HYATTSVILLE, MD. – Going into Sunday night's showdown with West Virginia, one of Virginia Tech's goals was to limit mistakes. They did that not only on offense but defense as well, and that was a big reason they return to Blacksburg with the Black Diamond Trophy.
Bud Foster and the defense kept a handle on the Mountaineers in the first half, holding them to 7 points and causing a turnover.
"We knew what kind of quarterback Will is," said defensive coordinator, Bud Foster.
"He's a competitor and he has a live arm, he's athletic and he showed all those things tonight. Then they did a couple nice things, they were seeing what we were doing man free. They hit a couple of nice throws and worked us down the middle of the field as we were playing quarters."
In the second half both teams were more comfortable on offense and West Virginia started to settle in. They had success going through the air multiple times, which started to weigh on the Hokies defense. But they ultimately stood their ground on the final drive, and willed the team to victory.
"You'll have some big plays on our side of the ball, they might have some big plays but you have to just fight it out throughout the whole game. We didn't want this game to be a blowout but at the same time we wanted a dog fight throughout it all," said Hokies safety, Terrell Edmunds.
"Like I told the guys it was going to be a dog fight and I could see it in the other teams eyes and see it in our eyes that it was going to be a hell of a fight," Hokies defensive end Trevon Hill said.
Bud Foster added, "We bent but we didn't break a whole lot. There was a couple of plays that we gave up that we busted some coverages and they made some nice throws and got down there. So in the end we played well enough to win the football game. Was it clean? No. can we get a lot better? Yeah. But it was a good win against a good program."
With the win Virginia Tech snaps a three-game losing streak here at FedEx Field.