Collegiate Times

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Just when you thought the Hokies were going to fold, Tyrod Taylor went all in.

The senior quarterback from Hampton, Va., led two fourth quarter scoring drives of 50 yards or more, capped off by a seven-play, 76-yard drive resulting in a touchdown pass to receiver Jarrett Boykin, catapulting the Hokies past NC State 41-30 on Saturday.

Leading the biggest comeback of head coach Frank Beamer’s career, Taylor knew the Hokies were far from done when they went down 17-0 in the first half.

“As long as your team keeps fighting,” Taylor said. “With the type of team that we have, we can come back from anything.”

Perhaps the toughest quarterback in Virginia Tech football history, Taylor again proved he had the right cards. Taking shot after shot by the vicious Wolfpack defense, Taylor continued to get back up.

Late in the second quarter, he took a blow to the helmet from linebacker Nate Irving. His back locked up. No penalty flag was thrown. The pass fell incomplete. Everything that could go wrong on a play did. Yet Taylor peeled himself off the Carter-Finley Stadium turf and called the next play.

“This team doesn’t really understand the concept of quit, they don’t understand the concept of giving in,” said Bryan Stinespring, offensive coordinator. “They don’t give in, they don’t give up and they keep on playing.”

Going into halftime down 17-7 with little working on offense, Stinespring had faith things would turn around.

“We survived the storm early,” Stinespring said. “At halftime, everybody was calm and understood what we needed to do.”

Taylor took a muscle relaxer for his strained back, defensive coordinator Bud Foster made some defensive adjustments and the Hokies were poised for a second half in which they would score 34 points.

Running back David Wilson gave the Hokies more energy than a can of Red Bull, as he took the second half’s opening kickoff to the house for a 92-yard touchdown.

Tech’s defense, led by sophomore cornerback Jayron Hosley, terrorized Wolfpack quarterback Russell Wilson for three interceptions, including the one that sealed the game for the Hokies.

“Our defense played great, allowed me to sit back and make plays,” Hosley said. “And Bud Foster put the pressure on (Russell Wilson) and he threw it up for us to make those plays.”

Hosley’s three interceptions on Saturday tied the Tech single game record. The Delray Beach, Fla., native already has four interceptions this season, and he may challenge the current single season record at Tech of nine, set by Ron Davidson in 1967.

Hosley earned the Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week for his performance.

Heading into the game, all the talk was about Wilson and the Wolfpack offense, and deservedly so. However, every time the game was getting away from the Hokies, Hosley was there to make a play. His two second quarter interceptions stopped the bleeding and allowed the tired Hokies defense to get off the field.

Despite allowing more than 500 yards of offense and losing the time of possession battle, Foster takes only one stat away from the game.

“The stat for me, it’s the win-loss column,” Foster said. “(Wilson) was 21 for 49? I’ll take that every day of the week. We kind of joked all week that Russell wakes up out of bed throwing for 300. We knew it was going to be like that.”

The Wolfpack offense was aided by several controversial pass interference penalties during the game, two of which were called on freshman safety Antone Exum.

“On the interference calls, I thought we were battling for the ball,” Beamer said. “But you know that’s what the call was.”

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A version of this article appeared in the Oct 5 issue of the Collegiate Times.