Boise State Vs. Virginia Tech: Five Easy Pieces

1. Please, keep your sign acrostics short and sweet, Boise fans. You may still be relative newbies in the national scene, but there’s no excuse for this.

2. Virginia Tech dragged themselves back into this game one slugging lurch at a time, something that may be forgotten in the weeks and months to come. They slammed Boise off the line, disrupted their passing game, and faced down 17-0 like cold-blooded men staring down an executioner’s barrel. Victory was in short supply, but valor was not, especially for Tyrod Taylor. (See levitation photo below for evidence of said valor and amazing body control.)

3. The officiating was fair in that it was fairly wretched, and evenly applied. Unfortunately for the Hokies, their turn at the wheel of fortune came last when officials first retracted a block in the back call against Boise, and then called a football move made across the sideline a few plays later a late hit, giving Boise the field position to seal the victory with a 13 yard Kellen Moore TD pass to Austin Pettis. Boise kept Taylor under control for the remaining 1:09, and that’s how you get through week one of a long run to BCS-busting lunacy.

4. Good field position aside, the pass Moore made at the end of the game was truly frosty, especially so considering that Boise State had called the same route in the endzone at least two times before and Moore had missed it.

5. Virginia Tech joins the ranks of teams that scheduled large in a week when most could have backed off and played a patsy (say Rice, San Jose State, and Miami of Ohio, for instance.) Remember them fondly and specifically in your voting down the road, especially if this is their only loss. Bravery goes both ways, and VT showed plenty in both scheduling the game and in the way they played in it. Remember this in December, however, is something few may do.