Hokies look to improve for stretch run

By Nathan Warters

Published: October 3, 2008

BLACKSBURG — Today’s home game against four-touchdown underdog Western Kentucky and next week’s open date come smack dab in the middle of one of No. 20 Virginia Tech’s toughest scheduling stretches in recent memory.

This three-week span between the Hokies’ 35-30 win at Nebraska last Saturday and their Oct. 18 contest at Atlantic Coast Conference rival Boston College comes at a good time.

Tech can shore up some areas of concern from its most recent games, including its red zone offense and passing defense, in preparation for a critical six-game ACC stretch.

“It’s another week to get better,” Hokies senior offensive lineman Nick Marshman said.

And next week’s open date will give the Hokies, winners of four straight, time to heal some bumps and bruises suffered in the first half of the season.

“I think anytime you’ve played five or six games and then you can have a little time to let the injuries heal up and body heal up a little bit, I think that’s probably good,” Tech coach Frank Beamer said.

More than anything today, Tech would like to build on the success it’s had the last four weeks.

It scored 35 points and gained 377 yards, both season highs, last week against the Cornhuskers, and it gutted out another close victory on the road.

The defense, despite yielding 278 passing yards, forced two turnovers and almost completely shut down Nebraska’s historically strong power rushing game.

Today, the Hokies’ offense would like to improve in the red zone. Instead of throttling the Cornhuskers, Tech allowed them to stay in the game by not capitalizing on its opportunities inside the Nebraska 20-yard line.

It settled for four Dustin Keys field goals when touchdowns would have blown the game open.

“We had a great game. We did put a lot of points on the board, which wasn’t expected from a lot of people, but instead of those threes, we need to turn them into seven points,” Tech running back Kenny Lewis said.

And the Hokies’ defense is looking to limit the big plays that have put it in precarious positions the last two weeks. Seven of Nebraska’s 17 pass completions covered 20 or more yards.

“We gave up some plays. I think we can correct that, though,” Beamer said. “I think everything that happened on the long plays the other night can be corrected. I think (we need to have) a little better technique and a little bit better understanding of where we are on the field and the time of the game and so forth.”

Beamer said he’d also like to see improvement from his punt coverage and kickoff coverage teams. The Hokies allowed an 88-yard return for a touchdown in Saturday’s win.

“We’re usually pretty good about that,” he said. “The effort down the field was good. I think people were just wanting to make the tackle, but in the meantime we lost our leverage on the football.”

WKU is Tech’s last non-conference opponent. The Hilltoppers, who are transitioning into the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision, have already played three major conference teams this year.

They lost to Indiana, Alabama and Kentucky by a combined 113-23 score.