■ 30 August 2008 | 8:19 PM
Wow. Stunner today, huh? I’m not necessarily shocked that East Carolina won. Definitely surprised by HOW the Pirates won. They beat Beamer with Beamerball.
It looked like Tech’s baby-faced team would slip out of here – Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium – with a win despite their many blunders. The kids (and some vets) made mistakes, but were on the verge of a typical Tech win: just enough offense and big plays from the D and special teams.
Then the young Hokies defense wilted, the once-again-uncertain O-line struggled and Tech gave up a disastrous play in the kicking game. In a snap, the air went of the Hokies’ balloon.
There are now just as many questions – if not more – about this team than there were 24 hours ago. I can’t begin to analyze them all right now. Exhausted after a long day of watching, interviewing and writing.
On the injury front: CB Victor Harris didn’t even travel with the team today. Hope to hear more no him in the next couple of days. RT Blake DeChristopher left after the first series with a “deep thigh bruise” … which musta hurt pretty bad since he never returned. That’s all I know on him for now.
Here’s as much post-game chatter as I could scribble in my notepad (the trusty tape recorder broke today, of all days). See you soon …
COACH FRANK BEAMER
OPENING REMARKS: “Give East Carolina a lot of credit. … They’re building that program … they took it to us. That quarterback (Patrick Pinkney) is exceptional. I don’t think we’re as good as we’re going to be. I think we can learn a lot from this.”
ON THE BLOCKED KICK AT THE END: “It hurts to lose with a blocked kick at the end. We were zone protecting. The guy kind of beat underneath our tackle. I thought the snap was a little soft, the kick was a little slow. The guy just broke through on our protection and he did a nice job. There’s no excuse (for the block). I bet no one’s worked harder on zone blocking this preseason than us.”
ON WHETHER HE’S EVER LOST ON A BLOCKED KICK AT THE END: “Don’t think so, no.”
ON QUARTERBACK SEAN GLENNON: “I thought it was OK. We come out the first series and Blake DeChristopher goes out, our guy at right tackle. That wasn’t a good way to start the day. We’ve had trouble keeping our line together for a couple years here. I thought other than the interception, the interception that got (ECU) their first touchdown, I’ll have to look at that. That hit the guy right in the chest.”
ON THE SHAKY DEFENSE: “We have to tackle a lot better. We missed a lot of tackles today. A lot of tackles. I bet when we go back and count the number of missed tackles, it’ll be a bunch. (NOTE: Tech had no sacks, just two tackles for loss and only one QB hurry).”
ON ECU’S PERFORMANCE: “We’ll play a lot of people, but I’m not sure we’ll play anybody better than the group up front for East Carolina. They’re going to win a lot of football games. As long as they stay healthy, they have a good football team. That quarterback takes them to another level.”
ON TECH’S MANY MISCUES: “I think in the first ballgame, a lot of thins happen that maybe wouldn’t happen in the second ballgame. Coming in, I knew East Carolina was going to be good. They have all those guys coming back from last year, they are tough up front, and they are a good, solid football team.”
ON THE HOKIES YOUNG WIDE RECEIVERS: “I thought we could make a couple more catches. For the oldest guy out there to be Ike … it’s about what you’d expect.”
CB STEPHAN VIRGIL
ON THE LAST-MINUTE LOSS: “It was tough. We played hard … it just got away from us in the end. Things happen … we just had little mistakes.”
ON HIS TWO RETURNS (A FUMBLE AND BLOCKED XP): “I felt like that could be the difference in the game, but …”
ON WHETHER ECU’S QB SURPRISED HIM: “He didn’t surprise me at all. He’s a good quarterback and a good quarterback makes good throws.”
ON WHETHER TECH’S YOUTH SHOWED TODAY: “A little bit, but we’re still good. We’re a little down right now, but we’re still OK. It’s just the first game.”
ON MISSING SO MANY TACKLES: “It was our fault. We’ll have tackling drills next week.”
C RYAN SHUMAN
ON THE LOSS: “It’s heartbreaking. We had it the whole game.”
ON DECHRISTOPHER’S INJURY: “Blake was a big loss … but Dick (Graham) came in and we really didn’t miss a beat. Didn’t even notice, really. Dick did a pretty good job.”
ON WHETHER TECH’S PLAYS GOT TO CONSERVATIVE IN THE SECOND HALF: “You just run the plays that are called.”
ON NOT BEING ABLE TO RUN OUT THE CLOCK: “The last drive, we couldn’t put first-downs together … and they made a play.”
P BRENT BOWDEN
ON THE BLOCKED PUNT AT THE END: “I felt like operation time was fine. I guess the guy just slipped through.”
ON WHAT HE WAS THINKING: “What’s going on? I’ve never had it happen. (Never, not even high school, had a punt blocked) I just heard the sound and looked back.”
ON RE-WATCHING IT ON THE JUMBO SCREEN: “I just wanted to take a second look at what happened. By the time I realized it was getting blocked, it was too late.”
ON HIS REACTION: “Obviously shocking. It’s a definite game-changer. It felt great coming off my foot. I thought I was going to pin them back. Then, just out of nowhere …”
ON THE IRONY OF A BEAMER TEAM LOSING THAT WAY: “We’re known for doing what they did to us.”
DT JOHN GRAVES
ON THE STUNNING LOSS: “It’s not what we expected … but before the game we talked about loyalty and being loyal to your brothers on the team. This is a good opportunity for us to learn as a team, to bounce back from something like this.”
ON MISSED TACKLES: “We just didn’t have the technique. We didn’t wrap up and run our feet very well.”
ON HOW HE PLAYED, PERSONALLY: “I didn’t play up to par. We didn’t as a team.”
ON WHETHER YOUTH HURT THEM: “Not too much. The young guys, they came out and played well for young guys.”
QB SEAN GLENNON
ON THE BLOCKED PUNT: “it was something unexpected. Usually (big special teams plays) go for us. You can’t blame a game on one play. There’s a lot of stuff I could’ve done, the defense could’ve done …”
ON HIS PERFORMANCE: “If I could take away a couple of plays, I thought I played well. But I can’t take away a couple plays.”
ON HIS INTERCEPTIONS: “The first interception was just a little bit of bad luck. Greg (Boone) kind of stumbled out of his break. So he was kind of falling down and reached his hand up … and tipped it in the air. The second pick, I can’t blame anyone but myself. It was a bad decision on my part. I didn’t see (the defender) … And I need to see that guy. It’s on me. I’ve got to take care of the ball on third and long. That hurt us. Other than that, I don’t regret too many throws I made.”
ON WHETHER THE FANS WILL BE CALLING FOR HIS HEAD AGAIN: “I don’t really care. All I care about is my coaches’ opinions. I hope (the fans) know I’m out there for a reason and, although I made a big mistake, I hope it doesn’t cause a big controversy.”
ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE AFTER DECHRISTOPHER LEFT: “Toward the end, I was surprised they were getting so much heat.”
ON THE ERRANT THROW ON THIRD-AND-7 ON TECH’S LAST-GASP DRIVE: “Just a miscommunication. I thought Danny Coale was going to cut off his route.”
ON THROWING AN INTERCEPTION ON HIS FIRST THROW OF THE SEASON AGAIN: “It feels like my first pass is just cursed.”
ON WHETHER YOUTH WAS A MAJOR FACTOR: “It could’ve been worse. I can’t blame this on just rookie mistakes. There were a lot of veteran mistakes, too.”
RB KENNY LEWIS JR.
ON THE TOUGH LOSS: “Coach Beamer just told us keep our heads up. Gotta have a short memory.”
ON NOT SCORING WHEN THEY HAD A CHANCE EARLY: “Those two times we were in the red zone and didn’t score … very frustrating.”
ON THE PUNT BLOCK: “My heart dropped. It hurt. It hurt real good.”
ON HIS STRONG PERFORMANCE (11 carries, 62 yards, 5.6 ypc, TD): “It felt good while it was going on, but we’ve got to put that behind us.”
ON A YOUNG TEAM NEEDING TO GROW UP: “We have no choice. It’s like being little and Dad throws you in the pool. You have no choice. You have to swim. Coach is throwing us in the fire. We’re going to burn or we’re going to survive.”
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Kenny Lewis, Jr. performance
To Hokietriguy,
I'm not sure where you got a 10-yard loss by KLJ. The play-by-play summary on the Tech web site shows two rushes for loss--1 for 1 yard, 1 for 4 yards.
RE:Strong performance by Kenny Lewis, Jr?
Karrl,
If you're going to take away KLJ's best run (24 yards) to make a your point about him not having a strong day, you should also have to take away his worse run (-10 yards) to get a fair assessment. Which will give you 48 yards on 9 carries, and a 5.3 ypc average, which is strong.
ECU didn't win with just "Beamerball"
ECU won the first down battle, the rushing yards battle, the passing yards battle, and the time of possession battle. The Pirate overcame 60 yards of penalties to just 1 or zero (seen it both ways) for the Hokies.
Strong performance by Kenny Lewis, Jr?
I disagree that Lewis had a strong performance. Yes he rushed 11 times for 62 yards, 5.6 yards/carry. However, 24 came on one carry, so for the remaining 10 he rushed for 38 yards. To my mind, 3.8 yards/carry is not a strong performance. No criticism of Lewis intended; all running backs need a good O line, and Tech's was far from that.
Hokie's a mess
Are you sure Glennon is a senior? The way he played it will be a long season for the Hokies. I bet Tyrod had a good time watching this fiasco.