W2WF: Virginia Tech (1993)

The Big East's foray into a football conference always meant I would need to wrap my head around unconventional opponents. The guaranteed round-robin meant regularly-scheduled rivalries against teams like Penn State are gone, replaced instead with rolling home-and-home games against schools like Virginia Tech or West Virginia. It was always going to make me feel fundamentally different because it would reach well beyond the regionalism I always knew.

It still feels fundamentally weird. Virginia Tech is in isolation in western Virginia, and Boston College is in a major metropolitan area. I can't find Blacksburg on a map, but it's in the mountains as opposed to the oceanfront views of Massachusetts. The teams have never played each other, and the Hokies, like Rutgers and Temple, aren't a full-time Big East team.

It's what makes this game feel so different. The No. 25 Hokies have a good football team and are nationally ranked after winning their last three games. They rolled East Carolina last week, 31-12, after demolishing Rutgers and Temple in the prior two weeks. It more than made up for the early-season losses to Miami and West Virginia, and the team is now positioned for a run at a top-flight bowl invitation if it can knock off a Big East original.

BC, meanwhile, is officially rolling after experiencing September doldrums. The Miami loss feels like a lifetime ago, as does the way national championship hopes swirled the drain against Northwestern. The Eagles haven't lost since week two and memorably beat No. 13 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. It sets up a key late-season game between two teams with virtually no history.

That leads us back to the overarching matchup. I have no problem admitting the Virginia Tech matchup felt like an arranged marriage between two independent football teams. The Big East is a basketball power league that needed to add football to protect some of its members, especially after it rejected Penn State's addition. The failed superleague study by the Metro Conference clearly grew an older seed, and the Big East grabbed it to flourish.

Virginia Tech is from the Metro Conference, a league centered throughout the Midwest and South. It was essentially left behind by both Florida State and South Carolina when the Seminoles and Gamecocks joined the ACC and SEC, respectively, two years ago. The concept of football independence is cracking, and the sport is becoming more structured because of television contracts and national exposure within the Bowl Coalition. There's a sense of urgency to create competitive leagues in order to ensure long-term health.

That's why I'm okay with the BC-Virginia Tech matchup. I long for the old days of playing Penn State, but I understand why this needs to happen. This is going to be a good football game between teams that don't know a thing about each other. They could not be any more different in the geographic or cultural sense. Some of the students at both schools might not have even heard of the other.

Maybe one day that will create a good rivalry with memorable games. If it does, it will have started this year between two similar teams battling for a potential invitation to a postseason game.

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Weekly Storylines

Do you remember the time when we fell in love?

Last week's win over Tulane felt more like a nuisance than anything else. BC jumped out to a 42-0 lead in the third quarter and flattened the visitors for its fifth consecutive victory. It was an easygoing day led specifically by quarterback Glenn Foley's 327 yards passing.

"They banged us off the ball," Tulane head coach Buddy Teevens said. "They pass-protected very well, and Foley just stood back there and picked us apart."

Foley put every single one of his skills on display early when he hit running back David Green for a 51-yard catch-and-run for a score in the game's first minute. He later hit on bombs to Greg Grice to set up two scores, one of which was a 10-yard pass to Clarence Cannon. In total, Foley went 15-for-28 and averaged almost 22 yards per pass without an interception.

All due respect to Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, but this win got your good vibrations. It revealed plenty about the BC character because it felt like last year's classic trap game against the Green Wave. The conference game dynamic threatened to minimize the non-league game in late October, especially with games against Virginia Tech and West Virginia lurking on the horizon.

Last year, Tulane exposed No. 11 BC in the Superdome, though the Eagles ultimately won, 17-13. This year, the win over the Green Wave proved BC's ability to push through a game it easily could have been sleepwalking through.

"It's certainly good to win the football game," head coach Tom Coughlin said. "For the most part, we played well and we've got some good momentum going back into conference play next week."

I get so weak in the knees.

I'm a sucker for a good quarterback battle, so I'm letting myself get totally caught up in the hype surrounding Maurice DeShazo. He's one of the nation's best passers, but his ability to run enables Virginia Tech to throw completely different looks at opposing defenses.

"Maurice has worked to become a lot better quarterback," said Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer. "He has a year's experience and went through some tough times last year. But he learned from all of them - the good and the bad."

DeShazo struggled last year in Virginia Tech's transitional season, but is finally coming of age in his junior season. His touchdowns are up, and his interceptions are down. He can throw the football all over the field, but is a secondary option with his legs. He can scramble himself into positive plays, and he's the centerpiece of a team that scored more than 50 points three different times this season.

"We really felt like he was starting to come together at the end of last year," Beamer said. "I think we averaged something like 464 yards in offense over the last four games against some pretty good folks."

Just go ahead now.

Both Boston College and Miami have to play West Virginia, so the Eagles still harbor an outside chance at the Big East's inaugural championship if they can knock off Virginia Tech this week. The Hokies, meanwhile, can position themselves for a potential invitation to the John Hancock Bowl or the Carquest Bowl if they can hold off the Eagles in the first meeting between the two teams.

"This game just keeps you available for opportunities," Tom Coughlin said. "But it's been like this for us for the last four or five games."

The Bowl Coalition will likely send the conference champion into a competitive matchup with national championship implications while the second place team will either end up playing a different conference champion or in a Tier II game. Miami and West Virginia are projecting a pace that puts both in those games, so the winner of this game earns an inside track to earning one of those games.

BC has an outside shot at one of those Tier I games if it upsets both West Virginia and Notre Dame. That's a tall order, but it would be impossible to keep the Eagles out of the polls with two losses entering that stretch. It also would be impossible to deny them access to a game if they beat both of those teams and finish the year with a nine-game winning streak.

"I think it's very simple," Frank Beamer said. "We've got to go up there and beat them because they will not beat themselves."

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Meteorology 101

Autumn in New England is going to be a real treat for the Virginia Tech fans making their first trip to Chestnut Hill. The peak foliage is absolutely perfect this time of year, and there's a crispness that doesn't exist anywhere else in the nation. We're on the late edge of the days when warmth can sneak back into the forecast before cold nights with stiff breezes.

Temperatures in Boston for this game are going to hit that late-stage warmth, and highs on game day are going to sky into the upper 50s and low 60s. The clouds will gradually dissipate through to tomorrow's cold, clear forecast, but all in all, it's going to be a good day for football and much nicer than last week's soggy sorrows against Tulane.

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Scoreboard Watching

The BC game kicks off a really interesting day of football on both the regional and national scale, though not necessarily in the Big East. Miami and West Virginia are heavy favorites over Pittsburgh and Rutgers, and Syracuse hosts Temple in a game expected to turn into a blowout.

Nationally, No. 1 Florida State has one last tune up at Maryland before its expected showdown with No. 2 Notre Dame next week. That game is a rare national championship preview with the winner expected to win the banner after the predicted Game of the Century. The Seminoles kick off at noon before the prime time game between Clemson and North Carolina.

There's a huge game in the Big Ten between No. 3 Ohio State and No. 15 Wisconsin. Both teams have to win this game to keep pace for a conference championship, though Illinois is currently in second place behind the Buckeyes. The Illini host Minnesota at 12:30, while No. 17 Indiana takes on Penn State with both teams angling for a bowl invitation.

In the Big 8, No. 6 Nebraska remains a team to watch and plays Kansas this week, while the SEC's No. 5 Alabama and No. 7 Tennessee play LSU and Louisville, respectively.

There's a really intriguing matchup on the local radar in the Yankee Conference when Richmond brings head coach Jim Reid back to Amherst for his first game against UMass. Reid was a longtime coach for the Minutemen who led the team to conference championships and has the Spiders in position to knock UMass well behind both UConn and Boston University.

That BU team is rolling, for what it's worth. The Terriers are ranked ninth in the Division I-AA national poll and will look to remain undefeated against Buffalo at Nickerson Field.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

Let that be a lesson to you boys and girls: don't ever argue with the big dog. Big dog is always right. -Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones), "The Fugitive"

There's a big difference between arrogance and swagger in football. Teams with swagger are proven winners who back up attitude with performance. They have an edge that brags to opponents, that they believe they can, and ultimately will, win. It's a far cry from arrogant teams more likely to turn into preseason champions than postseason heroes.

The preseason talk around Boston College bordered on arrogant because the Eagles limped to the finish last season. They were a good football team but got blasted down the stretch by Notre Dame, and losses to both Syracuse and Tennessee revealed the team wasn't quite ready for its Top 10 ranking.

This year can be vastly different. BC picked up steam through the middle part of the season this year again and once again enters the end of the season against a tough stretch of nationally-ranked teams. Virginia Tech is the first of those teams after having proven itself with its own brand of wins.

Both teams could use a statement win over the other, which is why this game is so important. It's the game that could turn both of these teams into swagger. It could drastically alter the attitude under Miami and West Virginia, and it could set up either team for a good run through the end of the season.

Boston College and Virginia Tech have never met on the gridiron before this week, and their matchup might seem weird for the Big East's new football configuration. This is an even game, though, and the matchup could turn into the next rivalry in this conference. I don't know where the future might lead them, but this could turn into the beginning of something, both for now and for the future.

Boston College Athletics

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