The Game: Furman at Virginia Tech
Last Week: The Fighting Football Paladins' rally fell short and resulted in an opening week 38-35 loss to Coastal Carolina.
Are We Any Good? Maybe! Furman played a sloppy game: loads of false start penalties, clock management problems, allowing a kickoff to be returned for a TD, and two costly turnovers. Conversely, Coastal didn't stumble into those type of errors. And yet Furman was a recovered onside kick away from possibly taking the now #1 team in FCS into overtime. So there's potential. The question is: Were those mistakes first game jitters or an indication of this team's fatal flaw? Time will tell.
Opposing Team's Mascot: The Hokie, a nonsense word from a spirit cheer that won an 1896 contest when the school's name was changed to Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Per Wikipedia (the first source for my mascot information), a retired VA Tech professor stated that hokie was "a word that people used to express feeling, approval, excitement, surprise." So if things played out differently, Virginia Tech could have been the Hoorays, the Awesomes, or the Fighting Cool Beans.
Suggested Hashtag: #makehokiespokey
I absolutely peaked in Week One with #kickcanterburytail so this category may be rough sledding from here on out.
Et cetera: Playing their first of two consecutive FBS opponents (the Paladins take on Central Florida next week), Furman faces a steep challenge in avoiding an 0-3 start. There may be some advantage found in VA Tech's shortened weak (the Hokies played Ohio State on Monday night) and the Hokies loss of their starting QB. Still, the Paladins must play a mistake free game and tighten up on defense if they want to pull off the upset.
Anything else? Go Paladins!
