For Virginia Tech, national gain brings national pain

LANDOVER, Md.

The bounce back for Virginia Tech's football team begins this weekend against James Madison. But maybe the Dukes should've been the Hokies' jumping-off point instead of their soft place to land.

After his team's season-opening 33-30 loss to No. 3 Boise State on Monday night, coach Frank Beamer bemoaned the lack of a preseason game in college football.

"We weren't a great football team tonight," he said. "We made some critical mistakes. But I firmly believe we're going to be a great football team."

Therein, perhaps, lies his mistake. Because knowing that uncharacteristic gaffes are more likely early in the season, many elite teams do schedule a pseudo scrimmage.

Seven of the preseason top-10 teams played low-level, non-BCS teams in their openers. That mild competition included San Jose State, Marshall, Miami (Ohio), Rice, Utah State, Western Kentucky and Eastern Illinois.

The Hokies, however, for the fourth time in seven seasons, played a top-five opponent in one of their first two games. They've lost all four, throwing their own national title aspirations into doubt, while catapulting their opponent to big things.

Southern California (2004) won the national title after beating Tech in the opener. LSU (2007) did the same after thumping the Hokies in Week 2. Alabama followed suit last season, hoisting the crystal football after escaping a Tech team that led in the fourth quarter.

Will Boise State be the fourth eventual national champion in seven years to kick off its run by breaking the Hokies' hearts?

Beamer's team was agonizingly close to reversing that trend against the Broncos. Tech stormed back from a 17-0 deficit and led until the final 1:09, when Boise's standout quarterback, Kellen Moore, orchestrated the decisive drive.

That grabbed the headlines, but it wasn't the story of the game. Not for the Hokies, anyway. After the first quarter, and before that final drive, Tech outscored the Broncos 30-9. They dominated during stretches.

Quarterback Tyrod Taylor sparkled, completing 15 of 22 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 81 yards on 13 carries - excluding a trio of sacks. The defense forced two critical fumbles that led to Tech touchdowns. The Hokies, in that stretch, looked like national title contenders.

But in the first quarter, they looked like an unprepared mess, a gang that needed a warm-up game. Taylor fumbled away the second snap of the game. He explained it later by saying the center somehow thought he was in shotgun formation instead of directly underneath him.

In the process of spotting Boise the big early lead, the Hokies also ran into the Broncos' punter, missed a field goal try, sailed a kickoff out of bounds and got a punt blocked.

"You could've blocked that kick," Beamer told a reporter afterward. "It was a new guy communicating to a new guy."

There were a lot of new guys for the Hokies on Monday night, particularly on defense. Think the seven new starters on that side of the ball could've used a cupcake opener to get comfortable?

It should be noted that Tech was originally scheduled to play Boise State on Oct. 2 but moved the game at ESPN's request - and for a $2.35 million payday. Only time will tell if it was worth it.

One certainty: New starting linebackers Jeron Gouveia-Winslow and Bruce Taylor weren't quite ready for the big-time in Week 1. Gouveia-Winslow saw the first and last touchdown passes of the game sail over his head. Taylor was flagged for a late hit that prolonged the Broncos' winning drive and earlier whiffed on a tackle in the backfield that turned into a 71-yard touchdown run.

"We don't usually miss tackles," Beamer said. "There were just some young guys making some young-guy mistakes."

Teams like Boise State capitalize on such errors. Teams like James Madison? Maybe not. Had the Hokies started with the Dukes, they'd likely be 1-0 today and comfortably inside the top 10 of the AP and coaches' polls, instead of sliding to No. 13 in both.

And now, in another scheduling twist, by moving up the Boise date, Tech has left itself only four days to prepare for JMU. Taylor said what the Hokies need is "seniors taking control of the locker room, making sure everybody's on the same page, and go out there and work hard in practice."

The good news for Tech is it has seen this movie before, and the Hokies know there can be a happy ending. Early loss, strong finish, 10-plus wins and maybe an ACC championship along the way. That's been the story line for six years now.

But these Hokies were hoping for much more. Their dreams are now derailed by little more than zealous scheduling and typical first-game hiccups that hurt Tech more than Boise State.

"It was an opportunity missed," Taylor said. "But I believe that we beat ourselves. It wasn't anything (Boise) did to beat us. "