The Hokie Week, Backward and Forward
The Virginia Tech Hokies completed the early cupcake segment of their schedule in fine style Saturday, thrashing the Ohio Bobcats for a 45-0 win in Blacksburg after doing the same to Duke at Durham the previous week.
Ohio posed a more serious threat to the Hokies than the completely overmatched Blue Devils; Tech didn’t put the game away until superior team speed, personnel and halftime adjustments wore the MAC visitors down in the third quarter. Evidence of the N.C. State game plan was clearly present in the first half, as Bobcats QB Austen Everson went directly at short routes, both outside and over the middle where overpursuit by the Hokie linebacking corps could be punished. Other teams are going to do this all year; reading the offensive alignment and changing the defense at the line could mitigate this threat, but after losing defensive signal-caller Vinnie Fuller to graduation, the Hokies’ read-and-react capability is limited in the early going. Better tackling would at least limit the damage, but like last year, our players seem to have forgotten their fundamentals over the summer.
That said, I’m not terribly worried about the defense overall (aside to WVU commenter Jeremy: dream on, Eer-boy). Nor the offense: Marcus Vick keeps getting better, and stands an off-chance of actually living up to his hype this season (insert obligatory behavior-related caveat here). The running game hasn’t needed to be as dominant as in past years, as in addition to the two-back system Hokie coaches have loved since at least 1998, we now have a capable receiving corps. Sophomore WR Eddie Royal, probably the star of last season among the receivers, has struggled this year, but junior Josh Morgan has picked up the slack nicely. The offensive line is holding up well in the early going, though that’s the biggest question mark we have short of Marcus’s off-field antics.
Coming to Blacksburg this weekend are the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech, who should provide a more serious challenge. The big question for the Ramblin’ Wreck is whether junior QB Reggie Ball will be ready for the game. With him, they’re a dangerous multi-threat team. Without him — well, we saw that last year after Chris Ellis scared him into a safety and a 20-minute-long funk. For Ellis, Darryl Tapp and Noland Burchette, a freshman drop-back quarterback would strongly resemble red meat.
I’m picking the Hokies either way. 24-17 with Ball, 24-7 without.
21 September 2005 / 3 Comments / Tags: football