He played poorly against Wake. King's had a couple off games this year. Trevor Lawrence had a bad game or two. Everyone does.
You put way too much spin on stats. I've seen every VT game this year, and Hooker's a very good QB. He was good last year too. They run more than they throw, but that's because they run so well. They're absolutely NOTHING like GT under Johnson. Johnson tricked teams with an occasional pass. VT throws the ball in a designed passing game that isn't just verticals off play action after running the bone 15 straight plays.
Hooker will be a problem for us just like he was last year, but he's better this year. We don't defend the pass very well, and he won't have to be pinpoint accurate to expose us. Burmeister is NOWHERE NEAR the passer Hooker is. Not even in the same league. They ran with him because they had no other option. Hooker gives them a legit option in the throw game.
There are some stats that are worthless and some that aren't. If I said on Saturday games when the temperature is below 60 degrees and the moon is waxing gibbous, VT is 1-4, then yeah, I will have put too much spin on stats. The fact that VT is 1-3 against P5 opponents when Hooker throws for more than 200 yards is, however, a highly relevant stat. 4 games is a decent sample size and it shows an interesting trend. The more he's forced to pass, the higher the chances VT will lose. You think he's a better passer than I give him credit for? Ok, then why do they keep losing when a defense forces VT to pass? So far this season, he's played in five games, started four (he got the majority of the snaps in the UNC game too) this season. They've lost 3 of those 5 games. That's not an irrelevant stat either. D'Eriq King has had two bad passing games this season- against Clemson and Pitt; which happen to be the two best defenses in the conference (and he still threw for 4 TDs against Pitt). Hooker has had two bad passing games, UNC and Wake, which are both average defenses (Miami is better than UNC in ppg allowed)
I'm not suggesting Miami is going to blank VT. Of the three games they've lost this season, VT has lost two shootouts and got shut down by Wake. I don't think Wake's defense is that much better than Miami's but I get the mopes saying that it is. Chances are Miami probably gets into a shootout with VT. Fortunately, we don't have to shut them down, just make a few more stops than their defense does. I think that's not that tall of an order since it's been done multiple times to them this season by other defenses already. This isn't like Clemson where we needed two miracles- Miami's D had to stop their offense, and the Miami offense had to find a way to shred the Clemson defense. Miami's offense should have very little trouble moving the ball on VT. If you look at the VT boards, they admit their defense is pathetic and a victim of poor recruiting.
The Miami defense showed in the NC St game that the defense can turn it on when it wants to. Fortunately VT isn't one of those teams that Miami has a tendency to overlook like UVA or NC St., but the game isn't on a big stage like the Clemson game where they aren't mentally prepared to handle it. It's going to be a noon game in Blacksburg in a relatively empty stadium. My biggest hope is that the rumors of Diaz taking over the defense at NC St are true. If Diaz has seen the light, relegated Baker to second banana, and is taking over playcalling on defense I think the D will be plenty good enough to ensure that Miami wins a shootout with VT.
