Virginia Tech Hokies vs Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Football Recap

The Virginia Tech Hokies are lucky. Then again, they’re also good enough to make use of the breaks that come their way.

Coach Frank Beamer’s ballclub did not play well Thursday night at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia. The Hokies were flat and sluggish for three quarters against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Virginia Tech slogged through most of this game without a great deal of passion or precision. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who has really grown up this year as a senior, regressed and displayed many of the bad habits that dogged him in his first three years as one of the Hokies’ two signal callers (along with the now-graduated Sean Glennon). Virginia Tech’s defense got gashed repeatedly by the triple-option offense Georgia Tech employs under coach Paul Johnson. The Yellow Jackets converted 2-of-3 fourth downs and constantly applied pressure to the Hokies’ front seven. In so many ways and on so many levels, Georgia Tech outflanked and outmaneuvered Virginia Tech in this prime-time pigskin passion play on national television. The ACC Coastal Division – lopsided entering the evening – was about to get very bunched up.

That’s when Lady Luck entered for the Hokies and ripped out Georgia Tech’s heart.

This game turned when Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt – who piloted his Jackets to a 14-0 first-quarter lead – got knocked out of the game in the second quarter with a broken right forearm. You have to be able to handle the ball well as a triple-option quarterback, and so with his right arm out of commission, Nesbitt simply had no place on the field. It eventually turned out that Nesbitt will be out for the remainder of the season, a terrible and awful blow to a ballclub that looked a lot better than Virginia Tech did in the first 30 minutes of this game. The Georgia Tech team that won the 2009 ACC Coastal championship reappeared at the start of Thursday’s throwdown, so it’s that much more disappointing for everyone in Atlanta that this team couldn’t enjoy the benefit of Nesbitt’s presence for the duration of this ballgame. When Nesbitt left the game and – by extension – the season, Georgia Tech’s hopes went south. Untested and unfortunate backup Tevin Washington was simply not able to do very much as the new custodian of the Yellow Jackets’ offense.

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