ACC Coaches Wary Of I-AA Foes

HARRISONBURG – As his team prepares to open its season Saturday against Division I-AA Appalachian State, Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer had some choice viewing for the Hokies. He had them watch some clips from the end of last year’s stunning 21-16 loss to James Madison.

“The James Madison game is a game that, I think people, sometimes because you play at a certain level, you’re in a certain league, you think things are going to turn out a certain way,” Beamer said Wednesday. “That’s just not the way it is. It’s how you play.”

It’s not likely many of the Hokies who were on the field that day at Lane Stadium have forgotten the loss to the Dukes, but just in case, Beamer made sure to drive home the point visually. He hopes it will have his players focused for Appalachian State, a I-AA power.

“This is really a good football team coming in here,” Beamer said. “They’re not in the same division we are but they could play in our division. They certainly have the capabilities of playing in this division. I just thought it was an appropriate thing to do.”

Appalachian State has actually been studying a possible move up to Division I-A, where teams have 85 scholarships instead of 63. The Mountaineers gained national notoriety for upsetting Michigan 34-32 in 2007, becoming the first I-AA team to beat a nationally-ranked I-A opponent. (JMU became the second when it beat Tech last year.)

“We’re getting ready to play this week a team that certainly knows how to win, a team that expects to win,” Beamer said. “A team with some outstanding players.”

As for JMU, it’s hoping to pull back-to-back upsets when it opens at North Carolina on Saturday. UNC coach Everett Withers said the Dukes’ big win over Tech helped push his players in spring practice and summer workouts.

“Obviously what they did last year against Virginia Tech’s been on our kids mind really since the spring,” Withers said. “We know we have to be prepared for a tough opponent coming in this first ball game.”

The UNC players said the Tech game is one of three JMU contests from last year they’ve watched. (Losses to Richmond and Massachusetts were the other two.)

“We just want to go out there and play football and not take them lightly,” senior defensive tackle Tydreke Powell said. “That’s the main film we’ve watched. We just try to take the mistakes Virginia Tech did and not make the same mistakes.”

The Hokies went last season as a national title contender. The losses to Boise and JMU knocked them from that pedestal, but Tech rebounded to win the ACC title.

Expectations aren’t quite as high around the Tar Heels, who have dealt with turmoil since coach Butch Davis was fired in late July and Withers – an assistant – was promoted to take his place.

UNC was picked to finish third in the ACC’s Coastal Division in the preseason media poll, behind Virginia Tech and Miami. Overall, the Hokies are picked second in the ACC behind Florida State.

But with a stacked defensive line and a strong-armed new quarterback, the Tar Heels could be contenders. And a loss to JMU could derail that.

“They’re a pretty good team,” senior defensive end Quinton Coples said. “You can’t underestimate them. They’re a grinding team. You stop them, you stop them, but they keep grinding. That’s how they beat teams like Virginia Tech in the past.”

Unlike Beamer, Withers hasn’t been mentioning JMU’s 2010 upset this preseason, thought its clear his players are thinking about it.

“When you’ve got a team that has as many veterans on it as ours, you don’t have to pull that kind of stuff out, I don’t believe,” Withers said. “I think you mention it to the young kids. But our kids have seen it. What that does is, it helps you in spring ball and in summer. It helps you when you know they’ve beaten one of your conference foes. We used it back in the summer, back in the spring. As of now, this thing’s about us.”

But senior wide receiver Dwight Jones admitted even the veterans are still thinking about last year’s shocker in Blacksburg.

“The fact that they beat Virginia Tech is in the back of all our heads,” he said.