Boise State looks familiar to the Hokies

[ACC_HOKIES]

We all know that the nation is filled with different skills and styles, personalities and identities. Hardly ever can you compare a unique team like Boise State to anyone else, let alone someone you've recently played. However, I submit to this board that Virginia Tech has indeed played a team that is nearly identical.

There are a couple of teams that might come to mind for the informed Hokie football fan. 2008 Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl certainly comes to mind. They played a similar style of offense and had about the same skill and talent levels. The 2006 Wake Forest team played with the heart and zany (yet impressive) coaching schemes to make the Boise faithful proud. Digging alitlle further to the 2005 Lousiville team, we saw a team with great toughness, an "us vs the world" mantra, and a team with the firepower to hit us hard. You could even draw some small comparison to the 2004 USC game in the same building, coming in with an impressive resume, a team with tons of returning starters, and the ability to stretch the defense to the brink.

The true comparison to be made here, however, is the 2007 Kansas Jayhawks. A team of similar offensive style and resume. A team that battled and struggled to receive credit. Yes, there are differences, and I know we are gonna be talking about that in the weeks to come. However, Kansas is the basis for which we as fans can start to draw more detailed scenarios and conclusions.

 

[ACC_HOKIES]

Check this out people:

Statistic.............2007 Kansas........2009 Boise

PPG Scored..............42.8..................42.2
PPG Allowed.............16.4..................17.1

Offense
Passing Yards..........3783..................3698
Completion %...........63.4..................64.2
Yds per att..............7.96..................8.07
Touch Downs...........36.....................40
Interceptions...........7.......................3

Rushing Yards..........2454..................2605
Yards per Car..........4.8.....................5.1
Touch Downs..........28......................29

Defense
Passing Yards..........2893..................2518
Completion %...........57.4..................54.9
Yds per att..............5.5....................5.7
Touch Downs...........17.....................15
Interceptions...........23.....................24

Rushing Yards..........1232..................1685
Yards per Car..........3.1.....................3.8
Touch Downs..........8........................15

Sagarin SOS...........74.......................96

 

[ACC_HOKIES]

Team Leaders:

See previous post for QB stats (starters had the vast majority of stats)

Top Leaders in Rushing
Kansas: McAnderson 1125 yards, 5.9 ypc, 16 TDs
Kansas: Sharp 556 yards, 5.0 ypc, 5 TDs
Boise: Avery 1150 yards, 5.5 ypc, 6 TDs
Boise: Martin 765 yards, 5.9 ypc, 15 TDs

Top Leaders in Receiving
Kansas: Henry 1014 yards, 18.8 ypr, 10 TDs
Kansas: Fields 834 yards, 13.2 ypr, 6 TDs
Boise Young 1041 yards, 13.2 ypr, 10 TDs
Boise: Pettis 855 yards, 13.6 ypr, 14 TDs

All Stats per: ESPN.com team stats, cfbstats.com, or USAToday Sagarin ranking archive

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

So what youre saying is that we need to unplug Brian Stinesprings headset in the second half of the game and just let Tyrod run the offense at that point, and we should be fine.

I have an idea:

run
run
run
run
toss sweep
run
run
run
designed qb keeper
run
run
run
play action
(repeat)

 

[ACC_HOKIES]

So what youre saying is that we need to unplug Brian Stinesprings headset in the second half of the game and just let Tyrod run the offense at that point, and we should be fine.

I have an idea:

run
run
run
run
toss sweep
run
run
run
designed qb keeper
run
run
run
play action
(repeat)

Yea, that's where it starts. It's obvious that the biggest advantage for either team is Tech's rushing attack. Notice too that the biggest difference between Kansas and Boise (although still small in the big picture) is run defense. Boise will gameplan to minimize that advantage, but the offense has experience to adjust. I also don't think we took full advantage of the speed of our receivers and defensive backs. Those particular matchups won't be as favorable against Boise IMO, but hopefully the mistakes are corrected in the schemes.

The biggest difference specifically for our team is obviously that there's been nearly an entire defensive generation since that game (John Graves is the only defensive player that had a tackle against Kansas still on the team). It'll be interesting to see how Bud Foster prepares for the Broncos. I think the motivation and extra preparation for this team can almost offset the skill of the Orange Bowl defense (who didn't slack but didnt seem extremely hungry that night).