W2WF: Virginia Tech

October is a month defined by haunted ghosts and ghouls, so it's only fitting that this week's game against Virginia Tech would conjure a fright film for Boston College.

In this horror movie, the Hokie bird is standing over a cauldron. His spell book is open, and he's looking for a recipe to create a monster for the Eagles. He flips the pages and stops at a page referencing something about a third type of bird.

It's called the Jayhawk recipe, and HokieBird feverishly goes to work. He laughs maniacally as he throws ingredient after ingredient into the pot, and his feathers fly off of his body as he stirs everything together. Eventually he stops and looks at his creation.

It's Khalil Herbert, the Kansas running back from the Jayhawks' 48-24 win in Chestnut Hill. He ran for 187 yards on 11 carries against the Eagles and gashed and ripped the BC defense at every turn. After redshirting last season with four games played, Herbert decided to transfer, and now, at the behest of the HokieBird, he's standing in a Virginia Tech uniform.

The lightning crashes around Lane Stadium, and the BC faithful wake up in a cold sweat.

The real fright? It's a reality.

This weekend, Khalil Herbert and the loaded Virginia Tech offense host Boston College's revamped defense in a final showdown of sorts in Blacksburg.

"To me, (he) is a pro back," BC head coach Jeff Hafley said. "He's a special player, breaks a lot of tackles, has speed, returns, and is really talented. They score 43 points per game and run for 300 yards per game, which are like video game stats. I don't think I've ever coached against 300 yards rushing per game."

Herbert gained 138 yards on 18 carries with two touchdowns last week in a thriller between the Hokies and North Carolina, and it marked his second consecutive game with multiple scores. In the game before that, he dominated Duke and owned Tobacco Road for 207 yards on 19 carries.

He's been an unstoppable force with an equally nasty offensive line, and the immediate results are yielding eye-popping numbers. The Hokies are the third-best running team in the nation with the seventh-highest scoring offense. They average 24 first downs per game and steamroll defenses with an offensive line featuring five starters over 300 pounds.

"They have some zone scheme and gap scheme," Hafley said. "They're just big and long, and they can move their feet. They recruited really well on offense, and it's very, very clear. They're strong, and they can get on the perimeter and get running. They can pull. They can just get push. 300 yards per game is a credit to the O-line and their O-line coach."

Here's what to watch for as BC heads to Lane Stadium to play the No. 23 Hokies:

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Weekly Storylines (The Italian Job Edition)

Left Ear: This dude got dogs. I don't do dogs… I had a real bad experience, man.
Charlie: What happened?
Left Ear: I HAD A BAD EXPERIENCE.

Head coach Justin Fuente quieted a potential quarterback controversy this week when he reinstalled Hendon Hooker as the team's starter. Last year's starter for the majority of the season, Hooker threw 13 touchdowns to only two picks in 2019 and debuted last week with a 7-for-13 performance for 136 yards and two touchdowns.

"They play with a bunch (of quarterbacks), (and it) looks like (Hooker) will play against us," Jeff Hafley said. "He won six games last year when he came in and drove them back to get over 300 yards in the second half last week. We need to be alert for (the offense). They're good players."

Hooker was above average last year in an offense tailored to a dual-threat quarterback, and his numbers reflected spikes in key moments. He threw for 261 yards against Rhode Island before throwing for 242 yards against Wake Forest. Later in the year, he threw for 300 yards against Virginia.

"You have to pick and choose because it's really tough to be good at all (facets of an offense)," Hafley said. "A team like this, where (Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente) has been there for five years, you can build a system and add, and he's done a good job of doing that."

Hooker uses two main wide receiver targets, and Tre Turner is already on pace to match or surpass his numbers from the past two years. Last season, he caught 34 balls for 553 yards, near-exact totals from his freshman season in 2018, and he is a lethal pairing with Tayvion Robinson on the opposite side.

At tight end, James Mitchell is enjoying a breakout with 10 catches in his first three games. He went over 100 yards last week against North Carolina to become the team's leading receiver one year after Dalton Keene caught more than 20 balls.

John Bridger: There are two kinds of thieves in this world: the ones who steal to enrich their lives, and those who steal to define their lives. Don't be the latter. Makes you miss out on what's really important in life.

Stopping that entire offense will be difficult, but Boston College has an opportunity to draw off of its own style of play when it game plans for Virginia Tech. Both David Bailey and Patrick Garwo took steps forward last week with individual runs of longer than 10 yards, and it's a sign that the running game is finally starting to round into shape.

"In college football right now, it's either counter or power (on the run)," Jeff Hafley said. "Is it a quarterback counter, power, or true stretch or inside zone? There was a quarterback run game last week, and Phil can keep the ball. The zone game is what we like to do. The longer we're together, we're going to evolve and do more together."

The offense pulled safeties into the box last week by establishing running downs, and it exposed the Panthers secondary to a lethal combination of run-pass option and play action. It's similar to how Virginia Tech carries its offense with multiple running options and a dual-threat quarterback, and it further offers an example of how a spread style offense might attack the BC mindset.

"The first thing I'll say about V-Tech's run game is that they've been having a great year so far," safety Jahmin Muse said. "For us, the biggest thing is tackling, coming up and taking them to the grass. I wouldn't say it's about how far we play as safeties, it's about swarming to the ball. We are going to play normal depth. It's about coming up and wrapping up, swarming to the ball."

BC struggled last year against the run, and Khalil Herbert very clearly gashed the line of scrimmage in the Eagles' third game. This year's unit, though, is top-ranked in most categories and is holding opponents to under 135 yards per game. Linebackers Max Richardson and Isaiah McDuffie are two of the team's leading tacklers, and a roving nickelback is a third option to initiate contact for safeties. All of that presents a very different type of defense, one that actually mocks exactly how both teams on both sides would play.

Steve: You blew the best thing you had going for you. You blew the element of surprise.
Charlie: (punches Steve) Surprised?

There's a tendency to overanalyze Saturday's matchup between BC's defense and the Virginia Tech offense because of the Hokies' statistics, but the lasting remnants of Bud Foster's Lunch Pail Defense presents tricky navigational waters for the Eagles' new-look, high-flying offense.

"They've played good defense all year," Jeff Hafley said. "They have two good defensive ends, and their linebackers seem to be the heart and soul of their defense. They've rotated a bunch of players that have been hurt in their secondary. I credit them for doing such a good job to piece it all together. They fight and scrap and play a really good scheme. They play a lot of closed defense, so they load the box."

The entire Virginia Tech defense is built around the collective sum of its parts, and four players enter the BC game with multiple sacks. Their style is nuanced around edge rushers and linebacker Rayshard Ashby, and the presence of a hybrid, "rover" defensive back sets them up to attack the line of scrimmage as much as possible. It can convert seamlessly into a pass defense on the fly, which may present issues for quarterback Phil Jurkovec and wide receivers Zay Flowers and CJ Lewis, and either Ashby or the rover will keep an extra set of eyes on tight end Hunter Long.

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Countdown to Kickoff

10…wins by BC in the ACC era over ranked teams (10-36 overall record).
9…meetings between BC and Virginia Tech have been in October since 2000.
8…games in the matchup have been decided by less than 10 points.
7…th ranked scoring offense this year for Virginia Tech, averaging over 42 points per game.
6…BC receivers with three touchdown catches in a single game, including Zay Flowers, who caught three last week against Pittsburgh.
5…game winning streak by Virginia Tech was the last extended streak longer than three games by either team.
4…consecutive games by BC with 20 or more first downs to start the Jeff Hafley era.
3…consecutive losses by BC in games starting at 7 p.m. or later.
2...wins by BC at Lane Stadium in the teams' last three meetings in Blacksburg.
1…more reception by Hunter Long this season than in his previous two years combined.

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BC-Virginia Tech X Factor

Boston College Defensive Line

Virginia Tech's offensive line is a brand new kind of challenge for Tem Lukabu's defensive front seven. All five starters are over 300 pounds, and both the right guard and right tackle stand more than six feet, five inches tall. The left side is full of equally-large monsters, and they form a surge capable of opening holes all over the field.

Boston College's depth, though, presents a unique challenge for that line because it can send different looks on various situational downs. The quick substitutions keep fresh players in the lineup, and the interchangeable parts allow players like Chibueze Onwuka and Luc Bequette to play with both Bryce Morais or TJ Rayam. Marcus Valdez is an increasingly violent tackler around the edge, and Brandon Barlow is more than capable of supplanting him on the other side. Shita Sillah is big and physical, and Cam Horsley is the kind of young player that makes individual plays when his number is called.

Over the past four games, position coach Vince Oghobaase switched them all interchangeably and introduced different concepts to different plays. He challenged his linemen to play on the opposite of the ball without charging headfirst into bigger, physical offensive linemen, and it generated pressure by collapsing the exterior and interior pocket presences. The personnel on any given play forced quarterbacks to go where they wanted him to, and it's something they need to do to a mobile dual-threat player like Hendon Hooker.

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Dan's Homegrown Tailgate Tip of the Week

If you've been following me for the duration of this season, you already know that I have a weird obsession with both movie quotes and music lyrics. I grew up in the 1990s and 2000s during a golden age of film, and I developed music tastes by stealing cassettes and CDs from my brother after his trips to Newbury Comics and Tower Records. I really hammer home what I love, and I tend to ignore or outright denigrate music artists that I don't like (mostly just the Nu Metal artists of the late 90s and early 00s).

To me, both provide the exact emotional flavor of a game day. A dramatic or action-packed sequence from both movies and music lend themselves to stadium-level images and are proven to trigger responses based upon those memories. I still think about watching the 16-0 New England Patriots whenever I hear Leonidas' speech before the final battle from 300, and I believe Sunday Night Football games hit differently because of Carrie Underwood's opening theme.

That's why tailgate music is so important. Hearing Boston College's marching band walk onto the field with the first staccato drum beat is one thing, but the full trumpet blasts herald the pregame ceremonies that lead up to a video board montage. The music is a big deal to me, and it leads directly to the smoke and banner burst of the Eagles' run onto the field.

It's why pregame is important, and it's why I started playing some music before games at home. I developed a full playlist of songs that make me think about game day, songs like Zac Brown Band's "Homegrown," which is a part of ESPN College GameDay. It builds steam through Jason Aldean and eventually switches over to harder rock and rap as kickoff draws nearer. I'll always end with something that makes me think of walking into games.

It hasn't failed me despite my walk only going to the couch or the patio, and I intend to fire up something special for a Saturday night's game this week. No, it won't be Springsteen, though the E Street Band will almost assuredly make this week's list somehow.

And at some point, if you don't turn out all the lights in your house in order to play "Mr. Brightside," are you even a BC football fan?

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Scoreboard Watching

Last season, I wrote that the first month of college football reached a pivotal checkpoint when it ended. Early victories included marquee wins for contenders while struggling teams already faced brutal realities in bad defeats. It thinned the herd enough to establish storylines for the second month, but the majority of teams remained in a larger pack while fighting for positioning.

That larger group, I said, was like a peloton. A group of riders, or teams in this case, jostled for position over a long haul race. Some used the right circumstances to separate into a breakaway, while others fell behind. Good riders slipped back. Upstart riders pushed forward. Everyone met in the middle in a massive pack designed to separate everyone over a long time period.

That was the morning of the Kansas game, which, to me, is exactly the kind of letdown to avoid. BC was 2-0 with a conference win at kickoff, but the previously-winless Jayhawks damaged the Eagles' ability to jump into that upper echelon with a 48-24 victory. It forced them back into the peloton and highlighted just how difficult and long a season lasted.

Most importantly, it warned against overconfidence, a necessary perspective as BC enters its second month of the season on Saturday against Virginia Tech.

"Every opponent, we're going to look at the same way," BC head coach Jeff Hafley said. "We have a ton of work to do just to improve ourselves. I wanted to show the guys what we need to clean up, the pluses and the minuses, and what we need to do to win games. We made it about us (before) I'm going to turn the tables to get ready for Virginia Tech."

As a season progresses, more available metric data makes it easier to project teams' performances through an analytics-based approach. Simulations wash raw numbers of their imperfections, and the subsequent scrubbing creates analysis devoid of the emotion that skews projections.

So even though BC is 3-1 on the season, statistical approaches illustrate just how difficult the road is about to become. ESPN's Football Power Index, for example, ranks BC as the No. 58 team in the FBS, but three of its next five opponents are substantially higher. Both Clemson and Notre Dame are inside the top ten, and Virginia Tech - both this week's opponent and the third - is at No. 18. Only Georgia Tech and Syracuse are below the Eagles, though the Yellow Jackets aren't a considerable drop-off at this point.

FPI contextualizes the statistics from every phase of the game by comparing them to the same numbers across opponents. A lack of non-conference games probably doesn't help this year's rankings, but even running a weekly simulation of possible outcomes removes the emotions of aberrative wins or losses. Successive wins or big performances can still rocket a team up the rankings, but only a team can prove that results aren't outliers.

As for the weekly schedule, here's a quick hit on games I think are worth tuning into this weekend. Games are listed in chronological order:
-Kentucky at No. 18 Tennesse (12 p.m., SEC Network)
-Louisville at No. 4 Notre Dame (2:30 p.m., NBC)
-Central Florida at Memphia (3:30 p.m., ABC)
-No. 5 North Carolina at Florida State (7:30 p.m., ABC)
-No. 3 Georgia at No. 2 Alabama (8 p.m., CBS)

*****
Around the Sports World

I will never forget losing event after event when COVID-19 hit Massachusetts in March. I worked a women's lacrosse game for the Ivy League on Wednesday, March 10, and three days later, I watched as a state of emergency descended into our realities. The gradual postponement and cancellation of spring events hit one after another, followed shortly by a surreality of not watching sports anywhere for the first time in my life.

Certain pills were harder to swallow than others, but losing college basketball was particularly catastrophic for my mentality at the time. I argued back and forth with friends about what it would take to stage the NCAA Tournament, but we all knew, deep down, that it wasn't happening. The cancellation hit us like bricks, and I remember watching old Final Four games during a time period when I should have been in front of multiple televisions for 14 hours.

I was particularly hurt by the loss of the Women's Final Four because I had high hopes for a potential run by Boston College. I couldn't wait to hear the team's name called on Selection Monday, and I was mentally sizing up potential regionals and brackets for a path to the final semifinal in New Orleans. I believed that team was good enough to compete at that level, especially because I spent so many hours in Conte Forum last winter watching and learning their style of play.

This week, college basketball returned and brought a ray of hope for an upcoming season. It was finally a step forward and a way to stop thinking about how last year ended, and it gave me an image of both men's and women's hoops potentially meeting for a March Madness run. The small gesture of practicing with coaches, once thought mundane, was immeasurable to my psyche.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

This is exactly what I meant about playing with revenge. That team out there is not a better team. They are not a better team. You take away the mental mistakes, and we are back in this thing. Otherwise, they're gonna keep playing us for a bunch of fools. Stay away from dumb, gentlemen. -Eric Taylor, "Friday Night Lights"

Khalil Herbert's performance from last year's Kansas game still boils my blood because I believe Boston College was better than the numbers indicated. Herbert unraveled the defense with a couple of big plays, and the unit had no chance to pull back into sync because it continually played catchup. Kansas wasn't necessarily better than BC, but it was better on that day and executed its game plan. It opened wounds, and it left the Eagles suturing their play for the rest of the season.

Remembering that performance is important, but it's not the only piece of Saturday's game. Stopping Herbert is critical, but he will own a mental advantage if the defense flies too close to the proverbial sun. It will reopen the wounds and create frustration. Frustration leads to mental mistakes, which in turn create sloppy mistakes.

I think Virginia Tech is a loaded team, and I think BC will have its hands full on the road this weekend. I also think that the Eagles have a very good chance to win this game if they keep mental focus and execute together, as one. That's where the game will be won, and that's where the defense, this year, has excelled the most.

Boston College and No. 23 Virginia Tech will kick off at 8 p.m. on Saturday from Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia. The game can be seen on ACC Network and online at WatchESPN.com for cable subscribers with access to the channel. Radio broadcast is available via the BC Learfield IMG Sports Network, locally in Boston on WEEI 93.7 FM, with satellite radio broadcast via Sirius channel 137, XM channel 382, and Online channel 972.

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Players Mentioned

David Bailey

Brandon Barlow

Luc Bequette

Zay Flowers

Cam Horsley

Phil Jurkovec

CJ Lewis

Hunter Long

Isaiah McDuffie

Bryce Morais

Jahmin Muse

Chibueze Onwuka

TJ Rayam

Max Richardson

Marcus Valdez