First meeting between these two schools. After an 0-2 start to the season, VT capped its incredible turnaround with a win in the ACC Champ game. The Hokies rattled off 11 straight wins and are the only school in the FBS to win 10 gms in each of the L/7Y. They also became the 1st tm S/’00 to win every ACC gm (Fla St). The Cardinal had a superb regular season as they never trailed heading into HT the entire year with one 2H slip up coming against BCS Champ bound Oregon. Both teams faced and destroyed Wake Forest TY with the Deacons being their only common opp. Stanford does have the benefit of an extra week of rest (Hokies played into Dec with ACC Title gm) but does travel more than 3,000 miles to get to Miami while VT is playing in ACC country.

The #20 VT offense is led by prolific QB Taylor who is one of only two active FBS QB’s with 6,000 pass yds and 2,000 rush yds in his career (Nevada’s Kaepernick). He also owns the most wins by a QB in VT history. VT has used a 3-headed monster to man the RB spot with Evans, Wilson and Williams combining for 25 of the team’s 30 rush TD’s (Taylor other 5). on defense, LB Taylor leads VT in tkls and has tallied 15.5 tfl TY. The secondary comes in ranked #6 in my pass eff D all’g 199 ypg (51%) with a 15-22 ratio. CB Hosley has grabbed an NCAA leading 8 int TY. He needs one here to tie Ron Davidson’s 1967 record of 9 in a season. Overall the D ranks #22. Once again VT relied on a Sr walk-on PK to handle the duties and he’s responded by hitting 20 straight (only miss was first att of ssn vs Boise). The return teams have been spectacular as VT avg’s 12.4 ypr on PR with 1 TD while the KR’s avg 23.7 ypr with 2 TD’s (by Wilson). VT (#20 ST ranking) has blocked a kick in 126 gms under Beamer.

With the departure of Heisman runner-up Gerhart, many thought the offense could be down some but they answered critics early and avg’d 40 ppg. The group is led by AA QB Luck who some expect to be the #1 overall pick in the ‘11 draft. This will be his 1st bowl game as he was unable to go in the Sun Bowl LY (inj). Luck took 98% of the team’s passes and was so durable that coaches flirted with using bkup Loukas at other positions during the spg. Overall the SU offense finished with my #4 ranking. The SU defense finished with my #25 ranking all’g just 18 ppg on the ssn (7 opp under 300 yds). The LB’s were the most stable part of the D led by Skov and Thomas who finished #1 and #2 in tkls. The secondary all’d 200 ypg (58%) with a 15-17 ratio ranking #19 in my pass def. Special Team’s were led by the steady kicking of Whitaker who delivered the GW FG vs USC and SU has my #42 ST ranking.

While a lot of analysts will look at both "star" QB's and predict a ton of points, keep in mind both defenses rank in my top 25. VT will try to run the clock with their diversified rush offense and prior to the ACC Championship, the D had all’d 21 pts or under 7 straight games. SU’s D gets overlooked but has 3 shutouts this year and finished the season all’g 8.8 ppg the L/5. It will also be interesting to see if the rumors surrounding HC Harbaugh's future employment will effect the play of his team but in the end, I think Luck is the better QB and the Cardinal the better team in a very competitive game.

Picksheet

W

L

Points

1

mudhead

20

8

436

2

tbowtbaggers

22

6

426

3t

simunovic

20

8

416

3t

FutureChampion

18

10

416

5

zoebobt

19

9

410

6

Mike Holmes

17

11

407

7

andtinez

18

10

406

8t

MJCollins

20

8

395

8t

jlogue23

19

9

395

8t

Micaiah2004

18

10

395

Rank

Picksheet

W

L

Points

1

plucky

6

2

166

2

Bickel

5

3

165

3

jmor24

6

2

153

4

scarlet hawks

5

3

141

5

FrizzB

5

3

136

Rank

Picksheet

W

L

Points

1

David kortan

20

8

376

2

MarkZ

17

11

366

3

cghring

20

8

359

4

Rob nov

17

11

356

4

plucky

16

12

356

Rank

Picksheet

W

L

Points

1

Mike Holmes

17

11

407

2

wotan33

17

11

392

3

michellee108

18

10

365

4

Flash4Ever

20

8

352

5

Rocky Mtn Buckeye

20

8

350

Rank

Picksheet

W

L

Points

1

shagbag

17

11

376

2

jmg3447

20

8

353

3

onemojado

18

10

344

4

rustyevans

18

10

342

5

iowahawkfan

16

12

341

Rank

Picksheet

W

L

Points

1

mudhead

20

8

436

2

andtinez

18

10

406

3

Kreg Barrett

19

9

356

4

maddoxse

16

12

349

5

Buck Anderson

18

10

346

Rank

Picksheet

W

L

Points

1

jonnyrolo

17

11

373

2

sport931

17

11

350

3

Bucks78

16

12

340

4

alli 1

18

10

332