My in-laws are huge VT fans so I end up watching a lot of VT football. Trust me, the energy at Lane Stadium will be crazy to start the game. Whether it stays that way is up to how ND plays. The better we play, the less energy there will be - but this isn't South Beach with whimsical fans either, these are actual true-blue diehard fans. Of course, this exact game was probably the entire focus of the offseason "chaos training" in the weight room. Don't underestimate the energy at Lane Stadium - doing so would be arrogant on our part.
I watched a lot of Josh Jackson, the injured starter. His replacement, Ryan Willis, is a good QB. That situation is analogous to our QB situation minus the injury. JJ is a good running QB but struggled to make throws. Willis is a composed QB who can hit timing routes but doesn't have the biggest arm strength. We cannot just dismiss him as a worse off QB because VT may have upgraded their offense with the switch.
ND keys:
- Play tough defense; pressure on QB and keep passes short; just like we have all season.
- Make tackles, VT fights for extra yards. Gang tackling will be important this game. Much higher likelihood in 2018 ND defense than 2016.
- Shut down the run game. I don't doubt our inside run defense, it's the stretch plays that worry me. I think our LBs will be very good, very disciplined. If Bilal/Coney can make plays like that outside stretch play against Stanford we will be in good shape.
- Offensively, be ready to grind. I think we can run on VT but they take pride in their defense (obviously). There's a reason Bud Foster is sought after. Extra motivation after ODU.
- Newsome will need to come up huge with his punts. They will send pressure so he will need to be quick as well.
- We will hear this about 76 times on Saturday night, but look out for whoever wears #25. This was Frank Beamer's number and they rotate this jersey to a different player every week based no who is deserving. Most of the time it's defensive side of the ball. That player usually performs very well when it's his turn.
I believe we will win but this will not be a cakewalk. This game will show whether we learned how to handle an atmosphere like Miami. I can 10000000% guarantee you that CBK is emphasizing this to the team and will work to not be overwhelmed by the moment.
