No. 22 Hokies Forced to Adjust Their Lofty Goals

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -- In a span of 12 humbling days, Virginia Tech went from riding high at No. 4 with thoughts of playing for the national championship to barely being in the Top 25 and hopes for a third consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference title all but gone.

What remains, the No. 22 Hokies said Tuesday, is pride and a chance to finish the season with a flourish.

"The national championship, the talk is done, and I feel like guys can relax a little more and go out and have fun and play the game for how it's supposed to be played," cornerback Rashad Carmichael said, looking ahead to Thursday night's game at East Carolina. "Put it on us and we can make the rest of the season out to be whatever we want it to be."

The Hokies (5-3) can't attain the top goals they started the season with, but they still can finish with at least 10 wins for the sixth consecutive year. To do that, they must win their remaining games, reach their 17th consecutive bowl game -- and win that also.

Only Southern Cal and Texas have also won 10 or more games the last five years.

More importantly to the players, though, is giving a better accounting of themselves than they did in losing 28-23 to No. 10 Georgia Tech two Saturdays ago, or in losing 20-17 to North Carolina on a field goal as time expired last Thursday night at Lane Stadium.

"It's definitely pride now," linebacker Cody Grimm said of the team's motivation moving into November. "We just want to come out and show everyone what type of team we can be.

"If we play the way we're capable of, I don't think we'll lose."

The Pirates (5-3) have won two in a row, and coach Skip Holtz this week has prepared his team to face the perennial defensive powerhouse that he's seen on occasion this season.

"I'm watching the film and Virginia Tech has the scoreboard that shows the stats. It's the third quarter and the opponent has negative yards of total offense," Holtz said. "This defense can get after some people. It's not just because they don't give up the home-run ball, but they are so active with such great speed. It's like they're playing with 12 or 13 people. They just keep coming at you and put a lot of pressure on your offense."

If this version of the Hokies was worthy of Holtz's assessment on a consistent basis, as has been the tradition at Virginia Tech, the preseason goals might still be within reach.

"It's been two or three plays every game," Grimm said of the costly breakdowns. "We've had games where we showed how good we can be, and that's what we want to do here."

If all that isn't motivation enough, the Hokies also have this: last season, they led 22-20 against the Pirates in Charlotte, N.C., in the season opener with 2 minutes to play.

But T.J. Lee blocked a Virginia Tech punt and returned it 27 yards for a touchdown with 1:52 to play, completing a comeback from a 22-13 deficit in the Pirates' 27-22 victory.

Coach Frank Beamer has had his team watch the play at least a dozen times since.

"That's always a sore point for us," tight end Andre Smith said. "To lose like that in the last few minutes of the game was just a feeling that we never want to feel again."

It all contributes to a visiting team that can't wait for kickoff, Smith said.

"It's a bit of everything, whether it pride or 10 wins," he said. "We want to go back out there and make a statement, whether that's beating our opponent by a lot of points, playing Beamerball. I just feel like as a whole we just want to make a statement in general."