This win has ignited the Hokie fan base like I haven't seen in a long time, and the reasons why aren't as simple as you might think.
On the surface, it's an historic win. The Hokies beat 7-time national champion Ohio State, one of the most storied programs in college football. (I brought home a cool 3D commemorative cup celebrating Ohio State's 125 years of playing football, and the accomplishments listed on the cup are impressive: 7 national titles, 34 Big Ten championships, and 7 Heisman Trophy winners.)
Tech has never defeated a top-8 team on the road until Saturday, and it came in front of the biggest crowd in Ohio Stadium history: 107,517. It was on ESPN's Prime Time Saturday Night broadcast. For the next 24 hours, all the college football talk on ESPN was about what a dark day it was for the Big Ten, with Virginia Tech's victory over Ohio State being talked about, along with Oregon over Michigan State and Notre Dame over Michigan.
Was Ohio State missing Heisman candidate Braxton Miller? Sure. Did the Buckeyes make a lot of mistakes, miss a lot of opportunities, and generally play a good-but-not-great game? Sure. Still, the Hokies notched an impressive win with a very young team, in a very tough environment.
There was a lot to like about this game, but it goes even deeper than that. It wasn't just that the Hokies won, because they have notched big wins in the past. It was how they won. And Saturday night seems to have popped the valve on some built-up pressure, and now fans are fired up about what comes next.
Before we get started, a couple of notes: (1) I attended this game as a fan, not media. When this one appeared on the schedule, I told myself I was going as a fan, so I did, sitting in the end zone with the visiting Hokies. (2) This article isn't going to contain much, if any, analysis. That's not my strong suit, as you know, and the Interwebs are already flooded with some great, free analysis of this game, not to mention that the ESPN broadcast crew did a great job breaking down what was going on during the game.
Virginia Tech's defensive game plan and execution, plus the play of quarterback Michael Brewer, have rightly drawn all the attention in the commentary on this game. But the real reason you love this game is that it contained some keys to victory that you haven't seen in a long time, and some indications that the program has gotten things turned in the right direction and is well down the path to ridding itself of some of the demons that have plagued it in recent years.
First, let's start with the familiar.
Bud Foster's D
One of the best things about having Frank Beamer coach the Hokies for 28 years has been the privilege of watching Bud Foster do what he does. There are only a handful of offensive and defensive coordinators whose names are known by the college football world at large, and Bud Foster is one of them.
In the days leading up to the game, the national press that I listened to was respectful of Virginia Tech's program and talked about how this was going to be a tough out for the Buckeyes, and Bud Foster was the reason. Once it was announced that Braxton Miller was out for the season, this game got really interesting, because the perception, rightly so, is that Bud could make life really, really hard for inexperienced Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett.
What Virginia Tech did defensively Saturday night was fun to watch, but did any of it honestly surprise you? The Hokie defensive backs are among the very best units in the country, ranked #2 by some publications behind only the Florida State DBs, so it made sense for Bud to lean hard on his defensive backs, putting them in man coverage with no safety help for most of the game. Bud walked his guys out to the high wire, told them there was no net, gave them a shove, and said, "See you on the other side."
On the front end, as has been well-chronicled, Bud used a "double eagle" look with three down defensive linemen over the G-C-G, flanked by a couple of linebackers standing up, and then he regularly sent the house against both the run and the pass. ESPN analyst Todd Blackledge picked up on it right away, correctly analyzing the VT game plan and Ohio State's response to it: take deep shots and try to make a play.
Those deep shots worked early on, as Ohio State got a long completion on a spectacular catch by Dontre Wilson, another one on a well-thrown ball where Chuck Clark was simply beaten by the receiver, and a couple of interference penalties that helped their first touchdown drive.
But after Devin Smith beat Clark for a 58-yard catch early in the second quarter, the defensive backs settled in for the rest of the game and only had one more miscue that I recall, a short slant that Ohio State turned into a long touchdown when Brandon Facyson missed a tackle and Michael Thomas scored from 53 yards out.
Dadi Nicolas and Deon Clarke got some press yesterday for being named national defensive players of the week by 247sports (Dadi) and Walter Camp (Clarke), and their stats were impressive. But to me, the real stars of the Virginia Tech defense were Kendall Fuller, Brandon Facyson, Kyshoen Jarrett, Detrick Bonner, Donovan Riley, and yes, Chuck Clark, as well as Bud Foster. Powered by the coverage ability of his defensive backs, Bud put together a game plan that sprung Clarke and Nicolas to do what they did.
(Today, the Football Writers Association of America named Jarrett its Defensive Player of the Week a day after naming Virginia Tech their National Team of the Week.)
Bud's strategy was risky, but not surprising. He leveraged the strengths of his defense (the DBs and the defense's speed in blitz packages) and covered the weakness, a lack of bulk in the front seven, by attacking OSU at the line of scrimmage with sheer numbers.
I guess what did surprise me was Ohio State's lack of a response to Bud's strategy. There was a very interesting article in The Columbus (OH) Dispatch yesterday, in which OSU offensive coordinator Tom Herman said that Bud's defense made it difficult to run between the tackles ("It's damn near impossible" was Herman's quote), and also took away some elements of the passing game.
From the linked article:
"They were playing hard, inside-leverage man coverage," Herman said. "You can't run drags. It's hard to run slants. They're saying, 'You've got to throw it over our heads.' That's what we tried to do early and couldn't do it. We told ourselves that we've got to make our slant game work, and did a couple times. But it was too little, too late."
In other words, Bud and his players dictated to OSU how the game was going to be played, and it worked. If you want to be harsh on Tom Herman, he's also saying between the lines, "I got outcoached." I'm not smart enough to know if anything would have worked against Bud's defense, but I didn't see any screen passes or passes down the middle to the tight end.
From the middle of the second quarter on, I kept saying, "This guy (J.T. Barrett) is just waiting to make a mistake." To Barrett's credit, he didn't really become frayed around the edges until the very end, when VT sacked him six times in the fourth quarter and he finally threw the big one, a pick-six to Donovan Riley.
Overall, it was a masterfully planned game by Bud Foster, well-executed by his players, and Ohio State never had an answer.
This is nothing new. We have seen this before. Bud has shut good teams down before, as recently as the season opener against Alabama last year.
But ... next we'll look at what was different about this game, and therein lie the reasons why Hokie Nation is still going bananas about it, three days later.
Brewer and the offense
You can't sum up what Michael Brewer brings to the Virginia Tech offense with one play, but if you could, this would be the play.
I don't know what your reaction to this play was, but in the Hokie section of the end zone, it was one of jubilant disbelief. There are plays where you celebrate with excitement, and some where you celebrate while you're thinking, "Did I just see that?!?!" This was the latter. Just listen to Todd Blackledge's exclamation of "Wow! .... WOW!"
Somewhere, Bill Raftery -- wrong sport, I know -- is yelling, "Onions!"
Brewer did it again later, converting a 3rd and 9 from his own end zone early in the third quarter with a 16-yard pass to Ryan Malleck.
Brewer started this game by completing passes for first downs on 3rd and 5, 3rd and 7, 3rd and 6, and 3rd and 3 ... and he scrambled for a first down on 3rd and 9.
And this was all in the first quarter.
There's a reason why the 107,000+ plus fans at Ohio Stadium, according to some Hokie fans, weren't that loud: they kept getting quieted down by Bud Foster's defense and Michael Brewer's surgical precision on third down.
After the first quarter, Brewer converted 3rd and 17 (shown above), 3rd and 3, and 3rd and 9, all via the pass. Overall, the Hokies converted 9 of 17 on third down, but it's worth noting that they converted 8 of their first 11. Things slowed down after that.
Brewer made some mistakes. He underthrew Bucky Hodges very early in the game for an interception. He underthrew another one later in the game for an interception. He also failed to sense a rusher and gave up a fumble deep in Hokie territory that enabled Ohio State to tie the game at 21.
No problem. Brewer and the offense promptly went out and did this.
That drive got off to a little bit of a slow start, but towards the end, the playcalling and execution were brilliant: the jet sweep to Deon Newsome (nice block by Trey Edmunds), the trick play with Sam Rogers (nice block by Darius Redman), and Brewer's laser-like pass to Bucky Hodges.
Point being, Brewer had just made a critical mistake in the previous drive with the fumble, but he promptly erased it with the next drive, aided by some great play calling by Scot Loeffler, and great execution by the players.
The drive right before halftime was equally huge. Start the following video at the 15:00 mark, and run it to about 16:40:
Again ... great play calling, especially the screen to Ryan Malleck, and great execution on the touchdown pass.
I'm not just showing you these videos to celebrate. I'm showing them to make a point: when the Virginia Tech offense is capable of doing things like this, it takes the pressure off the defense and special teams. Instead of one unit (the defense) trying like hell to hold up the other two, all three are working together to bring out the win.
Turning the Tables
How many times in recent years have the Hokies played a great defensive game, only to lose it with poor offense, poor special teams, or poor coaching and clock management ... or some combination?
Don't answer that question; it's rhetorical.
On Saturday night, the Hokies made a number of mistakes that could have cost them the game. They gave up long passes (including one for a touchdown), turned it over deep in their own territory (which led to a TD), had three total turnovers, and missed their only field goal attempt.
But they won anyway. They won because they thoroughly outcoached the other team, the offense played well on third downs and contributed two critical touchdown drives at key times, they made plays on both offense and defense (not just defense), they managed the clock well, and they avoided key special teams mistakes.
But most importantly, the offense carried its share of the load. And they looked good doing it.
On Saturday night, Virginia Tech flipped the script. The total yardage was almost even (327 for OSU, 320 for Virginia Tech), but the Hokies gained their yardage with great play calling, execution, and distribution of the ball.
Ohio State gained their yardage from QB scrambles and big plays in the passing game.
Take a look at the rushing and receiving stats -- notice how many Virginia Tech players from various positions contributed to both, versus Ohio State, who got most of their carries from their quarterback, and all but one of their receptions from their wide receivers (Dontre Wilson is an H-back). Click for a larger version:
This time, it's Virginia Tech with the varied offense, with contributions coming from all over the field, and the other team is the one that was reduced to being one-dimensional.
And because Virginia Tech's offense put up 28 points, it allowed Bud Foster's defense to play the way it wanted to, make a few mistakes, but still keep being aggressive.
The Virginia Tech coaching staff managed the clock well -- the drive right before half time is Exhibit A -- and the Virginia Tech special teams didn't commit huge, costly errors. Instead, it was Ohio State who played poorly on special teams, missing two field goals that could have altered strategy and the outcome. It was the Hokies who made the big play on special teams, when Greg Stroman returned a booming 63-yard punt by Ohio State 35 yards to set up the touchdown before half time.
It was the Hokies who made one freaky play after another. Willie Byrn and Ryan Malleck caught passes with defenders draped all over them, and Sam Rogers served notice that he's way underrated as an athlete with this gem:
When it was all said and done, it was Urban Meyer, per this article, who had to resort to the old "one or two plays away" line that Frank has used so many times in recent years:
The offense, defense and special teams all had a hand in the loss, Meyer said. Plus, "That was a very good team we played. And I think we’re a very good team."