I love what King has done for our team. I'm a huge fan of King as a player and a leader. However I'm skeptical not of King but of the rest of the offense being able to continually rise to his level. On paper I would expect our offense to have many opportunities to make plays both rushing and passing but we will see. VT is coming off of a particularly embarrassing loss to Liberty and while a loss like that has the potential to ignite locker room tension, infighting and a loss of morale, I would expect and be prepared for them to be in a foul mood and be ready to play. VT will not need any extra motivation to play their best against us so I would expect for them to be sky high for this game at home in front of whatever number of fans are allowed to attend.
However most of what concerns me is on the defensive side of the ball. The hokies are the perfect example offensively of what our defense struggles against the most. They have an excellent RB who averages an insane # of yards per carry to go along with Hooker the QB who not only can hurt us on the ground but in the air as well. Our defense has made much lesser QBs look like the 2019 edition of Joe Burrow. I believe Hooker averages over 6 yards per carry in addition to his ability as a passer which may not be elite but is certainly more than adequate. In addition to this, VT has a formidable Offensive Line and their offense is built around a rushing attack that employs a great deal of misdirection with jet sweeps, reverses, counters, bootleg action, and draws. In short, everything our defense struggles against the most. Is our defense better than what we showed last Friday night? Yes I believe it is but I don't have much if any confidence in Blake Baker's ability to produce a game plan geared at using our strengths to shut it down or at least limit it to the best of our ability.
None of this is to say that I don't like our 2020 squad or that I'm not happy with what we have been able to accomplish thus far being 6-1. What I am saying is that until this team begins to show game to game consistency on offense in addition to showing a consistent identity on defense through the best use of personnel and scheme that every game remaining on our schedule will demand high levels of focus and preparation which to be quite frank I have not yet seen. The potential is there to go 10-1 in the regular season but we are not good enough to chalk any game up as a win much less an "easy win.". This is a very dangerous game and VT is favored by 2 for a reason. Vegas in general has always been very insightful in terms of talent level, intangibles and how those dynamics could play out in reality.
I can see us winning this game because I believe that Miami has a better team top to bottom. 56 points is not out of the question given what this offense has shown it to be capable of but I am inclined to think that a score like 56 to anywhere between 38 and 52 would be much more likely given what we have seen defensively so far. I think it is safe to assume that our defense will at some point want to make a statement about how good they are capable of playing. Personally, I would suggest that they attemp to make that statement this afternoon.