2009 FexEx Orange Bowl
Virginia Tech 20 ... Cincinnati
7
GAME RECAP:
Virginia Tech's defense comes through
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1. Darren Evans
ran the ball extremely well.
Tyrod Taylor did a nice job of
managing the offense. Barquell
Rivers had an enormous goal line
stop in the fourth quarter.
However, the MVP of the Orange
Bowl was the Virginia Tech
coaching staff. Frank Beamer
capped what was arguably the
best coaching job of his career
by snapping the ACC’s eight-game
losing streak in BCS bowl games.
This from a team that started
slowly and was supposed to be in
a quasi-rebuilding year. Bud
Foster’s defense was air-tight,
shutting out Cincinnati over the
final 58 minutes and picking off
four Tony Pike passes. And
although the team scored just 20
points, offensive coordinator
Bryan Stinespring did a nice job
of mixing up his formations and
keeping the Bearcat defense on
its heels.
-
Richard Cirminiello
2.
Midway through the fourth
quarter, when Cincinnati got a
first-and-goal at the Virginia
Tech 3, Bearcat coach Brian
Kelly--a rising star in the
profession--blinked. Instead of
giving Tony Pike, his
mistake-prone quarterback, a
breather, Kelly chose to throw
on first and second down.
Instead of allowing his
offensive line to fire off the
ball for a change, Kelly stayed
in the air. When those first two
plays failed and a third-down
run got to the 1, it was hard
for Cincy to expect to power the
ball into the end zone on
fourth-and-goal. Faced with a
do-or-die proposition, Kelly
wisely opted for a play fake,
but the coach didn't give Pike a
run-pass option. The tall and
lanky signal caller had been
running passively to the sticks
all night long, so it was hardly
surprising that on a planned
run, Pike--who had suffered a
few concussions during the
regular season--was reluctant to
lower his head and power into
the end zone. Sure enough, a
wall of Hokie defenders headed
him off before he reached the
goal line, and the Bearcats were
finished. Cincy fans should be
thrilled to have Kelly as their
coach for at least another
season, but for what it's worth,
the boss Bearcat didn't handle a
crucial goal-line situation with
the wisdom it demanded.
-
Matthew
Zemek
3. Is this the biggest win in
the last 25 years for the ACC?
Of course there have been a few
national titles in the past, but
the league was mostly known for
being Florida State and a bunch
of other teams. The conference
desperately needed this.
Considering the miserable record
in the new era, going 1-9 in the
BCS before this win, Virginia
Tech needed to prove to the
world that the ACC isn't the
weakest of the BCS leagues and
that it deserves the automatic
slot. It needed to show that it
could play on a big stage and
come through big. The league
took its share of hits this bowl
season, most notably the Boston
College loss to Vanderbilt, and
it needed to come up with this
win. Cincinnati is good, but
it's not like facing USC or
Texas; the Hokies came through.
The defense played a brilliant
game after the first drive, the
offense showed it could get by
with Darren Evans and just
enough Tyrod Taylor to keep
things moving, and the ACC has
the monkey off its back. No,
this wasn't a watershed moment
for the league that'll bring in
a slew of new national respect,
but by winning, the perception
didn't slip further.
-
Pete
Fiutak
4. For all the talk on New
Year's Day about how dominant
the USC defense is, and rightly
so, Virginia Tech should get
involved in the discussion of
the year's better defenses. It
might not have the glitzy star
power of the Trojans, and no,
it's not as good as the group
that helped destroy Penn State,
but with little offensive pop
outside of Darren Evans and
Tyrod Taylor running the ball,
even if they did it really,
really well, this was a magical
defensive performance. From goal
line stands to coming up with
key takeaways to shutting things
down for the final 58 minutes of
the game, the Hokies won the ACC
title and the Orange Bowl by
turning up the heat. Now, with
plenty of returning experience,
this could be the dominant
defense of 2009. This game might
turn out to be the jumping off
point.
-
Pete
Fiutak
5. How in the
world did Cincinnati WR Mardy
Gilyard get of the state of
Florida without getting offers
from the state’s major programs?
He’s the most exciting thing in
a Big East pass-catcher since
Larry Fitzgerald was at
Pittsburgh. A dynamite receiver
and return man, he was the only
constant in the Bearcat offense,
an acrobat who makes people miss
in the open field. Gilyard is an
SEC talent playing in the Big
East, a recipe for a ton of big
plays over the next two seasons.
He and returning starting QB
Tony Pike are going to form one
of the nation’s most prolific
pitch-and-catch combos in 2009.
-
Richard Cirminiello