Thursday/Friday: Tech’s special teams; hockey still on hold
Friday (7 a.m.): No traditional briefing today. On the road early to Martinsville Speedway for a full day of interviews. I’ll try to post something from the track later.
—
This is from an online game called "Field Goal Frenzy." Sounds about right for yesterday's practice in Blacksburg.
Beamer wasn’t kidding about taking extra interest in the kicking game. He hovered over the shoulders only a few feet behind Michael Branthover, Scott Demler, Conor Goulding and Skyler Hutcheson during kicking and punting drills. (All four did both.) Holder/quarterback Trey Gresh jumped in the punting line as well.
-I have to wonder if Beamer read Travis’ comment yesterday.
STILL ON ICE
-Roanoke is still exploring whether to get a hockey team. “We’re not in any rush,” Roanoke Civic Center GM Robyn Schon says. “People might be wanting us to put a team in here in 2012, but it might not happen. If it takes us a while to put everything together to do it right, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re taking our time.”
‘BAMA BOUND
-Former UVa basketball player KT Harrell has transferred to Auburn.
PIPELINE CONTINUES
-Wisconsin gets another former ACC Rookie of the Year at quarterback. This time, it’s ex-Terp Danny O’Brien
Danny O'Brien follows Russell Wilson's lead from the ACC to Wisconsin.
HONORED
-Cave Spring grad Gregg Marshall, the former Winthrop basketball coach now at Wichita State, will be inducted into the Big South Hall of Fame.
WANTING TO ASSIST
-Bill Parcells says he has an obligation to help Sean Payton but hasn’t decided whether to take over the Saints.
REVIEW ‘EM ALL
-NFL coaches will no longer have to use a challenge to get turnovers reviewed. They’ll be looked at automatically. Also, the league will use the new overtime rules that they introduced in last year’s postseason (first team must score a TD or the other team gets a possession, too).
FIRST-PLACE MARINERS
-Seattle and Oakland are back at it in Japan this morning a day after the Mariners opened the season with a 3-1 victory in 11 innings.
B.J. Upton will begin the season on the DL.
-The Rays’ B.J. Upton will begin the season on the DL with a back injury.
STIRRING THE POT
-Former Maryland coach Gary Williams says Kentucky could beat the Washington Wizards.
YOUR SIX-WORD STORIES
-Yesterday’s topic was the 2012 Tech football season in six words. Some highlights:
-From NewUVaFan: Those guys really get after you!
-From Travis Williams: Special teams coach’s seat gets hot.
-From Trevor: To Hokies Nation: Familiarity breeds contempt.
-From Rick H: A disappointing 10, just like always.
-From HokieAl: I’m excited about this team. (Sniff).
big Hokie trusts Bud (and Logan), but many of the other six-worders aren't so glowing.
-From TomL: Tech starts fast and then faceplants.
-From ken: Hokie hopes rest on big uglies
-From Dan: Beamer produces sequel to Logan’s Run.
TODAY’S TOPIC: Virginia Tech’s special teams in six words. Go wherever you want with it.
NAME THAT TUNE
My old friend lives up in the mountains
He flew up there to paint the world
He says, “Even though interpretation’s what I count on
This little picture to me seems blurred
Hard lines and the shadows come easy
I see it all just as clear as a bell
I just can’t seem to set my easel to please me
I paint my Heaven but it looks like hell”
Your blue might be gray, your less might be more
Your window to the world might be your own front door
Your shiniest day might come in the middle of the night…
March 29, 2012 - 5:35 AM
Blackhawks “That’s Just About Right”
I read about Danny O’Brien’s transfer to Wisconsin. That’s, what, the 2nd season in a row that two ACC quarterbacks have joined the Big Ten. I hope that’s not going to start a trend any time soon. Granted, O’Brien didn’t thrive in Esdall’s system as hoped, but he was far better under The Fridge. This leads me to ask this question – did Maryland make the right decision in firing Ralph? Aaron, you are the alum, what’s your thought?
Yesterday on Bitter’s blog, somebody made a good point that nearly all of the special team’s woe was the punter, that is until Danny Coale, legendary Hokies already, stepped in as a punter. So that make me wonder if we will relive the old “Punt, Bama, Punt” year?
Six-worders: Kicking? Check. Punting? Check. New Coach?
We will kick down your door!
Zirkle scores.
AMc, 4 days in San Diego over spring bread to work out with a high dollar QB coach, which by the way seems to be a conflict in interest, had to have been expensive? I’m sure George Whitfield wasn’t doing it Pro-bono either, of course Whitfield likes the exposure. Point being, that had to have been an expensive trip, just another reason why it would be ludacris to pay college athletes any more than a scholarship and pell grants, if they are eligible. Speaking of which AB, do you know if Logan Thomas is a full Pell qualifier? His parents must be awfully wealthy to be able to send their son to San Diego to workout. I mean we aren’t talking about the $199.00 all inclusive trip to Daytona Beach here…what’s your thoughts AB?
VT Special Teams – not as special as they were
Kick the Coach to the Curb!
We will all miss Danny Coale.
I had to do 2 today:
Another rugby kick? Ugh.
Six words: “Hokies need Kathy Ireland, circa 1991.”
And mix in Sinbad too, just because he’s awesome.
“Another punt nets sixteen whole yards”
“Let`s bring back Magic here too”
Heard a good quote from Bob Valvano this morning about fans, their complaints and trash talking. Some of you on this blog might not get it. “5% of the fans make 90% of the noise”
The most obnoxious people on blogs are the ones who complain about the complainers. As long as the criticism is constructive and supported with evidence it should at least be considered. The name calling and inflammatory words do nothing to add to the discourse. If you are going to disagree with a complaint, at least offer a reason as to why the person is incorrect in his analysis.
I used to do that GB. Getting called a Beamer apologist was the nicest comments i would get. Usually it was moron or something like that. Much of the criticisms I see are not constructive at all. Mainly they are just slams against a coaches integrity, ability and character.
Sorry if you find me as obnoxious.
I had a good chuckle when read about Shane Beamer using a contraption to try to jar the ball loose from the running backs. I almost envisioned Beamer donning pads and helmet a la The Rock in “Gridiron Gang.”
That was just too funny to picture. However, I got admit that was very creative, and glad that the trip to Texas paid off for him. Speaking of Texas, I got a kick out of the name, Major Applewhite. For some reason, the name stir the image of a thoroughbred thundering down the track, nostrils flared, and dirt kicking up behind him. Awesome picture.
I also think that Thomas could use that contraption to secure the ball from the snap. He did lose a couple of fumbles on two occasions I can remember.
And what a novel approach Beamer took to practice. Music during stretching! That’s so earth shaking, according to some posts on Bitter’s blog. Awesome. Maybe Beamer ought to play Enter Sandman to get the juice going before they start practicing.
I had a thought. I wonder if the reason the punter did a horrible job last year was due to being around thousands of fans watching. Maybe the problem isn’t mechanical, but psychological. Bemaer repeatedly said during the season that the punters had great height and distance during practice. But we all know how it turned out. I am starting to wonder if it’s more a psychological issue than mechanical.
Maybe Beamer could put the punter near speaker that mimics crowd noise and have players stand near by to simulate game environment. Dunno.
No, Greg, the most obnoxious people on blogs are people like Stack Maroon. All you have to do is read his/her post today about Logan Thomas and his trip to San Diego to see what I’m talking about. Geez, the character can’t even cut and paste a comment from another blog and edit it properly before trying to stir something up with baseless insinuations.
Well UVA is in the 757 area with another practice/coaches clinic. London says he plans to do one in the SW area of the state in the future. Londons doing some interesting things and it will pay off for him in the future. He has the advantage by being in the middle of the state so he can travel in all directions fairly easily. Friday is practice day and Sat. is when they have the coaches clinic. Good plan. Says he likes it because where they have the practices are small intimate facilities and prospects can get close to the field to watch the position coaches interact with their players. Sounds smart to me.
Special teams: “Special teams are not so special”.
Special teams gives Beamer the sharts!
If the most obnoxious people on the blogs are the ones who complain about the complainers…
…then what does that make the people who complain about the ones who complain about the complainers?
I’m sorry, you set that spike up nice and pretty for us all.
“Hi,Shane. Watcha` got there”? “It`s a boxing glove taped to a mop handle with duct tape.” “Thought so. Where did you get it? Dicks?” “Nah. Me and `Zo made it up in the off season” “How`s it work”? “Well. when that yellow light on the coaches tower goes on I`m supposed to punch it at every one carrying a football”. “Great idea. I`m surprised Billy didn`t come up with that.Think it will help?” “Don`t know. Today is only Round 1. Get it?” “I got it Rocky. Thanks”
I still think the NFL overtime rules stink. The way it is now, you win the coin toss and the odds of winning swing heavily your way considering if you score a TD the other team gets no chance to challenge the defense to tie the game again. The way I see it, if both teams have played well enough to tie the score in regulation, they both deserve a chance to tie it again in overtime. If you fail to match the other teams OT score, you lose but you should get the chance to do so.
Six word special teams: Beamer: “My Kingdom For a Punter”.
Tom, I read about London’s recruiting prowess on Rivals.com last night, and from the sound of it, it may be time for a UVa revival. When was the last time UVa and Tech truly went toe to toe and came out bloodied? The 38-0 doesn’t count because I was disappointed in not seeing the resurgent Wahoos.
Huntersdad, that OT rules actually make thing interesting. They are sort of adopting what college football have been doing. I’d love to see how The Hoodie calculate that.
Love the poor copy-paste job, Stack. Maybe next time you’ll edit the abbreviations or post something that at least looks different than the lines you used yesterday.
You trying to imply Logan’s getting additional benefits somewhere, somehow?
Here are two sample flights through Delta, not Hotwire. Prices include tax:
Leaving: Roanoke on April 24 (Tue), returning April 29 (Sun) – $919
Leaving: Greensboro. Same dates – $720
These are also flights being booked as travel season starts to pick up. Mother’s day and Memorial Day are both around the corner. So I can easily see a trip booked, in mid-January, through Hotwire, for early March being even less. Further, Greensboro is only a 2 hour drive from Lynchburg. I didn’t include Lynchburg’s airport because my phone kept giving me problems trying to use it as either my departure or destination location.
If I cared enough, I’m sure I could find a way to make the entire package fairly inexpensive without violating any NCAA rules.
Rich H, this is true, guilty as charges, was in a hurry this morning and did not correctly cut and paste from one blog to the next, it was a minor detail though…thanks for noticing though.
My 6 words:
Danny Cole is still wide open
Speakijng of Hockey. Watching a hockey game once in a while is OK. But it is not a southern sport. It has a limited appeal to the demographgics of the Roanoke Area. Like times past, a new team will stir up a little interest for a while and then it will be left to the same small diehard core of hockey fans. There are not enough of them to support a team here.
This is still a high school and college sports town. There’s nothinmg wtong with that. But its time we recognized it and played to our strengths
instead of beatin or heads and throwing our money against a wall that will not yield.
Hokie special teams? Old fashioned coach needs inservce training
Virginia Tech Special Teams: Logan on every fourth and….whatever.
six words- journells charges end up misdemeanor-guaranteed. that being said it is not certain tech wants him back. dont forget- he made ten in a row before suspension. but if he goes to the curb- you will be surprised at the big schools willing to take him in. time will tell.
We don’t need gimmicks and splash from Shane Beamer, we need to get our team ready to contend for a National Championship, or at least to finally beat a top 5 team. Start with a revamp of the special teams and some ingenuity in the offense. We are going to need everything that we can muster, based on what I have just witnessed in pre-game.
Rick H – How spoiled ROTTEN are we when we get to the point where we feel 10 wins is a disappointing season??
George, I see you have been conditioned to accept 10 wins, ACC champion, and the annual faceplant in BCS game. It’s ok. There are some who have settled for less, and there are those who yearn for more. That’s probably true for most fan bases.
George, that’s exactly what most Tech fans are, spoiled rotten. Not saying I am, that’s hardly the case. I’ve endured bad football and bad basketball (that’s where we are really spoiled, and for no reason).
I’ve said this many times, the collective VT mentality’s problem is that we’ve matriculated almost 100k alums that have never known the pain and suffering of 2-8-1 in 1992, or the shallow years prior to that. 10 W’s is fine by me, but there is a small part of me that wants to see football armaggedon happen one year to see just who sticks around.
Check out Kevin Harvick’s truck in the race tomorrow. He has the NPHL as an associate sponsor. One of the new hockey team owners is involved in NASCAR in some capacity although it has not been revealed yet who it may be.