With a large number of players seeing action for the first time in their
careers, Virginia Tech eased into the 2006 football season, coasting to a 38-0
victory over Northeastern. Lining up against a Division 1-AA opponent coming off
a 2-9 season, a rout was anticipated and the Hokies delivered one. No, it wasn’t
the crushing performance that many expected, and that left some wondering if
there may be some trouble on the Hokie horizon.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was expecting a more dominant performance
from the Hokies, especially on defense. At one point in the first quarter I
remember thinking that this was such a mismatch that a good comparison would be
to look at Tech touchdowns versus Northeastern first downs. That was really an
absurd thought (especially given that my expectations for this season are
guarded at best) and the Huskies quickly brought me back to reality by settling
down on defense and ripping off a number of first downs on offense.

It looked like I would have some things to analyze after all …

After the game, my tailgate buddies asked me what I thought and the best I
could come up with at the time was something like “Uh, I think they have some
work to do.” Very profound huh? But having another day to think about it and
after watching the replay on “Hokie Playback”, my view can be summarized
best by this — it may not have been the type of game the Hokies wanted, but it’s
the type of game that they needed.

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