The Hokies jump back into their customary position in the polls. The USA Today/Amway Coaches’ Poll bumped us up one notch to #23 with 176 votes. No one is going to claim that we deserved higher, and still claim something of a modicum of football knowledge. There are those that contended that the Coaches were being too generous with a #24 ranking last week. I tend to disagree, the ODU game looks very much like a complete fluke. That sort of thing happens with a defense (no offense who puts up 35 should expect to lose a football game) is stacked with freshmen and sophomores.

We received a rather meager 84 votes in the AP Poll and crawled back into the top 25 by nipping in at #24. That wasn’t too fair given the Duke position at 22, and quite a few more votes, but media memories are long, and their judgments are sort of bandwagon affairs. We were #13 before ODU, and it seems the sports writers aren’t convinced that the Duke game was us, and the ODU game wasn’t. It’s almost like our offense didn’t need to show up last week. The loss was really a 7 point difference (the last ODU touchdown was a give up from a Defense that had really never reported for the game). The AP Punishment will continue. If we beat Notre Dame next week I fully expect to stay in the 15-20 range with them rated ahead of us. It’s the logic of Polls instead of a real playoff system and results.

So it’s Week 5 or Week 6 depending on the polls, and that means we are really nearing mid season. Functionally next week is the mid point. One thing that we do suspect is that the ECU game cancellation due to hurricane Florence is going to be one of the great question generators of the 2018 season. If the Hokies had actually played that game, how different would the season and the rankings be this week? We’ll never know, and we won in convincing fashion in Durham, so the 2018 season is what it is to date, and will be what unfolds one game at a time.

There were some amazing plays, but one that exemplifies both the new Hokie Offensive Attitude, and some serious toughness we look at Dalton Keene on his first collegiate TD, assisted by a crushing downfield block by Eric Kumah, and escorted on a dead 67 yard run by Center Zachariah Hoyt! That’s total offensive effort that the voters better have been paying attention to!

Ryan Willis got noticed by the AP press with Yahoo Sports giving him a big mention and a full blurb in their Winners section for the week.

Right now we concentrate on beating the Irish at Lane Stadium for our fourth prime time football game of the season.

GO HOKIES!!! Beat Notre Dame!