Virginia Tech Football: 5 Keys for Hokies Against Blue Devils

The hits just keep on coming, and not in a good way. That is how Frank Beamer, Bud Foster and the entire Hokie Nation must be feeling.

The Hokies lost Bruce Taylor for the season against Boston College, and it seems Virginia Tech can’t play a game without losing a player to a season-ending injury.

The only good news from last weekend was that Virginia Tech beat Boston College 30-14, surviving a slow start to blow out the Eagles in the second half. The win brought Tech’s record to 7-1 (3-1 ACC), maintaining their No. 12 BCS ranking.

Virginia Tech is heading to Durham this weekend to take on the Duke Blue Devils. Virginia Tech should be able to cruise to an easy win, but the Hokies need to do five things in order to win handily and continue their success in the future.

5. Backups Must Step Up

This is meant for the defensive side of the ball which has been riddled with injuries. The loss of middle lineback Bruce Taylor looms large, as he has been the top tackler this season.

Barquell Rivers must now step up and be a serviceable replacement. He doesn’t need to play perfect against Duke, but he must do his job.

Virginia Tech may also be without defensive end James Gayle, corner Jayron Hosley and linebacker Alonzo Tweedy. Tweedy was the backup for Jeron Gouveia-Winslow. Winslow is out for the season with, ironically enough, the same injury that Taylor has (Lisfranc sprain).

It is still unclear if these other injured players will be on the field in Durham. The injury report will be released on Thursday, and if the starters don’t play, the backups have to step up.

4. The Offense Has to Get Off to a Fast Start

Virginia Tech’s offense has played one good game thus far this season. That was the Miami game.

Before they faced the Hurricanes, the Hokies offense was inconsistent, and the offense has had trouble early in the last two games.

The Hokies offense struggled against Wake Forest during the first quarter, and did the same for the first half against Boston College, but from those points on they blew out the competition. This could have a lot to do with the next key on this list.

3. Give David Wilson the Ball

Offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring and play-caller Mike O’Cain need to come to the conclusion that David Wilson is their horse.

He leads this team and his statistics prove that; he has surpassed the thousand-yard mark this season after eight games.

However, with just six carries for 21 yards in the first half, that didn’t seem to matter much in the Boston College game. Let’s put that into perspective: quarterback Logan Thomas had more carries than Wilson in the half. Still, Wilson finished the game with 134 yards on 17 carries.

The best way to get your best player into a rhythm is to give him the ball. The Hokies didn’t do that until the second half of the game.

It is a pretty simple key to the game: give David Wilson the ball.

2. Logan Thomas Needs to Stay Consistent

Virginia Tech quarterback Logan Thomas has been almost unstoppable since the Miami game and had a solid game versus Boston College, throwing for 268 yards and a touchdown.

The best news for Thomas may be that he hasn’t thrown an interception since the Clemson game. He has shown significant progress as a quarterback this season.

The only flaw that has shown in Thomas’s game the past few weeks is his inability to run the zone read play. He has been misreading the defensive ends and keeping the ball instead of placing it in David Wilson’s capable hands.

Regardless, Thomas should lead the Hokies to a blowout win against Duke.

1. Stay Healthy

This may be the biggest key for this season. The Hokies are dropping like flies, especially on the defensive side of the ball, and Bud Foster’s defense can’t afford any more injuries.

The defense has lost three starters to season ending injuries in the past four weeks; they currently have five healthy starters out of the 11 that started the season.

These injuries shouldn’t lose the Duke game for the Hokies, but it could lose games in the future.

Virginia Tech has a bye week to get healthy after the Duke game, but they head to Atlanta to take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets thereafter.

The defense needs to be as healthy as it can be against Georgia Tech. If the Hokies have any chance at winning the ACC title again, then they cannot afford any more injuries.