Virginia Tech Hokies vs. Purdue Boilermakers: Tidbits and Staff Predictions

So, It’s Orange Effect at Noon

It’s all Orange with a White chapeau going on for the game festivities. The crowd will be in orange, and the vendors will probably be selling the orange plastic bag rain ponchos for way too much money. We’ll see how the conditions are as we show up at the stadium with full rain gear and a single camera.

There must have been a student body vote from some source because the combo was picked by the student body.

It’s Another Sell Out

This is not an insignificant event. A sellout for a non-conference game in Week 2 of a season teetering on the edge for each game. There are lots of fan bases that would stay home, but Hokie Nation will be there for the show. There’s no guarantee about the content of the stands in the 2nd half - that depends on the quality of the game, but the first half will be rocking.

The #25 goes to:

Virginia Tech dual sport sprinter NCAA Track and Field (Indoor and Outdoor) Star Colton “Cole” Beck. Is a gunner on Special Teams, and it looks like he’s returned to his football (Blacksburg High School) star status, too.

Congratulations to Cole Beck for earning the #25 for this weekend.

Predictions

Here we go! Time to give it a final analysis before the final whistle calls us right or wrong.

Bryan Manning

I don’t know yet that we know enough about the Hokies or Purdue to make an accurate prediction for this game. The Boilermakers have a new coach. They have a talented transfer quarterback. Last week, Purdue lost its opener to Fresno State, which is a solid but unspectacular program. Meanwhile, the Hokies blew out ODU. There were some concerns for the Hokies, such as the run defense, rushing offense, etc. From all accounts, the run defense is entirely fixable. The rushing offense is a work in progress. What you want is continued improvement each week.

There was a lot to like about Virginia Tech’s pass offense, though. VT’s wide receivers immediately made a difference last week as all three transfers combined for 10 receptions and three touchdowns. They won’t have that easy of a time against Purdue, but they’ll make enough plays to help the Hokies begin the season 2-0.

Hokies 20, Purdue 16

John Schneider

This is a tough game to call. We still haven’t seen enough from the Hokies to feel like I’d be confident in this call. It’s really difficult to argue with the 3-point spread, but I think that more than 50 points between the two teams could be a bit of a stretch on a day like the one predicted. I do think that Card is going to be a serious challenge if the linebackers are still playing out of position. The defensive line also needs to get some serious discipline going on their rush lanes because of that. Normally the LB behind the edge rusher will backfill at the LOS to stop the outside scramble, but that assignment dropped too many times in game 1. We’ll see if Coach Marve has managed to fix that goof up.

I just don’t see a high scoring game if it can even be played due to the wild weather being predicted. I do think that the Hokies are going to win, but it’s going to be a nailbiter.

24-21 Hokies

Well, that’s it for our best guesses. It’s all up in the air. Report time to Lane is 10:00am for the press crew, and it’s going to be raingear. We’ll know soon enough whether nature is going to cooperate with us.

GO HOKIES!!!