|
|
Your guide to breaking news, recruiting updates and important offers from
TechSideline.com!
TSLMail is powered by our sponsor:
|
 Welcome to
TSLMail #200 - Friday, November 4, 2005 |
To Remove Yourself From This Email List: See the instructions directly to the left.
To Change Your Email Address:
TSL Links
TSL Products
TSLMail Archives
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
For many of you, due to a site revamp we recently completed, you just started receiving TSLMail. If you wish to remove yourself from our mailing list:
Thanks, and we hope we haven't inconvenienced you. Will Stewart |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
MaroonHelmet.com Featured Item
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
MaroonHelmet.com, the official e-commerce sponsor of TechSideline.com. About MaroonHelmet.com
Click Here to Shop MaroonHelmet.com! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Advertise
on TechSideline.com! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
TechSideline.com has come a long way since its conception in 1996. We are the #1 media source and community covering Virginia Tech athletics; producing an average of 110,000 unique viewers and over 7 million page views each month. We reach a coveted demographic (you know who you are) 24/7, 12 months out of the year. Furthermore, TechSideline.com provides a powerful advertising opportunity, leveraging our unique two-way medium to clearly and precisely communicate our sponsor’s marketing goals to our loyal community. This permission marketing approach has resulted in unprecedented marketing success for all our sponsors, "brick and mortar" and dot-com alike. Each custom sponsorship varies in investment according to the desired target reach, frequency, geographic territory, category, and/or time your campaign requires. In a nutshell, our custom targeted sponsorships allow you to focus your message and product to the right customers in the right market at the right time. To learn more, please
contact Trey Copeland at (434) 293-2527 (ext. 102) or
[email protected] . To view a
list of our sponsors, please visit our Sponsors
Page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Tech Sports News | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
VT-Miami: The Quarterbacks Tell the Tale by Chris Coleman, TechSideline.com What’s the difference between Virginia Tech and Miami? The defenses are certainly similar, ranked one and two in the nation. Both teams have a number of athletic receivers who can make plays. Both have an All-ACC caliber tight end. The biggest difference between the two teams is the quarterback position, and you will probably see this factor into the final score of the game on Saturday night. Marcus Vick is a junior who has been in the VT system for awhile, despite missing a season due to a suspension. He is a talented, savvy quarterback who plays his best in big games such as this. Kyle Wright is a young sophomore who is seeing his first extensive playing time in his first season as a starter. He has talent, but this season he has racked up many of his ten touchdown passes against inferior competition such as Duke and Temple. Against the better teams on Miami’s schedule, he has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns. It’s unfair to put this game on Wright’s shoulders, but he will likely have to win the game for Miami with his arm. The only Miami quarterback to beat Virginia Tech since 1994 is Ken Dorsey. Miami has had some good quarterbacks since 1995, but good never got it done against Tech. You had to be great, and Dorsey was. Kyle Wright is talented, but he is not yet great at this point. The game will come down to Marcus Vick and Kyle Wright, and while Tech quarterbacks generally don’t throw for as many yards as Miami’s quarterbacks, they are more efficient, with the notable exception of the 2001 game. Take a look at this chart, which compares quarterback performances in every VT/Miami game dating back to 1995.
Note that only the top passer for each team was listed. The Hokies played two quarterbacks in 2000 and 2003, and Miami played two in 1996 and 1999, but only the quarterback with the best stats was included. First of all, take a look at how many interceptions Miami quarterbacks have thrown against Virginia Tech through the years, especially the past two years. Brock Berlin threw three interceptions and zero touchdowns in 2003 and 2004, while Marcus Vick and Bryan Randall combined for three touchdowns and zero interceptions in those two years. Let’s take a closer look at Ken Dorsey compared to the other Miami quarterbacks. Dorsey was never that great against Tech from a completion percentage standpoint, but he did throw six touchdown passes and just one interception in his three years as a starter. The rest of the Miami starters since 1995 have combined for five touchdown passes and seven interceptions. And that’s not counting Scott Covington’s two interceptions coming off the bench in 1996, one of which was returned 100 yards for a touchdown by Keion Carpenter, or the interception Dorsey threw in relief of Kenny Kelly in 1999. Meanwhile Virginia Tech’s starting quarterbacks have combined for eight touchdown passes and six interceptions against Miami since 1995. Take out Grant Noel’s four interception performance in 2001, and the ratio increases to eight touchdowns and two interceptions. To take it a step further, Miami starting quarterbacks have only thrown two touchdown passes in the five games played in Lane Stadium since 1995. In that span they have thrown five interceptions. Throw in backup Ken Dorsey’s interception in 1999, and that’s six. Not a very good ratio. History doesn’t look good for Kyle Wright. The performance of the quarterbacks will go a long way in determining the outcome of Saturday night’s game. With Marcus Vick currently ranking second in the nation in passing efficiency and Kyle Wright ranking 44th, combined with the home crowd of Lane Stadium, you’ve got to like Virginia Tech’s chances.
Brad Speicher. Bill won a $50 gift certificate to Kroger, just for playing the Kroger "Pro Challenge" football game on our web site. You can play Kroger's "Pro Challenge" football game for a chance to win $1,000.
Once you're at the Pro level, you can play and enter a sweepstakes drawing. First prize is $1,000 cash! Second prize is $250 cash! All Pro contestants have the same chance to win the cash prizes. For playing at ANY level, you can enter a random drawing for a $50 gift card, with one card given away each week. Get one of the ten highest scores, and you'll be given the chance to enter your initials, which are displayed at the beginning of every game. How to play:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TechSideline.com
Pass - Your Ultimate Ticket to Hokie Sports!
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
For more info on TechSideline Pass, and to subscribe, click here.
-- Will Stewart | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TechSideline.com
Updates From the Past Week
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TSLMail is a trademark of TechSideline.com - Copyright © 2005 - All Rights Reserved |
Highland
Springs has become only the eighth high school in the country to send at least one player to the Army All-American
Bowl in consecutive years. Today, 6-3, 235-pound linebacker Jarrell Miller was officially named as a 2006 Army
All-American.
4-star wide
receiver Damon McDaniel, who is having a terrific senior season for Landstown (Virginia Beach, VA), is yet another
star player who will be making an official visit to Tech this weekend. Virginia Tech has always been mentioned by
McDaniel as a school under consideration, but what was it that finally earned the Hokies an official visit?
It’s
Miami week. Every year it’s big. This year it’s bigger. This time, it can be argued that it will be the
biggest sporting event the state of Virginia has ever hosted. This is the opportunity for the Hokies to make a
statement and force their way onto the national title podium along side USC and Texas. The stakes are huge. This
is big time college football on a big time stage and many of us will have the good fortune to be there to witness
it.
Marcus
Ball isn’t the only top recruit out of Stephenson High School (Stone Mountain, GA) set to officially visit
Virginia Tech this weekend. 6-4, 200-pound 4-star defensive end Jermaine Cunningham is another Stephenson stud who
recruiting coach Lorenzo Ward has been able to lure to Virginia Tech.
Finally,
the game everyone has been anticipating is close at hand. On Saturday #3 Virginia Tech will host #6 Miami in a
battle that will decide who will represent the Coastal Division in the ACC Championship Game. The Hokies have
played some big games in Lane Stadium throughout the years, but they have never had as much riding on one as they
will on Saturday night.
Fans don't have an
effect on the game, right? Fans don't prepare, they don't play, they don't make the tackles, they don't run the
ball, and they don't throw or catch it. All the noise they make is just that -- noise. That might be true
elsewhere, but in Blacksburg, on November 1, 2003, Hokie fans jammed Spring Road for the "The Walk", and
the electricity sent the Hokies into orbit, where they mauled #2 Miami 31-7. This Saturday, lightning can strike
twice.
Doug “Budd”
Thacker committed to Virginia Tech yesterday, becoming the 11th verbal commitment for the 2006 recruiting class.
Techsideline.com caught up with the 6-2, 250-pound Seminole (Sanford, FL) star last night to discuss his decision,
what position Virginia Tech may be recruiting him to play and more.
After a
2004-05 season that saw a football player moonlighting as a critical off the bench role player down the stretch
for a first division ACC team, one of the first priorities of Head coach Seth Greenberg and his assistants was to
replenish the front line for this season with additional bodies, and especially size.
For
the next two weeks or so, Techsideline.com will be testing out a new concept that we think you’ll like. It’s
called FreePass, and it’s a way to give non-subscribers a taste of our great TSL Pass content for free, making
sure you’re aware of how much outstanding content we produce, and giving more exposure to our sponsors.
Monday
night’s Hokie Hotline featured athletics director Jim Weaver, offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring and head
coach Frank Beamer. Topics of conversation ranged from the BCS, to Tech’s redzone offense, to the new uniforms
that the Hokies wore against Boston College.
Pulaski
Southwestern (Somerset, KY) defensive end Josh Minton received a surprise last Friday, when two Virginia Tech
coaches attended his game. Pulaski Southwestern head coach Dale Anderson said he and Josh were both impressed by
the staff’s appearance.
After
their 30-10 dismantling of Boston College on Thursday night, followed by a Texas victory over Oklahoma State that
was closer than most believed it would be, the Hokies have gained on USC and Texas in the BCS. In the latest BCS
Standings that were released Monday afternoon, USC has retaken the #1 spot from Texas. The Longhorns dropped to
#2, and the Hokies remain at #3.
In
this photo gallery, we bring you 72 shots of last Thursday's action, the first game under Lane Stadium's brand
new, ultra-bright lights. First we serve up a beautiful shot of Lane Stadium's new west facade, and then we bring
you all the game action, from Marcus Vick's passing accuracy to John Kinzer's highlight-film leap over BC's
baffled Taji Morris (your jock is on the 40 yard line, Taji, still waiting for you to come get it).
It's
hard to imagine a more complete whipping than the Hokies laid on the Boston College Eagles last Thursday, but
despite dominating the statistics, the final score was just 30-10, aided by a late defensive TD. That brought some
complaints, particularly against the playcalling in the red zone, where the Hokies were perceived as struggling.
We'll take a look at both things -- how the Hokies dominated the Eagles and what happened in the red zone -- in
this game analysis.
If
you didn’t catch the Virginia Tech JV game on Friday afternoon, and you probably didn’t, then you missed one
of the best endings that you’ll ever see. Jud Dunlevy’s 51 yard field goal propelled the Hokies to a victory
over Hargrave Military Academy, but the result of the game was only part of the fun. JV games give observers a
chance to watch young Hokies who are still developing, but who could become impact players in the future. The game
also features many prep players that Tech is recruiting, or has recruited in the past. Read on for reports on Kent
Hicks, Jeremy Gilchrist, Vidal Hazelton, Melvin Aleaze and more.