PONTE VEDRA, Fla. -- In a boiling pot that exploded with Marcus Vick's infamous leg stomp of Louisville's Elvis Dumervil, the national image of Virginia Tech's football program has taken its share of hits the past seven months.

Scan the Internet long enough and you'll find published reports, blogs and opponents' message-board posts that describe the Hokies in unsavory terms. Cheap-shot artists. Thugs. Dirty.

"The perception seems to be like we're kind of the [Oakland] Raiders of the NFL, kind of dirty or whatever," Tech senior center Danny McGrath said Monday during the ACC's preseason football media gathering. "Is Virginia Tech a thuggish team? I don't think it's true.

"I think sometimes, back and forth, games can get out of hand ... you're talking and pushing and shoving after the whistle and stuff."

Heading into November last season, all was angelic for Tech. The Hokies were 8-0, ranked third in the nation and the least penalized team in the ACC.

Then mischief rolled into Blacksburg. Tech was penalized eight times for 56 yards in a 27-7 home loss to No. 5 Miami. Hurricanes star tailback Tyrone Moss left the game with a season-ending knee injury that later reports included inferences that Moss was hurt when his leg was twisted by a Tech player under a pile.

Despite 11 penalties for a combined 123 yards, Tech ripped Virginia 52-14 and North Carolina 30-3 the next two games. However, in the ACC Championship game, the Hokies were killed by a rash of needless personal fouls and 143 penalty yards in a 27-22 loss to Florida State.

Tech's reputation was soiled big time in its 35-24 win over Louisville in the Gator Bowl. First, the Hokies' All-America cornerback Jimmy Williams drew a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties that led to his ejection from the game. Then came the Vick fiasco in which he stomped on the back of the left leg of Dumervil after he was stopped on a scramble.

"[Beamer] had some incidences that I'm sure that were embarrassing to him," Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said Monday. "I've had them also. Boys will do things that you don't want them to do. Yeah, a kid shouldn't do what [Vick] did. You can't get away with that ... not in today's time."

Despite a bowl win and an 11-2 season, Beamer couldn't celebrate much. His team's late-season antics crawled under his skin.

"Quite a bit," Beamer said Monday. "We had put so much into the year and several of our players had played so well and so hard for most of it. But we had some situations at the end that we weren't very proud of. It just wasn't us."

"I told every alumni group I talked to [in the offseason] that I always try to make them proud about the number of games we win at Virginia Tech, but I also want to make them proud of how we play on the field and how we act off [the field]. That's what I believe in and that's how we're going to do it."

In spring practice, Beamer laid down the law to his returning players. He will soon inform them of stricter consequences that will be paid by those drawing personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.

"I think everybody knows how Virginia Tech wants to do it. We want to play hard and aggressive, but do it the right way ... fair and square. We're going to get it right," he said.

Miami linebacker Jon Beason said Monday that he's never heard Moss, a one-time Tech recruiting target, say his knee was damaged because was twisted by a Hokies defender.

"I don't think at all that Tech has a thuggish mentality or a reputation behind them," Beason said. "I think they're good players. They're a great team and I think people are trying to bring them down ... like they have with us.

"Football is an aggressive sport, it's modern-day combat, gladiators fighting to the finish. There are some guys who play between whistles and there's other guys who play after whistles. It's football."

Bowden said he knows Beamer and his coaches would not teach "dirty football."

"I think there's a difference between dirty and just tough as heck," Bowden said. "They play it the way I like to see it played. I wish my team could play like his team. That's just hard-hitting football."

So don't believe everything you read, said Tech senior rover Aaron Rouse.

"No doubt we come to play all the time ... play hard with great emotion," Rouse said. "That's why people love watching Virginia Tech. I hear it all the time. How do you guys get 11 people to the ball every tackle? And that's something you just love hearing."