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Preseason Football Magazine Report: The highlight of this year's Lindy's for Hokie fans is an article called "The Vick Flick" by CBS SportsLine's Dennis Dodd (the "flick" refers to the way Vick throws the ball, not a particular play he made last year). As you can imagine, the article is extremely complimentary of Vick, and the irony here is that Dodd has been a notorious VT-basher for years from the safety of his CBS SportsLine computer terminal. A couple of years ago, while the Hokies were having a strong 1998, Dodd regularly took shots at the Hokies in his weekly rankings, saying things like "Hicks in sticks handing out licks," and constantly making fun of what he perceived as Tech's rural, agricultural setting. Like most ignorant, far-removed sports journalists, Dodd simply drew conclusions about Tech without knowing anything about the Hokies and then proceeded to spout these opinions without taking time to check his facts or learn anything about Virginia Tech. He seemed to take delight in ridiculing Tech, and he got a big (negative) response from Hokie fans, which only encouraged him to do it more. The height of Dodd's acrimony towards VT came in his May 3, 1999 SportsLine article Only a turkey would put Virginia Tech in top three. The article was written in response to CBS SportsLine's Anthony Gimino ranking Tech #3 in the 1999 preseason, a move that in retrospect looks like sheer genius, topped only by Lee Corso's preseason prediction that Tech and FSU would play in the Sugar Bowl. You can read Dodd's article yourself by clicking on the link above, but in it, he got off the following ill-informed zingers:
Good stuff, huh? It's difficult to write that many ignorant, inaccurate statements in two short paragraphs, but Dodd managed it. "How about a way to beat Miami and Syracuse?" At that time, the Hokies had beaten Miami four straight times and had split with Syracuse over that time span, meaning that Tech was 6-2 (.750) against those two teams, but Dodd didn't let facts get in his way. And yes, Dennis, Big East champions are allowed in the top five, even in the almighty BCS rankings, as the Hokies proved. And USC, Miami, and Purdue all enter the 2000 season with their head coaches intact. What an ignorant, thoughtless, raving piece of tripe that "article" was. And now, one year later, having been uncovered as the ignorant hack that he was, Dodd, along with the rest of the world, comes crawling into Blacksburg on his hands and knees to do the obligatory article on this year's top Heisman Trophy candidate, Michael Vick. I wonder how well hypocrisy sits with Dennis Dodd. For the record, the Vick article is pretty good, and it includes a hilarious quote from Vick regarding his ability to improvise on the field: "One time," Vick said, recalling a play in the Sugar Bowl, "when I spun around twice and threw the ball out of bounds, I didn't even know what I was doing." So welcome to the fold, Dennis Dodd. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Rankings and Such National Rankings National Individual Award Candidates Heisman Trophy Candidates: Davey O-Brien (Top QB) Award Candidates: Biletnikoff (Top Wide Receiver) Award Candidates: National Player Rankings All-Americans: Vick is 1st team offense Big East Prediction 1. Miami All Big-East Players
Miscellaneous Tidbits Conference Rankings: Big East is #6
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