I don't really expect anyone will agree with me, but oh well, it's never stopped me before so here goes.

Football usually comes down to effort, schemes, luck and talent. Throw luck out because no one really controls that, so left with effort, schemes and talent. Miami has always had the talent factor on their side and probably always will. A side benefit for existing on ground zero of the greatest concentration of football athletic talent in the world.

That means we need to own one of schemes or effort and at least split the other one. If you do that and get the majority of luck you can win.

From what I gather VT coaches feel that if we play our A game we will win this matchup. I feel like they believe they have the better schemes vs. this opponent and clearly they did last year. So let's go with that and assume we win the coaching battle.

Effort is where we are going to get in trouble. You can say what you want about how close Miami's wins have been, how they haven't played anyone good and all that does is feed the beast. Football isn't played on paper and even less so in big time night rivalry games. The Canes in their mind are undefeated and should be rightfully considered a contender for the playoff. Instead, all they have hear ALL WEEK LONG EVERYWHERE they look is how they are not legit and the Hokies are going to come into their house and "expose" them. You've got ESPN Talking heads telling them that. You've got Vegas oddsmakers telling them that. You've got Hokie blowhards on twitter telling them that. And you've got every Tech and Miami message board telling them that.

Now put yourself in their shoes for just a minute. Pretend they are Hokies and we are the Canes if you possess a cast iron stomach. If you flip that scenario on it's head DO YOU NOT think our boys would show up big time to this game? When the more talented team legitimately feels disrespected (warranted or not - their perception is their reality) and is in their home stadium for a night rivalry game that is a recipe for disaster.

You know who we sound like this week? 1990's Miami fans. We used to believe in the God's of Weuf around here, but apparently that is a thing of the past. It's an old axiom that inevitably beating your chest if you are not a fan of Alabama, is the quickest way to ensure angering them. I am here to tell you we have the God's of Weuf (sp?) full attention this week. Had Vegas kept their mouth shut, we kept our mouth shut, various talking heads kept their mouth shut, in all likelihood we go down there and we actually do win the game because we would have had scheme and effort advantages.

Now? They will own both the talent and effort advantage. Let's hope we get all the uncontrollable luck we can get.

We are not going to see the Miami vs. UNC Canes on Saturday. It's not going to be the Miami vs. Syracuse Canes. We are getting the Miami VTech rivalry the whole world is unjustly against us Canes. Whether they win or lose even Notre Dame next week will not see what we get because it will either be week of slaps on the back and go get the Irish, or oh well this confirmed they weren't legit. Neither of those two situations will key them up like what we are going to see.

This WILL be their best effort of the season, of that I can assure you all. I was thinking win based on paper, but I've seen this scenario play out so many times over the years.