Hokies dominate Cavaliers for ACC Coastal title

The road to the ACC Championship Game still goes through Blacksburg, where the Commonwealth Cup has all but found permanent residence.

From the volumes of the cheers inside Scott Stadium over the final minutes from maroon-clad fans, Virginia Tech’s coaches and players certainly understood that.

With a dominating performance offensively and defensively, the sixth-ranked Hokies slowly dismantled 24th-ranked Virginia, 38-0, as a divided crowd of 61,124 witnessed the eighth straight contest in the in-state rivalry go to Virginia Tech.

By virtue of the lopsided victory, the Hokies (11-1, 7-1 ACC) won the Coastal Division title and advanced to play Atlantic Division champion Clemson in the league’s title game in Charlotte, N.C., on Saturday.

“To come in here against a very hot team and a very good football team, and just play as well as we did and take it to them the way we did — I’m really proud of them,” Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. “I’m proud of what this football program is all about. These kids played the game the right way and I’m really proud of them.

“[Virginia] has improved, but tonight was our night. We made a lot of good plays.”

The Cavaliers (8-4, 5-3) had won four consecutive games leading up to the showdown with the Hokies, including three on the road to remain a factor in the Coastal Division title race.

But Virginia Tech quarterback Logan Thomas accounted for three scores and tailback David Wilson had rushing touchdowns of 27 and 38 yards to squash the newfound excitement that the Virginia program had built amongst fans, something that helped make the nationally televised game the season’s first sellout.

Virginia was also shut out for the first time since losing 17-0 at Virginia Tech in 2006, a span of 61 games, and it was the first home shutout since being crushed 55-0 by Clemson in 1984.

“We put ourselves in a position for this game to be relevant at the end of the season,” Virginia second-year coach Mike London said. “We’ve got to keep doing that, keep putting ourselves in the position for a game to have some significance to it. We have to improve on the outcome of it.

“This is the second year of not getting it done the way we need to get it done.”

The Cavaliers managed just 241 yards of total offense and amassed a season-low 30 yards in rushing and on the flipside the Hokies’ first possession of the game was a sign of what would follow from their offense.

After moving the ball 69 yards in five plays, Thomas took the ball on a designed keeper and ran up the left hash mark for a 14-yard touchdown.

With the score to go up 7-0, Virginia Tech became just the third team to score in the first quarter on the Cavaliers, joining Southern Miss (touchdown) and Maryland (field goal).

Virginia nearly answered on the ensuing drive with its most productive possession of the game. Sophomore quarterback Michael Rocco connected on a 32-yard pass to Tim Smith and found Kris Burd for receptions of 10 and 11 yards, but the drive stalled in the red zone.

Facing a 4th-and-3 at the Virginia Tech 7, London elected to go for the first down and not a field goal, but tailback Kevin Parks managed just a two-yard gain.

“It was the opportunity to send a message to our guys up front that if you’re going to win championships, if you’re going to win games, you’ve got to be able to knock people off the ball and gain a yard, particularly when you’re in your favorite run play,” London said. “They did a good job of defending it, and we didn’t get it. It set the tone for them to go the other way.”

Beamer added: “I thought that was a big play even though it left us deep in our territory. I appreciate their philosophy that they want to hammer you but I also appreciate that we want to hammer them back.”

Virginia Tech was forced to punt once before scoring again as a drive that was highlighted by a 52-yard pass from Thomas to Marcus Davis helped set up a 16-yard touchdown pass to Jarrett Boykin. The senior wide out was lined up in the slot and used a juke move to beat Virginia safety Corey Mosley, putting the Hokies up 14-0.

The Cavaliers threatened one more time in the first half, but on 2nd-and-4 at the Virginia Tech 20, Rocco was sacked and stripped of the football by cornerback Kyle Fuller just 49 seconds before halftime. Jack Tyler, the linebacker who had stopped Parks on the pivotal fourth down play in the first quarter, recovered the fumble.

“I was sprinting out to the right and I turned to throw back to the left and they kind of brought two off the right side and Kevin Parks could have gotten one but he kind of missed his guy and I had to come free and I was looking to the left and he just swiped the ball right out of my hands,” said Rocco, who completed 16 of 27 passes for 211 and threw two interceptions. “I didn’t see him at all.”

The Hokies padded their lead on the opening possession of the second half with an 8-play, 79-yard drive that showcased the balance of the offensive operation. Wilson, who finished with 153 rushing yards on 24 carries, capped it with a 27-yard scoring run to his left that included a stiff arm with his right hand to Mosley as the Hokie tailback neared the end zone.

The Cavaliers’ next three drives included a punt, an interception when the ball popped out of Burd’s hands on a should-be catch over the middle and a missed field goal from 38 yards out by Robert Randolph.

“It was definitely frustrating,” said Burd, who hauled in a game-high seven passes for 100 yards. “I feel like we were able to move the ball at points, but the thing about college football is that you have to string them along and when you get to the red zone you have to capitalize.

“I feel like we fell a little short in that area.”

Virginia Tech poured it on in the fourth quarter, adding 17 points with a run from Wilson and 7-yard touchdown pass from Thomas to Davis, who was wide open in the back of the end zone.

Virginia Tech had the ball in the second half for 19:55 and gained 213 yards on 40 plays. The Cavaliers only gained 79 yards after halftime.

“Any time you allow a team to eat up the clock and get points out of that, then it’s tough,” London said. “That’s a good offense; it’s a good football team. We had to come out the second half and try to limit those opportunities in order to get our offense back in the game to get them back on track.

“Everything they did today worked well for them. We didn’t play very well. It’s indicative of the score.”

Virginia will learn its bowl fate after the BCS Selection Show on Dec. 4 on ESPN. The Cavaliers are not a possibility for the Military Bowl in Washington, D.C., due to the league’s “one-win rule” and the 3-5 league record of North Carolina.

Late Saturday it became obvious that the Sun Bowl has a very short list that does not include Virginia.

"If they're available, right now it looks like Georgia Tech's our team," Sun Bowl executive director Bernie Olivas told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after watching the Yellow Jackets lose to Georgia.

That increases the odds Virginia ends up in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30. The Cavaliers would face a team from the SEC in Nashville.

Virginia could also be attractive to the Belk Bowl, but North Carolina State (7-5, 4-4) is appealing as an in-state team for the Charlotte-based game.

The Independence Bowl picks seventh out of eight bowls with ACC tie-ins and would be forced to take the Cavaliers if they remained solely with North Carolina (7-5, 3-5) due to bowl selection conditions.

“I just want to go some place warm,” Virginia offensive lineman Luke Bowanko said.