Frank Beamer has said his team faces the most anticipated game in Lane Stadium history one week from Monday night. Monday afternoon, Beamer took the podium in Blacksburg for the first official press conference of his 28th season.
Senior TE Ryan Malleck, junior FB Sam Rogers, senior DE Luther Maddy, and junior CB Chuck Clark will captain the Hokies in their second upset bid of Ohio State in as many years.
As for keys to the game, it looks like Virginia Tech will do its best to limit the big plays from Ohio State.
Beamer: Its going to come down to execution. Can they hit the long-play and can we stop the long-play?"
— VT Football (@VT_Football) August 31, 2015
(Many suspect Hokie DC Bud Foster will be as aggressive as he was last year.)
Beamer went onto laud Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott. From the KeyPlay.com:
"He's very, very good," said Beamer. "Big, tough, good. Coming down the stretch, he was really instrumental for those guys during that championship run... And you expect him to carry it right over. We got to tackle that old boy, that's the only thing I know. Swarm him and tackle him."
Hokie QB Michael Brewer played his best game of the season (and maybe his life) in 2014 against Ohio State. He never reached that level again, but Beamer doesn't seemed that concerned:
"I don't worry about Michael (Brewer), I worry about the people around Michael," said Beamer. "If those people uphold their end of the deal, Michael will be just fine. He knows what he's doing. He's smart. He's going to get you in the right play or get you out a bad play. Get the ball to the right guy, quickly...Getting it to a guy and giving him the ability to run. It's two things, get it to him on time and get it to him in the right location. I think he's much better at that."
Beamer will only dress 71 players against the Buckeyes, but he had a humorous explanation for that:
"I found out a long time ago that if you dress guys just to dress them...by the 3rd quarter those guys have found their girlfriend up in the stands and are waving to them. Because they're not going to get in the ballgame...it just works better to only dress people that are going to get in the ballgame. I think everyone's mind is exactly where it needs to be. We've all got one purpose there on the sideline."
Beamer is a pro's pro, and while nobody expects him to wave a white flag a week before the opening kickoff, it's easy to deduce the legendary coach likes where his team's at.
Only a week left until the gentlemanly boilerplate gets put aside, and the nation gets to finally see how these two teams stack up.
