On Saturday the Virginia Tech Hokies blasted the Wake Forest Demon Deacons by a final score of 52-21 for a big Homecoming victory in Lane Stadium.
This brings both good news and bad news for VPI...
The Bad News: Environmental Police from the state of North Carolina have charged Virginia Tech with deforestation, after the Hokies burnt down Wake Forest on Saturday.
The Good News: Tech picked up their fifth straight win, and sit alone atop the ACC Coastal Division with a clean 3-0 conference record. More good news: the Hokies play Duke this week, which should equal a continuance of Tech's offensive explosion.
I've got to say I was very happy with the win. The only bad part about it was who we destroyed. I wish it could have been Miami, Florida State, or the French who we hung half a century on. I hate that it was Wake who we thrashed, bashed, and left floating helplessly in our...wake. I really respect the Deacs, they are a classy bunch. Winston Salem is a great city. You can go from strolling in the countryside to staring up at skyscrapers in a matter of a few minutes drive. Wake's fans aren't jerks, they have class. They don't really care if they win or lose, but I think that's just because they know they're richer than everyone else. Their mascot the Demon Deacon just looks dapper with that top hat/bow tie combo. Jim Grobe, Wake's head coach, is a classy guy who reminds me a lot of our coach Frank Beamer. He's very respectful, he never gets too worked up over bad calls, and he never speaks badly about other teams. The only bad thing (and surprising thing) about Grobe is his Alma Mater...Virginia. Like Beamer, Grobe has turned around a once dismal program and made them competitive. He guided the Deacs to their best season in school history in 2006. Wake went 11-3 that year, and won the ACC Championship. The Demon Deacons have steadily went downhill since that season though. Can you tell?
The Hokies had an offensive field day, which was very much welcomed. This is how we should have been playing from the start of this season. We knew all along that we had phenomenal players on offense. It was great to see them put to use for once.
Tech scored touchdowns on all but one drive in the first half. From a numerical standpoint that's 7 of 8, which means 7 touchdowns. Seven touchdowns equals 49 points. Forty-nine points in THE FIRST HALF. That's unbelievable. That's unheard of. That's what we've all been waiting for.
The last Tech team to score 49 points in a half...the 1999 Hokies, who happened to make it to a certain big game called the National Championship. In 1999 Tech put 49 points up on Rutgers in the first half, which included five consecutive TD's in the second quarter. The then fifth-ranked Hokies would cruise to a 58-20 victory. Fun Fact: Rutgers was a pretty bad program until current coach Greg Schiano took the reigns. ESPN's abbreviation on the in-game scoreboard and bottom line for the Scarlet Knights was RUTS, which to Hokie fans meant Run Up The Score.
Back to the game. Tyrod Taylor keeps getting better by each game. He went 19 of 27 for 292 yards, and 3 TD's through the air. On the ground, he added 39 yards and a touchdown off of just 7 carries. Tyrod has found a rythm, and continues to be the leader of this now productive offense. He's balanced out all aspects of his game for a fine, well-tuned finished product. In this game, we saw a lot of what we saw in the waning minutes of last season's thrilling win over Nebraska. That consists of Tyrod evading pressure, escaping from the pocket, creating a new pocket, and then drilling wide open receivers. That's when Tyrod's at his best. Is it too late to rule Tyrod out of the Heisman race? Not if he keeps this up.
Dyrell Roberts quietly had a career day receiving. It seems like he's been flying under the radar all season, until this game. You definitely notice it when he catches a pass though, as he's usually pretty amped up and shows it. He had a lot to be amped about on Saturday. He hauled in 6 passes for 134 yards, which included a 42 yard bomb. Way to go One One.
The Ryan Williams-less runningback stable once again looked unstoppable. David Wilson is freaky fast. He had the Wake defense chasing him around like a jack rabbit all game. Speaking of jack rabbits and freaky fast, Wilson chased down and caught a live rabbit that got loose on Tech's practice field this week. That's what legends are made of (like Rocky Balboa catching a chicken in Rocky 2). He also dropped a shoulder on a couple of unfortunate Deacs. Wilson finished the day with a team high 105 yards off of 15 carries. Darren Evans rounded out the rushing attack, as he pounded his way through the Deacon defense. He rumbled for 57 yards and 3 touchdowns off of 12 carries. He's not the guy you want to see in the red zone if your on the opposing team's defense. Over the past few weeks, Evans has inspired me to give him a new nickname...The Punisher.
And how about that forgotten runningback from a year ago. The one we converted to a fullback. What was his name? Yes Josh Oglesby. He had a fantastic outing. He racked up 44 yards on just 4 carries. That's a more than healthy 11 yard-per-carry average. He's always came through for us when we've called on him. Maybe now we won't forget that we have him, and actually use him. Let's line up Tyrod, Oglesby, Evans, and Wilson in the Maryland I Formation and ruin an opposing defensive coordinator's life. Al Groh in a week and a half. Sounds like a plan.
Jayron Hosley had a sweet 58 yard punt return to set up Tech's first TD. He then proceeded to muff every other return on the day. What was up with that? I was scared to death. We've got to get him back on the right track. I guess that's why he plays defense. He made up for it though in the secondary. He's got a 4-day long date with the Jegs machine coming up in practice this week.
Once again the defense did their job of keeping the other team out of the endzone. They held the Deacs to just 92 yards passing. It was the Sneaky Deac rushing attack that caught the Hokies on their heels. Wake Forest runningback Josh Harris reeled off big run after big run on the Tech defense. He tore off 247 yards and two touchdowns in the game. That includes an 87 yard TD scamper. A big reason for this was the alignment of our defense. We had 8 or 9 guys stacked in the box, so if Harris could break through the first line of defenders...it was the open road for him. We've got to tighten up on that. We've been giving up big plays to every team we've played this year. This is extremely alarming with Georgia Tech bringing their triple-option attack to Blacksburg in a week and a half. Let's just hope and pray that Bud has learned how to stop the option.
It was a very honorable move by Beamer to call off the dogs at halftime. The game was well over with, the Deacs looked bleak. The Beam showed them some mercy, well done. This is why Frank is one of the most respected coaches in the country. Like I said before, I would love to hang a hundred on a few selected teams...just not Wake Forest. The Deacs are very good to us. They always reek havoc on the Atlantic side of the conference. It's always fun to see them knock off teams like Florida State and Clemson. They've also got good colors, a cool mascot, and most importantly...they never beat us. I mean it's hard to dislike a team when we always beat them. We've beaten them all three time we've played them since joining the ACC. They even let us beat them in basketball when they were ranked number 1 in the nation back in 2009. The Deacs are such good sports. They've got a friend in me...at least until they beat the Hokies.
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