NCAAF 2020 Week 10 Liberty vs Virginia Tech

from the commonwealth is ranked in this week's ap poll it isn't the virginia cavaliers it isn't the virginia tech hokies it's undefeated liberty university today hugh freeze and the flames travel down u.s 460 to blacksburg to take on justin fuente and the virginia tech hokies next welcome to acc network football presented by geico along with mark hertzlick and katie george i'm chris cotter virginia tech led by an explosive dual threat qb and somewhat of an under the radar transfer from kansas mark the hokies have been dominant this year running the football well last year justin fuente said we aren't good enough to run the ball when the opponent knows we're running and that all changed this offseason when virginia tech was able to land transfer running back to leel herbert he has been absolutely dominant fourth in the nation in rushing yards per game first in the nation rushing yards after contact and paired him with wretched junior quarterback and hooker who has almost 700 yards on the ground himself this dynamic duo is leading the way for virginia tech offensively and here you see their rushing numbers mark just sensational in terms of what they've been able to do leading the acc many of their rushing numbers also among the leaders nationally as for liberty the flames have a dual threat and a transfer all rolled up into one in their qb malik willis malik willis came to liberty after playing previously at auburn transferred in and this richard jr is dynamic in the run game as well he leads the way for the nation's number six rush offense in the country and he coming off a game where he also threw for six touchdowns added another uh through the air and malik willis is making absolute waves for this liberty team and the liberty team is riding those waves to an undefeated season so far yeah unbeaten malik willis here you look at the records he's already set this year we're only halfway through certainly making an impact in lynchburg for more on that impact let's go down to katie george on the field katie well at the start of this week guys when liberty broke into the top 25 for the first time in program history hugh freeze told his team monday morning take a picture of the 2-5 next year name print it out and save it he said this is something that you'll want to tell your kids about one day so definitely this team enjoyed the new found recognition briefly and then free said it's time to move on he asked the group this week how hungry are you to remain relevant in the national conversation a question he hopes his team can answer this afternoon against the hokies yeah there's hugh freeze certainly the schedule gets a lot tougher we'll talk more about that throughout the course of the show hugh freeze in his second year in lynchburg certainly making waves already with the flames and justin fuente in his fifth year this might be his best coaching performance in all five of those years given the struggles this team has had just fielding a team with all the uh clovid issues and players that they've had unavailable it's getting better for them and they may be peaking just at the right time hokies won the toss they defer to the second half so they'll kick off and we'll get a chance to see malik willis in this flames offense here early it absolutely gorgeous day in blacksburg only a thousand fans permitted in the stands as john parker romo puts toe to leather and we're underway flames will take over after the touch back from their own 25 and as i just mentioned mark we'll get our first look at malik willis the young man transferred in from auburn yeah malik was actually verbally committed to virginia tech all the way in high school to play defensive back but he wanted to be a quarterback so he went to auburn didn't work out from an auburn came to liberty and he has been fantastic so far this year you look at the numbers that he puts up they are just those seven touchdowns that's just last game this guy is fantastic and he is leading this kent austin style offense that is very creative it is run dynamic but they can pass creatively on the outside as well willis to give to mack his tailback gets a nice gain on first down joshua mack the senior from pittsburgh new york gets a good chunk on first down yeah and mack is is one of these one of these top running backs for this liberty offense and john mentioned malik willis leads the way he is 495 yards in the ground so far but joshua mack not far behind with 376 and it's just a combination of running backs they got big they got small they got fast they got tough they really have everything in this liberty backfield and expect to see a lot of guys rotating in and running back and a lot of guys rotating in at that wide receiver position as well because they have such a multiple offense that they can do many different things pick up of eight yards for mack on first down willis agenda mac and a nice hole first down for the flames there you go you're gonna see it over and over and over again run the ball first down run the ball second down short run the ball on third down and that's really you're gonna see a lot of this on both sides of the ball and expect to see a shortened game with all the running you're going to see limited possession so capitalizing on possessions during this first half first quarter is going to be so important to establish the lead in this game for either team and malik willis after the first down looking to the sideline for the call again to give them at just testing the center of this virginia tech defense right now not a great deal of yardage after no noil pollard brings him down from the center of that line yeah virginia tech has been you know good defensively all year maybe not to their standard in certain games but this is just a different style defense you're used to the bud foster defense which everybody's playing man-to-man you have keys you fly downhill a little different with justin hamilton calling the defense but a good stop there on first down for this hokey's defense mack now split wide comes in motion back into the backfield with willis the pitch out to mack has to make one man miss it does picks up about four yards it'll bring up third down and short yeah bring up third down short good job by amari barno number 38 coming from that defensive end position and coming from inside out to make that stop really good move put on chamari connor but that's a young man who used to play linebacker with a bunch of different injuries including emmanuel belmar he's playing defensive end starting playing very well at that peyton pickett now in the game at tailback virginia tech showing a little bit of pressure here on third and five may have had movement don't see a flag just yet willis flushed out of the pocket throws on the run and it's incomplete there's that laundry on the field and that might have been a free play [Applause] okay good job virginia tech offsides he's kind of the leader or captain of the team at that center position to snap the ball when he saw that to get the free play and i mean it's just it's just a really good job sometimes centers don't snap the ball you see the rest of the line just sitting there because it wasn't on the snap count he saw the guy jump offside snapped the ball free play and chris i think something interesting we've seen liberty take their time between plays so far in this game usually they go fast but they were concerned about depth issues versus a virginia tech team and so that long time allows for more rest fate to pick it and willis off target trying to find cj yarbrough something of no two mark with this liberty team they're big receivers yarborough and fritz this is the first game they've actually played together they've been on the field at the same time because of injuries this year so as virginia tech gets healthy getting players available from coven liberty's getting healthy too and getting some of their big play guys out there this could be a double pass and it will be wasn't open though as dj stubs looked to throw it back it looked like to willis mark but willis was covered well in the play really good job studying film by virginia tech defensively this is the same play they tried first fiu a few weeks back they throw it out to stubs on the side in that bunch set they want to throw it back to malik willis actually but it was sniffed out from virginia tech defensively watch how you know the numbers and the defensive ends just hustled to the football not allowing enough time for leek wool to even go out in a route third down and long now for liberty virginia tech brings just for willis steps up to try and run for it he'll be shy barno came in from his defensive end spot to make the stop but they'll be shy of the first down well malik willis is so good at just this he drops back the pass and then scrambles a lot of the running rushing yards that he has aren't necessarily on design qb runs they're more so on scrambles just like that when you see the play call too they told malik willis look just get as much as you can get because it's four down territory for us right now we understand we're facing a virginia tech team that's pretty good who knows how many opportunities we're going to have to convert gutsy called though close to midfield first drive of the game let's see if liberty does indeed snap the ball and go forward here on fourth down and three they do the handoff and they'll pick up the first down and more mac now bounces it to the outside big chunk yardage for joshua mack first down yeah and watch this offensive line the double team's working up you see the left guard jacob baden just pushed that offense that defensive line back and mack is able to bounce outside and when you have running backs in an offensive line and just a rushing attack like this chris it's risky however you just feel like you can gain three yards every time you hand the ball off and that's what liberty was thinking and couldn't stop on virginia tech's side five carries 29 yards on this drive alone for joshua mack the fake to mack willis has pressure on the outside gonna go to the end zone has a receiver wide open that'll be a score for cj yarbrough and cj yarbrough just tiptoed the sidelines i looked to see if there was a hat thrown saying that he was out of bounds at all but does not look like it fantastic job of getting to the outside and watch the pocket they keep five in to protect plus a running back and a tight end and a wide open cj yarbo down the sideline the quarterback's gonna like that and i don't know if he's gonna get six touchdowns through the air but it's a good way to start off in this game alex barbier with the p-a-t and liberty 25th ranked flames up seven to nothing early in blacksburg [Applause] the liberty flames take the opening kickoff 75 yards willis to yarbrough for the score mark how did yarborough get so wide open here well in the middle of field you see 24 devin taylor that post safety his eyes go to the bottom of the screen that leaves brian murray man-to-man at the top a good double move by cj yarborough and just working his way in the back of the end zone malik willis is able to see that it's man-to-man out there good call on the routes with the double move and wide open for the touchdown that's something that virginia tech is going to have to fix or they're going to keep going back to it bouncing kick to herbert who returns it to the 24. so we saw willis guiding this team to a touchdown on his first drive let's see what hendon hooker can do now in his opening drive for the hokies yeah you saw dj stubs the wide receiver going down making the tackle on kickoff it's all hands on deck when you're playing acc opponents for these liberty flames but you know hendon hooker just i think we talked a lot about malik willis and his and how good he is but hendon hooker has been fantastic 10-4-10 last week i've never seen 100 completion for a guy who played the entire game oh yeah and by the way three rushing touchdowns last week and it was a real bounce back week for him and this virginia tech offense that's the receiver trey turner on the carry he won't pick up much if anything as the flames string it out led by chris megan in the quarterback and make the stop [Music] let's see how they go virginia tech goes this first offensive drive a jet sweep to start it off you gotta think that's just trying to soften up the defensive front and soften up you need because that defensive front for liberty is gigantic these guys are six five six six three twenty five just some big bodies up front fake to blackshear hooker's gonna keep it right into the teeth of that defense he picks up a couple it'll bring up third down and long for the hokies on their first drive yeah good job up front by liberty defensively elijah james the senior out of chicago illinois got a big push up front and him with ralph's russians a couple of huge guys up front and this is going to bring up third down in virginia tech just has not had third and longs very often because they are so good on first and second down hooker has time now the pocket breaks down he'll try and get it on his own and he can't nice job of breaking down and making the tackle by anthony butler it'll force a punt from virginia tech on their first drive of the game but let me tell you this is not an easy thing to do for anthony butler as hendon hooker moves and he is quick and agile and anthony butler just takes away the space you tell the linebacker take the air away before you make the tackle he didn't break down or anything just shot through the legs that's a huge third down stop for this liberty flames team oscar brad burned with the punt fair catch made at his own 25 flames will take over again when we come back up seven let's check a flag on the play before we go to break that was a 49-yard kick by oscar bradburn both these teams have outstanding kickers and punters especially virginia virginia tech both up for postseason awards so bradburn with a 49-yard kick there'll check the flag stewart mullins is our referee today get a chance to hear from him illegal substitution 12 players on defense penalties decline first out coach fuente taking the big kick and pushing the flames back to their own 25 that's where they'll take over when we come back [Music] acc network football is presented by geico you could save even more by bundling home and car insurance flames up seven early in blacksburg virginia tech defense back on the field for more let's send it down to katie george on the field katie well guys during that last break on the defensive sideline for virginia tech d-line coaches built here length and daryl tap told their group don't cheat the system just trust what we do trust our game plan keep your eye on the ball because it's coming to you so these coaches wanting their guys to settle in and keep things simple up front you know we saw daryl tap there he doesn't need to wear an orange shirt we're going to know where he is on the sidelines he is loud and boisterous you will know where he is at all times barking orders out to this team and that was a much better job on first down there mark yeah no they must have listened and you know daryl tap that that's why he's on this staff he has a lot of knowledge in terms of defense but you know a guy who played 11 years in the nfl just he has so much experience and just so much knowledge of the game and so much respect from the players that you know he's kind of that motivational figure if you need a kick in the rear end to get to get fired up he can do it willis back to pass and has time out to the outside try to hit yarbrough again incomplete dorian strong the true freshman in the coverage coming up next pitt looks to snap their four-game losing streak they're gonna face florida state right here on the acc network then on the espn f they'll kick at four o'clock pit's one of those hard luck teams when you think about it this year mark they've been in so many games you just haven't been able to close them out so see what they can do today against the [Music] knolls third down and long for this flames team after driving down the length of the field in their opening drive for the score willis now with pressure moves the pocket to the outside ball is tipped up in the air and incomplete earlier in the game but this is kind of just an interesting concept you go empty and basically run a roll out pass out of empty i don't you don't see that very much but you see 38 of mark barno he's 6-6 the tallest player on this virginia tech defense getting his hand up in the passing window and that's a good job defensive line stepped up huge and i'm sure darrell taps happy and virginia gets the chance to get the ball back damien robinson from his own 24. makes one man miss makes another man miss now tries to find his crease still on his feet dragged down at the 43-yard line so good starting field position for virginia tech hokie's back on offense when we come back down seven at home quarter here in blacksburg flames up seven to nothing over the hokies these two teams separated by about a two-hour drive lynchburg is about two hours east of blacksburg northeast gorgeous day here in the hills of western virginia maybe two budding rivals here is liberty now in their third season second full season of fbs play poker now they give the blackshear tiptoeing his way for about three or four yards for more on this virginia tech team katie george is on the sideline katie well guys i just got some unfortunate news for this virginia tech offense khalil herbert one of the most electric players in college football is out for the rest of the game with the hamstring not only does he bring the yards and the touchdowns on the field he's a huge leader for this offense so his presence will be missed that is a big big news story right there herbert who was he returned the opening kick mark and remember it wasn't a big play this could be and it is down the middle the field turner with the grab and it'll be a first down at the 38 yard line for the hokies herbert returned that opening kick mark and he went off and he's out for the rest of the game this is what they'll be missing now the rest of the way yeah i mean you look at the importance that he has those are fbs ranks not acc ranks i mean he is phenomenal and it counts for so many of the yards total yards that virginia tech has you know real reason why they have four wins on this season they are going to miss him desperately wow that's a risky play right now yeah try a little trickeration it definitely blows up and herbert the focus of our geico spotlight on the day and for good reason leading the country in all-purpose yards and the hokies will be without him now he and blackshear have split time this year so blackshear is the transfer from rutgers he has gotten a lot of play in time so he's going to get a lot more play in time today look like liberty may have jumped could be a free play for the hokies hooker tried to go up top to a double covered receiver and caleb smith but we'll get the call here momentarily [Applause] there's blackshear very successful you know dual threat career mark and rutgers great at catching the ball out of the backfield although they haven't used them that much in that regard this year no yeah he had 14 starts while he was at rutgers he had 300 yard games in the ground and you know he is he's a guy who was explosive they used him in the slot a lot this year but he was hurt and had dealt with some coven related things early so this is really going to be the most action that he has seen this entire year now that khalil herbert is sidelined and yeah we talked to justin fuente in terms of these two guys who have come in in the transfer portal and they you know they both are electrifying they were excited to have both rain rheem blackshear and cleal harper in the game at the same time today but now it's going to be all raheem blackshield yeah i just mentioned they like to use him out of the backfield he's so capable in that area they tried to go with him on the screen and butler was just fantastic in terms of coverage from that linebacker spot for the flames so third and 14. liberty brings just four hooker steps up he may try and run it he does good spin move still on his feet gets closer to that marker but butler eventually tracks him down shy now what do you do if you're virginia tech they got a kicker with a big leg yes he wants to do yes you see the just the running ability that hooker has but this is the area this would be able to set up for a long field goal but though you mentioned brian johnson they said he probably has a range of 58 yards ish so this is going to be well within his range to put three points on the board 41 yards for johnson and it is good so virginia tech gets on the board [Applause] johnson comes in and makes his 13th field goal of the year in 16 tries certainly a candidate for the luke rose award at the end of the year and he's good from he could hit from 55 if need be yeah he could yeah that's a good good drive though by by virginia tech obviously you're on the sidelines i'm not sure at what point they realize that uh khalil herbert wasn't gonna be able to go but you get in the huddle you say okay look we can still do this and stick with our game plan hendon hooker had a fantastic pass over the middle to trey turner to get the big yardage and really that's kind of what that first drive was i think that when we talked to scott simmons the the defensive coordinator for liberty said look we know we're not going to be able to stop them all the time but we gotta at least hold them to field goals when they get down close to that red zone a good job a liberty defense on that one it's gonna be really interesting for us to see if virginia tech changes their game plan at all without khaleel herbert in the game [Applause] brian johnson kicking off for virginia tech sails it down to the two that's where lewis picks it up for the flames and he brings it out just about the 20-yard line first time we've seen shedro lewis he's kind of their their black shirt if you will for liberty all-purpose guy on a smaller back and use them in a lot of different ways last time out for liberty you were talking about lewis where's that number one we got to watch some of that virginia tech film from last week where they played louisville and it's funny watch cedric lewis he looks just like due to outlaw at well out there small fast speedy number one good back in his own right trying to get it out to mario douglas that's a nice play on first down good pickup you know this offense we talked to offensive pointer ken austin during the week mark he spent so much time up in canada and and he talked about how up there you have to create on first down because you have one fewer down to work with and there's a lot of motion up there and you can kind of see how we work some of that in with this liberty office yeah it's really interesting you know in canadian rules football you have three downs to pick up a first down and the field's also bigger so you can be creative with your routes he said look i took a lot of those same creative route combinations and just fit them to this size football field and some of them i had to throw in the trash because they didn't work it didn't look good but some of them really do work and i'm excited to see this creativity as this game progresses give the max swallow it up right at the line of scrimmage he'll be lucky to get back to the line of scrimmage divine diabolo coming up from that free safety spot to bring him down vine diablo has had a fantastic year and with this defense that justin hamilton is running it's a little bit different than bud foster bud foster just loved playing man-to-man everybody was man-to-man across the board and now we got a little bit more zone that trickles in and divine diablo said look i really like playing in this zone defense i feel more free to make plays and you saw right there down by the line of scrimmage he's able to come up and make a big stop before his third and one he wasn't able to pick up the first down so again third and one bigger pack that's pickett trying to get to the sticks still churning his feet look at that strength finally the whistle is blown he refused to go down but i'm not sure he was able to keep those feet turning enough to pick up the first down yeah it'll be dependent upon when they decide his forward progress was stopped looks like he might have picked up the first down and just watch look he's going against jared hewitt probably the hardest worker strongest dude he was a weightlifting champion in high school and you ever have one thing written down on my sheet for peyton pickett it's thick legs this dude has got massive tree trunks below the belt it's uh wow good job picking up that first down and look at those look at those bad boys that's uh i wish i had legs like that could have played more years he did pick up the first down now willis dropping the snap he just got to make something happen and that's his specialty makes a lot happen on the broken play [Applause] just a tough fumble snap but he picks the ball up with confidence his eyes are up and sometimes you just say look just fall on the ball but demar connor over pursued a little bit got outside of him and and you're able to pick up nine yards when you fumble the ball in the backfield that's just the type of talent athleticism that malik willis has you see his numbers there on the season he's just went over 500 yards rushing on the year responsible for 15 touchdowns already this season for willis that's pickett nice tackle on the outside rachard ashby you would expect that out of ashby but still a good run by pickett yeah if you want if you want someone to tackle a big ball carrier cue up number 23 ray shard ashby i mean they call him rook but this guy justin fuente said he's probably the best bad body football player he's ever seen he's not necessarily the guy who's gonna scare you coming off the truck but he uh he is physical he is dynamic and just for the past four years he has led the way for this virginia tech defense just a really really good solid player inside the final minute of this first quarter liberty's had a lot of success on first down coming into this play marked 8.3 yards they averaged on first down not so much on that play but to our point earlier and what ken austin wanted to do he can't get behind the chains here with this going against this aggressive virginia tech defense yeah no you can't and i like what they're doing though offensively they're sprinkling in some outside plays it seems to me like they're going east and west when you sideline the sideline on the first couple plays then hitting up the middle and it just it softens the defense up a little bit makes them run and gets the d-line tired okie's coming with five willis flushed on the run he turns the corner and has room to run inside virginia tech territory that's not easy to do i mean the old virginia tech defense knows you're rolling out to the to your right they've got guys in position and he just bobbed and weaved around the edge and made it third manageable that third manageable will have to wait end of the first quarter successful sojourn in the blacksburg for liberty up four let me come back welcome back to acc network football presented by geico chris cotter mark hertzler katie george blacksburg big story of the day was the fact that the superstar tailback for the hokies khalil herbert injured his hamstring on the opening kickoff hasn't seen any action since we don't expect him back for the rest of the game which means that raheem blackshear now is gonna have much more on his plate but this defense has enough on their plate as it is third and two for the flames and it looks like they'll pick it up behind joshua mack another first down big loss though mark without herbert for virginia tech the rest of the way yeah it is i think the interesting part for me is that he's still helming on shoes tied up i mean he looks like he's ready to go back in the game but we've been told that he's out for the rest of the game and you know hopefully it means it's not too bad of an injury in terms of a hamstring pull or just a strain so he'll be back next week it means so much to that offense willis going up top defended nicely by dorian strong this true freshman cornerback everybody talked about him during the week mark he showed up on that play first of all awesome collegiate football name dorian strong strong's on your back you play like this really good job locating the football but yeah when we talked to divine diablo today said look he is probably my favorite of the freshman he comes to work he's hard working he also said that he uh he can dish a little bit too he called uh called divine diablo old head because he didn't know the words he's some uh new hip song that he was singing on the side i mean it isn't like diablo's rh you would think he'd be whatever song that strong was singing you would think diablo would know the words the song he did not so an old head we get called that every day but it's not so often that a senior in college like divine diablo which you'd call the old head but that's his role now in this secondary it's all relative and it's actually you know it's funny to find diablo is he kind of embraces it he's you know he said you know reggie floyd was the guy last year i mean he was the guy and you know i had some leadership qualities in me too but i didn't really want to compete with reggie floyd in terms of his leadership and people looking up to him now reggie floyd's gone this is my team i'm a fifth year senior and he has been a voted captain and a huge leader of this team big third down here for this defense to get off the field flames looking to extend this drive willis to give trouble in the backfield that's shedrow and i don't think lewis was able to get that first down ray shardashi was able to come up from that linebacker spot and put the spot stop on ray shardashby so look at him inside using his hands getting off the block by the center or i think it was brandon shutler but great job at just finding the ball anytime you have linebackers walked up in the line of scrimmage that outside zone play can hurt you but now at fourth and three we've seen liberty already convert on one fourth down let's see if they hand the ball off again on this drive [Applause] 10 on the play clock willis looking over to the sideline fourth down and three [Applause] virginia tech showing pressure now they come out willis flushed out he's in a little bit of trouble here now down field as a receiver did he get a foot in bounds let's check the official he says he did wow what a throw and catch that's kevin shaw on the reception but jamari conor came off the edge just missed the sack but look at that ball does he get his feet in pounds the referee is right there that is perfectly placed look where shaw is when he throws this ball unbelievable and the fact that breon murray or i think it's amari chapman wasn't back there can't let a guy get behind you they're replaying this play right now we'll let you know the decision when we come back call was confirmed on the field it was a catch by kevin shaw so the flames now set up first and goal from the three willis would pick it in the backfield drops the snap now picks it up just has a nose for that end zone but can't get there this time around didn't get a yard out of it though barno with the stop here's that 35-yard completion mark yeah and this is a scramble drill as you roll out this right now it turns into a scramble drill and the wide receiver is told look find the front corner of the end zone that's exactly where that ball was placed perfect placement by malik willis right dropped it in there to his wide receiver kevin shaw and i mean that is an nfl level play and we got an injury on the field let's check on that when we come back injured on that last play for virginia tech we're just 12 you know 12 26 mark of this second quarter mark we've already had three players for virginia tech hobble off the field one of them is their starting tailback another one is a starting defensive end here in barno and they're already thin at that position yeah and barno you saw him make a couple good plays early in this game on that first series and he's probably their best pass rusher from the dn position too and emanuel belmar is already out of this game so they are very thin at that spot and so right now looks like i don't know who they have in there right now i think it's maybe jalen griffin or eli adams willis throwing touchdown jerome jackson the tight end his first touchdown of the year what an efficient drive 14 plays on this drive for the flames oh and really good job on the play fake pulled devon taylor the safety up on the run action fake and wide open for jerome jackson in the back of the end zone i mean the run threat that liberty poses has been playing in the minds of these safeties over and over and over again and they've allowed guys to get behind them too many times so far in this first half barbier with the p-a-t 14 plays mark 80 yards seven minutes and 15 seconds off the clock so now they have two long touchdown drives in this game and you said it before their team that we're used to seeing going quickly they're slowing this thing down and limiting virginia tech's possessions and it's working for him the first drive that ended in seven points was a six plus minute drive this one was a seven minute drive this has got to be the game plan i mean anytime you face a team where as you freeze says look they're bigger they're faster they're stronger they're deeper than we are you gotta use the clock to your advantage and having this consistency and being able to string together 14 play drives like you've seen so far in this game i mean really liberty to me they are by far playing better than virginia tech and it'll be really interesting if virginia tech can mount comebacks they have before this season but without cleo herbert it's just a much tougher task yeah this is part of the game where they're going to miss herbert you know we mentioned how he led the nation in all-purpose yards coming in it wasn't just running the football in that offense he returned kicks he returned punts injured on the opening kickoff so now raheem blackshear whose role is just going to be so much more in this game back to return it but this is out of bounds badly and so it'll be good field position to start this drive for virginia tech let's take a look at our new york life drive recap [Music] and this was a third down conversion first mark yeah it was huge big push by the offensive line and set up i mean this scramble with just an absolutely perfectly placed ball and great concentration on the outside to get both feet and bounds and then the touchdown pass to the big tight end in the back of the end zone i mean this that drive incorporated run pass roll out screens pretty much every type of play you can imagine really well called by that offensive coordinator kent austin the fate to holston hooker with the punk fake pocket collapses stays on his feet nice job to find his back up out on the outside and you got a flag on the plate let's check that gotta be holding on to the line holding number 76 offense 10-yard penalty [Applause] brock hoffman the guilty party center brock hoffman's probably one of their best offensive linemen but he just got pushed back on that last play right into the quarterback holding was all he could do to not give up a sack impressed with this liberty defensive front they've been stout so far in this game first down and 20 after the holding call i mentioned jalen holsten now in the back field of fake to him hooker looks to carry it can't quite slip that first tackle [Applause] as treyshawn clark tracked him down you see him on a defensive end he just read the bootlegging i mean that's really really good hustle play with turned back in on the outside by anthony butler good run down by treyshawn clark and you know second and 15. gigintech has been so good on first down they haven't had many second and longs this year but need to get back on track a fate to holston took her over the middle complete to turner and that's a big chunk of that yardage cedric stone was there to bring down turner that could be a first down looks like a first down for the hokies yeah it is this is a little b-line play the philadelphia eagles made this play famous and probably 2013-14 where you just ride the ball in a little bit and just throw it right over the linebacker's head good execution they've had two big completions on that same play in this first half good fake to holston hooker has all kinds of room here inside the 40 inside the 30 making men miss all the way down to the 21. great run by hendon hooker and i think it's important to get him going with the run game early you see the read options it's a true read option good job of pulling the ball and after the players personal foul weight hit out of balance yeah i don't i don't know how you can avoid that however with him and he didn't drive him to the turf either way it's a half the distance so virginia tech in good shape here first and 10 from the 11 yard line of the flames looks like maybe a busted play can hook her make something out of it picks up a couple yeah miscommunication jalen holston went the wrong way on the handoff yeah he goes to hookers left and hooker hands the ball off to the right and it's just little timing things like that you know just a little thing like being on the wrong side of the quarterback it doesn't allow any running back or linebackers to bite on the play fake second down in eight hokies can get a first down at the one yard line fake to turner hooker just doing it all himself on this drive inside the five smith just gets around and good job finding the lane but that hole closed up much faster than i thought they were going to anthony butler got in there and cedric stones down the field we'll check on him when we come back from break the acc field hockey championship is tomorrow at noon eastern look at these two heavyweights carolina and louisville very familiar with each other they're gonna battle for the trophy right here on the acc networking on the espn app tomorrow at noon when we begin our sunday best hooker's been his best on this driver responsible for every hokey yard and he's going to try and add some more then he won't get there he may even lose a yard [Applause] pursuit on third down by kid glass and the rest of the flames bring him down yeah watch darrell johnson just absolutely mush back the tight end was able to get in his way and fantastic job bringing him down and right now hendon hookers staying on the field last week they got in this situation a few times and a lot of it was bring trey turner in a motion fake the handoff and let hinden hooker do it on the ground see if they think something similar in this game or if they just try to draw offsides can't get a first down on the one mark so it is not in goal to go hooker's going to look to throw has a tight end and a score nick gallows first touchdown of the year we gotta tie it in for the flames getting his first touchdown of the year and gallow now on answers for the hokies with his first score yeah nick gallo fantastic player in his own right he's only a true sophomore plays behind james mitchell a lot of times but any time that you're down near the goal line those tight ends are big threats and nick gallo capitalizes on that long drive and so important for virginia tech to come away with a touchdown on that drive keep the momentum on their side johnson with the p-a-t [Applause] and it is now 14 to 10 liberty on top virginia tech with a nice answer mark especially given the adversity they faced here early on in this game losing khalil herbert right on the opening kick so the offensive coaching staff for this hokey team kind of having to rejigger their game plan a little bit yeah you know that's exactly what they have to do and they're utilizing different pieces you nick gallo not a guy who usually catches touchdown passes or he's even targeted from the three-yard line because usually it's just look let's hand the ball to number 21 and he'll probably score so it's a little bit change of this game plan by bradford nielsen and it worked very good drive by virginia tech going to jump out for romo to put the ball in play for the hokies shedro lewis back to receive the kick from his own goal line he'll take it out reverse he's got blockers in front of him can he get to the edge no he cannot to mario douglas forced out of bounds at the 17-yard line so a good job on special teams by the hoagies and a late flag coming out as well on the sideline and coach fuente was right down there at the point of attack when that flag came out [Music] let's hear from stuart mullins on the call well after the play had ended and fuente is hot sweating yeah i don't think that mask is covering up what he's saying when you're down that close no not at all i mean he is such good i mean good intensity his players vibe off that and he can be upset about a call all he wants you know it's kind of part of the game but when you see your coach caring that much and it motivates you it definitely does gets you gets you fired up to go play some football and with the extended sideline during the you know this season you can get all the way down there in the official's face there is no foul on the bench area after the play first down all right the officials discuss things and i guess they agree with coach fuente katie george has more on this liberty offense now it's taking the field katie well an interesting note is malik willis comes back out here on the field he was once verbally committed to virginia tech he attended a camp here back in high school justin puente saw a kid who could play three or four positions quarterback receiver db he was just that gifted but willa said it was in his heart to play qb so when auburn offered him a spot in the quarterback room he decided to stay close to home and when things didn't go as planned there well he made a change and i think we can all agree it's working out for him thus far working out tremendously for him and this liberty team coming off a bowl year last year and unbeaten ranked 25th in the country so far this year they've got a lead on the road in blacksburg pressure up the middle willis nice job gets rid of it to shedro back inside oh he gets rocked he's staying he had bad intentions when he met shedro that didn't feel good that tomorrow probably the hardest hitter on the entire team fantastic job uh this is kind of this is what william wills did at auburn got a little bit of a shot you know 12 games there not a ton of attempts but you know they saw that he had the ability to play quarterback and transferred over virginia tech i mean transfer to liberty got his shot there and right now we have another player down the field it's ray shard ashby check on his injury lots of injuries when we come back second down and five as the flame scrimmage from their own 23-yard line we'll get you an update on rachard ashby in a little bit they were attending to his right knee on the sideline so so many players already kind of banged up here for both teams but especially for virginia tech early in the going here as we're just midway there's ashby trying to walk it off i guess he still has his helmet in hand mark so that's a good sign for him willis to give the shedro all kinds of room on that right side bang down before a really nice gain seven yards picking up the first down connor again on the stop he's pissed off couture connor is mad he missed a couple plays he lost leverage earlier in this game and he's been smacking people the last two plays tomorrow connor he's a really good football player and now with ray chard ashby not in you got dax hollyfield number four backing him up armani chapman was injured earlier on in the game one of their cornerbacks had his arm being looked at so fresh set of downs for the flames and look at shedro just bouncing it outside and stays on his feet to pick up an extra yard or two connor forces matt bounds these two are going to have a little bit of a battle here throughout the rest of the day yeah i think they are and chidra lewis i mean he he's he's small he's just very fast he's only five eight 175. converted wide receiver but coach just saw that he had such natural vision every time he was on a punt return so they put him back at running back especially because joshua mack had to miss some time and he's been a really good addition to this offense and adds another dimension especially being able to get outside the tackles second down and five for the flames [Applause] willis has a nice job not to hand that ball off but virginia tech and jared hewitt had that thing covered from the jump thought jared hewitt did a fantastic job of extending his arms you see number five right in the middle he's able to extend his arms and get that left outside arm free to bring down the quarterback and that's a tough play from the opposite nose tackle position really good really good job and he is he is by far the senior leader and captain for this defensive line front back again in the backfield on third down and six douglas in motion hokies now bring it to late blitz and they get to willis ball down fumble on the play and it looks like the hokies were able to pick it up they were jalen griffin who now is getting playing time mark because of amari barno's injury with the big fumble recovery uh jalen griffin i mean what a way to start off your game as he comes in just a great job of finding the ball but you see the first contact noir l pollard i mean he's a guy he worked on his pass rush moves this offseason he trained with tyler davis the outstanding defensive lineman from clemson this off season and it plays just like that being able to beat a guy one on one provides such a spark for this virginia tech team just when they needed it the most great field position from the liberty 30-yard line to start this drive [Applause] hooker fakes the reverse he's got a blocker in front of him cuts it inside inside the 20 still on his feet down to the 17 first down i like the play call from bradford nielsen you get a big turnover you fake a reverse but keep the ball in your most dynamic players hands good gain on that first down and if you can continue to execute like that on first down with the ball and head in hooker's hands there's not going to be a lot more handoffs going on the rest of this game here's one to holston just drives that pile for an extra yard or two jalen holst and the junior out of stockbridge georgia going to get a lot more playing time now with the injury to herbert flagged down on the play 24 defense five yard penalty first down hokies will take the penalty yard at five yards first and we five to justin fuente about jalen holston and said look jalen olsen is a really good running back too in his own right and just hasn't had the opportunities because rehear green blackshear and cleel herbert are on the squad now but jaylen holtz is probably their best lead block running back for a qb run here it is right here right on cue poker what a great side step can he get to the end zone he does what a great run by hooker hokies take the lead and that's what makes hendon hooker and this virginia tech offense so dynamic a lot of people can hand the ball off a lot of people can throw screens out to the side but can you pull a guard and lead block with your running back and let your quarterback make some plays umpire did a little you know his best job of getting in the way as well uh which you love that get annoyed with being a linebacker um but in for six great job by hendon hooker and punched through the extra point and virginia tech has the lead for the first time this game you know what's interesting you talk about turnovers and how they've affected virginia tech so positively in their wins and so negatively in their losses that's nothing unusual for college football but now they have 54 points off of turnovers on the year and they've only given up seven points off of their own turnovers they convert when they get the football back as they did right there with a short field just 30 yards to go yeah it really is incredible and their defense usually does stand up the one thing that their turnovers does though when if virginia tech offensively turns the ball over it limits the number of drives that they have and when you're such a run-based offense every drive is so important in getting at least some points off of a drive so you know a lot of those big turnover games lead to losses but a lot of times it's not because the defense allows points it's just the offense doesn't have as many opportunities to score the home standing hokies take their first lead of the game at 4 36 here in the second quarter after the turnover by malik willis let's see what the flames can do now let me get that momentum back heading into the half romo with the kick this will sail out of the back of the end zone touchback for the flames coming up after our game pit looks to snap their four-game losing streak when they face florida state right here on the acc network and on the espn app two teams in the middle of that acc looking to establish themselves in the upper half especially pitt having lost four in a row and we've done a couple of those games mark just tough luck for the pit panthers they've had injury issues and they've had their share of covet issues just been close so often just haven't been able to finish the thing off in the fourth quarter let's see what they can do today against the knolls let's see what the flames can do here after the turnover led the virginia tech points it's got the waves delays this one dead yeah [Applause] blame offense five yard penalty first down that is tough for an offense coming off a kick isn't it mark yeah i mean that it's inexcusable when you come off of a break right you get a kick off you got to get everybody on the field get everything together communicate on the sidelines see how liberty responds as you said after turnover on their last drive willis rolling to the right has a receiver wide open can't make the catch boy it looked like he noah frick may have lost that in the sun how is he that wide open behind the defense i have no idea how he gets that wide open but part of the reason i think is that virginia tech is incorporating some zone coverage and it looks like there's just miscommunication between dorian strong and jamari connor as to who is supposed to be deep but either way noah frith glitched a little bit when the sun got his eyes that 12th defender the sun on that play yeah second down 15 missed opportunity for the flames now mack in motion pressure up the middle willis avoids it will he get a big gainer out of it he will still on his feet inside the floor outside the 40 down to the 43. these two quarterbacks can run the football 24 yards from malik willis i mean just absolutely left free that's amari barno good to see him back after he was helped off the field earlier but i mean he had a clear shot and luke willis just out athleticized him that's not a word but it was now oh and there's a flashlight on that play we're gonna add 15 yards dorian strong the true freshman we'll talk about some glowing earlier unnecessary roughness number 44 defense 15-yard penalty mistake here mark yeah i guess i don't know i mean it depends upon when the whistle blow blew but the guy's not down you got to bring him down i mean maybe it's just my defender coming out inside me but unless the whistle was blown way in advance it's you gotta tackle the guy but they called it so 15 extra yards on top of the seven yard completion flames now back in business mack rolls off the defender picks up about three yards tisdale on the stop for virginia tech good to see alan tisdale has had he's been battling injuries himself number 34 back in the action here for the hogans yeah you know alan tisdale he's been playing in front of dax hollyfield so far this year is just a little more speed and you know last year they said look this guy is really one year away from being dynamic and outstanding and he's on the field now because he has gained that confidence in that one year in maturity in this defense second down and seven pokies bring pressure willis hits his receiver on the outside that's gonna be shy of the yard marker to gain by about three yards so it'll bring up third down and short cj daniel is a true freshman there on the receiving end true freshman verse 2 freshman on the outside [Applause] quickly that's going to be a first down dj stubs with the easy pitching catch good recognition by willis finding the open receiver fantastic recognition they went fast that's the line of scrimmage quickly and virginia tech hadn't covered down the wide receivers i mean they're two of our wide receivers out there but only one defender they ran off gorgon strong they're just a wide open passing catch for malik willis she's good good to see ken austin sprinkle in some of that tempo and we talk about you know how they're going to respond after malik will's turn the ball over i mean this has been a really impressive response on this offensive drive [Applause] williston give the mack almost broke free almost was able to get past desean crawford but sean crawford is a big old individual so that ain't easy yeah they love having joshua mack back he missed a couple games earlier in the season but he's a good addition to that backfield oh great back shoulder throw and a completion of daniels again first and goal for the flames [Applause] so this is probably the hardest route in the history of routes to cover defensively i mean you have pretty good coverage you're in leverage it's just if you make a perfect back shoulder throw on the low hip of the wide receiver you just can't get to it really good throw and catch cj daniels does a good job of keeping both feet in bounds set enough first and goal inside of two minutes left to go in this first half knack in the backfield on first and goal willis keeps it will he be dragged down he is fumbled picked up by virginia tech and they'll blow this one dead jamari connor thought he had six staring him right in the face until he heard the whistles they're gonna rule it an incomplete pass oh an incomplete pass let's see oh that is i think that ball slipped out before his army started coming forward and you see the white hat right there they're reviewing this play now griffin has a whole handful of willis's pants and willis is going down here i thought the officials might blow this one dead anyways right here lack of forward progress i thought he was just down i thought it was gonna be a sack ball comes out and they're ruling that's an incomplete forward pass that's six for connor if they let so here's the thing okay if they rule that this is an actual fumble and there is a an immediate recovery clear recovery by the opposing team then that will be virginia tech ball however you don't get the touchdown that could have possibly happened if tomorrow connor had the free work run to the end zone usually joshua mack or somebody wouldn't have tracked him down but either way mark it certainly would have been an opportunity to put more points on the board and usually what we've seen is that the officials are usually slow on the whistle with plays like that so you can kind of see how the play turns out and then you go back and review whether it was a forward pass or not take another look and see if any body part is down which would result in you know obviously not a fumble but does not look like anything is down the ball is out of his hands and it gosh it doesn't look like the bomb is coming forward hugh freeze having a ward with the linesman there's our referee stuart mullins talking to tom zamorski our replay official this is a big review right here for a number of reasons and interestingly enough yard our stats guys saying that it's officially ruled as a sack for now meaning that they think a body part was down i think we could see martin replay that it didn't look like any of his his butt his elbows certainly not his knees i didn't see anything on the ground before that ball came out no and you know interestingly from the camera angles that we saw i also didn't officially see the ball come out of his hands like i don't i never saw that actual moment but it never looked like after further reviews the runner pardon me lost possession of the ball prior to being down the ball was recovered by virginia tech in the immediate continuing action at the nine yard line it will be their ball at that spot first and ten the plot should be set to one minute 46 seconds 146 and we'll start on the snap so another costly turnover by this flames team and specifically malik willis now there's two fumbles yeah you know he's trying to make something happen and he's right in the grasp of jalen griffin the guy who recovered the last fumble and yeah we talked about it okay yeah great it's virginia tech ball at the nine yard line however you know justin wendy's going to be upset about the fact that don't blow the whistle at that moment if you're not sure let the play play out and could have been a much different field position with 146 left in this first half for virginia tech they do keep the flames from putting more points on the board and maintain their three-point lead now hooker oh it takes a hard hit from the linebacker butler he's he just came with that elbow shoulder right into hooker just before he was down but a nice pickup on first down clockwise virginia tech two timeouts [Applause] tried to hit robinson on that slant just a little behind him [Applause] just like that it's third down i mean you could if you don't convert here on third and two which is really virginia tech's bread and butter but if you don't convert here then now it's good field position if you have to punt it away for liberty to try to score before the half [Applause] third and sure do you think hooker keeps it on this one i'm just throwing it out there yes i think so and he picks up a big game out to the 30. [Applause] it's like when you're playing rock paper scissors shoot chris and someone already throws the paper and you like come out with scissors a second later yeah he threw some scissors there and it worked [Applause] plenty of time to throw in an open receiver that's robinson he'll get it out beyond the 45-yard line so now with just over a minute left to play clock temporarily stopping because of the first down pokey's got a little something going here they are and they're finding the soft spot in the zones and hidden hookers hitting his wide receivers do it through the air very similar play this time hits the tight end got a touchdown earlier in the day this will be another first down but fuente wants to use one of those two timeouts talk things over now that he has it in flames territory yeah you know it just did a really good job of understanding the defense that liberty is playing they're playing a you know mix of cover three and cover two zone and that soft spot right on the hash or right outside the hash is open i mean you see the accuracy that hendon hooker has you know only threw the ball ten times last game only six times throwing this game but you see right there just once that flat defender moves outside that's when the ball needs to be thrown it is thrown that way and they're moving the ball down the field through the air which is not the normal virginia tech team we see however you know if this works you could see more of it in the second half hooker five of seven 62 yards 68 yards rather passing and 101 yards on 12 carries on the ground he has been this virginia tech offense with khalil herbert sidelined they're leaning on him and he's pulling him through here [Applause] now to throw has all kinds of time out to blackshear makes a man miss then gets out of bounds after a solid pickup on first down liberty changes up their defense they went man-to-man and good job by hendon hooker yo understanding that it's man-to-man i have speed advantage with wayne blackshire getting out to the flat hit him with the pass made a man miss and [Applause] you are about probably seven eight yards away from being in field goal range yeah brian johnson was hitting him from 52-55 his career long as 55. very little win today in blacksburg so he won't have that to deal with hooker over the middle gallow again short pickup on first down javon scruggs was there to make the stop in the safety position gallows hustling now to get back into position 30 seconds in the half nice pitching catch turner on the reception g-tech has one timeout remaining but they're clearly in field goal range now good type of screen good job on the move by trey turner pick up the nice yards and you know chris interestingly enough you know we called nick gala's name a couple times in this drive we haven't seen james mitchell in the ball game at all in the second quarter we have to keep an eye on that he's their leading receiver and there's a possibility he could be injured as well we just haven't seen him so so far right now without khalil herbert james mitchell i mean that doesn't look like he's getting ready to go in anytime soon james mitchell out their leading receiver they're leading rusher their top linebacker and rachard ashby and really it's all on hand and hooker's shoulders right now to the hokies apparently still have one more timeout left [Applause] under pressure and hooker just throws this one away the danger i thought maybe that might hang up there on the field of play but it does go out of bounds so he saves possession second down with 19 seconds remaining hooker got hit as he was trying to throw it away so it floated on him a bit and threw it right over the head of a receiver so not intentional grounding he was still in the pocket but you got to play it safe right now you have three points as it stands we don't want to turn the ball over [Applause] showing man-to-man liberty as it defensively now they back off in zone they bring just four poker goes up to get it and a fantastic job of coming down and bounds by evans evan fares he's a transfer from kansas that's his first catch of the year mark it's a good catch too you haven't ferrous he was 6'3 208 he's a grad student transfer and he needed all of that 6-3 to get up that that ball was thrown right over top of the flat defender good job coming down with it and they'll review to see if he got both feet in bounds first catch as a hokey look at that trajectory right over top of the flat defender it does look like he gets that right foot hand left foot really inbounds before falling out right couldn't see that he didn't you know does look like he maintained control of the football as well but you know that pass right there yeah it just reminds me of the season that hendon hooker has had so far he missed the first couple weeks due to covid related issues let's see again as it comes down in in ball doesn't move so that looks to me like a reception but you know he was out in the beginning of the year braxton burmeister the transfer from oregon he got really the first couple starts of the year and did a really good things with his legs but then hendon hooker comes back and really kind of has to earn his starting spot again and he does that and it's because he can make throws like that chris he is more of a threat through the passing game than braxton burmeister just a really good offensive drive in this two-minute drill for hinden hooker 14 seconds in this first half so after the review it was a catch it's a good look at evan fairs young man of full shear texas transferred in from kansas [Applause] before the end of this game he might end up being the most heralded transfer from kansas to make an impact on this game colston sprinted toward that pylon was forced out of bounds at about the three-yard line now what do you do here if you're virginia tech i mentioned you still have that timeout on the board you have eight seconds are you thinking two plays i think i think you you have time for two plays as long as play number one is quick i like keeping the ball in my quarterback's hands maybe fake a jet sweep or something and lead him up through the hole get down get a timeout if it doesn't work hooker looking to the end zone as a receiver bobbled by fares almost was able to come down with it we do have a flag on the players marcus haskins did a nice job in coverage after this is to the goal repeat first down that doesn't kill you that much though because you only have four seconds left you really have one play here right mark i mean you can't run a play and expect to be able to kick a field goal no you can't no there's one play left right now and i think it's interesting really regardless of whether that's an incomplete pass or not it's going to result in the same thing a field goal opportunity to get points on the board [Applause] yeah this liberty defense holding to a field goal so chris yeah it's all right 19 yards for johnson he puts it through to end the first half virginia tech making the most out of two liberty turnovers in this first half and really that's the difference in the game as we have a little bit of a break before we go to the half both coaches want an explanation as do we we'll get one here shortly please put one second on the game clock one second now that's not something you see very often usually with four seconds left the officials just let that last second tick off they're putting that back on yeah well very detail-oriented after blowing the whistle to stop that run back on the fumble uh yeah this is interesting everybody get back out there and most likely you're just gonna see the ball kick through the end zone and if that's the case and no seconds are coming off the clock maybe one play [Music] see right there a little cheat sheet special teams coordinators are known for having little cheat sheets where guys get on there maybe haven't been used to playing kickoff return and just it basically is a do do that do that sheet you look at it you say do that thing right there you do it hopefully it works and hopefully nobody gets hurt on this kickoff as we saw in the opening kickoff [Applause] khalil herbert lost for the game for virginia tech on the opening kickoff of the game and hooker is more than picked up for that slack as bouncing kick picked up by one of the up men here and eventually he wanted to make the most out of his minute in the spotlight with the ball in his hands but couldn't make anything happen and we've reached the half hokies with 10 points off of two very costly liberty turnovers taking the lead here at home and go into the locker room with a six point advantage half time before with jordan cornett and the crew coming up after this [Music] you're watching acc network football presented by geico chris cotter mark hertzler katie george in blacksburg hokies fell early mark but then they uh came back in this one but they fell down early because of malik willis yeah malik willa started off the game really hot this long ball on the outside to his big wide receiver cj yarborough set up the touchdown and then another good touchdown pass to his big tight end in the back but then it slowed down a little bit for willis two fumbles on the next two drives led to two touchdowns by that man hendon hooker and hendon hooker his first half has been absolutely dominant dominant virginia tech has 208 total yards in the first half 201 of those are from hendon hooker 100 yards passing 101 on the ground and virginia tech is up six at halftime saxby's first half stats to mark's point was really all about engine hooker putting his team on his back because khalil herbert was injured in the opening kickoff so hooker had to do the damage and he did virginia tech better in the red zone and they took care of the football those two turnovers costly as the hokies were able to score 10 points off those turnovers and they'll get the ball here to start the second half let's go down to katie george katie well chris that was hugh freeze's exact point he was pleased with everything he saw in the first half except those two turnovers he said if you eliminate the two mistakes we'd be looking at a different score here he thought they did a beautiful job controlling the clock in time of possession he says as much as malik willis is my guy and i love everything that he does on the field he has to have better awareness with the ball when he's in the red zone that resulted in a play that ended in three points for the hokies going into half hey katie it's interesting you talk about that and mark when liberty gets the ball back i kind of want to expand on that a little bit with willis but we got to focus on ending hooker here in the job he has done and now really the focus goes to liberty's defense and finding a way to stop him yeah it is and really when if i'm liberty defensively and i'm scott simmons the defensive coordinator i'm looking at just the pieces that they have left will herbert's not not in the game james mitchell their lead tight end is not in the game although we've told that he's been available to come back so really you got to focus on number two and take take away what he does on the ground and then the guy like last year will make you pay and blacks your knifes his way into this second level trace john clark tracks him down a big third down here coming up yeah big third down and a lot of times on this third and short just keep the ball in hooker's hands gives it off and that's going to be enough for a first down blackstrap is able to pick it up [Applause] you know chris a lot of talk a lot of talk goes into khalil herbert and just what he's been able to do but i think always the unsung here is the offensive line and this offensive line is paving ways for whoever has been carrying the ball today and they are just really physical and tough up front hooker has that one batted down and complete and you know blackshear is another one you know this whole last year mark when we did virginia tech we did them all the way through their bowl game the belt bowl and charlotte were constantly looking for that back that they could go to this year they get two transfers in juice herbert from kansas and batman right there raheem blackshear from rutgers it's just completely turned this team around in terms of their ability to run the football so we're not gonna sleep on blackshear here in the second half this guy certainly is capable of getting the job done yeah he certainly is and he'll look for him to catch a little bit more more passes out of the backfield as this game progresses like now here you go again you were right on the spot on second down and ten gets about three so it'll bring a crucial third down here early in the second half katie what do you got well you guys were talking about this strong offensive line khalil herbert may bring the juice when he's out there but christian darasaw brings the swag justin fuente says he's a quiet guy by nature but when he's on the field he's a tough dude he's not one to beat his chest or tell you how good he is he lets the film take care of that but every time he steps on the field he knows he has a chance to influence the game and he's not one to say much but he's competing every single snap and they feed off of that protecting hookers blind side on this pass attempt goes wanting to caleb smith so flames do a great job of forcing a punt they'll get the football back to their offense here early in the second half yeah you look at that offensive line and that's darisol big number 77 jogging off the field you've got a lot of guys who who have a lot of experience and brock hoffman their leader at that center position is you know transferred in from coastal carolina had to sit out last year but just you know maybe we have darris bringing the swag well brock often brings the nastiest that offensive line douglas trying to keep his feet cannot after another outstanding punt from oscar bradburn 54 yards pins the flames all the way deep into their own end and willis will get an opportunity to start from the shadow of his own goal post and make amends for those two turnovers that were so costly to this team in the first half yeah you take a look at his numbers 10 for 15. that's fantastic 121 yards that's great two touchdowns great but what it doesn't say is the two fumbles and he's got to do a better job of protecting the football and just keeping it close to his body when he runs with it or when he does get pressure willis from the zone five the give is to mack has room he'll bring it out to the 15. that's a first down [Applause] diablo yeah great way of getting the ball off your own goal line just a little zone seal play and good patience by joshua mack and can we talk about virginia tech's offensive line but you know liberty's offensive line we talked to their coaches and said you know what what makes them different what makes them special he said they never ever stop you see them comp hustling completely till the whistle blows they are an effort based front fake to back willis through a receiver on the outside that's good cj yarbrough was able to pick up a nice six seven yards on first down waller was there for the stop good to see jermaine waller he's been banged up for much of the year for virginia test yeah jermaine wall is probably their best cover corner he's the guy that they you know if they need a man-to-man situation they want him matched up man-to-man on whoever it was said he could have potentially played last week but just didn't want to push it and see him out there making plays [Applause] second down and five again joshua mack in the backfield with willis [Applause] give to mack inside 30 stiff arms still on his feet out at the 38 yard line great stiff arm to keep jamari connor away and pick up a few extra yards look at joshua mack on this run he's only 200 pounds i say only but he runs like he's such a bigger back yeah he does a great job of setting up the block for his big tight end number zero johnny huntley he kind of shifts to the right gets alan tisdale on the proper side of the blocker and explodes on the back side and i mean 12 rushes for 70 yards i mean anytime you're averaging three four yards of carry is great but he's almost at six he's got a real difference making this game oh looks like chuck muncie looks like a little chuck muncie if you remember yeah no doubt dancing gets in that set look at him turning his feet and still going that's a lot like chuck muncie right there playing like he's chuck muncie well i'm gonna be i'm gonna pretend i'm dorian strong chris you're an old head i don't know who that chuck muncie dude is you're the oldest head look at those legs driving i mean you know he's he's more so like the in between shedro lewis number one is the small back and peyton pickett we talked about his legs earlier he's the big back but joshua mack kind of has a little bit of everything and really successful career at maine before transferring here and this fifth year senior has been productive so far today mack with 36 yards on this drive alone and willis isn't going to get anywhere on this the option just stopped dead in its tracks by justice reed great job by justice reed but if i'm the coaches on liberty i just held my breath because i saw that ball extended and that was close to being another fumble third and six now and malik willis not a ton of the rpo pass game yet wouldn't be surprised to try to see him hit a receiver maybe over the middle off of a play action willa's going to try and do it on his own inside of virginia tech territory and picks up a first down [Applause] does he run like i mean he's a former auburn tiger does he run like cam newton a little bit mark just totally glides got long strides yeah i think he runs a little bit lower than cam runs rant gam runs you pretty much straight up and down but a little bit lower pad level for malik willis but he has that awareness you saw him look to the sideline at the end of the play to make sure he got that first down effective as cam is good decision making there a lot of room for picket to run here he's the big back in this trifecta for the flames jamari conor brings them down but not after a good pick up on first down again they continue to have success on first down you talk to ken austin about how important that was it has been all game and they've had success yeah they have had success and yo it really puts pressure on these linebackers virginia tech plays really a four to five defense so you're getting these two linebackers that don't have any backups as of right now with rachard ashby out and these guys gonna have to play the rest of the game when you get physical runs like that from peyton pickett it makes for a long day our referee stuart mullins conversing things over with one of his officials full start number seven offense five yard penalty second down willis called for a false start he just got to agree that's a god i'm trying to you know simulate a snap count if you're too gregarious trying to draw a team offsides you might get called but it's very rare to see a false start on a quarterback who's not taking a snap from under center yeah i was gonna say you usually get like the head bob or something like that but if you're in shotgun you don't see it very often at all but we got it against the flames so a second down and just as we talked about how successful they'd been on first down well now they're a little behind at second and eleven willis steps up in a clean pocket hits his receiver he had a great lane to throw from and found stubs great throw by malik willis good route you set up right there you understand the leverage but watch how malik willis throws the ball to the outside shoulder of the wide receiver we'll get to that in a second that fantastic good run when you throw the ball when you have a stopper as a wide receiver you're taught turn to the side that the ball is thrown to good job i mean league will throw in that ball and you see them sprinkling a little bit of tempo you get a big play get up the line of scrimmage get a big run they're moving the ball and really close to uh the red zone where they've been very good over the past few weeks and just when you think mark they want to go quickly they slow things down to a crawl that is all fooled on that one let's remember this place this drive started from their own five stubs gives a stiff arm to diablo and a word or two [Music] yeah good stiff worm by stoves but watch how willis delivers this ball he steps up through that b gap pocket and delivers the ball to the outside shoulder of the receiver which is away from the defender so it's just natural for dj stubs to turn his body towards that outside to protect the football and that's like quarterback 401 when they're freshman or sophomore you just said look just get the ball to him but as you advance and prepare for the nfl you got to place that ball perfectly on those stop routes liberty now back in the red zone on second down and six willis cuts it back inside inside the 10. inside the five he'll score that'll make amends for those two fumbles 95 yards on this drive their first offensive possession of the second half here mark wow a 95 yard drive against a virginia tech defense that is not something you see very often but watch how this play develops i mean everybody is in on the dive i thought he handed the ball off to depict it initially and i said oh that's going to be a tfl next thing i know malik willis has run into the end zone for six points just a really really good drive mixing in run past quarterback keep for that flames offense barbier with the point after try it's good and liberty just refusing to go away up a point now in the third quarter [Music] willis touchdown run has given the flames the lead back once again 21-20 here in blacksburg their first offensive possession of this second half another lengthy long drive this one 95 yards for the score and you see willis who had two costly fumbles in that first half congratulating his offensive line his backfield everybody on that offense that contributed to that long drive it was impressive fashion and now let's see what the hokies can do to answer barbier into the end zone it'll be a touch back for virginia tech we'll take a break we'll come back we'll get hendon hooker and the hokies with the football next wednesday is veterans day and here's a look at some of the brave men and women from around the world sporting their school colors here at espn we salute america's heroes for their incredible sacrifice and service to our country including our producer aaron owens who's an army vet thank you for your service aaron and mark you have somebody very special in your family who's a veteran yeah my wife danielle she was in the army for 10 years and retired a couple years ago as a captain and just uh really just really special i mean it's an unbelievable sacrifice that all of these veterans and and current uh service members make for us and for our liberty and for our freedom so thank you all very much absolutely thank you aaron danielle and all the veterans out there we look forward to celebrating you on veterans day on wednesday hooker now looking to respond to willis's touchdown run keeps it here into the meet of that defense for this liberty flames team and hooker had so much success in that first half mark you mentioned right when we came back to start the second half 208 yards for virginia tech in that first half 201 he was responsible for so with herbert's injury he's putting this team on his back and he's going to have to do it here in the second half now pressure coming throws where the pressure came from you taught me so well and that and robinson has room to run the pressure came from the left and that's where he went with it yeah lucky the play was drawn up that way as well a little wide receiver screen and you get you're one of your bigger wide receivers jenga hodge out in front with a good lead block number 85 and they've been relying on tavion robinson a lot this game they wanted him to pick it up a little bit heading into this matchup and he has so far the lead receiver friend and hooker so far in this game and been able to capitalize on some of those screenplays and caught a nice password in the game downfield as well now the fake to him the hand off to beshear give him about three blackshear picks up three transfer from rutgers that looks like almost like a wing t kind of a play yeah it did you're trying to get the linebackers and safety's eyes moving it's so funny how out of all the body parts on a defender that an offensive coordinator wants to mess with the eyes are the number one thing if you can get a guy looking at the wrong thing it's very difficult for him to make a play and you saw that last one that's what it was trying to affect robinson made the first man miss now runs into the back of his own line in luke tenuta but is still able to pick up a big big gain on second down got a flag though let's check it holy number 85 offense 10 yard penalty second down and that's going to be a hold against virginia tech so that's costly yeah it's changed mentioned him earlier made a good block on the previous play but here's another transfer from villanova who came to this virginia tech team and thought maybe he'd have a bigger role earlier in the season but just missed a lot of time for whatever reason you know they don't specify these days but missed a lot of time earlier in the season and looking for a bigger role today holding's not going to help that much fake to robinson hooker has time it's black sheer out of the backfield and that'll get him right down close to the stick he's gonna be a little bit shy maybe a yard shy of picking up the first down so third and one the interesting follow route you see the tight end and the running back basically run the same route probably a miscommunication you see 89 drake deleus not normally a starter but it ended up working out in virginia tech's favor this works out in their favor as well hooker on third and one that's a first down and just watch his offensive line you see big number 61 brian hudson leading the way on this quarterback draw and you're really effective whenever you pull a guard and can run a quarterback draw it just it messes up the gaps for a defender [Applause] blackster gets about three on first down now they're involving him heavily in the passing game yeah and this is what it seems like they want to do they want to if they want to run the ball let's keep it in hooker's hands or do a jet sweep to one of our wide receivers and then you know if we want to get a short dump down pass or a quick pass let's get rahim blackshear out of the backfield as a receiving threat in space and that's really been the game plan in the last two drives by virginia tech you saw darasaw coming out jancey taking his spot at that left tackle hermdon just not a whole lot of room to run that time aaron pierre with the stop aaron pierre you stepped up for this team and coach said look you need to get aaron pierre to go downhill a little better well that play looks downhill to me able to come and do a perfect form tackle on hinden hooker bring up third and six [Applause] darasol looks to be back in the game at left tackle hooker just looks to put his head down and won't pick up much big old number 50 there henry chapuzzi was there to bring him down yeah it seems like maybe four down territory for virginia tech again and that's why in third and six you you know try to pick up a couple but i don't think they picked up enough to try to go for it if it was fourth and two i'd say they keep the offense on the field but they bring in the kicker try to go up by two points you mentioned brian johnson with a big leg he's gonna need one here this is from about 51. he's going to pull this a little to the left and it's no good so much of the delight of hugh freeze the flames hold they still lead in [Applause] blacksburg get the latest news and information from the acc each and every morning with special guests from around the world of sports packer and durham weekdays at 7am eastern on the acc network and on the espn app i think katie george is a regular on packer in durham i've yet to get myself a regular spot i'm going to continue to work on that we're only a year and a half in hell yeah with that i mean wes come on help me out with that one flames starting another drive and they've had some impressive drives this year mark think about i mean this season think about what they've done in this game rather only one punt three long time consuming drives and two turnovers look at these drives that they've had in terms of scoring drives with their three touchdowns yeah and obviously the two turnovers on the other drives but time of possession-wise they are absolutely dominating this game they've had the ball for almost nine more minutes than virginia tech and it's going to wear this thin virginia tech defense out eventually [Applause] that's shedro lewis looking to bounce it outside with the quickness stays in bounds to try and get an extra yard or two before being forced out by devin taylor but a good pick up on second down will bring him third and certainly manageable for this flames offense yeah this is a perfect perfect situation that they want to be in on third down obviously your third down and two really allows for a true run pass option read where you know you can hand the ball off you have your smaller back and shedra lewis still in the game but two big tight ends flanking this formation third down and two [Applause] blade clock now at five willis with the snap gives it to shedrow sidesteps the first tackle and gets a first down define diablo had a free shot on shedra lewis in the backfield and watch number 17 coming right there and chadron lewis just hits him with the right trigger and jukes right past and picks up a first down very difficult to to catch these little fast guys in the back but i was once once i got my hands on him i could bring him down but i really had a hard time catching them and diablo left in the dust on that last play but again you're watching liberty that normally is a fast-paced offense take their time and really running out the entire play clock before the snap [Applause] willis tries to get by diablo and does first down and then tried to sneak in a couple of more yards and saw a big old 96 right there nora pollard and said i'll step out well i really don't want to pick on divine diablo because he's one of my favorite players in the acc i love the way he plays however this is a really really good good move by malik willis i mean [Music] he just uh he just put divine diablo's ankles in his pocket and took him home with him two plays in a row where divine diabolo is tackling air katie what do you got for us i think it's an interesting point that you both bring up a lot of these liberty players they say they respect malik willis because of his ability to put his head down and want to go for more yards most quarterbacks that you see when they tuck it and run they'll just get the first down they'll run out of bounds but he actually works to get more yards he's fighting for the team and so he's garnered a lot of respect just within this locker room and on the sidelines for the way that he carries himself in fights on the field well he's carried the liberty flames to a lead here as we head to the fourth quarter in blacksburg 25th ranked liberty flames on top quarter number four when we come back very entertaining three-quarters of football in the books and with khalil herbert injured on the opening kickoff we certainly thought that you would see even more from these two quarterbacks and we have they have both lived up to the billing willis and hooker put these two teams on their backs and it's a one point game as we head into the fourth with the flames and a first down inside virginia tech territory willis just gets back to the line of scrimmage tisdale was there on the stop a good job initially by jalen griffin number 41 getting up field and making malik willis stop his feet and change direction and griffin's a guy that they're coming today he was a backup not a ton of production so far in the year but just really good game since he's got his number called stepping up big time willis the fake steps up into the pocket has a receiver that's a heck of a catch that is a nice catch by demario douglas fantastic catch by douglas but a really good job coming back to the football watch as he comes from inside out he's he's really coming on a goal ball but sees that jamar connor is playing him deep and then comes back to the football that is working back to the football for your quarterback really good job creating a third and five rather than an incomplete pass third and ten looks like hollyfield might have wanted to come with a little bit of pressure right now virginia tech showing just four and give up the middle close to the first down i don't think they're going to get it hollyfield was there on the stop and mack may have come about two feet shy mark now what do you do here you got the one point lead you try and pin him deeper do you go for it close to real you bring number 25 in the ball game mr five eight 220 peyton pickett and you hand him the ball yeah i mean when you have a running back that is of that stature a senior with legs like tree trunks you let him get one yard or you let him lead block and let malik at one yard flames two for two on four down today willis is going to keep it he has the first down then a couple of yards more down to the 32-yard line yep keep the ball in your best players hands number 25 lead blocks to the left and they're just not fast enough to get over top dex hollyfield makes the stop but really good drive i mean this entire drive really every scoring drive that liberty has had has been just getting chunks of yards not a ton of big plays given up by this virginia tech defense but it's just little chunks at a time and lots and lots of third down conversions and fourth down conversions for liberty so far in this game and lots of time off that clock they are just bleeding that clock dry mack doesn't even get back to the line of scrimmage he'll lose almost two yards [Applause] jared hill was shaking up a little bit earlier in the game he's back in both these teams have been really good on first down liberty is averaging five and a half yards on first down and virginia tech's averaging seven yards on first down so there haven't been a lot of really long third down tries let's see if they can get back on track as virginia tech shows pressure up the [Applause] middle mac is in the backfield with willis fakes the mack willis up in the pocket now goes up for all the marbles and just could not quite hook up with douglas and i just don't know how he keeps getting behind this defense i mean there's been multiple times where these wide receivers have been behind virginia tech's defense and that's something that virginia tech has to clean up before the day's out but especially going into future games we're gonna see a lot more deep balls against them third and 12 now and florida state coming up after us willis has time now he's flushed signals to the receiver to get open inside it's right about the 21-yard line that's going to be a first down well that throw was ridiculous i mean it makes it look easy however you are rolling out to your right you sense a little bit of pressure you move out to the right you're looking all the way across the field and are jumping off of your right foot and throwing as you're falling to your right i mean that's like a lebron james fade away three-pointer that was really good and it's going to be off or not illegal motion against liberty is going to move them back five yards so they'll have to convert this third down and even longer again hokies again bring four now willis flush to his left watch out for the balls on the ground barno again causing the fumble this time a flame was able to fall on it mark you could see that one happening you could see it before it even happened it was going to happen i got you on my zoom feed to my left chris and i'm watching your face as he's running you're like oh god he's gonna get you he's gonna get you and really good job i mean mari barno a redshirt junior just understanding where the ball is swiping it out we have another player down we'll check on the injury when we come back from break [Applause] [Laughter] flames lead by one here in blacksburg 21-20 malik willis and his liberty flames fortunate enough to fall on that last loose ball but they'll bring up a fourth in long at the 45-yard line and in this particular case you freeze not going to go for it going to try and pin virginia tech deep robinson fumbles the football on the muff and it's recovered by the flames that's a huge play oh my goodness wow davion robinson just took his eyes off the ball at the very end of the play he miss handled the ball it just hung up there and at the last second wind might have caught it but really good job by liberty to get on it in a muff you can can't advance it so you just need to fall on the ball but liberty got the ball back in unbelievable field position and that's that's the first turnover of the day for virginia tech huge play by benjamin alexander on special teams to pick up that muff punt there you see coach fuente having a word with robinson so complimentary of robinson's return skills earlier on in the week and just the mistake you mentioned mark the first turnover of the day both turnovers from the flames extremely costly in the first half and now it's an opportunity for liberty for a little payback here from the virginia tech five willis on the fake looking to throw into the end zone the receiver wide open and they convert johnny huntley with his second touchdown of the year liberty extends their lead that was a wide open tight end target it looked like virginia tech brought really their big boy goal line personnel in you see all those defensive linemen up and that puts amari barno the d end on the tight end release this is a very difficult thing to play goal line defense when you're not technically down on the one or two yard line because there's just a lot of space for people to work good job exploiting it by this liberty offense and just like that liberty is up by eight points malik willis responsible for all four liberty touchdowns including this touchdown pass to johnny hundley all flames acc network football is presented by geico you could save even more by bundling home and car insurance bronze statue frank beamer outside elaine stadium he would not have been very happy with that last special teams play by his hokies that is not aimer ball to put the ball on the carpet on a punt return that led to a five-yard passing strike from willis to huntley in the lead extended for liberty now eight points and they have really controlled time of possession and this when you're trying to play from behind mark that has to be a concern for virginia tech just in the sheer number of possessions you're gonna have left in the remaining ten and a half minutes here yeah if you know that shows anything about what's going on i mean you gotta assume that the next time you give liberty the ball back they're gonna at least run five minutes off the clock and you just don't have a ton of time left this is a huge huge possession for virginia tech offensively to at least pin liberty back but the idea right now is to get a touchdown and hendon hooker he's more than capable of doing it by himself he's shown it already today certainly has put this team on his back with khalil herbert injured on the opening kickoff so it has been much more about hendon hooker doing it with both his arm and his legs and he's had success but not so much here in this second half hooker gonna throw it back shoulder throw complete big pickup on first down hits turner a mess back here by the line of scrimmage that is brock hoffman the center looks like he was mixing it up with aaron pierre a bit offense five-yard penalty first down looked like we had a flag that wasn't illegal might have been an illegal receiver down an edible ineligible receiver downfield hey the acc field hockey championship is tomorrow at noon eastern north carolina and louisville right here on the acc network and on the espn app we call it sunday's best for a reason check it out noon tomorrow on the acc network so a nice pitch and catch nullified first and 15. we've seen that so many times today robinson on the receiving end mark haven't we that that same exact route being run with so much success yeah great job by virginia tech just to switch it up a tad they brought the flat route with rheem blackshear from the backfield it pulled juan treadwell up off of his own coverage and really opened up wide open spot for robinson to make that catch and good to see them go back to robinson early after that costly fumble on the punt return second down and three hooker lots of room near midfield before being brought down he'll move the chains spread out the wide receivers get five guys in the box and then you're able to option defensive ends and that one treyshawn clark just couldn't be right you either go for the dive and hooker runs around you or you stay on hooker and the dive breaks free so good job utilizing what they have offensively and expect them to do a lot more with a hooker on the ground on this drive black shear he bounces it outside good for 10 15 yards banged down by daphne but not after a big pickup and another first down so now the hope is picking up yards and chunks 14 on that carriage yeah a little bit late by the linebacker anthony butler coming downhill lucida smith was able to get up on him a good block and sprung raheem blackshear for a long gain a big hit from dabney looks like blackshear was signaling to come off the field and looks like dabney is going to as well [Applause] there you see herbert right next to blackshear the two transfers herbert from kansas blackshear from rutgers here's what blackshear has been able to do today if you're just joining us herbert knocked out in the opening kickoff glad to see he's there with the team in uniform but helmet not in hand and the hamstring injury on that opening kickoff haven't seen him since this type of thing you just don't want it to get worse i think that's that's what the coaches are saying like look man we got two other guys that can do it uh and better than having a hercule herbert maybe having these two other guys fill in and number two run the ball himself and he's doing it right here butler's done a really nice job of tackling today was able to just grab an ankle of hooker and bring him down those two share a nice laugh yeah very very good job by anthony butler we talked about him earlier taking the grass away taking the space away between you and the runner and watch this time he just easy shoots the legs and wraps up too many times defenders these days shoot and don't rap good job by butler on that last play hooker just throws this one away that play blew up when he had pressure right from the start terrell johnson was right in his face so hooker just said him to throw it away and live to play another down which is now third and six crucial it's crucial and you see derral johnson right there him and treyshawn clark are two of their best pass rushers and and usually on third down they bring in really a pass rushing group they bring in steven sings and it killed washington but with the ability for hooker to run the ball they've left their big boys in up front on third down so far today [Music] it's a run formation hooker the draw he'll pick up the first down and a lot more inside the 20 with a stiff arm down to the 16. good job in the play design it's really a qb lead draw you watch how lucida smith number 54 pulls around and blackshear leads the way with just that little hesitation with his eyes up field lets the defense lighten up a little bit in terms of the run pressure and this is another run formation you see how the wider sweep the bottom screen is covered up can't go out for a reception last year picks up maybe a yard [Applause] johnson again there on the stop i know you got to love that mark dirt bud grass stuck in his helmet quarterback oh my gosh this jersey yeah you love it the only thing you you do hold your breath every time he gets hit just because you know how important he is to this team two yards on the ground screen this one has a chance to be something but a nice defensive play that time as jabuzzi came by to make the stop on robinson [Applause] in this game and really prevalent on this drive so far they've the virginia tech has lined up either in an unbalanced formation they've run the ball or it's been a balance set like this one and it's been passed and see if they break a tendency on this play blacks here switches places to hookers left flames bring just four now hooker will look to run inside the ten chased out of bounds at the nine by haskins oh it plays like that where you get your quarterbacks oh legs wrapped up and spun around i mean good play by hooker but you just every one of these these tackles you're just like oh boy right here at the end you see just you never know what gets caught under your body but able to escape it injury-free and now brings up a big fourth and three so what do you do you go for it here down eight rather than kick the field goal to make it a five-point game and now we might have some discussion about it liberty their first of the half liberty's gonna call a timeout to talk things over defensively we'll take one with him we'll be right back tonight at 11 o'clock eastern look at those dudes in the lower left the huddle j.c mac lane ej coach rick's back to com complete the breakdowns of all our acc games today they'll probably talk about miami's big win last night against nc state and this one fourth and three virginia tech going for it down eight blackshear in motion hooker looking over the middle caught for the score caleb smith hung on what a tough catch and a big play for the hokies what a gutsy play call from brad cornilson the offensive coordinator the run has been working so well but you allow your quarterback to do something that he might not be known for but does well throws that little back shoulder throw to caleb smith and great job coming out coming down with it and you down two points you gotta go for two in this situation [Applause] hooker will he run he has the option now he throws that black shear will convert they just put the defender in a bind as you roll out to the right side and hendon hooker just looks downfield like he's gonna run the ball put the defender in a bind and dumps it off to his running back for the big score caleb smith with his first touchdown grab of the year the two-point conversion all knotted up at 28 a piece 5 46 left to go in the fourth quarter in this one from blacksburg thought we might have a really good game and it has delivered on just about every single aspect look at what hooker has done 156 yards on the ground in the absence of khalil herbert who was hurt early in the game 162 through the air put this team on his back now it seems like it's a it's a prize fight mark two heavyweights here what will malik willis do now to answer and it's been blow after blow after blow and just when he thinks someone's down to get back up and they fight back and so you know i i'm excited for this drive from malik willis and i think he's going to show a lot of people across the country what he's made of as you're going to tie ball game with five minutes left against an acc opponent got a blocker in front lowers his shoulder and runs the man over oh boy well that was a good run and uh malik was like we talked earlier about you know comparing him to cam newton he runs a little bit lower you watch there i mean just able to dip his shoulder pads all the way down or small surface area to tackle just ran over jermaine waller now willis has gone over 100 yards rushing on the game he has 104 to hookers 156. right now they're running the clock out here there's this fine balance between not leaving any clock left for virginia tech but also having enough time to get down and scoring range give the mack looking for an alley finds maybe three yards along the left side [Applause] see there's the look there's the chuck muncie look i love those glasses a lot of guys have visors but not a lot of guys with the throwback rec specs right the thick black frame glasses part of it too is not a i couldn't pull that off i couldn't pull it off just you know the way i played just couldn't pull it off but joshua mack he can pull it off all right and he's still got respect even though he's got the rex backs on for sure good luck good luck by our camera crew second down in eight now willis just overshoots his man trying to get it to noah frith that's a second target to noah frith who missed last week missed a lot of the season and two drops from noah frith [Applause] third made for willis and you know this is not four down territory because you got to make sure you if you do give it back to virginia tech you got to give them a long field to go so eight yards is what you need to continue this drive a lot of cushion at the top of your screen that's cj yarbrough out there number 13. he's got your main waller virginia tech's best cover corner on him now they're making it man-to-man towards the top of the screen with that three by one formation willis will look his way flutters it out there and yarbrough goes up and makes the catch willis's arm was hit when he threw it and it was just straight up in the air like a wounded duck and yarbrough shot it down he just pointed to the sky and thanked the big man upstairs for that one that wasn't on him but just you watching just a split second too long in the pocket your wide receivers open right now that double clutch the ball just floated out there but watch that big 6-3 frame go up and get it very fortunate to come down with that one and a fresh set of downs in hokie territory [Applause] flames continue to be very deliberate on offense mack nowhere to go alan tisdale led the charge for the hokies [Applause] flames have an accurate kicker and alex barbier the young man out of alpharetta georgia but he hasn't kicked very many long ones his long on the year is just 42 yards we talked with hugh freeze earlier in the week about his confidence he said he'll throw him out there for 50 and there's no wind hardly any wind at all today in blacksburg so that won't have an impact willis spring to his right now back to his left has a receiver and a whole host of blockers in front of him huntley inside the 20. down to the 24 goes a tight end johnny huntley and that's a big play and we haven't seen many misdirection or you know special trick plays but watch this look at huntley on the back side get a chip on the defender and just leak out he has a whole host of blockers out in front of him really that was i mean that was fantastic i mean it was that is a great play call in that situation as virginia tech was fast flowing on the run in the sprint outs good change up but kent austin this offense to about a 41-yard field goal from this spot right now for the flames if it came down to it mack gets a couple more here now your virginia tech you start thinking about using those timeouts yes you need to start taking timeouts you need to start stopping the clock because timeout virginia tech well they're first of a half injured yeah they got an injured player yeah so they did call one anyways but it's like john crawford yeah and you have to yeah i mean you have to assume right now that liberty is going to kick a field goal and make the field goal at least and so if you're virginia tech right now you say look okay let's keep as much time on the clock as we can and i mean when you look at that kicker quite honestly chris i mean what's that dude does that you've been doing some curls look at that that's alex barbier the kicker that guy's got the biggest guns of any kicker i think i've ever seen so without even seeing him kick a field goal i got a lot of confidence in him just because of how skinny those wristbands are around his biceps so you can do some curls um but yeah so you got to try to get as much time on the clock when you get the ball back assuming that you can get the ball back and right now i mean what has plagued this liberty offense has been fumbles and you gotta make sure you just hold on to the football do not try anything crazy and uh cam newton has come up many times in our broadcast so far and anyone who watched the patriots game a couple weeks ago saw cam newton try to do a little bit too much fumble the ball and lose the game that's what we saw from willis when they were in the red zone when he fumbled that football he was going down rather than taking the sack and living to play another down he tried to make something special happen and ended up being a turnover second and eight from the 22. pick it in motion out of the backfield willis inside the 10. and it looks like he wanted to go down lost his footing a little bit but [Applause] yeah right here i mean really good job i mean it was incredible timing to pull the trigger and run the ball right at that point have two defenders bearing in at you that ended up running into each other but i mean you have set yourself up in a position that i mean you are you are right there ready to win this game you want to run the clock out a little bit more pick up another first down and obviously a touchdown would be fantastic but you know really interesting of whether yeah willis was coached on that last play to look go down rather than try to make a tackle because break a tackle you don't want to fumble the ball and if you score a touchdown then we get virginia tech the ball back it looked like he was frustrated he pounded the turf when he went down but i'm not sure he should have been frustrated i'm not sure that wasn't the wise thing to do rather than to your point mark face a blind side tackle maybe put the ball on the carpet maybe score too soon [Applause] virginia using their second timeout yeah scoring too soon as a real thing chris yeah you get right now it doesn't seem like virginia tech has much of a chance to get the ball back if you can run the ball out and kick a field goal and so a quick touchdown would actually be detrimental towards liberty and they're going to get one here pickett can pretty much waltz in yeah good job by justin hamilton basically said look let him score i mean that that from that defensive alignment and just the struggle and strain by these defenders to get off blocks that to me if i'm looking at number 24 devin taylor he did not try to make that play they let him score and let's see how that goes because now virginia tech is going to get the ball back down six right now and seven if they can punch this one through and barbier the arnold schwarzenegger of kickers splits the uprights the lead is seven and if you're if you're the liberty flames in that case mark i mean my mother always said never look a gift horse in the mouth they're gonna give you a score you go ahead and score and just put it on your defense here for the last minute 41. yes unless you're going to take the one yard line if you're i mean if you're the flames there do you you're not going to tackle me fine i'm going to take a knee at the one well so that that's what you would want to coach your player to do just in terms of you know possession football in terms of clock management watch 24 i mean devin taylor was not trying to make that tackle he could have made the tackle but right there i tell my running back look just stop take a knee at the one yard line i played in super bowl 46. i get it but so much can happen a fumble a botched snap on a field goal you're right i just remember you know in super bowl 46 ahmad bradshaw played for the giants mob bradshaw was told look if they try to let you score take a knee on the one yard line and he got there and he just he couldn't stop his momentum he rolled forward into the end zone and gave tom brady a chance to throw a hail mary and come back and it's such an unnatural thing for a runner to do is to stop with no one in front of him but that would have been the smart play i remember growing up in eagles fan watching brian dawkins do that a bunch and you know always was complimented on on his time management in the presence so virginia tech gets the ball back with an opportunity to tie this one up or take the lead touch back on this bouncing kick hokies do have three scoring drives this year of 70 or more yards in less than two minutes it has been done and when you've got a guy like hendon hooker at quarterback it can be done again yeah hendon hooker does not throw interceptions you just look at his career and the interceptions he's thrown he's given five interceptions his entire career and they all came in just two games so if he hasn't thrown interception yet he's probably not gonna throw an interception in this one flames come with just five dropped trae turner couldn't squeeze it a reminder west durham roddy jones standing by got pit in florida state coming your way at four o'clock will probably i shouldn't say probably we might send it to the studio and jc and the folks for a little bit of time but if virginia tech can get a scoring drive here mark we may be here a while mm-hmm one time out on the board for the hokies flames again bring four tries the back shoulder this time connects again it's caleb smith another great play by caleb smith in the clutch and both of these teams on their last two drives have gone three by one formations and trying to isolate the single receiver backside good job by virginia tech exploiting the man-to-man coverage this time turner goes up and makes the grab what do you think about no pressure from the liberty flames here mark yeah i mean if you're gonna rush four you might as well just rush three and drop a guy back because they are getting nothing in terms of pressure up front i think that's probably the better move than the blitz because when you blitz a mobile quarterback it's tough burns and that's a nice pass to turner hokies are on the move as the clock gets ticking toward one minute well that time they did rush three and drop the guy back so they they listened to me but you know and oaker still found the hole in the zone coverage and right now you know there's three big linemen having trouble getting down blackshear tries to stiff arm stays in bounds now we have a flag it could be a face mask on blacksheer that was anthony butler who made the stop and it was right where butler made the tackle where the flag came down well it was a little slow to get up holding the shoulder [Applause] let's check out blackstreet's stiff arm here yeah he gets that face mask personal foul facemask [Applause] did it you don't think that could be a mistake do you you went the wrong way i didn't see butler grab the face mask at all yeah i mean both number six they said number six on the defense i mean it was definitely a mistake because that face mask was clearly raheem blackshear grabbing anthony butler's face mask [Applause] to relevant now hooker up top to the end zone scores turner has been huge on this drive and he comes up with the score trey turner big play trey comes down with this one two big receptions on this drive aided by a phantom face mask call but when you watch just trey turner's one-on-one with the cornerback relatively good position but the ball was thrown behind the receiver on purpose turner does a good job of getting his body in the way and just basketball boxing out the defender and just like that chris that's why you take a knee on the one yard line because all of a sudden you got to do it all over again with 52 seconds left you are proven right my friend big thanks to that guy he made him had one drop early on in that drive but then came back with three big catches including the final one the score to not this game at 35 apiece let's take a look at maybe the biggest play on that drive the the face mask penalty was called let's look to see blackshear's face mask whether that was grabbed as well it might be we can't see it from that angle yeah yeah we cannot it was pretty obvious that it did go the other way but let's see from this angle whether butler gets his hand up in the face mask and so there's a there's a glance off the face mask but that to me that is not a face mask the head wasn't even moved or restricted but on the other side black sheer really did grab the face mask and pull down and look like the flag came in from the back which i mean it is that is a call that's going to be looked at and reviewed in a very very timely moment two calls in this game whether it was that fumble that was blown dead that eventually recovered in the first half by virginia tech where that face mask call would have led to this 35-35 ballgame 49 seconds hugh freeze with a shake of the head that's all it took for virginia tech to march 75 yards for the score well it only took virginia tech 49 seconds liberty's got 49 seconds with three to spare with malik willis as we just said moments ago can answer it has been blow by blow for these two heavyweight quarterbacks and malik willis every time hooker scores willis scores and vice versa so now it's willis's turn yeah it'll be interesting to see too if kent austin brings out any other kind of eclectic creative plays and we saw the throwback to the tight end on the last drive and right now they got the the wide bunch set they're going to count the box see if they have enough receivers if not they'll throw it out to the bunch back in motion now he's split to the bottom of your screen willis has a receiver gets out of bounds that's yarborough saving those two timeouts on the board for liberty and liberty right now is manipulating the virginia tech defense they understand that just with the personnel situation that they have they're going to go zone and they're going to bump linebackers and safeties over to the overloaded side leaving one on one at the top of the screen with yarborough and jermaine waller virginia tech brings just three and they spy willis receiver gets a foot in bounds that's frith now close to midfield with a second down and that's first down on that play so close to midfield here mark with 39 seconds to go and two timeouts left don't be surprised to see a shot towards the middle of the field if it's a cover two situation but it looks like virginia tech's bringing pressure at least showing pressure early in this down hollyfield showed it will he back out he does mack brought down by barno good gain on first down and now you're right they're gonna have to use one of those timeouts with the ball near midfield what a play by amari barno he's lined up at the defensive end towards the top of the screen the formation so really really good job by amari barno he's had a fantastic game [Applause] he's getting excited chris it's getting interesting and it's it's a chess match between these two coaches it's 30 seconds let's see they probably have to get to 25 yard line if you're gonna look at barbier's career long as a measuring stick there he is which is four franco clubs kickers 42 is a career long for barbier so if they get to the 25 that's a 42-yard kick other than that 42-yarder he's one for three on 40-plus yard field goals [Applause] in motion the top of the screen empty backfield for willis now willis is going to run it down at the 45. hurry up get back on the ball quickly hollyfield doing a nice job of bringing him down it is a first balance the clock will stop temporarily it's not stopping though because they placed the ball down quick [Applause] willis over the outside and waller had a notion that was dangerous in two different ways mark because while if he picks it he's gone but if the ball somehow gets through him and yarbrough was able to make the catch he might be gone yeah wow you know waller understands the situation he understands that he's the one man-to-man coverage and all the pressure's on him so he's seen a lot of passes he's he's gotten beat on a couple he said look i'm breaking on this one i know what's coming good job by waller in that last play still one time out on the board for the flames another doubling over the top the receiver at the bottom bringing pressure can willis escape it he does initially down to the 41. now they're gonna have to call a timeout tisdale was there to make the stop and that might have been a game-saving stop by tisdale oh my gosh their third and final of the half 30-second timeout and what a call by justin hamilton brings pressure from jermaine waller's side you see that cornerback blitz i do not know how malik willis gets out of that tackle and just picks up a few yards but you know justin hamilton look if you're if you're trying to isolate this receiver on the short side of the field i'm going to bring that corner back roll the safety over top and force the situation good job by that guy making that play call and good execution for the most part by virginia tech but you know we currently have a situation where there are basically you can either take two shots towards the end zone if you're liberty or you got to get out of bounds because he hasn't had enough time is there enough time for a play over the middle and then a spike that is 10 seconds enough you think now they put an extra second on the clock 11 seconds yeah enough to complete a 15-yard play over the middle then run up and spike it with two seconds left to kick a field goal you can but you can't double clutch like if there's a situation where you're back in the pocket if you hit the top of your drop and you're getting ready to throw and you have to double clutch it the extra couple seconds are going to be too much so we'll see kind of where this ball gets directed [Applause] ball tipped and barno another tipped pass he's had at least two or three of those on this game he has had a huge game 6-6 defensive end transition from that linebacker spot he just has a feel and that for when the quarterback is going to release the football gets tall and i mean just a really fantastic this is going to be a very long field we'll try 59 yards no wind again to speak of alex barbier is going to give it everything he's got for the win and it's blocked it's blocked and picked up it's picked up by jermaine waller he'll score for the hokies [Applause] that is beaver ball oh my goodness wow well this is the exact situation that clemson had at davos sweeney said look if i had the situation to kick this long field goal again i would not do it but could there have been a timeout call before the kick their third and final of the half second timeout virginia tech called the timeout before the kick [Applause] and i guess we couldn't hear the whistle amongst all the cardboard cutouts cheering in lane stadium wow now what do you do here's the question what do you do if you're if you freeze well watch this block it's right up the middle so this is a low kick it's a low kick and that's the the trajectory of the kick becomes the problem when you get it to be that long because you you have to push it out in front in order to just have the length on it and i think you know coach right now is saying look yo let's not do that again let's just throw the ball into the end zone hope we can get a touchdown because that did not look very good and man what return of events that time out called who can so often freeze a kicker and but man that took back a huge play off the board [Applause] getting guys on the field malik willis is now back both teams are having a hard time getting the proper personnel on the field no one's covering cj yarbrough the top of the screen there's no timeouts left everybody's back you can't even see five players in maroon jerseys just so far up back quickly to the outside there's plenty of time on the clock mark see that's why it's it's fourth and six you can pick up a first down i mean that is a bad call by justin hamilton you this is 50 yards out so this is a little bit more manageable than the last kick again his career long is 42 51 officially for the win for alex barbier this one is up does it have the distance it does with one second remaining on the clock barbier puts the flames up in blacksburg got to be kidding me you freezing get off the field there's one second left and this is a big one second left but what just happened and you look at the situation there is the liberty coaches out coach the virginia tech coaches this situation on the field you can pick up a first down with eight seconds left you pick up the first down make a shorter field goal try and allow your kicker to take another shot at a shorter field goal banged it through justin hamilton is going to be kicking himself he did not understand the situation on the field had all his guys back by the goal line just as you said second remaining it was an easy passing catch situation and what a turn of events in this game the original try the original field goal attempt was blocked but a timeout had been called just prior to the snap by virginia tech that block was taken to the house by jermaine waller the hokies began to celebrate thinking the game had been won then they noticed the timeout they came back a short pitching catch from willis to yarbrough set up barbier the senior kicker from alpharetta georgia whose career long was 42 yards coming into this and he goes 51 yards and splits the uprights to give liberty the lead with one second remaining hey chris if you remember okay the the timeout is called but they block the field goal run it back for a touchdown they're celebrating they're off the field justin hamilton has a hard time just getting his defensive players back out on the field and in that time where he's trying to get his players on the field just not a lot of time to understand the situation in the football game just and those out of control no timeouts because they use their last timeout to ice the kicker exactly oh my goodness well we saw and no khalil herbert to return this kick either although i have a feeling that alex barbier is just going to squib this thing somewhere around the 30-yard line you want to punch this down the field be prepared for any laterals or throws across the field it's very important for the widest players on this kickoff coverage team to stay at home and not over pursue [Applause] now we'll get the pitches we've seen it happen before burmeister robinson going backwards though they need to go forward louis ball's still free and now it's over the liberty flames in just their second full season at the fbs level first ranking at number 25 coming into the game go to blacksburg and shock the virginia tech hokies the flames are unbeaten the schedule gets much tougher from here on out but their first real test on the road at virginia tech mark was their second win against an acc foe this year they're for real they are for real malik willis is for real joshua mack is through i mean this entire team in the defense and the coaching everything came together when it counted the most out coached a very well coached virginia tech team and what a fun fun ball game to witness amongst two in-state rivals two hours apart and the commonwealth is all about the liberty flames tonight 38-35 winners at virginia tech for mark hertzler katie george and our entire crew i'm chris cotter now let's send it to the studio jordan man we had a great one here today great day of football still to come

Channel: Wally the Bronco Too

Views: 4,499

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Liberty, Virginia Tech

Id: N8fKmL_53fg

Length: 149min 40sec (8980 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 08 2020