'Canes just can't hang with Hokies anymore
By Dennis Dodd | CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer Follow DennisHistory will record the moment occurred sometime in this decade. The exact moment isn't important. The reality will be ...
Virginia Tech blew past Miami. Lapped 'em. Passed 'em up.
Better program. Better facilities. Better players.
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| Marcus Vick looks to match his brother's feat of leading Virginia Tech into a national title game. (Getty Images) |
Those five national championships and modern dynasty don't matter much right now. Miami's legacy is being tested. Cracks are showing. It is in the second season of this 'Not Being The Big East Anymore' and things aren't going real well.
Winning percentage in Big East: .867. Winning percentage in ACC: .667.
The 'Canes have lost four of their first 12 ACC conference games. They lost that many conference games in their final six years in the Big East.
Which leads us to Saturday's banner headline: Virginia Tech owns Miami. The Hokies have won seven of the past 10 meetings. They have won the past two, including last year's ACC-clinching victory in the Orange Bowl.
Frank Beamer has literally built the foundation of his program by beating the Hurricanes. With an undefeated season still alive, Virginia Tech's dynasty might just be getting started.
Which means Miami should be looking over its shoulder.
"We got something special going on," defensive end Darryl Tapp said.
Tapp is one of 21 Hokies starters from Virginia. That should blow your mind. Miami has only 17 in-state starters. No. 2 Texas, in a state with 14 million more people than Virginia, has 22 in-state starters.
Put in perspective: We're talking about the best and brightest of Vir-freakin'-ginia beating up the recruiting gold standard of South Florida.
All this adds to incredulity. Miami can't believe it is an underdog (6½ points). This is only the fourth time in the past five seasons the U hasn't been favored.
"You have to take something like that personally," quarterback Kyle Wright said.
"We know that there are inferior teams that want to beat us because of our legacy," linebacker Joe Beason said.
Denial will get you nowhere.
This generation of Hokies don't go in hoping they can beat Miami. They have grown up either watching it on TV or accomplishing it in person.
"When I came here I said that if we could keep the best players in the state here at Virginia Tech, we'd have a chance to play for a national championship," Beamer said. "Sure enough we did."
That title shot came in 1999, with Michael Vick. An ACC title followed in 2004. Now they're on the doorstep again, if the BCS cooperates, of another championship berth. This time with Mike's little brother, Marcus.
"Definitely," Marcus said when asked about Miami, "we consider ourselves on a par with them."
The brothers-quarterbacks are from Newport News, Va., apparently one of the hottest of hot recruiting hotbeds. Who knew?
"To know your state like Tech does it's amazing," said Jeremy Crabtree of rivals.com. "Tech develops their in-state kids maybe better than any other team in the ACC, maybe the entire country."
How can you not like what Virginia Tech has done? Beamer is one of the top-five strategists in the country. His special teams are the best in the country. Beamer came out first in a recent Seattle Times survey that asked coaches who they most respect.
There are only a couple of programs in the country where the current coach has built not only the football program but also the school.
Florida State and Virginia Tech.
Bobby Bowden arrived at a former women's college five years after football integration in the South and built a powerhouse largely with black players from the South.
Beamer survived a shaky start at an anonymous engineering school to develop a top 10 football program. Blacksburg and the school have literally grown together because of football's success.
"And I still believe we can play for another (title) with players in here from the state," Beamer said this week.
Meanwhile, unless Florida State comes to town, Miami is at risk of playing in a half-full Orange Bowl.
Will Hokie Nation ever become this jaded?
Coker is 49-7 at Miami and might be on the hot seat if he loses Saturday. Since winning the 2001 national championship, Miami has gone from zero to one to two to three losses. Two losses in a season don't cut it at Miami; three are disastrous.
"The expectation is so high that once you lose a game that's pretty much it," Beason said. "They want winners, they want a national championship or nothing. That's the nature of the city."
Here's the nature of Blacksburg. Virginia Tech routinely plays in front of a rabid Lane Stadium crowd, which has been known to rock the Miami team buses upon their arrival.
"They're home grown," said Beason, a South Florida native. "That's all that city has. You think about it down here in Miami. There's a million things going on that the average person doesn't have time to sit back and enjoy the sport part of their life. That's why our games aren't sold out and we don't have fans rocking the bus."
If that's a rationalization, it sounds strange -- and dangerous for the Hurricanes.
"They only get 65,000 fans," Wright said of Tech, "but it feels like 120,000."
Miami is famous for taking out its frustrations on the field. If dissed, they usually fight back. The 'Canes have won all three games, when they have been underdogs, since 2000.
"I don't think we're getting the credit we deserve," running back Tyrone Moss said.
Miami? Credit? The same program that practically markets its own swagger?
Just win, instead of whine, baby.
The Hurricanes' season-opening loss to Florida State looks worse all the time. They are still breaking in Wright. The sophomore first-time starter threw three interceptions in the first half against North Carolina.
The Hurricanes found themselves trailing 16-7 at halftime last week to North Carolina before rallying in that half-full stadium.
"I'm surprised we beat North Carolina with that kind of game," defensive back Brandon Meriweather said. "The real Miami will come out."
Hokie Nation -- make that the entire nation -- is waiting.
