\

Game day is here and with it comes a moment of truth for Frank Beamer and his beleaguered offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring. By now, knowledgeable Hokie football fans have heard about the infamous Jason from Arlington incident on Beamer’s weekly radio call-in show. Since that call, Beamer has gone on the offensive and has made it clear that he’s tired of people questioning him, his offense and his staff.

Today is a watershed game for Beamer and the Hokies. If they win, Beamer can effectively tell his crititcs (it’s strange to talking about Beamer’s critics) to shut up and it’ll give him another reason to justify his offensive game plan. If the loses, make no mistake that the heat will be turned up a notch on one of the most successful college coaches in the last 15 years. Beamer hasn’t felt this kind of heat since his last losing season when the Hokie swent 2-8-1 in 1992.

This game also have significance in the ACC Coastal Division race. The Hokies have struggled and not looked impressive on either side of the ball in it’s first two games, limping to a 1-1 record. Meanwhile, the Yellow Jackets are 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the ACC after beating Boston College in Chesnut Hill. A Georgia Tech win puts them in the driver’s seat for the division lead; a Virginia Tech win gives the Hokies control and a renewed sense of confidence.

Breaking Down the Offense

It hasn’t looked good for Virginia Tech’s offense through its first two games. It managed just one touchdown against ECU and wasn’t able to get into the endzone until the third quarter against Division I-AA Furman last week at home. The problems with the offense begin and end with the offensive line, which has not played well this season. They gave up four sacks last week against a Furman defensive line that gave up about 40-50 pounds. Bryan Stinespring blamed the breakdowns on some unexpected blitzes Furman threw at them. Not many fans are buying that excuse.

The Hokies’ passing game has been non-existant, mainly because the QBs haven’t had much time in the pocket. Tyrod Taylor alone had about seven passing plays broken up because of a breakdown in pass protection. However, the reason Beamer took the redshirt off Taylor so quickly was evident last week as “T-Mobile” rushed for 112 yards, 50 of which came on a busted play.

According to offensive players, Stinespring challenged their manhood this past week of practice and if you listen to the players, they’re not happy with their performances and have re-dedicated themselves to “fix it.” The coaches are also responding to the fans unhappiness with the performance thusfar, working the players hard this past week and even Beamer has come down from his coaching tower to work side-by-side with Stinespring and the offense.

VT is going to have to play up to their potential today if they want to get any kind of offense going against what will likely be the best defensive front they’ll face all season. The good news is that the Ramblin’ Wreck aren’t really a blitzing team, so maybe that’ll give VT’s QBs more time to make some plays. If that is the case, we could see more of our young receivers and hopefully more of TE Greg Boone, who has been the focus of the offense in practice, but hasn’t seen many touches in games.

The Jackets’ defense is more of an assignment-based scheme, relying on patience and discipline from its players. This is a smart and very quick defense that will make the Hokies earn every yard it gets. Points will be tough to come by for Stinespring’s crew today, even moreso than in its first two games. The key for the Hokies will be to establish dominance on the line and get the power running game going. But based on the O-line’s performance in the first two weeks, it is hard to imagine that they’ll “fix things” in just one week of practice. I’m not saying that it can’t be done, but it would take a minor miracle.

Breaking Down the Defense

Just when we thought that the Hokies’ young defense was making strides and getting better (and they are), they have to take on Georgia Tech’s crazy, or as Beamer would probably call it, “out of whack” offense. Whether you want to call it a triple option or a modern/modified version of the Double Wing, regardless of what you call it, it is tough to defend and Bud Foster’s young lunch pail defense is going to have to play disciplined defense today if it wants even a shot at stopping down this complex offense.

Bud’s guys made huge improvements from the ECU game to the Furman game, so hopefully they’ll have made the same level of improvement coming into today’s game – they’ll need it. The biggest concern will likely be the defensive line’s inability to get pressure on opposing QBs. The defense has only one sack this season, Orion Martin last week. But, even if the D-line gets it going today, don’t look for a lot of sacks because of the type of offense that GT runs, a slashing, sideline-to-sideline offense.

The key for VT’s defense is to stick with your assigments, keep their angles and hold the Jackets to as many three and outs as possible. The longer the Hokies’ D stays on the field, the more fatigued they’ll get and that’s when GT will just run all over them. This might be the toughest offense VT’s defense will face all season.

Breaking Down the Special Teams

The Hokies have the edge here and after last week, they looked pretty solid. It might take a herculean effort from Beamerball to make the difference in this game today. Whether it is a kickoff/punt return for a score, or a block FG or punt attempt. Whatever it is, the Hokies will need all the help they can get today.

What does it all mean, Basil?

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit picked the “upset” in this game saying that Georgia Tech would beat the Hokies. This surprised me based on how the two teams have played so far this year. Any educated college football fan can look at each team’s two games and tell that the Wreck have the better team on both sides of the ball. They may not have the better athletes, but as a team, they have played better. GT and VT have played similar opponents; one weaker team and one tougher team. The difference is that GT won against its weaker opponent in convincing fashion and did just enough to beat it’s tougher opponent. The Hokies lost to its better opponent and managed just a field goal in the first half against its weaker opponent before scoring three TDs in the third quarter.

The bottom line … Georgia Tech has played better this year and unless the Hokies have made significant improvements in the last six days, the Yellow Jackets could easily hand the Hokies one of its worst home losses in recent memory. Obviously we’re hoping that VT’s offense has made the necessary adjustments and that the defense has matured in just six days, but we won’t be surprised if they don’t.

Popularity: 3% [?]