I can’t wait for Saturday The Hokies hope that familiarity means a run to the top of the ACC | Newsletter

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Greetings from “Can’t Wait For Saturday,” your morning college football piece, courtesy of longtime Illini writer, AP Top 25 voter and Heisman state representative Bob Asmussen. He will give you his opinions every day about the game he loves

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Are you ready for the biggest college football game ever? Twelve teams in the playoffs means eight more postseason games than before. What used to be three are now 11 to decide who is the best,

The favorites could dominate the first two rounds. Or the semifinals will be full of bottom seeds. We can only hope.

Relax, unwind and enjoy every moment of it. As a guideline, I’ll be using this space for the next month and a half to count down my preseason Top 50. I appreciate complaints and disagreements, I might even include them in future stories.

And off we go…

42. South Carolina SEC

What do you like?

No team in the country returns more starters than Virginia Tech: all 11 on offense, eight on defense and both punter and punter. I have to believe Coach Brent Pry is sleeping well. … All those starters are back from a team that scored 55 on rival Virginia and beat a good Tulane team by 21 points in the Military Bowl. … Quarterback Kyron Drones, a Baylor transfer, is a dual threat who has helped launch the running game. … Bhayshul Tuten returns at tailback after rushing for 863 yards and 10 scores. … The strength of the defense is in the secondary, which helped VPI finish fourth in the nation in yards allowed. … Four winnable nonconference games, with the toughest test a visit from Rutgers. In the ACC, the Hokies don’t play favorite Florida State.

Reasons for concern

Sure, the Hokies had a winning season. But they also dropped three in a row after an opening win, losing a pair of games to Big Ten schools Purdue and Rutgers. … They were also attacked at Louisville. … The defense struggled at times against the run game and had to go to the portal to fill line needs. … Team no. 2 in the ACC, Clemson, visits Blacksburg late in the season. The Hokies also have to play in Miami.

Previous

50. Maryland Big Ten

49. Colorado Big 12

48. Georgia Tech ACC

47. Tulane American

46. ​​UCF Big 12

45. South America from Florida

44. The Sun Belt of the Appalachian State

43. Rutgers Big Ten