STOPPING THE RUN: Virginia Tech was uncharacteristically porous against the run last season, and was burned several times by dual-threat quarterbacks.
Advertisement
Two scores during the final four minutes of the second quarter allowed Virginia Tech to regain the lead and eventually secure a 36-13 win over Liberty, Saturday afternoon, at Lane Stadium.
“I think it’s really, really cool”, said Foster, who was with Beamer for all his 29 seasons at Virginia Tech and remained on staff when Fuente was hired.
“The atmosphere here is fantastic”, Fuente said.
“It’s good for our offense because they like to go fast, and for us because we pride ourselves on being a no-huddle, up-tempo defense, so any time we see a fast offense, we kind of pride ourselves on saying, ‘Ok, you’re going to go fast? The atmosphere was fantastic and I’m please with the way the kids responded to adversity”.
Hokies’ Jerod Evans finished the game completing 20-of-32 passing attempts for 221 yards and threw for four touchdowns. Four plays later, Evans found Hodges for an 18-yard touchdown play that gave the Hokies a 24-13 lead with 24 seconds left in the first half.
“I just saw so much great things from the defense, I just had to let ya’ll know how great the defense is playing”, Evans said. We finally got to showcase what we’ve been working on for nine long months. It’s stupid mistakes in the back, giving them easy goals and us hitting it straight at the goalie, not being able to hit it hard enough, not getting on frame, not getting our headers down, it’s just that finishing edge we need from everyone in the box. “I know on my part I had a lot of mistakes that I am going to clean up, but it was exciting”. Fuente pulled him after he fumbled on an option pitch – his second fumble of the game.
“Some good and some bad would be my first impression”, Fuente said.
But they’ve also got to be smart and take care of the ball, too. That first day is not pleasing, but some good and some bad probably about, like, every position on the offensive side.
Defense was a definitely positive for the Hokies, which held the Flames to 160 offensive yards and just one offensive score, which came after Evans’ fumble at the 10.
Virginia Tech has been a nationally prominent team for some time, but has struggled in recent seasons.
Junior defensive back Greg Stroman intercepted Liberty’s quarterback Stephon Masha twice. Masha completed 9 of 25 for 70 yards and two interceptions. The Flames opened up the game with four empty drives, one of which featured five false start penalties. “That was big”, Foster said. “We’re still building our identity, but I thought there was a lot of things to really build upon from the game Thursday night”. “Right now, we have to get loads better to be able to give ourselves a chance”.
“But I think we all know we have to continue to move forward and make great, great significant progress from Week One to Week Two”. “I think they had 11 turnovers past year, so that (forcing the turnovers) was big”.
Advertisement
The Flames will begin the home portion of their 2016 schedule next weekend when they welcome the Dolphins of Jacksonville to Lynchburg.
