Thursday night, the Hokies turned in their most balanced performance of the
year against a solid opponent, throttling Georgia Tech 27-3 in Atlanta. To this
layman’s eye, the offensive game plan, play calling, and performance rank among
the best of Bryan Stinespring’s tenure, if not the best, and the defense
and special teams were solid again. The Hokies appear to be gelling at just the
right time, with a critical three-game stretch coming up that will determine the
ACC’s Coastal Division championship.

Everybody’s
raving about the performance of Sean Glennon, and I was impressed with his
outing, which was nearly perfect for most of the first half, when he piled up
196 yards passing on 18 of 23 completions.

What stood out to me, though, was the offensive game plan and playcalling by
Bryan Stinespring. I’m not as savvy a football observer as someone like TSL’s
Raleigh Hokie, but I often find myself watching Virginia Tech football games and
wondering what, exactly, the Hokies are trying to accomplish on offense. Not
this time around. This time around, the game plan was apparent, and the
execution, for most of the game, was very, very good.

This game made me think back to the
2002 Pittsburgh game, which the Hokies lost in Lane Stadium, 28-21. That was
the infamous game in which the Hokies had a commanding 21-7 lead, had all the
momentum, and had just stopped the Panthers on third down … except Tech’s
Ronyell Whitaker committed a personal foul, Pitt scored two plays later, and a
Panther comeback was underway.

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