Virginia Tech finally gets it right on third trip to Atlanta
On their third try, Tyrod Taylor and Virginia Tech finally won a football game in Atlanta on Thursday.
Having lost to Alabama in its season opener in the Georgia Dome, then returning here following a five-game winning streak, only to get dropped this time by Georgia Tech, it’s safe to assume that whole burning Atlanta thing must have passed through somebody’s head at Virginia Tech. If not several heads.
But alas, the Chamber of Commerce can breathe easier today. They didn’t lose Blacksburg.
“If we lost tonight, we weren’t coming back,” coach Frank Beamer cracked.
Gaining some measure of superiority for the ACC over the SEC — at least for one night — Virginia Tech belted Tennessee, 37-14, in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. The result accomplished two things: 1) It will keep Tennessee out of the top-25 rankings, thereby minimizing any gloating by coach Lane Kiffin (hey, go with it); 2) It almost certainly will push Virginia Tech (10-3) into a top 10 finish. Beamer can only imagine what might’ve been this season, if Hartsfield Airport hadn’t been such a gateway to Hades for them.
It’s a wonder Virginia Tech didn’t pass on the invitation to return to Atlanta. The Hokies basically were eliminated from the national championship race in the season opener when they lost to Alabama, 34-24, in the Georgia Dome. They won their next five, but then came back to Atlanta and lost to Georgia Tech, 28-23.
Equally surprising was that when Virginia Tech accepted the bid, their fans didn’t mind coming back. The school’s allotment of 17,500 tickets disappeared in like seven seconds. When you consider the number that came down for the Alabama game and the small allotment that sold for the Georgia Tech game, bowl president Gary Stokan estimates 53,000 fans traveled to Atlanta this season.
“People thought we were crazy for inviting them back,” Stokan said.
Actually, it’s stunning how popular this game has become. This was the 13th straight sellout. Next year’s Chick-fil-A Bowl somehow is already only 3,000 tickets short of a sellout, and the teams haven’t even been announced yet.
Think about it. If Stokan was really evil, he could pit Vanderbilt against Duke next year just for chuckles. Of course, then he’d probably be out of a job. Or a sponsor.
This bowl has come a long way since its days as the Peach Bowl in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. One miserable reminder: The 1985 game between Army and Illinois was played in rain and mud and conditions so dreadful that even Dick Bestwick, then the Peach Bowl’s executive director, said: “The bowl can’t exist status quo. If things go as they have, I would question its reason for existence.” And he was the guy who was selling the thing.
Its current incarnation might be the greatest remainder of what the college bowl season used to be about: Good teams. Intriguing match-ups. Happy and content fans who viewed college football’s post-season as a reward, not an aggravating and illogical exercise in futility (read: BCS).
Virginia Tech? Sure, they’d come back. Georgia fans watched what they’re missing: Bud Foster’s defense. The Hokies held the Vols to five yards rushing, 240 total yards and shut them out in the second half. They also sacked Jonathan Crompton six times.
Tech jumped to a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter on two touchdown runs set by freshman Ryan Williams (one set up by an interception). Tennessee scored the next two touchdowns to tie it. The first on a four-yard touchdown run by Montario Hardesty, which capped an 80-yard drive. The second was a two-yard pass from Crompton to Denarius Moore.
Noteworthy about the second touchdown is it was set up by an interception by Janzen Jackson, a member of Tennessee’s Convenience Store Holdup Trio. Two other players were kicked off the team. Jackson was reinstated, I think because Kiffin determined he believed they were just going to an after-hours library.
Back to the game: The turning point came immediately following the Vols’ second touchdown. Virginia Tech began a possession with 18 seconds left in the half. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor completed a 63-yard pass to split end Jarrett Boykin to the Vols’ 4-yard-line. The clock ticked down to zero. All of the Tennessee players left the field. But officials put two seconds back on the clock after checking replays, and the Vols were forced to come back out and watch Virginia Tech kick a gimme field goal, making it 17-14.
That was it. Virginia Tech scored 20 consecutive points in the second half. Suddenly, Atlanta wasn’t such a bad place.
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259 comments Add your comment
Pro baseball player
January 1st, 2010
3:12 am
I have never used steroids
What a decade
January 1st, 2010
3:16 am
Man does anyone else remember the stooooopid Y2K bs.
Now the mess with Tiger. What an end to a decade. 9/11. Steroids. Crazy stuff man. Well I hope I am around for the next 10 years and Jeff becomes more of a moderate and not so left wing with his politics. You’d think with all his Rush bashing, he’s wish him well. I mean, aren’t the libs suppose to be all sympathetic and all? LOL
My name is mud
January 1st, 2010
3:18 am
Does anyone know if the new Pearl Jam album is worth downloading?
I will give uga this
January 1st, 2010
3:20 am
u have never lost to the crappy big 10.
Hairy Dawg
January 1st, 2010
3:20 am
The ACC is like winning a Little Leagues kiddie title. The whole confrence aint no good and everyone knowing that. Dawgs destoyed ACC chumps who is nerdies. Pesky nats couldnt beat Miami and they stunk up joints in bowls. ACC had luck to draws Vols and that sorry arrogants named Lame Kiffins. All other SEC teams can unload a whooping can on any ACC to start a beating down.
Just remeber nerds, 30 – 24! Haha!
SEC dieHARD LONGers
January 1st, 2010
3:26 am
They are showing the game again( replay) on espn. Enjoy watching your top team get crushed! Maybe this version you wil win. Heeeeee Haaaaaaa
Hairy Dawg
January 1st, 2010
3:26 am
Paul Jonhson is nothing byt a pompist blow hard. Teams have figured out his gadgets and that screwballs offenses. He knows about as much about football as the nerdies at that nats school. Iowas is goning to exposes the nerdie bugs and show that Johnson is an an empty airbag like a football is to.
Reality
January 1st, 2010
3:27 am
Good grief. Anyone reading the posts from uga folks can see the clear difference in quality of people….. I mean, read this last post from “Hairy Dawg”! What a great representation of uga people!
The ACC is 2-0 against the SEC in bowl games. That is a fact. Deal with it.
Rather than talking smack about Tech or the ACC, I would think that you guys would be focusing and in a panic over getting someone – ANYONE – to coach your d.
Eddie Vedder
January 1st, 2010
3:36 am
Once upon a time the sec could beat the acc in their bowl games
Eddie Vedder
January 1st, 2010
3:38 am
Once upon a time
We never worried about beating GT! Now it’s all we focus on. So much for worrying about the tough unstoppable SEC!! Once once…a uga retard could control himself…
Stone Gossard
January 1st, 2010
3:48 am
Well Eddie, them sec teams have some tough’ens left with E Care e line a and North West ern. Let’s not 4get the mighty Uconn. And that team with a losing record uga played in that town near the bayou? They sho do have some tough’ens.
Stone Gossard
January 1st, 2010
3:49 am
Oh and yeah that team outta Austin..the one that barely beat Nebraska and beat A&m by 10, well darn, they ain’t no good. We need a playoff Eddie.
Eddie Vedder
January 1st, 2010
3:51 am
I know. But too many people, especially down here, don’t wan’t it. They like those bowl games in the sec so they can beat up on inferior oponents and lose to quality oponents.
Mike McCreadry
January 1st, 2010
4:00 am
It’s a bobby bowden man. A dad gum toss-up. The sec gets their elite because they win the big games and play that easy schedule. Look out for Washington baby! And that acc…the tide turns. Just as some teams that ruled in the 90’s sucked in the 2000’s, we’ll as Arnold said “I’ll be back”
Now where is my gee tar.
Ahhhh
January 1st, 2010
4:02 am
It’s nice to be a part of the best 25 years of music
1980-2005
SOGADOG
January 1st, 2010
4:08 am
CMR and Damon Evans have failed to hire Foster and Chavis, both of whom would make excellent DCs. They missed out on Koenning and Smart obviously rejected the job since we are pitching offers to Foster and Chavis. They missed out on their top four picks. Based on Foster and Chavis’ comments, they were interested, but UGA let LSU and Va Tech out bid them. To the folks in Athens: STOP DILLY DALLYING AROUND GET ON THE PHONE AND MAKE CHAVIS AN OFFER HE CANT REFUSE! THIS HIRE IS TOO IMPORTANT TO NICKLE AND DIME. DO WHAT IT TAKES TO GET THE COACH YOU WANT AND DONT LET THESE OTHER SCHOOLS OUT BID YOU! a large investment in a quality DC will pay off in the long run.
Congrats Va Tech, I love to see Kiffin get his tail whipped.
Hairy Dawg
January 1st, 2010
4:20 am
We needs to hire a quality DC, and we should take run at Monty Kiffin. He don’t wants to keep be embarassed coaching for Vols and his arrogants son the Lame ones.
Ahhhh
January 1st, 2010
4:26 am
Poor uga still think that they belong(rem) in that top echlon of teams. sorry dawgies but you never got the invite. maybe if ya beat the gators once every two years we’d let ya in. have fun with your brand KNEW qb this season. another 7-6 or 8-5 is on the horizon. just pray u play a 6 loss big 12 team again in 2010. we stillllll remember how much trash u talked re: joe cox and how he would take u to the promise land…LOL
Sports Objective » NCAAF Bowl thoughts et al…
January 1st, 2010
4:27 am
[...] Virginia Tech occasioned to assert itself, while it appeared not having to exert itself, it brings to question why is the 2nd best team in [...]
Reality
January 1st, 2010
5:08 am
I don’t really hate uga in and of itself. I have grown to hate the loud-mouthed fans that bark as if they have anything at all to do with play on the field. I have grown to hate the uga fans that taunt other fans. I have grown to hate the totally uneducated fans of uga (even if they did graduate from that place).
I am so very glad that they now taste crow and will seemingly be on that diet for quiet a few years. Maybe they will learn a little humility from this. Maybe they will learn to lose (and win) with class. Then again, maybe pigs will learn to fly…..
Virginia Tech finally gets it right on third trip to Atlanta … 3rd sense
January 1st, 2010
7:16 am
[...] See original here: Virginia Tech finally gets it right on third trip to Atlanta … [...]
bigdawg88
January 1st, 2010
7:27 am
Man, I tried to pull for tenn (SEC), but my heart just wasn’t in it. Lame kiffin has made tenn worse than fl now. I’m glad they got spanked, especially since i live in E Tenn and I get to watch the VT folks talk smack to all the vol fans at work monday!
You acc guys shouldn’t brag too much since it was the #2 & #3 acc teams paired against the #5 & #8 sec teams. And we know how the #1 team fared against the #6 Dawgs (30-24!).
Still, Lame embarrassed ut and the sec with that showing. ut loses a lot of seniors this year too so they’ll probably be rebuilding for a couple of years. Let’s see if the ut fans gives kiffin a pass if they have a losing season. Doesn’t take long to get those East Tenn folks riled up!
Go Acc
January 1st, 2010
7:29 am
Congrats to VT on the beatdown of Tenn. It looks like the ACC isn’t so bad afterall. Yes, Alabama and UF are very good, but it’s now been proven that the ACC can compete with the remaining teams in the SEC. GT will prove on Tues how the ACC Champion can dominate a Big Ten team. Go ACC and Go Jackets!!
Reality
January 1st, 2010
8:10 am
All those taunts, they always remind me that I was always the first one out in dodge ball.
Watch out Reality, watch out!!!!!!!!!
hop
January 1st, 2010
8:10 am
YES,GO ACC you are right you guys (acc) cannot compete with the top two teams in the sec alabama and florida.
the last four games with the sec in the peach bowl you guys lost and you finally won a game last night to a 7-6 tennessee team.
georgia beat your champion and south carolina beat your second best team in the acc clemson, who beat a 7-6 kentucky team.
two wins over bottom feeders does not equate to years of dominance by the sec.
yes the sec, if they win the national championship this year will have won for four plus years.
when was the last time the acc won the national championship so long no one can remember and you dummies think you are on the same level with the SEC. WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU GUYS SMOKING?
you guys are not even close to the SEC. you need to stick with basketball until you can play with the big boys!
Gt4ever
January 1st, 2010
8:17 am
Hairy Dawg, come on NOBODY could be that stupid…… Well, maybe a few dawg fans…. Nobody believes your a dawg fan, but good try!
Gt4ever
January 1st, 2010
8:18 am
BTW, The SEC SUX, especially UGA! Go Jackets and THWG!
jource sourcer
January 1st, 2010
8:25 am
Enter your comments here
JB
January 1st, 2010
8:26 am
That beat down couldn’t have happened to a finer punk… I mean coach.
What’s better is that they lose a ton of starters and have a brutal schedule. Bank on another mediocre year, at best.
HBTD!!!
Topp Dogg
January 1st, 2010
8:39 am
Christy stand on your head i want to see if i reconize you, whos your daddy girl?
Mr. Kiffin
January 1st, 2010
8:45 am
If you no class fans don’t get off my ass I’ll resign from these hillbillies which will create a very large hole in quality and intelligent college coaching. Y’all need me more than I need you so show a little respect or I’m gone from you!
head to head
January 1st, 2010
8:47 am
2-0 Always Competitive Conf vs the Slightly Educated Conf….the best way for the ACC to improve bowl image…just schedule more sec….simple!
georgiadawgg
January 1st, 2010
9:00 am
For me i am glad the UT pukes lost. Scum bags.
Dick Nixon
January 1st, 2010
9:02 am
ACC sucks at football and I know, I went to Duke. Hey I root for anybody that will beat that jerk in Knoxville. Real men don’t wear orange. Heckfire, a psycho druggie couch at Florida. Two pathological liars at Alabama and Arkansas. A cheator at Auburn (only way they ever won)Best assemblage of men since Erlichman, Liddy and Cheney!!!!
Allen
January 1st, 2010
9:07 am
Another overrated SEC team. As usual, SEC fans get let down by inflated views of their own teams. The Mountain West conference is 4-0 in bowl games, Big East is 2-0…..mighty SEC is 1-2.
YankeeJacket
January 1st, 2010
9:25 am
I will admit that the SEC is # 1 in at least one thing. No one, and I mean no one has more arrogant, obnoxious and bigoted fans. Hundreds of you think you know more than your overpaid coaches.
YankeeJacket
January 1st, 2010
9:26 am
And when reason or logic don’t work they start the ignorant name calling!
SEC FANATIC
January 1st, 2010
9:32 am
It’s great to see that punk Kiffin get BLOWN OUT. Normally, I root for every SEC team in the bowl games but Kiffin is bad for College football and bad for our league. He’s classless as witnessed by his many statements and doesn’t have a clue about the rules. Even Daddy couldn’t help him in the Chicken Bowl. This game was just a preview of Vol ball in 2010 when they go 5-7!! Then the NCAA will come caliing…
» SEC links: A rocky drop for Tennessee in Chick-fil-A John Clay’s Sidelines
January 1st, 2010
9:33 am
[...] Jeff Schultz of the AJC writes on Virginia Tech’s decisive victory over the Vols. [...]
Ted Striker
January 1st, 2010
9:35 am
Entertaining game. Glad to see Beamer get a win in Atlanta.
Changing subjects, am I the only one thinking Adam James of Texas Tech doesn’t care TT’s “acting offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley” is now giving him his “support” or not? After Riley essentially called him little more than a bum on scholarship to school administrators, now Riley’s flopped over to being “supportive of James” (?) — even though he’s not sure if he wants James back next year or not?
I’m not saying it’s likely Adam James will be back on Texas Tech’s roster next year. But his return is at least as likely as ole slick Riley, bona fide Leach supporter.
Go Acc
January 1st, 2010
9:37 am
hop is a UGA fan. UGA is an SEC top tier wannabe…funny UGA is probably the 5th best program in the East behind FL, TN, SC and KY. So the 2nd best team in the ACC rolled the 3rd best team in the SEC which mauled the mighty Dawgs. Do’nt see your logic Hoppy.
Ten-a-sissy Fan Here .........
January 1st, 2010
9:38 am
We wear orange jumpsuits because we pick up trash on the side of the road Sun. -.Fri.
We then have enough loyal followers to fill up Neyland Stadium to root on Lame and our thug throng on given Sat. nights , then we return back behind bars until allowed back with orange trash bags on the roadways.
Weare loyal Vol fans and we work hard pikkin up Colt 45 cans by the ton.
There were TONS of these cans on I – 75 between Atlanta and Knoxville last night. We look to be busy for weeks to come.
Wewere EMBARRESED last night ,lost to a weak Va. Tech team, then lost Eric Berry too.
Coach Lame is our man. Told the Vol Nation to keep drinking that damn Colt 45 , though.
Wish he had to pick up all those damn cans like the other 100,000 of us do.
The way he is going, he looks like he is about to join us.
YELLOW FUZZ
January 1st, 2010
9:43 am
I would LOVE to bend over and help pick up those cans!!!
FLA DAWG
January 1st, 2010
9:49 am
Congrats Hokies!
I usually pull for an SEC Team except for Florida or UT. UT once again loses outside the conference. This time by a 20 point BLOWOUT. UT has the talent on the field. What happened to the Defense?
Barkin'Dog
January 1st, 2010
9:50 am
I, for one, am pretty impressed with the ACC this season. ACC fans have every right to be proud of their conference, and GT fans deserve their trip to the Orange. And I hope, as a Georgia resident, they clobber Iowa (and keep Big 10 fans in their place). But, to say the ACC is superior to the SEC is out of line, and everyone knows it (including reasonable ACC fans). ESPN wouldn’t have paid the SEC $12 Billion for broadcast rights if their was a better conference. If I was an ACC fan, I’d be a little jealous of that, but I don’t think I’d be stupid enough to argue superiority. The SEC has dominated all conferences in the regular seasons and bowls for almost two decades. And I think that will be reflected agin this season, when it’s all said and done.
Now, about some Dawg fans, like Hairy Dawg. There’s no doubt, to me, that he/she is a devout fan. But, there’s little doubt this person ever sniffed a college class, especially English. And, boy, you need to back off the booze if you’re going to make any sense about your views. As a fan of these blogs, it gets frustrating trying to sort threw the tons of garbage to find a few insightful comments about college football. Thanks for the opportunity to vent.
Now, congrats to VA Tech for their huge win on prime time TV. Congrats to the ACC for their showing this season (looking better than the PAC 10, Big 10, and maybe the Big 12), and good luck to the rest of the fans who are waiting to see their teams play, Happy New Year to ALL… and GO DAWGS! Get our next DC soon, get Murray ready, and let’s kick some tail in 2010.
athensdawg
January 1st, 2010
9:54 am
as usual, the ACC (a.k.a. Tech fans in hiding) are grasping for whatever they can get.
“we beat kentucky and tennesee…nanny nanny boo boo, stick your head in doo doo…”
weenies. go back to your world of warcraft.
sure Va Tech beat UT….oh, and Clempson beats UK. oh my…the SEC is falling apart.
Let’s follow that arguement a bit further….
SEC Champion Alabama beats VPI…but VPI didn’t make the ACC championship game. Who did?
Who are the best team(s) in your league this year?
ACC Champion GT gets pounded by UGA.
ACC Runner up Clempson gets pounded by USC.
UGA beat USC….so by the logic of the ACC fans, UGA should be playing in the Orange Bowl because it is the best team in the ACC.
let’s face the facts. the TWO BEST TEAMS IN YOUR LEAGUE got pounded by two mediocre SEC schools – one that played in shreveport, and another which didn’t even get invited to a bowl.
When your CONFERENCE CHAMPION is playing for the NATIONAL TITLE on a consistent basis, then we can talk about dominance.
go play basketball boys…..it’s what you do best.
jay
January 1st, 2010
9:55 am
Gary Stokan would be out of a job, not a sponsor, if he were to Schedule Duke against Vandy in next year’s Chick-fil-A Bowl.
And, it should be “Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl”.
But the bowl was “bought” outright by Chick-fil-A from the Atlanta Sports Council.
Gary Stokan is president of the Sports Council and the Chick-fil-A Bowl Committee.
A definite conflict of interest that sold Atlanta’s identity with the game.
1eyedJack
January 1st, 2010
9:55 am
That was one SEC beatdown I didn’t mind watching. Even Smokey was embarrassed at the end of the game. And Lane, that midfield handshake at the end was just LAME.
Go Acc
January 1st, 2010
9:58 am
Let’s not forget that VT played the most likely NC Alabama pretty close in the dome. I feel the SEC is clearly the better conference, but beyond UF and AL, the conferences are fairly evenly matched.
YELLOW FUZZ
January 1st, 2010
10:07 am
I’m still waiting on the side of the road with my orange trash bag and my full view weggie