2014 ACC Football Preseason Predictions: Virginia Tech Picked Third in the Coastal Division

With 112 members of the media weighing in, Florida State was picked as the overwhelming favorite to win the ACC in 2014 with 104 votes, far ahead of Clemson (2) and Virginia Tech (2).

In similar fashion, FSU quarterback Jameis Winston was projected to win the Player of the Year with 99 votes, ahead of Clemson DE Vic Beasley  (6 votes). Three other players received one vote: Miami RB Duke Johnson, Duke WR Jamison Crowder, and Virginia Tech QB Brenden Motley.

Atlantic Division projections were heavily slanted towards Florida State, as expected, while Coastal Division predictions were almost a toss-up with just 44 points separating #1 Miami (614 points) from #4 UNC (570 points), with Duke at #2 and Virginia Tech at #3.

The Coastal Division voting was so tight that #4 UNC received more first-place votes (27) than projected winner Miami (26). In effect, the media were saying “pick one.” Even #5 Georgia Tech (1) and #6 Pittsburgh (2) received first-place votes.

Here’s a summary of today’s predictions, courtesy of TheACC.com.

ACC-FBL-Kickoff_680_VOTING

20 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. I tend to agree with the sentiment that the Motley vote was just done to show how absolutely pointless this whole exercise is. Motley may have a great year, or he may spend the whole season on the bench, but you can bank on this: once that first kickoff of the first Saturday is in the air, no one will remember or care who voted who for what.

  2. Reply to 133743hokie- it doesn’t say anything rational that we are voted behind Duke.

    Is there a specific listing anywhere of who voted for which team? Analyzing the numbers, it looks like the NC media favored their own local teams over the rest of the ACC, given the greater disparity between the number of #1 votes vs number of 5, 6 or 7 votes (resulting in positions below Miami). If the Va media had favored VT and Uva, then we would have seen more #1 votes and a lower VT rating.

  3. Brendon Motley may just slip in there and have a big season but not player of the year. It would be great if the local kid was the star of this Team… GO HOKIES

  4. I’m thinking the Motley pick was to prove a point that these are meaningless and there are obvious biases

  5. FYI, folks, replying to someone else’s comment has been broken since the last time we “updated” WordPress. Programmer has no clue why.

  6. This just goes to show you that these guys don’t use their brains when they vote, but we already knew that.

    So let me get this straight–Miami is somehow going to win AT Louisville, AT VT, and also beat FSU and UNC at home? I realize they may not need to win all of those to win the Coastal, but right now I would probably predict them to lose at least 3 of those 4.

    Look at VT’s ACC schedule–it’s about as soft as you can get, ex the road game at UNC.

  7. FYI, theacc.com updated the table. FSU has 780 pts total. I couldnt understand how FSU and Clemson could be so close in points with FSU having such a majority of 1st place votes.

    Agreed on the Motley thing…no disrespect for him, but he goes from a guy who’s never seen the field and I doubt will start to ACC POY??

  8. What did Miami do to impress the voters? The sieve defense of theirs? The injured QB? Past ACCCG appearances? WTH????
    I love it!!!!!

  9. Four voters decide that nobody will win the conference. Pretty bold prediction.

  10. Just out of curiosity, why aren’t replies being filed under the posts to which I am replying?

  11. Well, it happened last year. I don’t think it’ll happen this year. All we need is a decent kicker and a half-respectable running game and we’re gonna be playing in Charlotte come early December.

  12. While there is much consternation about which team may win the Coastal, there’s great alignment on which school occupies the cellar – welcome Hoos to your rightful position.

  13. So, I guess these knuckleheads figure if they keep voting for Miami to win the Coastal, eventually they can say, “See, I told you so!”. Then again, they may be waiting for a long time. Miami’s BACK baby! Until they’re not.

  14. What does it say about the state of VT football that we are picked to finish behind Duke?

  15. Someone with incredible VISION…Brewer and Motley share snaps and somehow Brenden wins some big games ala TT or MV1 and steals it – this requires Jamies being wrapped in ducktape and stuck behind his locker most saturdays…

  16. I was ready to post “Miami??? Again? But that trick never works!”

    But then I saw that they actually got less first place votes than Duke and UNC, and it’s really just one big cluster bleep in the Coastal and ended up just shrugging.

  17. No disrespect meant to Brenden Motley, but who’s the idiot that picked him as POY? He’s probably not even going to start. I’m sure most of the ACC writers were like, “who is that?”

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