I'm in a Virginia Commonwealth of Mind.

Old TV Western.
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This is the first time Oregon has gone against Virginia since the Civil War (No Beavers, the ORIGINAL Civil War.) Here are some interesting little known facts about the state.

Virginia, State of, NOT.
Virginia, an original New England Colony, does not call itself a state. They prefer to refer to themselves as a 'commonwealth', I'm assuming because everybody within its borders is commonly wealthy.

In 1863, West Virginia seceded from Virginia because they thought Virginians were like "really over-the-top obsessed and weird about their slaves and stuff".

Virginia's main exports are tobacco, naval ships, and whacky conservatism. Their state bird is anything with wings that's fun to shoot (Bad news for Ducks.).
Their form of government is Baptist Libertarian, which is sometimes referred to as a Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink Confederacy.


Eric Cantor, House Representative, R-- Virginia.
The product of a Socio/Political experiment of sending
 a backwater redneck child to charm school.
"Now Master Eric, do not use your finger. Try this. It's called a toothbrush."

Virginia's state motto is the 2nd amendment written in King James style.  "And the Lord said, 'Let there be guns. Let your powder runneth over. I giveth to you the right to bareth arms . . . .'"

The University of Virginia is the oldest public university in the nation. It was founded by President Thomas Jefferson and established in 1819. Presidents Madison and Monroe also served as university presidents because, as Jefferson told them, "It's a pretty good gig after you retire from public service."

U of V is considered a liberal college by Southern standards because they let a black man onto the campus in 1950 -- four years before 'Brown vs. The Board of Education' in 1954.

The Game
[Apologies that the following three videos are links to take you to another site. I could not get them to embed into the blog. Just hit back arrow to get back. Also, regrets for stupid commercial at start of each one. The videos are worth the extra effort, as they show a key aspect about Virginia.]

Look at this short clip of a play from last week . . .
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9621141

. . . . and this one . . .
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9621356

. . . and this one.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9622068

This summary from the Miami Herald confirms what you just saw.

The Cavaliers play an aggressive defense designed to get penetration, which could leave them susceptible to misdirection against the Ducks' exceptional speed

Despite Oregon being favored by three touchdowns, Marcus Mariota and the offensive line can't have an off day. They'll have to bring their 'A' game against the Cavaliers stunting 'D'. This will be the most interesting part of the game to watch -- How Mariota and his offensive line handles Virginia's blitzing schemes. 

Misdirection running plays should nullify their blitzes. But Mariota can make this look easy if he makes spot on decisions of when to handoff, when to keep and when to throw. He can't allow himself to get confused by the Cavaliers' defensive front. If he plays well here, his Heisman stock will go up.

When Virginia has the ball.
Although Virginia has brand new assistant coaches, they're largely keeping their same pro style offense. In other words, they're just a bunch of Huddlers, the kind of team Oregon loves to embarrass.

A post in an SB Nation blog talks about Virginia's choice to continue with the pro style offense as a recruiting advantage.

It has long been considered a recruiting draw to basically tell prospects you run what they do in the pros, and it will be interesting to see how that changes as what the pros do also changes.

Because chances are still good that in the pros, you're going to get some fat old recycled coach who likes to stop the action for two minutes after every play so we can all watch him stand there and stare at his laminated Applebee menu. Then you huddle, and from that comes a fullback up the middle for a yard.

But despite their 4-8 record from last season, the Cavs are no slouch. The new members of the coaching staff are bringing new energy. And they've almost completely forgotten about the defection of LeBron James.

This should be an entertaining game.

BTW. Did you actually click the blue LIKE?
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Gametime 12:30 Pacific, likely on ABC or ESPN2.

Have fun at the game, Fieggens.
--kb