As Saturday afternoon blended into Saturday evening, huge developments caught the attention of college football fans and bloggers.
Florida pulled off the grand Houdini against Tennessee and a bewildered Butch Jones.
TCU created “The Flea Tipper” to steal one on the road in Lubbock against Texas Tech and Kliff Kingsbury.
Oklahoma State escaped Texas after some controversial calls, a coach’s justified anger at the officials, and another Longhorn kicking-game gaffe.
While these late-afternoon games ran their course, however, another game meandered from its innocent beginning to its final result. It’s a game whose result might have garnered more publicity on other Saturdays, but not on a news-heavy day in which the afternoon crackled.
Now that the dust has settled, let’s be sure to include this contest in our review of week four at The Student Section. It’s the kind of result which leaves you to wonder, “Does this say more about the winning program or the losing one?”
Let’s see what you think after digesting the information and context provided below:
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The East Carolina Pirates always treat the Virginia Tech game on their schedule as a Super Bowl. No one will contest this. It’s a regional rivalry in which ECU is cast in the role of little brother, being from the smaller conference and lacking the reputation or stature of Virginia Tech. The Hokies have been a national runner-up, Sugar Bowl champion, and BCS bowl champion (in the 2009 Orange Bowl over Cincinnati) under current head coach Frank Beamer, a legend of the sport.
Yes, it’s also true that East Carolina got Virginia Tech last year in Blacksburg, immediately discarding the idea that a Hokie renaissance was at hand following the team’s upset of Ohio State in Columbus. However, that win was achieved with Shane Carden — one of the best passers in ECU history — and the offensive coordinator he trusted, Lincoln Riley. Carden ran out of eligibility, and Riley ran to Norman, Oklahoma, to coach the Sooners’ offense under Bob Stoops.
Then, late in the offseason, projected opening-day starting quarterback Kurt Benkert got injured for the season. New offensive coordinator Dave Nichol (the man on the left in the cover photo, above) faced a very tough task in helping head coach Ruffin McNeill (in the center of the above photo) to re-develop the offense. Working with backup Blake Kemp — a young man thrust into an extremely difficult situation — was creating predictably limited results.
Something needed to change.
Nichol and McNeill found James Summers, a running quarterback. They used him as the team’s primary offensive engine against Tech and Bud Foster, one of the five best defensive coordinators in all of college football.
The Pirates roared. Summers rushed for 169 yards and created three touchdowns in one way or another (rushing and passing combined). Virginia Tech’s defense didn’t tackle well, and the rest — as they say — is history.
So were the Hokies.
East Carolina was pushed around by Navy a week earlier, and while Navy is a good team, Virginia Tech isn’t chopped liver. The Hokies gave Ohio State a game for nearly three full quarters on opening night. Were the Hokies — mindful of last year’s loss on home turf — really going to lose to ECU in consecutive years? Virginia Tech has a lot to prove this season; surely, Beamer and his staff were going to have their players ready to meet any challenge the Pirates provided… right?
Nope.
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In some ways, this game mirrors (albeit in a non-conference context) the Georgia Tech-Duke result from Saturday.
McNeill won’t reach the high ceilings Virginia Tech has been able to touch at times over the years. Beamer, though with reason to be concerned about how long he can continue to coach (his tenure is running out of steam at the moment; only after a big win or three will that perception change), owns a legacy which is secure. This doesn’t diminish Beamer’s overall historical record.
ECU, given its pay grade as a program, profoundly affirmed everything good about its reputation in larger college football circles with this victory, much as Duke did against Georgia Tech. As for the losing school from the ACC (one with a Tech to its name), the substandard result shows how elusive high-level consistency has been over the past few years.
Yet, this certainly isn’t a Duke-Georgia Tech clone.
This has to make Virginia Tech fans sick with worry:
#Hokies allowing 5.5 yards per rush, 118th nationally. Only power five team worse is Texas Tech at 5.6.
— David Teel (@ByDavidTeel) September 28, 2015
It’s hardly a unanimous feeling in and around the Virginia Tech program, but you’ll certainly find a solid percent of Hokie fans and followers who think Bud Foster should take over for Beamer and get his chance to run the program. (I’ve personally felt this makes the most sense in Blacksburg.) Yet, when you see that defensive statistic above — even if the Hokies are likely to correct it in due time — it makes you wonder (just a little) if Foster is the right guy for the job.
Virginia Tech’s problems were supposed to reside mainly on offense this season, not defense. This is an alarming plot twist — maybe not completely out of the blue, but certainly more pronounced than many national observers are conditioned to expect. ECU beat Virginia Tech one way last year, and then a very different way this year.
Ruffin McNeill outcoaching Frank Beamer two straight years? It gives one pause in ACC country. It should make East Carolina fans deeply satisfied about the traction their program has been able to establish.
Don’t forget this story when looking back on week four. It was a weekend when September gave college football fans too much to think about.
Virginia Tech’s coaching staff has too much to think about this week, it would seem.
