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TOPICS: frank beamer, football
The No. 13 Virginia Tech Hokies hope to bounce back from their first conference loss Thursday night when they face the North Carolina Tar Heels in Lane Stadium.
After losing their matchup against Georgia Tech 23-28 on Oct. 17, the Hokies (5-2, 3-1 ACC) must win out in their final four conference games in order to stand any chance to win the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division.
With the Yellow Jackets sitting at 7-1 overall and 5-1 in the ACC, the Hokies have no room for error heading into the final part of their season.
“There are surprises every Saturday,” said head coach Frank Beamer. “You’ve just got to go play a game. You just never know what’s going to happen. In sports, you better just keep playing yourself, be as good as you can be yourself, and then see where you stand at the end.”
The Hokies face a North Carolina team (4-3, 0-3 ACC) Thursday that could definitely surprise the Hokies if they aren’t ready.
“I think in North Carolina, you have a very talented team,” Beamer said. “Some of them are young. But you look around there, and they’ve played extremely well, particularly in the first half of the Florida State game.”
The Tar Heels fell last weekend against Florida State, 30-27, but they completely dominated the first half.
North Carolina’s offense totaled 333 yards in the game, 238 of which were on the ground, but the Heels blew an 18-point lead to give the Seminoles the edge in the end.
Junior running back Shaun Draughn had much to do with that success on the ground. Draughn tallied 126 yards on 23 carries in the game and regularly sets the tempo for the Tar Heels’ offense.
The Hokie defense hopes to bounce back from being bludgeoned in its last game, when the Jackets put up 309 yards on the ground thanks to their lethal option offense.
“The coaches, they always tell us — it’s in the past,” said Hokies defensive tackle Demetrius Taylor. “You always have to focus on the now, so we learn from our mistakes in previous losses, but you know, you have to move on from it and focus on North Carolina.
There’s really nothing you can do about what happened a week ago.”
The Tar Heels feature a deceptive offense with Draughn coming out of the backfield and quarterback T.J. Yates calling the shots behind center.
“A lot of misdirection in their offense,” Beamer said. “On defense, you look at their front four, really their front seven, and they’re tough. They’re very, very good. And in the secondary, they’ve got juniors playing, so they’ve got some experience there.”
The Tar Heels front seven is the reason why they were ranked in the top 25 to begin the season.
Their defensive line features sophomore lineman Robert Quinn, who currently is second in the ACC and eighth in the nation with seven sacks this season.
Junior linebacker Quan Sturdivant is also a force for the Tar Heels, leading the team in tackles with 48 and placing second on the team in tackles for loss with 8.5.
In the Heels’ defensive backfield, junior cornerback Charles Brown has done some damage this year as well. Brown is second on the team with 37 tackles and has two interceptions and a forced fumble to boot this season.
Going up against the Tar Heels defense will be a Hokie offense led by quarterback Tyrod Taylor and a finally healthy tailback Ryan Williams.
Williams played and racked up over 100 yards against Georgia Tech, but the redshirt freshman was battling an illness throughout.
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