Recall that despite a mild advantage in Total Yards, our beloved Hokies were down 10-7 at halftime of the 1995 Sugar Bowl on New Year’s
Eve down in New Orleans.
To some extent; we had been our own worst enemy during a two turnover, highly penalized and downright self-inflicted first 30 minutes of play. Texas pretty much had a six day late … 10 gift points in a game that rightfully should have been a 7-zip Hokie halftime lead. Both teams were hitting, both teams were sloppy at times on offense and the Ref’s were consistently swallowing their whistles and letting them play. Hurricanes, hand-grenades, Abita, and Dixie beer flowed freely and the stage was set for could still be Frank Beamer’s biggest bowl win ever.
On to the final two quarters of play that was highlighted by sensational Hokie big-plays as a rookie co-Defensive Coordinator -otherwise known as Bud Foster- physically wore Texas down, and then quick strike deep throws from Jim Druckenmiller to Bryan Still took Bevo out.
3rd 14:32 Quarter remaining:
#32 Brian Edmonds gets his jaw-jacked on an epic open-field hit by somebody named Westbrook from Texas as we went to the double-screen well once two often. “When he comes to his clothes will be out of style.” +1 for A.B.C. play-by-play jock Mark Jones for that one sports-fans; -1 for what happened later.
3rd 12:11 Quarter remaining:
#7 Larry Green pops his right shoulder out on the hateful old-school Astroturf down on the Super Dome field as he lands awkwardly after defending the over-throw from Brown on this play. Larry did suck it up and return to play; though his (now) bad right-shoulder may have cost him an INT during a sideline break on the ball later in the game.
3rd Quarter 10:55 remaining:
Watch #92 Dt Jim Baron do something very interesting on this play. You almost have to call this a proto-Zone-Blitz as Jim reads the pass play from Texas, slides laterally down the LOS (line-of-scrimmage) then drops off into pass-coverage out in the flat as Bud Foster goes Back to the Future in play-calling terms on this one folks. Later at the 2:07 mark J.C. Price draws a true linebacking drop assignment on a Zone-Blitz call and actually gets an assist on the downfield stop on the play. Not half bad for 15 years ago – is it? (see diagram)
#6 De, Hank Coleman
#92 Dt, Jim Baron
#59 Dt, J.C. Price
#58 De, Cornell Brown
#21 Whip, Brandon Semones
#41 Mike, George Del Ricco
#55 ‘backer, Myron Newsome
#9 Field-Cb, Antonio Banks or #12 Loren Johnson
#14 Rover, Coach Torrian Gray
#24 Fs, William “killer” Yarborough
#7 Boundary-Cb, Larry Green
3rd Quarter notes:
Not a whole helluva a lot of offense outta either team; except for twin 28 yard throws by Jim Druckenmiller to Jennings and then a bad
underthrow over the ‘rong shoulder that Bryan Still somehow managed to field at the Texas 2-yardline. Pre-game, watching the VT offense warm-up along what turned out to be the 3rd Quarter goaline; I turned to my late father and told him that after watching one of our highly vanilla pre-game plays; that Marcus Parker would score the points that would beat Texas right there on the left-side handoff later in the game. Praise be to Coach God for that one; and sure enough about 2 and a half hours late M.P. gave VT the lead for keeps; virtually precisely where we had run the warm-up play earlier in the evening after the aforementioned twin 28 yard throws. Other than that; not much else happened in the third stanza of play. Neither team went much of anywhere. There were however several 15 year old oddities that dotted the 3rd Quarter landscape during the A.B.C. broadcast; among them…
- Did Druck’ have the biggest hands of any VT Qb of all-time or what? He and Boykin could have a death-match in thumb-wrestling if they ever meet yup. Though it does make one wonder why Druck’ was not at least a tad more accurate on this throws with XXXL sized mits?
- Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio and the VT deep crossing route from the Te position? Jennings did major damage on this route all nite long.
- Far out to see old-school helmet-to-helmet old-fashioned man-to-man blocking from the VT oLine – Zone blocking need not apply. I did notice that the 1995 VT oLine was downright physical and even nasty at times. Much more demonstrative and authoritative version of a VT oLine than the current one is. Fewer misQ’s and flat out missed blocking assignments that have plagued our pass-blocking of late as well.
- What was up with Mark Jones giving Todd Blackledge Mardi Gras beads in the booth right before the 4th Quarter? Did Todd have to kiss him to get them? They even matched Todd’s tie. Damn.
4th Quarter 10:32 remaining:
Coach Torrian Gray came to play and it showed as he absconded with 2 pilfered passes from the Texas Longhorns on the nite. This is what is known as “11 coverage” as one Safety takes the middle-middle and the other Safety takes deep-middle; though they appear to cross in an X like pattern (see above pic). Some will call this a robber-look as the Safeties appear to actually cross before settling into their given zone in an attempt to confuse the opposing Qb. A quasi Wr pick play inverted and used by the defense if you will.
4th Quarter 5:19 remaining:
Wow! Just watch #9 Banks get his total freak on after the very alert fumble return for 6 points by Jim Barron. Ahhhhhhh, how do I put this? Banks was getting his freak on with the invisible woman in the endzone. Dood musta been ovulating or something as Banks thrusting routine in the endzone drew tons of debris from the Texas endzone faithful, a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America and a 15 yard deadball unsportsmanlike like conduct call from the zebras.
Tech Trivia for 1 FREE month of TSL Pass:
Who invented the VT defensive lunchpail concept and what was actually inside it way back in 1995? (first correct time-stamp wins!)
4th Quarter Notes:
In terms of game-play, VT really took over on Texas who grew more and more frustrated as the final 15 minutes unfolded. Said frustrations culminated in a couple of ejections in the final minutes for fighting. In the closing quarter Texas ran 26 offensive plays good for a backbreaking 4 turnovers to close the game. That’s not good folks — though the fact that VT recorded 5 sacks, 11 Qb pressures, and 9 Qb hits might have had something to do with that. The even more bizarre part was the Texas coaching staff’s insistence on continuing to call medium to deep routes that take 3-4 seconds at best to develop. Between J.C. Price’s signature bull-rush that had me ready to call PETA; Cornell Brown coming of the edge like a wild-man and typically 5-8 defenders coming on the blitz — my copyrighted Time To Throw (T3) was simply not something Texas enjoyed on the nite. To confound matters all the more, Texas enjoyed not one, two 1,200+ yard rushers in their backfield. One of whom happened to be named Ricky Williams. Tough to not be high on giving the rock to that kinda Rb talent; and do recall that Texas lead or was close until mid-way in the 4th Quarter. Why not try to establish the run first, then play-action if you insist on medium to long passing at all costs?
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Very interesting to see the near absence –excepting screen plays of course- of so-called sit down patterns by the 1995 VT offense. Nearly all would be pass catchers were on the move when the ball arrived during this game. And it goes without saying that it is much easier to blanket anybody who is standing still during a pass play. I would like to see a return to these running routes with a senior Qb and his Jr. pitch-n-catch combo in 2010. Also impressing was one #18 Atlee Larson who routinely boomed his kickoffs 5-10 yards deep into the Super Dome endzone; thereby negating any opportunity of a big-play on a Texas kickoff return. Recall that inside of Lane, with the wind at his back, Larson actually, per se, made a few kickoff attempts sail right through the uprights. Finally, it was truly enjoyable to see Frank and Coach Hite make two different 11 man wholesale offensive substitutions to end the game on the final two plays of the 1995 Sugar Bowl. Out trotted some r-freshamen D.C. Qb wearing #5 named Clark — who if you recall had nearly beaten Druck’ out pre-season. Clark was then followed by one #11 Cody Whipple and the third team VT offense. Frank Beamer is like taking 24 credit hour overload per semester … all class.
Next up … a look at Frank Beamer the player!
In the 1968 Liberty Bowl vs. Ole` Miss.
“LET’S GO!”
“HOKIES!”
b’street
Coach Foster introduced it…the original contents i don’t remember, so i’ll go with what i know to be true at some point in time…the defensive goals/mission/values/etc.
C
Actually, no. Someone else had the original idea.
b’street
I believe it was J.C. Price and he put the other team’s grass from their field after a VT victory.
No on both.
Keep trying.
b’street
Rod Sharpless with defensive goals/values?
NY Hokie=WINNER!
[email protected] to collect NY Hokie.
Yup; they had both team and individual defensive goals to start inside the lunchpail. Later they began to dig up opposing turf.
b’street
I was at this game, and I remember the Texas fans being very vocal at the beginning. In the end, they were not. One of the funniest comments I heard people saying in the fourth quarter was “beef, it’s what’s for dinner!” It also rained very, very hard before the game. Great time. I feel it was the beginning of it all.