3 Key Plays - VT vs. North Carolina

1) With 10:45 left in the 1st quarter, Virginia Tech was facing a 3rd an 8 at their own 13. The TarHeels had just driven down the field 80 yards for an opening TD and then had the Hokies pinned deep. A stop here, and all of a sudden UNC would get the ball back in good field position, the crowd would get into it and things might have gotten uglier than they already were. In what is becoming par for the course, Taylor made an amazing escape move to avoid a sack and then improvised with his receivers and hit Jarrett Boykin on a beautiful deep crossing route for 37 yards and a first down at midfield. The Hokies would go on to answer the opening score to make it 7-3 and managed the game from there.

2) At another critical junction - 7:42 seconds left in the first half, with the TarHeels ahead 10-6 and threatening to score, Eddie Whitley in the secondary jumped up and did battle with the Tarheels receiver Erik Highsmith. Whitley won the fight for the ball and landed with it in the end zone to end the scoring threat for UNC and it actually led to a Hokie FG. Instead of 17-6 at halftime, the score was 10-9. "Bigtime" Eddie Whitley. I like that nickname and I'm going to start calling him that. Who's that? Number 15 in the secondary? That's "Bigtime".

3) The Hokie defense was out of gas. UNC had driven 73 yards to the Hokie 2-yd line and was facing first and goal down only two scores, 26-10. Having already converted two fourth downs and two third downs on the drive this looked like a foregone conclusion. But NO!!! The much maligned Jeron Gouviea-Winslow (JGW) and Tariq Edwards (filling in for an exhausted Lyndell Gibson), collided with big UNC back Anthony Elzy at the 1 yard line as he leapt into the air and the ball popped out. In the scramble to recover the ball, it was knocked out of the endzone, giving VT the ball at the 20 yard line and ending the final real threat UNC made to comeback and win.