The Virginia Tech football team hopes to win its 10th game of the season Thursday night and for the first time ever, win bowl games in consecutive seasons when they take on the Tennessee Volunteers in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, Ga.
After a hard-fought season, the Hokies (9-3, 5-2 ACC) have just one more game to play and one more goal to accomplish – earn win number 10 for the sixth straight season.
Only Texas, who has gone nine straight seasons with 10 wins, holds a longer streak.
The Hokies hope to accomplish their goal by knocking off a Tennessee team that is very similar to their own.
The Volunteers enter the game ranked 18th in the nation in total defense, allowing just 308 yards per game. The Hokies come in to Atlanta with the nation’s 14th best defense, allowing just 300 yards per game.
On offense, the Volunteers are led by the 19th best running back in the nation, senior Montario Hardesty. Hardesty gained 1,306 yards this season and scored 13 times for the Vols.
In his final two games of the year, Hardesty ran for 171 yards and a touchdown against Vanderbilt and 179 yards and three touchdowns against Kentucky.
On the other side of the field, the Hokies offense is led by the fifth-best back in the nation, redshirt freshman Ryan Williams.
Williams, who rushed for 1,538 yards this season and added 20 touchdowns on his way to earning the Atlantic Coast Conference’s rookie of the year honor, finished the season by rushing for 608 yards and scoring nine times in Tech’s final four games.
"I have to give a lot of credit to the offensive line and the wide receivers and the fullbacks because they helped pave the way for a lot of stats I got this year," Williams said after learning he earned the ACC’s top rookie honors weeks ago.
While the two teams bring similar styles of play to the Georgia Dome, their paths to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl certainly differ.
The Volunteers (7-5, 4-4 ACC) entered the 2009 college football season with a brand new head coach in Lane Kiffin and uncertain expectations following the departure of his predecessor, Phillip Fulmer.
Fulmer, who was a staple in the Knoxville community for some time after leading the Vols to a national championship in 1998, was forced out of his position at the end of last season after the team reached just one Southeastern Conference title game in his final four years.
Kiffin joined the team shortly thereafter and so far, he’s done a fairly decent job.
While the Volunteers didn’t quite make a national championship run this season, they did leave their fans a lot to hope for.
After losing three of their first six games, including a four-point loss to UCLA and a 10-point loss to then-No. 1 Florida, the Vols came within two points of shaking the foundations of the national rankings in late October.
On Oct. 24, with 1:19 remaining in a nationally televised matchup at No. 2 Alabama, Vols senior quarterback Jonathan Crompton connected with junior wide receiver Gerald Jones in the end zone to cut Alabama’s lead to just two points and suddenly, the Vols were making noise.
On the ensuing kickoff, Tennessee remarkably recovered an on-side kick and re-gained possession at their own 41. Crompton then led his team down the field and into field goal position.
With four seconds remaining in the game, the Volunteers were in position to dethrone the Crimson Tide and finally put Tennessee football back on the map.
Unfortunately, their 44-yard field goal attempt was blocked and Alabama added another win to their list while Tennessee was sent packing with nothing but an “almost” to write home about.
Since that loss, however, the Vols have won four of five and Kiffin has his team looking more and more like they did years ago when they were among the nations best.
Tennesssee’s toughest challenge since the Crimson Tide in October will come Thursday night, when they take on a Hokies team led by long-time head coach Frank Beamer.
Beamer’s team, like Kiffin’s lost to the Crimson Tide this year as well.
The Hokies began their season in the same venue they will end it in Thursday night, when they faced off with Alabama in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff game. Despite beginning the fourth quarter with a lead, the Hokies ended up losing to the Crimson Tide to open their season on a salty note, 34-24.
Tech reeled off five straight wins after the season-opening loss, though, and in mid-October, entered a conference battle with Georgia Tech ranked fourth in the nation and poised to make a run at the BCS title game.
The Hokies couldn’t get it done when they needed to, however, and dropped not only their battle with the Yellow Jackets by a score of 28-23 but the following game as well - to the University of North Carolina, 20-17.
While their chances at a national title game and eventually, a BCS bowl game were shot – the Hokies rebounded from those losses by discovering a long lost passing attack and winning four games to close the season in November.
Junior quarterback Tyrod Taylor was incredibly efficient all year long, throwing for career-highs in nearly every statistical category. Taylor enters the Chick-Fil-A Bowl with a career-high 2,102 yards passing, a career-high of 13 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
Taylor threw two touchdowns in three games this season - something he had only done just once previously at Tech and on Nov. 14, threw three touchdowns for the first time in his career when they Hokies beat the University of Maryland, 36-9.
Thursday night’s game will end pivotal seasons for both Virginia Tech and Tennessee’s football programs.
While the Vols will have their first season under Lane Kiffin wrapped on either a good or a bad note, the Hokies will end a season that “could have been” on either a good or a bad note.
Either way, both teams have much to look forward to for seasons to come – and that’s what makes the Chick-Fil-A Bowl game so intriguing.
The Hokies will be without the services of starting cornerback Stephan Virgil Thursday night. Viril was ruled academically ineligible for the bow game a week ago.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. in Atlanta, Ga. and the game will be nationally televised on ESPN.