Hokie low

If you had told me Kansas would come out and throw all over VT's defense, I might have believed it. If you had told me the offense would sputter against a quick KU defense that only allowed 16 pts/game, I might have believed it. But the fact that the Jayhawks came out and beat the Hokies in the area that has brought them fame is simply shocking to me. A blocked field goal, a fake punt for a first down, two 60+ yard punts, a missed FG return for 40 yards. That's right, Kansas' SPECIAL TEAMS won the Orange Bowl for the Jayhawks, upsetting my 3rd ranked Virginia Tech Hokies 24-21.

In fairness, the Hokies played a very poor game. Glennon and Taylor completed less than 50% of their passes and threw 3 deadly interceptions, one returned for a TD, and another returned to the Tech goal line. The offensive line did a miserable job protecting the QB, giving up 5 sacks, including on consecutive plays on the opening drive which took VT out of scoring range. However, what makes Virginia Tech a great team, is they normally win games like this. They normally can pull out those games where the make mistakes, with special teams and big defensive plays. But yesterday, it was Kansas that pulled out the big special teams plays and big defensive plays, and that made all the difference.

Congratulations to Mark Mangino and his team for the win, but they beat VT at their own game, and that's what stings.