BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Throughout the interview blitz that came along with preseason hype for the Heisman, Marshall quarterback Byron Leftwich talked about his mom.

	Virginia Tech's Nathaniel Adibi chases down Byron Leftwich.

How she would work two jobs just to put food on the table. How she sacrificed her own life to better that of he and his older brother Kevin. And how all of the success he's achieved today -- from the yards to the touchdowns to the incredible comebacks -- is because of her.

So after the disappointing 47-21 defeat Thursday to ninth-ranked Virginia Tech, a game in which the Marshall offense sputtered for the better part of three quarters, there was only one person the quarterback wanted to see -- Brenda Leftwich.

"It's mom time," he told reporters after a lengthy postgame interview session. "Gotta go see my mom."

And there she was, wearing a white "Team Leftwich" T-shirt with a green No. 7 and the word "Mom" on the back. The 6-foot-6 Byron Leftwich, still in his football pants and dirt-covered cleats, slouched over, put his arm around mom and walked down a back hallway at Lane Stadium.

Perhaps this week more than ever, the postgame meeting was a little extra important. Not only because Leftwich and Marshall failed in its lone chance to knock off a nationally-ranked BCS Conference school, but because of a feature article in a local newspaper earlier this week that stirred family emotions that had been buried for years.

In a Sunday feature about Leftwich, the Roanoke (Va.) Times casually mentioned that Leftwich's father, Paul Anderson, left the family when Byron was 2 and barely ever spoke to his son. Two days later, Anderson, who lives in Roanoke, called the paper to tell them that statements about him never being around were untrue.

He said he was a big part of Byron's life, though he hadn't seen his son since he left for Marshall. Anderson added that while the rest of Team Leftwich would be in attendance on Thursday, he would be watching the game from his Roanoke apartment, a 40-minute drive from Blacksburg.

After the defeat Thursday and just before finding the comfort of his mother, Leftwich briefly addressed the story.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't know what to say. I didn't even hear about all this until I got down here. And you know what, it's a bunch of bull anyway. It's not about what he's doing. It's about what happens on the field."

Things weren't much happier there Thursday. Though Leftwich's final stats were typically gaudy -- 31-for-49 for 406 yards and three touchdowns, the fourth-most yards ever surrendered by Virginia Tech -- the majority of those numbers came after the Hokies built a 33-0 fourth-quarter lead.

If you take away that last quarter, in which Leftwich completed 15 of 17 for 197 yards and three scores, then his numbers become a rather pedestrian 16-for-32 for 209 yards.

"We just didn't execute," Leftwich said. "We didn't make the big play. Not until the fourth quarter did things really start clicking for us."

Part of that was his fault, but most of it was his teammates' doings. The Marshall offense suffered from numerous dropped passes, including two sure touchdowns. Even Leftwich's second-quarter interception was the fault of a running back who floated out of the area where the play is designed to deliver the ball.

"We talked to our receivers at the half," Marshall coach Bob Pruett said. "I told them they have to make some plays. We've got a guy that can get it to them -- everybody saw that. But they gotta catch it."

Despite the halftime pep talk, the third quarter was the ugliest of all for Marshall. The Thundering Herd trailed 20-0 at the time and considering its explosive offense and penchant for monumental comebacks, was still in the game. But two consecutive three-and-outs -- from a unit that averaged 458.6 yards and 32.9 points a game a season earlier -- proved costly.

It gave an already tired defense even less time to rest, allowing Virginia Tech's running combination of Lee Suggs and Kevin Jones to run wild. While everyone showed up eager to watch Leftwich, it was Jones' 171 yards and Suggs' 153 yards -- both on 24 carries -- that wowed them.

"When your defense is tired like that, you have to move the ball," Leftwich said. "And we didn't do it, simple as that. We didn't help at all. We didn't make the big plays. And everybody inside that stadium knows if we make a couple big plays, this is a different ballgame."

But Marshall didn't and the game wasn't. As a team, the Thundering Herd entered the game fighting for respect. Marshall has spent four years now dominating the MAC, but is 0-4 against top-20 teams.

As a quarterback, it was Leftwich's chance to prove he's a legitimate Heisman candidate. Neither Florida's Rex Grossman nor Miami's Ken Dorsey have been impressive early on, leaving the Heisman door wide open. And even though Leftwich's numbers were impressive, the defeat wasn't.

"I've said from the beginning when it comes to the Heisman, I could care less," Leftwich said. "I came here to get a W. And we didn't do that. A loss is a loss. And if we didn't win, we failed."

But don't think Leftwich and Marshall left here with their heads buried. Chick-fil-A and the movie Ocean's Eleven were on tap for the bus ride back to Huntington. And Leftwich insisted the defeat already was behind him.

In fact, at one point during his postgame press conference, the quarterback couldn't keep from grinning. When asked what was so funny, he pointed to the reporters sitting in front of him.

"You guys," he said. "Everybody in this room wants us to hold our head down. They want us to just pack it in and give up. But we won't do it. We lost to a good football team. And we didn't play our best football. That was it."

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer at ESPN.com. He can be reached at wayne.drehs@espn3.com.