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Glennon, Virginia Tech roll over Georgia Tech

Nov 2, 2007 - 5:40 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- You can take away his jersey, but you can't take away Sean Glennon's ability to do the job.

Glennon threw for a pair of touchdowns and rushed for another as Virginia Tech kept it's Atlantic Coast Conference title hopes alive with a 27-3 victory over Georgia Tech on Thursday.

Prior to the game, the jerseys of Glennon and cornerbacks Kam Chancellor and Brandon Flowers were stolen from the Hokies' locker room, forcing them to use old Yellow Jackets' jerseys in the game. The players colored over the team names with black marker, wrote their own names on the back and drew their own version of the Nike "swoosh" under the collar to make the jerseys as close to their teammates as possible.

"We had jersey complications," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. "Nothing was going to stop us from coming out and competing and playing a great football game against a team I have a lot of respect for, a coach I have a lot of respect for and a coaching staff I have a lot of respect for."

While Chancellor and Flowers had their proper jerseys flown in and changed at halftime, a backup for Glennon could not be found, and he played the entire contest in the old Georgia Tech uniform, completing 22-of-32 passes for 295 yards.

"He's made some big plays for us and run our football team very well," Beamer said. "I'm proud of Sean. We just gave him the game ball in there for being the outstanding player of the game. He's done a nice job."

The Virginia Tech (7-3, 4-1 ACC Coastal Division) defense forced five turnovers and held Georgia Tech (5-4, 2-4) to 13 first downs and just two third-down conversions in 11 chances. Cornerback Victor Harris grabbed an interception and recovered a fumble, and Flowers set up the Hokies' final score with an interception with 1:33 left in the third quarter.

"They made some plays, every time they got moving on us a little bit," Beamer said about the defense. "We made some plays, and a couple of them I thought were big-time interceptions. They weren't easy interceptions."

The team's traded field goals in the first quarter, with Travis Bell putting the Yellow Jackets on top 3-0 with a 24-yard strike 9:09 into the game. Virginia Tech responded with a 7 1/2-minute drive that resulted in Jud Dunlevy's 28-yard field goal and a 3-3 tie.

"Most of them were 3rd-and-1s, 3rd-and-2s," Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey said. "There were some 3rd-and-longs in there, but most of them were 3rd-and 1s or 3rd-and-2s. They kept the ball a great deal, but we had our opportunities to get off the field."

The Hokies took control in the second quarter, when Glennon rushed two yards up the middle at the 14:15 mark for a 10-3 lead.

Glennon's first touchdown pass came with 5:40 left in the first half, a 40-yard strike to Justin Harper which took Virginia Tech into the half with a 17-3 lead.

"I thought he did a good job of just taking what was there," Gailey said of Glennon. "He didn't try to force anything. I think he threw maybe one or two balls deep; that was all. He did a good job of throwing the ball underneath and hitting the guys, and they broke a couple of tackles."

Yellow Jackets starting quarterback Taylor Bennett was replaced by true freshman Josh Nesbit midway through the third quarter, and the youngster nearly got Georgia Tech back in the game when he lofted a pass deep downfield to wide receiver James Johnson, who had no defender within 15 yards and a clear path to the end zone. But Johnson could not come down with an over-the-shoulder catch.

"Yes," Johnson said when asked if the pass handcuffed him. "He kind of threw it, it was supposed to be in front of me, but as a receiver it is hard to run like that and really run your fastest. It was a missed opportunity."

Johnson, who made seven catches for 136 yards, fumbled on the Yellow Jackets next possession, and Virginia Tech and Glennon responded with a 71-yard scoring strike to Josh Morgan to put the game away.

Bennett finished the contest 11-of-26 for 157 yards and four interceptions for Georgia Tech, which was eliminated from Coastal Division contention with the loss.

The Hokies outgained the Yellow Jackets, 480 to 273, and moved into a first-place tie in the Coastal Division with in-state rival Virginia (7-2, 4-1).

"I'm really proud of our football team," Beamer said. "I told them I wanted to be able to come in here tonight and tell you how tough-minded we are at Virginia Tech, to come back from a loss like we had last week (to No. 2 Boston College) to beat a really good football team. We weren't going to let it bother us.