It may not have been the most aesthetically pleasing game to watch, but Justin Fuente was upbeat after the Hokies escaped Duke with a 24-21 victory to hold serve in the ACC Coastal.
"Proud of our kids and the way they finished the ballgame," Fuente said. "We knew it would be tough coming in here. Duke is much better than their record. Very, very well coached; (they) play hard. Awfully happy to find a way to win a game. We knew it was gonna be hard from the start. Faced some adversity and responded. Happy to go home with a win."
In a game that saw its fair share of both good and bad from both sides of the ball, perhaps the biggest play of the day came in a very familiar form: a blocked field goal by Greg Stroman that led to a touchdown return by Adonis Alexander.
However, Alexander noted that one play was part of the grander picture.
"I think every play has a significance on the game," Alexander said. "I don't think just one play can make a game."
While the scoop-and-score certainly factored into the outcome of the game, perhaps another special teams play impacted the season as a whole.
Late in the second quarter, Stroman went back to field a punt, and after not calling for a fair catch, was hit immediately and had to leave the game. Stroman was taken to the locker room and diagnosed with a sprained ankle.
That injury forced Alexander into action at cornerback, eliminating the three-man rotation Bud Foster had employed throughout the season.
Foster was optimistic of the way his defense reacted to the injury and commended Alexander for his performance.
"I thought Adonis came in and did a nice job," Foster said. "That's a part of it. We're kind of thin at that spot right now, too, but those guys, they stepped up and played well."
Losing a starter in the secondary — one that has been mentioned as the best defensive back in the ACC — isn't ideal, but the loss of rover Terrell Edmunds midway in the fourth quarter exacerbated the situation. Edmunds was ejected on a targeting call after a hit that knocked Duke running back Shaun Wilson out cold.
While Fuente said that he understands the necessity of the call for the safety of players, he also played devil's advocate by pointing out that, in the moment, it's hard to make an adjustment to avoid a player who has lowered their body to brace for impact.
Foster was less political after the game, refusing to comment, as to not face disciplinary action.
"We'll look and we'll move forward," Foster said. "It's a call from them. I would make a statement — probably wouldn't be the right one, so I'm not gonna say it."
Because the targeting ejection occurred in the second half, Edmunds must sit out the first half of the Georgia Tech. In his absence, Foster will evaluate several players in practice week, including Deon Newsome, Der'Woun Greene, and Jahque Alleyne.
"We've got some guys back there that have an opportunity and are gonna get an opportunity," Foster said. "They've gotta step up...Those will be guys that we look at, particularly (with) Newsome and Jahque (having) worked at that spot as a backup. Chuck Clark can play a little bit there. Der'woun's playing a little bit there. We're gonna get our best guys on the field to give us an opportunity to win."
And while it may not have been very pretty, Isaiah Ford made it point to thank the Virginia Tech fans who made the trip and neutralized Duke's home field advantage.
"We've gotta give credit to Hokie Nation," Ford said with a smile. "At times it sounded like Lane Stadium. It was really impressive. Like I've said, 'Every game's a home game when you play here.'"
Justin Fuente
ON IF ANYTHING CHANGED THE SECOND HALF THAT LED TO DUKE'S DEFENSE CLAMPING DOWN:
"Nothing changed. They did a good job of mixing up their calls. They really didn't do anything."
ON HIS VIEW OF THE TARGETING CALL:
"On the field, it happened so fast. I didn't have any — Terrell (Edmunds) was just a blur coming down in there to make the tackle. I saw a couple of the replays; I understand the rule. I understand the intent of the rule. Because of the rule, there are going to be some times when good football plays are punished in the name of safety. I understand — we understand that. Those are the rules. We play by them. I certainly don't think it was deliberate or malicious by Terrell. He's a good football player. The running back was low and he was trying to go low to tackle him. Those things sometimes happen. I get it."
ON THE DEFENSE STEPPING UP AFTER THAT CALL:
"I was pleased with the way the team responded after that event. That was an opportunity to let the air out of your balloon, so to speak. It certainly did not happen. The defense responded. The offense got the ball and ran the clock out to finish the ballgame. We took what could have been a really difficult situation — the kids did a really great job responding to that."
ON WHAT HE SAW ON THE BLOCKED FIELD GOAL:
"We try to scheme it up every week. It wasn't anything in particular. It was very difficult to block one; you come awfully close a lot and not get one. We had been close before in other games. Good job by the guys inside getting push and shorten the edge. Obviously (a) nice job by (Greg) Stroman."
ON IF THERE'S ANY UPDATE ON GREG STROMAN:
"No."
ON IF THERE WAS A REASON NIGEL WILLIAMS DIDN'T PLAY:
"He was ready to go."
ON THE ROLE OF THE EDMUNDS BROTHERS IN THIS DEFENSE:
"First of all, I know that they have played well for us all year. I don't think it can be overstated the class that those two kids have. Great family, great work ethic; obviously they're talented athletes. They're an absolute pleasure to coach and be around on a daily basis. I'm glad to see people recognizing them for playing well, because they have worked incredibly hard and done things the right way on a daily basis."
ON IF HE'S WORRIED ABOUT JEROD EVANS GETTING 18 CARRIES:
"You guys are a lot more concerned about who carries the ball. I've learned that much in my short time here. You guys want us to rush for 150 yards and you want to pick who gets the yards. Some of those were on third downs. Their package on third and long can cause you a lot of problems. We felt like we would need to run a couple of quarterback draws to try and get the pressure picked up and try to hit it in there. That led to a little bit larger number, in terms of carrying the ball. We don't want him carrying it too much, but when it's fourth down and two, and the games on the line and you're facing a third down package like that, we felt like it was something that needed to happen."
ON HIS EVALUATION OF THE RUSHING DEFENSE TODAY:
"Certainly it was far from a perfect game. Their quarterback kept the ball on the ground game a few times on the power read and it gave us some problems, certainly. We certainly expect our guys to play better."
ON THE DECISION TO GO FOR IT ON 4TH DOWN THAT LED TO THE EVANS TOUCHDOWN RUN:
"It was actually a pass — it was a naked (bootleg.) Duke stuffed the edge and — I'm not really sure how exactly how it all unfolded — but he just kind of put his foot in the ground and got upfield."
ON THE FAN PRESENCE TODAY:
"It's really cool to work at a place that really values what we're trying to do. It's great for the kids to go on the road and see that many people here rewarding them for all the hard work they've put in. It's cool, in my estimation, for the kids after the win to go celebrate with them a little bit and try to let them know that we appreciate them traveling and spending money and coming to help us win the ballgame. That was another fantastic showing. I'm just thankful that we get to send them home happy. It was real close there for a little bit."
Bud Foster
ON IF TERRELL EDMUNDS WILL BE OUT THE FIRST HALF AGAINST GEORGIA TECH:
"As far as I understand, yes."
ON HOW HE FELT THE DEFENSE RESPONDED TO STROMAN'S INJURY AND HOW THEY ADJUSTED:
"I thought Adonis (Alexander) came in and did a nice job. That's a part of it. We're kind of thin at that spot right now, too, but those guys, they stepped up and played well. In this game, my hat goes off to Duke and Dave (David Cutcliffe), they did a great job. They had to win. We knew it was gonna be a dogfight in here and a tough ballgame. Our kids did a great job just going to the next play. That's all you can do at this level; you go to the next play and play to the best of your ability. They're gonna make some plays. It's a chess match. They did a couple of things, we did a couple things, but I did think our kids — down the stretch — we stepped up a couple of times. They had field position and they tried to drive and we end up getting a couple of big plays. Right there after Terrell's taken away from the game, I think the kids responded on both sides of the ball. Just really proud. We knew it was gonna be hard, this being the fourth game of five on the road, it shows a lot of character from our kids to come out and compete and come away with some big wins."
ON IF HE WANTED TO DIAL IN THE PRESSURE AFTER THE TARGETING CALL:
"We did. Just wanted to make them kind of — make them have to make a quick play. We had dialed up our pressure, they were able to get somebody free. But they do a great job. You guys saw it, anytime you brought some things, they've got a quick release. They know where to go. Dave does a great job, he has a great system. And we have a great system. It's a hard fought game by two teams. I'm proud of our kids and how we played. To come away victorious, it's big. I know this, we're 7-2 and 5-1 in the league. Really proud of how the kids have played. Hasn't always been pretty, but we're finding ways to get it done. That's one thing we haven't done the last couple of years. Really proud of our seniors and our leadership, and how our kids are fighting. Can't say enough about them."
ON THE CHALLENGE OF DEFENDING A DUAL-THREAT QUARTERBACK:
"Man, we finally won, right? You guys talk about we never win with a quarterback that runs for 100 yards. Really, our end position — we're so dinged up right now. We got a gear for what they were doing, but our ends — we wanted our three-techniques to pad back and keep the ball front-side. Our ends were bending and working on the dive and we wanted them to take the quarterback. It's just fundamental football, it goes back to day one. We had a call one time, we were gonna blitz, they changed the call and shifted it back and the end didn't get the call. We went back to base defense. He should have been playing the quarterback and he bent for the dive. Those are things that, mistakes that we can't make. It didn't cost us (today). Those are communications that we've gotta do a better job as a group to make sure we've got 11 players on the same page."
ON WHY NIGEL WILLIAMS DIDN'T PLAY TODAY:
"Did he not? I get in there (in the zone) and don't know. We had a couple guys — Vinny (Mihota), he tried to play early and was limited with his movement. The kids are trying hard. I think Nigel made that decision. He just felt like (if) he can't be 100 percent, he's not gonna help the football team. I appreciate his honesty. That's important for us. We need to get him back this week. A big body inside (against) their type of offense, I'd like to have a guy that can win the line of scrimmage and he's a guy that was doing that early in the season for us."
Adonis Alexander
ON HOW IMPORTANT IT WAS FOR THE DEFENSE TO GET THE STOP AFTER EDMUNDS WAS EJECTED:
"That's our brother. To see him go out, we were ready to go win the game for him."
ON HOW HE FELT HE PLAYED AFTER THE STROMAN INJURY:
"I feel like there's only room for improvement. I think I played pretty well."
Isaiah Ford
ON IF DUKE FOCUSED ON THE PASS DIFFERENTLY THAN THEY HAD SEEN ON FILM:
"They did a great job of their game plan. Coming in, we knew there would be a different amount of things, as far as last week. It was what you see is what you get. They did a good job of disguising plays and going out and executing. Just had to make plays. We made enough to win the game."
ON WHAT THE CALL WAS ON HIS THIRD DOWN CATCH:
"It was man to man (coverage). It's funny because we were running routes, the quarterbacks and the wideouts, and we ran that play (in practice) and Coach Fuente said, 'On third down, we'll win the game.'"
ON WHAT ROUTE IT WAS:
"It was a slant."
ON IF WYATT TELLER OWES HIM A BEER FOR NEGATING THE TOUCHDOWN CATCH:
"I didn't see it, but as soon as I came to the locker room, he gave me a big. I assume he knows he messed up."
ON IF ESCAPING A CLOSE GAME IS PART OF A LONG SEASON:
"I think the elite teams and good teams, where we wanna be, those teams find a way to win. No matter how ugly it looks. When adversity hits, they find a way to win. That's what we did."
ON WHAT HE TOLD STROMAN AFTER THE INJURY:
"That I love him and that I was gonna make sure we were gonna win the game. Greg's one of my best friends on the team. I spend a lot of time with him off the field. The progress that he's made has been tremendous in helping us this year. He's been one of the heart and souls on our defense. We feed off of him. Just told him to keep his head up."
ON IF HE REQUESTED THE BALL AFTER THE NEAR-CATCH ON THE SIDELINE:
"I requested the ball a couple of times. We got the look that we wanted to have and Coach (Brad) Cornelsen did a good job of calling them. Jerod gave me the chance; I had to go get it."
ON THE EDMUNDS BROTHERS:
"We knew that both of them would be really good ballplayers. Coming in (to Virginia Tech) in the same class as Terrell — him being my roommate — to see the strides he's made going from corner to safety, and how he's been an all-ACC caliber player right now, I think he might be the best safety in the country with how he's playing now. And his little brother Tremaine (Edmunds) — I don't know if I can call him a little brother — we knew that he was gonna be a monster last year when he didn't get to play as much. They are two of the big players we have on defense."
ON BUCKY HODGES' ONE-HANDED CATCH:
"I see it all the time. In practice, if it's him or Cam (Phillips) or me — or even C.J. Carroll — we make a lot of those types of plays in practice. It was nothing that I haven't seen before."
ON IF IT'S FRUSTRATING TO NOT HAVE ANY TOUCHDOWNS IN THE PASSING GAME:
"At the end of the day, we got the win. That's all that matters. Our main goal is to go 1-0 each week and this week that's what we did. Whether that's throwing 10 touchdown passes or none or running the ball, it doesn't matter. However we've got to get it done is what we're gonna do."
Ken Ekanem
ON IF HE'S HAPPY TO SURVIVE AND ESCAPE WITH A WIN:
"Yeah. I think we did a good job of responding to a tight game. We knew these guys were fully capable of giving us a dogfight. It was a good game overall, but they capitalized on a lot of run plays when we didn't execute. That's all stuff that's fixable."
ON HOW TRICKY THE DUKE RUNNING GAME IS TO STOP:
"It's just a lot of things, it's a lot of variables. A lot of guys not fitting in their gaps. We've just got to do a lot better job of zoning and just doing your job and not someone else's job. I messed up on the goal line on their last touchdown. I have to do a better job as well. There's a lot of things we've got to fix."
ON IF THE STRUGGLES TODAY ARE ALARMING LOOKING AHEAD TO GEORGIA TECH:
"Not really. Georgia Tech's a whole different beast. You've gotta play with a different mindset. Guys are gonna be doing stuff that they've never done before. Not only that, but we've gotta step up to the challenge and come out and execute and bounce back."
ON THE MINDSET AFTER EDMUNDS GETS EJECTED:
"I think we did a good job of reacting to the sudden change. With one of our brothers out of the game — and the first half next week — we acted pretty well. You've gotta play for our brother. Did a very good job of getting all juiced up and obviously a little bit angry, so it gave us a little bit of an edge coming out of that to get a stop."
ON HOW MUCH ATTRITION ON THE DEFENSIVE LINE ATTRIBUTED TO TODAY'S PERFORMANCE:
"We've got guys banged up here and there and trying to limit those people. Make sure that we're good to go for Georgia Tech. Just gotta be smart with a lot of the players. It's kind of tough out there, but we're hanging in there and we're all working really hard in the training room and rehab with all of the injuries and stuff. Hopefully it'll clear up against Georgia Tech."
ON IF THE TARGETING RULE IS FRUSTRATING:
"It's a tough call. It could have gone either way. I talked to the refs about it and they were on the fence about it. It's a tough call. I'm not a ref."
ON IF HE KNEW INSTANT REPLAY COULD REVIEW TARGETING IF IT HADN'T BEEN CALLED ON THE FIELD:
"I didn't know. I thought they had to call it on the field during the play."
ON HOW NOT HAVING EDMUNDS WILL IMPACT THE DEFENSE FOR GEORGIA TECH:
"He's a hell of a player. I think we'll do a good job of replacing him. We've got guys — I think we'll do a good job. We've got a lot of guys that do a good job of stepping up to perform."
Jerod Evans
ON IF HE'S HAPPY TO SURVIVE AND ESCAPE WITH A WIN:
"I would say that. We made a lot of mistakes, but it's always good to get the win. Coach (Fuente) said it was gonna be one of those games. We were preparing for that. It's always good to get a win."
ON IF IT'S FRUSTRATING TO NOT THROW A TOUCHDOWN PASS:
"I think I've told y'all before, it doesn't matter how we get the 'W', as long as we get the 'W'. If I have the best stats on the team or in a game and we lose the game, I'm more frustrated that we lost the game than my stats. The stats really don't mean anything if you don't get the 'W'. That's my main focus — that's our main focus — to go 1-0, not stats. We went 1-0 today. That's a great feeling."
ON IF HE FELT THE TARGETING CALL RALLIED THE TEAM TOGETHER:
"Most definitely. We were scratching and clawing the whole time and I think that's what did it. Scratching and clawing and rallying around that call with Terrell, cause we know how much he means to us. I think that was a turning point in the game."
ON IF IT WAS A SIGN OF MATURITY TO CLOSE OUT A CLOSE GAME:
"We've had our share of ups and downs through the season (and) panicking through the highs and lows of a game. Knowing that we were better, but once we were down, we kind of went into the tank. I think that experience helped us with today a lot, for sure. We have a lot of veteran leadership. Plus the younger guys have seen that happen before, going into the tank. With the veteran leadership, we didn't allow that to happen. We were calm out there the whole time. Frustrating that we weren't executing like we know we're capable of doing, but at the same time, we got the 'W'. It was definitely maturity on that part."
ON WHAT WAS GOING ON WHEN IT SEEMED FORD WAS TELLING THE COACHES HE WANTED THE BALL:
(Said with a huge grin) "Nothing."
ON IF TELLER OWES HIM A BEER:
"No. Wyatt plays with extreme passion and emotion. What I try to get to Wyatt is that even though you play with that, you can play with a sense of understanding and calmness. He's either going 100 or he's going 0. I'm trying to get him to understand it's ok to go 100, but be smart about going 100. You never wanna take somebody's passion. You never wanna take somebody's emotion away, especially when you love something. That's what I'm trying to get to Wyatt. I think as the season goes on, and next season — that's a little far ahead — he's understanding that he can play passionate and not make boneheaded moves, in a sense. You don't wanna try to coach it too much. So no, he doesn't owe me a beer or pizza. But he probably will try to give me one for that mistake."
ON IF HE KNEW IT WAS TELLER THAT PUSHED HIM INTO THE END ZONE:
"To be honest, I don't know. He's always around, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was him."
ON WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT PLAY:
"I think they did a great job — as a gameplan — on our strip-motion, of keying it. I just saw three guys float to one guy, so I thought it would be a bonehead move for me to throw there. So I was just trying to make something happen out of nothing."
ON IF HE'S SEEN HODGES MAKE ANY ONE HANDED CATCHES LIKE THAT BEFORE:
"I haven't seen that, but it doesn't surprise me. It does not surprise me one bit. If any of those guys, whether it's Isaiah, Cam, or Bucky, does something spectacular, that doesn't jump me out of my seat or make me feel any type of way. As the season goes along, hopefully we get them the ball more so they can showcase that."
ON THE FAN PRESENCE TODAY:
"This is obviously my first year at the ACC level. (It's the) first time ever having a group of fans travel on the road and make it a home game. You had a little bit at UNC in the hurricane, but this game was different. They had third-and-whatever on every drive and you could hear our crowd screaming. I'm thinking we're at home. I'm looking at the middle of the field and there's the D in the middle and I was like, 'Woah.' It was spectacular. I'm amazed that we have so many genuine, loyal fans to the program."
ON IF HE KNEW TREMAINE GOT THE SACK AFTER TERRELL WAS SENT OFF:
"I did not. Peas in a pod; they're around each other 24/7. Especially how the defense set up, Terrell has Maine's back in the sense of responsibility. It's two brothers doing what they do."
Comments
Sigh of relief and get back to Lane
Undefeated season in Lane still intact. That was a significant goal for this season, make Lane great again.
And I'm coming to the GA Tech game, but unfortunately so is my brother. Every game I go with him, what ever team I'm rooting for loses
time to find a new brother........
My VT alum brother married a Wahoo and now roots for them, poisoning the young impressionable minds of his poor sons. He can have my brother, cheap.
At least you still get to root for Tech.
Undefeated in outdoor football stadiums!
Jerod just says all the right things.
His comments re. Teller just show great maturity.
That was seriously great. If he doesn't make it in the NFL, and I think he has a great opportunity to be a sneaky good NFL QB, I would welcome him back to VT as a coach for the QBs. Mentally, he just understand the game so well.
Do we say that about all qbs? /s but in all reality he and Brewer would both be great coaches
As much as I liked Tyrod and Logan (they seemed to be pretty cool humble guys) they didn't really say anything that sounded particularly coachey.
We went 1-0 this week.
Yeah, but did we win time of possession?
Heck yes we did:
VT - 30:02
Duke - 29:58
Mission Accomplished
Compared to last week, Bud seemed very serious throughout the press availability. The only time he appeared to laugh or crack a smile was the question about running quarterbacks.
"Man, we finally won, right? You guys talk about we never win with a quarterback that runs for 100 yards." (in the video, but not in the article: "Did he only have 99, okay, there you go. Alright. Well that doesn't count then, I guess.")
I didn't put that in the article because from where my recorder was sitting, what Bud was saying and what all the reporters were saying and laughing at the same time just made it incoherent. Didn't want to take a stab at it and it be wrong.
That post-game presser room was smaller than my room in my apartment. There has to be a better way down there. But that's an issue for another time.
How often do got get to actually ask questions?
Whew...what a road trip stretch! Glad to have a couple ACC foes at home now.....
Did anyone else think that our play calling was VERY conservative? If so, why do you believe coach decided to plan in that direction?
Not really, think it was more a lack of execution.
I recall one deep pass that was under thrown that would have been a TD for Ford early in the game.
The deep ball to Sam late in the fourth quarter was there...better pass and that's complete.
I'll let French do the serious analysis, but it seemed to me that execution by the OL wasn't there for a larger number of plays than I'd expect. Though at the end of the game, when Duke knew that we were going to run, the OL provided opportunities for TMac, to get yards.
Gallo. Struggling.
Watch that play where Bucky runs the sweep. It would have worked if Gallo wasn't thrown 8 yards back.
From what I understand, the D line is Duke's best position group on defense. It makes sense we should struggle on the OL.
Their DT Wolf has 5.5 sacks and has been a beast all year.
Oh yeah. The Wolf of Wall Street.
The announcer reminded us of that a few times, as I recall.
Jerod was off today. He missed a lot of passes and wasn't sure about his reads you could see his hesitation .
To add on, this may be the most "exotic" scheme for defensive coverage we face. Cutcliffe is a good coach, and possibly threw in some coverage curveballs making Evans more hesitant. I expect GT, ND, and UVA to play more vanilla or towards their tendencies in the secondary, tbh (ESP ND with their defensive debacles this season).
True, but there were still a handful of times where he was staring at a receiver and still made a bad pass. He seemed a bit off to me as well. Although, honestly, the whole team was off, or else it wouldn't have been that close.
Why do you expect anybody else we playbto be more vanilla?
Paul Johnson is not exactly a defensive mastermind. ND's defense has been awful and is playing for an interim coordinator. UVA is uva (although I'm less convinced they'll be vanilla, bronco's a defensive coach and our game will be there whole season).
I agree . ND defense has been a mess but Syracuse wasn't so great either . Hopefully our guys just keep getting better at this point . I hate playing Georgia tech ! And Virginia last game will be tough they have gotten better and it's a rival and I'm sure they would love to ruin our plans if we are still in the driver seat of acc coastal
I seem to be the minority and as a game far from perfect, I like seeing this team fight at the end. Old VT would of lost the lead at the end. Knowing that our defense, offense, and special teams are stout and even though started giving up points they dug their heals in the ground. The ejection is going to hurt us next week in the first half but I can't wait to play GT at home. These guys know they didn't play their best and always use that as motivation. So rest easy FAM we got the W and UVA lost.
So I was at the game yesterday and just want to inform everyone that at one break in play, there was a race where the winner would win jars of marinara sauce for his section. Yes, they were giving out marinara sauce.
They also played what appeared to be a "pump up" song in the form of "Every Time We Touch" by CASCADE...I'm all for a good pump up song...but that?
via GIPHY
It's become a thing the band does in Cameron
That's really unfortunate. Haha.
I didn't know know what the hell was going on and a Duke kid explained it to me.
Needless to say our group was amused!
Still better than in the Penn State-Ohio State game going into maybe THE biggest play of the night to clinch the game, and they played Black Eyed Peas' I Gotta Feeling...who allows these travesties?!?!?
Yeah and the winning dude cheated his ass off, too! They were supposed to be wearing the pasta sauce flags as "capes" but the guy just took it from his partner and balled it up and held it in his fist.
Should have been disqualified IMO. That's where Ron Cherry really needed to step in.
Hilarious!! Yes, that cheater should have been disqualified. He looked like a UNCheat student, and he won by like 30 yards too. Actually, the entire game experience kind of had the feel of a minor league baseball game, except of course for the Hokie fans drowning out some of the dookie cheers, which was awesome.
Liked Ekanem's segment. Wished more time was given to Adonis (sounds like a porno name, in a good way). He was boss while in for Stro. Had no prob with him in there (as he had the INT to seal Beamer's final reg season win in C'vile).
The problem there is that Adonis is not very good with the media, so he only gives out one-liners and it causes the reporters to quit asking him questions.
Adonis may see that as a feature rather than a problem.
That actually raises up a question/point I've been meaning to ask: does the football team have someone (professional) to counsel/coach players on interacting with the media? I'd think they would.
Kid could have taught Marshawn Lynch how to save a lot of money.
I really like Adonis as well. Have to clarify one thing, though: Chuck Clark got the final INT in Charlottesville. I know this both because I was there, and because the picture of him sky ing to get it with Bud 3 feet off the ground in the background is the wallpaper om my work PC! One of my all time favorite Hokie images.
Thanks. Was there too, but I guess you had closer (better seats). Was sure Adonis nabbed one of the INTs during the game.
Clark made the game clincher INT. Alexander's was in the 3rd Qtr IIRC. He also made a nice breakup in the end zone late. Or was that Edmunds?
Alexander was the one who made the last second breakup in the endzone after getting burned deep.
There ya go.
Air Bud makes the shot!
Team played hard, glad to get out of there with a win. Seems like we missed a
few offensive plays - I specifically recall a nice pop pass to Rogers that was overthrown.
It wasn't the typical feel good win we seem to get more often now but I'll take it.
More concerning is if we lose Stroman. Our DB's have been such a strength this year
and the last thing I want to have is something like last season. Go Hokies!
The injury report will say "lower extremity." Take that to the bank lol.
All the way! Oh, and thanks Rye!
When you watch that play it's hard not to believe that it was an achilles. Which usually means lengthier recovery but you're 100% right, it will say lower extremity. New staff for sure sees some disadvantage in being open about injuries. Nobody wanted to even mention Nigel not playing. And that is thier perogative.
I say give Terrell Edmunds the #25 this week.
I don't have any say so, but I'd be cool with this. If it weren't for the fact that he already had it, I'd say Stro. I think Adonis is also a good candidate.
Guys...it's based on practice. Not the game.
We know. Still, it's fun to speculate.
Can't say I'm ecstatic about how this game went, but I'd rather eek a win out over Duke than lose to wake any week.
Makes a bit of sense that Williams didn't play even though he was ready. Don't want to risk reinjury when we're gonna need every DL in top form next week
Win was ugly but still counts. Back to Lane, and MMMAYBE getting ahead of myself, but living down here in Atlanta (and "F" CPJ in the "A") it's officially my...
HATE WEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!
Did anyone listen to Burnop interview Fuente after the game? I forget what exactly the conversation was about but at one point Fuente was going to say "it was a hard fought game" but he slipped a little (completely understandable after a game) and it came out "it was a hard fart."
I legit laughed for 5 minutes afterwards because I'm still a child.
I caught it. Legit laughed til I cried.
Ah Coach, you have soooo much to learn about Hokie fandom
We want you to rush for 250 and let us pick who gets the 150. /s
My 2 cents:
1. The commentators were terrible. No idea what they were talking about, also favored Duke on every iffy call.
2. Not educated enough to figure out what's going on on offense, but we looked pretty boring. I don't know how Evans can be so good at so many things and be that bad at hitting receivers in stride on vertical passes. I see mediocre QB's do it all the time. Note to all other DC's, if we need a third and medium, we're running Evans. Lastly, I hate the fade call on third down in the red zone. Try that on first or second down.
3. I hope French can explain what they were doing on offense to run the way they did. Seems like either our d-line made a play at the line of scrimmage or our safeties were tackling them after an 8 yard gain. Linebackers seemed out of place more often than not.
4. With all that being said, this team got the win, which is a big step up from past years. Winning ugly games is far easier to accept than losing them, which we have had more than our share of the past few years. I have thought since before Syracuse we don't have much of a chance to get into the top 4 with our SoS so in a way it's nice to only be hoping for the ACC championship because the only thing that matters now is winning, as ugly as it may look.
Love this team, love these coaches, remembering that we are already exceeding expectations this year no matter what happens down the stretch.
In reference to #2.... I agree 100%. Maybe we wanted to establish the run against them but Ford and especially Bucky didn't get enough looks. I think we tried to establsh the run too hard and when we did, it was very predictable, mainly all the Evans QB sneaks. I wanted to throw something at my TV for how badly predictable some of them were.
It's ESPNU. I pretty much set the bar at "can you say Corps and Diablo"? This was the first ESPNU crew that passed that test. (Although, my parents were over, and I wasn't listening that closely, so maybe I just missed some fouled up wordplay.)
But has anyone else noticed really awkward camera angles in football games this season? It's like the main camera on the sideline is jacked up way too high, so they tilt it down further. Of course, the ESPNU cameramen couldn't compensate and kept cutting off the close side of the field.
However, I've noticed that across the board, even on some Fox games.
That could be because the press box was 108,628,920,627 feet above the field at Duke. The camera for TV was in the room beside us, and I couldn't see any of the stands below us, and had to lean forward to see part of the Duke sideline.
So approximately the same height as Bucky?
Not anymore. He just grew another foot.
86 times as far away as the moon?
Give or take a foot or so.
Didja catch "Mata-poo-oh-ko"
Seriously, it's said exactly how it's spelled, I really fail to understand people who can't say Motuapuaka.
Though, someone must have corrected him at the commercial break, because he did say it correctly the rest of the game...
We dropped a spot in the coachs poll after beating a team that beat us the last two years? Seriously?
The coaches dropped us by 1, the AP bumped us up 5.
The coaches also dropped WMU 3 spots even though they beat Ball State by 32 IN Muncie.
Further proof of the growing irrelevance of the Coaches' Poll.
At this point drop the coaches poll. It's not like the coaches themselves actually enjoy voting anymore anyway.
It's not like the coaches themselves actually
enjoyvotingvote anymore anyway.Fixed that for you.
I mean are you really that surprised? The coaches are only going to see a #19 ranked team that beat a then 3-5 team 24-21. Do you really think they know they have beat us in the past 2 years? and if they did, they don't care about the past
Why do people keep saying this? Duke did NOT beat VT the last 2 years. VT won the game in Durham 2 years ago - in fact, VT has not lost at Wallace Wade since joining the ACC.
Exactly. In fact, I believe they said on the ESPN broadcast that Duke hasn't beaten us in Durham since 1981.
I think they were confusing the fact that Duke won twice in the last four years. It's nuanced.
In hindsight, those have been some close games.
2016/11/05 Virginia Tech 24 - Duke 21 W
2015/10/24 Virginia Tech 43 - Duke 45 L OT
2014/11/15 Virginia Tech 17 - Duke 16 W
2013/10/26 Virginia Tech 10 - Duke 13 L
Before that, VT won 12 in a row vs Duke.
And going back to TT's frosh year, they were close too, even though VT was on a win streak.
It's not nuanced. Duke had won 1 in a row. Period. It's no more accurate than saying VT had won the last two.
Last 2 years don't matter to them. They saw a team squeak by a sub .500 team. Can't blame them we came out with no emotion and played flat as hell. LIke some of the coaches said though, this is a game we lose the past few years.
Auburn, FSU, UF, OSU, Clemson just off the top of my head have had really close games to sub .500 teams.
Does the AP or coaches polls mean dick anymore? Really!
Nope.
The AP poll only matters until the CFP rankings start in November.
The coaches poll never matters. Unless CBS wants to make their SEC game look better.
The coaches' poll, less. Especially since their trophy got rolled into the Golden Lipstick Tube.
The AP still gives its own trophy, however, and technically they could still award their championship to someone who didn't win the CFP.
Did anyone announce Revenge Tour complete? If not guess what FAM revenge tour complete!!!!
Not quite done yet. Next stop: Ohio State in the Orange Bowl.
3 straight games without a turnover!
Slow your roll, Jinxy McJinxerson.
I accept all blame if we have a turnover against GT. If we don't, I am magic.
Tech needs to work on wrapping up while tackling this week. Throwing a shoulder won't stop the yellow jackets. Would also like to see better pass protection.