Loyal blog readers, I come bearing good news. I’m not certain, but I think I’ll be the first to tell you (EDIT: Just realized that, in fact, I was beaten by a bit on this one. Nevertheless ...)
Vince Hall is going to start in tomorrow night’s Orange Bowl against Kansas. Just spoke to team trainer Mike Goforth and he said Hall practiced today, did all the work that the rest of the team did.
“He felt good,” Goforth said, “and he said he’s ready to go, so we’re going to put him out there.”
Goforth said the rest of the Hokies are 100 percent healthy.
That’s really all the news of the day. Tech’s preparations are complete. The showdown starts in just shy of 24 hours.
Based on these other abysmal bowl BCS bowl games, the Orange might turn out to be the peach of them all. Seriously, whatever happens, the Battle of the Birds couldn’t possibly be any worse than Hawaii-Georgia or USC-Illinois.
Sadly, just imagine a six-team playoff (with the top two seeds getting a bye) that pitted Tech-Georgia and USC-Oklahoma in the first round, with the winner of Tech’s game facing LSU and the USC winner getting Ohio State in seminfinals!!!
Ugh. Never gonna happen. I should just stop dreaming.
So we’ll move on to tomorrow night’s opponent. Below, you’ll find some parting shots from the Jayhawks and their coach heading into the game.
Read for yourself, but is sure sounds like Kansas is feeling good about its chances of pulling off the upset. They’ve seemed solidly certain of themselves all week.
I, for one, am looking forward to finding out what’s really what. Until then …
*** KANSAS HEAD COACH MARK MANGINO
ON HIS PLAYERS’ PREPARATION AND WHETHER MIAMI HAS BEEN A DISTRACTION: “They seem focused. In meetings, everything is good. The kids are focused in and the practice field has been good. There’s been no difference. The tempo is the same, just like when we’re at home. I don’t see any changes.”
ON THE MAGNITUDE OF THE ORANGE BOWL: “It’s a big game. Our kids are smart. We’re not going to try to fool them and just tell them that this is just another game. But it’s still football. The field is a hundred yards. They have 11. We have 11. It’s the same concept just a few more people will be paying attention to it.”
ON VIRGINIA TECH HAVING MORE BIG-GAME EXPERIENCE: “The only thing that we are concerned about them is what we see on videotape, their talent, their skills, their personnel. That’s the depth of our analysis of them. You just can’t go by who’s played in more big games and that type of thing over the years, because time and time again, those teams don’t always win the games. It’s seems as though they have an advantage. People would tell you that, but I don’t see that.”
*** KANSAS WR DEXTON FIELDS
ON THE TEAM’S ATTITUDE HEADING INTO THE GAME: “We’re pretty confident. We know all of our assignments and all we have to do now
is execute. Go out and execute and play our game.”
ON COACH MARK MANGINO’S PREPARATION FOR THE GAME: “He’s been a little more focused. He tries to keep us focused. It’s kind of easy to come
down to Miami and worry about having fun … because it is Miami. He’s tried his best to keep us focused and I think he’s done a pretty good job.”
ON HOW MANGINO HAS ACCOMPLISHED THAT: “He’s reminded us every day before practice that this is a business trip. It’s not vacation. We can have fun, but there’s a time to have fun and there’s a time to get down to business.”
*** KANSAS DE JOHN LARSON
ON THE TEAM BEING FOCUSED: “It’s been great being down here getting a little vacation time, hang out, and get to see Miami. But right now we’re focused on the game and it couldn’t come soon enough. We’ve seen every game of them two or three times, every cut up, so no stone has been left unturned. At this point we have everything covered.”
ON THE MOST IMPRESSIVE THING ABOUT TECH ON OFFENSE: “They’ve got a dual quarterback look. No. 5 can really run, scramble, he’s a great athlete. No. 7 has pretty strong arm, so the different looks that they can give you like that is pretty impressive.”
ON HIS OWN COACH’S PERSONALITY, COACHING STYLE: “He’s really good with a work ethic. He keeps everything regimented and he stays true to his word. Anything that he … says he’s going to do, policy-wise, he sticks to his guns. We all know what to expect from him and I like that, consistency from a coach.”
ON WHETHER HE’S DIFFERENT ON AND OFF THE FIELD: “No. It’s pretty much even keeled. He’s ready to work every day and game day is the
same deal. We just go out there and do our job.”
ON THE HYPED MATCH-UP OF THE JAYHAWKS’ OFFENSE VS. TECH’S DEFENSE: “Va Tech has a great defense and I love out offense. I would definitely say that our defense has to go out there and do our job. That’s pretty much all I can control. If we get out there and force turnovers, stop them … give our offense a short field, that’s definitely going to help them in the game.”
ON WHETHER THERE’S PRESSURE TO WIN TO PROVE THEY BELONGED IN THE BCS OVER MISSOURI: “No. There’s not more pressure. We think we’ve had a really good season and we’re just looking to finish up strong, get our 12th win and show the country what we can do.
ON THEIR LAST BIG-TIME GAME, PLAYING MISSOURI (LOSING) AT ARROWHEAD STADIUM: “I think everybody learned a valuable lesson from that. It was a real frustrating game. A couple missed plays here and there, but we’re all excited to get out there and show everybody what we can do.”
ON TECH HAVING MORE “BIG-GAME” EXPERIENCE: “I don’t think so. It’s another game. It’s great that it’s the Orange Bowl. It’s great that it’s a January game. But for us, it’s still Game 13 and win No. 12, and that’s what we’re
really focused on accomplishing.”
*** KANSAS LB MIKE RIVERA
ON THE TWO-QB SYSTEM BEING PREDICTABLE MAYBE: “Yeah, definitely after watching them, we’ve studied all their film, every game they’ve played this whole year and we’re definitely picking up on tendencies and little things they do. It’ll help us in the game.”
ON EACH QUARTERBACK DOING A SPECIFIC THING: “That can work to their advantage or to their disadvantage.”
ON WHETHER THE DEFENSE NEEDS TO BE DISCIPLINED, NOT TO LOSE CONTAIN WHEN TYROD’S IN THE GAME: “Yeah, he’s a phenomenal player. He’s so fast. But we just do our responsibilities, and when he’s in there, we definitely have to be aware, be ready for him to run around. As long as we do that, we’ll stop them.”
ON STILL FEELING LIKE THERE’S SOMETHING TO PROVE: “I feel like we’re not going to be done proving people wrong until the clock’s at 0:00. So until then, we’re going to fight to the finish. We still have to prove everything, have to prove our whole season on this one game.”
ON HIS OWN QB, TODD REESING: “He’s been awesome this year. He’s been a great asset to our team. He’s made a huge difference, playing with a lot of energy and playing hard every week. I love having him as my quarterback.”
ON WHAT HE THOUGHT THE FIRST TIME HE SAW REESING ON CAMPUS: “He’s a little guy, but man, he plays hard and he can throw it around. He can run, scramble and see over those big linemen. I didn’t really know what to think (the first time he saw him) but I played catch with him a little bit and he had an arm. He could throw it.”
*** KANSAS DT JAMES MCCLINTON
ON VIRGINIA TECH’S GUARDS BEING BIG: “They are HUGE. My dude’s like 6-5, 355. So I’ve got to really bring it to him. That’s the biggest guy I’ve ever faced. Man, 355? Come on, man. Those the size guys you see in the league. He’s a Goliath, but I’ve got my slingshot.”
ON HOW PRACTICES HAVE GONE: “It’s cool. We wanted to get on some grass. We haven’t been on grass since we practiced for Missouri. And it’s good weather, but we still have to get used to it. It’s hot out there. We’re running a lot. And we really haven’t practiced in warm weather since … I’m not sure. It kind of feels like camp. It kind of do the defense kind of bad. You be tired.”
ON BEING IN THE NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT: “It’s a blessing. We just thank the Lord. It could have easily been Missouri, but thank the Lord he allowed us to have it. We’re out here enjoying it, but we’re also here to take care of business, to go out here and win this bowl game.”
ON HIS OWN QB, TODD REESING: “He’s a baller, man. Not only that, he’s a smart guy, and he likes to have fun. If it’s third and 15, he still thinks we’re going to get the first down. He doesn’t let stuff like that get to him. He throws an interception, he’s still going to come back on top. He’s going to be poised.”
ON REMEMBERING THE FIRST TIME HE SAW THE 5-10 REESING: “I knew he broke the record in Texas for passing yards, so he was a pretty good passer. But probably when he got in that Colorado game, you could see something spectacular coming. I thought Kerry Meier was going to win that job, man. (Reesing) doesn’t look like an athlete, but looks can be deceiving.”
ON THE TWO-QB SYSTEM: “You’re basically preparing for two different offenses. We think Tyrod’s probably a bigger threat, because he’s Vick-like. I saw some tough spots that he should have been tackled in, but he made a way and got out of it. It’s a challenge. Vince Young, in the past, killed us. So yeah, it’s a challenge.”
ON WHETHER THE SYSTEM MAKES TECH A LITTLE PREDICTABLE: “Yeah. We know that we want to blitz probably, when Tyrod’s in there … well, I can’t say all this stuff. But yeah, we have two different plans when each quarterback comes out there. It helps you out a lot.”
ON HOW TECH HAS MADE IT WORK THEN: “I don’t know, but they really haven’t played a defense like us.”