Miami Week, Volume 7 (Hokies Hammer Hurricanes edition) ...

Two weeks, two stunners. This one for a different reason. After the Nebraska escape, we were all wondering how the heck the Hokies stole that one.

Now, after a 31-7 beat-down of No. 9 Miami (ESPN’s darling), I think we’re all wondering where the heck that performance came from.

Listen, I thought – and said – Tech would win this game. I NEVER guessed that they would completely, totally shut down the Hurricanes’ offense or, even more amazingly, absolutely have their way with Miami’s defense.

I’m sure you Bryan Stinespring haters are really struggling with this, but he called an excellent first half. I think with a huge lead, he called off the dogs a little and just tried to grind it out in the final two quarters. But in the first 30 minutes, Tech out-gained Miami 242 yards to 54.

Stiney mixed the run and pass, ran inside and out, and sprinkled in a significant amount of misdirection that had the ‘Canes on their heels from the start. Tyrod Taylor ran, he passed (for the brief part of the game where he needed to) and Ryan Williams ran wild again.

Williams toted it 34 times for 150 yards and two TDs. He caught two balls for 40 yards. He has rushed for 492 yards and eight touchdowns in four games – already ranking eighth and fourth all-time among freshmen in those categories.

Hurricanes QB Jacory Harris, who had been sacked once and pressured NONE before today ... he was sacked three times by Tech and harassed all day. He fumbled early and threw a pick late, both leading to Hokies touchdowns.

Oh, and a guy who played two snaps all season before today, Jacob Sykes (I know, right, WHO?) blocked a punt that former walk-on Matt Reidy returned for another score.

It was a thorough whipping in the slop. Rain fell steadily from start to finish. Tech, too, kept coming from the opening kick to the final whistle.

Here’s what he Hokies had to say afterward ...

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR BUD FOSTER

ON THE WAY HIS PLAYERS RESPONDED TO HIS CHALLENGE THIS WEEK: “That’s just a compliment to our kids. They know what our tradition is here, and we’ve played good people. We beat a good team here today. I’m proud of them. They responded to what we demanded and what we challenged them with. It was a great team win in all phases of the game.”

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PRESSURING JACORY HARRIS: “It was big. Going into the game, we felt like we had a good pressure package. We just had to get him into those situations. We were able to do it. We were able to mix in some blitz pressure and our ends were able to get some pressure. I felt like we needed to get a better push up the middle, but we were still able to mix in pressures. And having a hit early, causing a fumble, that was a big factor in the game, getting us jump-started early on both sides of the ball. Jacory hasn’t had a bunch of pressure on him. That was one thing we were able to do. The big thing was stopping the run, getting them behind the sticks. ... We were able to take away their check-downs (took away his dump-off options).”

ON HOW  MUCH JUICE THE TEAM GOT OUT OF THAT EARLY HARRIS FUMBLE: “It is a big-time deal. You get our 12th man going, which is the 67,000 people in the stands. It’s big. Any time you can create something early ... all the sudden that quarterback’s thinking about the rush the little bit, where he’s been able to sit in the pocket and be comfortable. We made his night where he wasn’t very comfortable.”

ON ALL THE TALK ABOUT MIAMI BEING BACK: “It was a set-up. I talked to a couple of their coaches (before the game) and said, ‘I hope your kids weren’t buying into all this stuff.’ It’s hard not to. You’ve got to be guarded about that, when you’ve got people blowing smoke up your tail like they’ve had. Miami is a good football team. Don’t get me wrong. But that’s got to be a distraction. Now the thing we’ve got to do is avoid that ourselves. We’ve got to go down and play at Duke. We’ll challenge our kids: Now you’ve got to be consistently good. You can’t be an up-and-down team. You’ve got to continue to build on what we did today.”

SS DORIAN PORCH

ON BUD FOSTER DEMANDING MORE FROM THE DEFENSE: “Our defense has been a great defense. Coach Foster challenged us, put the note in our locker, and he told us they way we play defense here should never be like that. It shows a lot about our guys, how we responded to that and how we stepped up to the challenge.”

ON ALL THE PRE-GAME TALK ABOUT MIAMI: “They are a great team, but we’re Virginia Tech. I don’t understand ... I don’t feel like we ever left. It says a lot about our team when we come out and stay focused on the task at hand.”

ON HOW GOOD IT FELT TO BEAT THE CANES BADLY: “It feels so good. So good. A lot of people were talking about Miami, as well they should have been. They were playing great ball. But when it comes down to it, today I think we were the better team. And we came out and showed it.”

ON HAVING HARRIS IN HIS SIGHTS EARLY IN THE GAME: “The first thing I saw was the ball. I was thinking about forgetting the hit and trying to take the ball. But I got a hit on him and then swung my arm on his arm. Fortunately, the ball came out. I feel like that was a great play for us. All day today, I felt like guys were flying around and making plays out there.”

ON LETTING HARRIS KNOW EARLY THAT HE WOULDN’T HAVE TIME TO THROW: “They call him the calm, cool, collected guy. He is. For us to put fire on him and let him know, ‘We’re not going to let you stand back there all day ...’ that was a big statement early in the game that we were coming.” RB RYAN WILLIAMS

ON SAYING PREVIOUSLY HE HAD NEVER HAD 20-PLUS CARRIES, NOT EVEN IN MIDDLE SCHOOL, AND GETTING 34 TODAY: “It felt good. I felt like I was getting stronger throughout the game. I felt like was running harder than I was when I first started carrying the ball. I like playing football. I love getting the ball. I love running. It was a great feeling getting the ball that many times. I knew the team relied on me to really push the ball up the field.”

ON OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR BRYAN STINESPRING CALLING A GREAT GAME IN THE FIRST HALF, KEEPING MIAMI OFF-BALANCE: “The first series, I knew it was going to be a great offensive game and Coach Stiney was going to call a great offensive day. I knew from the first series. The first time I carried the ball, I got a first down. I just knew we were going to run the table all day.”

ON A LOT OF TALK ABOUT BUD CHALLENGING THE DEFENSE THIS WEEK AND WHETHER STINEY ISSUED A SIMILAR CHALLENGE TO THE OFFENSE: “Coach Stiney never changes. He comes in, tells us what we need to do, and we have to go out and do it. We had a meeting Monday morning, watching film. That’s where we just kind of go over the mental errors. He even said himself that he called a couple bad plays during the game last week. He put it on our shoulders to pick it up and his shoulders also. It was a great feeling knowing that our coach, the offensive coordinator, admitted to his mistakes and changed them around.”

ON WHETHER THIS TEAM GOT ANGRY AT ALL THE MIAMI TALK LEADING UP TO THE GAME: “I know a lot of guys were. I wasn’t. I really didn’t care, because I know what the team is capable of doing. It really didn’t bother me. I knew were going to come out today and ... get the job done.”

ON WHAT IT DOES TO DEFENSES WHEN QB TYROD TAYLOR IS RUNNING EFFECTIVELY: “With him running the ball, it opened up a lot of things today. We were able to get down the field faster, and he was also able to throw the ball effectively – even in the weather conditions. It was great.”

ON IT LOOKING LIKE MIAMI COULDN’T GET ITS FOOTING EARLY IN THE GAME, WHILE TECH COULD: “I don’t know, man, I guess the grass was on our side.”

ON WHETHER TECH NOW HAS TO LEARN FROM MIAMI’S MISTAKE AND NOT BUY THE HYPE THE REST OF THE WAY: “See, the thing about us, we try not to pay attention to any of that. We play our game. Being in the hot seat, I know a lot of top-10 teams have been getting knocked off ... but we’re not worried about it. If we play our game, we’re confident that we can come out with the win.”

OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR BRYAN STINESPRING

ON THE WAY THE OFFENSE WAS HITTING ON ALL CYLINDERS AND EVERYTHING SEEMED TO BE WORKING IN THE FIRST HALF: “This morning ... Bud and I always get together early in the morning ... he said, ‘How’d you sleep?’ Normally on Friday night, you get to Hotel Roanoke and you crawl in that bed and you get that nice, hot cookie they have there and a glass of milk and it’s all over. But I told him I didn’t sleep very well. I had tossed and turned a lot, visualizing the game and how it would unfold, through each situation. I felt really good about what we were going to try to accomplish. To see it unfold  is a credit to those players.”

ON WHETHER HE SLEPT MUCH AT ALL THIS WEEK: “Not a lot. I was putting in a lot of hours. There was an urgency level ... and that urgency level keeps your motor running a lot. I just didn’t get a lot of sleep this week.”

ON SATURDAY NIGHT’S SLEEP: “I’ll sleep well.”

CB RASHAD CARMICHAEL

ON WHETHER TECH FELT DISRESPECTED COMING INTO THIS GAME: “We felt disrespected, but it’s cool being the underdog. That way you know everybody on your team knows you have to come out there and fight. I didn’t watch ESPN and listen to the Miami talk. That can affect your game, too. But the coaches did, and the coaches came to us with quotes and stuff off Twitter and Facebook. Those guys have been posting up about us. We just wanted to come out here and show them that Virginia Tech, we never left. The U might be back, but we never left.”

ON WANTING TO MAKE THAT STATEMENT: “It was a huge statement for us: the defense and the offensive side of the ball. People were questioning our tackling ability and our perimeter and our linebackers. We came out and showed those guys today that ... we still are the same defense.”

ON THE PRESSURE ON HARRIS: “I could tell he was getting a little aggravated in the pocket. The pressure ended up getting to him. I praise those guys, our D-line. Those guys came through for us today.”

ON THE UNDERDOG ROLE BEING OVER AND BEING FAVORITES THE REST OF THE WAY AND HOW TO AVOID MIAMI’S FATE: “Don’t watch TV. I don’t even have cable. Brandon Flowers told me the difference between a good defensive back and a great defensive back is how much film you watch. As soon as he told me that in January, I turned my cable off and just watched film.”

DE JASON WORILDS

ON HOW AWARE TECH WAS OF ALL THE MIAMI TALK: “We were aware. But Miami beat two great teams. Their hype was rightfully so.”

ON PRESSURING THE QB, GETTING TO HIM ON THE FIRST DRIVE: “That was key. We put a premium on that all week. We wanted to see how he responded to our type of pressure. It gave us momentum early and it was a huge play.”

ON WHAT HE THOUGHT WHEN HE WOKE UP SATURDAY TO HEAVY RAIN: “I love it. I love this game. Any weather ... football is a warrioristic sport and I love it.”

ON SEEING THE OFFENSE GO WILD IN THE FIRST HALF: “Extremely exciting. Today was a great team win. We did it in all facets of the game. For the offense to come out and click on all cylinders like that, we love  it.”

ON THE COACHES PRINTING OUT MOTIVATIONAL MATERIALS: “A bunch of stuff, a lot of stuff the media was saying about them and what they were not saying about us, picking them to win. We work hard. For people to work so hard, it kind of hurts to not be respected.”

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