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Inside The Lunch Pail Mailbag 11/1/19

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Photo Credit: Harley Taylor

This week's Inside The Lunch Pail Mailbag is here as we kick off November with Virginia Tech football looking for a major upset, and the openers for men's basketball, women's basketball, and wrestling happening over the next few days.

As always, you can send us your questions by tweeting them at us or emailing them to techlunchpail@gmail.com. With that said, let's get to this week's mailbag.

Virginia Tech will need both units playing well but if they are to win this game, they'll need their QBs playing better whether that's Hendon Hooker or Quincy Patterson.

While part the reason for the high-scoring games against Miami and UNC were due to unusual things like 6 overtimes or 5 first half turnovers by Miami, the offense has still been much improved. That offensive improvement, especially in efficiency, is the reason why this mailbag hasn't become the talk about Justin Fuente's future mailbag.

Going to Notre Dame, the Hokies will need their offense to have a big game against a Notre Dame defense that's been good in general, but is definitely vulnerable. If anything, the Hokies need their best game to come on the ground where the Fighting Irish have looked most vulnerable on defense.

The good news is that VT's running game has taken off due to a combination of having true mobile QBs playing, DaShawn McClease having the best stretch of his collegiate career, and a young offensive line that's starting to gel together well.

While the offense needs a bigger game more than the defense in order to pull off the upset, the biggest thing VT needs to pull off the upset is a big game on the ground especially given the likely conditions in South Bend.

We'll save the full basketball prediction for another day, but the lead scorer question is definitely one of the more interesting storylines. Here's my 3 top candidates for being VT's lead scorer.

Wabissa Bede

Bede comes in at the top of the list despite his past scoring averages. Why? Bede's role is going to be a more primary role rather than the Devin Wilson defensive stopper role. When Bede has had those opportunities and been able to get in rhythm, we've seen him be able to score at multiple levels.

Additionally, Bede will stepping into a leadership role and there's something to be said about the extra confidence that can help pick your game up. Personally, I think Bede may be one of the ACC's most improved offensive players this season.

Landers Nolley

Nolley is the one wing player who seems like the biggest scoring threat. The 6'7'' redshirt freshman has been rightfully talked about the most and should be able to stretch the floor which could give him lots of space to work and an athletic advantage when facing power forwrds guarding him. Don't be surprised to see Nolley among the leading scorers.

Jalen Cone

No incoming freshman or transfer will have a bigger impact this season than Jalen Cone who will have a significant role and probably play at least 25-30 minutes. Cone has lots of scoring ability and given how he may work on-the-ball most of the time he's on the floor, it wouldn't be surprising to see him among the top scorers for the Hokies this season.

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