■ 06 November 2009 | 12:20 AM
Well, it certainly wasn’t pretty. The offense started off – again – with three drives deep in opposing territory that netted two field goals and a fumble out the back of the end zone.
After QB Tyrod Taylor fumbled at the goal line, it marked the 12th consecutive time Tech had been in opposing territory in the first half – spanning three games – and failed to score a touchdowns. At that point, those 12 drives had resulted in nine total points. Ouch.
And that defense? Stout most of the night, but for the third straight game they gave up a long scoring drive on the opponents’ final possession (in the final three minutes) of the first half.
That’s the bad and the ugly. The good? For the Hokies, it was a 16-3 win (emphasis on the win part) to end a two-game skid and avoid an epic tank job not seen since 2003.
For Ryan Williams, it was a career-high 179 yards on 26 carries – including another handful of highlight runs worthy of ESPN’s top plays list. That’s the way you bounce back from a fumble that allowed UNC to kick the winning field goal seven days ago. Afterward, he was ecstatic.
For Taylor, who was again imperfect, it was a night when his leadership shined. After the fumble, he took the team right back and scored on a run almost identical to his crazy-cool scoring scramble against Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl last year. Taylor’s arm was a little erratic, but he hit some clutch throws and he ran for 61 hugely important yards.
Despite its scoring struggles, the offense piled up 250 yards in the first half and gave Tech a 10-minute edge in time of possession. The Hokies ran 73 plays tonight. There’s no underplaying the value of that to a young, sometimes-shaky defense.
Oh, and speaking of veteran leadership, LB Cody Grimm (aside from getting burned on a pass play that didn’t end up costing the Hokies) was a man on fire tonight. He had 12 tackles, a sack and a forced (and recovered) fumble that pretty much sealed the deal on this win.
It wasn’t all good. But it was a victory. And it was very apparent that’s exactly what the Hokies needed tonight. What I need now is a nap. Here’s the quick and dirty version of post-game interviews, some of the highlights if you will.
(Not included – and I’m not making this up to dig at some of you – was Ryan Williams’ proclamation that O-coordinator Bryan Stinespring called a brilliant game. He said that unprompted. I’m just saying.)
HEAD COACH FRANK BEAMER
OPENING REMARKS: “It’s been a tough couple of weeks here, but I’m really, really proud of our players and our coaches. They kind of hung in there through some tough times and kept working. To come in here and beat this crowd, now, I’m proud. They look the part and they’ve got speed and they’re a tough football team. For us to come in here after last week, the tough loss at the end, it just says a lot. I use that word relentless, and that’s exactly how I’d describe this football team.”
ON RYAN WILLIAMS: “I tell you, some of those runs, that was relentless. People looked like they had him and he just kept going and, I mean, a couple of those runs were amazing. They need to be on ESPN tonight, I think.”
ON WILLIAMS AFTER THE FUMBLE: “You saw him in that dressing room and knew how much that hurt him ... how much he felt like he let people down. And you appreciate that, too. He cares.”
LB CODY GRIMM
ON GETTING A WIN: “It feels real good to get everyone off our back. It feels good.”
ON GIVING UP A LONG DRIVE BEFORE THE HALF: “It was a little upsetting. In our cover three, I wasn’t setting up as wide as usual. It’s a little bit my fault. They started recognizing it and running quick routes. They just ran good plays. But as long as they don’t get in the end zone, it’s good.”
ON NOT CARING HOW IT LOOKED, BUT JUST NEEDING A WIN: “We were talking about the weekend off. A bunch of us are going home. I don’t want to sit at home again and watch everyone else play football and we lost. It’s a real good feeling to watch football and be happy about it.”
ON THE DEFENSE AFTER TWO ROUGH GAMES: “We stayed calm. We even had some mistakes tonight, but we made up for them.”
RB RYAN WILLIAMS
ON BOUNCING BACK: (All smiles) “I’m proud of myself. Words can’t describe how I feel right now, coming from where I was last week. It’s a lot more smiles, right? No bags under the eyes, right?”
ON COPING: “I just did a lot of research. I researched on Walter Payton, how many fumbles he had. All my favorite running backs. And I just realized that it happens to everybody. Nobody can be perfect. After I realized that, I came out to practice with the same mentality as always.”
ON THE PLAY: “It’s been gone. It was gone last week. Thinking about it right now, it still makes me sick to my stomach. But things happen. I can’t be perfect. But I can try to be as perfect as I can be.”
ON TALKING TO HIS MOM BEFORE THE GAME: “That’s my best friend. The last thing we said – I talk to her every day and I called her as soon as we got off the bus – she said, ‘Do your thing, Ru.’ That’s all I needed to hear.”
QB TYROD TAYLOR
ON THE FUMBLE ON WHAT LOOKED LIKE A TD RUN: “I still think it is. ... It was a little frustrating, but when I came to the sideline, I told the guys, ‘I’ll eat that one, but when we get back on the field, I’ll make sure I get y’all another one.’ ”
ON NOT A PERFECT GAME, BUT A WIN: “Sloppy or not sloppy, I think a win was good for this team, just to get us back on track and just to get the team together. ... If it was 3-2 or 2-0, we would take this win.”
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Stiney
Here is the question, right now if you have a top 25 program, heck even a top 50 ranked program and your OC just left, would you replace him with Stinespring if he were available? Only reason why he is still their is because of his peronal relationship with Beamer or he has some major dirt on the program.
Stinespring
Kyle,
I've never posted anything, anywhere before...but your comments re: "Why's everyone jumping on Stiney and giving Bud a pass" got me. Stinespring has to go. Not because of any one thing, but the total body of work. The last several seasons, Tech's offense has been down about 100 or so of 120. Always needing just one something. Well,, this year everything is in place. Don't know the ranking, but it sure isn't high. All that talent and still no offense. ECU game was hard to watch.
As for Bud, he simply has a good offense this year. Not a great one. His total body of work certainly justifies a "pass". With only a "good" defense, the team certainly could use a little help from that offense.
It's discouraging to contemplate that offensive talent being wasted next year, Tyrod's senior season.
Our Offense
(CONTINUED)
How do we get that offense from 9/26-10/10 back on the field? You have a better vantage point than most of us fans ever will. Kyle, what do you think happened after BC?
Thank God for an easy "back 9" but if we play as stale as last night, there is a good chance we drop another 'sure win' this season and/or the bowl game.
I think that Stiney did make
I think that Stiney did make some adjustments after the near-disaster that was the Nebraska games. The problem is, he stopped making adjustments after that. That's the problem with the guy. He just rigidly and dogmatically sticks to a certain game plan regardless of whether or not it's working. The guy goes into a game with a certain strategy and it rarely varies much. If it works, great. If it doesn't, he continues to do the same things while expecting different results.
Our Offense
This roller coaster of a season is hard to understand.
We start out pretty flat on O the first few games, looking like the offense most Hokie fans have come to expect...again. We almost lose to Nebraska & the miracle drive happens. Stiney and the offense put in more time/dedication/etc and sparks fly.
We play like a team, inspired, for the next few games, against quality opponents. Things are clicking on all cylinders, and *Swallow hard, our offense looks pretty tough smacking around the competition. So my question is... What happened between BC and GT? Did Stinespring get lazy again? Did other team's defenses pick up on our newly acquired offensive play calling? Did our offense come out too cocky and get smacked in the mouth? Did our offense have an off night w/ GT, and then fall into a rut since? Is it that we are a young team and don't know how to rebound?
The scary thing is, it's like a light went off or something, as quickly as it came on after Nebraska. We don't look like the same offensive unit out there AT ALL. We have our skill players, still making big plays here and there, and the beast we know as Ryan Williams, but as a UNIT, things have reset to mediocre.
H
Stinespring is not alone
If we are going to throw Stinespring under the bus be sure to throw Mike O'Cain under there with him.
What would you expect Ryan
What would you expect Ryan Williams to say? "Coach Stinespring called a really lousy game, but myself and Tyrod managed to bail him out." Yeah I don't think so......
Stinespring is still a joke.
Called a pretty good game? Well, you pointed it out yourself: 63.4% for 250 is what ECU had been giving up in the passing game. That should help bring up the VT average of 174.4 (good for #103 in passing nationally). Nope. They managed 56.7% for 137. I'm just saying. Stinespring is lucky he has a workhorse like Williams to bail him out, because he's unimaginative and simply doesn't know how to use the athletes that he's got on offense. His game plan is three yards and a cloud of dust, and hope Ryan or Tyrod makes more out of it. And tonight they did. But they still only put up 16 points on a team that had been giving up an average of 22.6. The only teams to put up fewer points on ECU? UCF(#79 scoring offense) and Rice(#117). But I guess a win is a win.