Complete Virginia Tech Preview

It's Tuesday - 2 days to gameday. It's an exciting time to be a Miami Hurricane! The team is still in the hunt for the ACC title and the Hokies come into Dolphin Stadium with both teams badly needing a win. Last week, Virginia Tech embarrassed Maryland on national TV by throttling the Terps on the ground and with an opportunistic defense. Miami, on the other hand, is coming off a huge road overtime win and is looking for a win versus a Tech team that has had its number the past few seasons.

This is a winnable game for Miami. They have more talent and while it is young and still somewhat undeveloped, there are three big things that will help Miami.

1) A night game atmosphere with a good crowd at home
2) Bill Young ate VT's lunch last year in the Orange Bowl as the defensive coordinator at Kansas -- He knows how to beat Virginia Tech.
3) Canes are coming off a huge win at Virginia and are riding a 4-game winning streak.

First off, some quick injury news about the game.

* Jason Fox will likely miss the game with a knee injury. Miami's best offensive lineman injured it during the Virginia game last week and while it's not as serious as once thought, apparently it is still really sore. The coaches will see how he feels on gameday and if he's feeling up to it, you have to believe that Randy Shannon would do everything possible to get Fox onto the field.

* Virginia Tech QB Tyrod Taylor is a game-time decision. The sophomore quarterback has been out since the Florida State game when he injured his ankle in the first quarter. VT coach Frank Beamer has been mum about Taylor and nobody is quite sure if he's going to play or not. Rivalry game, on the road, if I were to bet on this, I'd say he'll be available if needed.

GAME PREVIEW

When Virginia Tech has the ball.....

Look for the Hokies to implement a lot of play action early in the game. Miami has one of the best run defenses in college football and VT knows they will have to run the football if they expect to win. The only way to run successfully against Miami is to loosen them up early and try to get ahead. Bill Young loves to make offenses one-dimensional and whether the QB is Glennon, Holt, or Taylor, they are going to have to be effective on the play action pass and rolling out early.

VT implemented a Wildcat formation last week vs Maryland in order to give the defense a
few more looks and I expect that to be a miserable failure if they try it again on Thursday. Maryland simply did not have the bodies to penetrate on the line and got their lunch eaten by the Hokie offensive line.

Their running back, Darren Evans, ran for 253 yards last week. He looked great, making great cuts and using tremendous vision. He will have to have another phenomenal game against a stout Cane run defense. Evans is not a breakaway type guy. He is a similar runner to Virginia's Cedric Peerman, who ran for only 78 yards vs the Canes. He'll need to break a few long ones if he expects to break the 100-yard mark.

The Hokie WR corps is a young group, led by Jarret Boykin and Danny Coyle. I'll be totally honest, I don't know much about these guys, I've really only see VT successfully pass the ball in one game this year. If Glennon is on his game, these guys could be huge because Miami's secondary is absolutely brutal this year. The loss of Kenny Phillips has been enormous and the cornerbacks are extremely inconsistent.

I'd expect VT to throw out a few screens and swing passes right away because of two things. First, Bill Young loves to blitz. Second, Miami's corners have trouble taking down tackling dummies in practice. Our corners and safeties have missed more tackles than probably any team in the nation.

2 keys when Miami is on defense
1) Wrap up! Miami CANNOT let Virginia Tech get yards after contact.
2) Be aggressive, but don't lose contain. The Hokies are a notorious cutback/counter run team. They are tremendous at sealing off the backside.

When Miami has the ball......

Miami has really struggled on offense this year. A combination of young quarterbacks and receivers, bad play calling, and dumb penalties have the Canes towards the bottom of the NCAA in total offense and scoring. Add in a Bud Foster coached defense and you could have a disaster on offense. I don't expect us to score many points on offense. I just have not seen the type of production outside of 2 games versus really bad defenses (Duke, TAMU). Whether it's Jacory Harris or Robert Marve in the game, they need to take care of the football. Jacory seems to be lightyears ahead of Marve in this regard. Marve absolutely loves his arm and has all the confidence in the world. While it's true that you really need a few of those tight-window throws a game against a defense like Virginia Tech's, he's bound to throw 1-2 interceptions a game with the way he's been playing. I fully expect to see the usual bubble screen, off tackle, button hook offense that Cane fans have been (groan) getting accustomed to throughout the season. Bud Foster and Macho Harris will eat this alive.

Let's talk a little X's and O's here. A play that I think could get us a touchdown on Thursday : The bubble screen fake to wheel route play against Texas A&M. I thought this was an absolutely brilliant play call. Kayne came off acting like a bubble screen and Collier chipped one of the defensive backs and came on a wheel route on the back side and was WIDE open in the end zone. I REALLY think this play could work on Macho Harris' side of the field. He is an extremely aggressive corner and will try to jump the route and get a pick or tackle the guy for a loss.

Nix has called that play one time this year. A ratio of one fake bubble screen to about 50 bubble screens. He has saved that play again and I fully expect to see it again in one of the key games to finish the season.

Two keys when Miami has the ball

1) Bubble screen execution - Benjamin and Collier will need to turn 3-5 yard screen plays into a few 20-25 yard gains. This will do wonders in loosening up Bud Foster's defense and will open up the run game immensely.
2) NO DUMB PENALTIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't count how many mistakes we made against Virginia but still scratched out a win. We will not win the game if we have the same amount of stupid false start, holding, and illegal motion penalties. Period. The last thing the Canes want to do is shoot themselves in the foot versus a great defense.