Virginia Tech Preview
September 29, 2005 12:25 PM | General
September 29, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – If you’d listen to West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez long enough, you’d think the Mountaineers were facing the 1967 Green Bay Packers this Saturday. The fifth-year coach has that much respect for No. 3-rated Virginia Tech.
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| Senior Brandon Myles is West Virginia's top pass catcher with 17 receptions for 266 yards and a touchdown.
AP photo |
“This might be the best football team we’ve played since I’ve been back at West Virginia and we’ve played some good ones including a team that won a national championship (Miami),” Rodriguez said. “In all three phases they have talented players, they play hard, they’re playing with a lot of confidence and they’re well-coached, too.”
Coach Frank Beamer’s powerhouse Tech team is coming off an impressive 51-7 win over nationally ranked Georgia Tech last weekend and the Hokie defense has only given up two touchdowns in four games so far this season. In week two Duke managed just five first downs and 35 yards of total offense against the Hokies.
“There is not a guy on their defense that can’t run – I’m talking about all 11 guys,” said Rodriguez. “They’re pretty impressive looking too before you even see them in person. They’re big, tall rangy guys.”
In last year’s game in Blacksburg, Virginia Tech limited No. 6 West Virginia to just 10 first downs and 247 yards of offense in a 19-13 Hokie win. The Mountaineers were 0 for 13 on its third-down conversion attempts.
“I’m not sure offensively we can control this game,” Rodriguez said. “Some games you can run the football and have eight-, 10-, 12-play drives but not too many people have done that against the Hokies.”
In order to move the ball against Tech’s stout defense, Rodriguez says his young offensive line is going to have to give maximum effort and his running backs are going to have to hit the holes and have good vision.
“You’ve got to get a hat on a hat and you’ve got to strain a little harder than you’ve done in the past,” he said. “You’ve got to be physical with them and then you’ve got to execute. You can’t have missed assignments either.”
Tech’s front four goes 260, 304, 296 and 265 and behind them are an athletic trio of linebackers in Vince Hall, Xavier Adibi and James Anderson.
The secondary is comprised of 6-foot-3-inch, 216-pound senior boundary corner Jimmy Williams, 6-foot-4-inch, 221-pound junior rover Aaron Rouse and a pair of athletic sophomore safeties in D.J. Parker and Roland Minor.
“They’ve got great athletes,” Rodriguez said. “You’ve got a lot of NFL guys on that whole team particularly on defense. At just about every position they’ve got guys that will be playing in the pros when their college careers are done.”
Tech is more than just adequate offensively with athletic Marcus Vick underneath center. The junior threw for a career-high three touchdown passes against Duke and is coming off a 223-yard performance last weekend against Georgia Tech. He has a seven-to-one touchdown-to-interception ratio.
“He’s very composed,” said Rodriguez. “He hasn’t been pressured, he hasn’t been flustered and he hasn’t made bad decisions. He’s been very calm, cool and collected.”
Rodriguez says he sees similarities between Marcus and his older brother Michael Vick, an all-pro quarterback with the Atlanta Falcons.
“I don’t know if Marcus is as tall as Michael but he’s probably a little bit more of an accurate passer,” he said. “He’s probably not as fast as Michael but he’s faster than most secondary guys and he’s certainly faster than all the linebackers and linemen.”
Because Vick can take off and run, that puts added pressure on West Virginia’s defense.
“You rush three or you don’t get much pressure on him and he’ll take off,” Rodriguez said. “The problem is some guys take off to get a first down. He takes off to score and you’ve got to get him on the ground and that’s the hard part.”
Tailback Mike Imoh leads the Hokies with 223 yards rushing and a pair of scores in four games. Last year Imoh came back from a suspension to lead Virginia Tech with 115 yards on 30 carries against West Virginia.
Athletic 6-foot-5-inch tight end Jeff King, also a member of the Hokie basketball team, leads Tech with 12 catches for 153 yards. Junior split end David Clowney shows 11 catches for 196 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Perhaps Tech’s biggest weapon, Eddie Royal, has been hampered by hamstring problems and shows just four catches for 59 yards.
“He was a little banged up but he’s probably healthy now just in time for us,” Rodriguez said. “They’ve just got talented guys all over the place.”
The X factor with Virginia Tech has always been its special teams, particularly in games against West Virginia. Last year, the Mountaineers were looking to close Tech’s lead to three points right before the half when a blocked kick resulted in a 74-yard touchdown that gave the Hokies a 13-point halftime lead. Tech blocked a field goal in last week’s game against Georgia Tech that resulted in a 78-yard touchdown.
Since Frank Beamer has been at Virginia Tech, the Hokies have blocked 10 punts or field goals against West Virginia.
“They win a lot of games by making a big play on special teams and that’s been well noted,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve got to try and win that phase ourselves and that’s of course easier said than done. Just looking at their personnel, their special teams are better than ever.”
The coach admitted that the one thing on his young team’s side is a sell-out crowd that could make it tough for Tech to communicate on offense.
“I hope the fans have no restraint in the stadium as far as making noise when they have the ball,” Rodriguez said. “It’s your home field and you want that kind of advantage. We want them to be quiet when we have it unless we make a big play and when they’re on offense we want them to be as loud as they can.”
Briefly:
“We all coach them, too,” Rodriguez responded. “I don’t go and drink Kool-Aid during our special teams period. You’ve got to put good players in there and you’ve got to devote the time to it and we do that.”
“You have a penalty in the game last week that is a hold on a punt return,” he said. “A lot of people think it’s a 10-yard penalty but really it’s a 27-yard penalty because you’ve got to negate the return you made. You might win last week’s game doing that but you can’t win this week’s.”
“People are going to take shots at us as a league fairly or unfairly,” he said. “That’s the state of where we’re at right now. All we can do is worry about West Virginia and try and win as many games as we can and worry about the rest of that stuff later.”
