UPDATE – Tech driving again and it is time to head downstairs to gather some quotes. Thanks for staying with us, check back later for a full report.
UPDATE – Looks like Ryan Williams’ day is done, since David Wilson was in for the Hokies’ recent possession. A nice day it was – four touchdowns, 120 yards. So he’s up to 16 touchdowns on the season and 1,355 yards. It once seemed a joke to suggest he could get to 1,647 yards (Kevin Jones’ single-season record set in 2003) but is it? Only two games left – one huge game (and he’s had some) puts him in reach. It isn’t likely to happen but I wouldn’t rule it out, either. Tyrod Taylor has completed eight passes, with Boykin on the other end of six of those.
UPDATE – Forget the argument about Virginia Tech’s MVP for the season. Who is today’s MVP? We talked about Cody Grimm earlier and then Ryan Williams. What about Jarrett Boykin? The Hokies’ latest touchdow came on a nice catch by Boykin and gave him a career-best 164 yards receiving on the day. So throw him in the mix. Of course, Tyrod Taylor has to be considered. He’s the one throwing those passes. Thirde quarter about done here and Tech is up 38-10. We might not see the starters in the fourth quarter.
UPDATE – Ryan Williams is up to four touchdowns on the day and, on the most recent, he dragged at least one N.C. State defender about 10 yards into the end zone. So that’s 16 for the season. Then VT recovered ANOTHER fumble, so the Hokies are on the move again with a 31-10 lead. Far from over but it is looking like the only suspense left is what Williams’ numbers will look like at day’s end.
NUMBERS UPDATE – VT has 187 yards, N.C. State has 148. It has 126 in the air as Russell Wilson is 6-9 passing. Ryan Williams’ three TDs are the big number. He won’t match Lee Suggs’ record of 28 but he’s up to 15 on the season now and has a realistic chance of moving into fourth – where Branden Ore now sits with 17 scores. Suggs is also second with 22 and Kevin Jones had a 21-touchdown season in 2003. The Hokies have 10 quarters left: 2 today, 4 next Saturday at Virginia and 4 in a bowl game somewhere (my money remains on the Gator Bowl). How many touchdowns can he get?
UPDATE – It’s 24-10 Hokies at the break and they’ll get the ball back to start the second half. Ryan Williams has three touchdowns and is well on his way to his eighth 100-yard game of the season. His latest touchdown was the conclusion of a drive that featured a highlight reel catch by Jarrett Boykin. It wasn’t such a great half for another VT receiver, Dyrell Roberts, who dropped two balls that were right in his hands. On one, Tyrod Taylor threw it about 60 yards in the air and could not have hit Roberts in a better spot. Hey, it happens. So to recap: Williams has three touchdowns and Cody Grimm has three forced fumbles. We’ll be back with some numbers later.
UPDATE – Lots of fumbles today. Ryan Williams just lost one for the Hokies. Ball has been in the ground four times now, with the other team recovering three. That’s just the second lost fumble on a rush this season by Williams. He coughed up a punt in the season-opener against Alabama.
UPDATE – Ryan Williams now has 14 touchdowns on the season and, we’re told, a school AND ACC freshman rushing record. He should be at 1,269 for the season – four more than Darren Evans had last season. He got into the end zone twice, but the first one was overruled on an official’s review. Correctly we might add, after seeing the replay. His knee was down before he lunged over the goal line. No matter, he made up for it on the next playa nd it’s now 17-7 Tech. Williams? Grimm? Williams? Grimm?
UPDATE – When it holds onto the ball, N.C. State’s offense is pretty good. The Wolfpack zipped down the field, covering 81 yards in 5:28. Russell Wilson found a wide-open Owen Spencer in the middle of the field for an easy 20-yard touchdown. Also, it was just announced that Cody Grimm’s three forced fumbles tie an NCAA record shared by seven others. One more for the record. Grimm? Williams? Grimm? Williams?
UPDATE – Cody Grimm did it AGAIN on N.C. State’s first play. Watch the replay. Nekos Brown got the first hit but Grimm came in and used his arm to knock the ball free. This time, State recovered the ball. So I’m not sure that counts as an official forced fumble.
UPDATE – Ryan Williams wants back in that MVP conversation. He scored his 13th touchdown of the season, a school record for freshmen, that gave the Hokies a 10-0 lead. Let’s see how long it takes Cody Grimm to force another fumble. Williams needed only 31 yards today to set a freshman mark for yards in a season. He currently has 28. Williams? Grimm? Williams? Grimm?
UPDATE – Make that six forced fumbles. Cody Grimm just forced another one, recovered by Stephan Virgil and now Tech is starting on the N.C. State 25. Hokies are up 3-0 after a Matt Waldron field goal on their previous drive. N.C. State has now run three plays and fumbled it away twice, both fumbles being forced by Mr. Grimm.
UPDATE – Let’s just throw a thought out there early. You can make a case for a number of players for Virginia Tech’s MVP. Most likely choice is redshirt freshman tailback Ryan Williams, who is setting all kinds of records for his class. Don’t sleep on senior outside linebacker Cody Grimm, who is having an All-ACC season. He laid a hit on N.C. State’s Russell Wilson on the game’s first play that led to a fumble, recovered by the Hokies, and now Tech is driving. Grimm leads the team in tackles and he’s now forced five fumbles. By any measure, he’s had a monster year.
UPDATE – Let’s get this coin toss underway. Really, does anything else matter? Hokie seniors, honored earlier, just came ontot he field en masse. Maybe such a large group can find a winning combination in the heads-tails game. Amidst all the noise of Enter Sandman and the entrance of the entire time, the toss was made. HOKIES WIN! HOKIES WIN! The place went nuts when it was announced the Hokies won. Of course, the decision was deferred to the second half. Too bad. I was pulling for an 0-12 season on coin tosses.
BLACKSBURG – Welcome to another brilliant fall Saturday at Virginia Tech. Other than a couple of rainy afternoons, the Hokies have done a marvelous job controlling the weather this season. It’s a sweatshirt kind of day. Lots of blue sky and plenty of sun as fans file into Lane Stadium for the final home game of the season. Hard to believe how fast this season has seemed to go.
Both squads are on the field going through their pre-game paces. N.C. State, led by former Boston College coach Tom O’Brien, has given up 309 points in 10 games. That’s more than any other team in the ACC. State has scored 326, which ranks third. There figures to be some scoring today, whch means there probably won’t be.
Eager to see N.C. State quarterback Russell Wilson in action. The Collegiate School product was All-ACC last season as a freshman. I remember him as All-Metro quarterback for the Cougars, though I never saw him play in high school and haven’t seen him play in college yet. He’s also an accomplished baseball player and many will tell you that’s his best sport.
The teams haven’t played sicne 2005, when Tech opened its season with a win in Raleigh. That’s one of the problems with a 12-team league – the only way to play everybody is to limit teams to one non-league game per season. No one wants that. So you go a while without playing teams. Tech, for instance, played Maryland last week and won’t see the Terps again until 2013.
Last time N.C. State was in Blacksburg, it won 17-16 – the Hokies’ only ACC loss in their inaugural season in the league. Six of the past seven games in the series have been decided by four points or less.
The most interesting thing today might be the coin toss. As we’ve noted before, the Hokies are working on quite a streak. They’ve lost the toss 10 times in 10 games this season. That HAS to be some kind of record.
With a win today, the Hokies will have their 12th straight year with at least eight victories in a season.
Stay with us, we’ll post updates frequently throughout the game and then come back with a full story as quickly as we can after the game. Why wait? Read about it NOW at Virginia Sports Now.
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