Know the Enemy: Boston College

0:30 Music. And welcome back to the Boundary Corner Podcast with my partners, Brian Siegler and Jonathan Talley. I'm Curtis Wilson, and this episode is brought to you by. Doctor Jeremy Katz down at the Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg. Your friendly neighborhood pharmacy, 301 S Main St. in Blacksburg. Fellas, it's been a rough weekend. How's everybody doing? Still pissed I'm living. I woke up the the the food tasted like shit, but I'm still here, so.

1:20 Food tasted like shit, but you're still here. What? Food tastes bad after the loss, man. Whoa. Everything with no loss. A little while. I want the ass kicking as. The ass with it. We got our ass drilled, We got. Crushed by Louisville, which we are going to definitely get into tonight. Don't worry about that. Y'all. We also are going to take a look at the Boston College game because this becomes a very pivotal game in the Hokies chances of making it to a bowl this season. So we're going to talk about that, know the enemy, breakdown, some of their players and some stuff. But before we get into all that tonight, let's talk about hoop season starting last night. Let's start with some bright spots and let's start with the men's first as they take care of Coppin State 155. Just an absolute thrashing from beginning to end. And I don't know how much y'all got to see. It was a Monday night, things going on. We all got lives.

2:17 What were y'all's takeaways from it, Ron? What was your first take away from it, man? I mean I I like the depth I'm seeing so far like out the gate I'm seeing a lot more depth, you know a little bit better in the front court, a little bit better in the back court too. So I think overall I like what I'm seeing so far. I like the, the addition of Nickel having an an extra sharpshooter out there. You know, you throw in Rex Steiner too, I mean. That's that's a good combo to have out there that can shoot the three nickel kind of score from a bunch of different spots. So that's going to be a good off the bench 1-2 punch for us. Just kind of looking forward to see how they progress in jail as the as the season goes along.

3:05 Let you tell. I know you were at your son's game watching him hoop it up, but obviously I'm sure you checked out highlights, did some reading, did some stat watching. What do you think? Yeah, kind of like what Brian said. I mean, the depth on the team was. A good thing looks like everybody who who got in and scored, which is always good. Of course when you blow somebody out, you know, so everybody got in and got to get, you know, get a bucket. Team looks bigger. You got people coming off the bench with some size and depth and you got some veterans You don't. You don't. It's not just young players. You know, when you seem to run a system like Mike Young, you got to have some veteran leadership because. I mean, you're not going to get five stars just coming in, coming in, you know, ready to play. So having some of those players that are transferred in, veterans have been, you know, seniors or juniors definitely helps.

4:03 Especially when you're trying to play for something like, you know, getting into the tournament or if you do get to the tournament, you know going deep into the tournament having. Somebody who's kind of been there and seen some different things helps. So good balance of old and young players. Yeah, I'm with y'all on both of that. And Brian, you mentioned him earlier, me and Tally were talking about. Tyler Nickel, There's a reason. Tyler Nickel, So many records here in the state of Virginia. There's a reason Carolina wanted him so bad and the way he looked coming off the bench, I mean his his stat line last night was 4 for 9 from the field, 12 points. He grabbed seven boards, had a block.

4:46 And Tyler, you said it just second ago. We looked. Bigger. We looked bigger between him. Kidd looked bigger than he did last year. We going to get there, Eric, That's our as as one of our buddies, Eric there chiming in. Eric, we're going to get there. Got to give us a little while. Got a lot to talk about. We look bigger, we look more physical. Between Beran, Kidd, Obviously Padula, Collins and Couture Older along with Poteet. And Long and I was telling Tally. I think that this team, I mean it's great to see all of all, all 11 guys score that played last night. It's great to see that. It really is.

5:27 But I sit here and with the starting five, as long as we can get something every game out of Poteet, Long and Richtensteiner, along with nickel, again, quality minutes, they ain't got to go out there and score 15 points a game. But it's go in there and be effective. The team can do a lot. But let's be realistic, Callie, you were looking up there. You were saying it's going to be on ACC Network. We did not get a test this early against a division, a Power 5 opponent, but we get to play South Carolina on. Thursday or excuse? Me Friday night, I don't know much about them. I'll be honest. If you know y'all, I'm sure David Cunningham's writing something up, but I think getting a test that early. What do you need to see from on Friday night, both of y'all? I let Tally go.

6:19 Brian, go ahead. Well, I'll go. I mean, mainly for me, man, when it comes to basketball, I'm always like, I don't care about all the fluff on the schedule until you get the ACC play. You know, when you talk basketball, when you get the conference wins or conference games, everything's a little bit different. Everything's a little bit more intense. So we have been starting the season kind of like you said, Curtis Whit. A lot of teams and looks like, oh, we're rolling and then next thing you know you hit some Power Five type teams and then you start to get into ACC play and things just fall apart or you start seeing the true team come out. So I don't know much about South Carolina, but I do know that there's South Carolina there, SCC opponent, you know, and it's the second game of the season.

7:02 So it's going to show you, you know, a little bit and it's, I don't want to say it's going to show you what team you have, but it's just good to see it early in the season. You know what I'm saying? For better or worse, you got something to build on because I feel like we were kind of riding high last year until we played with College of Charleston on somebody weird. And next time, you know, you start seeing some inefficient play in that loss and some things that people kind of took advantage of. So playing against a team that's probably, you know, similar in size and skill, Again, don't know a lot about South Carolina, but you know. Know they're probably going to have some size and some skilled players.

7:42 You know it's going to show us kind of what we what we got for the year and what we can make adjustments and things like that. Matt, you Ron. Yeah, I agree. I think this is going to kind of be that that early test kind of similar to what we saw from Penn State last year. Hopefully that's not a a 40 minute grind fest like that game turned out to be, and then obviously. You know what we did against college at Charleston I like Tally was saying after that so but I think it's a good test like like he said there's going to be some size they should have some decent guard play that we'll need to get used to as we get into conference play because I think when we got into conference play last year any team with guards they they really gave us some fits we we we didn't show up the way we did two defensively against those type of teams so and we see better play on that front. 100% and and it's good. South Carolina but it's not just South Carolina because then we got Boise.

8:39 Boise was a tournament team last year. Don't forget that. And then we play Auburn who was the number two seed last year in the ACCSEC Challenge later on this month. So I think it's what Y'all said earlier last year it took five games and then we play College of Charleston, who was a good team, who did make the tournament, if I can don't recall, or if they were one of the better teams in the So Con and that that that messed us up. Penn State wasn't that there were an OK team last year. Here we're probably going to get you're getting again AP5 in again, AP5 in South Carolina, and then two teams that made the tournament and Boise and Auburn over the last five years have made the tournament consistently. You know they're good teams and there's your barometer.

9:20 Go in and beat those two teams. Maybe we feel something different, but maybe not. All right, let's flip off that and let's go over to the ladies side because they also played both in Castle for those who are in Blacksburg. I mean back-to-back games in Castle with the ladies #8 ranked who take care of the high point Panthers 9455. And I mean this, this, this. Similar to the men this wasn't a game after the first half. It did. It didn't even feel that close because, I mean, they jumped. They really jumped on them in that first quarter and just kind of wrote it out after that. Yeah, Liz was good as always.

10:02 But having one extra shooter on the floor, they've got a shooter everywhere. Then they got Liz in the post. That's going to be hard because you can't double team Liz all the time like teams were doing last year. Liz is a monster, man. I mean, she's just a 20. I think she had 2711, something like that. Yeah, it's just 12 or like 12 or 17 shooting. It's like. Oh, Andretti back. I'm about to get on. I'm about to get on him later. Welcome back, Andretti. But yeah, Liz and the postman, it's going to be a nightmare for most teams that they play.

10:42 And every year is different. You know what I'm saying? Like during the summer, you're going to get better, you're going to jail, you're going to get worse, whatever. You can see it in. In LSULSU came out and got the heads beating. And really, in the first game now I don't put it put it on him. So you know it's not just. Oh, well, this team's going to win it. We, you know, you got to go play. So to see a star come out like she did against a inferior team and just go and dominate and do what she's supposed to do, you know, that's what I expected. But it's good to see. Yeah, I think she made her first nine shots or something from the, yeah. Some crazy she was. 12 She scored 27 points, I mean 27 and 11 was the stat line. But y'all y'all make the point of Brian. You made the point about having the out the additional shooters because you had them more.

11:29 You got King and now you've got a few others that can K who can light it up. But take a look at Olivia Sumal stat line. 20 minutes played. She only had a couple points, four points grabbed, eight boards blocked a shot. She's a six, two. She's listed as a guard, but at six, two again, it's that whole piece of we. Need a more? Physicality, right? That's what lost us at LSU game was having the physicality. We wore down. We wore down late. In between Michelle and her, they both grabbed eight boards. That's big. That's big because the whole thing, what that means is what you said.

12:10 Kitley is a beast, and now Kitley doesn't have to go in and fight and claw all the time on the interior. We know she can do it, but there's some games it's going to be like. We got to save her because we're going to need those baskets in the fourth quarter now. Now they've got you won't talk about a monster game, Monster game 8 versus 2 in Charlotte Thursday night versus Iowa and Caitlin Clark, I mean I was discussing with Brian here, you watched it. You going to watch the NFL game, you can watch the ladies hoops games because. And there's bears. Fuck the NFL game. It's. Bears Panther If you're not a fan of either team, it doesn't matter it.

12:52 Doesn't matter unless you're gambling or maybe you got somebody in fantasy on there just want to see Khalil Herbert run or something. But like, I mean you you won't talk about Barometer that's going to tell the story for both those teams real early in this season? Right. Yeah, we're going, we're going to see how how much that mix up is working for this team obviously I think. We have a little more gelling to do than they probably do just with you know some of the holes that we're plugging true. But when you look at it, having having Liz in the post, having a more that can get her own shot and then having three other three-point shooters on the team that can stretch the floor and give Liz those one on ones.

13:37 You know what? I I I think we're going to give them some problems. I know Caitlin Clark is a beast, but I think we're going to give them some problems. We'll see and. Obviously, probably, definitely going to have a home court advantage down in Charlotte. Tons of Hokies if y'all hadn't seen it, a bunch of people you know in a Charlotte area, you're going to be there. It's not a long drive from Blacksburg either, so I expect that to be a hokey leaning crowd. All right, one more thing to talk about before we get into football here and let's talk about probably. I don't know. You can argue between women's hoops or men or wrestling, which is the bigger national power right now. Wrestling opened up this week with the Southeast open, which was down in the New River Valley area. Y'all know I had a tight text up our buddy David Fuqua. Me and him got back and forth because I knew it was happening. I knew he's paying attention at it like crazy. 5 Hokies took wins in it.

14:32 Four of the freshman or sophomore variety, he explained to me. In this tournament, every year you have your basic or you have all the weight classes, but there's also a freshman, sophomore stuff so that the younger guys get out there and compete. We took four of those. Kayla Penson, who's obviously a beast upon himself, you know, made podium last year at the national finals. He won his bracket. Sam Fisher. Who was, I believe, a younger guy last year? He finished second. The only guy that beat him was a #3 ranked player or #3 ranked wrestler in his weight class in the country for Oregon State. So that's a good start for that kid.

15:13 What? Dave's a little bit concerned about with future. A little bit concerned about is Sam. Latona got knocked out in the semis. He finished third place. Sam obviously did some big stuff last year, but. I asked him, I was like, well, how do you feel? He's like, overall this is a really good showing and for what we did, especially with the younger guys coming up. And then I asked him about Ohio State because that's a big one Friday night. And Castle, I'm sure Castle will be packed. I'm not sure if it's on ACC Network or anything but. The. Explanation was this, and I'm going to read it here from David earlier the season. Wrestling will not put stress on players. If you were slightly nicked, don't matter. Get healthy.

16:01 So what? He said. This could be. And I know I'm doing a lot of talking here. I literally got me and him have a conversation for like 20 minutes. I got a whole bunch of stuff here for wrestlers. March matters. Getting there matters too. You've got to win. You can't just sit out all season. But if you're banged up, there ain't no need to go out there and stretch your body. Stress it out. What he did say and this is his opinion and we're going to try to have David on sometime between now and the end of the year just to give us some highlights on it. But it's the deepest we've ever been. You know we're we're fourth in the country right now and in most of the polls and what?

16:45 He said Friday night. Hodgepodge. You guys only full, only fully healthy guys going. You know, Tally, You were joking in here. You don't know much about wrestling. You said you've watched. We probably need to go get some of them wrestling guys to get on the football team. They taking people down. We wasn't fucking tackling nobody, so we might need to get some of them wrestlers to come out here and show us how to tackle or just put some uniforms on. So that's the only part I know now I know a little about wrestling but I didn't get to watch any of the match, so that's why I was saying I didn't really, I didn't really, you know, pay attention to the first match. But I will be tuning in on on Friday. Checking some of that out, definitely. Paying attention to it, Brian, you got anything on this? I know you did one season of wrestling. I.

17:29 Did I did one season of wrestling in high school? Just for leverage. Right. What's that? Helps with leverage, right? It does. It does. It helps with conditioning, too. You can make it through a wrestling season. Football season ain't nothing, man. We might have a Fuqua and get Jason on our our Music guy. Officially, he made a video today. His gig season's over because he's got to start assistant wrestling coaching this. Week So. We're going to definitely be paying attention to it again with all the stuff we've got going on, I let. Him slide that it was country roads. I let it I let it slide. I I did know about Virginia. I, I said, I said, You know, you got you got a song that's mentioning West Virginia.

18:15 Written while driving through western Maryland, About for geography of Western Virginia. So it's true. John Denver was high as hell when he wrote that song, clearly not even a joke. All righty. Well, you know, it was nice talking about some positive vibes from Hokie Nation, but we got to tell the truth to. You here, we. Go we need we need to have some sound effects because clearly when we have good times we going to show you all at least a few highlights from the game. We need to have some sound effects. But let's tell the truth Tuesday and boys, I mean let's talk about what went well, because in my opinion, you name it, it probably didn't go well. What went well?

18:57 I got one thing. All right, one. Thing What's that? The scoring streak continues. We didn't get shut out. Didn't get shut out. That's the only. Good thing I can pull out of that tape. I'm proud of you for for thinking of that, because I didn't never even think of that. It's pretty good bro, either. I think of it. Only thing that I had good that went good was I didn't go to fucking Louisville. I. Saved my money. I had a. Bad fucking feeling. I saved my money, kept that in my pocket, and I didn't take my ass to Louisville. Because you know how pissed I would have been if I'd have went to that game? We've got drug like that.

19:39 I'd have been like Andretti. I'd have been on here talking crazy well. You also probably would have been hammered too, with all that bourbon that was been flowing. Oh yeah. Yeah, I did. I would have got on space. Saturday night and you were on space Saturday night. It would have been, it would have been bad. All right. So real quick, real quick all. Right. So emotion, we're done with what went well. Let me move on. Yes, we're good. We're good. That, that's it. That's it. Tally saved money and we didn't get shut out. That's it. So y'all, let's let's get to it, because it ain't no, it ain't no sugar what went bad. And I'm going to tell y'all, we get into some of the technical stuff.

20:19 The way I felt watching that game was we legitimately got outclassed every single phase. It was felt like every single play of the game. I think they had Connor Stallions on their sideline, man. You. Saying they stealing plays. It looked like you got the gate, man, didn't it? Shit. Oh man, it was. Well, look. At the first play, I mean, but what do you think, Brian? What's some of the stuff that just went real bad, and why do you feel it went bad? Pass protection was awful, and what they did was that they sent a lot of, well time blitzes. They slanted into our uncovered and made them have to make a decision.

21:05 We didn't do a very good job communicating and making those decisions, and we had free guys running at the quarterback way too damn often. All right. Charlie man, I don't even know where to start. Did. You let me go because we got a big list here. That's. What I'm saying it's just whatever, whatever you think about with bad, with bad, man, it was just the main thing for me. That I think went bad was just our game plan. I don't think that our game plan was. Well. Thought out. I don't know what the fuck we did last week. And I'm saying we as a collective. Coaches, players, equipment, staff, cheerleaders, the band, the four cadets, fucking Jeremy at the AT Jeremy. You got to do a better job of getting people Tylenol. Because it looks like we had.

21:55 Fucking headaches out there, I don't know what. I don't. Know, but the game plan was totally not what I expected it to be and we'll get to that a little bit later. But it was it was awful since you since you brought Jeremy to this. I I got to see Jeremy on Saturday just before kickoff. Just before kickoff. And and he had a he had a new ritual that he was trying out because he had learned, apparently that when he doesn't hammer Jameson before a game and he's not hammered off his ass, we've started winning more. So he was he was drinking light beer and not Jameson at the bar. Well, I'm glad we fucking lost drinking light beer.

22:37 That's what happens. Get back on that Jameson. He'll go back shots all night. You got to start early. We play at 12 this week. Oh man, that man going to be in all sorts of trouble. Well, Callie, you you made a point. I'm going to jump on it real quick here about the game plans. It it didn't look good. But what what always makes me more worried that you know what if if they just scouted you good and you thought hey this is going to work and it doesn't work. I just felt like we were just slow to slow to adjust on the sides of the balls. And I know early that was some execution, right. It was them doing stuff. But Brian, you said it a few minutes ago, the kind of stallions thing, they look like this is how we're going to attack and. And it led to the bad pass protection, the ineffective run game tally.

23:24 You texted us and it's like, can we just run the quarterback? We finally did. It took to the middle of the second quarter. Why? Go ahead? No. It's just when I'm texting, y'all I'm saying, we're watching the game. Honestly, I'm going to be very candid with what I feel. Yes. I feel like the coaching staff didn't believe we could win the game, so they say it. We're going to go out and we're going to protect everybody that we can protect. I don't know if you have some people banged up. I don't know if of course you do. It's football. But it's like there was like drones. We got to protect you. We got the rest of these games that we can win. We just want to make sure that, you know, we can get through these games, we can get to Boston College, we can get to back home and we can get to UVA. So we start dropping back.

24:12 No, that's not what we're good at. We haven't done that good all year. You know, we start out by moving the quarterback, moving the pocket, running the quarterback. And like you said, we didn't do that till the second-half and then we start moving the ball. You know, two had 60 yards at halftime and then we stopped going to what works, you know? Again, I know they made adjustments and Louisville's a good team. They're a little bit better than I anticipated them being, but I don't think they were 34 to 3 better than us. You know it's. Just game plan execution. US coming out flat looking scared, no life from coaches.

24:53 From what I can see on TV. It was just a lot of stuff, man. And it was it was disheartening to watch because we watch these, we watch this team week after week and we study and we go back and look at tape that wasn't the same team that we've seen playing. Then people say, Oh well, you know, we play different at home and we was getting fucking fucked up at home. For a long time, it ain't just like we've been a great home team. We won a couple of home games. We had started seeing progression. The team had started progressing every week, you know, and people say, oh, well, we just beat up on bad teams. The bad teams was fucking us up. We've been getting beat by bad teams.

25:34 So it's not a excuse. It's just you started seeing progression and then we took a huge step back, you know what I'm saying? When that part was like, very, very. Disheartening and it just makes you angry to watch, man. It's like you don't want to go back and watch tape. You don't want to go back and because you see everything going wrong. I know Brian was probably like me. When you go look at some of the steps and people crossing your face and it's like we just look lost, you know it was it was horrible. They got, they got punched in the mouth and they just didn't know how to counterpunch like. And that's coaching staff, that's players, that's everybody. And I mean, when we look at it like it was just, it was frustrating to watch because, you know, from a game plan perspective, both script and adjustments, that's the worst game.

26:24 Yeah, we've seen from Tyler Bowen since Rutgers. And really, you could even go back to Purdue. You want to go. You want to go back to the last two seasons that might have been the worst in the last two seasons. It. Was bad. Like see? Like go back to last year and think. I don't think there was anything that where it looked like they were completely ready for us and we had no quick counters and and you know. Then you had the procedural penalties, which I know you both of. Y'all will say that's that happened early. It was loud there, but that's also probably that confidence. Things like Brian, you said it numerous times, you jump because you know that guy's going to beat you.

27:06 Yeah. Well, you just got to start people. People start whooping on your ass and talking that shit to you. You start thinking about it and jumping off sides and getting scared and moving around. So it was just, it was it was a bad showing all around you thinking about getting beaten. So the thing about doing your job. That's true. Now, a couple other things. I mean, you know, defense, not a great game either. I mean, it was, you know, we didn't. Finish. This was the first probably time. Probably. Maybe Rutgers? Like we didn't finish because in the Marshall game we were finishing a few times. We just is what it is. We didn't finish when we had one sack after 15 in the last two games.

27:47 And then probably the most upsetting part to me watching it was the regression back on the run fits. Because even the Florida State game, yeah, they broke 2/1 was a bad fit. The other guy just beat us. But it it had been since Marshall since we saw that. Right. Play after. Play. Play after. Play. And now. Now to our credit, we only gave up one huge, huge run, right? So maybe not a full aggression, but what do you what do you think? I mean don't even look at it was it was the IT was the small gashes the the ones that are really kind of kill you too because not only are you getting giving up yards, but you're staying on the field and all that stuff too. So you're getting worn down and that's that's what we saw with of the second-half and how the that score kind of ballooned on us a little bit, you know, especially the way we kind of opened that second-half.

28:41 If it and it felt like that second-half opening score was kind of when every bit of life that was still left in the team kind of went away, right like it, it just looked like they were going through the motions the rest of the way. And I mean, I get it, but I mean it's still you know A3 score game, you get you, you turn around you get a touchdown you're right back in it. But I think just confidence wise, they they were shot at that point and you know I don't know how much of the the run fit. Like I said, it still wasn't awful, but. You know how much of that is Strowman? Not really playing A whole lot. And we might not have him this week too. So it's hard to tell if that's something that's going to be a symptom of that's creeping back on us for the rest of the year, or if that's just kind of a one off because of who we were playing, because of who we didn't have available. We'll see.

29:35 I'm. I'm hoping to see better this week at BC, but that doesn't inspire confidence, no? Man, it's just like we didn't have the the We can talk about coaching, we can talk about coordinators, we can talk about uniforms. The team didn't have no fight. Like I seen Louisville pushing our guys around. The fucking stupid ass commentator with the ugly haircut kept talking that shit. Oh, Louisville is hitting, they're, they're hitting. Oh, I think two was returning to kick and he got hit. He got popped or something and they just made such a big deal out of it. But I seen none of our guys like bow up, fight back. You know, like we have been scrapping with people. Somebody get in our face, we push them off like.

30:17 You know what I'm saying? We just didn't have none of that. We just getting hit and it's just, oh, everybody just kind of getting up. It was like just went in with no fight, no heart, no effort. So that is a player thing. But that's a like Robbie was in here earlier talking, you know, I think he said, you know, sometimes that happens in coaching, but a coach has to see that and has to rally his troops, you know what I'm saying? You know, stop pumping them up. When you get somebody on the ground, leave them down. Now help your own teammates up like we in a dogpipe. Be friends after it's over. We just didn't mindset, so I haven't seen that in a lot of games this year like that.

30:59 That's. I mean, no, that this is the game, yeah. Like I haven't seen and. And I think, let me flip to this real quick. Yeah, go. Ahead that's. Something I'm guessing you weren't prepared for because the other eight games we played all year, Rutgers. I mean, I'm thinking with the losses, Rutgers, Marshall, Purdue, Florida State. We. Fought those games? Yeah, you punch back. At least that kind of shocked you. Like, that's your big shock. Like, what are we doing? Yeah. It was just that the no fight, like you said, skipping over to what I wasn't prepared for. I was prepared for Louisville to be a good team, you know, and even us talking, I said I don't know if we win, but I didn't think it was going to get beat by 30 points.

31:41 You know what I'm saying? I thought we would at least cover. I think that that it was 10 points when we first started out. I thought, man, they may get us by 10, they may get us by 7-8. No, wrong. It was it was nothing. And it wasn't nothing they did. That was so their number one receiver was out. They didn't do anything great. Curtis had something that kind of threw him by surprise, but he said he wasn't prepared for with the quarterback. So I'll let him talk about that and then go back on it. What'd you say about that? Well. Plummer. Brian looked at the tape and Plummer was like a last option Resort was to run Plummer and Plummer had five for 25 and they were, they were like one was an 11 yard run on like third down and it was just like, are you kidding? Then he got like 5 in four in six, and it's just like you're sitting here and it's just like, I hated that because the expectation was he's not going to do anything with his legs and I don't know if it was all aggressiveness. But they knew it, and they took advantage of it early. And what happens when a guy who doesn't run runs a few times early nearby?

32:45 His eye starts looking. They don't trust themselves, but. You know, what's he doing? You know what it felt like to me. It felt like they watched our tape and said, oh, they got something that works. We're going to do it. They they look what their game plan was, was what I thought our game plan was going to be. You know, moving, not even saying that the quarterback has to run so much, but just that little bit of effectiveness that he had, like you say, it started shifting people's eyes one way or the other and things like that. And it's just that's when the run fits get off, you know, that's when we start having some problems. But that's what we've been doing. That's why people was having problems with us. We just didn't go to it. It's true, yeah. I mean the thing I I'd really say is how badly we tackled in space.

33:34 Like there was a there was a lot of missed tackles and we hadn't really seen that many missed tackles the last month month and 1/2. So I wasn't ready for that. I I I was not expecting us to be that poor in our execution in the tackling. So that that's that's one of those things where you know a three yard game becomes the first down or the three yard loss becomes A5 yard gain and now they're you know on a good cadence for their for the down and distance and they can have the full playbook at their disposal on second and third down. So it it that's what really frustrated me is because coming off a game where we got off the field with regularity, we could not get off the fucking field, no.

34:18 We. Could not get off the field and that was probably again very disappointing for us. But let let's flip it because like we we went through the bad. We talked about it right at 20 minutes here about the bad but what do we got to do better moving forward. And before we go, before we have these other three points tally, I, I, I jumped on the space where you were on Don be making some points and you got to talk about the road mentality thing because it's an issue now. It is a serious issue. We are one and nine under the staff. We are now O and three this year, no O and four this year. Right. O and four, yeah, O and four. O and four this year. What has to change because I I I. Listened to you talk about 5 minutes. Yeah.

35:04 So real quick for the people who who don't work in on the on the space after the game. I was just talking about, you know as a athlete, high school. For me it's much different from college. But I I started there, so I'm talking about. When you're home, you got certain rituals, You know, that's just for you being home, you know, for me. I came on the field. We warmed up. I would come out just my, you know, my pants on, you know, my undershirt, my helmet. I got my I always put my gloves on my mask and I would walk the field and my mom and grandma sat on the opposite side.

35:47 They would sit on the opposite side because at our field in high school. The visitor side was the old side, so it was made out of like stone. So the seats were wider. You could, you know, you could fit your butt on those seats a little bit better. So the home side was the newer side where it had more seating, but they were more of the, you know, the silver bleachers, you know, my mom was like, I don't like them, I'm going to sit on this side. So she always sit on the opposite side, on the, on the, on the opposing side. So I would walk the field. You know, do my listen to a little bit of music. And I would always go to my mom and my grandma. They come up to the to the fence and lean over. I give my mom a kiss and, you know, talk some crap with my grandma and then I start getting to my, you know, game ritual stuff.

36:35 But my mind was starting to work and I played that in my head every home game. So what you got to do as when you go on the road, you can still have rituals. They're just not going to be your same home rituals. My son is in sports now. He's playing basketball. The first game we went, I mean Halloween, we went and played some country, country white boys. That's about an hour and 15 minutes away in a place called Hartzell. And these little boys can bawl like they're just very fundamental. They country, so they lie out and they just in your face when they get a trap, they're yelling, screaming and they dominated us, you know? So my son asked me after the game. You know, my son's a pretty good athlete in everything he plays, you know, so he he's a pretty good basketball player. He's almost about 6 foot, you know, with his hair. He's about 6-1.

37:26 So playing guard, he's left-handed, so he can do a lot of things that some of the other kids can't do. But he got held scoreless. I've never seen him be held scoreless. And he said I just, I was overwhelmed, you know, just having a real talk with him. He said the crowd was loud, the boys was loud, that coach was loud. You know, I feel like the refs weren't giving us calls. What can I do when I go on the road to be better? I said, well, you know what, I got to help you because you're reaching out to me, asking me. So I started sending them some little motivational stuff. Before the game, I sent him three points. Now because he's played two other home, two other away games. After that, I sent him three points, you know, kind of use the sandwich thing, I'd say.

38:07 And when I say the sandwich method for him and I give him something. The kind that he needs to work on something he's great at and then another thing he needs to work on. So it's not like I'm just saying hey, you got to be at this so I may be like, OK, you got to rebound better this game. Last game you had six. I need you to try to get 10. You know, second point may be, hey, you scored great, just keep doing that And the third one may be, hey, you had five turnovers, you got to cut those down. So I say all that to say the coaches have to step in and get these kids ready for Rd. mentality. Whatever they They know those players better than we do. You got to know what those rituals are, that they need some of the things that you see them doing at home.

38:49 You got to take that on the road. You got to tell them maybe if you see somebody eating Jolly Ranchers before the game, give them a Jolly Rancher like you got to dig into them. You got to get your best players moving. We can't wait till the second-half to get going. So that road mentality has to get better and it's it 100% starts with coaching. Players have to play and players have to be ready, but. Players are going to take on the mindset of their coaches. So these coaches have to get them ready and the coaches got to be ready too. You know that that they're, they're all new. They have to get ready. You know, you leaving, you getting on the road, you leaving your family, you being on a bus, you being on a plane. You know what I'm saying? You may didn't get to sit down and drink your bourbon that night, whatever the case may be, you got to get ready for this road game.

39:34 So. I think I went on a little bit of a rant there, but I like that, I like that. And you're right, A. Lot, man. Brian you know, I mean, shit, you know, you've been, you've been involved in those rituals and road games and home games, so I'll toss it to you and let you talk a little bit. Yeah. You cannot approach a road game the same way you do a home game from a mentality standpoint, because when you're on the road, especially against the team that on paper is better than you, you've got to set the tone out the gate. And if you're not coming out there with that fire in your ass, ready to set that tone, it's going to be a long game. We've seen it at FSU. They jumped out to US 2022, nothing.

40:16 We saw it at at Louisville where it was 14, nothing right out the gate, 14, three and a half time. You know, we were struggling to kind of hang on to that. And then Will was completely broken when we came out of Locker. We've got to find a way of preparing and getting the guys ready to go out the gate a lot better in these Rd. situations. The only one I've seen that's really come out with some fire was Marshall, and we crapped that away because we went ahead and went away from what was working in that game. But I I need to see it. We we we need to approach these Rd. games with that road mentality that Tally's talking about. You can't just have that same even keel mindset that you do with the home game.

41:01 You've got to approach it with a different kind of fire because you got to bring a little bit more of your own juice because at home you the the fans are going to bring the juice. You're jacked up, you got family in town. All these things that you do is what you normally do when you hit the road. Every week is different, so you got to be able to bring your own juice in a different way. And I haven't seen us do that, at least not consistently yet. I'm hoping that we see it this week at BC Well. It's it's a big week at BC because we say what can we do better being before goals are still in front of us, the goals are still in front of us. I mean, one goal is getting more than three wins. We got there already. That seemed like a victory among itself to get to 4, but we still got that. But to me, what I bring on this, what we got to do, move better, being forward.

41:48 That team can't show up on the fucking field again this year and I don't give a damn if it's at the road or home. Because if. That team shows up against any of these last three opponents. We are not winning those games, no. We. Look like shit. We look like we didn't want to play. Now. What I what I hope today helps us move better going forward. I don't know if y'all caught this in a prize interview, basically grants back it pretty much. He can play. But he said we're basically, this is Kyron's offense, this is Jones's offense. Basically, it's it. This is him. Maybe that's a shot to get the whole team ready. Maybe. Maybe something weird happened last week in practice with with Grant Wells back.

42:31 We don't know that. So yeah, anything else for Y'all going forward that we got to do better. And I know we we said this a lot, but anything sticks out. I got to communicate in the Office of Line better because that that was a big problem. Louisville brought some different types of pressure that we hadn't seen a lot this year, and we got very flustered and it became a big problem. The biggest problem we've had holding up up front since the first month of the season. So that's got to get better. I'm awful. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If we're doing something on offense that's working, stop trying to fix it. Just just go with it.

43:16 You know? We understand that Tootin is a hell of a running back. I know he may be nicked up sometimes. He's going to tell you when he can't go, but in that first, in that first half, he was moving the ball, you know, and some people say, well, we couldn't run inside. He was running where he wanted to. You know, he was coming off the tackle, he was coming between tackle and guard. He was beating people to the outside. Again, you can't have 60 yards in the first half. And then I think he may have ended the game with 50 yards, you know what I'm saying? He lost yards in the second-half, which is. I understand that that's adjustments. But when you have a player like that, you got to at least get him going, you know, So I had a basketball coach that used to always say weather to storm whenever we would play away. He coached much different than he did at home. You know that first quarter basketball is different than football, but he would always.

44:07 You know, he'd let him go on a run, you know, because you can make up 10 points quick in basketball. You can make up 15 points quick in basketball. And he was just, he was a a real, you know, military guy, you know, always was, you know, you got to do it this way. You got to. But when we were on away games, he was real calm in that first quarter. You know, he he just, hey, y'all just weather the storm. They playing off emotions. It's all right. And then when that second quarter came, Coach D came out like he was. Get. Your ass in, Yeah, you know what I'm saying? He was a different coach because he understand now. The butterflies are gone. The team that I coach and we practice with every day should be showing up now.

44:48 And if you ain't going to show up, you're going to come sit down. So there you. Go. I like that. Think moving better going forward. What you just said, Tally. If you don't want to show up, go sit down regardless, All right. Well, that wraps up that. Let's put that one in the trash can, burn it lot of gasoline. I don't want to see any remnants of that game ever again. Before we get in to know the enemy and the Boston College Eagles, we are going to take a quick pause from our digital partners and Main Street Pharmacy. I can probably save you a lot of money and I can take a lot better care of you. That's pretty much it. My name is Jeremy Counts and I'm a pharmacist. I own and operate Main Street Pharmacy here in downtown Blacksburg. My brother's a pharmacist.

45:28 I'm a pharmacist. My uncle's a pharmacist. My dad's a pharmacist. I remember he would give me M and Ms. to count in little pill counters. This is something I've always done, and I'm just lucky that what I know so well is something that I can do and feel good about it and get back to people. Pharmacies are your frontline defense. Pharmacy's job is to make sure you're getting optimal care for the lowest price possible. Also, we take the pressure off of emergency rooms. I'll tell people immediately when they need to go to the doctor, or I'll tell them if they just need a cream over the counter. If there's something that isn't commercially available, if it's something that's not available in a certain strength or a certain form or anything like that, we'll make it tailor made medications. Some of those options save people a lot of money. What motivates me? I get to take care of people and live in Blacksburg. That's all neat.

46:15 As we take a quick break. We'd like to tell you about getting your free website report from our digital partner, Grassroots Digital Marketing Studio. They'll tell you how your website ranks on Google onsite SEO and social media. No commitment to buy anything. You can get your free report by visiting grassroots digitalstudio.com/free Dash website Dash Report. Now back to the episode all. Right, and we are back. Know the enemy? Boston College Eagles. As always, we start with the offense 1st. And Brian? Let's talk about the offense ran by Steve. How about I'm pronouncing his name right, Y'all know me and that Shaminko Jimko. What are they doing up there? Yeah man we got a got another tight end turn quarterback coach with a dual threat transfer quarterback. So little bit of a similarity in in that regard this this, this one happened to have coached quarterbacks before in a limited role.

47:15 But yeah, it's really interesting. This is the second year as the quarterback coach. First year OC, we got a power spread option. Pass game is really predicated on the success of that play action and run threat. So if they're not running the ball effectively, they're not going to really be able to throw the ball very much. Very similar in that regard to what we saw coming out of coming out of Syracuse. They really have to get the run game going if they're going to have any success offensively. Yep. Hey, Tally, anything you notice? I know you watched a little bit of that Syracuse game on Friday. Anything you noticed there with this offense that stuck out to you? That offense is going to run with the quarterback.

47:57 I know you're going to talk about him a little bit, but the offense doesn't scare me at all. They've got their typical Boston College. They're going to have some big lineman, they're going to be white and they're going to be technical and they're going to move some people. And you got a quarterback now with them that's can run. And then they going to have some running backs with some crazy names that look like they may be from Louisiana or something, but they're going to be. Big and they're going to be strong and they going to get 3 yards to carry like it's the typical Boston College. The only thing that I didn't see from them is the fucking cowboy call a tight end that they normally have there. You go all.

48:41 Right. Well, let's talk about that quarterback, that is. That's the only thing that I haven't seen from that offense this year. Well, let's talk about Thomas Castellanos. He is from Ware County Down in Waycross, GA. He was a transfer from UCF when he first came out back in the year of 2022, was a very high three star and a top 600 player, so a solid player to go to UCF. Stay there a year, then transfer it up. And this year, Brian, you're going to talk about what he does. But just look at the numbers here. You know, 760 yards rushing, 5 point to a carry. He has 10 touchdowns. Knowing where they score, that is a lot. And as far as passing the ball, not terrible, just slightly under 58 percent. 1700 yards, 7 per attempt, 12 touchdowns, 7 interceptions.

49:41 And Brian, what what are you, what are you seeing? From it because Tally kind of said, I think your big lead point here. Yeah man, the offense goes as he goes. If he doesn't have a good game, they're not going to have a good game. He is their primary rushing threat. He leads the team in yards rushing. He's got a good arm that can make all the throws, but he's mostly likes to live in that that short intermediate range. He'll take a shot here and there, but that's not his bread and butter. And this is the guy that will throw some picks, man. He's like, I think 13 and seven touchdown, 12 and 712 and seven touchdown interception. So he'll throw some picks. Again, everything that they do is predicated on running the football and he will do most of that. When he runs that ball, he's carrying it like a loaf of bread.

50:30 Somebody need to punch it out, get him on the ground, get the ball on the ground. That's, that's that's what you got to do to win. We going to make a note of that now real quick like he's sitting up he's got 700 plus yards so he's averaging roughly about 80 a game. This team is a top ten rushing team. They are averaging 211 a game. And you know let's talk about, let's skip and go back to the wide receiving of Sagna Rumble. Let's talk about Kyle Robichaux Tally making fun of him over here Tally you know why he's got a a southern name. He's from Phoenix City, Alabama. I didn't know that he. Is from Phoenix City, Alabama. Did he go to Central? Huh. What high school did he go to?

51:11 Did he go to Central Glenwood? OK, that ain't a powerhouse, but OK, powerhouse. No, he started at Western Kentucky. He was not ranked when he came out in 2021, got into Portal ranked in 88 and had a good. He's having a really good season so far up there with over 560 yards rushing, 6 touchdowns. Add another 80 plus in the receiving game. So, Brian, what do you see from rubbish Shaw on tape? I mean, he's a running back with good vision. He's kind of that typical Boston College running back. Like like Tally was mentioning. Man, he's a guy that runs hard, finishes hard.

51:54 He doesn't really have elite breakaway speed, but that vision kind of between the tackles allows him to occasionally bust a big run just on that alone. Break some tackles, Not a huge tackle breaker, but more of a guy that will, you know, drag guys for a few extra yards, find the right right gap and kind of run through an arm tackle. They use him some of the screen and check down game. Not a huge threat here though. And you know he's got a a a back mate there with Garwo. I know, we haven't seen a bunch of him either, that, yeah, exactly. He's been banged up. So Robichaud has been getting most of the run here lately, and it's taken advantage of that put out a pretty good campaign so far. Yeah, and again, you kind of start adding it up. It's like it's really it's him and it's it's Castellanos running the ball.

52:48 It. Really is their account for, you know, close to 1300 yards out of the 1800 plus they've got, I mean we see that. It's like OK. Don't let them beat you, but don't let this guy catching the ball beat you. And that's going to be Lewis Bond. Lewis Bond when he came out in 2021 out of Kenwood Academy in Chicago, IL. An 86 ranked player, so kind of a mid ranked player there, but having a hell of a season this year. Already 35 receptions, 485 yards, 5 touchdowns. This has really been his first year where he has been a primary wide receiver up there and thank God that man isn't here anymore.

53:33 What? Should we need Robbie? You shouldn't even brought his name up. I'm. Glad he did, because this thing we ain't got to talk about Zay Flowers this year. Right. He got to talk about Zay flowers. Ravens. Looking good, by the way. Oh. Yeah, yeah, they squirrel storm. They they Since we stole one from them, they've looked fucking unstoppable. There you go. But let's talk about Lewis Bond because he is the lead, the team leader in receptions and yards. Brian, what is he bringing to the table? That it does have to make up for what Zay Jones did for years there. Yeah, he's he's more of a kind of a shifty burner than he is a stick mover. We've seen him hit the big one a couple times this year.

54:16 I think he had one touchdown for 42 yards or or long for 42 yards. I don't know if it turned into a touchdown or not, but they'll move him around a lot in the formation. Works mostly at X and out of the slot, but he's a guy that can beat you deep. They like him on the intermediate stuff, some of the stuff over the middle, good, good balance of speed and quickness. So he's definitely one that you got to watch out for when they do get the passing game going. And a lot, a lot of times they like to take those, those intermediate and deep shots off that play action, and if they're running effectively, that becomes more effective in the passing game as well all. Righty. Brian, did anybody else receiver wide jump out to you? Because when I was just doing the data dives, nothing.

54:57 I mean, you know, we talked about excuse. Me that We talked about him having 1700 yards and you're talking about just over 1/4. That's to Lewis. He's only completed 140 passes. That's a quarter to passes going to Lewis Pond too. Did anybody else just jump out on tape or yeah, #0 Jayden Williams, he's kind of more of their stick mover. He's got to look out. He's a, he's a bigger guy. You know, Lewis Bond is kind of their burner. He's a smaller 58188 guy. James Kind of That bigger stick moving red zone threat all. Right, we'll make a note of Jayden Williams.

55:39 Now let's just talk about the offensive line here, Brian, because Tally said. It reminds them of an old school Boston, Boston College offensive line where the last few years, yeah, that that offensive line was trouble. Is it better than it was last year? Better, especially run blocking, they they do a good job of communicating and getting to the second level. I I call them mid in terms of pass pro, they don't really give up a ton of sacks, but most of that's a product of the quarterback #1 having a high, not having a high percentage of drop backs versus stuff going on, play action numbers two, just being able to escape the pressure with his legs.

56:22 So those two factors are really limiting the sack count. But like I said, they're not, I wouldn't call them a very good pass pro team. They're they're a very average to slightly below average pass pro, but their run blocking is kind of, I'd say higher tier. They're they're not as elite as the yardage that they're putting out right now, but most of that is a product of Castellanos being able to take off and make some big plays with his legs. Well, be realistic with me here, Brian, when it comes to the you talked about the sacks allowed, were there times when you were watching this tape, It was that should be a sack, that should be a sack, that should be a sack. And he just wiggled his way out. He did that in the Syracuse game. There's a bunch of those moments, yeah. There's a bunch of those moments. And like I said, they don't call straight drops a lot either. So you know when they do he he does have the ability to skate, but a lot of times they're calling those those pass plays off of that play action.

57:19 So he's getting a little bit of a of a cushion there with that run action. All right. Good deal. Again, just trying to paint a picture of what they may be doing and it sounds like to me that that run game we you better get back. To the Pit game through the Syracuse game and the run defense this week. Like I said, they they won't hit home runs on you, but it could look like Louisville and a bunch of gashes all game if we don't sure that thing up and tackle better, well be. Realistic with me though, Do they have the offensive power power to get to 30 points? No, OK. All right. That's. I mean, you know, you got to, you got to find wins, right? I don't want to talk too much.

58:00 I don't want to talk too much because I. I know how people was last week when you start. Uh, Oh no. We did not make his microphone go to Technical Difficulties. Valley, get back in here. Sorry, I left y'all hanging. Yes, repeat what you said. We all so. They're running back's supposed to be banged up, overshot supposed to be banged up. That's. What they saying? They're saying he's supposed to be banged up. So we don't know. I mean, I know that. Well, hold on. So we need to be Garo hadn't played Alex Broom. Y'all see your bed broom, Alex Broom number #20. Write that number down because no one that's Cali will tell you.

58:48 No one outlook the guy who's not carrying the ball much. Watch for Cameron Barfield too. Cameron, Barfield and Broom all right. Listen, you know what? And I think you wonder how much that goes into mentality too. Hey, they might have guys banged up and then it's like, no, everybody played with one cap. All right, I want to flip over to the defensive side of the ball boys led by Sean Duggan and Arzir Abdul Rahim. They are Co defensive coordinator unit up at Boston College and so far this year, solid overall numbers. For their total defense, they ranked 46th. Giving up about 350 yards a game, definitely giving up. Better against the past than the run. So Brian, what are you seeing from this defense? Yeah they there there are four, three they'll blitz some what you see from a down line perspective. Usually they'll have one guy standing up, sometimes both DN standing up.

59:49 They'll they'll blitz pretty regularly, but they usually do it on more obvious downs. They're not bringing different pressures, varied pressures on 1st and 2nd very often. It's usually in those expected passing situations and it's a lot of cover 3, cover one, mixed in a little cover 6. So you're going to see those type of coverages pretty consistently from this team. Solid defense. Nothing elite about them, but they're very solid. Kind of at, especially in their front 7. All righty and no. Normally we'll start with a linebacker or we'll start with a defensive lineman. But today, Brian, I wanted to start out with one of the defensive backs because Elijah Jones is one of the country leaders in interceptions. He's got 5, which is I think number six in the country, tied for six in the country because there's a bunch of guys at 5 and there's only two guys ahead of that group with a nine and seven.

1:00:47 He's got 25 tackles this year, so obviously seems like a pretty willing guy. He's forced to fumble 8 past deflections for Elijah Jones and just a little background on him. Not heavily recruited out of high school, not heavily recruited at all out of high school. Had offers like UMass, Connecticut, Coastal Carolina from the state of New York, ranked as an 86 in the class of 2018. So he's been around a while. And Brian? Why does he have so many picks? Because he's a ball hawk, he's their boundary corner shout out and and he's he's a ball hawk man. He's really able to hold up well in zone.

1:01:29 He's also active in their run game, so he'll come up, make some tackles there as well. Really thrives in man coverage though and the really the only weakness he has is that he can't get fooled with a double move. So if you throw that on him, sometimes you can get guys open. Down the field for a big play but yeah he he's a guy that whether it's man or zone he can make a make an interception happen. He's a he's definitely a playmaker and a ball hog and you know we we LED with the with the corner back here number one he's a boundary corner #2. I mean this. Y'all this is our 4th year doing this podcast. Y'all didn't need to hear about fucking Vinnie De Palma one more fucking time. Or there was one other one on there. Who was it?

1:02:10 Hold on, Cam Arnold. Cam Arnold also graced it twice. Cam Arnold graced it twice. So I had to mix that up and pull somebody else. And then again, you see a guy that has five interceptions and you look at where he ranks like you've got to go. Look at him. That's one. As soon as I saw the numbers, I'm like, I don't care if he's got like 4 in one game or three in one game. That guy's doing something right in that case. Yeah, two against Georgia Tech and he had two against Syracuse. And Syracuse's quarterback. So Syracuse's quarterback was just throwing the ball to him. So the. First one was awful. He's the worst. Quarterback I ever watched play he. Recognized the one-on-one coverage, but so Jones had inside position and he just.

1:02:53 He threw it almost to the damn middle of the field, like he gave his receivers zero chance to get there. And you know what's crazy is because, and I know we're getting off a little bit, but Syracuse's backup quarterback was like a four-star. Maybe like a 92 guy coming out of high school went to Florida transferred from Florida to Syracuse. Horrible. Maybe it was one game, but it was he was the worst game that I've it looks. Like dog shit? Oh my. I think he threw 4 picks. He may have threw 5. So what are you telling me before they got that confidence really high against a really bad quarterback? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we knocked. We knocked straight out so straighter didn't play. We messed him up.

1:03:39 Yeah, he didn't play. And that. That backup quarterback didn't do them no justice. Shit. And. And and most of the the The bad thing is I watched the end of that game as shitty as Syracuse played. That's what I was just like, hide the game. How? The hell you can force 4 turnovers. You play against the terrible backup and you can't win by more than seven and I. See, I think Robichaud got hurt. Whenever he got killed by that, either the safety or the outside linebacker when he got hit and then they looked at it for targeted, but he fumble the ball. I think that's when he got when he got banged up. But again, that's just me digging and looking at stuff. We ain't going to talk about it till they come on the field. And hell, sometimes it don't matter with Virginia Tech like you said.

1:04:28 I remember fucking playing Georgia Tech when they had that stupid ass offense. They bring somebody out of the stands and put a jersey on them. They rush for two on the yards. So. If they could run, they were going to run against us. They're going to run against us. All right, let's talk about a couple of them. Like I said, we're we're avoiding the linebacker room because go look at the old episodes. Brown will give you a little breakdown on De Palma and Arnold, who are two of their top linebackers. Let's talk about George Rooks though. Brian and I want to talk about George Brooks was. George Brooks was a pretty highly recruited guy when he come in, Came out of high school a composite 4 star, a composite top 200 or top 300 player. He originally committed to Michigan, then transferred to Boston College from there.

1:05:13 And even when he transferred, he was still considered a pretty high prospect, still ranked at an 87 and so far this year, not having great numbers. But again, you start doing a little reading and it's like, OK, he's kind of a key part of this offense because all he's got this year's 22 tackles, sack and a half, 1/4 fumble. But Brian, what is he doing that? That really caught our eye while we want to talk about him. Active and strong hands, this guy is. He pops on the film as soon as if you if you're looking at technique he just pops right away like everything he does is very sound, does a great job penetrating the line of scrimmage.

1:05:56 Doesn't get moved in the double team. Knows those when to get down crawl through the double team. I mean, he does everything very well and he's deceptively quick, so sometimes, you know, if you're not communicating properly, he'll slip in the backfield, can make a play there, tackle for loss. I'd say he's better against the run than he's not so much of A pass rusher, but he will impact there as well. But he's definitely a guy that you have to account for every damn time you line up because he will make some plays. Well, first of all Robbie had a had a chime in real quick on that. So they forced 6 turnovers and still lost.

1:06:37 That's a bad way to go out, man. That's. Tough. That hurts the heart. Man, that does hurt the heart. Man So as good as Rooks is because Rooks is on the inside, he is AD tackle right? Is he? Is he three primary or does he kind of move around a little bit? He moves. Around, but he's primarily 3, OK. So we could see him all over the inside of the line, which is very interesting to see. I go from there and I go to the one of the guys on the outside here and that is Donovan Izaruku. Yep, I butchered that close. Enough. I apologize. Nothing about it I wouldn't even. Try it. You wouldn't even try. 39 tackles so far, 2 sacks, 5 tackles for loss, force, fumble, pass deflection. So obviously every time I see a defensive line with a pass deflection that tells me they get their hands up.

1:07:22 I hate that so much. Hate it so much unless we're doing it. But again, a very, very under recruited guy out of, you know, out of high school in the class of 21 like Bucknell, Columbia, Elon, Fordham, Harvard, Holy Cross, Holy Cross, who almost beat BC just a few weeks ago. Kidd is from the state of New Jersey, a 83 when he came out. And Brian, he's coming off the edge. Are you going to be worried if he's lined up to the right side of our line? I mean, he's got pretty good speed. He's not necessarily your your prototypical pass rusher, but I like his speed.

1:08:05 It's really more. He's got great instincts in the running game, you know, he knows where to be. He kind of gets a good feel of what the offensive line is trying to do and how he can kind of get by. He's really not shedding a lot of blocks. He's not. He's he's not using his hands in the same way that Rooks is, but he's just really good at. Kind of avoiding those blocks, using his instincts, getting in position where you can get those tackles, those tackles for loss and things like that. So that that's really his bread and butter. He's not a good pass rusher, he's just average, but but he is an impact player in the running game, so that's something that we have to pay attention to.

1:08:46 All right. So let's talk about the Hokie keys, because we got quite a few things here. And Tally, I'm going to let you lead it off here. What's going to be your big key this week for the Hokies? Kind of what we talked about earlier, man. I mean, we just need to see the team that we've been seeing at home, you know, we need to go in, listen to Baja, man, before the game. Fucking let the dogs out, you know? Come on now, we got to go in here and we got to play. There's nothing to hold back for. There's nothing that we need to be thinking about. You know, we keep talking one and O. Don't worry about the next game. Go win this game. This is the game.

1:09:28 There's no more games. Go win this one. Throw everything. You got to throw at it. Don't hold anything back. Don't go in there with that pussyfooting around letting people push you around. If they get in your face, you get back in their face. I mean, go play football, go play with genie, Tech football, all of the stuff that we had seen us doing. Just go do that. Build on that. All right. Brian, what's some of the stuff you've got? Counter punch quickly. Because if we don't come out and we're not let the dogs out the gate there, as Tally mentioned, we need to make sure that what if our script isn't working, if if we go out there and we have a bad offensive series or we go out there and we let them, you know, run 12 plays and get a touchdown ball up the game plan, get to something different quicker.

1:10:19 Let's figure it out. Within one or two drives instead of four to five drives or six or seven drives, let's figure out what they're doing. Let's be quicker with those adjustments and let's not let them dictate the terms that whole first, second quarter. At some point we need to start dictating the terms on the road and make them have to play our game A. 100 percent. I've got AI. Got a couple here if y'all want to chime in with a couple I wrote down. I think y'all probably feel them. My big one is do not give up sacks at his team. Do not, I swear to God if they have more than one. Heck if I don't get mad at one.

1:11:00 This team has 11 sacks all year, APR has 9. By himself. They are 123rd in the country. Do not give up fucking sacks. And y'all we. We see how it always turns our team up. My second big one, what we did at Syracuse, and I know Castellanos is a different runner. Clog the escape lanes. Garrett Schrader didn't know what to do when he didn't have an escape lane. Castellanos is going to do the same thing. We get those escape lanes and he's chucking the ball. It's not going to be one, it's not going to be two. He's going to throw 3 picks. Anything else? Y'all got no. I was. I mean, you hit it perfect, man. When you talk about the not giving up sacks and and like Brian said earlier, their quarterback is there what that offense is going to run through.

1:11:47 You know, as he goes, they go clog those lanes up. Let's go in here, play Virginia Tech football, let's get back home with a win. Yep. And I I'll chime in the last one. Get them behind the six man. Let's get some tackles for loss. Let's get them. And down in distances where Castellanos has to be a drop back quarterback and not a dual threat running quarterback with the option off that play action. If we can get them in obvious passing situations, we can tee off, we can stay in those rush lanes, we can get them off the field in the one point what Alex said. With those tackle for losses, when you get them three yards and you slam behind a lot of scrimmage and let them know about it, yeah. Don't help them up, let them know about. Don't help them up, walk away and well, don't get the penalty because y'all know we'll scream at somebody up there. Don't.

1:12:32 Stand over them. We've already had one. Don't do that. Just walk away and shake your head and be like, all right, so let's move on. We got our predictions. We got big screeners presented by prize picks, prize picks, daily fantasy app where you make entries based on player projected outcomes. I actually looked at some basketball this week, got out Jason Long. I wonder how much he'll do. And I looked at assists because Ona tomorrow night, Boston and Phillies playing. And so I'm looking over here. They got Jason Tatum at 4 assists. He ain't getting 4 assists. That man trying to go for 40 tomorrow night. And it was one more I got here, my second one. Where'd it go?

1:13:13 Where'd it go? Oh, shoot. Where'd he go? I'm mad about this. It was a one. I was like, that's the one I'm going to bet on. I'm effort in here. Hold on, Hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm sorry y'all this. Really. I should have clicked on both. And I didn't click on the second one here. Oh, Russell Westbrook. They're playing Brooklyn 5 assists. No, that man's going for at least eight tomorrow night in Brooklyn. So over Russell Westbrook assists Under Jason Tatum assists with prize picks. Our sponsor for this segment will match any up, will match any deposit up to $100 when you you'd BC picks prize code QR code. I'll let Brian pull it up here.

1:14:00 Yeah, we're we're sharing it now here. Right there. Easy to go. All right. I didn't get a chance to calculate last week. It won't. Good because Oklahoma lost. We all picked Oklahoma and they had points. Well, I think we all got Washington, right. It was not pretty. It was not pretty. You should have faded the Boundary Corner podcast last week and I don't know about this week. Let's talk about the Let's talk about this game boys. Brian, I'll let you lead it off here how you feel as we Whoa, I got small. I did get small. How you feeling, by the way, if y'all haven't been paying attention out there. This line started at 4 1/2 two days ago.

1:14:41 It has sworn 6 points in two days. I've never seen anything like that. Yeah, you don't see Lions swing six points. You've seen they got. Some they got some people hurt, man. They got to have some people hurt. Robichaud must not be going, man. Yeah, I should see. Well, again, this is just board talk. This is just board talk. That's saying Robichaud and brooms hurt. All right, we'll see. All right, Brian, what's your prediction for this game? I got the Hokies. I got the Hokies winning. This is, this is the game where we got a nut up or shut up because, you know, at some point.

1:15:23 This is the type of team that you got to go out there and beat every time you play them. I got the Hokies winning 2717. All righty, I'm going to go next and let let let Tally close out. What are you doing with that screen, man? You were messing me up. If I was drunk, I'd be all. Screwed up. We're good. Now it's settled. It's settled. I don't know what the hell was going on, but we're good now. All right. So Brian, I like to nut up or shut up. That's a great one here. And this is truly one of the mid ACC teams we've beaten. The bad we have, we've been three of the bad, this is truly one of them is they're three and two. There's six and three overall. They lost in Northern Illinois. They should have lost the Holy Cross. I would like to see us really blow them out.

1:16:04 I don't think we quite blow them out, but I think we win this game. I think at the fourth quarter Tally's able to call us and breathe. Tech 28, Boston College 16. Tally, what are you thinking? You know what, man? Starting it out, I said. We're going to beat them by 14 points. We're going to go up there. You know, maybe it was good for us to get our heads beat in so we would have a little bit of different mindset going up there. We're going to go up there and we're going to show them who's boss. I ain't going to say that though. Right here on the BCP big screen is, I'm going to say, Boston College. I. Hope they put I hope they put my face up in the locker room and say this motherfucker picks us to lose. I'm picking Boston College to win. I hope I'm bullet bulletin board material and. Everybody jumps on me on Twitter because I'm picking Boston College, but I'm picking Boston College. You know why?

1:16:57 Because I can't. I've seen us get our fucking ass kicked last week and I don't think nobody was mad about it. So coaching staff, prove me wrong. Go up there and show people you can run on the road. Go up there and show people you got some nuts. There you go. All righty. I don't know if you got something from Shelton. I know he's been, he said. Tech. You got tech. All right. No score prediction? No score prediction, just tech. Shelton also was out in the Midwest for the better part of this weekend, so it's luckily we were able to get in touch with him at all. Shelton has been went from under the weather to on the road in Tulsa, so oh. Yeah, he moving it. He moving and grooving.

1:17:38 All righty, let's roll it up here and let's get to. Our big screeners. Lots of fun games this weekend. Lots of implication, by the way. Y'all I know I did. I did not get a chance to see the playoff picture come out tonight. Y'all imagine a year from now. And just, I mean, y'all, we hope the Hokies are in these conversations next year. But legitimately, I think anybody with a number, even 20, like early 20s, if they went out next year, you got a shot to go play for a national title. And. Everybody's sitting here. It's like this isn't going to help the sport. It's watering down the sport. Brian, what's the what's the Line from Shawshank Redemption? Hope man.

1:18:25 Hope it's a dangerous thing and what it's going to do is keep us watching the TV closer. But let's start Ole Miss, Georgia. This is Tally's big Screener of the Week Georgia laying 10 1/2. What are we thinking, Tally? I think I'm going to go to Georgia, man. You know, I I kept leaning towards going Ole Miss because I do like some of the stuff that Lane Kiffin does. But I just think Georgia, I don't think Georgia's going to get really tested into the SEC game. The SEC Championship, excuse me, SEC Championship is where I think they may falter. I think they're going to take this game. All righty.

1:19:06 Shelton rode right with you, Tally E rode with you and I'm riding against Brian, you with her against I'm. Going the other way as well, this game is going to come down to the wire. Lane's got them playing pretty good. I feel like they're in This game is going to be like a six or seven point victory for Georgia, but Olvis is going to give them all they want. I'm, I'm with Brian on this. I think Olmus is going to give them all they want. Missouri was able to move the ball on them and I know that's a chance for Georgia to fix it, but Lane's a mastermind at that. Now they going to give up some points, but I think Brian it's like a six or seven point game, 10 1/2 too much to lay here. All righty, this is my big Screener of the week. Yep it's at 12.

1:19:49 At the same time I'll be going multi TV, potentially Penn State at Penn State. Michigan, Michigan. Laying five with all the shit that's going on at Michigan right now with the Connor Stallions, the potential they're saying they might fire Harbaugh, by the way. What are they really doing that none of these other teams are doing? Realistically I. Don't know, man. They just, you know what, you know what it is. I love what somebody said. And I'm not trying to defend him. What Harbaugh say about the TV money? You know what he said about TV money? What he said. Players deserve part of that TV money. Oh yeah, they got.

1:20:30 I don't like that they got. To get him out of there. Hey, I get him out of here. But in this game it is in Happy Valley. It is a noon kick. I do not know who's going to win and when. I don't know who's going to win. Give me the home team. Give me some points. I'll take Penn State tally. What about you on this one, man? I never like taking Penn State in anything, but I'm going to take Penn State. Just like you said, home team. They got a lot going on. They got the points. Give me Penn State. All righty. Shelton Shelton's got Michigan. And you know what? He's right. He's right. Harbaugh is going to shut out the noise. They're going to play like the top three, top two team they are in the country.

1:21:16 They're going to take care of Penn State. Buy more than five. Buy. More than five. That's what take care of me, OK? We going to see what's the score, what's the score, how big is it? Is he going to lay it on them? I don't think they'll lay it on, but I think it will be about a about a 10 point win, 10 point win. All right. All right, let's roll to the next one. Brian, your pick for the week. Mizzou and Tennessee, You know, Mizzou showed me a few things there with with that Georgia game last week. I know I kind of rode with them a little bit on that line because that was a kind of crazy line. Tennessee only getting one here. Give me Mizzou.

1:21:59 All righty, All righty. I'm going complete opposite of you because they were in a war against Georgia. Most teams that play Georgia do not win the week after. It just seems that way because Georgia beats the crap out of people and with a one point, basically a pick em game. Gibby, Tennessee. Well, I mean both of y'all are pretty knowledgeable. I don't know what pick right, so I just. Looked at what Brian picked, he was the last one that did good. And I said I'm going to go with Brian. I just, I think, I think, I think Mizzou is going to be pissed. I mean they had chances in that game against Georgia.

1:22:40 Georgia's probably the best team in college football. And you know, you throw a pick to a defensive lineman and a couple other things and game gets blown open. So I think they're going to come in pissed off, man. I got to go Mizzou. And Shelton filed it up there with Tennessee, Said Shelton is riding with Curtis on this one, right with me on this one. All right, we got a couple more games here. Let's go out West because it seems like we always go out West for at least one USC, Oregon, Oregon laying 15 points. USC coming off that heartbreaker against Washington, which was an. I watched a lot of that game. That was a entertaining game to watch. Yeah, this is Sheldon.

1:23:22 So what's Sheldon saying on this one? She's laying or taking. Sheldon is out there taking Oregon here all. Right. And you know what? Hell yes. Hell yes, I think. I think that game might have finally broken USC. Yeah, well, the. UW game, yeah. Kayla Williams was crying. It looked like they broken, yeah. Yeah. So I I think, I think that team is finally broken. I think you're going to see some. I mean it's not going to be a blowout, blowout, but it I think it's going to be like a 17 or 20 point and then. They And then they fired it off defensive coordinator, too. They did. But it don't matter. It don't. It don't matter Whoever the defensive coordinator, I don't believe Lincoln Riley coaches anything but offense.

1:24:05 I don't think he steps into a room as a head coach. If he wasn't given superior talent at Oklahoma and USC, he would have been fired a long time ago. Oregon by 24. I'm going to say Lincoln rally. 'S on fraud alert. I was. Going to say I was going to say Oregon by 21, so all right, me and Tally on the same day they blowing. The doors off, we finally riding, riding across the board. First of all, all right last one. Classic ACC rivalry. Game. Wide, right One ride right two. All those good games back in the 90s. Some war. Some fights. Florida State.

1:24:46 Miami 14 1/2, that is a lot of points. Brian, what are you saying on this one give? Give me them points, man. I I I think that Florida State is going to blow the doors off this team. I think Miami, much like USC, is kind of broken right now and I feel, I feel like the last few weeks of the season they've really kind of fallen back to where we thought they would be. From Jump Street there and I think they've been broken a little bit. I think FSU is going to bust it off one a little bit. I I think about another about 1718 point win here. So they'll cover that 14 and a half, all right. I I'm up next on this one.

1:25:30 This one's at the Doke, so it will be loud. It will be energized and I think Florida State's going to win the game. I think they're going to win by like 14. So if this was 13 1/2 I would have won the other way. That hook is what got me. Curtis said the hook brought him back, Brought me back. Maybe the hook brought me back. But if if if Cristobal can't get them up to play this game because they look flat against NC State, they looked so flat. If he can't get him up for this game, he might not have a job come December. Yeah, I kind of, I kind of feel like, Curtis said. You know if it would have been just 13 1/2 I probably would have would have took Florida State.

1:26:14 But I don't know. I know Florida State's wide receiver room's been banged up. Neither one of the top wide receivers played last week. I don't know if they go this week. I do know Miami has the athletes to play with them. I still think Florida State wins, but I think it may be about, you know, 13 or 14 and not 15. So I'll take Miami on this and. Shelton is riding with me on this one with Florida State. Very, very entertaining. Only one outright and multiple. No 3 way agrees. If I was, if I was anybody watching Boundary Corner, I would put my money on the Trojans this week. Because all of us.

1:26:58 Bet on you better go the other way. Go the other way like we agree it's not hey. We were right on dub last week, though, so we were right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take that to the back they got. A Heisman one on they team. I guess USC got a Heisman one on they team too. So true, man. That's true. All right, boy, is anything broken in the last hour and 90 minutes here? My heart thinking about that last week game against Louisville, Yeah, I see that my heart won't broken as soon as I watch the first few plays and the way we look. He was like, let's do something else. Let me go play with the kids. Well, the. Well, The thing is, a couple neighbors came over, watched it in the garage with the kids. So you know, when he got 21, it was just kind of like you. You know, we all done it, right?

1:27:41 Yeah, we've all had the coping. Where you see we ain't going to win this game. I'm going to go ahead and start my coping. Now get it out by the time dinner started. My wife made a delicious potato soup last Saturday night. Hit the spot, The game was over, I was eating and I was like, this tastes great. It's a couple good games on late. Go have myself a nice Coors banquet. Not. A sponsor, not a sponsor, but but Brian, we got Tally. I won't let Brian tell you what he had to do because he was in Blacksburg at Hokie House. Brian, what did you do? So I cut it. I cut it off as soon as like, as soon as they we got up.

1:28:22 Well, we got down 14. I was like, all right, let's head back to the hotel. Head back to the hotel. We had dinner reservations at 7. At 622, NI was like, yeah, I'm not going to, I'm not going to interfere with that potential day. Let's go back to the hotel. Let's hang out, get showers, get ready for dinner. I can still watch game. This won't be in reach of any significant amount of alcohol. I will. Not Jerry Binding alcohol. I will not. I will not take this any further than I I've already taken it. So yeah, it's the way we do it. All right, Well, boys, that does wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner podcast brought to you by Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg, VA. I'm Curtis Wilson. I'm Brian Siegler.

1:29:04 Jonathan Taylor Go visit our website boundarycornerbt.com to listen to all of our episodes. Check the merchandise. Shop out while you're there. Check out Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Subscribe to the YouTube account, which might have broken 300 this week. It was pretty close last week. Favorite podcast Source? We're on all levels. Spotify, Amazon, Apple Podcasts As always. We let Jason play us in. Play us out. Check him on his website jasonlongmusic.com where it links to all of his music on Apple, Spotify, his YouTube and his Facebook pages. We always thank Y'all for listening, watching out there and as always, let's go.