From now until football practice begins

From now until football practice begins, we'll be taking a once-a-week look back at some past big games in Tech football history. Hopefully we'll be able to help you rekindle some old memories, and also shed some new light on a few of the Hokies' most memorable games of the past. Today we'll go back to Thursday, October 12, 2000 when #2 Virginia Tech welcomed West Virginia to Blacksburg.

We're going try to limit ourselves to the 1990's and early 2000's. Those are the games where the details might be a bit hazy. Will has already written a TSL Analysis or a Monday Thoughts on many or all of those games, but these days we can add a little something to liven up the articles: video. Plus, it's just a fun summer activity I think.

If you've got any specific games that you'd like to see covered, let us know by shooting us an email, or posting it on our Subscribers Board.

Virginia Tech came into this game with a perfect 5-0 record and ranked #2 in the country, tied for the best ranking in school history. The Hokies were coasting along behind a dominant offense, led by quarterback Michael Vick, an outstanding backfield, one of the fastest wide receivers in college football and four senior offensive linemen. Through the first five games, the Tech offense had put up 52 points against Akron, 45 points against ECU (just 5 days after the Akron game), 49 points against Rutgers, 48 points against Boston College and 35 points against Temple. That was an average of 45.8 points per game.

The defense was young, replacing eight starters from the 1999 defense. Two of the three returning starters, Nick Sorensen and Ben Taylor, had changed positions in the offseason. Sorensen moved from free safety to whip, while Taylor moved from whip to backer. This was a very young defense that was still finding itself, and to top it off, they had lost starting cornerback Larry Austin to a torn ACL against Boston College, and true freshman Eric Green was in the starting lineup.

West Virginia entered the game with a 4-1 record, and they were confident after nearly spoiling Virginia Tech's unbeaten season the year before in Morgantown. This was a huge game. If Tech didn't impress, then #3 Kansas State was probably going to jump them in the rankings with a victory over #8 Oklahoma two days later (K-State ended up losing 41-31, their first of two losses to the Sooners that year).

It was also a big game for Michael Vick, who was struggling through the first part of the season. He was still as great a playmaker as ever with his legs, but his passing game was still a major work in progress. He entered the West Virginia game eighth in the Big East in passing efficiency. Remember, there were only eight Big East teams.

Vick's First Five Games in 2000
Opp.	Comp.	Att.	Yards	TD	INT	Sacks
Akron	7	11	182	2	1	1
ECU	9	15	106	1	0	2
Rutgers	10	18	120	1	0	3
BC	5	17	61	0	1	0
Temple	14	28	162	1	2	4
Total	45	89	631	5	4	10

That's a quarterback rating of 119.67. His previous two games against BC and Temple were awful (through the air at least … he did rush for 210 yards against BC). Vick was the most dynamic player in college football, and presented more problems for a defense than arguably any player in the history of the game. However, he was still not a good quarterback. He could certainly throw it, but he couldn't pass it particularly well. Folks were really starting to question him after those last two performances, so this was a big game on the national stage for Tech's sophomore star.

For me, this game also holds somewhat of a special significance. I was a senior in high school, and it was my first Thursday night game in Lane Stadium. It was a blast.

This game began like everyone hoped it would. West Virginia was called for holding on the opening kickoff, and the Mountaineer offense promptly went three-and-out. The Hokies took over at their own 24, and Vick completed a 23 yard pass to Andre Davis on the first play from scrimmage, then later had a 29 yard run. The drive was capped when Lee Suggs powered in from two yards out on fourth down, making the score 7-0 Hokies.

A couple of possessions later, Lee Suggs blocked a punt, and Wayne Ward recovered it at the West Virginia five yard line. The punt block, which you can see in the video on the right, was a typical Frank Beamer masterpiece of the era.

Just before the snap, Virginia Tech's outside players covering the West Virginia gunners moved inside and switched spots with the outside rush men. You can see that in the video. The late movement disrupted West Virginia's blocking schemes, and Lee Suggs came off the end for the block. The ball bounced around for a bit, Ward came up with it and stepped out of bounds at the five.

That was the beginning of a big Thursday night blowout, right? That turned out to be the case, but for the remainder of the first half, Virginia Tech made mental mistakes and unforced errors, and the WVU defense rattled quarterback Michael Vick, who played his fifth consecutive poor half of football.

Vick's first mistake came on second down and goal from the six, following the blocked punt by Lee Suggs. At this point, the Hokies were expected to power it right into the end zone and go up by two touchdowns, and the Thursday night Lane Stadium avalanche would be unleashed on the helpless Mountaineers. As it turned out, WVU wasn't ready to quit just yet.

On second down, Vick scrambled to his right and headed towards the end zone. He leapt, but was met in the air by freshman defensive back Brian King, who knocked the ball loose before it crossed the goal line. The ball bounced out of the side of the end zone for a West Virginia touchback.

It was a nice play by King, who later in his career would terrorize another VT quarterback. Bryan Randall always seemed to find King in WVU's wacky, difficult to read 3-3-5 defensive scheme used by Rich Rodriquez.

However, the turnover could have been avoided. As you'll see in the video at the right, Vick had the ball in his inside (left, in this case) arm, which is a big no-no for a ball carrier. Had the ball been in his outside (right) arm, it would have been protected by his body, and the result would likely have been a touchdown and a 14-0 Tech lead. It was a high school - check that - middle school mistake by a guy who at that point in his career was not fundamentally sound.

The Tech defense stood strong, with a nice interception by Ronyell Whitaker on a tipped pass by Eric Green. The Hokie offense took over at the WVU 26 but was stopped inside the one yard line on a fourth down play. It was the third time the Tech offense had knocked on the door, yet they only had one touchdown to show for it. It could have been 21-0 in the first quarter, with the game already decided. We could have been looking at another 62-0 Syracuse-style whipping.

In the second quarter, it was time for the special teams to start making mistakes. Andre Davis muffed a punt return, which WVU recovered at the Tech 33. That led to the Mountaineers' first touchdown of the game. The second touchdown came after a roughing the punter call kept a drive alive. The West Virginia offense couldn't score without mistakes from the Hokies, and that's exactly what they got.

Vick played poorly for most of the second quarter, overthrowing a man on a short out pattern, and then completely missing Emmett Johnson, who was wide open on a crossing route approximately 25 yards downfield. Vick finished the first half 4-of-10 for 42 yards, with a fumble inside the one.

Instead of an insurmountable 21-0 lead, the Hokies found themselves trailing 14-7 at halftime, mostly because of their own mistakes. In the first quarter, only three snaps were taken on Tech's side of the 50 by either team, yet it was only 7-0. The Hokies should have been up big.

Of course, Don Nehlen didn't feel like his team was performing particularly well in the first quarter: "We're caught up in this daggone carnival atmosphere and our kids just can't hear [the snapcount]. We're playing hard, we're just playing stupid. Maybe we'll get a little smarter as the game goes along."

Ronyell Whitaker was a darn good cornerback when he wasn't committing personal fouls or running his mouth. This game was one of his best games. He finished with two interceptions, the first of which was an assist by Eric Green.

WVU split two wide receivers to the left, with Eric Green on the outside receiver, and rover Cory Bird covering up the inside man. With no receivers to the right, Whitaker was playing in close to the line of scrimmage. Green was playing off his receiver, and at the snap Tech safety Willie Pile moved forward into short zone coverage. That made it appear to quarterback Brad Lewis that he had true freshman Eric Green isolated in man coverage.

Lewis took the bait and went deep. Instead, Ronyell Whitaker had dropped back into a deep zone. I'm not Raleigh Hokie, so I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure that this was an inverted cover-2 from Bud Foster. Whatever it was, Lewis never saw Whitaker. Green tipped the pass, and Whitaker was there to intercept it.

After that easy first touchdown and then the blocked punt, it looked like the typical Tech Thursday night avalanche was going to begin early. However, the Hokies started making mistakes, which gave WVU the 14-7 halftime lead. Tech kept their heads, and unleashed their avalanche on the Mountaineers in the third quarter.

It didn't take long, with Vick hitting tight end Bob Slowikowski for a 72 yard touchdown on a deep crossing pattern just a little over a minute in the first half. There was no deep safety on the play, Vick hit his target on the run, and Slowikowski outran the defense. It was a perfectly executed play to tie the game.

That's when Andre Davis took things over. Surely you guys remember Davis scoring three touchdowns in three different ways in the third quarter, all in the span of 6:06. He completely blew the game open.

That's a pretty respectable six minutes of football. Other than that, it was a shaky day for Davis. His muffled punt in the first half led to a WVU touchdown, he later limped off the field injured in the first half, and muffed another punt in the second half (that he recovered). Even the long touchdown pass bounced off his facemask. I wish I had shaky days like that.

The 30 yard reverse was an excellent call by offensive coordinator Rickey Bustle. WVU's defense was being aggressive all night. The flow of the play went to the right, and Lee Suggs took the pitch, but he quickly handed it off to Davis. Davis followed some key blocks, including one by Michael Vick, into the end zone.

The touchdown pass was a thing of beauty, but the one thing that really stands out is that the WVU cornerback who was lined up over Davis was playing well off the line of scrimmage. He was giving Davis a lot of cushion, yet the Tech speedster still blew right by him.

By the time Davis was finished, it was 34-14 (there was a missed extra point in there somewhere). The game had turned on a dime. The Hokies put up 235 yards of offense in that quarter, along with that 76 yard punt return. Tech did a lot of moving forward over that 15 minutes of football.

Remember how I said I liked WVU's playcalling in the first half? Not so much in the second half. Quarterback Brad Lewis was questionable for the game with a hand injury, and the Tech defense beat on him a lot in the first half. He threw it well in the first 30 minutes, but he was worn down in the second half. He even reinjured his hand at one point in the game. It was literally bruised and bleeding on the field.

Time to put in backup Scott McBrien, right? After all, McBrien had taken most of the first team reps in practice all week. Nope. It's time to call an option play with Lewis, who was naturally drilled by a hard-charging Willie Pile. A couple of drives later, the Mountaineers went with the same call to the left. It was unnecessary abuse for a guy who was already in a lot of pain, and who showed a lot of guts by fighting through his injury.

The worst decision-making of all came in the third quarter, with WVU at the Tech 40, trailing 20-14 with just over five minutes on the clock. This was still a tight game late in the quarter, and Don Nehlen made an uncharacteristic mistake for a veteran coach: he panicked.

First of all, it was obvious Nehlen considered WVU in four down territory by his third and seven call from the Tech 40 … an off tackle run off the left side by Avon Cobourne. Why call that play on third down unless you plan to go for it on fourth? Sure enough, WVU's offense stayed on the field on fourth and three from the Tech 36. This was the time where Bud Foster liked to turn up the heat.

Facing almost a 100% chance of a big Tech blitz, WVU elected to go with a slow developing pass play with an injured quarterback. Lewis took the snap and dropped back with a play-action fake. His back was facing the Tech defense the entire time, so he never knew Foster had called an all out blitz. When he completed his fake and turned around, Ben Taylor was there, and Lewis had to throw it into the dirt.

The Hokies took over on their own 36, and on the first play of their ensuing possession, Michael Vick hit Andre Davis for a 64 yard touchdown that made it 27-14. The rout was on.

Another Thursday night game, another blowout win. This was becoming a tradition. More importantly, the Hokies remained alive in the National Championship race behind a dominating offense and a rapidly improving defense. The young Tech defense held a pretty good WVU offense to just 248 yards, and the Mountaineers only scored off two special teams mistakes and a Keith Burnell garbage time fumble.

Of course, those title hopes would come crashing down a month later at Miami, but at that moment in time, the Hokies were at the top of the college football world. Well, almost.

Tech made a statement on national television against a solid team (WVU went 7-5 that year with a Music City Bowl win), and they did it with big plays. Hokie fans felt like they were on top of the world. With the exception of the end of the third quarter in the Sugar Bowl against Florida State, that Thursday night against West Virginia was arguably the high water mark of the program, from a national perspective. Some might disagree, but I can't think of a time when Tech football was viewed in a better light by the national media and college football fans in general across the country.