In one of our few decent "buys" thus far, Virginia Tech nibbled away at a fierce NC State team Sunday until Amato's FSU clones said uncle, with Tech looking like the rock steady Hokies product Beamer and his coaching staff crank out yearly. (It's a source of comfort when you watch a Virginia Tech game, their consistency; there's the run on first down, there's Jenkins, resting comfortably on Beamer's neck, whispering special teams advice; there's the boot pass to the tight end, there's the third down call where they tell someone named Vick to "go out there and make something happen, there's Bud Foster chewing at his mouthpiece and twiddling with his mustache.)
Some dude named Vick runs for a first down. As constant as the tides...
Mexico the Younger looked like a better passer than his brother did at this point in his development; he's got touch, and the watershed play of the game came on a beautiful corner pocket toss to the endzone. The D's the same--their line ran through blocks like crazed hedgehogs, and defensive tackle Tim Sandidge was flat-out causing problems for the Wolfpack line. The special teams are the same, and kept the Wolfpack working against the numbers for most of the game.
Same year. Same shit. Nothing wrong with that in Blacksburg. Let's not totally crap on NC State here, though; they've got a qb in Jay Davis, which means they're going to be twice as good as last year automatically, and Marc Trestman's offense didn't look as flubby as we thought it might. In fact, they racked up 438 yards on the Hokies in a frustrating bend-no-break match with the Hokies' D. The D looked good, too--they just didn't catch Vick on a crucial handful of plays, especially a dazzling run in the third when Vick jiggled and jaggled his way out of two sure sacks and teleported twenty yards down the field through a stunned throng of Wolfpack goons.
(Readers request: anyone else see the Hokies run the five wide, four WR cluster formation straight out of Varsity Blues? The Oompty-oomp, or what will hereby now be known as the Vanderbeek formation? Now that's sophistication. We kept waiting for Beamer to morph into JonVoight and put his white running back in for the red zone runs.)
Marcus! Oompty-oomp on three!