Morgantown mindfulness

College football Saturdays always offer an ambush, but much like the NCAA Tournament. The problem for favorites is that one never knows when or where the stunner will take place.

Last weekend, Georgia Tech got surprised by a wounded dog from Clemson, and at home, no less. Fresno State, South Carolina, and Georgia entered their games as decisive home favorites... and got much bigger battles than anyone anticipated. Scores of solid road favorites either escaped by a whisker or got unexpectedly severe tests: Washington, Oregon, Auburn, BYU and Purdue, among others.

Earlier this season, a classic ambush took place in the gentle Tobacco Road pine country, as then 0-3 North Carolina, in a game that kicked off at noon (usually the worst time for an underdog, who likes night games and the rowdier crowds that come with them), took Florida State behind the woodshed, 41-9.

Every Saturday, there's a game that makes a college football observer question his own sanity.

In 1999, the sanity of the Virginia Tech football team and its fans was at stake, as the Hokies found themselves in deep trouble at Morgantown, West Virginia, to take on the homestanding Mountaineers. That year, the game was played in early November, giving a freshman named Michael Vick time to mature as a player and handle the intimidating environment in Morgantown, which rates as one of college football's louder gameday sites.

Vick's maturity took its sweet time to surface in this game, as the Mountaineers hung with a sluggish Tech offense and took a 20-19 lead into the final minute. After a slow start, Vick literally and figuratively stepped on the gas pedal, as he ripped off a long, brilliant run, displaying the stuff great players are made of, to set up a last-second game-winning field goal -- Shayne Graham's ice-veins 44-yarder (no chip shot there...) -- that gave the Hokies a 22-20 win and maintained that ole Blacksburg magic for the Gobblers. Two years later, even without Vick or the injured Lee Suggs, Tech looks like -- nay, IS -- a formidable team. While most of the rest of the top 10 has sputtered at some point (Texas on a few occasions, Oklahoma in pockets, Florida against Kentucky, UCLA against Bama and Ohio State, Oregon against everybody, Nebraska out of the gate), Frank Beamer has shown his stuff by keeping his troops on task. The blowouts that teams like Oregon have failed to achieve are not eluding the Hokies, who have done a better job than most of putting the hammer on everyone they've played.

New quarterback Grant Noel had some big -- and fast -- shoes to fill, and he's done so admirably, especially when one considers the loss of Suggs, the most experienced and dependable back in Va Tech's stable of talent. However, all the games Noel has played so far have represented glorified scrimmages, with the lone game being at Piscataway, N.J., against a Rutgers program that will need much more time to develop under new coach Greg Schiano. This Saturday, Noel--the only native West Virginian on Tech's roster--will go back to his home state as the enemy. With collegians, one never knows which way these kinds of situations will emotionally develop. It's this kind of uncertainty that gives rise to unexpected ambushes.

Giving the game even more intrigue is the fact that this will mark the first chance for new Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez to face -- and potentially knock off -- the Gobblers. Given Rodriguez's travels over the past several years, it's fair to say that, although his last name is different, Rodriguez is essentially a member of the Bowden family coaching philosophy, which is to shoot the works from an underdog position. With the calendar now turning to October, the Mountaineers might not have November-level sharpness, but they'll possess enough experience--and enough wrinkles in the ol' playbook -- to give Va Tech their best shot in the first really big game of the Rodriguez (or "Senor Bowden," if you will) era.

On paper, Tech should win this game, given that the Hokies have substantially better material. But in the first big road game of the year for the Hokies -- as is the case with almost any team in the college ranks -- the pigskin calculus does change, and -- with a few big plays by the home underdogs -- can spiral out of control. Just ask Bobby Bowden about his visit to lovely Chapel Hill.

One final tidbit to chew on is that Frank Beamer teams always find a way to make a big special teams play in a game. While it's a good bet the Gobblers will do something special in the third and most overlooked phase of football, there's hardly a guarantee it will happen, given the sheer volatility of the kicking game. What will happen if the Hokies don't get a game-breaker from their special teams unit? Hmmmm...

Miami is a long way off for the Hokies, but tell Rich Rodriguez if that matters. West Virginia has the type of coach, along with the setting and motivation, to spring an ambush. Will Virginia Tech avoid the first Noel loss of the season under center?