The AFP on WREL: Baseball season
AFP editor Chris Graham talks sports with WREL-1450AM’s “Online with Jim Bresnahan.”
The segment begins with a look at ACC baseball. Can the #1 Virginia baseball team continue its prolonged hot streak all the way to Omaha? That’s the question with the Cavs at the top of a deep ACC field of likely entrants into the 2011 NCAA Tournament.
NFL Draft talk wraps us up. Tyrod Taylor will be a good steal for whatever team picks him up later in the draft, according to Chris.
The AFP on WREL: Baseball season
AFP editor Chris Graham talks sports with WREL-1450AM’s “Online with Jim Bresnahan.”
The segment begins with a look at ACC baseball. Can the #1 Virginia baseball team continue its prolonged hot streak all the way to Omaha? That’s the question with the Cavs at the top of a deep ACC field of likely entrants into the 2011 NCAA Tournament.
NFL Draft talk wraps us up. Tyrod Taylor will be a good steal for whatever team picks him up later in the draft, according to Chris.
These go to 11: Stanford ends Hokies' streak
Stanford scored on its first four possessions of the second half to break open a tight Orange Bowl game with Virginia Tech en route to a 40-12 pasting Monday night. The loss ended the Hokies’ 11-game winning streak and sent them to their 19th loss in 20 games against top-five opponents under coach Frank Beamer.
“I think you give Stanford all the credit. They played better offensively than we did, they played better defensively than we did, and they played better on special teams,” Beamer said. Continue reading “These go to 11: Stanford ends Hokies' streak” »
These go to 11: Stanford ends Hokies’ streak in Orange Bowl
Stanford scored on its first four possessions of the second half to break open a tight Orange Bowl game with Virginia Tech en route to a 40-12 pasting Monday night. The loss ended the Hokies’ 11-game winning streak and sent them to their 19th loss in 20 games against top-five opponents under coach Frank Beamer.
“I think you give Stanford all the credit. They played better offensively than we did, they played better defensively than we did, and they played better on special teams,” Beamer said.
The game seemed to turn on a three-play sequence in the third quarter. Stanford was up 19-12 with Virginia Tech driving when quarterback Tyrod Taylor threw his fifth interception of the season. Set up at their 3, Stanford running back Stepfan Taylor broke through the line for a 56-yard run, and on the next play quarterback Andrew Luck connected with tight end Coby Fleener on a 41-yard touchdown that made it 26-12 Stanford with 5:49 to go in the third.
Luck threw two more touchdown passes in the fourth to seal the deal for Stanford, which came into the game ranked fourth nationally and finished its season at 12-1, its lone loss coming at the hands of #2 Oregon.
Tech had come in as perhaps the hottest team in America outside of the teams in the BCS title game, bolting through the ACC with a perfect 8-0 regular season and knocking off Florida State in the conference championship game after back-to-back losses to Boise State and James Madison to begin the campaign. Expectations had been higher for these Hokies, with the fan base clamoring for a run at the national title in Taylor’s senior season.
“I’m still proud of the way we played this whole season,” said Taylor, who completed 16 of his 31 pass attempts for 222 yards and a touchdown, and was sacked a season-high eight times. “I’m frustrated that we didn’t win our last game, but we had a heckuva season. We don’t have anything to hold our heads down about.”
Story by Chris Graham. More Virgina Tech sports at VaSportsOnline.com.
Rebound: How Hokies went from 0-2 to 10-2
Morale should have been about zippo. Virginia Tech, just a few days earlier a national-championship contender in the eyes of many, had just fallen to 0-2 following a loss to !-AA James Madison.
To the credit of the kids in the Hokie locker room, what they saw wasn’t how far they had fallen, but how far they could still go.
“After the game the seniors did a good job of motivating everybody, just trying to talk to them and let them know that we have to turn things around and said don’t hold your head up by the last two games, and we still had goals to reach which, was the ACC championship, and that we needed to start working with that – with coming out and beating ECU, and we did that, and got to Boston College and had a big win and just tried to keep the energy flowing and just the positive vibe going in the locker room,” said senior quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who has #12 Tech on a 10-game winning streak since the Sept. 11 loss to JMU entering Saturday’s ACC Championship Game matchup with #20 Florida State.
Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer had said back at the ACC Football Kickoff in July that the 2010 Hokies group was one that he really enjoyed being around, that win or lose he knew that his players would be back at it the next Monday with a focus on what they’d need to do to get a win the next game out. That feeling was put to the test following the loss to JMU.
“I’m not sure we ever got off track,” Beamer said. “We just had two tough losses within a week. Played on Monday, played on Saturday, and got beat. But I think we’ve got good kids. I think we had good leadership. I think there’s a strong caring within our program, coaches for players, players for coaches. If you got that, I think then you’ve got a chance to come back from two tough losses like that.”
It wasn’t an easy road back, to say the least. ECU, the Week 3 opponent, led Tech in the third quarter before the Hokies stormed back to win by a 49-27 final tally. Then in Week 5 Tech had to rally from a 17-0 deficit at N.C. State to post a win that wasn’t secure until the final minute.
The N.C. State win seemed to unleash the national power that we had expected Virginia Tech to be back in the summer. The only hiccup from that point on was a narrow 28-21 win over Georgia Tech on Nov. 4 that featured another double-digit comeback that was, like the State win, not secured until the final minute. Convincing wins over Coastal Division contenders North Carolina and Miami followed, and the Hokies ended the regular season with a routine 37-7 beatdown of in-state rival Virginia as a tuneup to the conference title game.
The winning streak has taken on a life of its own, to the point that it’s almost hard to figure that it’s the same program that seemed to be reeling after the improbable loss to JMU, which for its part struggled following the historic upset and didn’t even make the I-AA playoffs.
The seeds of the return to the title tilt were planted the Monday after that loss.
“I’ve said this a couple different times, but we practiced the same way Monday before Boise State, when we were all hyped up and ready to go, and we practiced the same way Monday after James Madison as we did the Monday of Boise. We went about our business, had good tempo. We were ready – I think everybody was ready to get back on the winning way and cracked what was wrong. We weren’t trying to find blame or pin something on anybody. We just wanted to correct what was going wrong and get it right and try to get some wins,” Beamer said.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Taylor named ACC Player of the Year
Senior led ACC is pass efficiency
Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who has led the #12 Hokies to 10 straight wins and a berth in the ACC Championship Game following an 0-2 start, was voted the ACC Player of the Year for 2010.
Taylor, a senior, was the choice of 27 of the 57 members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association that voted. Russell Wilson of NC State was second with 19 votes.
Clemson defensive end Da’Quan Bowers won ACC Defensive Player of the Year.
Taylor leads the ACC in passing efficiency, having completed better than 60 percent of his attempts while throwing for 20 touchdowns and just four interceptions. He also is the Hokies’ second-leading rusher with 613 yards, and has two runs of more than 70 yards. Continue reading “Taylor named ACC Player of the Year” »
Hammer, Meet Nail
Tech rolls to seventh straight over UVa. with 37-7 drubbing
The gap between the football programs at Virginia and Virginia Tech was made obvious again on Saturday, on and off the field. The Hokies won their seventh straight in the series and 11th in the last 12 in typical dominating fashion, 37-7.
“They are the measuring stick right now. You are humbled by the fact that that’s where you’ve gotta go. That’s what I aspire to be, our program to be. A team that win games and consistently competes for championships,” said UVa. coach Mike London, whose team finished its first season with him at the helm with a 4-8 record overall and a 1-7 mark in Atlantic Coast Conference play.
Which is pretty much what those in the know had expected from the Cavs heading into the 2010 season, given how little London had to work with.
In the other locker room, Tech coach Frank Beamer was singing the praises of his bunch, which reached the 10-win mark for the seventh consecutive season.
“We were at a point where we were just trying to win the next game. But it makes a statement about these players and this coaching staff. We had good players. We just had two tough losses. Some teams would have taken it to the house. But this team didn’t. They supported each other. We have a tight-knit group here. So far, it’s been quite a year. The two losses make you appreciate these 10 wins even more. I’m proud of these guys,” said Beamer, whose regular-season ACC sweep had been projected by the cognoscenti, but came after a pair of losses to open the 2010 season that included an improbable 21-16 loss to James Madison at home on Sept. 11.
The talent gap on the field is a big part of the reason that Virginia Tech has dominated the series with Virginia in recent years, to the point that it can hardly be called a rivalry at this point, any more than the relationship between a hammer and a nail can be referred to as a rivalry.
Just as important: how the teams respond to adversity.
“With our offense, when its third down, there is no doubt that we should get the first down. Our players are big enough, tough enough and physical enough. It’s disappointing that we didn’t do it,” Virginia offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said of the back-to-back plays inside the Virginia Tech 15 late in the first half where UVa. failed to convert a third-and-one and fourth-and-one and turned the ball over to Tech on downs.
The Hokies, up 14-0 at the time, drove down to the Virginia 23 and scored just before halftime with a Chris Hazley 40-yard field goal that made it 17-0 at the break.
Virginia Tech (10-2, 8-0 ACC) needed just 50 yards of offense to score its two first-half touchdowns – converting a Marc Verica interception into a five-yard TD run by Ryan Williams and then driving 45 yards in three plays following a failed fake-punt to score on a Tyrod Taylor-to-David Wilson 20-yard pass.
Tech was more its usual dominant self in the second half, extending the lead to 37-0 on scoring runs by Williams, Darren Evans and Wilson before Virginia got its only score of the day with 2:59 to go in the fourth on an 11-yard TD pass from third-string quarterback Ross Metheny to senior tailback Keith Payne.
The Hokies still have plenty of business to attend to – an ACC Championship Game appearance next Saturday, then a bowl game. For Virginia, it’s already 2011.
“I’ll be working tirelessly to attract the type of young man that can help us win on the field,” London said.
The injection of a dose of we think we can, we think we can, we think we can into the chemistry in Bryant Hall couldn’t hurt things to that end.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Hammer, Meet Nail
Tech rolls to seventh straight over UVa. with 37-7 drubbing
The gap between the football programs at Virginia and Virginia Tech was made obvious again on Saturday, on and off the field. The Hokies won their seventh straight in the series and 11th in the last 12 in typical dominating fashion, 37-7.
“They are the measuring stick right now. You are humbled by the fact that that’s where you’ve gotta go. That’s what I aspire to be, our program to be. A team that win games and consistently competes for championships,” said UVa. coach Mike London, whose team finished its first season with him at the helm with a 4-8 record overall and a 1-7 mark in Atlantic Coast Conference play.
Which is pretty much what those in the know had expected from the Cavs heading into the 2010 season, given how little London had to work with.
In the other locker room, Tech coach Frank Beamer was singing the praises of his bunch, which reached the 10-win mark for the seventh consecutive season. Continue reading “Hammer, Meet Nail” »
The AFP on WREL: Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010
Chris Graham joins WREL’s “Online with Jim Bresnahan” to talk sports.
The focus is on the annual rivalry game between Virginia Tech and Virginia. The Hokies are once again prohibitive favorites. Is there any hope for ‘Hoos fans out there for an upset? Chris doesn’t think so.
A wrap of the I-AA seasons for Liberty and JMU, a scan around the local teams still in the high-school football playoffs and a quick discussion of the recent struggles being endured by the UVa. basketball team take us to the finish line.
Press Conference: Mike London
Virginia football coach Mike London talks with the news media on Monday. Virginia (4-7, 1-6 ACC) travels to Virginia Tech (9-2, 7-0 ACC) on Saturday.
QUESTION: What is the game plan as far as Tyrod Taylor?
LONDON: I tell you what, you’ve seen a lot of people try to game plan him certain ways, but he’s such a phenomenal athlete that you’ve got to worry about doing some other things, but also being very conscious of where he is.
I remember when I was recruiting him, and knowing the family and what a great young man he is. It’s just really neat to see the way he’s blossomed into being a great person and a great player. But there’s no way you say you can defend him like this, like that, because he has all the tools, the arms, the legs to get out of it. He’s become a really good quarterback in terms of the passing game.
He’s an athletic guy that makes things happen for him. We’ve got enough to worry about with not just him, but the running backs and wide receivers. They have a host of players that are the reason why they’ve had success – it is not only because of Tyrod – but some of the other guys on the team as well.
Press Conference: Mike London
Virginia football coach Mike London talks with the news media on Monday. Virginia (4-7, 1-6 ACC) travels to Virginia Tech (9-2, 7-0 ACC) on Saturday.
QUESTION: What is the game plan as far as Tyrod Taylor?
LONDON: I tell you what, you’ve seen a lot of people try to game plan him certain ways, but he’s such a phenomenal athlete that you’ve got to worry about doing some other things, but also being very conscious of where he is.
I remember when I was recruiting him, and knowing the family and what a great young man he is. It’s just really neat to see the way he’s blossomed into being a great person and a great player. But there’s no way you say you can defend him like this, like that, because he has all the tools, the arms, the legs to get out of it. He’s become a really good quarterback in terms of the passing game.
He’s an athletic guy that makes things happen for him. We’ve got enough to worry about with not just him, but the running backs and wide receivers. They have a host of players that are the reason why they’ve had success – it is not only because of Tyrod – but some of the other guys on the team as well. Continue reading “Press Conference: Mike London” »
Rebound: How Hokies went from 0-2 to 10-2
Posted by afp on December 2, 2010 · Leave a Comment
It’s all about attitude
To the credit of the kids in the Hokie locker room, what they saw wasn’t how far they had fallen, but how far they could still go.
“After the game the seniors did a good job of motivating everybody, just trying to talk to them and let them know that we have to turn things around and said don’t hold your head up by the last two games, and we still had goals to reach which, was the ACC championship, and that we needed to start working with that – with coming out and beating ECU, and we did that, and got to Boston College and had a big win and just tried to keep the energy flowing and just the positive vibe going in the locker room,” said senior quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who has #12 Tech on a 10-game winning streak since the Sept. 11 loss to JMU entering Saturday’s ACC Championship Game matchup with #20 Florida State. Continue reading “Rebound: How Hokies went from 0-2 to 10-2” »
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