Isabowl

The best nickname I heard for the Virginia Tech-Texas A&M game during Hurricane Isabel was “Isabowl”, so that’s what we’ll go with here at BTN. As most readers probably know by now, Tech beat the Aggies 35-19, and as a result of that and a few key losses above them, moved up to #5 in both polls.

Conditions weren’t optimal during the game — in particular, we had consistent driving rain and winds peaking at 40 mph during the first half. I’ve endured far worse during other games, though — the high 50s-low 60s temperature range kept it tolerable. The challenge was in getting there. If you didn’t leave Hampton Roads by 9 AM or Richmond by noon on Thursday, you would have faced seriously nasty weather all the way up to Staunton on I-64. I left the Far West End of Richmond at 11:45, and by the time I reached Charlottesville, I had to time my passes of slow vehicles, in order to minimize the chance of being blown into them by an errant wind gust. Not fun.

What’s that? You want actual game commentary? Well, OK.

• Most major media outlets covering the game hyped the “game of two halves” angle, lauding the Tech coaching staff’s halftime adjustments as the key to shutting the Aggies down. I didn’t really see it that way. I don’t think this game was organized enough to draw conclusions or suggest an overarching theme — other than the weather.
• That said, despite Frank Beamer’s pregame comments that he wouldn’t worry too much about the weather, the Tech game plan went seriously conservative, and A&M’s didn’t. This didn’t hurt the VT offense against an A&M defense breaking in a bunch of new starters this year, but Tech can’t afford to go into its hyper-conservative shell against Miami or Pittsburgh.
• The non-conservative Aggie offense stretched Tech’s defense pretty hard during the first half. Tech’s defense went into bend-but-don’t-break mode, holding the Aggies to field goals on their first two goal-line stands before giving up a TD on the third, penalty-aided drive.
• The comparison’s probably already old, but A&M QB Reggie McNeal really did remind me of the freshman Michael Vick (albeit without the howitzer-like throwing arm Vick brought). He’s not seasoned yet, and tends to only check his primary receiver before running. His athleticism can get him into trouble, but if he gets loose, watch out!
• I’ve written before about Cedric Humes challenging Kevin Jones’s status as exclusive #1 RB, and how that challenge may be needed to make KJ perform his best. Add Bryan Randall’s emerging star status to that list of challenges. Randall’s numbers from this game (9-13 for 63 yds, 1 TD/1 INT; 9 for 60/1TD rushing) weren’t terribly impressive, but the one thing that kept Randall from breaking out last year was his tendency to fumble the ball. That problem seems to have been solved. Randall, not Jones, was primarily responsible for the drive that took the game to 28-19, answering A&M’s last TD; Jones’s final TD had a certain “Anything you can do, I can do better” flavor to it.

The Hokies host UConn this Saturday at 1 PM, the last of four straight home games to open the season. I’m finding it difficult to motivate myself to write a preview for that one, so let’s just say: UConn is a competent I-A team, on the same level of play as UCF except more balanced. In 5 years, given a stable BCS conference membership, they could be tough, as one of only two I-A schools in New England, and the only one which doesn’t measure its success, year after year, by its game with Notre Dame. This year, I’m not too worried.