Hokies Hoops, Vol. 3 (Clemson Craziness edition) ...

I sure picked a weird game to make my hoops return. SO WEIRD. Virginia Tech missed its first 10 shots, were getting out-rebounded 8-1, trailed 9-1 ... shot 15.4 percent for the entire first half ... and basically blew out Clemson. Bizarre.

But, things like that happen when the other team can’t shoot much either (Clemson hit 19 of 62 from the field) and the Hokies are playing their typical gritty defense, forcing 17 turnovers (10 in the first half).

Oh, and it REALLY helps when you shoot 46 free throws. FOURTY-SIX. Even better when you hit 38 of those. Malcolm Delaney didn’t have a field goal in the first half but got 13 points at the line.

For the game, the ACC’s leading scorer dropped 20 of his 30 points from the stripe. The 20 free throws tied the school record also owned by teammate Dorenzo Hudson.

Did I mention the crowd. NICE effort, people. There were more than 9,000 screaming and jumping fans in Cassell Coliseum, thanks in part to free student admission. Nice idea.

It’s also a nice win for Tech. It’s the Hokies’ first win over a top-50 team in the RPI. Clemson is No. 32. Tech had been 3-18 against top-50 teams since the start of 2007-08.

The Hokies also improved to 12-0 at home this season, 4-0 against the ACC. Tech (18-4, 5-3) remains 1.5 games back of league-leading Duke. Win at N.C. State next Wednesday and it will set up a HUGE rivalry game with Virginia at Cassell next Saturday night.

I expect nothing less than a brutally ugly contest. Until then, here’s tonight’s post-game reaction from the Hokies ...

FORWARD JEFF ALLEN

ON WINNING A GAME LAST YEAR’S TEAM MIGHT NOT HAVE: “We’re a better team than we were last year. We’re a better team. We’re making better decisions.”

ON OVERCOMING THE SLOW START: “In the ACC, there’s going to be runs. They had their run and we had ours. Just play through mistakes. You can’t live in the past.”

ON WINNING A GAME IN WHICH TECH SHOT 15 PERCENT IN THE FIRST HALF BUT TOOK 46 FREE THROWS IN THE GAME: “It was odd. That was odd. There was comfort. We were going to the free throw line and making them. Coach has us working on free throws every single day. Sometimes even off days.”

ON HIS PENCHANT FOR STEALS AND HOW TO AVOID FOULING: “If it’s a steal that I really think I can get, I reach for it. (Greenberg’s) main thing with me was if I can’t get it, don’t go for it. Just get your hands up; don’t take fouls.”

ON WINNING THE TURNOVER BATTLE: “We play good defense. That’s what kept us in the game.”

WING TERRELL BELL

ON LEADING AT THE HALF DESPITE BEING OUT-REBOUNDED BY NINE AND SHOOTING 15 PERCENT FROM THE FIELD: “I wouldn’t have believed it, but we played pretty good defense and we held them in the first half. And we got up before we came in. Then we knew we had to get right before we went back out for the second half.”

ON HITTING ALMOST 83 PERCENT OF THEIR 46 FREE THROW ATTEMPTS: “We try to hit 100 free throws a day in practice. We started that this year and I think it helps. Everybody (shoots), even the hurt ones. (Greenberg) always has something new for us and we always accept the challenge.”

ON MALCOM STRUGGLING TO SHOOT IN THE FIRST HALF: “Malcolm can get it going at any time, so we know as long as we play defense and get it into the post to Jeff and Victor (Davila) and let Dorenzo hit some big shots for us, Malcolm will eventually get it going.”

ON HAVING A GREAT OVERALL RECORD BUT NO TOP-50 WINS BEFORE TODAY: “Both of them were huge. I think the Carolina win carried us into tonight. We try to take it night by night. I didn’t even think about it (being a top-50 win) but it feels good. But all I think about is the next game, at N.C. State.”

ON WHAT A 5-3 RECORD IN THE ACC AT THE HALFWAY POINT SAYS: “We’re pretty good. We’ve got eight games left and we’ve just got to keep grinding.”

ON WHETHER THERE WAS ANY POINT THE TEAM DRAGGED BECAUSE OF A 40-HOUR TURNAROUND BETWEEN GAMES: “I think that was the first half. The first half, we struggled and we pushed through the wall, and we got the win. We were just sluggish. The crowd was great and they helped us pick it back up.”

GUARD MALCOLM DELANEY

ON THE AWFUL FIRST HALF, BUT STILL LEADING: “We kind of win ugly games. That’s our team. We’re not the best-scoring team ... but we’re a scrappy team. Those are the kind of games we like playing. These are the type of games we win.”

ON WHETHER THEY WERE TIRED: “Not really. We can’t use that as an excuse. We just didn’t shoot the ball well. But we just needed to get the win. That’s all the matters. Don’t matter how ugly it was. I don’t care if we didn’t make a field goal the whole game, as long as we still got the win.”

ON DRAWING A LOT OF FOULS: “I took it upon myself to get Booker in foul trouble. I know he likes blocking shots. I took one 3 and he kind of jumped from the free throw line to block it. I said, ‘Next time, I’m going to pump-fake him.’ He jumped. I just out-smart people. I drew four fouls. The rest, they just fouled. Like I said, they like blocking shots. I just used my brain. ... I guess they should’ve taken it upon themselves not to jump.”

ON WHETHER HE’S EVER BEEN PART OF SUCH A WEIRD WIN: “Nope. But like I said, that’s the type of team we have. Not many teams can do that. A lot of teams probably would’ve been down 15 or 20. ... We just do all the dirty work.”

ON WHAT THIS WIN MEANS BIG-PICTURE: “We’re confident playing against Clemson. This is probably one of the games we look forward to every year. We always play good against Clemson. ... We usually kill that press. We just prepare for it so well, and they didn’t really press us today. That’s kind of their game. That kind of slowed them down, when they can’t get steals and get out (on the break). We just kind of took them out of their game.”

ON THE DEFENSIVE EFFORT: “We contested shots. They got a couple looks, but we never let them get that same shot again. We strapped up on D and contested all their shots.”

ON WHETHER THIS QUALITY WIN IS A RELIEF, SINCE THAT WAS THE ONE KNOCK ON TECH: “People can say whatever they want. I’m not sure there was one person who thought we would have this record we have right now, and the record we have in the ACC. So we stick together. We’re not worried about what people say. We know we can beat any team in the ACC as long as we come to play.”

ON NOT HAVING THESE WINS, THOUGH, KEEPING TECH OUT OF THE NCAA TOURNAMENT THE LAST TWO YEARS: “We know. We didn’t come into the game thinking we need this win to get to the tournament. We’re just thinking it’s another ACC win. We’ve got to win the next game. We’re not thinking this win will get us in the tournament. We know if we win (enough) it’s going to get us there, but we don’t get into that coming into the game. We just concentrate on each game. Coach is doing a great job with scouting reports. With this quick turnaround, we adjusted very well. Last time we had Miami, we didn’t come together on that quick turnaround. Today ... we paid more attention to the detail stuff Coach wanted to talk about.”

SETH GREENBERG

OPENING REMARKS: “That was two teams whose offenses were offensive and whose defenses were aggressive, I guess. I don’t know how to describe except that both teams played so hard defensively that the offenses may have set the game back a couple of years. Ten turnovers (for VT) to 17 turnovers (for CU) is the only way you can survive 15 percent shooting in the first half. I guess the (new) practice facility paid some dividends because we were 38 of 46 from the line and we’ve probably shot more free throws (in practice) this year than we’ve ever shot. I thought we were good defensively. We managed our roster pretty good during the course of the game. Terrell Bell is giving us really good minutes and Jeff Allen really competed. He had the one stretch where we had a chance to make a run. Offensively, obviously, we had no ability to get into any rhythm in the first half. I said this to our guys: In a season when Dorenzo Hudson has shown us unbelievable leadership and guidance and toughness, it was nice to see the other guys can help him get through a night where he quite honestly ... his foot is sore and he’s playing his heart out. We have great minutes from (Cadarian) Raines; We have great minutes from (Erick) Green. I thought Green really, in the second half, committed to getting us into the offense – a little bit. Then when we decided we couldn’t run the offense because they were so aggressive, we were just going to spread the court and set some ball screens and try to drive. It was all about the defense. Jeff knocked that ball away. Jeff had that little stretch (in the second half) where he took over the game. Really the game came down to who was going to get in worse foul trouble first: (Trevor) Booker or Allen. The two shot fakes Malcolm drew the fouls on were really huge.”

ON TECH’S DEFENSIVE EFFORT: “Defensively, we were better in the second half, rotating on ball screens and getting back on defense and rebounding a little better. We wanted to close down angles for Booker to just catch it and go on us. We did a pretty good job on that. Guarding him for 23 minutes is a heck of a lot better than guarding him for 40. He’s a beast. It was just a typical Virginia Tech game ... not physically attractive.”

ON BEING 5-3 AT THE ACC’S HALFWAY POINT: “We’re pretty resilient. I don’t know if we’re good but we’re sure resilient. We’re a long way from being a good team. But we are a tough team and we are competitive and they really like each other. That serves a lot for your team.”

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Hokies Football Signing Day 2010 ...

Talk about good timing. Today is my first full day back from elbow surgery. I’m still pretty limited and still have a mostly immobilized arm. I type about 25 percent as fast as I did before. BUT ... I’m sick of laying in bed watching movies AND it’s national signing day. Time to get back in the saddle.

So by now you know about the stars of this recruiting class, which Rivals.com rates the No. 3 class in the ACC and No. 22 class in the country. It’s a very solid, very well-rounded group. Eight offensive players – including two at the all-important QB spot – and 12 on defense.

Tech’s third consecutive top-25 recruiting class is led by big names like DE Zack McCray, S Nick Dew and DTs DeAntre Rhodes and Nick Acree. Each of them is rated a four-star prospect. McCray is a potential superstar. Dew maybe the most versatile guy in the class, capable of playing whip linebacker, rover or free safety. And, um, Acree is ... the Incredible Hulk. Despite being 6-5, 295, he appears to have about three percent body fat. He has been built like an NFL All-Pro since his sophomore year in high school.

Those are the stars. But my focus today was on the offensive line, where Tech had a very strong haul, including 4-star tackles Laurence Gibson and Mark Shuman. This finishes four years of great line recruiting ... on the heels of four TERRIBLE years of line recruiting.

Below, you’ll find a graphic to illustrate exactly why the blocking was so bad for so long and why there’s a lot of reason for optimism up front in the future. You’ll also hear from the Hokies’ head coach. And O-line coach Curt Newsome who, by the way, said King’s Fork LB/S Dominique Patterson might be the steal of this class. He said when Tech worked Patterson out at a one-day camp, then timed the 6-2, 215-pounder at 4.4 in the 40, the Hokies set about trying to immediately close the deal on a commitment. They didn’t want his tape to get out and other big schools to discover what a hidden gem he was. So he’s one to watch.

Now to the line, then the Qs and As ...

In the four recruiting classes from 2003-2006, Virginia Tech signed six linemen rated top 40 nationally by Rivals.com, three of whom were considered 4-star prospects. All six left school with eligibility remaining and none ever became starters. Four of them were highly regarded out-of-state prospects who became big-time busts, perhaps leading to a larger focus on recruiting linemen closer to home for better evaluation.

2006

4-star Aaron Brown, No. 7 tackle (6-6, 300) *

3-star Clark Crum, No. 40 tackle (6-7, 280) *

2005

3-star Hivera Green, No. 26 guard (6-5, 270) *

3-star Antonio North, No. 23 guard (6-3, 3-5)

2004

None

2003

4-star Tripp Carroll, No. 7 guard (6-5, 280) *

4-star Matt Welsh, No. 17 tackle (6-5, 275)

In the last four recruiting classes, Virginia Tech has signed 12 offensive linemen rated among the top 40 prospects in the nation at their position by Rivals.com. Of those, eight were ranked top 30 and four were 4-star prospects (out of five stars in Rivals' system), meaning they were recruited by major programs across the country. Two of those prospects are already starters and two more were No. 2 on the depth chart in 2009.

2010

4-star Laurence Gibson, No. 2 prep school player (6-6, 295)

4-star Mark Shuman, No. 29 tackle (6-6, 280)

3-star Matt Arkema, No. 28 guard (6-3, 290)

3-star Caleb Farris, No. 25 guard (6-4, 315)

2009

3-star Andrew Miller, No. 33 tackle (6-5, 275)

2008

4-star Vinston Painter, No. 14 tackle (6-6, 315)

3-star Nick Becton, No. 36 tackle (6-6, 285)

3-star Michael Via, No. 31 guard (6-6, 260)

2007

4-star Blake DeChristopher, No. 21 tackle (6-6, 300)

3-star Jaymes Brooks, No. 36 guard (6-3, 296)

3-star Will Alvarez, No. 28 tackle (6-5, 305)

3-star Ibn Latif, No. 30 guard (6-3, 290)

*** Now, on to Tech’s reaction to its new class ...

HEAD COACH FRANK BEAMER

OPENING REMARKS: “I think it’s been another successful recruiting year. I like the talent level and the athletic ability of this class. We got some guys that are versatile in what position they can play. Academically and character-wise, it’s very good. These are guys, a lot of them, that we saw in our one-day camp, so we know them first-hand. I think that always helps. I’m particularly proud that 13 of these players went to school in the state Virginia. That continues to be a priority with us, that we get our share of the better players from the state of Virginia. And I think that’s happened. And then I think the guys out of state, there’s a high quality of player there. So overall, we’re very, very pleased with this class.”

ON FINISHING UP THIS CLASS EARLY AND WHETHER THERE WAS ANY POSITION HE HAD HOPED TO GET MAYBE ONE MORE GUY THIS YEAR: “I think you can always go back and look and wish you’d gotten this guy here or that guy there. And that’s true. But at the same time, we did finish fairly early. For the last couple weeks, our recruiting has basically been over. We always start out with a number of people we’d like to get at each position. That’s on the board. We came very close to hitting on that. That’s a good sign.”

ON CATCHING UP THE LAST FEW YEARS RECRUITING OFFENSIVE LINEMEN: “We continue to work on our offensive line. We’re getting better all the time there. I really like the guys we got there. The (Matt) Arkema kid from Richmond, I really like him. He’s got good feet and toughness and size. I like (Mark) Shuman. Again, great height and he’s got a great future in front of him. (Laurence) Gibson, he’s already in school. He gives us got a chance to figure into that situation. The (Kory) Gough guy greyshirted and is a good wrestler and I always like those football players that are wrestlers. Overall, I like what we’ve got. We’ll see how they turn out.”

ON SAFETY NICK DEW BEING A VERSATILE ATHLETE WHO COULD BE A WHIP LINEBACKER OR PLAY EITHER SAFETY SPOT: “I think he and Dominique Patterson both kind of fit into that. There’s some others, too, but both those guys, they’ve got good size and they’re very athletic. They fit in somewhere very well. They’re big guys that can run well. We like those kind. They’re versatile as far as getting into your system and playing as quickly as they possibly can.”

ON PRIZED D-END RECRUIT ZACK MCCRAY: “I like Zack McCray for what he can do physically, but I like him as a person and what he’s all about. I like the character and just the whole what this guy’s all about. I think he’s not only going to give us a lot of good moments on the football field but just being a representative of Virginia Tech and our football program, he’s going to be excellent also. We want him to be prepared and come in here and challenge for some playing time at defensive end. We think he can. Physically, he’s got the credentials there. Then after that, it’s just a matter of getting strong and getting some knowledge. He’ll have that opportunity and I could see that possibly happening.”

ON A LOT OF THE PREVIOUS O-LINE RECRUITING BUSTS BEING OUT-OF-STATE PLAYERS AND MOST OF TECH’S LINE RECRUITS IN THE LAST FOUR CLASSES BEING FROM VIRGINIA AND WHETHER BEING CLOSER PROVIDES MORE ACCURATE EVALUATIONS: “Yeah, I think that and I think being athletic is important in the offensive line. Sometimes you say, ‘Well, we’ll just get big guys.’ But that just doesn’t work. They’ve got to be able to redirect and move their feet and have some toughness about them. I think we’re getting back on the right track here. We’ve had some in the last few years that have played very well. We just didn’t have enough. We missed on some guys there that just didn’t work out, but I really feel like we’re getting closer to where we want to be. And the guys we’ve added in this class helps us get closer.”

ON WHETHER, KNOWING THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SOME MISSES, THEY’VE TRIED TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF LINEMEN THEY ARE BRINGING IN: “No, what we have is an overall number of how many offensive linemen we’d like to have in the overall scheme. And how many defensive ends, how many defensive tackles you’d like to have in the program. We try to stay fairly close to that. What’s happened is some of those misses caused us to continue to try to catch up to the number. That’s why we continue to bring offensive linemen in.”

ON RECRUITING RANKINGS FOR THE HOKIES: “There was a stretch a couple years back where our recruiting classes weren’t rated very high but when it came to the NFL draft, we had the second-most drafted after Southern Cal. We saw a lot of these guys in our one-day camp. The guys that committed to us, we really wanted. They were our first choices. So I feel good about this group. I don’t know where they’re rated. I don’t pay attention to that. I just think they’re the guys that Virginia Tech liked.”

ON TAHRICK PEAK AND CALEB FARRIS, TWO RECRUITS IN VT’S BACK YARD: “Tahrick can run. Right now, he needs to get bigger and he knows that. His future is in front of him, but he’s got to get his body a little bit better to take advantage of that. Farris, he’s a Virginia Tech guy. He wants to come here and we want him to come here. He’s athletic for a guy as big as he is. He really has good feet. That’s really what we’re looking at: toughness and good feet. He fits that perfectly.”

ON CHANGING THAT TYPE OF O-LINEMEN THEY RECRUIT: “What happens on the offensive line, if you’ve got a big guy and he can’t play there, there’s not a place he can play. And in the past, when you think about our great offensive linemen, Pyne and Lehr ... the one thing is that they all were athletic. So rather than size being the critical thing, I think being able to redirect ... when you’ve got an offensive tackle out there blocking a defensive end ... that offensive tackle better be able to work his feet. So that’s kind of been our priority the last 2-3 years. I think we’re getting our offensive line back where it needs to be.”

O-LINE COACH CURT NEWSOME

ON WHAT BEAMER TOLD HIM HE WAS LOOKING FOR IN LINEMEN WHEN HE HIRED NEWSOME IN MARCH 2006: “I think more athletic. That’s the best term. And that’s what we’ve done. Some of our best ones have all been converted tight ends. That’s what you’re looking for. Beau (Warren), Ed (Wang), Duane (Brown), (Greg) Nosal. We’ve been most successful with those guys.”

ON WHAT THEY'RE LOOKING FOR, THOUGH, IN PURE O-LINEMEN COMING OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL: “Athletic guy that’s got good feet, of course. A guy that’s intelligent and a guy that’s physical. Athletic being No. 1.”

ON HIM NOT MENTIONING SIZE IN THAT EQUATION: “Those guys move too fast on defense. If you’re recruiting a 320-pound high school offensive lineman, by the time he gets to you, he is 340 and it’s bad weight. There’s not many high school guys, when they sign on that dotted line today ... busting it to get ready, especially with offensive linemen. And most of them like to eat anyway. I think you’re really in the mindset of growing your own, per se. The thing is, with that, when you take those (smaller) guys, you’ve got to be sure of they’re strength. Because (strength) coach (Mike) Gentry is the best there is in the business, but if we bring in a guy that’s benching 180 pounds as an offensive linemen when we get him, he’s four years away strength-wise from ever playing. And by that time, his career is over. So you’re looking for that lean guy that can move his feet that’s got some natural twitch and strength to him.”

ON MOST OF TECH’S BIG RECRUITING BUSTS FROM 2003-06 BEING OUT-OF-STATE KIDS AND MOST OF TECH’S LINE RECRUITS BEING VIRGINIA KIDS SINCE THEN ... WHETHER THAT WAS INTENTIONAL, TO GET BETTER EVALUATIONS: “I think our whole recruiting deal is in-state or that radius of Maryland and North Carolina. That’s everybody. But as far as just saying now our offensive linemen have to come from Virginia, no, that statement hasn’t been made. We’ve been fortunate there’s been some more in Virginia. I think you get a better evaluation on an in-state kid. You’re able to go to a game in-season, which means a lot. I know film is what everybody bases it on, but if you can get out there, and the coaches have been to those games, I think that’s huge. It just cuts down the margin for misses. You’re going to have them at offensive line. To me, it’s the hardest position to evaluate.”

ON EVERYONE GETTING EXCITED A FEW YEARS AGO WHEN TECH SIGNED AARON BROWN OF OHIO, THE NATION’S NO. 7 OFFENSIVE TACKLE ACCORDING TO RIVALS.COM, BUT BROWN NEVER PANNING OUT: “That doesn’t always work out. We’re being very patient with one now that was a four- or five-star, Vinston Painter. Rankings really as far I’m concerned as an offensive line coach, those stars besides their name ... doesn’t mean a whole lot. It’s can they move their feet? Can they think? Sometimes, (a ranking) is because you’re 6-foot-6 and weigh 300 pounds. Beau Warren is not 6-foot-6, 300 pounds, but I like him as a center in our league. Where the stars come from, I haven’t figured that out.”

ON LIKING TECH’S LINE RECRUITS BETTER LATELY, THOUGH, REGARDLESS OF STARS: “I think we’ve been fortunate and we’ve gotten some guys that are more that mold of the athletic guys that can move around in space. I don’t think there’s any question.”

ON O-LINE BEING ONE OF THE BIGGEST ADJUSTMENTS FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO COLLEGEE: “It’s a little more complicated. They’re playing against so much better (competition). They’re playing against defensive linemen now that all of them, they’re 6-foot-4, they can run their feet, they’re fast, they’re quick, they’re strong. I think the level competition an offensive lineman plays against in a one-on-one match-up is different than anybody on a football field. When a receiver catches a ball in space, he catches it in space and I don’t care what they run over there; If he can run, he can still run. Now (as a lineman), you’re in a one-on-one match-up against a very talented football player, and every snap is you and him battling. For you to see a 6-foot-4 offensive lineman block a 5-11, 195-pounder (in high school), you see him get movement and all this. Who is he moving? You don’t really know. And then terminology is different (in college), changing the plays at the line of scrimmage, more thinking on your feet. How much does that slow a young man down? Certain (high) schools do that, but then certain schools don’t. They line up and they know where they’re going right now as hard as they can go. They know the defender is going be right there. Now, all of a sudden, the defender can move. The play could be changed. There’s so many variables that change how physical you can play.”

ON WHETHER, FACTORING IN THE LIKELIHOOD OF SOME MISSES AT O-LINE, TECH IS OFFERING SCHOLARSHIPS TO MORE LINEMEN LATELY: “There’s a certain number that coach gives us. I want to say our number is somewhere between 15 and 17 scholarship (linemen). We don’t have that right now. With the signing of the ones in this class, and then we’re going to take some more next year, we’re going to be about right on our numbers. That can change a little bit if you’ve got a great back and you might have one less lineman at that time because you took (the back). But somewhere in that area.”

ON SIGNEE LAURENCE GIBSON: “He’s a converted defensive lineman. That just shows you he’s athletic. I think coming in January is a positive for an offensive lineman because if he has the need to redshirt, he’ll see. So he’ll get a spring, then a redshirt, then play. If he comes out, he picks up on things, then he could possibly play … I don’t think you could ever play as a true freshman coming in August. But he’s been at Hargrave. He gets a spring under his belt. If there’s an opportunity for him to play, we’ll know it. I think that’s a huge advantage. I like his athletic ability. He’s got extremely long arms, which you like for a tackle, for separation in pass protection. And now it’s just getting accustomed to college life and how he handles the spring.”

ON SIGNEE MATT ARKEMA: “Guard or center. Very, very intelligent and very, very physical. And can move his feet. I think the young man will have an opportunity to play at an early stage because of what he’s all about. He’s a very good student. I think he understands the game. And he’s got some pop to him. I like his intelligence, and I like what looks like on film to be tenacious, getting after folks.”

ON SIGNEE MARK SHUMAN, BROTHER OF FORMER TECH LINEMAN RYAN SHUMAN: “I’ve seen him a lot. He comes from a football family. So he should be ahead of the scale, you would think. Very athletic guy. He is what we just talked about. Coach Cav comes back and talks about how he gets up and down the basketball court. I’ve not seen him play basketball, but all you hear is about his athletic ability. He’s what you’re looking for at the tackle position – good height, long arms, can move his feet. That’s kind of what he is.”

ON SOUNDING LIKE HE HAS SOME TALENTED PROSPECTS COMING IN WHO COULD CONTRIBUTE SOONER THAN LATER: “I’ve said this before, even when I first got here: If you have to play offensive line before you’re a redshirt sophomore, you’re either not good enough up front, or the guy is just off-the-charts special. It’s one of the two. Now, we’ve had to play some before that. You just don’t like to. That’s the process. And if they all came in and played as redshirt sophomores, I think that’s where you start to get it going.”

ON A PERFECT WORLD, THEN, NO ONE WOULD HEAR ABOUT THESE SIGNEES FOR A COUPLE YEARS: “It would be a while (ideally). And that’s hard on people when they look at a recruiting list and they see a young man that’s five stars. Why? Why? Where is he? No, give him a chance. That’s why I like to say it with Vinston, I like to be patient with him. He’s (just) going to be a redshirt sophomore.”

ON TECH REALLY IMPROVING DEPTH ON THE LINE IN THE LAST TWO YEARS: “That’s more important than any of it. We’ve got guys that have been out there now. What you’re really looking for, and this is not a great term, but at a position, you’re looking for a pair and a spare. So you’re looking for two tackles and one mover. We had it at guard this year. Nosal was the (back-up) guy that could roll and he could play either side. I think what we’re going to get to at tackle right now is we’re going to have two out there and I think we’re going to have two spares. I’m hoping. It’ll be young guys. We haven’t made the move yet, but we’re going to get (back-up center) Michael Via some work at tackle. Any time a guy has played in two games and has proven what he can do, he doesn’t need to sit. The center is not a position you want to rotate a whole lot.”

ON WHO THE BACK-UP CENTER WOULD BE NEXT SEASON IF VIA MOVES TO TACKLE: “Andrew Miller. We’ll see where it goes this spring, if he’s ready to practice this spring (after shoulder surgery). Michael will have to stay back inside if (Miller) is not ready to practice this spring. A lot will have to do with that.”

ON WHETHER TWO-YEAR STARTING RIGHT TACKLE BLAKE DECHRISTOPHER WILL MOVE TO LEFT TACKLE TO REPLACE ED WANG: “I don’t think so. I trust Nick Becton right now. Andrew Lanier, he’s a backup at right, right now. I don’t know if we’ll leave him over there. We haven’t decided all the movement. We actually haven’t even talked about it. (Lanier) goes in the Duke game and plays the entire game for Blake. I felt very comfortable with him.”

ON WHY BECTON DIDN’T PLAY MORE LAST YEAR IF HE’S READY FOR NEXT YEAR: “Because Wang was good. I just like the tools Nick has. And Nick’s going to be a redshirt sophomore next year.”

ON HOW BAD THE O-LINE TALENT STOCK WAS WHEN HE TOOK THE JOB IN 2006: “We had hit a lull. We were a little bit down. I think everybody realizes that. We weren’t as good as we’ve been the last two years up front. We’ve gotten the depth fixed a little bit. It’s always a little bit of a rollercoaster. We’re going to have some times next year when we play against a great defensive front that people are going to say we can’t block anybody (laughing).”

ON NEXT YEAR’S STARTING LEFT GUARD TO REPLACE SERGIO RENDER: “Nosal will be left guard. I’m excited about him because he played the season about 270. Came into the season about 295. At times, he may have played lighter than (270). And that’s hard on an inside guy. I’m looking forward to him keeping it on this year.”

ON NOSAL PROVING A LOT LAST SEASON: “He was probably the biggest surprise of (last) spring for my guys. This guy can play at this level. This is a guy that played tight end and would much rather go out for a pass than get nose-to-nose with a three technique. (But) he bit into it. He doesn’t mind being in that room. He likes it. And I like what he’s all about.”

ON BEAMER’S OBJECTIVE IN 2006: “It was: We need to bring in some offensive linemen that can move their feet. We were all on the same page. Coach Stinespring, Coach Beamer, everybody was the same – let’s get us some and let’s get this thing rolling.”

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules of civility. Comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its Web sites. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment.

Hokies Hoops, Vol. 2 (Mangling Miami edition) ...

Dearest readers, this will be my final bloggage for a few weeks. Two weeks, at least. Hopefully not longer. I’ll be going under the knife on Friday – luckily for me, that knife will be held by Tech’s team surgeon, Dr. Lebolt – and my right, writing hand will be out of commission for a while.

My final (hopefully not FINAL) act, however, is to bring you a little quick reaction to the Hokies’ win over No. 23 Miami tonight in men’s basketball. Who knows if the Hurricanes (15-2) are a legit ranked team (probably not), but Tech (13-2) was thoroughly impressive in dismantling them.

The final score, 81-66, does nothing to tell the tale. The Hokies led by as many as 35 points in the FIRST HALF. It was Tech’s largest lead ever in 90 ACC games (counting the tournament). The 50-23 halftime margin was also the program’s best since joining the league.

The Hokies hopped on Miami QUICK. They hit 5 of 6 shots, three of them 3-pointers, to open the game. They forced eight turnovers in the first 14 minutes. They out-rebounded the Canes 23-13 in the first half. Five different players scored the first five buckets.

Dorenzo Hudson had seven points in the first seven minutes – staking Tech to a 20-5 lead – including a 3-pointer and a nasty dunk all over Miami’s Adrian Thomas.

The lead was 30 points with four minutes left in the half thanks to the Canes’ 3 of 19 shooting at that point and a stretch of nearly nine minutes without a field goal. Miami, the ACC’s best 3-point team, was 2 of 10 from deep at halftime.

The Hurricanes had won seven in a row, by an average of 19.7 points, but became just the third ranked team to lose to the Hokies in the last 17 tries for Tech (dating to the start of 2007-08).

Oh, and how about Mr. Terrell Bell? He of the 2.7 points per game career average and 20 percent career 3-point accuracy? The junior hit all three of his 3-pointers and scored 13 points in the first half against Miami. Whoa.

P.S. Welcome back Jeff Allen. The invisible man in the second half against UNC recorded his fifth double-double of the season tonight. Allen had 14 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

P.S.S. Allen can thank PG Malcolm Delaney for that. Many of Delaney’s nine assists (to go with 28 points) were feeds to Allen in the post. Delaney also had four rebounds and only one turnover.

This was a nice win for the Hokies. They’ll have a chance for another one at Florida State – where Tech has struggled – on Saturday. That’ll be quite enough from me. For tonight and for a while. I’ll turn it over to the talkative Tech hoop heads ...

COACH SETH GREENBERG

OPENING REMARKS: “It’s really simple: When we defend, we’re pretty good. There were 15-18 minutes where we were as good as we’ve been defensively. We were active. We defended the post. We were containing the basketball. We did a good job in defensive transition. And it doesn’t hurt that you make seven of your first nine 3s. We thought they’d open up in zone (defense) and they did. Our guys did a good job getting balls to the middle of the zone and getting back out to the opposite side. We made some shots. You’re a whole lot smarter (as a coach) when you (players) make some shots.”

ON BEATING A TOP-25 FOE: “It’s a good win. I thought the first half against Carolina, we were very good. The first half today, we were very good. Then we got in a little bit of a funk. They’re a really good basketball team – physical, tough and really well-coached. Mature basketball team.”

ON KEEPING JEFF ALLEN DIALED IN ALL GAME: “Malcolm (Delaney) did a great job of getting him the ball. In the second half, he got it in there three straight possessions. It’s good to see Jeff finish with a double-double. We’ve got to keep Jeff engaged; There’s no doubt about that.”

ON NOT BLOWING A LEAD THAT WAS AS BIG AS 35: “I didn’t want to be the Chicago Bulls (who blew a similar lead this week).”

ON TERRELL BELL GETTING 13 POINTS, HITTING 3 OF 3 FROM DEEP, IN THE FIRST HALF: “The more people that contribute, the better we are. Victor (Davila) was aggressive getting to the glass; Terrell making shots; Dorenzo contributed a lot in the first half.”

ON SHUTTING DOWN THE ACC’S BEST 3-POINT TEAM: “We were really stepping up on the ball screens. ... We were really alert defensively in the first half.”

ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS WIN: “It was so important to win this game because you have to win your home games in this league. It was so important to win this game so we had no self-doubt. We are a good team.”

PG MALCOLM DELANEY

ON WANTING TO BOUNCE BACK FROM THE UNC LOSS: “We had to. We know the ACC is a tough league. We can’t get caught in the last game, whether we win or whether we lose. We’ve still got to come out the next game and know that’s a different entity. I think we did a good job of that today.”

ON WHETHER THE HOKIES MADE A CONCERTED EFFORT TO COME OUT GUNNING, AS TECH FIRED SEVERAL EARLY 3-POINTERS: “They left us open. They were in zone (defense) and kind of left some shooters open. We took what they gave us. It wasn’t like we just wanted to shoot 3s. We clearly are not a 3-point shooting team, but if people leave us open, we’re capable of making them. They just left us open on some shots and we got an open shots.”

ON EXPECTING THE ZONE LOOK: “Yeah, we knew they were going to play zone. They played a lot of zone this year. We expected it. We did a good job and we brought them out of their zone kind of early.”

ON LOSING SOME OF THE LEAD IN THE SECOND HALF AND WHETHER THERE WERE AN SIMILARITIES TO THE UNC SECOND HALF: “It was different. I think we kind of slowed down. Coach said he kind of made a mistake ... we just tried to run the clock out some. We just weren’t very aggressive on offense. We didn’t want to overdo it and try to do too much. We played it safe and got the win.”

ON NEEDING A QUALITY WIN AND WHAT THIS ONE MEANS: “It proves a point. It shows what type of team we have. Terrell (Bell) stepped up today. We’ve got different people that can step up different days. Today it was Terrell, and we got the ball to Victor (Davila) early. We’ve got a lot of weapons on our team and we don’t all have to do it in the same game. That’s what we base our team off of: hard work and different people making contributions.”

ON THE SATISFACTION OF THROTTLING A RANKED TEAM: “Definitely (satisfying) to get a top-25 win. That’s going to look good on our resume. Saturday (at FSU), we’ve got another chance to get one of those top-25 wins and prove that we can play with anybody in the country and beat any team in the country.”

ON HOW TO BEAT THE ZONE: “Being aggressive, running the court, playing hard. We’re a tough team. A lot of teams don’t like playing against tough teams like us. They started out zone and we attacked the zone, made them get out of that zone. I’m pretty sure they weren’t planning on getting out of that zone early. That kind of helped us out a little. We got them away from their game plan.”

ON WHETHER HE EVER CHALLENGES FORWARD JEFF ALLEN TO PLAY HARD ALL GAME LONG, NOT FADE LIKE HE DID IN THE SECOND HALF AGAINST UNC: “We kept him more involved in the game tonight. Sometimes it’s just like that when you’re not in the flow of the game that much; your head kind of wanders off. But we know Jeff is one of the best big men in the league and we’ve got to give him the ball more. Just like Victor. That’s why we kind of got the ball down low a lot, made them double, and that’s how we got some open shots.”

G/F TERRELL BELL

ON WHETHER TECH COULD PLAY ANY BETTER THAN IT DID IN THE FIRST HALF: “We can always play better. Defensively, in the second half, we let up. We can’t let up in the next game.”

ON WHETHER HE WAS SURPRISED HOW OPEN MIAMI LEFT THE HOKIES’ SHOOTERS OUTSIDE: “We worked on the zone every day in practice for at least an hour. We were ready for it. We had plays for it. And we came out on top.”

ON SCORING 13 POINTS IN THE FIRST HALF, HITTING THREE STRAIGHT 3-POINTERS, AND HOW BIG THE BASKET LOOKED AT THAT POINT: “It was huge. I can’t explain it. It felt really good, but I just want to stay focused and hit those shots in the next game.”

ON HOW THEY SHUT DOWN MIAMI’S 3-POINT SHOOTING, SINCE THE CANES WERE THE ACC’S TOP LONG-RANGE TEAM: “Defense is something we pride ourselves on. We knew we had to stay with them defensively and not let them get any easy shots at all.”

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS WIN: “It’s big. We’ve got momentum, and hopefully we can take it down to Florida State.”

F JEFF ALLEN

ON DISAPPEARING IN THE SECOND HALF AGAINST UNC AND WHETHER HE REALIZED TONIGHT NEEDED TO BE DIFFERENT: “Oh, yeah, definitely. I kind of dragged in the second half (against the Tar Heels), kind of lost my enthusiasm. But this game I just kept it the whole game through. Instead of just playing one half, I played two.”

ON DELANEY SAYING IT’S IMPORTANT TO KEEP ALLEN TOUCHING THE BALL TO KEEP HIM FOCUSED: “It worked pretty good. He got the ball inside to our bigs ... got their bigs in trouble and got shots for our guys. It was an all-around game.”

ON WHETHER HE NEEDS TO TOUCH THE BALL FREQUENTLY TO STAY ENGAGED: “Not really. It’s going to be games where I might not get touches. I’ve just got to keep my head in play.”

ON THAT UNC GAME: “Just lost focus. I definitely knew I wasn’t playing the way I played in the first half. I didn’t come out the same in the second half.”

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules of civility. Comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its Web sites. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment.

Hokies Hoops, Vol. 1 (Root Canal Edition) ...

So football is over. That’s the sad part. I love football. I play video game football quietly at night when my wife falls asleep, hoping she won’t catch me cheating on her with digital “recruits” in my burgeoning North Texas dynasty.

The good news? For the first time in my six years covering the Hokies, my bosses have left me out here in Blacksburg for the hoops season. The idea of touring around the ACC’s storied gymnasiums (starting with UNC tomorrow) is a pretty big thrill.

Since our technology apparently can’t sustain two different blogs with my picture at the top (it’s probably something about a hazard involving my hair gel), I’m going to be dropping in here on the “football blog” to give you some round-ball news and notes and quotes.

My role is sort of fluid right now, but it’s kind of an ACC-wide gig with a heavy Hokies focus. So that’s the good news.

More bad news? Starting next Friday, I’ll be completely out of commission for at least two weeks. Most of you read in this space about my tragic (or just really stupid) sledding accident and the ensuing elbow injury.

My docs first thought I could get away with a couple weeks in a sling and then a couple of months in a brace. My follow-up visit, however, revealed that I need surgery. It’s a fairly serious surgery. I’ll be in a cast, palm-up, for at least two weeks afterward. It’s my right arm and I’m right-handed.

So no typing from me for a while. Sorry about that. But I will be able to get you through the Hokies’ Carolina and Miami games.

On that note, below you’ll find Seth Greenberg, Dorenzo Hudson and Erick Green talking about Tech’s 12-1 start – its best in 14 seasons – and life without Malcolm Delaney and the meat-grinder that is the ACC schedule. Greenberg has a better term for it.

Delaney has only been out of his protective boot to shoot around this week. He hadn’t had a full practice as of Wednesday and his status remains a “game-time decision.” If the ACC’s leading scorer is out again, the Hokies will need a lot out of Hudson, the junior shooter, and Green, the true freshman back-up point guard.

Hudson has scored at least 11 points in the last four games, including a whopping 41 against Seton Hall (most by a Tech player since the amazingly-named Bimbo Coles in 1990). Green is averaging 27 minutes, 10 points and nearly three assists over the past three games.

It goes without saying that tomorrow night’s game in Chapel Hill is the Hokies’ biggest test to date. Most of the team’s previously exciting wins are looking a little less sexy lately. Iowa is 5-10. Penn State has lost 4 of 6. Seton Hall seemed like it would’ve been a great victory when the Pirates started 8-0 ... but they’ve lost 5 of 6.

Interestingly, the dominant win over Georgia is the Hokies’ most impressive so far. The Bulldogs (8-5) have since beaten Illinois and Georgia Tech. But as Greenberg points out below, the 16-game ACC slate that lies ahead is “a different animal.”

More from the Big Whistle and his charges ...

VT HOOPS COACH SETH GREENBERG

ON HOW DIFFERENT IT IS TO GAME PLAN FOR THIS UNC TEAM VS. LAST YEAR’S TAR HEELS: “It’s not very different at all. Obviously, the names have changed. But who they are is who they are. You better get back on defense. You better rebound the ball. You’ve got to defend the post early. You’ve got to be strong with the basketball. You’re playing against their players. Carolina is always going to have great players. Yeah, they graduated some McDonald’s All-Americans, some guys that are going to play in the NBA. And they replaced them with some McDonald’s All-Americans and some guys that are going to play in the NBA. It’s not like it changes drastically from year to year. What they do, sometimes they’re a little bit better defensively. Sometimes, they’re a little bit better offensively. They’re superbly coached, extremely talented, long, a little bit bigger than last year. They’re probably just don’t have the same experience. But they’re still a very, very good basketball team.”

ON THE EMERGENCE OF HEELS’ BIG MAN ED DAVIS, A BIT PLAYER LAST SEASON: “If Davis came out last year, he’d have been a lottery pick. He would have been the first guy from Carolina drafted.”

ON CAROLINA’S ATTACKING OFFENSE: “They definitely attack. The speed of their transition is very hard to simulate.”

ON THE STATUS OF GUARD MALCOLM DELANEY FOR SUNDAY: “We’ll know Sunday. Did you expect anything else?”

ON WHAT DELANEY HAS BEEN ABLE TO DO THIS WEEK: “He’s conditioned on the Alter-G and on the bike, and he has shot a little bit. He felt better yesterday. He didn’t feel as good today. We’ve got four days (interview was on Wednesday.”

ON WHAT HE NEEDS TO SEE FOR DELANEY TO PLAY: “I don’t need to see anything. It’s what he feels and what the medical staff feels.”

ON THE ODDS DELANEY, WHO HASN’T GONE THROUGH AN ACTUAL PRACTICE, WILL PLAY: “I don’t do odds. Like I said, we’ll decide on Sunday.”

ON DELANEY’S PROTECTIVE WALKING BOOT: “He takes the boot off when we’re here. We keep him in the boot all other times. He shoots. He’ll shoot this afternoon. We don’t want him to aggravate it at all.”

ON DORENZO HUDSON’S OUTBURST IN DELANEY’S ABSENCE: “Everyone gets caught up in the 41 points, which is obviously a huge number. But I was more impressed with Dorenzo just in terms of his leadership. Coming in and out of timeouts, he was really terrific. Talking to our guys in the walk through. The way he carried himself during free-throw situations. I thought he really grew in terms of leading and getting guys to follow him. The 41 points and the 20 free throws, that’s terrific. And he made some big shots. But the intangibles were as important as the scoring, quite honestly. He really carried himself like a terrific leader and that was really encouraging to me.”

ON WHETHER HUDSON IS MORE SURE OF HIMSELF LATELY: “He’s starting to be. He’s playing better. We’re trying to get him to be more aggressive and to attack more and to make more plays. And he’s doing that. He’s making more plays in transition. He’s making more plays off ball screens. His interior passing has improved. He’s making more basketball plays, which is important.”

ON HUDSON EMBRACING MORE BALL-HANDLING DUTIES: “I think he’s embracing it. It’s a challenging, but I think he’s embracing it. My thing from this summer was to play the point as much as possible in pick-ups and summer leagues and all that jazz, and what I call develop more of a ‘city game.’ And I think hopefully that’s helped him a little bit, and then the success he’s had. He’s had a pretty good month of December. I don’t know what his stats are compared to November, but his December numbers are pretty good.”

ON THE START OF ACC PLAY THIS WEEKEND: “The league, you’ve got 16 root canals. That’s just the way it is. You’re going to have to play at a high level 16 times. You can’t let one affect the other. You can’t get so caught up in the past. You’ve got to stay very much in the present. They’re totally separate entities. More importantly than the record … See, because the record a lot of times is a byproduct of your schedule. You could be playing great, but you could be playing an absolutely killer schedule and be 8-4. Or you could be playing terrible and be 12-1. The thing I’m encouraged by is that we played … If you look where we were in Philadelphia and where we are now, we’re a lot better. The key is to continue to improve. Don’t be satisfied where you are. Because it’s not the wins and losses. Winning and losing is a byproduct of how you play. We’ve gotten better. We’re more alert defensively. We’re rebounding the ball fairly consistently. We’ve gotten better executing in the half court. And we’ve got more guys contributing. I remember sitting on the bench in the Delaware game, wondering if we’d ever get 60 points in a game. We got 23 points in overtime the other day. We’ve improved without the leading scorer in the ACC. The guys we’re playing on Sunday, that’s a different animal. That’s the best of the best. We’re going to have to continue to get better. Right now, it’s hard getting better when you only have 10 guys at practice.”

ON DEALING WITH UNC BIG GUYS DEON THOMPSON AND ED DAVIS: “They’re pretty good. They’ll make a little money. They’ll make more than you scribes, combined, times four. What’s the NBA minimum? They ain’t making the minimum. The one guy (Davis) is going to be a top-five pick. He’s going to make $9 million, three years. The biggest thing about guarding their interior people is you’ve got to guard them early. If you let them catch it deep, you’re dead. You’ve got to defend them early. You’ve got to get them off their spot. And you’ve got to understand what they’re trying to do. The one thing about doubling is you’ve got to then rotate to block out. Three things: defensive transition, offensive rebounding and defending the post. Those three things are critical. Then you’ve got to handle their pressure. I don’t think the last week has been the kinder, gentler Coach Roy.”

ON OFFENSIVE REBOUNDING AGAINST THE HEELS: “We’ve just got to put a body on people. We’ve got to cut people out on the glass. We’ve got to be physical in our block outs. We’ve got to check them off early. We can’t let them get a run to the rim.”

ON WHETHER UNC IS AS FAST WITHOUT TY LAWSON: “They’re fast. The ball’s got to get up there, but the wing guys run hard. When Zeller is in the game, Zeller runs about as well as any big guy that we’ll play against. He’s conscious of changing ends of the floor.”

ON WHY THE SERIES WITH CAROLINA HAS BEEN SO COMPETITIVE: “I’m brilliant (laughing). Every game is different. We have a set way of trying to play against them. Whether we can go out an execute it, that’ll be the question. I think we’ve had guys make plays against them. We’ve taken them out of transition, and we’ve taken them off the glass. If you take them out of transition and take them off the glass, then they’re not scoring 90 points. Now they’re scoring 70. You can’t let them score out of your offense. You can’t turn it over. We’ve never turned it over a bunch against them. You can’t let them turn you over. You can’t let them run it down your throat. And you can’t let them shoot high-percentage shots on put-backs. You’ve got to keep them in front, contest their shots and not get stretched out too much and see if you can win a 70-point game.”

ON HOW FRESHMAN ERICK GREEN HANDLED THE POINT IN DELANEY’S ABSENCE: “I think there were plays he’d like to have back. But I think about (how) he starts the game; he knocks down a jumper. He made a huge 3. With four fouls, he didn’t do a great job in defensive transition, but he made two huge defensive plays. He blocked a jump shot, made sure we got the run-out. Then on one ball screen, he went under it and knocked it away, and we got a run-out. I thought he handled himself well. He’s got to continue to get better. But I thought he handled himself well.”

ON GREEN NOT FOLDING UNDER PRESSURE: “They (Seton Hall) were talking some trash to him, and he handled it pretty well.”

ON HANDLING THE GAUNTLET THAT IS THE ACC SCHEDULE AND KEEPING HIS TEAM FOCUSED ON THAT AND NOT THEIR 12-1 START: “We’ve played 13 games. We play 30 games. We’re starting our second season, and it’s a totally different animal. I won’t start talking about (making the NCAA tournament) for a long time. You don’t make the tournament in January. You’ve just got to win games. Winning games is who you play, when you play, where you play them. Winning games is continuing to get better. You’ve just got to work on getting better. If you worry bout the tournament Jan. 6, then you’re not making it. There are certain programs that probably don’t have to worry about it. In our situation, if you’re worrying about math, your strength of schedule, RPI, all that stuff now, you’re not making the tournament. You don’t have enough energy to worry about that and coach your team, keep your guys locked in, improve, prepare, recruit. You don’t have time for all that stuff. So right now, I’m working on the things I have control of. When they scramble coming out of free throws and timeouts, are we going to handle that well? Are we going to block out on free throws or are we going to back-tap it? Their underneath out of bounds play, are we going to guard the inside screen? That’s all I’m worried about.”

ON TWO OF HIS TEAM’S TOUGHEST ACC ROAD GAMES THIS SEASON BEING IN THE FIRST TWO: “Last year, we won five games in the first half (of the ACC schedule) and two in the second. Well, we played Duke, Carolina and Florida State. At the end of the 16 games, we’ll know. If we lose a game, you guys will have the sky falling; we didn’t play a tough enough out-of-conference schedule. I already have it down, what you’re going to write.”

ON HOW FORWARD CADARIAN RAINES, THE FRESHMAN WHO BROKE HIS FOOT JUST BEFORE THE SEASON, IS COMING ALONG: “He’s coming along great. It is a shame that he missed those 10 weeks, because would be in a really pretty special place, I think. He’s still kind of clueless in terms of defensive philosophy, across the board, like being alert, rotating, defending the post early. But every day, he’s getting a little bit more instinctive. He’s getting a little more confident. He’s doing really well. He’s not redshirting. He’s going to be a significant contributor in the next two or three weeks, I’m expecting.”

ON WHAT CAROLINA’S LOSS TO CHARLESTON THIS WEEK SHOWED HIM ABOUT THE HEEL’S VULNERABILITIES: “Well, they made a zillion threes against them. They played differently. They played at home. What a great win (for Charleston). Bobby Cremins is one of the all-time best guys in our profession. So even though you want your league to win, you can’t help but be happy for him. But it’s different (for VT). It’s a league game. Roy probably rested those guys thinking they could win that game and then get them back for our game.”

ON HIS TAKE ABOUT THE LEAGUE THUS FAR: “I think the league is really deep. I think there’s a lot of good teams in the league. I think Miami is very talented. I think Florida State is really good. Georgia Tech is talented. Clemson is talented. Obviously Duke and Carolina are terrific. Wake Forest is developing an identity. They’ve got a really good win at Gonzaga. Everyone’s saying, ‘The league is down.’ I don’t think the league is down. The league is good. Have we lost some games? Yeah. But we’re not the only league that’s lost some games.”

ON WHETHER HE FEELS BETTER OR WORSE THAN EXPECTED AFTER 13 GAMES: “I didn’t feel encouraged or discouraged two months ago. Two months ago, I was just worried about getting better. And we’ve gotten a little bit better. If I’m worrying about where are within the grand scheme of things in the ACC on Jan. 6 ... I’m worried about our next game. I know that sounds stupid and simplistic, but the reality is, (former Wake coach) Skip Prosser gave me very wise advise when we got into the league. We had lunch one day and he said, ‘We were No. 1 in the country and we lost our next three games in league. It’s not one game. It’s the collective grind of the league. You’ve just got to deal with it on a day to day basis.’ That’s what I’ve always tried to do. I thought it was really good advice. He said, ‘Seth, don’t look ahead; Don’t look behind; Deal with it on a day to day basis, because you’ve never played in a league where if you deal with it cumulatively, it’ll just suck you out. It’s overwhelming.’ That was our first year. We were in Orlando (recruiting). Just sitting there having having a burger.”

ON NOT LOOKING AHEAD OR GETTING TO BIG-PICTURE, BUT THE BOTTOM LINE BEING THAT 12-1 IS BETTER THAN EVERY ALTERNATIVE BUT 13-0 AT THIS POINT: “I was driving back from Washington, D.C., yesterday with oldest daughter. She drove with me recruiting. She said, ‘Dad, I’ve got to be honest with you: After Philadelphia, I wasn’t sure we were going to win another game.’ I said, ‘I appreciate that, Paige.’ So obviously we’ve gotten better. How much better? We’ll find out in the next eight weeks.”

VT GUARD DORENZO HUDSON

ON WHETHER HE REALIZED, AT ANY POINT DURING HIS 41-POINT GAME AGAINST SETON HALL, HOW MANY HE HAD: “I wasn’t aware of my points because there wasn’t a scoreboard (in Cancun, Mexico) that showed your points. I was just out there playing ball, for real. I wasn’t real aware of it.”

ON WHETHER HIS OUTBURST WAS SIMPLY A PRODUCT OF HIM RESPONDING TO THE OPPORTUNITY WITH SCORING LEADER MALCOLM DELANEY OUT INJURED: “Yeah, I mean, I just knew from the jump. I knew I had to step up. When I saw him go out in the Longwood game, I thought, ‘We’ve got to take care of this Longwood game, and then against Seton Hall, I’m going to have to step my game up two times, three times more than I’ve been doing.’ I was just ready for the opportunity to be honest with you.”

ON WHETHER HIS FINAL POINT TALLY SURPRISED HIM: “I felt like I had a lot of points. I wasn’t really surprised. Forty-one sounds real good to me, but I wasn’t really surprised that I had it.”

ON WHERE HIS 41 POINTS RANKS GOING BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL EVEN AND WHETHER HE HAS EVER SHOT 21 FREE THROWS IN A GAME: “Um, no, I haven’t. I had 49 in Boo Williams ... the (AAU) tournament my senior year in high school.”

ON SEEMING TO EMBRACE THE ROLE, BEING COMFORTABLE IN IT, AND LOOKING LIKE HE WAS HAVING FUN ON TV AGAINST SETON HALL: “I was just enjoying myself. We were playing hard, competing pretty good and my teammates were into the game. So I was just out there having fun with my guys.”

ON COACH SETH GREENBERG SAYING HE WAS IMPRESSED WITH HUDSON’S LEADERSHIP IN THAT GAME: “I’m usually talking in the huddle. It’s probably pointed out a little more because I had a good game, but I’m usually the one trying to keep everybody positive. On that note, being a leader, that just comes naturally for me.”

ON HOW DIFFERENT HE IS FROM THIS TIME LAST YEAR: “The offensive side of the ball is just clicking for me right now. My defensive end, I’m trying to focus more on that, trying to stop guys on that end. On the defensive end, that’s where I score most of my points. It kind of gets me going. This year, I’m just out there having fun and trying to play my game.”

ON THE TEAM’S MINDSET AFTER STARTING 12-1 IN NON-LEAGUE PLAY BUT HEADING INTO A STRETCH THIS WEEK AT UNC, HOME AGAINST MIAMI AND AT FSU: “We just know we’ve got to be really focused. We all know, the veteran guys know, it’s going to come down to the last couple minutes of the game. A missed box out, a missed free throw or something like that. So we just know coming into the game, we’ve got to be focused. We have to go after 50-50 balls. We’ve got to check people. We just have to make them feel uncomfortable the whole game.”

ON WHETHER DELANEY GAVE HIM ANY ADVICE BEFORE THE SETON HALL GAME: “He mentioned to the guys that we were going to have to play hard. The whole time I was down there, I was trying to get Jeff (Allen), J.T. (Thompson) and T. Bell and everybody on the same page and let them know we’re going to have to play hard together. I think we did that.”

ON WHETHER HE FEELS A LITTLE LOOSER THIS SEASON BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE’S GOING TO GET A LOT MORE TOUCHES, WHEREAS LAST YEAR HE MIGHT’VE BEEN PRESSING TO NOT SCREW UP ON FEWER CHANCES: “Yes. That game was a confidence boost for me. And I think Coach has a lot of confidence in me now, since he knows what I can do on the offensive side. I’m pretty sure he already knew it when I came in. I feel like coming into the next game, if I miss a shot, I don’t have to worry about what Coach is going to say. I’ll just come down and try to make the next one. I just feel like this is a really positive thing for me.”

ON WHETHER THE SETON HALL GAME WAS SOMETHING OF A RELIEF: “I just really wanted to have a good game. Before the game, I was talking to Coach Jackson, a couple of the coaches, letting them know I was fixing to go put on a show for the guys and let them know I can really play ball. So I think none of my coaches were too surprised because I already told them before the game that I was fixing to put some big numbers up.”

ON WORKING TOWARD AN NCAA TOURNAMENT INVITE EVERY DAY: “It’s a very big part of us right now. In practice, we have to get some of our young guys on track, let them know what we’re trying to do, trying to get to the NCAA tournament. I feel like we’re eight or nine (wins) away from getting that bid. And once we get the bid, we’ve still got to play hard. I’m just trying to get everybody focused on what we’re trying to do in the long run.”

ON FEEDBACK FROM FRIENDS BACK HOME: “They’ve texted me and said, ‘Nice game,’ and, ‘Nice breakout game.’ They’ve just been really positive to me for a couple days and just really supportive.”

ON HIS COLLEGE CAREER FINALLY STARTING TO CLICK: “It took a lot of weight off my shoulders, gave me a lot of freedom. I’m walking with my shoulders kind of high right now, kind of feeling real confident going into the next game. I’m just really feeling good right now.”

ON WHETHER HE KEPT ANYTHING TO COMMEMORATE HIS BIG GAME: “I kept a peso or two.”

VT GUARD ERICK GREEN

ON HIS THOUGHTS BEFORE THE SETON HALL GAME, STEPPING IN FOR STAR MALCOLM DELANEY: “I’m not going to lie; I was nervous at first. Malcolm helped me through a lot. Sitting on the bench, when there was a timeout or a dead ball, he’d stand up and say, ‘E, come here,’ or whatever. And he’d walk me through everything. Like when a dude was up on me, don’t extend my arm because I got two fouls for that. Just get him on my hip. If I can go by him, go by him. If not, get him and back him off. Things like that.”

ON HOW HE THOUGHT HE PLAYED: “I feel like I did a good job. I feel like I stepped up to the challenge. And I had to fill big shoes for Malcolm and led my team. I think my only thing is them dang free throws I missed. Other than that, I feel I did a good job.”

ON THE CONTINUED UNCERTAINTY ABOUT DELANEY ENTERING THE UNC GAME: “I’m preparing to start right now. If Malcolm will be able to play, he’ll be able to play. But right now, I’m preparing to start. He’s day-to-day, I guess. I really don’t know. I have no idea what he’s going to do. He’s out there shooting, so other than that, I really have no idea.”

ON THE NERVES INVOLVED IN PLAYING AT UNC FOR THE FIRST TIME: “It’s going to be different. Walking into that atmosphere, it’s going to be crazy. Once the jump ball goes up, I’ll be fine. Going up and down, I’ll be fine after that.”

ON SETON HALL PLAYERS TRASH-TALKING TO GET IN HIS HEAD: “It gets me kind of hyped. I like that. I don’t like to talk. I just play the game. But when someone’s talking to me, it kind of gets me going a little bit. I just forget and just play ball.”

ON BEING HEISTANT EARLY: “I think at first, I was kind of just timid to make mistakes. That was my biggest thing. I didn’t want to come out here and make mistakes. But (Greenberg) pulled me in the office; even Malcolm was like, ‘You’re going to make mistakes.’ When he was a freshman, he made a lot of mistakes. It’s just part of basketball. I think as the season got on and on, I just said, ‘Forget it. I’m just going to start playing.’ I think sometimes, I’m still not as assertive as I need to be. So I’m working on that.”

ON HOW HE WORKS ON IT: “I’ve got to get it in my head just to go. If I make a mistake, I make a mistake. Get it back on the other end. That’s how I see it.”

ON STAYING GROUNDED DURING A 12-1 START: “Honestly, I don’t think not one person has said we’re 12-1 in the locker room. We don’t look at it like that. We just go by who the next opponent is. And we’re just preparing for it. We go hard every day in practice.”

ON WHO SETS THAT TONE: “I think the upperclassmen, really. Just anybody. One day it’ll be Dorenzo. It could be Malcolm. It could be Jeff. It could be anybody. Dorenzo, he likes to talk more. He’ll say, ‘Let’s pick it up.’ You see Jeff going; he’s not going to really talk. He’ll pick it up by himself. He’ll get after it. Once you see these people get after it, you get after it.”

ON HUDSON’S LEADERSHIP BLOSSOMING: “I don’t think people see it. He’s always been a leader, since Day 1, since I’ve gotten here, he’s always been a leader. Malcolm was out. He had to step up even more. When sometimes I was down and made a mistake, he brought me back up: ‘E, let’s go,’ or something like that. Just getting everybody together. He did a good job of that, even when Malcolm was out.”

ON THE ACC SCHEDULE BEING A DIFFERENT ANIMAL THAN THE FIRST 13 NON-LEAGUE GAMES: “Yeah, I think it’s going be different. Other than the atmosphere – I know there’s going to be a lot of people in Chapel Hill – I think competition-wise is going to be the same. Of course they’re going to be a little better. But I think it’s going to be the same. They’re going to be up in me. They’ll want to play a fast-paced game and we’ve just got to come and play, really.”

ON EXPERIENCING A STEP UP IN COMPETITION WHEN HE TRASNFERRED FROM MILLBROOK TO PAUL VI FOR HIS SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL SEASON: “I think when I was at Millbrook, I might have had one good game in the district that was going to get me. At Paul VI, every night, it was a good game for me. I’m going up against kids going to Duke, North Carolina, anywhere in Division I. You never knew in the WCAC (Paul VI’s league) who’s going to get beat. We lost to the worst team in the conference one night. It taught me how to come to play. I couldn’t take any days off, because I was used to doing that at Millbrook. And it taught me I couldn’t turn it on and off.”

ON SOME OF THE GUYS HE FACED AT PAUL VI: “Kendall Marshall, Tyler Thornton. Terrence Ross; he’s going to Maryland.”

ON WHY HE TRANSFERRED: “My junior year, I was going to go, but I decided to stay with my friends and try to win a state championship. After we won the championship, my mom and dad got together, and they were like, ‘I think it’s time for you to get better competition if you’re going to try to play at the next level.’ ”

ON WHO ELSE RECRUITED HIM BESIDES TECH: “George Mason, St. John’s, JMU. I wasn’t recruited highly coming out of high school. I had already committed going into my senior year. That summer in Vegas (at an AAU tournament), a lot of people started asking about me. I showed off there, got to play against John Wall in front of everybody. People asked about me. But my mom told me I’m a man of my word. Got to stick to it.”

ON WHICH SCHOOLS STARTED RECRUITING HIM AFTER VEGAS: “Maryland, Indiana asked about me.”

ON HOW HE FARED AGAINST JOHN WALL, WHO IS NOW KENTUCKY’S SUPERSTAR FRESHMAN: “I did good. Coach Greenberg always brings that up. He’s like, ‘If you can play against him, you can play against anybody.’ I didn’t guard him the whole entire game, but I got to guard him a lot. ... He’s a very good ball player.”

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules of civility. Comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its Web sites. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment.

Offseason Blog, Vol. 1 (Worilds Walks Away edition) ...

Jason Worilds, star defensive end for the Hokies, is skipping his senior season and heading for the NFL.

Whoa. And again, I say, Whoa. I didn’t see this one coming. Not at all. Not even a little bit.

I don’t think the coaches did, either, judging by Charley Wiles’ reaction below. And why would they? Here’s what Worilds had to say to us hacks on Dec. 14:

“We didn’t win anything. What did we win this year? The team goals are still intact. We still have a chance to achieve those (in 2010). I definitely want to be a part of that.”

That, after he said he hadn’t submitted his paperwork to the NFL’s underclassmen advisory board. “I’m not really interested in it right now. I’m trying to focus on my grades, trying to focus on graduating, and trying to focus on this season.”

Three weeks later, he’s gone. Now the Hokies will have to replace three-fourths of their starting defensive line next season – including both ends.

In the past three seasons (and mostly in the last two), Worilds amassed 132 tackles, 34 for loss, 15 sacks, 67 quarterback hurries, three forced fumbles and a blocked kick.

Nekos Brown, a senior end, also had 112 career tackles and 11.5 sacks. Brown and Worilds will likely be replaced by junior Steven Friday and sophomore Chris Drager (who moved from tight end this year). Those two have zero career starts and 34 tackles and six sacks between them.

Obviously, spring practice will be HUGE for the D-line in Blacksburg. We’ll tackle that in a couple of months. For now, here are Worilds and Wiles on today’s big surprise ...

D-END JASON WORILDS

OPENING STATEMENT: “After considerable thought and prayer and consulting with my family, I decided to forego my senior year at Virginia Tech and enter the NFL draft. I would like to thank Coach Beamer first and foremost for believing in me and coming to recruit me and bringing me here. I would like to thank Coach Foster and Coach Wiles for working with me closely over the years, as well as everybody else in the staff that has supported me and brought me to where I am today.”

ON WHETHER HE FILED HIS PAPERWORK WITH THE NFL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (WHICH HE SAID LAST MONTH HE WOULDN’T) AND WHAT FEEDBACK HE MIGHT’VE GOTTEN: “I did. I went and submitted my papers. I really don’t want to get into the details of that, but I did submit my papers and I received feedback.”

ON WHAT CHANGED FROM SAYING HE HAD ‘UNFINISHED BUSINESS’ LAST MONTH: “When we had talked, it was kind of premature in the process. I hadn’t put my papers in at that point. After consulting with my family, we thought it would be best for me to do so. So after doing that and taking everything into consideration, I came up with a different direction.”

ON WHETHER HE THINKS HE’LL PLAY LINEBACKER OR D-END AT THE NEXT LEVEL: “I’m pretty sure, when working out for teams, I’ll do linebacker drills also. I’m comfortable with doing either or. I think I’m versatile enough to handle the outside linebacker position as well as playing with my hand down. I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”

ON HIS PREFERENCE OF POSITIONS: “I’m a football player. I’m just happy with the opportunity I have to play. Position-wise, I really don’t have any personal preference. I just want to get out there on the field and do what I love to do. I have heard different things. It really depends schematically on what the team runs. The teams that run 4-3 would have me as a down lineman. Teams who run the 3-4 would have me standing up as the outside linebacker. It really depends ... where they think I fit.” ON WHETHER THE ROOKIE SALARY CAP IN 2011 HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH HIM LEAVING EARLY: “No, that didn’t. I based my decision solely on my assessment of myself and how I feel and where I’m at with myself athletically and just with my career as a whole. I’ve actually been going back and forth as far as making my decision, consulting my family for the past week or so. We came to this decision recently.”

ON HOW HARD IT WAS TO LEAVE THIS TEAM, ESPECIALLY WITH HIGH HOPES FOR 2010: “Extremely difficult. The camaraderie you get from playing with your teammates and being with those guys every day in and out, you grow a strong bond in that locker room. It was extremely difficult, but I also know they understand that I had to do what was best for me at this time. They understand that. I expect them to go on and win that national championship.”

ON WHERE HE HOPES TO BE SELECTED: “The draft is so tricky. I would hope to be a first-day guy. With the draft being so tricky, you really never know what’s going to be what. I just expect to work hard. And I know that if I put my best foot forward, I can live with wherever I’m drafted.”

ON THE ULTIMATE DECIDING FACTOR: “It really came down to how I felt. My family has done a great job in supporting me and trying to provide as much information for me to make a wise decision on my own. If anyone was to ask, I would say I feel as though it was time for me.”

ON HOW MUCH HE TALKED TO TECH’S D-LINE COACH CHARLEY WILES: “I talked to coach Wiles today, and I’ve been talking to him on and off throughout the week. They support me in whatever I do. The support and the love that I get from the coaches is of the utmost. He told me, straight-up, ‘We would love to have you back, of course, and have another year and help us do what we set out to do. But you have to do what’s best for you.’ And he told me that the supported my decision. And he wished the best for me.”

ON HIS TECH CAREER, HOW HE’D SUM IT UP: “I would say a learning experience. Throughout the years, I’ve learned so much, not only academically, but just life lessons, just being around the guys and being around the coaches and them teaching us how to be men, just teaching us how the real world works, how we need to conduct ourselves in order to be successful in the real world. I would say it was definitely a learning experience.”

ON WHETHER THERE’S ANY CHANCE HE CHANGES HIS MIND AGAIN. LIKE MACHO HARRIS IN 2007: “I believe this is my final decision. I think I wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, if it wasn’t. To my knowledge, this is my final decision.”

ON LEAVING BEHIND CORNERBACK RASHAD CARMICHAEL, A JUNIOR AND CLOSE FRIEND: “It was extremely hard to move on from that type of bond. The bond that me and Rock have is bigger than football. He understood. We didn’t talk much. This is kind of a decision I had to make for me. We spoke on it, but whatever decision I made, he was behind me 100 percent. And I know that my teammates are also. With that type of support, I felt as though I could do anything.”

ON THE EXCITEMENT OF THE NFL DREAM ABOUT TO COME TRUE: “I’m extremely excited. It’s bittersweet, but the Hokie Nation has been great to me, the fans and the coaches and everybody had been great to me and my family. It’s bitter in that aspect that I’m closing that chapter in my life. But it’s also sweet because it’s … inaudible … I’m taking another step in my life, and I’m taking another step toward my maturity in becoming a man. I’m just excited to see what the future holds.”

D-LINE COACH CHARLEY WILES

ON WHETHER HE WAS SHOCKED BY WORILDS’ DECISION: “I wasn’t shocked. I just hadn’t heard anything about it. It hadn’t been talked about. The first time I heard about it was the Tuesday before our bowl game. He just said he filed his paperwork. He came and saw Coach Beamer and said he was considering it. The timing of it, I wasn’t going to speak to Jason before we play a game. Obviously something got going in his mind. Something got in his ear. And he decided to go.”

ON WORILDS’ PRO PROSPECTS: “Is he a pro football player? Yeah. But would I love and wish for him to come back? Heck yeah. He gave of himself the entire time he was here; he was a great player for us.”

ON HOW MUCH THIS HURTS THE BIG GOALS THIS TEAM HAD FOR 2010: “We would love to have Jason back. I’m not going to talk about what might have been. Now I have to move forward and coach the kids we have. Honestly, I’m excited, because now people are going to wonder if we’re going to be any good, and we’re going to coach the kids we have and we’re going to go play great defense, like we do year after year. I hope it turns out positive for him. I hope he comes back and watches us play. I hope everything turns out good.”

ON WHETHER SOPHOMORE CHRIS DRAGER AND JUNIOR STEVEN FRIDAY ARE THE LIKELY STARTERS RIGHT NOW AT END: “You’d have to say that. They’re the two top back-up kids. Then of course we’ve recruited and we’re going to continue to recruit this year. You just never know who’s going to step up. Darren Evans goes down and Ryan Williams steps in and has a great year. When you’re recruiting good players, they’re going to go to the NFL. That’s a good thing.”

ON WHETHER WORILDS EVER ASKED HIM IF HE SHOULD STAY AND IF NOT, WHAT WOULD HE HAVE TOLD HIM: “No, he didn’t ask. I’d have said what’s the information you got? What’s your grade? How important is it to you to finish school? I’d say, ‘It’s hard to win a national championship, but I think we’ve got a shot.’ Just from a selfish standpoint, I’d say, ‘Please, come back.’ But he probably didn’t want to hear that. Jason was a great, great player and gave us everything he had while he was here; I just wish we had him a little longer. With that labor agreement going on right now (and a likely salary cap in 2011), maybe it is the best thing for him.”

ON WORILDS’ ABILITY: “He’s very, very fast. He has great quickness. They’ll put some weight on him. He’s going to end up making somebody’s team and he’s going to end up making a lot of tackles. He could play outside linebacker or play down. I’d say Jason is very similar to a guy we saw in the bowl a few years ago, Louisville’s end, Elvis Dumervill. He’s got a bunch of sacks this year, and Jason’s a lot like him. I hope we get a bunch more like Jason Worilds.”

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules of civility. Comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its Web sites. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment.

Chicken Bowl Blog, Volume 10 (The Only Ten I See edition) ...

Ladies and gentlemen, you may now exit the roller coaster to your left. Please don’t leave behind your too-high hopes or your knee-jerk reactions.

Virginia Tech’s up and down, rough and tumble 2009 season has come to a close. I think most Hokies fans – even those who, at various low points, wanted to burn Bryan Stinespring at the stake and have Frank Beamer forcibly shipped to Shady Pines Retirement Home – can agree that the finish was a thriller.

Tech played one of its most complete games in my six seasons covering the beat. The Hokies pounded a Tennessee team that had been hot before last night’s 37-14 dismantling.

Whether you agree that the SEC is the juggernaut ESPN makes the conference out to be ... whether you think the Volunteers are even a good SEC team ... there is no disputing that last night’s win, especially in such dominant fashion, went a long way toward improving the Hokies’ national image.

The victory also capped a pretty amazing bounce back following consecutive losses to Georgia Tech and North Carolina that had Beamer needing to lay down and Virginia Tech fans jumping ship on the season.

The Hokies closed the season by averaging 34 points and 436 yards over the final five games. They outscored their last five opponents 169-49.

Mr. Stinespring’s offense finished the season averaging 392.1 yards (most since 2003) and 31.8 points per game. The yards will rank top 50 nationally, the points top 25. The corner seems to have been turned.

If you found fault with Stiney’s game plan against Monte Kiffin (maybe the greatest NFL defensive coordinator in history) ... try a Zoloft.

And how about Bud Foster? How ABOUT that guy? He proved last night – and over the final five games – exactly why Tech is going to pay him a mint if he stays around until 2014.

Despite the shaky early play of the Hokies’ young linebackers (and the defense’s uncharacteristically low national rankings) ... Foster found a way to turn it around.

Tennessee became the fifth straight opponent to be held scoreless in the second half. Those same five teams all failed to gain more than 300 yards of offense.

Take a bow, Bud.

And you, too, Ryan Williams. And Tyrod Taylor. And Cody Grimm. Stars all.

I’d write more – about how Williams’ 1,655 yards are a new Tech record, how he’s my 2010 Heisman leader so far, how Taylor has blossomed into a true quarterback, an unflappable leader – but I have to drive from Atlanta to Memphis to cover the Liberty Bowl.

I’ll leave you with one final note, then a whole bunch of post-game quotes. Beamer has figured out bowl preparation. Kudos to him for realizing Tech had an issue two years ago and fixing the problems prior to Tech’s win over Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl.

Talking to the Hokies’ players in the hotel last night after the game, I learned that Beamer enlisted the help of several sheriffs to stand watch over the entire floor on which Tech’s team stayed all week. They were there to make sure no Hokies snuck out past curfew and no girls snuck in.

No distractions. Smart move. Ask Lane Kiffin who distractions hurt his team.

Happy New Year, everybody ...

TENNESSEE COACH LANE KIFFIN

ON THE UNBELIEVABLE, UNEXPECTED 63-YARD PASS THE HOKIES COMPLETED WITH TWO SECONDS LEFT IN THE FIRST HALF: “It was very disappointing. For them to be able to do that, to get behind us in that situation, was inexcusable.”

ON SAYING EARLY IN THE WEEK THAT PRACTICES WERE “RUSTY” AND WORRY THAT PLAYERS WERE DISTRACTED IN ATLANTA: “I wasn’t that pleased with our practices, especially when we got down here the last week. We just weren’t as crisp as was hoping. We’ve got a lot to figure this off-season, go get some more players ... try to build our roster, build our depth, so we don’t have some of the same issues. And go hire a special teams coach.”

ON TECH’S OFFENSE HANGING 37 POINTS ON THE VOLS’ DEFENSE – WHICH HAD ONLY ALLOWED MORE THAN 30 POINTS ONCE ALL SEASON: “I thought their quarterback played phenomenal today. I thought he was on the money almost every time. He was throwing ropes. I watched him in warm-ups and he was throwing the same way. I realized he was good running. I realized he could throw. But I didn’t realize he was that good throwing the ball. He was extremely accurate. And his receivers really came up big. There were a lot of contested balls where it was right on the money and the receivers made a bunch of plays.”

ON ANOTHER REASON FOR THE HOKIES’ DOMINATION: “They’re a good team. The reason that Texas and them are the only two teams in the country now that have won 10 games six years in a row. They’re a great program.”

ON TECH TAILBACK BACK RYAN WILLIAMS: “He’s a big-time back. I’d imagine if the rules were different, this guy would be ready to go to the next level right now.”

TECH COACH FRANK BEAMER

OPENING REMARKS: “No. 1, we’re so proud to be a part of the ACC. And then when we can represent them the way we did tonight, it makes us proud. I think our players and coaches deserve a lot of credit for the way we came back and played that second half. We kind of lost the momentum in the first half. Against our defense, it really got down to just a couple plays that we didn’t get played very well. Credit Tennessee. They executed. But then the way we came back and won this thing says a lot about our players. The fact that they won four games (five, actually) after things didn’t look so good ... had two tough losses and then came back and beat a really good Tennessee team here, I’m really proud of them. I’ve said all along that they’re a great bunch of guys and you just like them.”

ON WHETHER TECH’S DEFENSIVE DOMINANCE SURPRISED HIM: “Well, we got after them good. And they’re good. They had four seniors out there on that offensive line. We thought a lot of them. And we thought a lot of Tennessee. They way they finished, you could make the argument that if they’re not the best team in the SEC, they’re right up there at the top. So we respected them going in. It brings out the best in us.”

ON GETTING SIX SACKS AGAINST AN O-LINE THAT HAD GIVEN UP 12 ALL SEASON: “You know, (DT) John Graves is well and it makes a difference when he’s well in there. (Graves was hobbled the last half of the season after being chop-blocked in Week 6 against Georgia Tech.) I think Charley Wiles did a good job rotating his defensive linemen in there and they got after it. And when you get up a little bit, that also helps the situation. You’ve got them where they’ve got to throw.”

ON HOW BIG TYROD’S BOMB BEFORE HALFTIME WAS: “That was such a huge play. ... Thank goodness they reviewed and we came back (and kicked a field goal). That was huge. There’s no question. They’re thinking they’re going in tied at halftime and all the sudden we’re leading by three.”

ON TAYLOR’S EMERGENCE AS A BONA FIDE STAR AND THE ULTIMATE CLUTCH PERFORMER THIS SEASON: “I want to tell you: You guys can talk about all those other quarterbacks, but I like my Tyrod. That guy at the helm, he’s a leader, knows what he’s doing, got great instinct, can find the open guys. I like Tyrod leading our football team.”

ON TECH’S EXPLOSIVE OFFENSE AGAINST A BRIGHT DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR AND STOUT UT DEFENSE: “Well, there wasn’t much secret there. I thought we ran the ball fairly well. And when Ryan went down, we did a tremendous job. Right before the half, that gets it turned around. And then for us to stop them (at the start of the third) and then go down, drive offensively and score on our first drive of the second half, to me, that’s huge. We just did some good blocking and some good running and Bryan Stinespring did some good play-calling. It was just working. We ran a reverse at the right time. Those plays, you draw them up, but the players have got to get them blocked and get them executed. They did a good job of that tonight.”

ON WILLIAMS’ GAME: “Ryan’s something. And then Oglesby comes in there and does a great job for us. And then David Wilson came in and had a couple great runs. We’ve got some guys that we’re proud of.”

WR DANNY COALE

ON WANTING TO BEAT AN SEC TEAM: “After the regular season was over, I was hoping we’d get another chance against an SEC team. I think the rest of the team was, too. We had a little sour taste in our mouth and we wanted to get another shot.”

ON ALL THE TALK OF SEC-DOMINANCE COMING INTO THE GAME AND, AS THE NO. 11 TEAM IN THE COUNTRY, WHETHER TECH FELT ANY DISRESPECT: “Sure. All week long, I got a lot of, ‘Do you think you’ll win?’ Putting us as underdogs. If that’s where we are, then we enjoy that. We wanted to come out and prove it. We don’t really want anything given to us. We knew it would be a fight. I think any time you play an SEC team you’re going to have a little bit of underdog in you.”

ON STARTING THE SEASON IN THE GEORGIA DOME – WITH A DISAPPOINTING LOSS – AND ENDING IT IN THE SAME BUILD WITH A BIG WIN: “We did have some ups and downs. We went through the good together and the bad together. We always talk about it’s not how you start but how you finish. It was just very important that, getting a second chance on a national stage, we played better this time.”

ON ALMOST ALL THE OFFENSIVE STANDOUTS COMING BACK NEXT SEASON AND HOW BRIGHT THE FUTURE LOOKS AFTER TECH’S HOT STREAK TO END THE SEASON: “I think it’s only getting better for us. That’s exciting for us, that we’ve come a long way but we have a long way to go. I think we’ve had more confidence as the weeks go along. We’re going to use that to slingshot ourselves into this offseason and into next year.”

ON THE ONE NIT-PICK OF THE HOT OFFENSE OVER THE FINAL FOUR REGULAR-SEASON GAMES BEING THE QUALITY OF OPPONENTS AND HOW NICE IT WAS TO BLOW UP AGAINST A TOP-20 DEFENSE: “You go against this defense and you get a lot of questions all week long about how you think you match up. We knew we had good athletes and it was just a matter of going out and proving that we did.”

QB TYROD TAYLOR

ON MOTIVATION FOR THIS GAME: “We had a lot to play for. We felt that SEC teams don’t respect us. That was a great chip to put on my shoulder going into this game.”

ON HIS PASS BEFORE THE HALF: “It surprised us that they weren’t in their prevent defense. Jarrett got open, beat the safety, and I just tried to get the ball where he could catch it. He made a great catch.”

ON WHETHER THAT WAS THE BEST OF HIS CAREER: “I think that one and the one to Danny on the side (an 81-yarder in the final minute against Nebraska). That was a pretty good one. But they make the catches. I can only put the ball up. They make the catch.”

ON HIS CONFIDENCE NOW IN CRUNCH-TIME SITUATIONS: “I’m playing with no fear. When I throw a ball, I expect it to be caught. And they expect the ball to come to them. That’s just the confidence we have with each other.”

ON NEXT SEASON: “I think this was a great confidence-builder for the offense as a whole. I’m looking forward to seeing how camp goes in the spring. I know we have a lot of talent coming back and let’s see what we do with it.”

LB CODY GRIMM

ON HOW HIS CAREER ENDED: “We got the 10 wins, we won back-to-back bowl games, which we’ve never done at Tech. Though we didn’t do everything we wanted to, we accomplished a lot.”

ON NOT GIVING UP A POINT IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE LAST FIVE GAMES: “You’ve got to give Bud Foster credit for that. He’s just really good at what he does. He makes the adjustments at halftime that really help us out in the second half. He’s been doing it all year and we’ve been getting better as a defense. To go out like this really means a lot to us.”

WR JARRETT BOYKIN

ON WHETHER, AT THIS POINT, TECH’S OFFENSIVE PLAYERS SIMPLY EXPECT QB TYROD TAYLOR WILL COME THROUGH WHEN THINGS LOOK BLEAK AND TIME IS RUNNING SHORT: “Oh, yeah. We have all the faith and we know Tyrod Taylor has the ability to do anything that he chooses to do.”

ON BEING SHOCKED THAT HE WAS BEHIND THE DEFENSE ON THE LAST PLAY OF THE HALF AND THAT TAYLOR WAS ABLE TO THROW A ROPE 60-PLUS YARDS IN THE AIR: “When I was running, I noticed No. 15 ... he was just, I don’t know, letting me run past him. Then I just saw the ball in the air. But when I came around, that’s the second time my foot got stuck in that turf. It happened in practice, too. But that’s alright. We got three points out of it.”

ON HOW BIG THAT PLAY WAS: “I think it was a momentum-shifter, for sure.”

CB RASHAD CARMICHAEL

ON FINISHING STRONG: “Tonight was a perfect way to finish our season off, especially coming in losing the first game to Alabama in this same stadium. ... Ten wins, to finally beat a great SEC opponent, we accomplished a lot of things tonight. It just felt great win it was over.”

ON THE SURPRISE MOVE TO PLAY HILL/HOSLEY IN THE BOUNDARY AND CARMICHAEL AT FIELD CORNER: “(Foster) just kind of switched it in the middle of last week. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment type thing. We ran with it and it worked for us. He just asked me could I do it. I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ ... This Tennessee offense, he wanted me to read out more, read the tackles, read the tight ends, so I could come up for run support because (Hardesty) is a great back.”

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules of civility. Comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its Web sites. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment.

Chicken Bowl Blog, Volume 9 (Jones-ing For Football edition) ...

As I type, kickoff for the Chick-fil-A Bowl is 26 hours and 30 minutes away. The players on both sides seem antsy. I’m beyond ready to stop writing about this long-awaited UT-VT showdown and actually watch it.

I’m predicting a helmet-popping defensive struggle. I say Virginia Tech 20, Tennessee 13. Feel free to hold me to that and poke fun (or a stick) at me afterward if I was way off base.

I think the Hokies are focused on earning a little respect – for themselves and the ACC – against the big, bad Southeastern Conference. I think Tennessee’s coaches are focused on getting the staff’s first bowl win, and upsetting the nation’s No. 11 team in the process, but I’m not sure if all the Volunteers’ players are similarly dialed in.

Coach Lane Kiffin has repeatedly talked about the distraction the city of Atlanta has been. He seemed disappointed with how the players handled things early in the week – amid rumors of missed curfews, Kiffin would only say, “We’re all still here and accounted for” – but he did say today that the last two days have been more focused.

The trouble with that is, college football is a tough sport in which to just turn it on and off like that. Tech coach Frank Beamer learned his lesson about flipping the switch after several disappointing bowl losses (including the 2006 Chick-fil-A against Georgia) ... and he tightened up the ship before last year’s Orange Bowl.

Today, Beamer reported no discipline or curfew problems this week and said his team seems to be locked in on the task at hand. For what it’s worth, Tech’s practices have been described all week by players and coaches as energetic and crisp ... while the Vols and their staff reported “rust” in the first three days of work here.

Also, don’t discount the role of special teams. While Tech has a star punter, steady kicker and has returned a punt, punt block and a kickoff for touchdowns this season ... Tennessee just lost its special teams coordinator, has had six kicks blocked, has hit 1 of 8 field goals from beyond 39 yards ... and has yet to settle on a kicker for this game.

Methinks the Hokies have a good shot at turning the tide in this one via the kicking game. We shall see.

Until then, we still have 26 hours and now 18 minutes to kill. So I’ll give you an edited-down (to include just the most interesting stuff) set of interviews from the past several days with the Vols.

First, let me make good on my promise to bring you Kevin Jones (who I talked to for the Billy Hite story) and his thoughts on Tech’s talented freshman tailback, Ryan Williams.

“He’s pretty good,” Jones said, warming himself up for more effusive (but grudging) praise. “He’s a good back. He has good instincts. He’s got good balance. He’s got good speed when he gets in the open field. He’s a different back from me and Lee Suggs.”

Jones and Suggs were the greatest tailback tandem in school history, dubbed “The Untouchables” as they re-wrote the Hokies record book together at the beginning of this decade that Williams is about to close out.

“I always try to compare the other backs to us, because Lee and I were there together and we were the two best ever,” Jones said. “I’m ready to welcome Ryan into that club, because he’s a good one. A really good one. It’s time to put him in the conversation with me and Lee.”

Williams has actually been in that conversation for a good while. He needs just 110 yards against Tennessee to break Jones’ single-season school record of 1,647 yards.

Jones said he will be rooting for the Hokies to win Thursday night, and for Williams to play well ... but to stop at 109 yards.

“I want to try to keep some of my records,” he said.

And in case you are wondering, Jones said he is fully recovered from his season-ending ankle injury suffered at the start of the year with the Chicago Bears. He said he still has one more year on his contract with them and he’s already working out to prepare for next season – which would be his seventh in the NFL.

“My goal is to last 10 years,” he said. “I’m going to play until God says it’s enough. And then maybe I’ll come help Coach Hite. That would be perfect.”

And now, to quote legendary UT radio man John Ward, it is football time in Tennessee ...

VOLS SAFETY ERIC BERRY

ON DELAYING HIS DECISION ABOUT THE NFL: “I really just wanted to make sure there was no stone unturned. I sat down with Coach Kiffin and talked about it. Talked to my family, some of my close teammates and friends about the whole situation. I wanted to make sure I weighed out every possible scenario and what could happen.”

ON WHETHER HIS MIND IS MADE UP NOW AND THE DECISION IS JUST A SECRET: “It’s kind of made up now, but I really don’t want to get into it. I kind of want to focus on Virginia Tech and just deal with that right now.”

ON HOW RYAN WILLIAMS STACKS UP TO THE BACKS HE HAS FACED: “Ryan Williams is a great running back in my opinion. He runs very hard. At the same time, I feel like Montario (Hardesty) is the type of back that will get our defense prepared for someone like that. I think (Williams) is the closest person to Montario, as far as running style, as physical as he is and how he runs with a low center of gravity. We’re just going to keep working on wrapping up Montario and making sure we’re in the right position to tackle him, because in my eyes he’s the best running back I’ve faced, ever. So I feel like he’s doing a good job getting us prepared.”

ON HIS REPUTATION AS A BIG HITTER: “That is something I do take a lot of pride in, not only making big hits, but just going all out. The way I hit represents how I play. That’s hard every play. If I’m going to tackle somebody, I’m not going to hold anything back. Give it everything I’ve got. That’s one of the things this coaching staff has put into us: don’t halfway do something; don’t decide when to turn it on; don’t decide when to go hard; just do it every time.”

VOLS QB JONATHAN CROMPTON

ON WHETHER HE SET ANY SPECIFIC GOALS GOING INTO THIS SEASON: “You always make personal goals, but with a new offense – this was my fifth offense in five years – you don’t really know how things are going to work in the beginning. You can’t really set too many goals, because you’re not completely comfortable in the offense yet. The main thing is the team goals, the wins and losses.”

ON WHETHER HE HAS KEPT ALL FIVE OF HIS PLAYBOOKS FROM UT: “Every one of them. I don’t look at them, but why not? Later in life, who says I don’t get into coaching. I’ve got five offenses I can go from.”

ON THROWING THREE INTERCEPTIONS – AND NO TOUCHDOWNS – IN AN EARLY LOSS TO UCLA, AND WHERE HIS HEAD WAS AFTER THAT GAME: “On my shoulders. That’s part of the game. Things happen and you just have to keep moving on and getting better.”

ON WHAT STANDS OUT ABOUT TECH’S DEFENSE: “They’re very well-coached. They play fast. Every time you pause the film at the end of a play, there’s always 10 or 11 guys in the picture. That’s saying something. We’ve got our work cut out for us. It’s going to be tough for us to be able to do stuff.”

VOLS LB LAMARCUS THOMPSON

ON WHAT COMES TO MIND WHEN HE THINKS VIRGINIA TECH: “Option. They run a strong option game and we have to keep that at bay, which is real tough. Of course the option is a hard offense to defend. It’s going to be a good game between our defense and their offense.”

ON WHETHER WILLIAMS REMINDS HIM OF A BACK HE’S FACED: “Well, he’s a strong runner, and there’s a lot of strong runners in the SEC. It will be a challenge to contain him.”

ON WHY ERIC BERRY IS SUCH A NASTY HITTER: “Eric, he reminds me – how he hits – of Jack Tatum (former legend of the Raiders and Oilers, known as The Assassin). If you read his book (Tatum wrote three: ‘They Call Me Assassin,’ ‘They Still Call Me Assassin’ and ‘Final Confessions of NFL Assassin Jack Tatum’) he runs through his hits. He doesn’t stop his feet. He’s not afraid of contact. When you keep your momentum moving and are not afraid of contact, you’re going to leave some devastating blows.”

VOLS D-END CHRIS WALKER

ON BEING READY TO PLAY: “It’s been a long time for us and I can tell the guys are all getting pretty restless. We really want to play this game and we want to play well. We’ve practiced really well and the coaches have a great game plan for us, so we’re looking forward to getting out there and playing a great team.”

ON THE INTENSITY STEADILY TURNING UP: “I think you could see by the way we practiced today that everybody is starting to buckle down and get on their assignments. We had a really good practice today. At the beginning of the week, we were kind of rusty. As the week has gone on, we’ve tightened down on our assignments. We had good energy (early), but we weren’t tight on our assignments. As the week went on, we got tighter on our assignments and we really feel good about it.”

ON WHAT THIS GAME MEANS TO HIM: “Not only for our team going into next year, but for our university, for our first-year head coach, for him to get to his first bowl game and get a win, it’s going to be huge, and it’s going to help us in recruiting and give us confidence going into the spring knowing where we can be. We have some games that we wish we could have back, but this game will be huge for us just as a confidence boost.”

VOLS RB MONTARIO HARDESTY

ON THE HOKIES’ DEFENSE: “For me, the biggest thing when I look at them is how hard their guys play. They play hard the whole game. So we’ll have to go out there and match their intensity.”

ON WHO STANDS OUT ON TECH’S DEFENSE: “It’s not one person. I think that’s the whole motto of the defense, is that everyone on their defense plays hard. So we’re going to have to match that intensity.”

ON WHETHER PLAYING A BRUTAL SEC SCHEDULE (PLAYING NO.1 FLORIDA AND NO. 1 ALABAMA ON THE ROAD) PREPARES A TEAM WELL FOR A GAME LIKE THIS: “There’s nothing we haven’t seen when we take the field. I think we’re battle-tested and prepared to go into a game like this.”

ON RECENT SEC DOMINANACE OVER THE ACC: “We feel like we have a very good conference but this is Tennessee against Virginia Tech.”

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules of civility. Comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its Web sites. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment.

Chicken Bowl Blog, Volume 8 (Tech Tackles Tennessee edition) ...

Yesterday you heard from Tennessee’s two coordinators. Now it’s Tech’s turn to talk. Offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring and defensive coordinator Bud Foster will have their hands full tomorrow night.

Both coaches, though, are enjoying strong seasons. Everyone expects Foster’s defenses to be great, and after a few bumps in the road, this year’s version lived up to that legacy. Similarly, many fans have come to expect the worst from Tech’s offense under Stinespring – but he has bucked that trend in 2009.

Tech’s offense is on a roll, averaging 436 yards and 33 points over the past four games, all victories. No one is going to be mistaking the Hokies for Texas Tech any time soon (but then again, this Tech has won a lot more than that high-flying one ... not to mention the latest stay-in-the-shed scandal). Still, by their own standards – and coach Frank Beamer’s ball-control, play-it-pretty-safe philosophy – the Hokies have been pretty productive this year.

Tech has surpassed 400 yards five times and went over 370 yards in 8 of 12 games. The Hokies scored at least 35 points five times and had 30-plus in 7 of 12 games.

What about those other games, you ask? Well, there was Alabama, Nebraska and North Carolina ... all of which had top-20 defenses nationally. No team in America lit up the scoreboard or filled up the stat sheet against those three defenses.

The one inexcusable stumble for Tech’s offense was against Georgia Tech. Just 334 yards and 23 points against the Yellow Jackets – who allowed 400-plus yards and 30-plus points in their last two games – was a pretty poor showing.

But the Hokies have clearly moved on and gotten back into a groove. With QB Tyrod Taylor finding his identity lately, RB Ryan Williams just blowing up and WR Jarrett Boykin turning into a star ... there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic that Tech has turned a corner on offense.

Defensively, I’m not sure I need to type too much. Bud and his boys are bad, bad men. Always have been. Always will be, it seems.

This group really struggled at times in 2009, but here they are back among the nation’s best. Did you realize that Tech has allowed fewer than 300 yards in each of the past four games? Or that the Hokies haven’t allowed a second-half point in the past four games? That’s smothering stuff, staggering stats.

The defense ranks sixth nationally in pass defense, 11th in scoring defense and 14th in yards allowed. If there is one weakness, it’s in stopping the run. Tech has been much better lately, but the Hokies rank 52nd in run defense. In the team’s three losses, they’ve given up 268 rushing yards (Bama), 359 rushing yards (GT) and 181 yards (UNC). They also allowed 207 on the ground against Nebraska, a game that Tech needed a late miracle to win.

That problem is a product of having young linebackers. But after 12 games, they aren’t as young anymore. Vols RB Montario Hardesty will test how much they’ve grown up.

There are some great match-ups in this game. I’m getting truly excited to see it all go down in the Dome on Thursday night. I’m sure you are, too.

I know these guys are ...

TECH O-COORDINATOR BRYAN STINESPRING

ON GOING HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH DEFENSIVE LEGEND MONTE KIFFIN: “I was feeling pretty good when I walked into this press conference. Now I’m a little queasy. What happens when you play games like this and you go against a great defense is the same way as it is in Blacksburg. Every day when we hit the field, we go against Bud and the caliber of defense he puts on the field every single day, you better bring your ‘A’ game. You better prepare yourself for a tough day at the office, and play as well as you can play, or else it’s not going to go well for you. It’s the same thing we’re getting to go against with Tennessee. Terrific defense. Monte Kiffin, Bud’s already said it. You guys already know. It’s a great defense. He’s a great defensive coordinator. He’s proven the test of time, as well as Bud has done over his tenure as defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech. You know what you’re going to get. You’re going to line up against one of the best defenses in the country, as we do in Blacksburg. It does, it excites you. If you don’t like to play football against the best, with the level of competition that you’re getting ready to go against and face that head-on, directly, then you’re in the wrong business. This is why we play the game, to go against the very best. … That excites us all. To hear Bud talking, he’s getting ready to go into his pre-game speech any second now.”

ON ACCOUNTING FOR VOLS SAFETY ERIC BERRY AND ALL THE PLACES HE PLAYS, AND WHETHER THERE’S ANYBODY LIKE THAT IN THE ACC: “Yeah, Kam Chancellor, Cody Grimm. There’s a lot of carry over to what we see (in practice). We’ve asked Tennessee to put a little red light on top of Eric so we know where he is all the time. They haven’t really gotten back to us as to whether they’re going to do that. You start focusing a lot on one element, you’re not taking care of all the elements that you need to do. We certainly need to be aware of where he is and make sure that we try to account for him as well as we can.”

ON THE PROGRESS OF TECH’S OFFENSE THROUGHOUT THE SEASON AND ENDING THE YEAR AGAINST AN SEC DEFENSE IN THE GEORGIA DOME, SAME AS THEY STARTED THE SEASON: “It’s kind of nice to end the season where you started, you know, tough, tough, tough, tough. That’s the catch word. We’ll find out in a couple of days. I’m proud of this football team. I’m proud of this offense. We’ve faced, I think this is the sixth, maybe seventh, team that is ranked in the top 25 in total defense. We’ve played good defenses throughout the year, and we’ve gotten better as the year’s gone on. This guy beside me, Danny Coale, has done a terrific job. To be able to watch a group grow up and start making some plays, start making big plays and develop the way they have up front and across the board, that excites you as a football coach. If you’re better at the end of the year than you were at the beginning, that excites you. That’s what you do. You taught the game. The players have gone out every day and worked to get better and shown up. That is what you look for as a football coach.”

ON USING THE EXTRA TIME LEADING UP TO A BOWL GAME: “There’s not enough time in a day regardless. Just because you have extra time bowl-wise, we’ve got recruiting weekends, you’re out on the road recruiting, so there’s other things your doing. You get to the bowl games, there’s a fine line. What got you to that game? How did you get here? What was the common factors in how you got to this ballgame? Because that’s going to carry you. You have more time to handle some of the schematic differences. You get a chance to study those a little bit more, but also, you’ve got a chance, if you’re not careful, to try to get too far away from what’s really gotten you to this game. You do have a little bit more time to prepare for what may be the differences. You’ve got to focus on what they do and what got them here.”

ON WHETHER TURNOVERS ARE A BIG WORRY FOR AN OFFENSE AFTER A LONG LAYOFF: “I’m nervous about anything that can possibly go wrong, whether it’s a turnover, whether it’s a penalty. It’s not just the turnovers; it’s some of the penalties. You’ve got to get back on your offensive line – get your hands inside, start moving your feet faster, those type of things. When we practiced in Blacksburg, it’s kind of game-style tempo there. ... A lot of our practices started to gear toward the bowl game. We went good on good, which is your first offense against your first defense. It hastened getting your tempo back and the nature of playing fast and some collisions. Because there are going to be some collisions in this game. … I really think we took into account that part of it, and that’s the reason we went into our bowl practices going more team periods against each other. Turnovers are a big part to any game. Any time you have a layoff ... you’ve got to making sure you’re taking care of the little things. And we’ve done a nice job of it. It’s one of our keys to success going into any game. And it certainly will be in the keys to success we talk about tomorrow night as an offense. We’ve got to take care of the football. They’re an opportunistic defense. They tackle the ball very well and create turnovers. We need to be very focused on making sure we’re taking care of the football.”

ON QB TYROD TAYLOR’S DEVELOPMENT FROM WEEK 1 TO NOW: “I couldn’t be more pleased with Tyrod Taylor. As a football player, as a leader, as a commander of the offense. I think 90 seconds against Nebraska set the stage for the rest of the season for Tyrod. ... I think Tyrod sometimes felt like he was going to do this. They’re not impervious to – you try to make them hear certain things and not hear certain things, selective hearing per se ... but sometimes I think he gets caught up in should he run it, should he stay in the pocket. Before the Nebraska game, we talked about: ‘You just have to go play the game. You have great instincts for the game. Go play it.’ Enjoy the competition, because he’s a competitor. I think those 90 seconds set the stage for the rest of the year because he took an offense, he took the situation, and he was in complete control of it when there was disarray out there. He took control of the situation. To have a football player, in that situation, be able to scramble, keep a play alive, direct traffic, while one of the nation’s best defenders is chasing you from sideline to sideline, to have the poise to go play the game. Tyrod has had a fantastic year. He’s out there directing our offense, whether it’s run to run or run to pass, and getting everyone on the same page. Guys like Danny and Dyrell, those guys we talked about last year, coming up playing as true freshmen ... We talked about in the spring, we didn’t need them just to be a year older, we needed them to be a year better. He’s got tremendous confidence in the people around him and I think that’s shown out here.”

TECH D-COORDINATOR BUD FOSTER

ON THE MATCH-UP WITH TENNESSEE: “We’ve got our hands full from a defensive standpoint. I think this is one of the better offensive lines that we’ve faced this year as well as one of the outstanding tailbacks in college football today, so we’ve got a tremendous challenge ahead of us.”

ON THE DEFENSE’S PLAY LATE IN THE SEASON, SHUTTING OUT THE LAST FOUR OPPONENTS IN THE SECOND HALF: “I, for one, am really proud of our seniors. I thought we had great senior leadership, especially down the stretch. Nekos (Brown) has had a great senior season for us. He was voted one of our team captains, which is probably the top honor we have on our football team, and that speaks volumes about what his character is all about. I think the one thing we’ve always done a good job of over the years is making adjustments. Usually those adjustments are during the course of the first half and then obviously carry over into halftime, and that’s something we’ve done consistently over the years as a staff is being able to see what offenses are trying to do and where they’re trying to attack us, and then our kids do a great job of working their game. I think that’s something we always emphasize and talk about is they’re consistent. Don’t just play the game. You’ve got to work the game and be a part of the game. They’re the ones playing, and our guys have done a great job of that.”

ON CHALLENGING THE SENIOR LEADERS AFTER THE DUKE GAME THIS YEAR, WHEN THE DEFENSE WAS LIT UP: “You want some guys to step up. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed. I’d say I wanted some guys to step forward. It’s their season. Usually your season goes how your leadership goes and obviously that’s my responsibility as a coordinator is if they don’t lead then I’m going to, I promise you that. But these guys, and every year is a different year, and that’s what makes college football so exciting. But these guys, they took ownership in it. It’s their football team, and that’s where I really challenged those guys is we’ve got to take ownership in our play, in our accountability, in our accountability with each other, but at the same time, we had a lot of new faces, a lot of young faces in some key spots, so we were continuing to grow as a football team, but I also wanted these guys that were seniors that had been through the battles and had been through the preparation and those types of things it takes to be successful at this level, I wanted some of those guys to show the young guys outside of what we’re demanding, what it takes to be a big time college football player and what our program demands to be a successful football program, and I thought these guys stepped up and did a great job.”

ON WHETHER HE HAS EVER TALKED SHOP WITH VOLS COORDINATOR MONTE KIFFIN: “You know, we talked several years ago. We were actually going to try to go visit them, but I think that’s when they had a changeover with their head coach. Actually, it was when – oh, I just had a brain fart – Dungy had just left. But anyway, there was a transition in staff and it didn’t work out. Tonight we have our assistant coaches dinner, where we go out with our counterparts. I’m hoping I get a chance to go. It would be a great experience for me. He’s one of the legends in all of football, and it would be a tremendous honor for me to sit down there. Not that we’d sit down there and talk shop and pick each other’s brains, but I’m going to try to just to see what drives him. I’m looking forward to that opportunity. That’s one of the neat things that this bowl does. We have an assistant coaches dinner with our counterpart. We were down here three years ago, and I ate with Willie Martinez with University of Georgia at the time and we really developed a tremendous relationship since then. We’ve gone down and visited with them on a couple of occasions. Maybe this will do something with us and Tennessee. I have the utmost respect for what Monte Kiffin has done at the college level and obviously for what he’s done at the professional level. It’s going to be quite a thrill to eat dinner with him tonight.”

ON WHAT TO DO WHEN SENIOR LEADERSHIP IS LACKING: “Obviously, we have coach in front of our name, and that’s our responsibility. Obviously you hope your team, and I hope our team carries on kind of my personality a little bit. I’m an emotional guy. I’m an intense guy. I’m a driven guy, and I think our team year in and year out usually transforms into that a little bit so to speak. Obviously, we’ve got young kids and they’ve got to understand the focus, the demands, the intensity it takes to perform at this level, and obviously we’ve got to challenge them, we’ve got to channel that energy into that type of mode of being focused all the time, and that’s probably where we’ve got to come in to coach them from that standpoint. But also, we’ve had a lot of success with our program, and hopefully that will kind of perpetuate and run itself a little bit, but obviously there’s always new faces. Kids are always going to … they’re kids. There’s going to be guys that don’t necessarily want to work as hard as they think they need to be successful, and that’s where we come in. We’re here to make sure they reach their full potential both on and off the field as student athletes. We take great pride in being teachers. Our main objective is to see these guys be successful and be successful the rest of their life, but obviously football is a great, and any college athletics at the high level, is a great teacher to show you want it takes to be successful on the field but also off the field.”

ON SHARING THE STAGE ON THURSDAY NIGHT WITH A LEGEND LIKE MONTE KIFFIN: “I’ve never looked at it that way, to be honest with you. All I know is I coach out of fear of failure. They play great defense, and I know their offense is physical. They like to run the football. I know this – we’ve got to take care of our business to be successful. … We’ve got to play a physical style football game like we like to play. I know this, we’re getting ready to play an outstanding offensive football team. … Obviously, you’ll look back one day and you’ll look in the media guide and say, ‘Oh, look, there was Monte Kiffin, there’s Lane Kiffin, there’s Ed Orgeron’ and all these different guys that you know, guys that were as good as anybody in the profession. I know this: Our challenge right now is to be physical up front and make their offense one dimensional. … I probably get more juiced up when you’re challenging a guy that’s done it in the NFL from the offensive standpoint, because you know they’ve coached some of the best and seen a little bit of everything.”

ON THE VOLS’ STANDOUT TIGHT END, LUKE STOCKER, WHO HAS 27 CATCHES FOR 370 YARDS AND FIVE TDS: “Yeah, they do a great job setting up their play selection. They move around their tight ends a lot. They move them around to block. They’re going to block, block, block and then they’re going to run play-action off of it. With Luke, you’ve got to know where he is. He’s their leading receiver, No. 1. (fourth-leading, actually). No. 2, he does a great job getting open. No. 3, he does a great job with the ball in his hands. I really think he’s one of the premier tight ends in college football today. And he’s an athletic big man. He can create some problems and some match up problems. They’re going to find him. A lot of their offense is based off of their ability to run the football, and hope they slip him through in the cracks in a play-action to get a play down field. But he’s really one of the better tight ends, if not the best tight end in college football today, in my opinion.”

ON OFFENSES MAYBE BEING MORE LIKELY TO BE RUSTY AFTER A LONG LAYOFF AND WHETHER DEFENSE HAVE AN EDGE IN THESE SITUATIONS: “I don’t know. Whether its offense or defense, its getting the timing back. In offense, there’s so much more timing as far as involving handing the ball off or throwing the ball. Defensively, the timing comes into your explosion and tackling and block protection. When you have a month off, that suffers the most in that area. We’ve worked hard. We had so much snow in Blacksburg we actually didn’t scrimmage. But ...  we went right back into the basics and the fundamentals. We tackled every day. We actually had circuits every day in Blacksburg. We did all phases of the tackling. We actually brought mats out and tackled people to the ground. Hopefully that will work for us. We want to really emphasize and make sure that we’ve kept our timing. There so much involved in the offense and the defense, that explosive point, that timing of tackling and getting your body in position and taking on blockers. That’s one area we’ve really worked hard on. That’s one thing: we try to be fundamentally sound all the time.”

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Chicken Bowl Blog, Volume 7 (Tennessee Tackling Tech edition) ...

The two men who will try to attack Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring and defensive coordinator Bud Foster in two days are both veteran coaches with extensive college and pro experience.

Volunteers offensive coordinator Jim Chaney helped tutor superstar QB Drew Brees at Purdue and spent the past three years with the St. Louis Rams. Tennessee’s defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin is a little better known after a long and decorated career as one of the NFL’s brightest defensive minds.

Both Chaney and Kiffin have done pretty impressive work this season, considering they were starting from scratch and transitioning back from the pro game to the college ranks.

Chaney’s offense ranks 32nd nationally in scoring (30.58 ppg), 43rd in rushing (169.83 ypg), 47th in passing (225.58 ypg) and 48th in total offense (395.42 ypg). UT’s attack is not especially explosive, but it is nicely balanced, featuring a QB with 26 touchdowns and a RB with 1,300 yards. Based on their rushing totals – and the fact that they’ve allowed only 12 sacks (TWELVE!?!) – it’s obvious they have both a talented line and sound blocking schemes.

Kiffin’s defense ranks 10th nationally in passing defense (165.92 ypg), 16th in total defense (308.83 ypg), 26th in scoring defense (21 ppg) and 58th in run defense (142.92 ypg). They don’t get great pressure on the quarterback, racking up only 20 sacks this season, but they’re great in coverage, surrendering only five touchdown tosses. If there’s a relative weakness, it’s stopping the run. That’s good news for Tech tailback Ryan Williams.

Those are the numbers. Here are the men who make it happen. Tune in for Tech’s two coordinators tomorrow ...

TENNESSEE O-COORDINATOR JIM CHANEY

ON THE VOLS’ PREPARATION NOW TWO DAYS FROM THE GAME: “Everything’s looking great. It seems like we’ve been practicing for thereabouts a decade to get ready for this football game. We’ve had a lot of practice time. We ran one play it seems like 30 times. If we screw that up in the game, I’m going to be awfully upset. There comes a time when it’s time to play football. We definitely feel like it’s here. The guys, as the week progressed, our focus has gotten where we need it to be. We’re ready to go.”

ON VIRGINIA TECH’S DEFENSIVE STRENGTH: “Well the defense fits the players. They have the right people on the field. I think the thing that was noticeable to me last night was the big safety, the Chancellor kid, No. 17. Chris (Walker, a defensive end) and I were talking earlier and he’s about Chris’ size. He plays in the box, he’s a very physical football player, and he adjusts to everything. We’ll try to do some things ... but I do believe (Foster) will know how to adjust to everything we do. It’s going to get down to players making plays.”

ON LANE KIFFIN MENTIONING THAT SOUTH CAROLINA RAN SOME ASPECTS OF TECH’S DEFENSE: “A little bit, but not completely. This team is a little unique. Bud has been doing it for a long time, with a lot of success, and we’ve got to be very detailed in what we try to do. They’ll make you look like a fool if you’re not ready to roll.”

ON KIFFIN SAYING HE HAD TO BE CAREFUL NOT TO INSTALL TOO MANY PLAYS, TOO MANY GADGETS, WITH ALL THE TIME THERE IS TO PREPARE FOR A BOWL: “He didn’t listen to himself (laughing). I looked back on some notes, when we made ourselves bowl-eligible, to some of the things I did prior to going to the NFL. Some of my notes from my Purdue days were just, ‘Slow down. Don’t put too much stuff in.’ You’ve got a tremendous amount of time on your hands. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of putting some barometers on ourselves so we don’t get too crazy. You do have to watch that. There’s no question you can fall victim to that with the time that you have. You’re used the regular game weeks, where you have time restrictions on those things. You don’t know. But I think we’ve done a fair job of doing that.”

ON SIMPLIFYING THINGS FOR COLLEGE PLAYERS VS. THE NFL, WHERE THERE’S MUCH MORE TIME FOR MEETING AND PRACTICING: “The biggest challenge for me has been on the coaching side. You don’t have those three-hour meetings we used to have for installation. So you’ve got to be much more efficient in your time. You’ve got to have all your meetings set up perfectly when you walk in and be ready to roll. You don’t have (the players) that long. They’re all studying. Right, Montario? (Hardesty, the tailback, sitting to his right, flashed a huge grin, nodded, and said, ‘Student athletes.’) You don’t have as much time as you’d like to have with them.”

ON THE DIFFERENCE IN DEVELOPING PLAYERS IN COLLEGE VS. THE NFL: “You do need to have a little patience. Monte and I would concur: At that level, if a guy’s not ready to go, you cut him and go to the next guy. That’s kind of a brutal world. But here, you have to have a some patience. Development is really the whole key to your success.”

ON WHETHER HE HAS HAD FUN DURING BOWL WEEK: “Well, we wake up about 6 o’clock and go to work and quit at about 11:30 (p.m.). Things really haven’t changed a lot. We tried to do as good a job this week as we can of making this a regular work week. So while we’ve been here, I’ve seen my kids a couple times and my wife a couple times. That’s about it. Our fun part as coaches is practice. We call it Yard Time. We get out of the prison and get to go out to the yard and have some fun. We do have some fun with that.”

ON VIRGINIA TECH’S STAR LINEBACKER, CODY GRIMM, WHO IS UNDERSIZED BY HUGE ON GAME DAY: “As you watch more and more tape, well, there he is making another play. Does he run right over a guy to make the play? No. He’ll run around him and make the tackle. He’s back there deflecting the ball, he’s making tackles. He’s a nuisance player. He’s a real pain in my butt, to be honest with you. He’s an exceptional football player. Does he remind me of anyone? No. Not really. Not anybody we played this year. He just finds a way to make plays. He is exceptional as a football player. He’s very good at what he does. I think they put him into a scheme that fits him perfectly and he plays that role within that scheme exactly the way Bud wants him to do it, and he does it very well. I think he’s a hell of a football player.”

ON FOSTER’S USE OF GRIMM BEING INDICATIVE OF FOSTER’S GENIUS: “Definitely. When we’re sitting around in our recruiting meetings and say, he’ll fit into that position, he’ll fit in that position, that’s kind of what we’re trying to evolve to ourselves. You see how they’ve evolved it there. That player fits right there. It’s a puzzle, and he fits in that piece. He does that great. As does the Chancellor kid. As does the boundary corner, as does this guy I worry about blocking, Jason Worilds. They all fit perfectly into that little puzzle, without question. He’s identified the strengths and what he needs in those positions and he’s fitting them in.”

TENNESSEE D-COORDINATOR MONTE KIFFIN

ON HIS DEFENSE’S PREPARATION: “Like Jim said, it’s been a long haul here. We started practicing back in Knoxville and it seems like we’ve been going forever. But the more tape I watch of Virginia Tech, they keep getting better and better. Especially toward the end of the year, they really got good. It’s a great challenge for us. They’re a great offensive football team and we’re going to have to really be at the top of our game because I know they’re going to bring it. I can’t say enough about their staff. I know that’s what you’re supposed to say, right, but let me tell you something: Do you know how hard it is to win 10 games? And they do it every year. That’s a great job by them. We got to seven and we worked our tail off just getting to seven.”

ON WHETHER, DURING HIS LONG TIME IN THE NFL, HE EVER TOOK NOTICE OF WHAT TECH D-COORDINATOR BUD FOSTER WAS DOING ON THE COLLEGE LEVEL: “In pro football, you follow college football. You never get away from it. Saturdays, the players are the same way as the coaches: The plane lands wherever you’re going – New York or wherever – and you rush in and check the scores, watching this and that. So you stay up on it, and (Bud) has done a great job. I’m not just saying that. They play really good defense. I don’t watch (Tech’s D) as much as our offensive staff, but we have meetings and I hear the head coach (his son), I know him pretty well, and he says, ‘Boy, these guys are pretty good.’ Bud is very sound; They play really hard. That’s probably their trademark. People who do that have a chance to play good.”

ON WHETHER HE NOTICES FOSTER RUNNING MUCH TAMPA-2, WHICH HE HELPED MAKE FAMOUS WITH THE BUCCANEERS: “He’ll mix it in every now and then, but he’s not really a Cover-2 guy. They’re more of a nine-man front, more quarters and their corners playing back inside. They kind of have a scheme of their own, and it’s a really good scheme. It goes way back to Jerry Claiborne and Maryland. I never got into that type of scheme, but they do a really good job with it. It’s kind of (about) what your fundamentals are, what you believe in. Bud Foster, hopefully we’ll be able to move the ball, but he’ll be able to adjust because he knows his defense and his players know it.”

ON HOW MUCH HE GOES BACK THE MEMORY BANKS PREPARING FOR AN OPPONENT, THINKING OF PLAYERS OR TEAMS HE HAS FACED BEFORE THAT ARE SIMILAR AND HOW HE STOPPED THEM: “Well, when you see (VT tailback) Ryan Williams, the more you look at the tape, the better back he is. And (VT quarterback) Tyrod Taylor, wow. He’s just really come a long ways in talking to coaches that have played against him. He’s really a seasoned quarterback. You probably would have liked to play him earlier in the year. But he’s really the leader out there now. Some young quarterbacks can’t take charge the way he does. He’s very confident in what he does. When you put the film together, they’re both – there’s no doubt about it – they don’t just rush it or just throw it. They’re very, very balanced.”

ON STOPPING THAT ATTACK: “Well, you have your unique things you’re going to do here and there. I don’t know that I can say there’s any one particular scheme or anything. That quarterback, I just think he’s special. They do enough things that they do kind of tax you. You’ve got to be careful. You can only put so much in on defense (not too much to confuse the players), but you’ve got to make sure you’ve covered everything because they do a lot of different things, a lot of different formations.”

ON THE URBAN MEYER STORY AND ALL THE TALK ABOUT STRESSED COACHES AND WHETHER, AS A CONCERNED PARENT, HE’S WORRIED ABOUT HIS SON LANE: “Well, I don’t know. I get these questions about, ‘What’s it like to work for your son.’ It’s a little bit of a switch. There’s a couple things I’ve told people: When Lane took the job at the University of Tennessee, I was still with the Buccaneers. He got the job and naturally, you call your say. I said, ‘Hey, Lane, I’ve got some good news and bad news for you. The good news is: You’re the head coach at the University of Tennessee. The bad news is: Have you checked your schedule lately, kid? It’s a tough schedule.’ And then they say, ‘What’s it like?’ And I say, ‘Well, he’s the head coach and I’m the assistant, so I call him Coach. As long as he calls me dad, we’ll get along fine.’ But to be honest with you, I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to my son. He’s the coach and I work with the defense. ... I think he has a pretty good feel for things. ... I do realize that some people who done know Lane Kiffin might think that he’s a little bit arrogant or whatever. Well, I just know that I’ve known him for 34 years now; I was there the day he was born. If he was a jerk, I’d still love him; he’d be my son, but I wouldn’t necessarily come to work for the guy, OK?”

ON SIMPLIFYING THINGS FOR COLLEGE PLAYERS: “We talk about it every day in our meetings. On defense, you need to play fast. You can’t play fast when you add too much. So you have to have a real good feel for things. ... There’s a fine line there. You’ve just got to make sure when they line up to play at 7:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, that you let them play. You’ve got to let the guys go play.”

ON HOW MUCH HE HAD TO ADAPT HIS DEFENSE FOR THE COLLEGE GAME: “Well, there’s probably not as much change as people thought there would be. I’ve been in college before. I do know where the hash marks are. The length and width, I hope it stays the same. I just believe in so much fundamentals and motivation, how to deal with players. There’s so much that goes into coaching –  it’s not just Tampa 2 or NFL to college. I think there’s great high school coaches, college or pro. Whatever you are, you are. I think one thing is there’s more spread-out offenses now than back years ago when I was in college. I think it’s a credit to the high school coaches. Out recruiting, evaluating high school players, the biggest thing I would have to say is different is that the quarterbacks coming out of high school nowadays, because of high school coaches. Like I tell everybody, put it on tape. When you see these quarterbacks on tape in high school running the zone-read, shotgun formation, spreading the field, throwing the football. So when they get to college, these quarterbacks can run the football but they also can throw the ball. I think you see that more in college. It goes back to high school.”

ON THE BIGGEST CHANGE FOR HIM FROM THE NFL: “When I think back before, because of the hash mark [difference], the wide side of the field is definitely a factor. Before maybe not as much because you didn’t use as much of the field. Maybe you run the wishbone or the veer offense or whatever. It was more enclosed. You see more three-wides to the field than maybe years ago.”

ON MORE OPTION GAME AND RUNNING QBS IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL MAKING IT HARDER TO RUN THE TAMPA 2: “Tampa 2 means there’s two safeties back here and two corners out here, so that’s four. There’s seven guys left. It’s kind of hard to stop the run sometimes with seven guys. (Chaney pointed to RB Montario Hardesty beside him, grinned, and said, ‘I wish Bud would play the Tampa 2.’ ”

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Chicken Bowl Blog, Volume 6 (Chicken Nuggets edition) ...

Many thanks to the sports information departments at Virginia Tech and Tennessee for their help with many of the nuggets below. I know Bryan Johnston and Dave Smith do a butt-kicking good job helping us hacks in Blacksburg. And I must say, my experience dealing with the Volunteers’ staff has been excellent and accommodating. Not that you crazies care at all about that. You just want the goods, right?

Well, then, let’s get right to it. Below the informational bites, you’ll find a few stray notable quotes from various guys I’ve talked to leading up to the game.

Later tonight I’m going to post a bunch of goodies from the press conferences with both teams’ offensive and defensive coordinators. They were a hoot.

For now, let me say that Monte Kiffin is ... a wacky guy, to say the least. And UT’s offensive coordinator, Jim Chaney (who I knew very little about), is a tremendous talker.

He referred to Tech LB Cody Grimm as a “nuisance player” who is “really a pain in my butt.” He said Hokies defensive coordinator Bud Foster uses Grimm perfectly in his scheme and that Foster is brilliant in the way he “puts the puzzle together” with getting the right players in the right role.

But the gem of the day was when Chaney was asked if he has had a good time in Atlanta during bowl week. He said not so much. That he and the staff have barely even seen their families and have worked morning and night.

HOWEVER ... “Our fun part as coaches is practice. We call it Yard Time. We get out of the prison and get to go out to the yard and have some fun.”

Now this is hilarious for so many reasons, not the least of which is that the Vols’ primary jersey color is what many would call “prison orange” and also because Tennessee has had a long history of players spending time behind bars. Two of this year’s players, in fact, were arrested for armed robbery.

But, hey, at least they have a sense of humor about it. On to the nuggets! Oh, and thanks to the good folks at Chick-fil-A for the free, real nuggets – which have ensured that I will not only fail to lose my holiday weight but instead become so grotesquely inflated that I could replace Sergio Render on the Hokies’ offensive line next season ...

* Virginia Tech needs a win to record its sixth straight 10-win season. Texas is the only other school in the country who can claim the same. Southern California had seven straight 10-win seasons before this year, but finished 2009 with only nine wins. The Hokies have won at least 10 games in eight of the past 10 seasons and have averaged 9.6 wins per year during their 17-year bowl streak.

* The Hokies’ senior class can also improve to 41-13 with a win, giving them the second-most wins ever in a four-year span at Tech. And they could record back-to-back bowl victories for the first time in school history.

* Tech’s defense enters the bowl game red hot. Bud Foster’s crew has climbed to No. 11 nationally in scoring defense and No. 14 in total defense thanks to a fantastic final four games (all Hokies wins). In those four games – against East Carolina, Maryland, N.C. State and Virginia – Tech has allowed fewer than 300 total yards. The Hokies also shut out each of those opponents in the second half.

* Are you wondering whether Tech has ever played three times in the same city (other than Blacksburg) in the same season? Oddly enough, the answer is yes ... several times. In 1914, 1945, 1948, 1958, 1961 and 1962, the Hokies played three games in Roanoke – although that’s only about 45 minutes from Tech’s campus.

* Looking for a key to Thursday’s game? During the Hokies’ 17-year bowl run, they are 144-15 when out-rushing their opponent and 95-6 when rushing for at least 200 yards. Cue freshman phenom Ryan Williams, who needs 110 yards against Tennessee to break the school’s single-season rushing record of 1,647 yards set by Kevin Jones in 2003.

* Virginia Tech will finish the decade of the 2000s with more interceptions (188) than any program in America. Bud Foster’s defense is also the only one in the country to force at least 25 turnovers in every season this decade. Not surprisingly, then, the Hokies also rank No. 1 nationally in consecutive seasons (12) with at least eight wins – tied with Georgia and Texas.

* The Hokies are 5-14 all-time in domes and are riding a six-game losing streak playing indoors. Tech is 0-2 in the Georgia Dome, including a season-opening loss to Alabama and a 2006 loss to Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. The Hokies are also 3-5 all-time in Atlanta, including 0-2 this season.

* So you think the SEC owns the ACC? Not in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Well, not in the big picture anyway. Yes, the SEC has won the last four in this game, but the overall series – since the bowl formerly known as the Peach first pitted ACC vs. SEC in 1992 – is just 9-8 in favor of the SEC. The ACC won the first four, the SEC won the next five, then the ACC won the next four ... and now the SEC is riding a four-game streak.

* The Chicken Bowl – while the name is new – is the ninth-oldest bowl game in the history of college football. It has sold out each of the past 13 years and ranks second among non-BCS bowls in average attendance (71,840) over the last decade.

* A little historical perspective: Virginia Tech is playing in its 17th straight bowl game and 23rd overall ... but Tennessee is playing in its 48th all-time bowl game. The Vols’ 25 bowl victories rank fourth all-time in college football.

* UT is 100-60-7 all-time against current members of the ACC, including 7-5 in bowl games. The Volunteers, however, haven’t had great luck in the Peach/Chicken Bowl, going 1-3 in previous trips.

* Tech’s Ryan Williams isn’t the only back in this game trying to break his school’s rushing record. UT star Montario Hardesty has 1,306 yards and needs 159 yards to break the mark set by Travis Stephens (who I tutored in biology at Northeast High School in Clarksville, Tenn.) in 2001.

* Remember Tech tackling machine Vince Hall, a four-year starter at linebacker for the Hokies? Well the Vols have their own version this year. Linebacker Rico McCoy leads the team and is third in the SEC in tackles (112). It was his second straight 100-tackle season. He has 343 career stops. And in the Chicken Bowl, he’ll tie a school record by playing his 51st game.

Now for the talking nuggets ...

TECH DE JASON WORILDS

ON WHY HE DIDN’T EVEN PUT HIS PAPERWORK INTO THE NFL TO SEE WHERE HE MIGHT BE DRAFTED IF HE LEFT A YEAR EARLY: “I’m really not interested in it right now. I’m trying to focus on my grades, trying to focus on graduating (he’ll get his degree in May), and trying to focus on this season, get this 10th win.”

ON UNFINISHED BUSINESS AT TECH: “Definitely. We didn’t win anything. What did we win this year? The team goals are still intact. We still have a chance to achieve those (in 2010). I definitely want to be a part of that.”

VOLS QB JONATHAN CROMPTON

ON UT HAVING TWO ‘RUSTY’ DAYS OF PRACTICE IN ATLANTA, BUT HOW WAS MONDAY: “Today was a little better. I think being in the Dome, it helped a lot, getting where we’re going to play, with the surface and the lights. Today, we were more crisp; we executed a little better.”

ON WHAT A WIN OVER TECH WOULD MEAN, CAPPING OFF A STRONG FINISH FOLLOWING A SLOW START: “That would be huge. We finished up strong, got into a good bowl game, playing a top-11 team. We want to come back and prove to ourselves that those games we didn’t win, we should have, and this is who we are. It would be huge, especially for the guys come back next year.”

TECH LB CODY GRIMM

ON THIS TIME LAST YEAR, DURING BOWL WEEK, BEING WHEN EVERYONE STARTED TO HEAR HOW GOOD RYAN WILLIAMS WAS GOING TO BE BECAUSE OF HIS SCOUT-TEAM PROWESS AND WHETHER THERE’S A GUY LIKE THAT ON THIS YEAR’S SCOUT TEAM: “I think David (Wilson) is going to be a real good player one of these days. Obviously he’s going to be behind Ryan for a little bit, but Ryan is something special. I don’t think there’s anyone out there like Ryan right now.”

TECH RB RYAN WILLIAMS

ON PLAYING TENNESSEE’S STOUT DEFENSE: “I’m excited. I’m very excited. It really has nothing to do with Tennessee at all. I just want to play football again. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the field. I’m just excited to play. Even if we were playing a I-AA school. I’m ready to get back out there and be part of this team and play for a win.”

ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FRANK BEAMER AND LANE KIFFIN: “From what I know, Lane Kiffin, he’s a very confident coach. He’s not going to bite his tongue. I love that about him. I don’t bite my tongue. If I’ve got something to say, I’m going to say it. I know that’s exactly how he is. Coach Beams, I think, is just the opposite. He’s got a lot of feelings on a lot of things, but he’s never going to say it. He stays very neutral on every situation. If you tell Coach Beams that your team is better than his team, he’ll just try to prove you wrong on the field, not come out and say, ‘No, my team is better than yours and this is what we’re going to do to you.’”

ON GOOGLING HIMSELF AND FINDING OUT THAT LANE KIFFIN SAID HE WOULD DRAFT WILLIAMS IF HE WERE STILL AN NFL COACH AND WILLIAMS WAS ELIGIBLE: “I thought that was cool. I like Coach Kiffin for that.”

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules of civility. Comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its Web sites. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment.