BOSTON (AP) -Virginia Tech learned from its loss to Boston College last season when the Eagles overcame a 10-point deficit in the final 3 minutes: Never let up.
“It’s something that we’ve taken more pride in this year, making sure we finish games out,” offensive guard Nick Marshman said, “that we don’t leave a whole lot of time on the clock. Make sure we take care of the ball and get the first downs that we need.”
The 17th-ranked Hokies get another chance to do that against Boston College on Saturday night with one major advantage. Quarterback Matt Ryan, who led the comeback, is in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons and Chris Crane took his place.
“This is what you sign up for when you sign up to play college football,” Crane said. “It’s a night game, the place is going to be rocking and I get to talk to old friend Matt Ryan again. … We’ve talked recently and we keep in touch.”
ranked second at the time, against the Hokies, then ranked eighth.
Virginia Tech led 10-0 at home last October before Ryan threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Rich Gunnell with 2:11 left in the game. Then BC recovered an onside kick and Ryan directed another scoring drive, capped by his 24-yard touchdown pass to Andre Callender with 11 seconds remaining.
“I bet I’ve seen that play several times,” Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. “You’d better play every play.”
His defensive players watched the end of the game on Monday.
But the Hokies (5-1, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) won’t have to contend with Ryan. Instead, the Eagles (4-1, 1-1) have Crane, who struggled early in the season then ran for three touchdowns in BC’s last game, a 38-31 win at North Carolina State.
“I’m not saying he’s Matt Ryan,” Hokies defensive end Orion Martin said, “but he’s doing a great job up there so far. We can’t take him lightly. Throwing the ball, he looks a lot like Ryan.”
Virginia Tech is coming off its fifth straight win, 27-13 over Western Kentucky. The Hokies and Eagles both were idle last weekend.
Boston College has won three in a row since a 19-16 loss to Georgia Tech and has progressed by “leaps and bounds” since then, coach Jeff Jagodzinski said.
me helped us in that way.”
Virginia Tech’s offense and defense are both ranked much lower than last year. Tyrod Taylor has emerged as the starting quarterback and is a big threat to run as well as pass. He threw to nine receivers in his last game.
“Taylor, their quarterback, is an unbelievable football player,” BC linebacker Mike McLaughlin said. “He can make stuff happen when you don’t think anything will go.”
Taylor won the job over Sean Glennon, who got a measure of revenge for the Hokies when they beat the Eagles 30-16 in last year’s ACC championship game.
“We sure have had some big games against them in the past years,” Beamer said, “but every ACC game is important. With the way the league is, every ACC game is a huge game.”
Crane feels the same.
“It’s a huge game,” he said. “Virginia Tech is always a contender in the ACC and even though they’re in the other division, we saw them twice (last year). An ACC win is huge and to get it against a team like that would be huge for our confidence.”
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