And this means what....

With the kickoff to the football season quickly approaching all the prognosticators are coming out of the woodwork to give their predictions on the Conference Champions. The latest is Heather Dinich of, the new ACC beat/blogger for ESPN.com. Nothing really shocking, as she picked VT to take the Coastal Division, but when you look at here reasoning for putting GT and VT in their respective positions, is it really all that unfathomable that Georgia Tech could be in Tampa come December??

In an earlier post I talked a little about why I'm so confident this team will do better than most think come September. And Dinich's reasoning doesn't make me feel any less confident. I mean seriously, here's a team in the Hokies who lose their top running back, Branden Ore, their top three receivers, Morgan, Harper and Roayl, along with their defensive studs, losing Vince Hall, Xavier Adibi and Brandon Flowers. I know we have a new coach and all, but the biggest thing we have to replace are our kickers.

If you went to Vegas and a guy walked up to you and said, "Hey I got a bet for you. I'll give you a 1000 dollars if you tell me which will do better this season. One team lost a 990 yard rusher, and three receivers who caught 60% of their team's yards along with their top sack man, tacklers and leaders in interceptions. While the other lost a quarterback who couldn't start ahead of one of the most criticized quarterbacks in team history, a running back who was oft-injured, and their kicker and punter."

WHICH WOULD YOU TAKE????

Stats sometimes are misleading, in a vacuum they are just numbers, because while numbers don't lie they can be made to say anything. (Favorite statistic quote: The average human has one breast and one testicle) But in this case when you take away the emotion why shouldn't this team challenge for an upper echelon bowl.

You have a coach in Paul Johnson, coming from one of the military institutions, who will instill discipline in a team that was in the Top 15% of penalties committed. (Navy had 52 penalties last year putting them in the Top 5 overall) The defense brings back its brightest young star from last year in Morgan Burnett and has two All-ACC performers ready to stop the run in Vance Walker and Daryl Richard. If Michael Johnson comes anywhere close to the potential we've heard the last few years the defensive line will be the best in the ACC. With that type of pressure along with Dave Wommack's new system, the often criticized secondary will not be put into the same pressure situations as before.

As I've always said, the kicker and punter are one of the lowest worries on a team's totem pole. If everything else takes care of itself those positions become obsolete. Name the punters and kickers on any of the last five national championship team's?? Exactly like a referee if they are average the game will run smoothly. Travis Bell shouldn't have been in the situation to make game-winning field goals, and when a punter has a high net punting average that means you are close to your own endzone.

There is a lot of excitement to see what Coach Johnson brings to the table come August no matter what the expectations. But we should expect more from this team simply because we've suffered in mediocrity before. Set the bar high and let them shoot for it.

And plus, when they do make it to Tampa I'll make sure to get a front row seat with a shirt saying "I told you so" on the back. And being right, that's all that really matters.