Virginia Tech needs help in ACC division race

BLACKSBURG—Sunday morning, Virginia Tech cornerback Rashad Carmichael got the bad news while waiting in line at Bojangles’. He overheard customers in line behind him talking about how, a day earlier, Miami lost to Clemson.

Despite the result hurting the Hokies’ chances of making the ACC championship game, Carmichael brushed it off. “It doesn’t matter to me,“ he said later.

Defensive tackle John Graves, of Meadowbrook High, learned of the loss after Saturday’s practice. But he didn’t let it ruin his night. He headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings with backup linebacker Bruce Taylor and enjoyed watching an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on television.

Miami’s loss dropped the Hurricanes to 2-2 in conference play. The Hokies and Georgia Tech, the other likely contenders to win the ACC’s Coastal Division and advance to the title game, are 3-1 and 5-1. But even if Virginia Tech wins its four remaining ACC games, it needs Georgia Tech to lose one of its two remaining league games, Wake Forest and Duke, because the Yellow Jackets beat the Hokies in their last game, Oct. 17.

While the Hokies root for that to happen, their coach, Frank Beamer, is encouraging them to focus on what they can control, starting with tomorrow night’s home game against North Carolina.

“When it all comes down to it, we still have to win out,“ said senior left tackle Ed Wang. “Because if we don’t win out, then none of that really matters.“

Even if Georgia Tech wins the Coastal, the Hokies (5-2) can still finish with 10 victories for the sixth consecutive season if they win out; they also play a non-league game at East Carolina. They realize, as Carmichael and Graves did this weekend, that even though the Georgia Tech loss crushed their national-championship aspirations, the season is not yet a failure.

“If we win out, it still can be a special season,“ said senior left guard Sergio Render.

After Georgia Tech beat them 28-23, they were in a three-way tie with the Yellow Jackets and Miami. The Hokies still had a shot at making the ACC title game for the third consecutive season.

If the three teams won their remaining league games, the Bowl Championship Series standings would have broken the tie, with the highest-ranked team winning the Coastal. That is, unless the margin between the two highest-ranked teams was five spots or fewer. In that case, the head-to-head winner between those top two teams would play for the conference championship in Tampa, Fla.

Though the Georgia Tech loss left the Hokies trailing the Jackets and Hurricanes in the first BCS standings, they were two spots behind the Miami and four behind the Georgia Tech, each of which had a challenging non-league game remaining—the Jackets against Georgia, the Hurricanes against South Florida.

But for now, the BCS standings can’t help the Hokies get to Tampa. In the span of two weeks and two losses—theirs to Georgia Tech, Miami’s to Clemson—they went from hoping to play for the national title to perhaps being eliminated from making their conference championship with three games left in their season.

“We just knew we [messed] up,“ said senior tight end Greg Boone. “We had a great situation for the rest of the season. We just [messed] it up.“

Georgia Tech’s games against Wake and Duke are Nov. 7 and 14. The Hokies are off that first Saturday, two days after they play East Carolina, and play at Maryland the next Saturday. Depending on kickoff times, they might be out of the ACC title hunt before they even jog onto the field in College Park.

Or they could get the help they need, as they did last season. After losing at Miami, they were 3-3 in the league, while the Hurricanes were 4-2 and North Carolina was 3-2. Then Miami lost its final two conference games, and Carolina lost two of its final three. The Hokies did their part by beating Duke and Virginia at home. They finished 5-3, tied with Georgia Tech, which they beat earlier in the season. And off to Tampa they went.

While hoping for similar good fortune, some Hokies, like senior defensive tackle Demetrius Taylor, plan to watch Georgia Tech play Wake. Others, like redshirt freshman tailback Ryan Williams, won’t worry about the Jackets’ results.

“I don’t pay it any mind,“ Williams said. “If they don’t lose, they don’t lose. They beat us. If they don’t lose, they deserve it. Somebody’s going to have to tell me. They’re going to be out there playing their own game. It’s in their hands now.“

Contact Darryl Slater at (804) 649-6026 or