Second verse, same as the first

– Andy Bitter

Day 2 in Jacksonville was just like Day 1: overcast and empty, though a few more fans started trickling in. Maybe it’s because we’ve been sequestered at the hotel all day, but I haven’t gotten the sense that this is the eve of a big game. As the dutiful sportswriter that I am, I will force myself to go out to the bars once again tonight to get the pulse of the fans (I do it for you, the readers, of course).Today was a pretty light day in terms of interviews. BC coach Jeff Jagodzinski and Tech coach Frank Beamer had short press conferences, which I think was more for the benefit of TV than anything. Nothing new came out of it.They followed it up by presenting the ACC legends, recognizing a player for each current ACC team. NFL Hall of Famer and Miami great Jim Kelly was the biggest name, but here’s the thing: he never played in the ACC. Miami was an independent back then. It only joined the Big East in 1991 and the ACC in 2004. Same goes for Tech’s “ACC legend” Antonio Freeman, who played his entire career in the Big East. It seems kind of misleading.

Some other odds and ends:

– We ate lunch at a place called Mongo’s, a Mongolian barbecue joint where you select raw food from a buffet line and they cook it on a grill in front of you. Memo to entrepreneurial Lynchburgians (Lynchburgers? Lynchburgites?) with some extra cash to throw into the restaurant biz: this place would be a cash cow in the Hill City. I’m on record as saying I will eat there every day if one is built, and noted News & Advance chowhound Nathan Warters said he’d eat there twice a day.

– Loyal reader Lee Carpenter mocked my bowl selection story in an e-mail today, saying I misled my readers by writing that Virginia Tech had an outside chance of appearing in the national championship and, if it loses, earning an at-large berth in the BCS.

I fully admit both are longshot scenarios (the national championship one in particular, since it would require about five things to happen), however, despite not being probable, they are possible and warranted mentioning in the story.

That said, in my professional opinion, I think Tech wins tomorrow and goes to the Orange Bowl. If the Hokies lose, I’d wager on a repeat trip to Atlanta.

– Virginia may not be in the ACC title game, but the ’Hoos were represented well in Jacksonville today. Coach of the Year Al Groh, Defensive Player of the Year Chris Long and Jim Tatum Award winner Tom Santi (top ACC senior student-athlete) were on hand for the awards ceremony.

– Read tomorrow’s News & Advance for Nathan’s game advance and my feature on Jagodzinski. I’m fairly certain I spelled his name correctly throughout the story.

– I’ll chime back in tomorrow before the game, but will first post these YouTube clips. The first might be painful for Virginia Tech fans. It’s a quick recap of the final minutes of the loss to Boston College, but it is a remarkable game. What a great finish. The second shows how Matt Ryan left everything on the field in that game. And I mean everything.

 And another reminder, send some quetions to us. I promise we’ll answer them.

NCAA volleyball: California 3, Liberty 1

– Chris Lang

I honestly had full intentions of blogging before tonight’s NCAA volleyball tournament match between Liberty and California at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium. But those intentions were pretty much quashed by the fact that I got stuck behind a procession of people on U.S. 70 outside of Hillsborough on the way down. At first, I thought it was a guy pushing his broken-down van down the two-lane highway. That made me angry enough. Then I realized that the reason we were crawling down the highway was that some dude was running down a flippin’ major roadway with a torch.

I have no idea why. Was this the start of the torch relay for the Beijing Olympics? And if so, why was it going through random rural parts of North Carolina? Might have been the most frustrating thing I’ve ever been involved with on the road. I finally blew past the torch caravan and found open round, and made it to Cameron with 20 minutes to spare. It’s not supposed to take three hours to get from Lynchburg to Durham, is it?

The match itself was a first on two levels for me. For one, I had never before been to Duke’s fabled basketball arena. And while it’s not the same was watching the game with Cameron Crazies basically crawling on your back on press row, it was still neat to see the joint and kind of soak up some of the history. Also, I have managed to go two-plus years on the Liberty beat without ever watching LU volleyball play a match.

I covered my share of volleyball out west when I worked in Arizona, and for the Flames to even take a game from Cal was a big deal. The volleyball in the Pac 10 and Big 12 is played at a higher level than what you might see in the ACC and Big East, not to mention the Big South. Liberty pressured the heck out of Cal in game two and won 30-26, marking the first time in four NCAA appearances that the Flames won a game.

Liberty is a young team, and the confidence gained by making it to the NCAAs and hanging with one of the Pac-10’s power teams will do nothing but help this program down the road. Everyone who played Friday — save for reserve Mary Alice Pike — will be back next season.

One more thing: I was very impressed by the crowd that made the trip down to watch the match. At least a couple hundred LU fans, maybe as many as 500, were in the stands, including LU athletics director Jeff Barber, LU executive VP Ron Godwin and Vines Center cult hero Tyler Baker, the injured forward on the men’s basketball team.

Be sure to read the full report on the match in tomorrow’s News & Advance.

Greetings from lovely Jacksonville!

– Andy Bitter

We’re here in Jacksonville for the next couple days covering the ACC championship game between Virginia Tech and Boston College and will gladly respond to any questions or comments you might have. E-mail abitter@newsadvance.com with questions and I’ll answer all of them, I swear. We’ll even put your name on the blog for all six of our loyal readers to see. What a deal.

First a few opening thoughts about our host city:

1) There seems to be a constant, foreboding sense of rain here. You can look around for miles (it’s flat as a pancake out here) and see rain off in the distance. I guess that’s Florida for you.

2) The stadium area seems nice. We’re at the Hyatt (nice!) right downtown on the river, near an area with plenty of bars, restaurants and shops called the Landing. I’ll report more on this after tonight, when we search for a TV — any TV — that will broadcast the Cowboys-Packers game (thank you very much to cable providers that don’t get the NFL Network).

3) It’s a nice town, but I can’t imagine how this place hosted a Super Bowl a couple years ago. Though the city is huge (seriously, it’s just an enormous mass of land), the downtown area doesn’t seem all too capable of hosting an enormous event. Again, I could be wrong (it happens often) and should be apparent when the fans start rolling in the next few days.

To riff on our game-day “By the Numbers,” here’s some early stats on Jacksonville:

874 — Square miles that make up Jacksonville, the largest land area of any city in the contiguous United States

2 — Trips to Qdoba Mexican Grill in two days.

3,000 — Estimated number of calories consumed during those trips.

0 — Ounces of regret.

33 — Profanities uttered by Virginia Tech beat man Nathan Warters while futilely attempting to fix his fried Media General-issued laptop (approximate)

1 — Working laptops the two of us will have for the remainder of the trip.

As for the game, we’ll get to that stuff tomorrow, when the meat of the pre-game talk starts. Be sure to read Nathan’s feature on Josh Morgan and my story on how the bowl selection process could play out in Friday’s paper.

’Til then, send some questions.

Virginia Tech 33, Virginia 21 — Final thoughts

– Chris Lang

First off, I wanted to thank the masses for all of the e-mails and thoughts during the game. Several weren’t printable. One asked me what the salacious lyrics in Soulja Boy’s “Crank Dat” really mean. Sorry. Can’t go there. That could get me in some hot water.

OK. So the blog didn’t get a lot of e-mails today. That’s OK. That means you were either at your favorite watering hole watching the game, or at a friend’s house, or even sitting in cold as could be Scott Stadium taking in the proceedings yourself.

Some kudos first:

* Tech quarterback Sean Glennon looked fantastic today, and the Hokies’ rotation at the position is working. From talking to both afterward, they both seemed to be on board with what Tech offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring is doing with the rotation. It was pretty clear that when Glennon was in, Tech was either going to throw or go with the power run game. And when Taylor was in, Tech was going to either run some sort of scramble play with the quarterback or throw a quick hitch or an out. It didn’t matter. Virginia couldn’t stop it, and the Cavs couldn’t tackle the athletic Taylor.

* Virginia’s Mikell Simpson, who was effective against a Tech defense that held Miami to minus-2 yards last week. Simpson ran 16 times for 81 yards and scored on a 27-yard touchdown run.

* To Tech’s secondary, who not surprisingly dominated Virginia’s receiving corps. Virginia quarterbacks Jameel Sewell and Peter Lalich completed a combined 17 passes. Only three went to receivers, two to Maurice Covington and one to Staton Jobe. Brandon Flowers’ interception at the end of the first half, with Virginia driving and trying to extend a 14-13 lead, proved to be a game-changing moment. It led to Tech’s three-play touchdown drive in the final minute of the first half. This is a much different game if UVa heads into halftime even leading 17-13.

And some thumbs down:

* To UVa’s secondary, which was abused all day. Vic Hall, Chris Cook, Byron Glaspy. It didn’t matter. Glennon picked on all of them, trying to get his talented receiving corps into one-on-one situations with the Cav corners.

* To UVa’s Clint Sintim for slamming Glennon to the turf and drawing a personal foul penalty and an ejection in the last 30 seconds. Just a heat of the moment thing, but dumb nonetheless.

******

Onto some bowl projections for the ACC, which has eight eligible teams, with Maryland whipping N.C. State in a battle to become bowl eligible earlier today.

BCS (Orange): Virginia Tech. I just get the feeling the Hokies are going to be a much better team than they were the first time Tech and BC met in Blacksburg. The Hokies are winning games in a complete fashion, with offense, defensive and special teams contributions. If the Hokies get more of a pass rush on Matt Ryan, Tech wins next week.

Chick-fil-A: Clemson, or Virginia Tech if the Hokies lose the ACC championship game. Clemson is way too attractive of a team, in terms of fan support.

Gator: Virginia.  If BC loses in the ACC title game, I just don’t see the Gator Bowl committee wanting to bring the Eagles back for a second trip. Virginia has only made one trip to the Gator, a 48-14 loss to Oklahoma in 1991. Clemson falls here if Tech loses to BC.

Champs Sports: BC. The Orlando bowl won’t pass up a division champ to pick Wake Forest.

Meineke Car Care: Seems tailor made for Wake Forest, which will travel to a closeby destination.

Music City: Florida State. The Nashville bowl won’t pass up a chance at the Noles.

Emerald: Georgia Tech.

Humanitarian: And your prize for whipping N.C. State today, Terps? A New Year’s Eve trip to Boise. Hooray!

Well, that’s all kids. It’s been fun. Time to find a place to hunker down and watch that huge KU-Mizzou game.

I never thought I’d find myself saying those words. Wild year in college football indeed.

***

PS — Could the Twins really lose Torii Hunter and Johan Santana in the same offseason. Come on Twinkies, pony up some cash. Pay Johan. The man deserves it.

Lalich in

– Chris Lang

Virginia quarterback Jameel Sewell is being helped off the field after taking a sack from Chris Ellis. Peter Lalich in for the first time today. Tough spot, down 30-21 with 11:41 left.

End of 3rd – Virginia Tech 23, Virginia 21

– Chris Lang

Well, Sean Glennon had to come back to earth at some point. Chris Long sacks him, Glennon fumbles, and Virginia answers with a rare third-quarter touchdown, just their second this season, on a Jameel Sewell 2-yard run.

Sewell showed some stones on a key third-down play on that drive, making patient reads and finding Jonathan Stupar open for a 17-yard gain to the 2.

Tech just got a big stop on 3rd and 1, though, and the Hokies will get the ball to open the fourth quarter at its 33. Looks like this one is coming down to the wire. (Thanks for that, Captain Obvious.)

Halftime – Virginia Tech 20, Virginia 14

– Chris Lang

First, a disclaimer from Mojo: “I was picking the halftime score, not the final. And you, you sniveling idiot, you went and put it down as the final score. I hate you.”

Monkey needs an attitude check. I swear.

Kudos to Virginia for playing Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Shining Star” just before halftime. Made me think of Elaine’s little kicks dance during the company party at J. Peterman’s.

OK… game-related stuff. Tech has no business being in the lead here. Virginia’s Jameel Sewell threw an ugly interception in Tech territory. Who it was intended for, only Brandon Flowers knows. He’s the cat who intercepted the ball. Three plays later, Sean Glennon was hitting Eddie Royal for a 39-yard touchdown pass. Virginia safety Byron Glaspy is still looking for the ball.

Then Virginia’s Joe Torchia fumbles the ensuing kickoff at his own 37, giving the Hokies a shot to score right before halftime. At first, Jud Dunlevy came out to attempt a 54-yard field goal, but after a Virginia timeout, Tech tried a Hail Mary instead. It didn’t work. UVa should consider itself lucky.

Ruh, roh Rokies

– Chris Lang

So says Scooby. Tech picks an odd time to throw a trick play into the mix, and the Cavs make the Hokies pay. Eddie Royal take a screen pass, rolls left and then tries to throw down the field across his body … and Chris Cook intercepts it. The Cavs then roll right down the field and take the lead on Jameel Sewell’s eight-yard touchdown run. Momentum squarely in Virginia’s favor for once. It’s been a while since that’s happened in this series.

Anyway, I’m going to go back to looking for Erin Andrews on the field.

End of 1st – Virginia Tech 13, Virginia 7

– Chris Lang

Virginia had momentum for about a minute, when Mikell Simpson busted through for a 27-yard touchdown run to cut Tech’s lead to 10-7. But Tech snuffed that out quickly when Sean Glennon threw a 56-yard pass to Eddie Royal on the next play after the kickoff, leading to a Hokie field goal that pushed the lead to 13-7.

First quarter awards:

Top player: Tech’s Sean Glennon. The embattled quarterback has been on point all day, delivering crisp passes to wide open receivers. Protection helps.

Toast back award: Sorry Gretna fans, but it goes to UVa defensive back Vic Hall, with emphasis on the “si(e)ve” part of defensive. The Hokies have picked on Hall all day and beaten him for several long gains. UVa’s Ras-I Dowling is out. I’m not sure why. But Tech is throwing at Hall and beating him every time.

Top play: Glennon’s 56-yard pass to Royal, who got behind Tech’s coverage and pulled in a beautifully thrown ball to move the Hokies deep into Cavs territory.

Be back with more at halftime.

Virginia Tech-Virginia pregame

– Chris Lang

Chilly day at Scott Stadium. Andy and Nathan both promised to buy me copious amount of beer if I took care of the blogging duties today. Being that I like the occasional barley pop, I took them up on the offer.

The Hokies are decked out in all white today … white tops, white pants. Not sure how much I like that look. It’s much better, though, than the all-orange unis the Hokies sported at times in the 1990s.

Some pre-game notes:

* As Andy just noted, Virginia’s security folks did a nice job this year of keeping the vandals off the field. So there was no “T” added to the “V” at midfield, like there was in 2005. The Hokies, of course, blew the Cavs off the field that year, winning 52-14. So this could be a good omen for the Cavaliers.

* Some lopsided matchups to watch:

In Virginia’s favor — The Cavaliers’ defensive front against Virginia Tech’s offensive line. Chris Long is in a different class than anyone Tech can throw at him up front. He enters the game with 12 sacks and 17 tackles for loss, and this is while continually facing tricked-up schemes to stop him. If Tech’s offensive line can find a way to keep Long off Sean Glennon/Tyrod Taylor, that’ll be a huge boost to the Hokies’ chances.

In Virginia Tech’s favor — The Hokies’ secondary against Virginia’s wide receivers. The fact that Maurice Covington leads Virginia’s receiving corps with 19 receptions doesn’t bode well for UVa. Tech’s defensive backs are aggressive, athletic and ball-hawking. Jameel Sewell has made most of his hay throwing to his tight ends and tailbacks this season, and that probably won’t change much today. If a Virginia receiver can find a way to have a breakout game, that’s a huge boost to the Cavs’ chances.

* Senior day announcements are going on as I type, and the reception for Long is pretty impressive.  Even the Virginia Tech fans are applauding. Long’s No. 91 jersey will be retired at the end of the year, they just announced.

* Loud chants of “Let’s Go Hokies” going up through the stands now. Not much countering from UVa fans. Interesting.

Oh … look! Mojo’s back from rehab!

Actually, maybe he’s still in rehab. He looks like he’s in bad shape. Mojo still says that he thinks Tech wins 20-14 today. Take heart UVa fans. The monkey has not made many correct predictions this season.

Last note: I’ll be here throughout posting from the game. If you have comments or questions or just want to bash me for being a bumbling idiot, shoot an e-mail to clang@newsadvance.com, and I’ll try to answer as much as I can.