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Thirty minutes dim Hokies' bright season
After Chick-fil-A Bowl disappointment, Hokies look to the futureDate published: 1/1/2007 By JIM McCONNELL ATLANTA--It wasn't the national championship game. It wasn't even a BCS bowl, but Vir-ginia Tech's players and coaches still knew the significant implications of their Chick-fil-A Bowl showdown with Georgia. Saturday's game offered the 2006 Hokies an opportunity to do something no other Virginia Tech football team has done: win back-to-back bowl games. A victory over a perennial Southeastern Conference powerhouse would've been a crowning achievement for a squad that has mostly overachieved this season. It also would've provided a psychological springboard for '07. Instead, the Hokies' second-half collapse turned a 21-3 halftime lead into a 31-24 defeat, and sent Frank Beamer's team into the offseason with a sour taste in its mouth. "It hurts a lot," Virginia Tech cornerback Victor Harris said late Saturday night, long after most of the bowl-record 75,406 fans had filed out of the Georgia Dome. "We let it slip away, and we didn't want our seniors to go out like that." A year after losing nine players to the NFL, Virginia Tech's roster was dominated by underclassmen this season. But it was the seniors --from defensive end Noland Burchette to rover Aaron Rouse to linebacker Brenden Hill--who held things together when back-to-back losses to Georgia Tech and Boston College threatened to tear the Hokies apart. After clearing the air in a team meeting, Virginia Tech won its next six games. It destroyed a Clemson team that came to Blacksburg with a No. 10 national ranking, beat Miami in the Orange Bowl, dominated ACC champion Wake Forest on the road and blanked rival Virginia for a third consecutive 10-win season. Life was so good in Hokie Nation, quarterback Sean Glennon uncharacteristically allowed himself to muse about a run at the 2007 national championship. Virginia Tech certainly looked enough like a contender for the first 30 minutes of Saturday's game. Electric wideout Eddie Royal tossed an option pass 53 yards to Sam Wheeler for one touchdown and returned a punt 54 yards to set up another score. Branden Ore scored on two short runs. The Hokies' top-ranked defense surrendered a field goal on Georgia's first possession, then limited the Bulldogs to 2 yards of total offense on their final five first-half drives.
Date published: 1/1/2007
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