Carl Pelini: Hokies 'a great measuring stick'
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BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
He had taken his alma mater’s football program from anemic status to a spot under the Orange Bowl lights, but Frank Beamer could see there were still more rungs to climb.
That much was clear when his Hokies met the Huskers on a muggy Miami night in 1996.
In the midst of a 60-3 record over a five-year span, Nebraska was too much, too deep. Beamer’s boys wore down. Tom Osborne’s Big Red had a 41-21 Orange Bowl win.
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Steven M. Sipple and Brian Christopherson break down Nebraska's September 27th home game against Virginia Tech. (Anthony Roberts / JournalStar.com)...
A loss, but also a lesson gained for the Virginia Tech head coach.
“The one thing I think it kind of showed us is what it took to be a really good football team,” Beamer told the Journal Star on Tuesday. “Nebraska didn’t only have a first team that was pretty good. Their second and third team was pretty good. Developing that depth, that strength in our program, that was a learning experience. That year, I think our first offense and our first defense wasn’t bad, but you just kind of get worn down a little bit. It kind of showed you what a real top-flight program was.”
Twelve years later and Virginia Tech is now annually sitting among the elite company in college football. The Hokies have won 10 games each of the past four seasons and two ACC crowns since joining the conference for the 2004 season. Last spring eight Virginia Tech players were taken in the NFL Draft. Only Southern California had more selected.
So there’s good reason Virginia Tech is on the tips of tongues in Nebraska even in July. The Hokies’ Sept. 27 visit to Lincoln is the most enticing game on NU’s nonconference schedule, “a great measuring stick” said Husker defensive coordinator Carl Pelini.
“They always play great defense. They always play great special teams. Everything they do is just very sound,” he said. “They’re not very flashy. Even if you go back to their days with Michael Vick, as good as he was and as dominant a player as he was, they really stayed with their philosophy. They didn’t really wholesale change.”
The grind-it-out style of Virginia Tech has given opponents of the Hokies false optimism before. But “Beamerball” much more often than not has left foes bruised and disappointed. The Hokies have long played defense about as well as anyone in the country (top five nationally in total and scoring defense the past four years) and have specialized in making game-changing plays on special teams.
Still, those paying attention to the news coming out of Blacksburg this spring and summer have noticed the Hokies aren’t exactly receiving any favors from the football gods.
Before spring ball began, Beamer dismissed leading rusher Branden Ore, and then the two running backs behind him (Kenny Lewis and Jahre Cheeseman) suffered injuries. The Hokies are optimistic that Cheeseman, who broke his leg, will be full go when fall camp starts. Lewis, who tore his labrum, is expected to miss at least some of fall camp.
But the most recent and perhaps significant loss came this summer when junior receiver Brandon Dillard, who had shined in the team’s spring game, ruptured his right Achilles’ tendon during workouts. He’s out for the season. With that, the only two Tech receivers with any game experience have a combined five career catches.
“Dillard, he had some speed that was going to help us,” Beamer said. “I really hated that for our football team and hated for him to get hurt like that. But we’ve got some players there both at tailback and wide receiver. We’ve just got to get them ready to play quickly.”
With so many key losses from last year’s team and just four starters returning to defensive coordinator Bud Foster’s unit, Beamer knows his team will have to grow up fast.
The early schedule is no cakewalk, starting with a season-opener in Charlotte against East Carolina, home games against Furman and Georgia Tech, then a road contest against North Carolina on Sept. 20 while Nebraska has a bye week.
“I think we’re going to have some bumps there early in the season,” Beamer said. “Hopefully, we can stay healthy and improve as a football team and be a factor by the end of the season. That’s kind of where our football team is.”
Of course, the kind of program Beamer has built is one capable of overcoming a few breaks in the offseason.
It’s been an incredible transformation from the Tech program he took over in 1987. The school was on probation then, losing some scholarships in the deal, and wasn’t in a conference.
“But I really felt like Virginia Tech had a chance to win,” Beamer said. “I might have been a little naive.”
He loved the school since he was a kid. The 61-year-old was a starting cornerback for Tech and has had “30-some cousins,” along with nieces and nephews, who have called themselves Hokies.
And so he walked into kids’ living rooms, and to the amazement of some assistants, told them he had plans of eventually playing for national championships.
Doubters were plenty. Tech won just five games in Beamer’s first two seasons. In his first six years, he went 1-5 against Virginia and the team posted a 2-8-1 mark his sixth season.
It turned the next year, 1993. The Hokies won nine games, made it to the Independence Bowl. Been bowling ever since.
By 1999, Beamer had done just what he told those kids in their living rooms he planned to do. Led by quarterback Michael Vick, the Hokies made it to the national title game, losing to Florida State.
If there remains any criticism about Beamer, it’s his 6-9 record in bowl games and 6-27 mark against teams in the top 10.
Last year against eventual national champ LSU and Bo Pelini’s defense, the Hokies lost 48-7. Tech also took on Carl Pelini’s Ohio defense last year, beating the Bobcats 28-7 in Blacksburg.
Beamer said he doesn’t know the Husker head coach personally, “not other than great respect for wherever he’s been. He’s been good. I’m sure he’s going to do a great job with the program there. We weren’t very against good against his defense at LSU, I can promise you that.”
And despite the fact Nebraska is coming off a 5-7 season, Beamer said players still consider coming to Lincoln a big-time game.
“Our players certainly understand what Nebraska is all about and respect the program and respect the fans,” Beamer said. “You guys sold out the Spring Game, didn’t you? That kind of makes a statement about the excitement out there.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 at bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
