Coach Beamer says Pittsburgh has the best combination of offense and defense that the Hokies have faced this year.

The Panthers lead the conference in a number of defensive categories including sacks and pass efficiency, and are ranked nationally against the run and in scoring defense.

They are 5-1, including a 12-0 win against Penn State, and have lost only to Syracuse -- in the Carrier Dome.

Then look at the offensive numbers they put up against Boston College last weekend: QB Turman was 16-29 for 332 yards and 5 TD's, receiver Bryant had 8 catches for 222 yards, tailback Barlow rushed for 209 yards on 25 carries.

"They are for real," Beamer said.

Andre Davis has been bothered for several weeks by what Beamer described as bursitis in the Achilles area above his heel. He said the trainer thinks Davis will be better by this weekend. Bustle said A. Davis was feeling better than the previous Monday and Bustle "hopes" he will be available.

DE Jim Davis fractured a toe and will miss some practice time, but it sounded like he will be available for Pitt. Cory Bird has a bad shoulder and will resume practice Tuesday. Derek Carter has an ankle problem. Beamer said he hopes Billy Hardee can have a good practice week and get back for Pitt.

A fan asked about the team's intensity at Syracuse, but Beamer said he thought the squad was ready to play overall. He credited SU's talent and went back to the assessment by retired 'Cuse coach Dick McPherson that this is the best defense ever fielded by the Orange.

Bill Roth suggested, and Bustle agreed, that Syracuse's DE Freeney turned in what was probably the best performance they could recall by a defensive player against the Hokies.

Bustle quipped that Freeney's play may have helped VT in that "That boy will be in the NFL next year." He acknowledged that a weakness has now been exposed with the Tech offense, and said it's something that can be worked on.

He credited the two Syracuse defensive ends as great football players. Their play, along with the crowd noise, made it tough at the line of scrimmage. Bustle said you see the effects of the noise on film with other teams playing in the dome, too.

Still, Bustle said that OL Lehr and Kadela played well and that DeMasi may have played his best game at center.

On a couple of sacks, Michael Vick could have made a quick pass out of the situation, Bustle said, so it wasn't totally a matter of the OL not getting it done. Bustle said VT needs to sprint MV out more and change up its protection.

One problem was that Syracuse shut down VT on second down all night, Bustle said, making the average third down situation a third and 11.

There was some discussion of the audibles called by Vick that led to penalties for delay and motion. On one, center Jake Grove dropped his mouthpiece and paused to pick it up, causing the delay penalty.

Beamer said the officials were quicker about spotting the ball and starting the play clock "than I've seen in a long time." Given all the noise and challenges it presented with communicating -- he said some things had to be communicated twice -- that, coupled with the quick clock, worked against the Hokies.

(In response to a caller's question, Beamer said he could support the idea of banning artificial noisemakers at stadiums. Weaver said the conference has a rule against allowing students to sit closer than 25 rows to the field within the 25 yard-line "box" around an opponent's bench.)

Beamer said he talked with the head official on the sideline about the fast tempo and was told he already was slowing things down. The coach added that he thought two roughing the kicker penalties should have been called against the Orange, and that a block in the back was missed on SU's first touchdown.

Vick's checkoffs before run plays up the middle aren't necessarily checkoffs into plays, Bustle said, but sometimes are an attempt to pull the defense offsides.

A caller asked about running more slant patterns. Bustle said the double slant was called three times in the game, resulting in two sacks and Vick running with the ball the other time. The pattern has been in the offense for about three weeks.

Another caller asked if draw plays would be effective against Syracuse's penetrating defensive ends. Beamer said a new draw play went in the game plan for SU and Suggs got a good gain on the play.

Several things broke down on the blocked punt by Syracuse. VT brought the headhunter, Wayne Ward, "in" toward the line to protect and he didn't use the correct footwork against an outside rusher (which Beamer said they hadn't really worked on), the snap was just offline to the right, so the kick point and protection were slightly out of sync for Tech's zone blocking scheme.

Roth said the game was bound to have gotten the team's attention. He said it's good that the Hokies were able to catch up from 14 points down on the road, considering that Andre Davis wasn't available for much of the game.

"I liked the fact that we never lost our poise," Beamer said.

• Ben Taylor will continue to be used in "pooch" punting situations. Beamer said Peaslee has kicked well the past two weeks.

• John Engelberger has pledged $100,000 to VT. Roth joked that Engelberger made it contingent upon the bathrooms in the football wing being named for John Ballein, associate AD for football operations. When Roth said he was joking about naming the bathrooms, Beamer replied, "Well, we may!"

• The annual Orange & Maroon basketball scrimmages by Tech's men's and women's teams will be played Saturday prior to the Pitt game. The women play at 10 a.m., and the men at noon. Admission is free. Meanwhile, basketball tickets are on sale and Jim Weaver said prices were not increased this year because of the football ticket increase and the fact that VT wants to build support for basketball.

• VT leads the Big East in third down conversions, at 51.2 percent. Pitt is second at 43 percent. Miami is at 34 percent.

• VT set a new conference record last Saturday by reaching 13 consecutive Big East wins. Tech has won the most recent game it has played in every stadium in the conference.

• Monday was Day 387 of Virginia Tech's possession of the Commonwealth Cup.

P.S. The network signal went down for about 10 minutes Monday night near the end of Coach Bustle's segment. Broadcast resumed with Coach Beamer talking.

-- GalaxHokie

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