Hokies seek to make statement

By DARRYL SLATER
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: September 18, 2008

Despite all its complexities and mind-numbing permutations, the Bowl Championship Series offers an Athletic Coast Conference team a rather simple and linear path to the Orange Bowl, one of the BCS’ five major games: Win your division, make the ACC championship game, win that, book your plane tickets to Miami.

Saturday’s game at North Carolina is an important part of Virginia Tech taking that first step toward winning the Coastal Division. The Hokies are inexperienced and flawed, but none of the other teams in their division—Carolina, Georgia Tech, Duke, Miami and Virginia—have proved themselves wart-free, either.

The Hokies beat Georgia Tech last weekend, and now they must play four of their next five games on the road, something they haven’t done since 1999. This team is much more fallible than the’99 squad, which played in the national championship game. So the Hokies, who won the ACC title last season, understand how Saturday’s game could help them stake an early claim to their division.

“We can get a win and put our foot down on the ACC, like, ‘We’re here,’” said senior defensive end Orion Martin. “We’re going to be the champions until somebody knocks us off.”

Understand that the season is young. Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech are the only Coastal teams that have played a league game. Duke, Miami and Virginia don’t begin conference schedules until next week.

Carolina (2-0) is the Coastal’s lone undefeated team. But the Tar Heels were just as shaky in their 35-27 season-opening win over Football Championship Subdivision member McNeese State as they were dominant in Thursday’s 44-12 victory at Rutgers.

Tech coach Frank Beamer believes Carolina is more of the latter than the former. He called the Tar Heels “the best football team we’ve played” this season. And that includes 3-0 East Carolina, now ranked 15th nationally.

The Tar Heels, in their second season under former Miami coach Butch Davis, have nine returning starters on offense and seven on defense from a team that went 4-8 last season. Their defensive starters include just two seniors and six sophomores. But five of those sophomores started last season as freshmen, and four were true freshmen.

Although the Tar Heels picked off four passes on national television last week against Rutgers, their offense also impressed. Sophomore quarterback T.J. Yates, a returning starter, completed 14 of 22 passes for 221 yards and three touchdowns, including a 69-yarder to senior wide receiver Brandon Tate, Carolina’s most dangerous player. This season, Tate has 616 all-purpose yards, including 231 receiving, and four touchdowns—two receiving, one rushing and one on a punt return.

The Hokies’ defensive players recognize Carolina’s big-play potential, but they are looking forward to facing its offense because it is more traditional than the schemes they played the past two weeks. Georgia Tech used an option-based, run-oriented system. Furman ran a spread. The Hokies are more familiar with Carolina’s offense.

“That allows us to go out there and play at a faster pace, instead of sometimes worrying about different guys—whether the quarterback is going to keep it, or he’s going to hand it off, or he’s going to pitch it off,” senior linebacker Purnell Sturdivant said. “I think it will be a lot easier for us.”

The Hokies beat Carolina 17-10 last season in Blacksburg. That was their ACC opener, a close call for an offense that was struggling, much as it is now (the Hokies are ranked 107th nationally in total offense). Perhaps to its benefit, Tech is 15-1 in ACC road games since joining the league in 2004. But the Hokies know that the past matters less than the advantage they could now create for themselves in their division.

“I think whoever wins this game,” Sturdivant said, “will probably have an edge.”

Contact Darryl Slater at (804) 649-6026 or .