Virginia Tech beat writer Andy Bitter lends his insight into the Hokies this week for the AJC. He covers Virginia Tech for the Roanoke (Va.) Times. You can read his coverage here and follow him on Twitter here.
Q: How would you describe wide receiver Isaiah Ford (50 catches, 710 yards, six touchdowns)? Duke and Miami were able to limit his yardage, it appears. What did they do?
A: He's, quite simply, the best receiver the school has had, in my opinion. He passed Antonio Freeman for the school's touchdown reception record. He needs four catches to move past Jarrett Boykin for the top spot in career receptions. And 300 or so more yards and he has that receiving yardage record too. I'd be shocked if he came back for his senior year. Even though his numbers aren't as great as his 1,127-yard season last year — he's at 50 catches, 710 yards, 6 touchdowns — he's a better receiver. He's not the fastest or the strongest, but all around, he's just a really big threat.
Part of that slight dip in numbers is that everyone knows he’s coming this year. He’s seen his fair share of double teams and bracketed coverage. Miami was especially focused on that. Duke, I think, less so, but the Hokies just didn’t have an especially good day in the air, with the Blue Devils supplying plenty of pressure and (quarterback) Jerod Evans not having his sharpest day throwing it. (And Ford’s final stat line would have looked different if the touchdown he did catch was not wiped out by a penalty.)
If teams do pay too much attention to him, however, it does open up things for other guys. Against Miami, Bucky Hodges had two touchdown catches. So there’s a tradeoff a lot of defenses have to make, and given that Ford, Hodges and Cam Phillips each went over 100 yards in the same game against Pitt, it’s usually a losing proposition.
Q: How much better is this year’s team than the last couple coached by Frank Beamer?
A: It's a much tougher group, mostly because it has an offense that's just as capable of winning a game by itself as the defense has always been. That's been evident a few times this year. At Pitt, Bud Foster's group got gashed, but Evans threw for 406 yards and the Hokies pulled out a 39-36 win. Tech had been 2-77 all-time when allowing more than 35 points, with no wins on the road in its history in those games.
So leaning on the offense on certain nights is a new thing. Given the way Foster’s defense has carried the offense so many times — often against Georgia Tech, too — it seems only fair. The quarterback play is significantly better and an early deficit isn’t exactly a death knell for this group. That opens up Foster’s defense to play looser, knowing it doesn’t have to be perfect to win, and it gives the team a lot larger margin for error.
But besides that, I think there’s a different feeling around the program, one looking forward. In Beamer’s latter years, his eventual retirement always cast a pall over the program. Everything that happened — every loss, every missed recruit, every miscue on the field — was framed in how much longer Beamer would be on the sideline. That wears on a program after a while. Obviously, there’s none of that under Justin Fuente, and the team’s enthusiasm level just seems higher. I can’t prove that those two things are related, but they sure seem like they are.
Q: The Hokies are run-first, it looks like, but it doesn’t look like the running game is all that efficient (4.07 yards per carry, tied for 89th nationally). What are your observations?
A: That's Fuente's preference is to be run first. His offense, for all its no-huddle tendencies, shotgun snaps and multiple-receiver looks, is still run it first and throw it off play-action second. At least in its ideal form that's what it is. And there have been a couple games this year where the Hokies have done that. Miami was a good example. Evans and running back Travon McMillian ran for 229 of the Hokies' 251 rushing yards, and that opened up things in the air.
A lot of teams have stacked the box against Virginia Tech this year, however. And Fuente and offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen have shown a good tendency not to be stubborn and just continue to run it into a brick wall. Pitt was the ultimate example of that. The Panthers threw everything they had at the run but left 50-50 balls down the field for the Hokies’ receivers. They took full advantage, throwing those passes down after down.
The running game has been hit or miss all year. McMillian has two 100-yard games but five in which he failed to reach 40 yards. Evans is actually the leading rusher with 533 yards to McMIllian’s 527. So the Hokies are going to spread it around. They’ll even get the receivers in on the action on jet sweeps. Whatever they can do to move it, even if it’s non-traditional. Fuente doesn’t really care where the yards come from, and I’m sure he’d like to be more consistent up front, which has been a battle all year. Above all else, though I think he’ll just take what a defense gives him. He’d probably prefer the run, but he has no problem switching things up.
Q: What were Bud Foster’s thoughts about Georgia Tech’s offense?
A: Along the lines of, "Great. This thing again." I think Bud likes the chess match of it, but he also acknowledges what a pain in the butt this thing is to prepare for. He's said it year after year: this is pretty much a completely different defense they put in to face this offense. It's tough to do that in a week, and it's tough to simulate it on scout team, both with the different fakes and pitches that the quarterback can do to the physicality and cut blocking the offensive line does. Foster said the team treated Tuesday's practice like it was a 60-minute middle drill, which is about as intense physically as they'll get at a workout.
Foster’s defenses have done a good job of defending the option over the years, even if it seems like Georgia Tech always hits the Hokies early for a touchdown or two. Shoot, last year’s game was 14-0 in the first quarter. Virginia Tech just got hit in the face by the speed at which the Yellow Jackets move. That’s something Foster is wary of this week, and the Hokies are trying everything they can do prepare for that. It’ll help if they get defensive tackle Nigel Williams back from an ankle injury.
The defensive coaches think penetration in the middle is always a good way to disrupt the Yellow Jackets’ operation, and Williams and Woody Baron would be an effective pairing inside. But just because the Hokies have a plan doesn’t mean they can carry it out, especially if Paul Johnson is tweaking things along the way, like he always does. That’s the reason why, even though Foster has fared well in this series, he probably still hates having to prepare for it every year.
Q: The Hokies are top 20 in the CFP rankings, but I’m not sure what to make of them barely beating Pitt and Duke, teams that Tech lost to on the last play and beat, respectively, not to mention losing to Syracuse. (On the other hand, Virginia Tech demolished North Carolina in the hurricane, and the Tar Heels demolished Georgia Tech). Is this a legit top 20 team?
A: I think it is. And it's much better team at home than it is on the road. Those Pitt and Duke games were road contests, as was the one the Hokies lost at Syracuse. (UNC was a road game, although the hurricane rendered moot any disadvantage because of the crowd.) I don't know if that's the mark of a team that has a pretty small group of seniors or what, but get them out of Lane Stadium and they just don't quite look the same. The flip side is they've been dominant at home, outscoring opponents 176-46. Their closest game at Lane was a 21-point win against Miami on a Thursday night.
Yeah, Virginia Tech has played some close games, but those are close games it has been losing in recent seasons. The Hokies were 3-4 last season in one-score games and 2-5 in 2014. That, A) shows you that Virginia Tech wasn’t that far off in Beamer’s latter years, and B) shows that this team at least found a way to pull out the two really close games it has had this year. I think that’s the mark of a good team, especially since I wouldn’t say the Hokies brought their “A” game to either Duke or Pitt.
The Hokies had a fumble fest in their marquee game earlier this season, going back to a 21-point loss to Tennessee that really wasn’t that lopsided, and the Syracuse loss is a tough one to explain, but overall I think this is a pretty good team, one that is rightfully in the mix in the Coastal Division.
About the Author
