The Tailgate: Virginia Tech

I always liked to laugh at the differences between Boston College and Virginia Tech.

Only in college football, I said, could a private Jesuit university located in the heart of a major metropolitan city compete on an equal playing field with a public land-grant institution situated in the mountains near the West Virginia border. Students at BC, I laughed, easily travel through the city by utilizing a public transit system that's simultaneously breaking down on a daily basis, and anyone heading to Virginia Tech required an hour's drive from Roanoke along an east-west highway linking interstates.

I loved seeing Boston's skyline from my seats at Alumni Stadium, and I remember having conversations about how Blacksburg's 40,000 residents had a modest downtown area devoid of our skyscrapers. Maybe it was the difference between urban and rural that made it feel so extreme, but drawing those schools together made the verbal battles between fan groups feel that much more intense.

Virginia Tech wasn't BC's primary rival, but I circled that annual date on the calendar when the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference released their respective schedules. I knew I'd harbor healthy hate for the Hokies, and their fans couldn't wait to poke fun at city folks who found other things to do on a Saturday afternoon.

The rivalry was real to me, but constant realignment within college football pulled BC and Virginia Tech apart from one another despite their shared conference affiliation. First came the elimination of divisions and the installation of protected rivalries with Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Miami, but it wasn't until Cal, Stanford and Southern Methodist joined the league that an annual matchup against Virginia Tech - already on borrowed time - finally ended its cycle.

Perhaps it's fitting, then, that the Eagles and Hokies draw one on a Thursday night. The matchup that featured Michael Vick's 80-yard primetime run to the end zone later watched nationally ranked teams battle one another over a generation's worth of games. A winning streak during Virginia Tech's runs toward the national championship separates the overall record from one another, but the even, 3-3 split on Thursday night is more indicative of where this matchup is heading.

"Ther'es nothing better [than Thursday night]," said linebacker Kam Arnold. "We're going to be the only game [on television], so everybody's going to be tuning in. Guys are excited. I think we're going to be ready after having a Saturday off. Sometimes it's weird, seeing other teams playing when you're not playing, but I think it was cool to watch the other teams and learn from their mistakes and what they did in their games. That's where we can learn and take [things] over for our team."

We all know about Virginia Tech's home field advantage and the difficulty associated with playing before a sold-out crowd at Lane Stadium, but BC was a unique brand of kryptonite to the team's Thursday night dominance. For that reason - and so many other valid explanations - this matchup deserves a top billing before it sunsets into the ACC's new world. They won't meet again in Blacksburg and have just one scheduled game before the 2030 end of this round of scheduling. By the time they link back up, college football will likely look and feel very different.

So sit back and enjoy a last ride through the old Big East with the ghosts of 1993 and 1995. Enjoy a home-based tailgate with the spirits of 2006, 2007 and 2008. Remember the yore affiliated with the consecutive wins in 2013 and 2014 and the pre-COVID wins in 2018 and 2019. Relive the Red Bandanna, 17-3 bruiser from 2021.

And enjoy an annual rivalry one last time before it's transformed by the changing college football tides:

Here's what to watch for when Boston College plays Virginia on Saturday afternoon:

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Game Storylines (Ted Lasso Edition)

There's two buttons I never like hittin': panic and snooze.

Lane Stadium offers one of college football's more unique home field advantages because of its ability to generate noise in a confined, downward-angled space. Its capacity is only slightly larger than Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, but the 66,233 fans make it impossible to escape even the smallest or most mundane pregame tradition. They chant and erupt at the site of their hometown Hokies, but the mysticism surrounding their home environment is more about what it represents than actually dealing with it.

"It starts in practice," said offensive lineman Ozzy Trapilo. "We practiced our non-verbal cadences, and it's just about communication between the guys up front. We have to know what the cadence is, what the signal might be, all of that, and then really lock in because it gets loud there. But we've played there before. Most of us on the line have played in games there before, so it's really just coming out with good communication and being locked in."

BC worked this week on its silent cadences and communications, but dealing with a sold-out Lane Stadium isn't a foreign concept to O'Brien or his players. Former head coach Jeff Hafley memorably allowed offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti to pump heavy metal music into the Fish Field House speaker system ahead of the team's trips to Blacksburg, and Bill O'Brien coached in front of wild atmospheres at Penn State and Alabama around his time with the NFL's Houston Texans.

"You have to deal with it," said O'Brien. "You should embrace it, though. It's what college football is all about. It's a great atmosphere. They have a great fan base. They have a good football team, an excellent coaching staff, so we should embrace it. It's a big, big challenge to go down there, [and] we'll have ways to deal with the noise, just like everything that goes on there."

I think that you might be so sure a person is one thing, that sometimes you completely miss who they really are.

The best way to negate that crowd noise is, naturally, to send Virginia Tech into a spiral that negates one of the threats offered by quarterback Kyron Drones. A second-year starter after transferring from Baylor, he memorably eviscerated BC's defense last year to the tune of a 70 percent completion rate and a 6.8 per-carry rushing average. Finishing with 219 yards passing and 138 yards rushing, his two throwing touchdowns led a performance that doubled up the Eagles three years after dual-threat quarterback Hendon Hooker destroyed the defense for 40-plus points during the 2020 COVID season.

Natural conversation centers on how BC intends to remove dimensions from Virginia Tech's offense, but a more likely conversation is how to prevent Drones from multiplying into an on-field Swiss Army knife. In each of his three losses this season, an opponent removed a significant part of his game by limiting his ability to create havoc, but Vanderbilt, Rutgers and Miami each forced him into turnovers by individually removing his explosiveness. What he lost in rushing against the Commodores became a low completion percentage against both the Scarlet Knights and Hurricanes, but the danger then becomes likewise halting Bhayshul Tuten, who is averaging six yards per carry with nine touchdowns on the season.

"I think guys are getting a better understanding for how we need to play the defense," said Arnold. "We have a better understanding of our jobs and calls and coverages because we don't change a whole lot. So we're just learning and growing each week, and we're just getting better with each call, each coverage, each week."

Be curious, not judgmental.

Removing a quarterback's skills isn't necessarily about simply stopping him from moving the football, and both teams enter Thursday with the intention of using bend-don't-break defenses to halt opponents at their respective goal lines. Like BC, the idea of holding teams away from the end zone led the Hokies to forcing four turnovers inside its own 10-yard line over the past four games, and a separate turnover number totaling the 28th-most takeaways in the nation is a big step towards keeping anyone away from their dinner reservations for six.

"We have a lot of respect for their defensive line," said Trapilo. "It's a good group of players. We just have to make sure we bring good energy and study tape, know what they're going to do, know third down, and have good communication among our guys."

That said, relying on bend-don't-break defenses against offenses designed to gain first downs is a risky proposition, and BC's ability to create yardage is a big part of the Eagles' overall scoring prowess. Throughout the first half of the season, BC scored 19 touchdown drives when traveling 50-plus yards and separately scored all except for five of their touchdowns by eating at least two minutes away from the game clock. Eight touchdown drives required four minutes, and another eight drives went for nine-or-more plays with four recording 11-plus snaps.

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Question Box

What new wrinkles exist for Thomas Castellanos?

Castellanos returned to BC's lineup after missing the Western Kentucky game with an injury, but his performance against Virginia ended with two interceptions where storylines should have focused on how his 22-for-30 day produced 254 yards and two touchdowns. Winding up under the microscope owed itself to the 24 unanswered points in the loss, but the frustration from watching that game flatlined over the bye week as he continued healing from his one-week hiatus.

A fully healthy Castellanos is one of BC's most potent weapons, and how he attacks Virginia Tech's defense is a key watch point for Thursday night. Like the Cavaliers, the Hokies employ multiple fronts built by several hybrid positions, and causing confusion with masked schemes was a component long before head coach Brent Pry assumed command of the team. Mansoor Delane is especially strong in defending the pass, but his combination with Dorian Strong, Keli Lawson and Mose Phillips III offered a whole bunch of scheme options for defensive coordinator Chris Marve regardless of who is actually on the field on any given play.

How does BC adapt to the loss of Amari Jackson?

Losing Jackson removes one of BC's lockdown defensive backs from a scheme with eight interceptions in the first six games, but compensating for a lost player is exactly why defensive coordinator Tim Lewis is one of the most experienced and talented coaches in modern football. His third-ranked NFL defense from the 2001 Pittsburgh Steelers memorably produced 16 interceptions with one of the least-penalized units because of its ability to rotate the scheme around different personnel, and he was able to pair Chad Scott and Dewayne Washington with a scheme built around Lee Flowers, Brent Alexander, Deshea Townsend, Mike Logan and Myron Bell while utilizing a front seven with Earl Holmes, Joey Porter and Jason Gildon.

By 2005, he'd engineered a defensive turnaround with the New York Giants that laid the foundation for the 2007 Super Bowl championship team (::sobs::), and his 2012 secondary in Atlanta was part of the fifth-best defense in the NFL with 20 interceptions.

Bottom line - the scheme will hold because Lewis is the perfect coach to bring it forward.

When do I turn on the heat in my house?

It was 40 degrees on Wednesday morning, and I refused to turn on an oil burner that immolated my wallet during last winter's cold snap. We made the difficult decision to turn on the wall splits because we have children, but my wife remarked that my obsession with remaining cold made me a perfect fit for the offensive line.

FYI - my thermostat is currently 59 degrees because both kids are at school. My wife is wearing a thick sweatshirt under a fleece blanket. I'm in a t-shirt.

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Meteorology 101

Speaking of cold weather, travel on Wednesday landed in Blacksburg while temperatures barely scraped 45 degrees with overcast skies. Thursday's forecast called for high-50s with sunshine and minimal wind, but kickoff is scheduled for low-40s with temperatures hovering around freezing by the fourth quarter.

We are so back. Fall and winter are so here. Pumpkin spice everything, if you're up for it (I'm admittedly not).

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BC-Virginia Tech X Factor

Exit light. Enter night. Take my hand. Off to never never land. -Metallica

Yeah, yeah I know. I spent a solid section earlier discussing how Lane Stadium isn't a factor, but like most weeks, I'm throwing a swerve at myself and including it as probably the biggest key to winning the football game.

Besides becoming a notorious flip-flopper, I'll explain exactly why I think the stadium is such a big component. In talking about momentum last week, Bill O'Brien talked about how quickly shifting momentum really juices a crowd and keeps stadium energy levels at heightened levels. For any home team, pummeling a road opponent requires a hot stadium when things are going well, and a hot stadium stems from advantageous plays produced by the home team.

I think BC has an opportunity to really negate the home crowd with a couple of early strikes, and if the Virginia and Missouri games are anti-indicators, delivering knockout blows later in the game can end things before the fourth quarter. In both of those games, the Eagles struggled to put a team away after gaining a huge advantage. Start fast and finish quickly here, and the opposite hypothetically occurs.

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Dan's Non-Football Observation of the Week

I found myself sifting through my streaming apps for a new television show this week when I stumbled over HBO Max's Julia about the early production of Julia Child's The French Chef television show. Based in Cambridge, it explores the famous chef's beginnings and how her show aired on WGBH public access television in the Greater Boston area. I admittedly only lasted through the first couple of episodes before I wound up shifting to some murder mystery documentary, but one thing in the show caught my eye on a deeply personal level.

In the show, Julia visits a butcher shop called Savenor's. Located in Cambridge, it's been around since the 1930s and is still very much open near the area surrounding Harvard Square, but the filming location was in Malden, Massachusetts at a business located in Maplewood Square: Maplewood Meat Market. The same Maplewood Meat Market that my grandfather owned for decades ahead of my childhood.

Needless to say, I was pretty shocked to see my old neighborhood in an HBO show, but seeing the actual business where my dad and grandfather worked for their livelihood added a nostalgia that tugged at my emotional heartstrings. I was too young to fully embrace or remember the daily grind of owning a business by the time my grandfather, Norman, sold it and retired to work at a Market Basket meat department, but the stories, experiences and memories remained a major part of my entire life. To his dying day, I could always talk to my grandfather about meat - or hockey, more specifically about the old Boston Bruins - and my dad and I sat around the dinner table and shared old stories about his people pretty much whenever a holiday rolled around (not to mention that we literally just did that a couple of months ago).

I need to get back into that show just so I can see my family's old store, clearly.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

I do yoga with a group of women in their sixties. They've no idea who I am. It's twice a week, and it's really good for my core. - Roy Kent, "Ted Lasso"

I used Ted Lasso for a bulk of this week's coverage because it's one of the best shows ever written, but I'm furthering the cause by remembering how Roy Kent is one of the greatest characters - period, end of story, no questions asked. Beyond the television references, though, the show strikes a chord between the warm-hearted good nature of its characters and the right attitude towards sports.

Boston College lost its last game to Virginia because it forgot its identity in the second half of a football game. That doesn't mean BC lost its identity. In fact, I'd argue that it entrenched the reputation of a hard-nosed football team even deeper into the overall fabric of its game plan. Having received a 12-day recovery period with a bye week, the Eagles are back in action against an old opponent. How they play this game is a big part of reinforcing exactly what this team represents and what it wants from the remainder of the season.

Boston College and Virginia Tech kick off on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. from Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia. Television coverage is set for ESPN with noted studio host and Sportscenter anchor Matt Barrie on play-by-play coverage former Mississippi State and Florida head coach Dan Mullen handling analyst duties and Digital host and ESPN.com reporter Harry Lyles Jr. on the sidelines.

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Players Mentioned

Kam Arnold

Amari Jackson

Ozzy Trapilo