the leading rusher with 638 yards, and the 2^nd leading pass receiver with 670 or so yards and four TD's in the air.  Johns also spreads the ball around with Severin being his number one target.

UVA's offense cannot be legitimately called high powered or high scoring, but it is competent and can produce both yards and points.  It is basically a pro pocket oriented design and if the offensive line can keep Johns on his feet and in the pocket it can be dangerous.  They put up 42 points on Duke.

That brings up the other half of the Cavaliers; the defense.  The Virginia D has not been its bright spot this season.  Even if the offense can put up point totals in the mid 20's to 30's, the defense has been giving up too much, and that seems to be the biggest reason for the critical losses to closely matched teams.

Saturday, the Cavaliers will take to the field at Scott Stadium with a fairly large representative sample of Burnt Orange and Chicago Maroon in the stands.  They are going to be a dangerous opponent.  Our last several contests (since 2011, anyway) have been close run deals.  I see no reason to think that London, with his job potentially on the line, will not pull out all the stops to get that critical win that could get them to a bowl for late December; even if it's the Pogy Bait Pity Bowl.

Passing Statistics

NAME	CMP	ATT	YDS	CMP%	YDS/A	TD	INT	RAT
Matt Johns	229	365	2639	62.7	7.23	19	15	132.4
Connor Brewer	4	8	34	50.0	4.25	0	1	60.7
Olamide Zaccheaus	1	1	15	100.0	15.00	1	0	556.0
Totals	234	375	2688	62.4	7.17	20	16	131.7

Rushing Statistics

NAME	CAR	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Taquan Mizzell	153	638	4.2	36	4
Albert Reid	57	257	4.5	71	2
Daniel Hamm	55	247	4.5	53	1
Olamide Zaccheaus	23	212	9.2	35	1
Jordan Ellis	23	73	3.2	39 (TD)	2
Matt Johns	55	28	0.5	13	1
T.J. Thorpe	4	27	6.8	26 (TD)	1
Vincent Croce	1	7	7.0	7	0
Nicholas Conte	1	6	6.0	6	0
Totals	384	1475	3.8	71	12

Receiving Statistics

NAME	REC	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Canaan Severin	51	713	14.0	38	7
Taquan Mizzell	68	671	9.9	80 (TD)	4
T.J. Thorpe	20	295	14.8	75 (TD)	1
Olamide Zaccheaus	19	197	10.4	50 (TD)	1
Daniel Hamm	14	174	12.4	48	0
Keeon Johnson	13	173	13.3	42 (TD)	1
Evan Butts	14	157	11.2	28	3
Charlie Hopkins	11	90	8.2	21	2
David Eldridge	2	88	44.0	45	0
Albert Reid	11	42	3.8	12	0
Ryan Santoro	1	34	34.0	34	0
Connor Wingo-Reeves	4	31	7.8	18	1
Andre Levrone	2	16	8.0	10	0
Brendan Marshall	1	5	5.0	5	0
Vincent Croce	2	3	1.5	6	0
Totals	234	2688	11.5	80	20

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Fighting Gobblers:

The Virginia Tech Hokies are just off of a crushingly disappointing overtime loss where many in Hokie Nation are still feeling robbed by more iffy end zone officiating.  Well the old saw is; "if you got down to a blown referee call in overtime you blew more than they did."

Virginia Tech's offense has been maddeningly inconsistent.  There are so many complaints about the play calling from all points of the compass of Hokie Nation that the needle spun off.  The team has talent far above its 5 and 6 record.  For this game, it better have a game plan, a load of flexibility in its execution, and above all it must think down field.  Virginia's defense is not good enough to stop a balanced offensive scheme where effective runs help with play action fakes to gain advantages downfield under the zone and in the seams between coverages.  Brewer can make this a career game if he does a good job of being patient, moving in the pocket , and hitting smart higher percentage passes where he can see the defensive development.  The offense must get its big weapons on the field and into the game.  Bucky, Isaiah, and Cam need to be regularly mentioned by the announcers in the positive sense.  Getting some releases out into the flats for Malleck, Rogers, and McMillian would definitely help to keep the Wahoo Defense off balance.

The Hokie Defense needs to put the kind of pressure on Johns that makes him miss, or misfire to the player wearing the late 1980's throwback helmets and jerseys.  It might be a good time to see more of Shegog, Clark, and Motuapuaka getting good blitz opportunities.

There will be a critical part of this game that will be fought between the ears of each player on the Hokie squad.  Tech has committed fewer penalties of late, but we are still having some difficulties with line discipline, especially the defense jumping offside.  Execution of fundamental football is going to be more important this game.

Passing Statistics

NAME	CMP	ATT	YDS	CMP%	YDS/A	TD	INT	RAT
Brenden Motley	92	164	1155	56.1	7.04	11	7	128.9
Michael Brewer	88	150	1122	58.7	7.48	10	5	136.8
Dwayne Lawson	3	9	51	33.3	5.67	0	0	80.9
Isaiah Ford	1	2	14	50.0	7.00	0	0	108.8
Sam Rogers	1	1	13	100.0	13.00	0	0	209.2
Totals	185	327	2355	56.6	7.20	21	12	130.9

Rushing Statistics

NAME	CAR	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Travon McMillian	166	880	5.3	63	5
Brenden Motley	88	224	2.5	22	3
Sam Rogers	51	223	4.4	29	1
Trey Edmunds	45	174	3.9	35	2
J.C. Coleman	40	132	3.3	10	1
Dwayne Lawson	14	55	3.9	10	1
Shai McKenzie	13	50	3.8	11	0
Chris Durkin	4	25	6.3	9	0
Cam Phillips	1	24	24.0	24	0
Isaiah Ford	3	22	7.3	10	0
Greg Stroman	7	12	1.7	6	0
Totals	472	1750	3.7	63	14

Receiving Statistics

NAME	REC	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Isaiah Ford	57	816	14.3	61	9
Cam Phillips	43	536	12.5	60	2
Bucky Hodges	33	458	13.9	46	6
Ryan Malleck	18	211	11.7	40	2
Sam Rogers	13	167	12.8	51 (TD)	1
Travon McMillian	12	64	5.3	19	1
Kalvin Cline	3	38	12.7	31	0
Michael Brewer	1	14	14.0	14	0
Brenden Motley	1	13	13.0	13	0
Kevin Asante	1	13	13.0	13	0
J.C. Coleman	1	10	10.0	10	0
Trey Edmunds	1	8	8.0	8	0
Demitri Knowles	1	7	7.0	7	0
Totals	185	2355	12.7	61	21

The Wahoos WIN if the Hokie offense runs like a junker with a flat tire.  Virginia needs to figure out how to get Brewer to make mistakes with the ball in critical situations.  They need to stuff the run, and make the passes predictable.   The Cavalier Offense needs to play good ball control football, score consistent points, and not allow Tech to build up a Defensive head of steam.

The Hokies WIN if we play a solid balanced offensive scheme where we take advantage of Travon McMillian's first rate rushing performance, the improved influence blocking by the offensive line, and passing with a moving pocket using play action and options to keep the Wahoo defense off balance and on its heels.

The Hokie Defense needs to play a game like it played last week, minus the yellow hankies, please.

The Virginia Tech Hokies are a better football team than the Virginia Cavaliers, unfortunately the difference is not great enough to consider this game in anyone's pocket.  The Wahoos can win this one, and the Hokies had better keep that reality in mind.

Next Stop Scott, and then we'll talk other exciting things, and I am not really thinking about the certain Booger Bowl that we are likely to get a bid to attend.

GO HOKIES!!! Win the last Regular Season game for Frank!

Sources:

http://www.hokiesports.com/football/opponents/Virginia

http://espn.go.com/college-football/team/stats/_/id/258/virginia-cavaliers

http://espn.go.com/college-football/team/stats/_/id/259/virginia-tech-hokies