Something clicked in the collective minds of the Virginia Tech Hokies in Maryland on Saturday as VT beat Maryland 36-9 in a game that was basically over by halftime. I have to hand it to Tyrod Taylor... he bounced back from a couple disappointing outings to have an impressive showing in College Park. TT was 13-23 for a whopping 268 yards and 3 touchdowns. It's hard to throw for 268 yards on 13 completions... it means he averaged better than 20 yards for every completed pass. If I were from the deep south, I would probably say something like, "Well slap my mouth and call me Shirley." So let's all be thankful that I grew up in Ohio and won't be saying such ridiculous things. Taylor also ran for 91 yards on 8 carries. He had a monster game.
I think Jake Johnson has been taking his benching by Coach Foster seriously. He has been giving up a lot of playing time to Lyndell Gibson, who had a good game himself, but Johnson led the team in tackles with 7, sacks with 2, tackles-for-loss with 2, and also added a QB hurry. If Jake Johnson can get his head screwed on straight, then the Hokies have a bright future at linebacker. Jake is a physically impressive player. I'd rather we not have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new starter. Gibson could be good as well, but the fact that I never really notice him in a game is disconcerting. You would never say that about Xavier Adibi... even when he was a freshman.
I like that Foster dialed up the pressure on Maryland's second-string QB (who isn't a terrible player). Our defense really seemed to be firing on all cylinders as auto enthusiasts and television commentators might say. And I like that Ryan Williams gives us a consistently solid performance week-in and week-out. He's only a freshman and he's one of the best running backs in the nation. Luckily, he can not bolt for the NFL draft as he's only been a member of a college team for 2 seasons (players can leave school early for the NFL draft after 3 seasons, which includes their redshirt year).
I'm excited to see the combination of Williams and Darren Evans next season, assuming Evans is full-speed by then. If he's not, then no offense to my man Darren, but I don't want to see him on the field except during mop-up duty. We return an arguably stronger team for next season and I will keep my hopes high right up until we either blow our chances to get into the ACC championship game, or we win the National Championship. I am really going to miss Cody Grimm, Nekos Brown, and Stephan Virgil. Kam Chancellor and Ed Wang are notable exceptions from that list.
Only 2 more regular season games left, then we get to go to a craptastic bowl game! If the rumors of the possibility of us playing Notre Dame are true, that would be freaking awesome. GO HOKIES!
1 comment:
Im going to disagree that our bowl game will be Craptastic. In fact I think this will be a great bowl season for us. It looks to be lining up for us to play someone of note or at least someone exciting. If we end up the Gator sure ND is an option, but so is someone like WVU who I hate, but love to play. If slide into the Chikfila then we could at UT team or maybe a UGA team. If we go to the Champs we could be tlaking IOWA or PSU or WISKY. I mean these are better matchups than Kansas and Cincy. Nothing against the Orange, but its not a great bowl for the fans.
Also not noticing Gibson isn't a bad thing, but a great thing. It means he didn't make any mistakes that would make him stick out. Yea he didn't make any plays that stood out, but he will be a very solid player.
Also There were many games that Adibi didn't show up in. For as gifted as he was he was prone to trip up early in his career a few plays a game.
I really like our team next year if we can fill in some big holes. OUr Secondary becaomes a liability, and our Oline will have to fill some major holes.
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