Yea, though I walk thru the Valley of the Coastal, I will fear no team. Miami, stunk it up. LSU could have hung 50 on them if they hadn't called off the tigers. VT couldn't put away the worst FSU team since Wake beat them 30-0 in Tally. Alcorn State/FSU would have been a good game. UNC is already thinking about roundball. Duke looked OK, but we get them in ATL. Didn't get to see Pitt or UVA. In reality, it will be decided by how quickly each team can eliminate their errors and accentuate their strengths. The two teams that have the coaching and the athletes to beat us even if we are playing well are Miami and VT. So how much can they improve before they play us? The toughest team Miami plays between now and BC on October 26th is UVA. They might not improve much before then because they don't have to. VT coasts until Sept 29th when they play at Duke and then get ND at home. After playing nobodies for the prior three weeks, VT could be exposed in those two games.
How and how much can we improve? Probably we saw the pure vanilla defense on Saturday. Given that and the level of competition, about the best I can say about the D is that I saw enthusiasm and lots of rotation of players. Those are necessary, but not sufficient for significant improvement. So there is at least some reason for hope. Had AS put 25 or 30 points on us, I would be hopeless. On offense, I think CPJ has demonstrated that if we stay healthy, he usually can coax more out of the offense as the year progresses. Leaves turning and all that. We play what look to be solid, if not spectacular teams in the next two weeks. Clemson will surely test everything this team has. If we are going to win the Coastal, this schedule sets up nicely for incrementally stepping up the performance.
