The Associated Press

Georgia Tech QB Josh Nesbitt (center) has rushed for 110 yards in the Yellow Jackets' first two games under new coach Paul Johnson (left).

BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech's defense has done a lot of homework this week. The Hokies have watched hours of video; they've worked extra hard on the practice field.

The final exam comes today at Lane Stadium. The Hokies say they are ready for Georgia Tech's old-school offense that features the triple option.

"It's not real complicated what they run, but they run it efficiently. What they do, they do it very well," said senior end Orion Martin, one of the most studious Hokie defenders.

"The main thing for us is taking care of all our assignments. We've got to tackle really well. We've got to be in the right place. We've got to be smart."

First-year Yellow Jackets coach Paul Johnson is the architect of a throwback attack that has run the ball on 86 of 114 plays (75.4 percent) so far. No shocker there. His teams at Navy led Division I-A in rushing the past three years. At Georgia Southern, Johnson led the Eagles to back-to-back Division I-AA national championships in 1999 and 2000, averaging 360 yards rushing in his five years as coach.

Not only is Johnson's overland attack foreign to the ACC, it's all new stuff to his offensive players. The Yellow Jackets (2-0, 1-0 ACC) are still a work in progress when it comes to the triple option. In the first two games, Georgia Tech has run the triple option about 15 times. With every passing week, the Jackets plan to run it more and more.

"We're still learning," Johnson said. "We're getting there. It just takes some time."

Sophomore quarterback Josh Nesbitt is the orchestrator of the Jackets' triple option. He lines up under center with the B-back, Jonathan Dwyer, behind him and his pair of A-backs lined up in the slots on the each end of the line. After the snap, Nesbitt pivots and puts the ball in Dwyer's stomach. Almost instantaneously, he has to decide whether to give Dwyer the ball or pull it back and keep it himself. If Nesbitt keeps the ball, he takes off down the line and runs a standard option play with his A-back -- Roddy Jones or Lucas Cox -- following behind.

Nesbitt's read is determined by what the defensive end does on the side of the formation in which the ball is going. If the unblocked end closes on Dwyer, Nesbitt keeps the ball. If the end remains stationary or moves upfield to stop Nesbitt, he can't get to Dwyer, who then gets the handoff.

So far, so good. Dwyer has rushed for 220 yards, breaking the 100-yard barrier in the first two games and averaging 7.6 yards per carry. Nesbitt is the No. 2 rusher with 110 yards (4.2 ypc).

"First thing, you can't let that fullback loose," Tech coach Frank Beamer said. "Dwyer is a dangerous back. They keep popping him inside, then get him outside and he can go."

Since Nesbitt can read a defense during a play and then choose whether or not to keep the ball, Tech defenders won't be able to swarm as usual. Pursuing a play too aggressively in a certain direction could be very costly today.

"It just comes down to each guy playing his position ... having confidence in your ability and knowing your teammates are going to do the same thing," Hokies defensive coordinator Bud Foster said. "You can't be taking the quarterback when you've got the dive, you can't be taking the pitch when you've got the quarterback, those type of things."

The Jackets' offense has certainly been anything but a "3 yards and a cloud of dust" operation. Georgia Tech has produced 14 plays of 20 yards or more in two games. They had four runs of 20-plus yards in last Saturday's 19-16 upset at Boston College, including a late game-winning 43-yard burst by Dwyer.

Still, the Hokies must stay awake and not forget about the pass, Beamer warned.

"If you don't watch it, you get your people involved in stopping the run and then all of a sudden they're throwing it over your head," he said.

Boston College's defensive tackles did a good job of penetrating the line of scrimmage and clogging up the middle. The Jackets only mustered 235 total yards against BC.

"Yeah, we saw that and that's what we need to do," Hokies defensive tackle John Graves said. "It's going to be a war in there; it's not any secret about it. I guarantee you they're going to try to come out with the mind-set to blow us off the ball."

The Hokies (1-1, 0-0) realize they can't afford to blow this test with four of their next five games on the road. "It's huge," Martin said. "So we need to go out there and do things right."