It’s always important to look back at some things before looking at the game that will take place. In part 1, looking back at the words from last year. Last year, Pitt went into Lane Stadium a distinct underdog against the #3 team in the country. VT was looking for payback after taking a humiliating beating from Pitt the year before — 38-7. VT players were cocky and not afraid to say that they intended to take revenge.
“They just beat us into mercy, really,” said Randall, recalling the Panthers’ stunning shellacking of a 12th-ranked Tech club. “We were like helpless, that’s how we looked out there. We were like helpless and we couldn’t do anything about it.
“To come out there and just take a whipping was embarrassing. That’s the worst feeling … to be embarrassed playing something that you love, especially thinking that you know you’re better than that.”
Three-hundred and 64 days later, the Hokies finally get the chance to rid themselves of the stench still lingering from their Steel City stinkeroo. In a Big East date long circled in red ink on its calendar, No.3-ranked Tech (8-0, 3-0) can’t wait to see Pittsburgh (6-2, 3-0) tonight at 7:30 in Lane Stadium.
“Oh, yeah,” crowed Hokies cornerback DeAngelo Hall. “It’s payback time.”
… “I think the biggest thing was nobody played to win that game,” Tech center Jake Grove said. “We all kind of just showed up and nobody made any big plays. Offensively, we were just dead the whole game.”
[Emphasis added.]
And it wasn’t just the players.
Last year, the Panthers handed Tech its first and most lopsided loss of the season, 38-7, and Saturday headlines all over Virginia blared “payback.”
Well, the game appeared to be going VT’s way — great special teams play. Leading 21-7. This game, though, exposed a weak VT run defense and Larry Fitzgerald had his first national showcase game.
VT players and fans shut up after that. Though some seemed shocked by what happened
“I never would have thought in a hundred years we would lose this game,” said Va. Tech tailback Lee Suggs, who gained 128 yards and scored twice.
Some VT boosters wanted to blame the officials for a penalty they didn’t like.
Trailing the Hokies 21-7 after a 56-yard scoring run by Suggs on the third play of the second half, Rutherford dropped back to throw on third and nine from his 25 but saw the pass sail through the arms of freshman wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. At the end of the play, however, Whitaker shoved wide receiver Lamar Slade out of bounds — directly in front of Beamer — and drew the 15-yard penalty that gave the Panthers an automatic first down.
“It was one of those cheap things at the end of a play,” Beamer said. “I’ve seen worse. I thought we had things under control and I thought we were getting ready to block another kick.”
Even Penn State boosters were disturbed at Pitt’s win (One of Lee’s first true blog contributions).
So, now VT comes off their biggest win. Will DeAngelo Hall (who apparently will start, despite the ejection) be talking trash like last year against Pitt, and before Miami.
DeAngelo Hall, who wasn’t afraid to say all week that this UM team wasn’t as strong as past editions, backed up his talk with a strip and 28-yard return of a fumble that put Tech ahead 7-0 early in the second quarter. Green’s 51-yard interception return made it 17-0 early in the third quarter.
So far this is the extent of the talk about Pittsburgh (it’s early) —
“Pittsburgh is a huge game for us, just as big as Miami,” Tech center Jake Grove said Sunday. “What happened to us after the Syracuse win [the WVU loss] is not going to happen again. This week is make or break. We win at Pittsburgh and we’re right back in the mix of everything.”
Essentially — we’re not going to suck like we did in Morgantown.
It does, appear that Bryan Randall will get the start, but we can expect Marcus Vick to be in the game for quite a bit.
