It’s Monday, and parts of Hokie Nation are filled with angst over a
less-than-stellar performance against Duke. Not me. There are areas of concern
on VT’s team (what’s up with that defense?), but Saturday’s game featured a
dominating performance by Tech’s quarterback and wide receivers, a welcome
sight. The college football landscape is littered with broken dreams already
(hello, Houston), and the Hokies did the most important thing: they won.

For those of you still keeping an eye on the national championship race,
Sunday morning’s polls were a surprising revelation. The Hokies entered the
weekend ranked #6 in both polls, and after a narrower-than-expected win over
Duke, a fall in the polls was entirely possible. Everyone in front of the Hokies
won, and right behind Tech, #7 USC hammered Cal on the road, 30-3. I was
expecting the Trojans to leapfrog Tech and bump the Hokies to #7.

Lo and behold, Tech moved up to #5 in both polls, jumping over Boise State in
the process and holding off USC. I figured the pollsters would take steps at
some point to send a clear message to Boise State that there’s no way the
Broncos were headed to the national championship game, but I didn’t expect that
process to start so early.

Elsewhere, the Miami Hurricanes’ win over Oklahoma must have done Tech some
good. Miami jumped all the way to #11, and I figure the Hokies’ win over Miami
looks more impressive now. What if the ‘Canes run the table the rest of the way
and end up 11-1? Tech’s victory looks very impressive in that scenario.

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