2010 Virginia Tech Hokies: Va. Tech @ Boston College

After a thoroughly miserable start to their 2010 season, the Virginia Tech Hokies can start fresh.

They'll need to.

There's one common thread uniting each of the first three games played by coach Frank Beamer's team in this still-young 2010 season: None of those games occurred within the Atlantic Coast Conference. While it's true that Virginia Tech carried national championship aspirations into this season, that's a reality which only two teams will be able to pursue when this season's over. Without a college football playoff system, the door of opportunity is extremely narrow for the nation's 120 FBS programs. If you're eliminated in the chase for the crystal, you should still have a lot to play for - chiefly, the championship of your conference. It's that goal which the Hokies ought to focus on as they make the trip to New England to take on the Boston College Eagles.

Winning the ACC - which Tech has done twice in the last three years - will get the Hokies to a BCS bowl game and give them a chance to play another marquee statement game against an elite program in the world of college pigskin. Yes, Virginia Tech lost to Boise State on Sept. 6, but if the Hokies get back to a BCS battle, they could draw TCU or Florida or another highly-credentialed team. In so doing, Tech could reaffirm its status as an upper-tier outfit in the larger realm of the sport. A conference title and its attendant rewards is the prize Mr. Beamer should be selling to his kids, and this game against Boston College marks the first step on the journey to renewed respectability.

This really isn't a matchup of Xs and Os so much as it is a test of each team's mindset. Tech finally got on the board in week three, notching its first win of the season against East Carolina. The Hokies finally got their ground game going and rolled up 249 yards on the ground, a fact that can be attributed to the Hokies' level of desire. The week-two hangover loss to James Madison was little more than the product of sulking after the Boise State heartbreaker. For much of the first half against East Carolina, Tech seemed to be hung over from the James Madison loss, but in the second half, the passion which had been missing from Blacksburg finally came back. That same elevated level of intensity needs to accompany this team on the road in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

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For the Eagles and Coach Frank Spaziani, the emphasis this week needs to be placed on execution, not emotion. It will be easy for this team to get up for Virginia Tech, the standard-bearer in the ACC over the past six seasons. Boston College needs to rein in those emotions just enough so that it can outmaneuver the Hokies on both sides of the ball. BC signal caller Dave Shinskie has been decent, but hardly spectacular, in his first two games of the season. The Eagles have stayed in second gear, doing just enough to beat Weber State and Kent State without too much drama... but not any degree of authoritativeness, either. There are no official preseason games in college football, but BC has clearly used its first two weeks as "training sessions" before having a bye week to set up the game plan for the big, bad Hokies. BC offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill will try to exploit Virginia Tech's lack of a pass rush and its efforts to compensate for that deficiency on Saturday. Meanwhile, BC defensive coordinator Bill McGovern will try to stop Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor, a senior who owns tremendous talent and - more urgently for the Eagle braintrust - a higher football IQ. Boston College will have its hands full if Taylor plays anywhere close to his best.

Virginia Tech will need to believe that their season is not over. Instead, the Hokies need to buy into the notion that their season is just beginning. Boston College, on the other hand, is truly starting its season because of its lack of tests to this point in 2010. Two teams, two different situations, one shared reality: Hokies-Eagles will tell us a lot about the way the ACC season will evolve.

Virginia Tech Hokies @ Boston College Eagles Football Preview