Sunday, September 12, 2010

Boise State Can't Catch A Break: Virginia Tech Loses to I-AA Opponent James Madison

On September 6th, the match-up between the Boise State Broncos and the Virginia Tech Hokies was being billed as one of the premier games of the season.

Both teams were ranked in the Top 10, Boise at No. 3, and Virginia Tech was considered be just the quality opponent Boise needed to spruce up its BCS resume.

The game ended with Boise victorious, and the media frenzy around their legitimacy began to kick into high gear. This game was supposed to be proof to the nation that Boise State was not just some small conference school from the WAC, but a legitimate player in the BCS—it proved, once and for all, that the Broncos were "for real".

Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the BCS party, that big win over Virginia Tech in week one started to accumulate question marks. As predicted, the requisite doubts about the quality of the Virginia Tech team Boise State played began to come into question.

Was Virginia Tech they really that good? Should they honestly have been ranked in the Top 10? The Hokies made a nice comeback, but their overall play wasn't really all that impressive—was it? Wasn't this just a case of the Broncos taking advantage of a team that should have been considered in rebuild mode?

If you are a Boise State fan, all of the above probably sounded like more excuses.  Just a few more justifications for why a BCS team didn't perform, and why Boise State will never be good enough to be considered a major player.

Heck, even Nick Saban (Alabama's head coach), went on his radio show to talk about how a team should be judged by their body of work, not just a couple big games here and there—tsk, tsk, tsk.

The debate rages on about Boise's legitimacy but one question has been answered in a fairly resounding way about the opponent they faced September 6th— in Virginia Tech—and that answer is they simply aren't very good.

As a follow-up to their last second loss to Boise in week one, the Hokies went out and laid an egg against James Madison—in Blacksburg! James Madison, in case you don't know, is a I-AA team. They play in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) and they ended last season with a 6-5 record.

Virginia Tech scored 16-points against them on Saturday (wrap your head around that for a moment). Tyrod Taylor and company couldn't manage more than 16-points against a Division I-AA team, at home, just one week removed from playing one of the biggest games of the season—pathetic.

People can call it a letdown for a team that was still smarting over such a disappointing loss to Boise, on such a major stage.  Fine, we can buy that for a dollar and a nice pair of BCS boxers but, in the end, it's all BS because what viewers will see is an overrated Virginia Tech team that was prematurely billed as a quality opponent.

How will this affect the Boise State BCS train? Hard to say, but it doesn't look good right now.

Here's a look at the catastrophe that was Virginia Tech in week two—does this look like a Top 10 team to you?


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