2005 Football Game Recap: Hokies Set School Record, Blank Duke 45-0


Virginia Tech (6)... 14 7 14 10 - 45
Duke.............     0 0  0  0 -  0

First Quarter
VT - King 7 pass from Vick (Pace kick), 6:55
VT - Minor 23 INT return (Pace kick), 1:54

Second Quarter:
VT - Morgan 37 pass from Vick (Pace kick), 9:15

Third Quarter:
VT - Clowney 35 pass from Vick (Pace kick), 11:52
VT - Bell 3 run (Pace kick), 1:34

Fourth Quarter:
VT - Pace 31 FG, 8:13
VT - Ore 4 run (Pace kick), 4:57


Durham, NC — Virginia Tech dominated Duke defensively, holding the Blue Devils to a VT school record 35 yards of
total offense, and Marcus Vick threw three touchdown passes to propel the Hokies to an easy 45-0 victory in Durham.
Three different receivers caught TD passes, George Bell and Branden Ore scored their first collegiate rushing
touchdowns, and Roland Minor returned an interception 23 yards for a TD to account for the Hokie touchdowns.

Vick was 12-of-19 for 179 yards, 3 TDs and one interception, as the Hokie offense shook off some early doldrums to
get on track and put up 362 yards. Vick could have had an even bigger day, but he was the victim of three drops by his
receivers, including one by Eddie Royal that would have been a 64-yard touchdown. Vick threw one interception when Duke
cornerback John Talley, a second-team all-ACC performer last year, stepped in front of Royal on a quick slant to pick
one off early in the second quarter.

Vick got his revenge on Talley twice, hitting Josh Morgan for a 37-yard TD pass over Talley in the second quarter and
victimizing Talley again in the third quarter for a 35-yarder to David Clowney. Jeff King caught Vick’s other touchdown,
grabbing a nicely thrown 7 yarder in the back of the end zone to open the scoring in the first quarter.

But the story of the day was the Hokie defense, which held Duke to 35 yards total offense (13 yards rushing on 35 attempts,
22 yards passing on 5-18 completions) and sacked Duke’s quarterbacks five times, despite defensive tackle Carlton Powell
missing the game with an ankle injury suffered in the NC State game. The 35 yards of total offense by Duke is an
all-time defensive record for Tech, shattering the mark of 63 yards posted by UAB in 1999.

Duke didn’t get beyond their own 37 yard line until the third quarter, and their deepest penetration all day was the
Virginia Tech 49 yard line. On 18 first down plays, the Blue Devils gained just 14 yards.

Virginia Tech took the opening kickoff and marched to Duke’s 24 yard line, then stalled. Brandon Pace came on and
bounced a 44-yard field goal off the right upright.

On their next possession, Tech drove 57 yards in 7 plays and scored on the 7 yard pass to King to go up 7-0. The next
time Tech had the ball, they drove to Duke’s 20, but a holding call on Brandon Frye pushed Tech back and forced a punt.
Nic Schmitt, who averaged just 31 yards a punt but put all three of his punts inside the Duke 20, pinned the Blue Devils
at their four yard line. Two plays later, Roland Minor picked off Curt Dukes at the Duke 23 and made a nifty run up the
left sideline for the touchdown. The score made it 14-0 VT at the end of the first quarter.

On Tech’s first second-quarter possession, Vick threw an interception to Talley, who made a great play to step in
front of Royal and get the pick at the Duke 29 yard line.

At that point, three of four VT possessions had yielded just seven points, but from then on, the Hokie offense
clicked, scoring five times in their last seven possessions. First Vick threw a 37-yard rainmaker to Morgan, who got
behind Talley down the left sideline and caught Vick’s perfectly thrown bomb in the end zone. In Tech’s opening
second-half possession, Clowney ran right by Talley, and Vick hit him in stride down the middle for a 35-yard touchdown
and a 28-0 Tech lead.

After a Duke possession of 11 plays and 5:40, by far their longest of the day though it netted only 21 yards, the
Hokies brought on the backup tailbacks, George Bell and Branden Ore, and rode them to a 12-play, 53-yard touchdown
drive. Bell and Ore alternated runs, and Bell finished the drive off with a three-yard run, his first career score. Bell had
actually scored on a four-yard run a few plays earlier, but a face mask penalty on Morgan brought the ball back out to
the 19, and the Hokies had to score again from there.

That made it 35-0 VT, and the Hokies brought in the backups on both offense and defense. Cory Holt played most of
the fourth quarter at QB — Sean Glennon didn’t enter the game at all — and led the Hokies on two short scoring drives,
a 31-yard field goal by Pace and a 4-yard run by Ore, who like Bell scored for the first time in his career. Holt
completed one of three passes for 10 yards.

Defensively, little-used backups like Omar Hashish and Theo Miller saw playing time. Hashish combined with Orion
Martin for one of Tech’s five sacks, as the backups preserved the record outing, holding the Duke offense to (-8) yards
for the fourth quarter.

The Hokies were generally sharp, especially defensively, where they tackled well. Offensively, despite the slow
start, the Hokies played well. The one exception were the three drops by Tech receivers, two by Royal (who also muffed a
punt and caught just one pass for 18 yards) and one by Justin Harper. As a team, Tech committed just five penalties for
50 yards, while Duke had nine penalties for 68 yards, some of them costly.

Vick ran little, staying in the pocket, and was sacked twice, contributing to his rushing total of four carries for (-12) yards.
Mike Imoh led the Hokie rushing attack with 66 yards on 12 carries but left the game with an ankle sprain after a
third-quarter punt return. The injury isn’t thought to be serious.

Vince Hall led a balanced defensive attack with six tackles, as 13 Tech players registered three to six tackles for
the game. Darryl Tapp had two sacks, and Chris Ellis and Jonathan Lewis each had one. Tech had nine tackles behind the line
for 50 yards in losses, including five sacks for 29 yards.

Virginia Tech plays six of their last nine games at home, starting next Saturday, September 17th against Ohio,
winners over Pittsburgh in overtime Friday night. The Ohio game will be at 3:30 and will be broadcast on ESPNU.


STATISTICS 

                          VT        Duke
                        ----        ----
First downs               22           5
Rushed-yards          44-180       35-13
Passing yards            182          22
Sacked-yards lost       2-10        5-29
Return yards               0          76
Passes               13-22-1      5-18-1
Punts                 6-45.7      4-40.5
Fumbles-lost             4-0         2-0
Penalties-yards         5-50        9-68
Time of possession     30:10       29:50

Att: 25,014


INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS 

RUSHING-Virginia Tech, Imoh 8-66, Ore 10-51, Humes 9-39,
Bell 6-15, Gilchrist 1-14, Candelas 3-12, Holt 1-(-2), Team 2-(-3),
Vick 4-(-12). Duke, Dukes 8-20, Dargan 6-4, Boyle 9-3, Ruff 1-1,
Schneider 7-0, Team 1-(-5), Boyette 3-(-10).

PASSING-Virginia Tech, Vick 12-19-1-172, Holt 1-3-10-0. Duke,
Schneider 4-14-14-0, Dukes 1-3-8-1, Sprague 0-1-0-1. 

RECEIVING-Virginia Tech, Clowney 3-62, King 5-46, Morgan
1-37, Royal 1-18, Hyman 1-10, Humes 2-9. Duke, Elliott 1-8,
Adams 1-7, Drummer 2-5, Jones 1-2.