Josh Oglesby (2) powers through Marshall defenders into the endzone for his second touchdown of the game
Logan Thomas threw for 229 yards and ran for a touchdown, Josh Oglesby ran for a pair of touchdowns, and the Virginia Tech Hokies beat the Marshall Thundering Herd 30-10 at Joan C. Edwards Stadium on Saturday.
View a photo gallery of the game (Link)
“I thought we did some very good things,” said Frank Beamer, head coach. “And then we don’t consistently do very good things, and that’s kind of where we are as a football team right now.”
For the third week in a row, the Hokies (4-0, 0-0) won in fairly unconvincing fashion. After squeaking by ECU 17-10 in Greenville two weeks ago, the team beat Arkansas State 26-7 last week.
Today’s performance against a Marshall team that lost 44-7 to Ohio last week showed some pretty big flaws within this Tech squad, primarily from their special teams unit.
Punter Scott Demler, who averaged 34.6 yards on 13 punts through three games, was pulled after his second attempt of the day went only 25 yards.
His replacement, wide receiver Danny Coale, averaged only 31.0 yards on his two attempts.
“(It was the) first time I’ve punted live since high school,” he said. “It was fun. That first one, I just tried to get it off as soon as I could. They rushed pretty hard.
“Like I’ve said before, anything I can do to help, I’ll do. Scott’s going to be fine, and he’s going to keep battling for it, and we’ll just see what happens next week.”
Beamer said that next week’s starting punter is not clear as of yet, and that the competition would ensue on Monday.
Sophomore kicker Cody Journell didn’t have the greatest day, either. After having his second PAT attempt of the day blocked, he missed a 37-yard field goal, his third miss in seven tries this year.
“(It was) disappointing how we kicked the ball today,” Beamer said. “We’ve just got to continue to work.
“It’s not from lack of want-to… we just haven’t been able to be as consistent as we want to be.”
Another shortcoming thus far this season that continued to plague the Hokies today was turnovers. Logan Thomas threw his fourth interception of this season, and David Wilson lost a fumble, his second in three games.
“We’ve had far too many turnovers the first four games,” Thomas said. “We need to correct those.”
However, there were several bright spots on the field today for Tech.
With Thomas playing without two of his top four receivers – Jarrett Boykin sat out today with a hamstring injury and Dyrell Roberts is out for the year with a broken arm – he still managed to have somewhat of a field day.
Thomas threw for a career-high 22 completions, with seven of them going to Coale, tying his career-high, and eight of them going to junior DJ Coles, also a career-high.
“(Coale and Coles) stepped up with two people down,” Thomas said. “That’s just our motto: next man up. I’m proud of them, they played well, and hopefully they keep progressing ‘cause we’re going to need them further down the line.”
His head coach also took note of his performance.
A version of this article appeared in the Sep 25 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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This team is not going to be ready for Clemson next week, at least with what I saw at the Marshall game. I don't have a good feeling about this.
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Clemson hasn't played in Lane yet...And VT will play better vs better competition. GO HOKIES!!
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clemson has a lot of balance and dont rely on and one aspect of the game it will be hard to match up with them
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Clemson will be a great game. We have youth on offense, but a good ground game. The defense is going to show how much they have improved. This is going to be fun!
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To Athletic Department,
VT has traditions - some long standing, some not so much. But this new age of changing ones uniforms is like changing ones underwear.
VT is a MAROON team. We've tried the orange unis (several times now). It didn't work in 93, it doesn't work now. We actually changed unis so often that year, the CFL thought we were attempting to become an honorary member. If you must include orange, pinstriping on the jersey works great. The vintage look with stripes across the shoulders work too. Just remember that we are BURNT ORANGE, not Syracuse/Illinois orange.
Lighter jerseys are all swell, however, stick to traditional VT apparel.
Sincerely,
Long Time Hokie Supporter
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I agree 100% with the comment about the uniforms. I am mostly upset by the constant changing of the helmet design. Practically every traditional powerhouse football program in the nation has one easily identifiable helmet - Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, USC, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan etc. We should stick with the all maroon helmet with the VT on the side and make it our trademark. Maroon jerseys at home and white on the road - simple and easily identifiable.
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Danny Coale may have had a 31 yard average, but the first was likely nerves, while the second couldn't have gone any farther than 37. He's got the leg to punt 50+ yards, and Demler just isn't getting it done.
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