Blacksburg, VA - A game that was supposed to be Virginia Tech's first test of the season proved to be no test at all, as the fourth-ranked Hokies got two punt returns for touchdowns from DeAngelo Hall and two touchdown runs from Kevin Jones to bury Syracuse, 51-7.

Virginia Tech opened the scoring with a 75-yard TD run by QB Bryan Randall just 3 minutes and 19 seconds into the game, and then Hall blew the lid off this contest with two punt return TDs, just 97 seconds apart. His first punt return was a 58-yarder with just over six minutes to go in the first quarter, when he took it up the left sideline and cut back for the score.

After a Syracuse three-and-out possession, Hall took a 60-yarder to the house, fielding the punt and firing up the middle, then cutting to the right and threading his way to the end zone. Just like that, it was 21-0 Hokies, ten and a half minutes into the game, and the rout was on.

Hall also tacked on an offensive touchdown, a 24-yard run on an end-around midway through the third quarter that gave him three scores on the day and put the Hokies up 48-7.

Tailback Kevin Jones continued his Heisman campaign with a solid 19-carry, 131-yard, 2-TD performance. After a quiet first half, Jones had third-quarter touchdown runs of 33 and 25 yards. Backup Cedric Humes had 9 carries for 54 yards in yet another strong outing.

The contest was billed as Kevin Jones against Syracuse tailback Walter Reyes, who entered the game with a nation's-best 170 yards per game rushing average, and an obscene 7.4 yards per carry average. But while Jones averaged 6.9 yards per carry on the day, the Hokie defense shut Reyes down, limiting him to 40 yards on 16 carries (2.5 yards per carry).

VT limited Syracuse to just 172 yards of offense in their best defensive outing of the year. In addition to Reyes' struggles, the Hokies pestered Syracuse QB R.J. Anderson into a poor 8-for-23 outing, for just 91 yards passing. The Hokies defended the middle and the perimeter very well, holding Syracuse to 81 rushing yards on 35 carries, and posting a season-high 12 tackles for loss (-26 yards).

Tech narrowly missed their second shutout of the season. With the Hokies holding a 27-0 lead early in the third quarter, Kevin Jones fumbled on the VT 19-yard line, and on the next play, Anderson ran it down to the Tech 2-yard line. Reyes scored two plays later for Syracuse's only offensive bright spot of the game.

This game was pure BeamerBall, as Hokies special teams dominated. In addition to Hall's two punt returns, the Hokies blocked a Syracuse field goal, for Tech's 100th blocked kick of Frank Beamer's 17-year tenure. Vince Fuller got the block on a 40-yard field goal attempt in the first quarter.

Tech punter Vinnie Burns averaged 46.2 yards per punt on four punts and had two inside the Syracuse 20-yard line: a 62-yarder that was downed on the 8 and a 26-yarder on the 11. Burns boomed a 56-yarder to the Syracuse 3 yard line, but the Cuse returned it 18 yards to the 21.

In addition, Carter Warley was three-for-three on field goals, and in his first duty on kickoffs, he put eight of his nine kickoffs inside the five yard line, including three in the end zone. His remaining kickoff was kicked out of bounds, drawing a penalty, but that was all that marred a very strong special teams outing by the Hokies.

The strong showings by the VT defense, special teams, and rushing game (337 yards on 45 carries) masked a subpar passing outing by Randall. Randall was 6-of-14 for 88 yards, and he threw an interception when he was hit during a passing attempt in the first quarter.

• The Hokies had no interceptions in this game, bringing their streak of consecutive games with an interception to an end at 14.

• DeAngelo Hall is the first Hokie to ever return two punts for scores in the same game. Hall now has 4 punt returns for TDs in his career, tying him with Frank Loria (1965-67) and Andre Davis (1998-2001) for the career record.

• Kevin Jones now has 2,510 career rushing yards, vaulting him past Phil Rogers and into eighth place on Tech's career rushing list. Jones is now right behind Eddie Hunter (2,523 yards).

• Halfway through the regular season, Cedric Humes is averaging 6.5 yards per carry (50 rushes, 324 yards). The record for yards-per-carry average in a season is 6.3, by Andre Kendrick in 1999. A rusher must have 100 carries on the season to qualify for the record.

• The Hokies held Syracuse to 6 first downs, a season-low for the Hokie defense. Syracuse was just 3-of-17 on third-down conversions (17.6%).

• Vinnie Burns is now averaging 42.3 yards per punt on the season. The last time a VT punter averaged more than 42 yards per kick on a season was in 1997, when Jimmy Kibble averaged a Tech-record 45.1 yards per punt on 50 punts.

• After not catching a single pass in Tech's first four games, tight end Jared Mazzetta now has 3 catches in the last two games for 44 yards.

• Walter Reyes' per-game rushing average dropped from 170 yards per game to 144 yards per game, and his per-carry average dropped from 7.4 yards per carry to 6.7 yards per carry.

• The VT/Syracuse series comes to a halt with Syracuse leading the series 9-8. Since round-robin play began in the Big East in 1993, the Hokies lead the series 6-5. In Lane Stadium since 1993, the Hokies are 5-1 against Syracuse, with a scoring advantage of 234-63, an average margin of 39-10.

• The Hokies have outscored their first six opponents 273-89, an average of roughly 46-15 per game.

• The Hokies will play their next game at West Virginia on Wednesday, October 22nd. The game is at 7:30 and will be televised nationally on ESPN, where the Hokies are now a remarkable 23-4 all-time.

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