By CARTER STRICKLAND
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/07/07
Eight months later, Frank Beamer has floated an excuse for Virginia Tech's 31-24 loss to Georgia in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. The coach believes that maybe, just maybe, Georgia had an extra set of eyes and ears near the Hokies' practices leading up to the game.
"We practiced out at Georgia Tech and we let all kinds of people through there ... people we didn't really know," Beamer told The Roanoke Times. "And I thought it hurt us in the bowl game. I thought Georgia knew exactly what we were doing in several situations."
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Georgia coach Mark Richt understood Beamer's concerns, but he also was quick to douse any rumors of espionage.
"It is natural," Richt said. "I don't blame him for wanting to close [practice] or even feeling that way. To my knowledge we had absolutely no idea what was going on in their camp. I can assure coach Beamer we had no idea about anything going on."
The first half might have been an indication of that. Virginia Tech outplayed Georgia for 30 minutes. Georgia won the chess match in the second half and seemed to be in the right place at the right time every time.
"Sometimes you get the right call at the right time, and if that happens enough times coaches begin to wonder, 'My gosh they must have had us. Somehow had our signals or had something.'
"I can't tell you how many times that I have been signaling plays in, and if things aren't going well I will immediately grab the guy and whisper in his ear and run him in there because I am concerned they got my signal," Richt added.
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