Virginia Tech linebacker Jamel Smith eased back in his chair late Saturday night, knees wrapped in ice, hat on backwards, a smile gleaming from his face. Sixty dominating minutes of smashmouth Hokie football had culminated in a 31-7 statement win over nemesis Virginia earlier that evening, exorcising any ghosts of last year's catastrophic collapse in Blackburg.
Smith, however, the sheriff of the nation's top defense, had a few more bullets to fire the Cavaliers' way.
"The way we beat them, just give us our respect," Smith said. "Just cheer for us now. We stomped them tonight. We've seen better offenses -- Clemson's offense put up more points, so they had to be better. Just give us our respect."
The Hokies, though undefeated entering Charlottesville and ranked eighth nationally, showed signs of football mortality in their last two games, unconvincing wins over Alabama-Birmingham and Clemson. Saturday night, however, Tech loudly warned the rest of the college football world how good it can be.
"I thought our football team came in here and won a tough football game," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. "We didn't turn the ball over, and we made some great plays."
It took all of six minutes for great play number one to unfold. On the Hokies second drive, freshman quarterback Michael Vick lofted an arching spiral in the vicinity of a streaking Andre Davis. With arms outstretched, Davis hauled in Vick's toss and turned on his 4.2 speed to coast into the end zone. The touchdown pass was the first of Vick's career.
"Mike's just a great athlete, and he can make great plays," Davis said. "It's been a while since I've seen someone who was so controlled and calm in those situations. As time goes on, he's just going to get better."
Vick, however, improved with each passing minute Saturday. The Newport News, Va., product finished seven of nine for 222 yards and the touchdown to Davis. This coming from the same signal caller who rolled into Charlottesville with zero touchdowns, three interceptions and a gimpy ankle to his name.
"I'm happy with my quarterback right now," Beamer said. "I think the more snaps he gets, the better you'll see him play. He's got something really good."
That "something" Beamer referred to may be the tailback lining up behind Vick on every snap, junior Shyrone Stith.
With Tech leading 7-0, Tech offensive coordinator Rickey Bustle handed the ball and the game over to Stith, who rushed for 124 yards in last year's meeting.
The Chesapeake, Va., native came into the contest 10th in the nation in rushing and did not disappoint. He scampered for 113 yards on 23 carries, including three goalline touchdown runs in the first half.
"We practice against one of the best backs in the country every day, Shyrone Stith," Tech defensive end Corey Moore said. "I think he made another strong statement [Saturday] with his performance."
Behind Vick, Stith and solid offensive line play, Tech entered the locker room at the half with a commanding 28-7 lead. Almost immediately, visions of 1998, when the seemingly overmatched Cavs trailed Tech 29-7 at halftime only to storm back for a 36-32 win, resurfaced. Unfortunately for Virginia, their in-state enemies did not buy into déjà vu.
"They weren't coming back this year," Beamer said. "The football team didn't let what happened last year happen this year."
Though Vick tossed for the single score, the Cav defense once again was susceptible to giving up the big play. Besides the 60 yard scoring strike to Davis, Vick hit on passes of 25, 32 and 50 yards.
"I thought we could play better than that," Virginia coach George Welsh said. "It seems like we're in disarray on defense. We made too many mistakes again. Our offense and defense have to help each other out, but when the defense doesn't stop anybody, it's pretty tough."
Which presents Welsh and his staff with a dilemma: how can the Virginia secondary avoid giving up the homerun?
"I don't know why we keep giving up long passes," Welsh said. "We've got to coach them better, starting with me."
As Cav cornerbacks were victimized time after time, the demoralized unit began to point fingers, an ominous sign coming from a group that still has Georgia Tech and top ranked Florida State on the docket.
"As soon as the first [big play] happened, we were like, 'come on baby, come on,'" safety Chris Williams said. "When the second one happened, that's when people started pointing fingers."
Virginia's offense was not exactly prolific either.
Moore prophesized prior to the game that the key to shutting down Virginia was containing tailback Thomas Jones, who posted 610 yards in his first four games.
Mission accomplished. Moore and company repeatedly penetrated the Virginia offensive line to cut off any available running room and limited one of the nation's finest backs to a measly 83 yards, his poorest output of the year.
"They made more plays than we did," Cav fullback Anthony Southern said. "We knew what they were going to do, but they capitalized on what they wanted to do, and we didn't capitalize on our gameplan. They played their game, and we didn't play our game. We had a good gameplan -- we just didn't perform."
Now the Cavs have one goal in mind: to regroup.
"We just have to watch the film, see what we did wrong and just try to build on it and get ready for Duke next week," Jones said. "This was an out of Conference game -- it's basically for state bragging rights. The Duke game is definitely more important than this game"
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