A few hours before Virginia Tech’s game at East Carolina last night, Ryan Williams spoke on the phone to his mother, Sharon Johnson. Williams calls his mom “my best friend,” and they talk every day.

She had a succinct message for him yesterday when they talked for the final time before the game. “Do your thing, Ru,” she said, referring to her son by the nickname he’s had since he was a boy. “That’s all I needed to hear,” Williams would say later.

With ESPN’s cameras focusing on the cheering Johnson in the stands at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, Williams carries 26 times for 179 yards, bettering his season high by 15 yards. This, after his fumble with 2:02 left a week ago against North Carolina gave the ball at Tech’s 24-yard line and led to the Tar Heels’ game-winning field goal at the buzzer.

But you already knew that. How about this: Williams now has 1,109 yards this season—11th on Tech’s single-season list. He is closing in on Darren Evans’ 1,265 from last season—No. 4 on Tech’s list and the most in Tech and ACC history by a freshman. Barring disaster in the final three regular-season games and the bowl game, Williams will break Evans’ record.

Another interesting tidbit: Tech is now just the third school in Division I-AA history to produce back-to-back 1,000-yard freshman rushers. Of course, it takes an odd circumstance for this to happen, like Evans’ season-ending knee injury, because why would a 1,000-yard freshman rusher get limited action the next season?

Here are the players who did it ... 

Nevada—Chance Kretschmer (1,732 in 2001) and Matt Milton (1,108 in 2002)
Texas Christian—Lonta Hobbs (1,029 in 2002) and Robert Merrill (1,107 in 2003)
Virginia Tech—Darren Evans (1,265 in 2008) and Ryan Williams (1,109 in 2009)

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Not that we should ignore the performance Tech’s defense tonight. East Carolina had 277 yards and just 95 on 31 plays in the second half, during which they crossed midfield on just one of seven possessions.

(A quick side note before I get to some numbers: sophomore inside linebacker Jake Johnson did not play here tonight, according to the guy who replaced him in the starting lineup, redshirt freshman Lyndell Gibson. Defensive coordinator Bud Foster said earlier this week that even though Gibson was starting, he was still going to rotate Johnson into the game. But obviously plans can change. Will be interesting to see how much time Johnson gets the rest of the way.)

OK, now a look at the Pirates’ drives and their results ...

4 plays, minus-1 yard—punt
5 plays, 18 yards—punt
9 plays, 43 yards—fumble
3 plays, minus-1 yard—punt
3 plays, 5 yards—punt
12 plays, 73 yards—field goal
3 plays, 5 yards—punt
6 plays, 48 yards—fumble
6 plays, 13 yards—punt
3 plays, minus-2 yards—punt
5 plays, 16 yards—punt
4 plays, 11 yards—interception
4 plays, 4 yards—downs

So of 13 drives, five went three or four plays and out, three ended in turnovers and the other four, besides that field-goal drive, consisted of four, five, five and six plays. Not too shabby, especially since the Hokies’ past two opponents, Georgia Tech and North Carolina, combined to convert 11 of 16 third downs in the second half. The Pirates were four of 14 overall tonight and two of eight in the second half.

Impressions from the Hokies’ 16-3 win at East Carolina.