East Carolina Has a Plan

Virginia Tech isn’t passing off its defense as anything close to last year’s national leader, especially after giving up 410 yards in its season opener, a 52-23 victory over Akron last Saturday.

But East Carolina Coach Steve Logan, whose team takes on Virginia Tech tonight, believes the 10th-ranked Hokies (1-0) still have superior speed on that side of the ball.

“You’ve got to chew up half the field in one play. Driving the ball down the field against them is not the idea,” Logan said of Virginia Tech’s swarming unit. “You better have an explosion play, then you’ve got a chance to score.”

Frank Beamer has built the Hokies into a national power the last five seasons, going to the Sugar and Orange bowls in 1995 and 1996 and losing to Florida State in the national title game last season.

But thirty-one players dressed for the first time last Saturday and it’s unclear to Beamer if his team is ready for a big game against East Carolina (0-1) in an unfriendly atmosphere.

“If we had those guys who went to those bowl games I would feel a little bit better about this game,” Beamer said. “When you are taking that much inexperience to a place like Greenville, you get a little concerned about that.”

The national TV game features two superb quarterbacks in Virginia Tech’s Michael Vick and East Carolina’s David Garrard.

“Going around this summer everyone I talked to, the East Carolina game was the game they were talking about,” Beamer said.