East Carolina notches first upset against Virginia Tech since 2008
East Carolina is no stranger to upsetting power conference teams, but no win was bigger than Saturday’s 28-21 triumph against Virginia Tech.
The Hokies had just come off what was perceived as a monumental victory against Ohio State and were garnering national headlines as a possible team to watch in the ACC.
However, all of that disappeared early during Saturday’s game against East Carolina, as the Pirates struck first and fast with two touchdowns in the first five minutes of the game. They added another score before the end of the first quarter and that looked good enough to pull off the upset until late in the fourth quarter when the Hokies tied it with 1:20 remaining.
But East Carolina answered the drive with a touchdown to seal the victory with 16 seconds remaining.
It was East Carolina’s first win against Virginia Tech since 2008 and just the sixth win in the 19 games they’ve played. Each of the past three games has been decided by a touchdown.
While East Carolina deserves a lot of praise for its ability to go into Blacksburg and win, we also have to step back for a second and realize that Virginia Tech’s win against Ohio State really wasn’t as great as many made it out to be. That’s not an indictment on Tech — any win at Ohio State is a good win — but that is not a good Ohio State team regardless of its 66-0 drubbing of Kent State on Saturday.
Virginia Tech might be good enough to win the ACC Coastal, but that’s not saying a lot. And Ohio State might be battling for the top of the Big Ten, but is that really an accomplishment?
Quite honestly, East Carolina might be the best out of all three of these teams and might have the best chance at winning its conference. The American Athletic Conference hasn’t exactly been a juggernaut and East Carolina’s win Saturday is the best the conference has had to offer so far.
It’s surely one of the best upsets we’ve seen so far this season simply because of the hype Virginia Tech had coming into the game.
For more Virginia Tech news, visit HokieHaven.com.
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday
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