Story Links

Nov. 17, 2001

Recap?|?Final Stats

VIRGINIA TECH COACH FRANK BEAMER

I was proud of our team. The way we came in here and played in the first half was exceptional. We were certainly ready to play. In the second half, I thought we helped their cause a little bit, when we fumbled a couple of times and threw intercepts.

I can’t say enough about my football team. When things got rough [in the fourth quarter], the offense took the ball over at about the 10 yard line and picked up four or five first downs. I thought that made a statement about our football team. They got back into it a little bit, but our team came right back and I feel good walking off that football field.

(On TB Kevin Jones) He was running, but there were some cracks up there. You don’t have cracks unless you have offensive linemen working their butts off. We needed time off the clock and that offensive team stepped up to the plate.

(On Virginia’s early turnovers) I’d like to think we were helping a little bit — knocking those balls out. I thought we were very alert, very focused. One of my coaches came up to me and said, ‘This is the best we’ve been all year.’ And maybe it was. I thought we were really good at Boston College, but maybe this was the best.

VIRGINIA COACH AL GROH

I thought they played well. We played bad. They made plays. We didn’t make plays. They played a lot better than we did, and they won.

(On Tech’s early passing) I told the players all week to expect them to do something right away to try to get us off them. That’s what everybody’s done, crowded up on them. They were straight vertical patterns. Their guy won, our guy lost. That’s the deal.

We were ruined by all the things that have given us problems in the past–turnovers and deep balls.

(On second-half play) We played the way we were supposed to play in the first half, but I don’t think we should be proud of that. You’re supposed to do that all the time.

(On Tech’s success running late in the game) It became a power game at that time. Power isn’t something that we have a lot of.

Print Friendly Version