The Roanoke Times I File 2008

Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster said Monday he is concerned about the number of long-yardage plays the Hokies have allowed this season.

BLACKSBURG -- After his group was chopped down -- literally and figuratively, and perhaps even illegally -- at Georgia Tech last time out, Virginia Tech coordinator Bud Foster says it's imperative his defense stands tall the rest of the season.

The 14th-ranked Hokies (5-2, 3-1 ACC), whose 28-23 loss at Georgia Tech nine days ago eliminated their national title hopes and placed their ACC hopes on a respirator, have five regular-season games left.

The first assignment is North Carolina (4-3, 0-3) on Thursday night at Lane Stadium.

"For us to have the type of team we need to have down the stretch, we've got to play great defense, and we're going to have to play it against some really good football teams," Foster said Sunday.

"Our season is not over. We've got five key games left. We've still got a chance to win 10 football games, which would put us in elite status. We still got a chance, I mean depending what Georgia Tech does, we've still got a chance to win this league. That's kinda what we're focusing on and that's all we can focus on."

Still, there's some lingering furor over the damaging loss at Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets' option attack chewed up Tech's defense for 272 rushing yards in the second half, traveling strictly over land on touchdown drives of 60, 86 and 75 yards.

After watching game film the next day, the Tech coaching staff sent snippets to the ACC that included what it deemed as illegal blocks that weren't called by the game officials.

Hokies secondary coach Torrian Gray said Sunday that the ACC agreed there were four illegal blocks -- below the waist or commonly referred to as chop blocks -- by the Yellow Jackets on his senior free safety, Kam Chancellor.

When asked for his side of the story Monday, Hokies coach Frank Beamer said: "Yeah, No. 1, there was more [than four]. And No. 2, the final touchdown [a 39-yard run by Josh Nesbitt with 3 minutes left] was one of those plays on Kam that should've been called.

"I think when it's dangerous plays, we need to get that out of college football. That's the ones that worry you, plays that could hurt a player."

Chancellor said Sunday that Georgia Tech's wide receivers and slot men concentrated on taking him out of plays via questionable blocks.

"It was like they had everybody arching out and trying to come down on me, and there was a lot of illegal chops coming at me ... and there was nothing we could do about it," Chancellor said.

In its highlights shown later Saturday, ESPN showed three big plays by Georgia Tech in which Chancellor struggled to get off blocks or appeared to be out of position.

"ESPN, they're going to talk because they don't know how our defense is structured," said Chancellor, a three-year starter.

"Stuff like that doesn't really get to me.

"I didn't see it, I just heard about it. I mean they talk about everybody ... so I don't really listen to that stuff."

Foster was more terse in his response, saying: "Yeah, those guys ... they've got all the answers ... now Bob Davie [ESPN2 game analyst] has got all the answers. That's all I've got to say about that."

Georgia Tech's 306 rushing yards was the second-highest number ever posted against a Foster defense. Syracuse rolled up 338 in a 52-21 romp over Tech in 1996. The Hokies are yielding 150.3 rushing yards per game, which ranks 76th nationally. That's way too many for Foster, whose units perennially rank among the country's top 10 in the category.

"We've given up too many big plays in the run game, which to me is disappointing," Foster said.

"That's one thing that we pride ourselves in -- making a team one-dimensional. You can throw Georgia Tech out of there, they're going to run the football. But everybody else ... we've had a couple games where some people had some success running the football and that's unacceptable around here, and our kids know that."