Week 14: ACC Championship Game

Their first meeting produced one of the most exciting finishes in college football this season. Their second will produce the ACC champion.

Boston College rallied from a 10-0 deficit late in the fourth quarter to defeat Virginia Tech 14-10 on Oct. 25, and the teams will meet again this weekend at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium for the right to play in the Orange Bowl.

“Sometimes you have to be careful of what you wish for,” Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer told The Boston Globe. “After the game, we said we wished we might get them again. Now we have to figure out a way to beat them.”

That’s been difficult for the Hokies in recent years. Boston College has won three of the last four meetings between the teams, including two in a row, since Virginia Tech ran off seven consecutive victories in the series. The Hokies appeared to have the Eagles beaten back in October on a rainy night in Blacksburg, Va., but quarterback Matt Ryan rallied Boston College to victory.

Ryan’s statistics for the game were subpar by his standards — he completed just 25 of 52 passes for 285 yards and two interceptions — but he threw for 157 yards and two touchdowns in the game’s final 4:16 while engineering scoring drives of 92 yards and 62 yards.

“Good players do that — they take the game over,” said BC coach Jeff Jagodzinski, who is tied for the most wins (10) by a first-year coach in ACC history. “With the best players, that’s what happens.”

Ryan certainly qualifies. The 6-5, 220-pound senior enters the ACC championship game having set single-season school records with 3,953 passing yards and 28 touchdown passes this season. He has thrown for more than 310 yards in eight of Boston College’s 12 games this season, cracking the 400-yard mark four times.

Ryan does a nice job spreading around the ball in offensive coordinator Steve Logan’s attack. For the first time in school history, Boston College has four players with at least 50 catches in a season. Plus, the Eagles have five players with at least 500 receiving yards.

Included in that group is senior tailback Andre Callender, who has a team-high 59 catches for 613 yards and four touchdowns in addition to his 885 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground this season. Callender doesn’t get much recognition nationally because he isn’t flashy, but he should attract plenty of attention from Virginia Tech’s defense after catching the 24-yard game-winning touchdown pass against the Hokies in October.

Ryan scrambled around on that play — and a few others on BC’s late scoring drives. The Hokies chose in several situations to rush three linemen and drop eight players into pass coverage, a tactic defensive coordinator Bud Foster might rethink for this matchup. Virginia Tech has two of the ACC’s best cornerbacks in juniors Macho Harris (first-team All-ACC) and Brandon Flowers (second-team All-ACC), who each have five interceptions this season, and Foster can trust them to prevent big plays if he decides to blitz Ryan.

“It’s hard to get to him — he gets rid of the ball,” Beamer said. “He understands what’s going on.”

The Eagles accomplished nothing on the ground against Virginia Tech in the first meeting — they totaled just 32 rushing yards — and the pressure to perform could fall squarely on the right shoulder of Ryan again in this one. The Hokies enter the game ranked No. 5 nationally against the run (86.2 yards per game), No. 4 in opponents’ pass efficiency (97.1 rating), No. 4 in total defense (285.3 ypg) and No. 2 in scoring defense (15.4 points per game), so points will be at a premium.

That means the Eagles must protect the football — something they didn’t do in losses to Florida State and Maryland immediately following their miraculous comeback in Blacksburg — and play a strong game defensively.

Virginia Tech is hardly an offensive juggernaut, but the Hokies have shown major improvement since their loss to the Eagles. Virginia Tech has averaged 36 points per game during its four-game winning streak since that defeat, thriving with a two-quarterback rotation of fourth-year junior Sean Glennon and true freshman Tyrod Taylor.

Taylor missed the teams’ first meeting because of a high ankle sprain, but he is a versatile threat with six touchdown runs and five touchdown passes this season. Glennon, who has started the last five games, beginning when Taylor was injured, is playing the best football of his career. He trails only Clemson’s Cullen Harper in pass efficiency among ACC quarterbacks and has not thrown an interception in ACC play this season.

Virginia couldn’t stop Virginia Tech’s quarterback tandem last week — Taylor ran for two touchdowns, and Glennon passed for 260 yards and a TD in the Hokies’ 33-21 Coastal Division-clinching win — but the Eagles know they must find a way.

“Rotation at QB gives you some problems,” Jagodzinski told The Globe. “We’re going to have our hands full coming up with a plan trying to contain both of those guys.”

Boston College likely won’t have senior cornerback DeJuan Tribble, who has missed the last two games with a sprained knee ligament, back on the field to help the cause. But Tribble’s replacement, true freshman DeLeon Gause, has proven that he’s capable. Plus, BC has senior safety Jamie Silva — one of three finalists for the Thorpe Award, which is presented annually to the nation’s top defensive back — in the secondary to help cover up any mistakes.

The Eagles hope to force some Virginia Tech mistakes by doing what they have done so successfully all season — making their opponent one-dimensional. Boston College ranks No. 2 in the country in rushing defense (65.6 ypg), a major reason why the team is fourth nationally with 20 interceptions.

The problem for Boston College is that the Hokies appear to be hitting their stride in terms of offensive balance.

Taylor is a dual threat capable of big plays with his arm or his feet, and Glennon is able to utilize Virginia Tech’s speedy quartet of senior wide receivers on the outside. Then there’s tailback Branden Ore, who finally is healthy after battling through injuries to his ribs, ankle and hamstring this season. Ore rushed for 97 yards on 20 carries against the Eagles in the first meeting, and he churned out 147 yards on 31 attempts last week against the Cavaliers.

Ore’s emergence — plus the presence of Taylor and senior linebacker Vince Hall, who missed the first meeting with a broken bone in his wrist — gives Virginia Tech an edge in this game that it lacked in the first matchup. The Hokies also have a better kicking game, with Jud Dunlevy offering more range and accuracy than BC’s Steve Aponavicius, and the ACC’s best return man in Eddie Royal.

Virginia Tech by 3