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Williams on Record Breaking Pace by Chris Coleman, TechSideline.com, TSLMail #406, November 6, 2009
With Williams reaching 1,000 yards, Virginia Tech became just the third school in 1-A history to produce freshmen 1,000 yard rushers in back-to-back seasons. Darren Evans preceded Williams by running for 1,265 yards last season. The other schools are TCU (Lonta Hobbs in 2002 and Robert Merrill in 2003) and Nevada (Chance Kretschmer in 2001 and Matt Milton in 2002). Williams is on the verge of breaking a couple of freshman rushing records at Tech. Two more touchdown runs will break Darren Evans' freshman mark of 11 rushing touchdowns. Evans also has the freshman record for rushing yards with 1,265, and Williams should have no trouble breaking that in the next couple of games. With three games left in the regular season, plus the bowl, Williams also has an excellent chance to finish near the top of Virginia Tech's single season list. He has already had the 11th best single season in Tech history.
With his current average of 123 yards per game multiplied by four (three regular season games, plus the bowl), Williams will add 492 yards to his already impressive rushing total by the end of the season. That would give him a total of 1,601 yards at the end of his freshman season. That would be the second best single-season mark in Virginia Tech history, only behind Kevin Jones' 1,647 yards in 2003. How much of a chance does Williams have to break that record? Let's take a quick look at the rushing defenses that he'll be facing in the last three weeks of the regular season.
Williams won't be facing any outstanding rushing defense from here on out. Even NC State, which has decent defensive stats, isn't as good as the numbers indicate. Their stats were padded by facing two 1-AA opponents early in the season. They have had injuries in the front seven, and they were shredded on the ground in their most recent game against Florida State. If Williams continues to average 123 yards per game for the remainder of the season, he will finish the regular season with 1,478 yards. That would make him just the third player in school history to run for over 1,400 yards in a single season, and he's still have the bowl game remaining to pad his stats. It's still much too early to try and project the career of Ryan Williams. Darren Evans will be back next season, and the two will have to share carries. There could be injuries. Or Williams could leave early for the NFL at some point. But he is in the middle of having one of the best seasons in school history. There's only one thing for us to do at this point: sit back and watch the yardage pile up.
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Virginia Tech
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Back-to-back
losses have put Atlantic's (Delray Beach, FL) playoff prospects in
jeopardy, but hope remains heading into Friday night's contest
against Palm Beach Central.
The
Hokies got back to Virginia Tech football on Thursday night,
controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball in a
16-3 win at East Carolina. Tech had over 200 yards of total offense
at halftime, then spent the fourth quarter running out the clock.
Ryan Williams finished with a career high 179 rushing yards, and
with their sixth win of the year the Hokies are bowl eligible for
the 17th consecutive season. Tech is now 6-3 on the season, and East
Carolina dropped to 5-4.
E.L.
Smiling turned in a solid performance last season as a junior,
hauling in 24 receptions for 391 yards and five touchdowns on the
year. The 6-3, 185-pound Virginia Tech recruit has about 30
receptions in nine games in 2009, but he is also showing well on the
defensive side of the ball.
Having
earned double-digit written scholarship offers two months into his
junior year, Dominique Terrell has already become one of the
most highly recruited juniors in the state of Virginia. Osbourn
Park's (Manassas, VA) 5-10, 170-pound star athlete is not getting
caught up in the recruiting process, something that impresses his
head coach.
Well
over a year since he initially pledged to Virginia Tech, Cannon
School (Concord, N.C.) guard/forward Jarell Eddie is primed
to sign a letter of intent with his future school. The 6-7 senior
has never wavered in his commitment, but putting an official stamp
on his decision will be an exciting moment.
I
am an optimist, but it is difficult to find a lot of positives in
that loss to UNC. The Hokies were beaten at the line of scrimmage on
both sides of the ball. And the Tar Heels did it by beating Tech at
their own game - they were more physical, they were tougher, and
they were more consistent. The result was a surprising and rare
Thursday night home loss to a team that had been winless in the ACC
on the season. The Hokies need to get it figured out quickly because
a once promising season now sits on the brink.
You
don't need me to tell you how far the Hokies have fallen in just two
weeks. When the sun rose the morning of October 11th, the day after
the Boston College game, the Hokies were ranked #4 and all things
seemed possible. Two games later, we have a completely different
view of this team, which has fallen out of the national championship
race, out of the ACC championship race, and almost out of the
rankings.
With
only the month of November remaining, there are still a lot of
questions to be answered in the ACC. The Atlantic Division is still
up for grabs. There are five teams in that division with either two
or three conference losses. In the Coastal, Georgia Tech and Duke
(yes, Duke) sit atop the standings with just one loss in ACC play.