Hokies Reverse the ‘Tide

Virginia Tech put an end to several demons Tuesday night in the inaugural Music City Bowl.

The Hokies, who had never beaten Alabama in 10 previous tries, intercepted three passes, blocked two punts and recovered a muffed punt in routing the Crimson Tide, 38-7.

“I’m proud to beat a class program with the tradition and the players that Alabama has had,” said Hokie Coach Frank Beamer, who made up for a 1968 loss to the Tide as a player by winning in his first chance as a coach.

“They’ve beaten us 10 straight times. I would like to think that this is the start of a new day at Virginia Tech.”

The victory ended a two-game losing streak in bowls for Virginia Tech (9-3), one of only 10 teams to go to a bowl in each of the last six years. The Hokies also picked up their first victory over a Southeastern Conference team.

For Alabama (7-5), second-year Coach Mike DuBose has the distinction of ending a five-bowl winning streak in his first bowl appearance. It was the Crimson Tide’s worst bowl defeat since losing to national champion Nebraska, 38-6, in the 1972 Orange Bowl.

DuBose called it a very disappointing loss for a program trying to revive its proud tradition after a 4-7 record last year. Alabama controlled the clock for more than 36 minutes but couldn’t hold onto the ball enough.

“It was obvious tonight that we still need to take another step because we’re not there,” he said.

Virginia Tech ended its string of futility against Alabama by forcing mistakes. Daniel Pope hadn’t had a punt blocked all season until Tuesday, and Andrew Zow hadn’t had more than two passes intercepted in a game and had only two in his previous four games.

“We’ve been winning with special teams all year long,” said end Corey Moore, who blocked the second punt. “They hadn’t had a punt blocked all year long, and we wanted to show them what it felt like.”