Nebraska Week, Volume 6 (Huskers Are Here edition) ...

This game definitely has the makings of a thriller. At least the environment does. I was downtown earlier and there are already a good number of red-clad Husker fans roaming around.

Word is, they bought 4,300 tickets through the school and have gotten their hands on even more. I’d expect the biggest visiting crowd at Lane Stadium in a long, long time.

Virginia Tech fans are loyal. They travel well. They’ve sold out 69 straight at Lane. But ... then there’s the Sea of Red. Nebraska’s fans have sold out Memorial Stadium – which today holds more than 87,000 – for a staggering 299 consecutive games.

So there you go, Hokie Nation. Something to shoot for.

Speaking of which, Tech coach Frank Beamer has often talked over the years about what an impact the 1996 Orange Bowl loss to Nebraska had on him. He said it showed him what his program needed to be ... big, fast, physical and, especially, deep – across the board.

The Hokies hung with the Huskers that night, but finally surrendered to superior talent. Since then, though, as I just finished writing for tomorrow’s paper, Virginia Tech probably has more to be proud of than Nebraska.

The Huskers were perfect the next season, winning the 1997 national title. After that, legendary Tom Osborne retired ... and a steady decline started. Meanwhile, with Nebraska’s blueprint in hand, Beamer took Tech to the top, to the 1999 national title game.

The Hokies didn’t win, but since then, they’ve been in the national championship conversation several times – including this season – and have climbed into the top five and top 10 on multiple occasions.

So drastically have the two programs’ fortunes changed (Nebraska is on its third coach in seven seasons) that the Huskers come to Blacksburg this weekend looking for a landmark win. Did you know they haven't beaten a top-20 team in the road in their last 16 tries? That goes back to 1997.

Their thoughts, then, are: Topple Tech and show the country they’re back. How ‘bout that? No wonder their fans are here painting the town red.

That’s enough poetic waxing for one night. If you need a little more, here’s that Ryan Williams story I promised.

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/09/ryan-williams-making-most-every-carry

The extended interviews for that story will have to wait until next week. Will you settle for a little Tech talk (by Beamer, Torrian Gray and Bud Foster) about the Children of the Corn?

Here goes ...

*** HOKIES AND HUSKERS SINCE THE ’96 ORANGE BOWL ***

                NEBRASKA            VIRGINIA TECH

2008:               9-4                       10-4 *

2007:               5-7                       11-3 *

2006:               9-5                       10-3

2005:               8-4                       11-2

2004:               5-6                       10-3 *

2003:              10-3                       8-5

2002:               7-7                       10-4

2001:              11-2                       8-4

2000:              10-2                      11-1

1999:              12-1 *                   11-1 *

1998:               9-4                        9-3

1997:              13-0 *                    7-5   

TOTALS:    108-45 (70.6 %)        116-38 (75.3 %)

’02-’08:        53-36 (59.6 %)           70-24 (74.5 %)

* Denotes a conference championship       

FRANK BEAMER

OPENING REMARKS ON NEBRASKA: “I give Tom Osbourne and Bo Pelini credit. They’ve got this program back rolling. This is really a good football team coming in here. They’re dangerous offensively. The quarterback is playing great. That No. 10 is a real dangerous tailback. They’re throwing to a bunch of receivers. That offensive line is excellent. I mean excellent. Defensively, their front four there is big, strong and tough. They’re just a physical football team. They’re certainly going to be a factor in their conference, and I think they’ve done that quickly. They deserve a lot of credit.”

ON WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT TECH’S PROGRAM THAT NEBRASKA IS LOOKING FOR A WIN IN BLACKSBURG TO HELP VALIDATE ITS PROGRAM: “Me growing up, being around football for a long time, when you start naming the top programs in the country, I’d put Nebraska in there. They went through a little bit of a tough spell there, but they’re back now. They’ve got a lot of tradition. That name comes to mind when you start talking about the top programs.”

ON WHETHER, THEN, THAT’S SPECIAL TO HIM THAT THEY’D BE LOOKING AT THIS AS A CHANCE FOR A LANDMARK WIN: “Yeah. I’m proud of where we’ve been. The last few years, since we lost to them down in the Orange Bowl (1996) until now, we’ve had a good run. I’m proud of the consistency of our program and us being able to win at a high level.”

ON HIS MEMORIES OF THAT ORANGE BOWL: “They were really good when we played them in the Orange Bowl. They just had so many good players. That’s kind of what I learned from that game. We hung in there, but then late in the game, them having more good players than we had kind of showed itself. That was a learning experience.”

ON LAST YEAR’S WIN IN NEBRASKA BEING MOTIVATION FOR THE HUSKERS: “I think it’s two new teams. They’ve got some new people in there and we’ve got some new people in there. I don’t think what happened last year is going to have a lot to do with what happens this year. It’s a lot of new faces both ways. They’re a better football team than they were last year and we’ve got the potential to be a better football team than what we were. But I think it remains to be seen if that’s going to take place.”

ON QB TYROD TAYLOR’S BIG RUN EARLY AGAINST MARSHALL AND HOW MUCH THAT HELPS LOOSEN UP A DEFENSE: “I don’t think there’s any question about his ability. He’s got a good reaction to things in the ballgame. I think he’s a football player. He’s getting more and more dangerous throwing the football – him, the receivers, the protection. And certainly he’s a threat any time to run it. He had a couple big plays against Nebraska last year running the football and made some good throws in that game, too.”

ON WHETHER HE’S LESS CONCERNED OVER THE YOUTH AT TAILBACK NOW: “Well, I feel the same. They’ve got talent. I’ve always said. All three of them played well. There’s no question about the talent level. But there’s no question in my mind that experience is a wonderful thing. You’ve got two that’s getting on the field for the first time and one that got on the field very little last year.”

ON THE POTENTIAL FOR THIS GAME TO BE A SPRINGBOARD FOR THE SEASON: “Any time you can beat a program like that, it means something. There’s no question. It means something. But I’m going to tell you, it’s going to be a challenge to our team to beat this crowd right here. You turn that video on these guys and you want to turn it off.”

ON ALL 10 OF TECH’S TOUCHDOWNS SO FAR BEING SCORED BY FRESHMEN OR SOPHOMORE: “You start thinking about it ... that’s a pretty big stat right there. Hopefully it means good things for the future. I believe it does.”

ON LB CAM MARTIN STILL PLAYING – AND WELL – FOR THE HOKIES DESPITE A CAREER RIDDLED WITH INJURY: “You know, I feel for him and I’m really proud of him. A guy that goes through as much pain to play this game as he does, you want things to work out good for him. And I think he’s probably more appreciative than ever of the time to get out there and make plays and help this football team. What a solid guy. What a good guy. What a good football player. He’s playing with some pain there and playing well.”

ON MARTIN’S POTENTIAL FUTURE AS A COACH: “I think he’d be a great coach. He understands the game. I say that a lot, but some kids this game makes sense to them. Some might have a lot of ability but it just doesn’t make much sense. I think he’d be a heckuva coach.”

ON CB RASHAD CARMICHAEL’S PLAY SO FAR: “He played well last week. He got the defensive player of the game for us. He played quick, played tough. I thought he came in there and did a really good job.”

ON WHETHER SOME PLAYERS JUST HAVE A KNACK FOR FINDING THE END ZONE (WILLIAMS HAS FIVE TDS ALREADY): “You look at Ryan and he’s got a running style that’s pretty good around that goal line. He’s got a burst to him. He’s got power to him. Both of those come in handy down there when you get close to the goal line. He’s a good back down there.”

ON WHETHER THERE’S A SPECIAL KNACK, THOUGH, FOR SOME GUYS: “I think so. Ryan’s a good goal-line type of back.”

ON TE SAM WHEELER MAKING HIS FIRST START LAST WEEK SINCE HIS INJURY IN 2007: “I’m proud of Sam. I’m glad you brought that up. He came in there and did a heckuva job blocking. He came back and really helped our football team. (Wheeler graded 84 percent against Marshall.) I was really proud of what he did. If he’ll play like that, he’ll help us a bunch.”

ON WHETHER HE WAS UNSURE WHAT HE’D GET AFTER WHEELER AFTER SO LONG: “Sam’s a hard guy to read sometimes. He’s kind of a quiet guy. Sometimes he plays kind of quiet. But Saturday, he got on people. One of the touchdowns Ryan had, he had his guy and was driving him back in the end zone. He played really, really well. He kind of hit another tempo that you’d like to see. I was proud of Sam.”

ON WHETHER HE EVER HOLDS GUYS LIKE WHEELER AND CAM MARTIN UP TO THE TEAM AS EXAMPLES OF HARD WORK AND CHARACTER: “We always use examples. I like the fact that Kam Chancellor was in there on the punt return and got a key block. I think that says something about your football team. Jason Worilds was in there on that and got a key block. There were several other key blocks. But there’s guys that are playing a lot of defense contributing on special teams. I think it’s an unselfish crowd here. They want to do whatever it takes to be successful. And when you talk about guys that’s come back from injury like that, there’s a lot of dedication.”

ON HAVING TWO D-TACKLES THAT WANT TO BE IN THE FBI: “We’ve got a lot of good people in our football team, but I don’t think we’ve got two better ones than those two. John Graves, what a fun guy he is to have on your team, and a good player. Demetrius (Taylor), he’s just made himself. He went from a linebacker to defensive end and then found him a home there (at DT). Worked extremely hard and is a very strong guy, and very athletic for inside there. He gives you something, an element that’s different. They’re kind of the same guy: Good people, hard-working, dependable. That’s who we want in our FBI, right?”

ON WHETHER HE WONDERED IF A GUY WHO STARTED AS A 225-POUND LINEBACKER COULD BE AN EFFECTIVE D-1 TACKLE: “He’s always been tough. Now when you can put his hand on the ground and use his speed – he had good speed for the defensive tackle position – now it’s just a matter of getting him strong enough. He’s a guy you just knew he was dedicated, wanted to play very badly and was going to do whatever it took to get the job done. You wait to see it happen, but I certainly thought it could happen.”

ON NEBRASKA FORMERLY AS A RUN-FIRST TEAM AND NOW EVOLVING INTO A PASSING TEAM AND NEEDING TO GET TECH’S DEFENSE OFF THE FIELD: “They’re going to complete passes. You just don’t want those receivers to turn into running backs after the catch. They’re going to complete some passes. There’s no question about that. You want to get pressure on them, but they’re a tough team to get pressure on. They’re very athletic up front and protect well. It’s going to take a heckuva effort for our defense to hang with this offense. They are really, really good.”

SECONDARY COACH TORRIAN GRAY

ON HOW CRIS HILL PLAYED AT FIELD CORNER IN HIS FIRST CAREER START: “OK. My expectations were higher. He just wasn’t as sharp as I’d like him to be. He made a couple plays, did a couple good things, but from a technique standpoint, he could’ve been sharper.”

ON CARMICHAEL ENJOYING HIS TIME IN THE BOUNDARY: “The one thing about the boundary spot is you’ve got to have some instincts over there. You’ve got to have a mentality to want to challenge guys over there from a man coverage standpoint. The one thing Rock did a great job from spring and fall camp is play great man coverage. That’s his strength. Even in the first game, against Julio and No. 4, I thought he got out there and played good, solid man when he had to. The instinctive part, Rock hasn’t been the most instinctive guy, but I’ve challenged him to, if he’s going to take his game to the next level ... that’s what needs to come along.”

ON WHETHER HE EXPECTS TO HAVE VIRIGIL THIS WEEK: “I don’t know. I really don’t know. He had a shot yesterday. It takes 48 hours that he’s supposed to stay off the leg. Then he’s going to give it a try. I won’t know until I see what kind of information he gives me when he comes out, I’m assuming, on Wednesday. We’re hoping the shot will alleviate any pain. If the shot can subside the pain, I guess that will help his mobility to be able to do what we need him to do. Even if he did come back, though, until I know how solid he is ... we would still play Rock in the boundary this week and play Virgil in the field and see what he can do. Just because I don’t know how much full-speed he would be right now to start off with.”

ON NEBRASKA PUTTING UP BIG PASSING NUMBERS, ALBEIT AGAINST TWO SUN BELT TEAMS: “They’re definitely a better team than last season. I tell you what: I’m impressed with the quarterback. He’s very similar to the guy who played last year who gave us fits, as far as keeping plays alive and being able to throw balls on us just by being able to scramble. Those guys are the toughest, because they can run the ball and they can also keep plays alive and throw it, too. This guy is very similar. We have our work cut out for us.”

ON THE WEAK EARLY FOES: “The way I see it is, if you play some one that you’re ‘supposed to be better than’ then you should dominate and have success. That’s what they were able to do. I would hope if we play somebody we’re ‘better than’ that we would dominate. So he only did what he’s supposed to do, and that’s impressive.”

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR BUD FOSTER

ON WHETHER THE DEFENSE HAD THE TRADITIONAL ‘BIGGEST IMPROVEMENT FROM WEEK 1 TO WEEK 2’: “I thought we did. You know, we still gave up two plays. The pass play (a late 60-yard heave), that’s going to happen every now and then. The running play (an early 61-yard TD scoot) was disappointing to me. We just didn’t gap-fit very good. We were fitting out on the perimeter, because they ran that play about three plays before that and we stuffed it. And that’s what happened after that. But the linebackers kind of misread it ... and the guard actually blocked the safety instead of the linebacker. Cody Grimm saw it and went to make the play and ran into the back of his lineman and it bounced outside. The corner, really, was the guy who let it get outside of him. That’s the thing we addressed this morning in front of the team – in front of the whole team – that we can’t give up runs like that. We want to be a great defense. That’s where you challenge kids. They can’t feel good about themselves. You can’t ever do that. We’ve got to always have an edge. We’ve got to let them know what our expectations are around here. But certain guys that I wanted to see them improve, I thought they did that. Are they there yet? No, but we’re making progress. That’s why you play one game after another.”

ON THE BIG-TIME ATMOSPHERE AT NEBRASKA LAST YEAR, BUT THE HUSKERS HAVING TO EXPERIENCE THE LANE STADIUM ATMOSPHERE THIS YEAR: “We’ve got a pretty good track record here ourselves. I think it’s probably pretty comparable settings. They can put 16,000 more people in there place or something like that. But after a while, it all looks the same, whether you’ve got 67,000 or ... that’s still quite a few folks. I guess they’re going to sell out 300 straight games and I guess we’re at like 68, so we’ve got a pretty good track record ourselves. We feel like we’ve got a tough place to play, but we’ve got to go play. Those 67,000 people don’t strap on the Riddell. Those 11 guys on the field do. But ... Lane Stadium is a pretty good home-field advantage and we need our fans to be here in full-force and with their game face on, too.”

ON WHO, SPECIFICALLY, HE SAW IMPROVEMENT FROM SATURDAY: “I thought the linebackers improved. Those were two guys. I’d like to see guys like Antoine Hopkins continue to get better. Chris Drager continue to get better. Steven Friday continue to get better. We had an opportunity, with Stephan Virgil injured, for Cris Hill and Eddie Whitley ... you got a chance to see them get out and play. You’re going to get better the more experience you get. That’s the best teacher of anything. So it’s good to see those guys get out on the field and get a chance to see themselves on film when it’s full-go, so to speak.”

ON WHAT, SPECIFICALLY, HE SAW IMPROVE IN NEW LINEBACKERS JAKE JOHNSON AND BARQUELL RIVERS: “Just being more comfortable in gaps and in the defense. Jake still had a couple mental errors from alignment deals with motion things. He’s got a tendency to just kind of put blinders on and have tunnel vision, so to speak. But he’s one of those guys, once I corrected him, he came back and did it the right way. In the heat of the battle, sometimes, you don’t know how a kid will react. Sometimes he’s just out there running around. I want you to play with a purpose. My daughter can go out and just run around. I want him to go play within the scope of the defense. After the first couple series, he was a little bit all over the place. Then he got settled down. Barquell Rivers played faster. Just his key reads, trusting them, playing faster. At that position, you’ve got to play well all the time. That’s where I’m challenging them: be consistently good, not three out of four. That gets you beat on defense.”

ON TRUE FRESHMAN JAYRON HOSLEY DOING THINGS NATURALLY ON BOTH DEFENSE AND SPECIAL TEAMS: “I’m excited about him. I really am. He’s a guy that’s got to learn to play at this level, but he does some very natural things, ability-wise. He was actually a little out of position (on a near-interception against Marshall), but he made up for it, which shows you some things. The guy’s got great ball skills. He’s got great quickness and acceleration. He’s a tough kid. We’re hoping he’s going to continue on the track that he’s on and hopefully by the fourth or fifth game have more of an impact on the defensive side.”

ON WHETHER HOSLEY IS THE KIND OF KID HE LOVES, A GUY NOT AFRAID TO PLAY RIGHT AWAY, WHO THINKS HE SHOULD: “I haven’t necessarily seen that attitude. He’s a nice kid. But when he’s been on the field, he’s gone out there and performed. He doesn’t walk around like a cocky guy. He’s got a nice smile on his face. I know the kid’s got some abilities and he’s always one play away from having to be an impact guy a little bit more. So we need him to come along and be a consistent guy on defense. That’s kind of what I told him when we walked over here (to interviews). I said, ‘You need to go tell those guys I need to be more of a complete football player, not just a punt returner.’ I don’t know if he said that to y’all, but I told him that. I don’t want him to feel good about himself. I want him to be an all-the-time guy, not just a specialty guy. But he’s got those tools. We just have to bring him along. We’d like to bring him along sooner than later.”

ON BEAMER SAYING NEBRASKA’S O-LINE IS THE BEST THEY’VE FACED IN A WHILE: “Yeah. They lost a couple, but they’re a big, physical athletic group. Nebraska has had a tradition of big, physical, athletic linemen. I think they’ve got more Rimington winners – well, it’s named after their guy – and you’ve got all these Outland Trophy winners and Lombardi winners. They’ve got a great tradition, and they’re upholding their tradition. Their two big tackles are 6-6, 6-7 and about 300, 315. They look like (Vinston) Painter, but they play physical and fast. Painter’s just learning how to play and these kids are playing, they want to hurt you. Their guards move well. It’s just a good football team. You can tell they understand the game the way they come off blocks to the next level, pick up blitzes. Just a well-coached, good group. They remind me of some of the Boston College teams – big, good-looking kids.”

ON THE OBJECTIVE AGAINST THOSE MASSIVE TACKLES FOR A D-END LIKE JASON WORILDS, WHO’S ABOUT 6-1, 260 POUNDS: “Well, speed. That’s what we’ve always done with our defense. That’s why we don’t put our ends shoe-to-shoe on those tackles. That’s their strength, getting their paws on you. Our guys’ strength is their speed – and then, plus we’ve got the power to hopefully get the overset. We coach leverage and all those things in the run game. But if you can get them to throw the ball, just speed and being able to set up rushes. One of their tackles returns from last year and Jason did a good job against him. He played a helluva game. He played one of the great football games last year that I’ve seen one of our ends play. He was relentless. We need for him to do that again.”

ON ONE OF THE KEYS SATURDAY: “We’ve got to stop the run. That’s the thing we did out there: They weren’t able to run the ball consistently against us. We’ve go to do that again. We’ve got to be able to stop the run. But then their quarterback, he does a nice job. Shawn Watson, who’s a friend of mine, is the offensive coordinator. He does a great job. I’ve been really impressed watching them develop.”

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