Friday: What will you be watching tomorrow? (Lots of good options)
GOOD FRONT-PAGE STORY BY MARK BERMAN TODAY on Virginia Tech radio duo Bill Roth and Mike Burnop, who both lost loved ones to cancer earlier this year. “It’s been a sad year, but we’re helping each other through it,” Roth says. “Football’s been a good distraction for both of us.”
MORE HOKIES
-Left guard David Wang is out for the Bowling Green game with an ankle injury. Cornerback Kyle Fuller (shoulder) is listed as probable.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
-No. 24 Boise State beats BYU 7-6 on a pick-six by a nose tackle known as “Canadian Bacon.”
-Your TV game tonight is Baylor at Louisana-Monroe (8 p.m., ESPN). The Bears are a 7-point favorite.
-TV games of interest tomorrow include Virginia at TCU (noon, ESPN), Bowling Green at VT (noon, ESPNU), Maryland at West Virginia (noon, FX), Miami at Georgia Tech (3 p.m., CSN), Missouri at South Carolina (3:30 p.m., WDBJ), Oregon State at UCLA (3:30 p.m., ESPN2), VMI at Navy (3:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network), LSU at Auburn (7 p.m., ESPN), Kansas State at Oklahoma (7:30 p.m., WFXR), Michigan at Notre Dame (7:30 p.m., WSLS), Vanderbilt at Georgia (7:45 p.m., ESPN2), Clemson at Florida State (8 p.m., WSET) and Arizona at Oregon (10:30 p.m., ESPN).
-That’s a mighty fine day to have a couch and a clicker. Curious as to which game(s) you’re looking forward to most.
-If you don’t have ESPNU and want to watch the Hokies, it’ll be streamed online here. I’ll have a live blog going as usual, as will Andy.
HIGH SCHOOLS
-Robert has his weekly football prediction column — and a very nice tribute to the late Steve Sabol — here. This is always one of my favorite pieces in the paper, every week.
-Rockbridge County quarterback Porter Abell leads his team into Amherst County, where his father, Scott, coached two state championship teams.
-Jason Niblett named boys basketball coach at Carlisle.
PENNANT RACES!
-The Nationals beat the Dodgers 4-1 to clinch their first playoff spot. Costly loss for the Dodgers, who fall three games back of St. Louis for the second NL wildcard spot.
-Milwaukee rallies to beat Pittsburgh for its fifth straight win and is now 2.5 back of the Cardinals in the wildcard.
-Chris Carpenter makes his season debut for the Cardinals today against the Cubs.
-Yankees beat Toronto to move one game up on the idle Orioles in the AL East. Orioles play at Boston tonight (7 p.m., MASN), while the Yankees host Oakland (7 p.m., MLB Network).
-Texas beats the Angels, who fall 4.5 games back of Oakland and Baltimore for the AL wildcard.
NFL
-Giants pound the Panthers 36-7. David Wilson has one carry for minus-2 yards. I didn’t watch this game, but those who did: Was there any discussion about Wilson being in the doghouse? Everything I read heading into this game suggested Wilson would get more carries with Bradshaw out.
NAME THAT TUNE
Lips as sweet as candy
Their taste stays on my mind
Girl, you keep me thirsty
For another cup of wine
I got it bad for you girl
But I don’t need a cure
I’ll just stay addicted, if I can endure
All the good love, when we’re all alone
Keep it up girl, yeah you turn me on
Iiiiiiiiii’m…..
September 21, 2012 - 8:34 AM
David Wilson either has or is about to blow his chance for this season. Coughlin’s down on him right now. DW needs to gather himself, compose himself, and bootstrap himself. He needs to stop worrying about being the next perfect superstar and instead just focus on playing the game. Not getting everything all at once, but playing the game. He needs to practice super hard, and do anything instructed to him. Lastly, he needs to back off the intensity about six levels.
Wilson in NYC & Ryan Williams in Arizona both seem to be pressing WAY too hard. Both are supremely talented, but are mentally overwhelmed right now. If they don’t get it together in short order, their careers may be as short as the averages indicate.
Hooked On A Feeling by BJ Thomas
The cancer story has really changed my morning. For all the ups and downs in the football program over the last 25 years, Roth and Burnop have been steady. Their friendship shines through during the broadcasts. And despite the love they have for VT, I would not consider them “homers.” They will take the team to task.
I can get the old ones, it’s the new stuff I never know. My favorite version of that is this one, though…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJQVlVHsFF8
CR with the lightning score. Hadn’t even gotten all the pictures up yet. Nicely done.
Football starts tonight so I will be at the Northside vs Salem game. Should be a real good game. The Vikings have been getting better every week as the players gain experience. Northside graduated I believe 22 seniors last year and most were starters. A real talented group of boys this year though and tremendous upside. Tom Coughlin is taking the wrong approach with Wilson. Sitting him for so long for one mistake is bound to shake his confidence.
To be honest though the highlight of the weekend will be watching my son play little league football Saturday morning.
The post about the email got me thinking last night. Now I am a UVA fan so you Hokies can take this for what it’s worth since this is just my opinion. If VT played the rest of their schedule like they play the Hoos I think they would get at least one more win a year. Plenty of times the last ten years the Hokies have been flat against a team they should beat. You can sense when a team is not ready and the coaches should get the guys ready. I think too alot of fans have been happy with ten wins because the Hokies have been beating UVA every year. To be honest UVA for most of the last ten years has been only average or worse with the exception of maybe two seasons. But on the other side of the coin be careful wishing for change because that doesn’t always mean greater success and I used to go with friends to VT games in the 80′s and it was a totally different program and atmosphere. So you might want to be a contender for a title but it is much easier for a program to go down than up. Just a word of wisdom to the people that want to fire the whole staff.
Actually any number of artists covered that song, including Blue Swede I believe. BJ in BJ Thomas stands for Billy Joe, but he didn’t want to be classified as a country artist so he went by BJ.
Berman is a little late on that article. Mike and Mike were honored at VT back at the GT game for their 25th anniversary and their losses, at that time, were acknowledged.
Am I nuts or does anyone out there think the Citadel, with its triple option that destroyed Appy State last week, has a decent shot at slow starting NC State?
Tom Coughlin is a tough, old school guy. That being said, I have to think that maybe Wilson’s attitude off the field might not be wearing well, or something like that. Not that he’s a negative, but maybe Coughlin see his Energizer Bunny enthusiasm and looks at it as not being serious enough. Maybe Coughlin isn’t impressed by backflips and chasing down rabbits. Some guys are like that. That is just a guess.
The NFL is a big boy league, and to stay there you have to be focused at all times. Focused but not tense. David Wilson & Ryan Williams need to remember that.
FTR, I’m a big fan of both players, and really want to see them succeed.
I don’t think that VT is “happy with ten wins because the Hokies have been beating UVA every year.” While it’s true that nobody wants to lose to their in-state rival at anything, I don’t think beating UVA is the key to keeping VT fans happy. It’s a huge plus, for sure, but I’d hope that VT’s goals are bigger than that.
Interesting thought, CR. Never considered how those personalities might clash, but it makes sense. Wouldn’t keep Wilson on the sidelines if he’d produced big in his debut but could be a factor in prolonging the doghouse stay.
Shaun,it does not help that DW pouts when he has a fumble and behaves unprofessionally. Andre Brown was clearly the better running back and it showed against a very weak Panthers defense. Brown was cut by the Panthers, so he had a bit of a revenge motivation going.
The Panthers were simply awful. They were clearly outclassed by a veteran laden team. Their offense line were porous and Cam is beginning to look like an overrated quarterback. Granted, they played with only 3 days of rest, but they couldn’t really get anything going while Eli coolly moved the offense up and down on the defense. That dude got ice in his veins.
This really sounds like an oxymoron but a great post about VT by a Hoo. I am sure you guys would like to rethink that George Welsh can only get us 7 or 8 wins a year theory. I do believe had you not taken that train off the tracks we might not have accomplished as much to date. I am a VT seaason ticket since 78. To hear people ready to jump off a bridge after a loss of any sorts kind of boggles my mind. One thing Andy can address is that we seem to get too eager to expect too much considering our pedigree. We have a great loyal fan base but we are new to the big stage. When you compare the level of competition we are associated with one thing to look at is the size of our stadiums. We are probably fall 15 to 20 thousand behind the schools we want to be compared to. Reason being is we are early in the process of building this thing on a national level. As the tradition grows more demand will come and expansion will also. Andy probably has the info at his want but I think most SEC schools made a comittment about 10 to 15 years ago to get all of their stadiums in the 80+ thousand. I do think we could do a reasonable expansion now with the demand for season tickets but is probably wise to keep the tickets harder to get and make sure every ticket is sold for a long time in advance as is now. The schools I referred to have all had great times for the past 50 years. I did read somewhere recently that we are the only team that has competed for NC with a stadium less than 75 thousand in the era of the college football boom. Sorry for the length of post but thougth some things VT fans should be realistic about.
Crooked – DW is a rookie with all of 3 games under his belt. I think its a bit much to condemn his career just yet. Unless your name is “RGIII” or “Bo” you don’t make the HoF in 3 games.
Josh Morgan, however, fire away. He has several years in the league now and the thing he is known for is a last secon game losing penalty. Not good.
I’ll watch the chokies with my alumni association (at Fox and Hounds on DeZavala at Vance Jackson, 11:00 am if you are in the area). That way the famous Hokie Pessimism can be shared. My family (except for my sport nut son) just doesn’t get it. BTW, San Antonio has one of the best Alumni groups in the nation. I am not just saying that, the University agrees. A lady named Chris Bryan is the energy behind it and a fellow named Greg Wattis is the organizational brain. Chris’ daughter Taylor is a student there, now. Kudos to them.
I’m looking forward to Clemson-FSU. Just because…
And i’d like to see LA-Monroe win again and I might watch bits of LSU-Auburn. This is an upset possibility. I think the tiger has more claws and heavy motivation to scratch.
And I hate BJ Thomas music almost as much as last week’s game.
You can tell that people my age are insane when we actually tolerate blowage in the press about the Monkeys being a serious musical group. They didn;t play their own tamborine.
While there were certainly some terrific cuts in the 60′s there was a whole bunch of trash as well. I grew up with Cousin Brucie and Dan Ingram on ABC in NYC as well as Bandstand. Clark preferred Philly Soul and Mowtown to Bubbles… There is a reason why everyone turned to ABC FM and its album cuts (and a DJ named Roscoe) rather than the “Murray the K”.
Sorry. BJT tripped my BS trigger.
Headed to Philly to see the Phils continue their wild-card push this weekend. Hoping to get back to the hotel in time for FSU/Clemson (i.e., the only game on the ACC calendar that looks like it will matter this season)…
Agree with alwaysOandM about some Hokie fans reaction to one loss. We’re a little older O&M and remember the good old days of struggling to beat Memphis or Vanderbilt or having a win over Houston considered a big one. I agree about keeping the stadium size the same for a while, make them hard to get. In the 70′s and 80′s you could walk up to the gate and by tickets from people for $3.00 to $5.00 and then sit pretty much anywhere you wanted. But there was no excitment in those days. Those who don’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it. I don’t want to repeat those days.
I’ll be in Lane every home game, sink or swim.
Haven’t read the article on Roth/Burnop but will later. I am lucky, my wife is a cancer survivor and I couldn’t have imagined losing her.
good post by alwaysOandM.
I’m not one to want to fire coaches and jump ship after every loss, but at the same time, I have to admit that it does get old feeling like every year VT is going to lose to someone that they really shouldn’t. JMU, Boise, Pitt, etc. I’d like to see that trend (or perception of a trend) go away.
Stats can be turned to support the coaches, and to fight them. There’s plenty of stats for both.
Probably nobody follows it outside of the olympics but there is a major investigation into US Speedskating going on right now. Apparently at the World Championships last year the US coach talked one of the US skaters into sabotaging a Canadian players skates. This all seems a little Nancy Kerriganish to me lol. There have also been claims of abuse against the US coach by over ten skaters. Real clock and dagger stuff to be sure.
This blog has featured Eminem lyrics, T.I. lyrics, Snoop Dogg lyrics, etc…..and “Hooked on a Feeling” is the first one that’s ever offended somebody. You crack me up, Zman.
“… I might watch bits of LSU-Auburn. This is an upset possibility. I think the tiger has more claws and heavy motivation to scratch…”
I get what you were saying… but aren’t they both Tigers?
Another thing about Coughlin, he might be old school as CR noted, but it’s hard to argue against his result. Two Super Bowl victories. He also has the reputation of being the most hated coach to play under, yet he guided the Giants to two championship, unlike the foot fetish loving coach whose team is as dynsfunctional as Mama’s Family sitcom.
Zman,
Peter Tork played guitar and Mike Nesmith actually wrote “Different drum” which was a hit for a little known group called the Stone Poneys who featured a lead singer named Linda Ronstadt.
Not exactly non-musicians. Stephen Stills even auditioned to be a Monkee.
Sugar Sugar was by the Archies who were a cartoon and obviously not anything beyond a studio band. You prefer “In-a-gadda-da-vida” maybe because Iron Butterfly were so stoned when they wrote it they couldn’t say “In the garden of eden”?
Have a great day!
Zman, you’re still wound WAY too tight after the Hokie loss. I NEVER condemned David Wilson, and you need to back up and re-read my posts. I offered my perspective on why he wasn’t playing, and what I thought his hurdles were, just as with Ryan Williams. The guy isn’t playing. He’s a 1st round pick, in NYC. The pressure is only going to mount, the questions are only going to mount, the stress will only mount, unless he checks himself. That’s what I was saying.
You need to relax. Bowling Green is a bad team, we’ll win the game and you can then celebrate as though we were good.
Maybe this will help…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BZxgohr9g
I remember getting some tickets outside Lane Stadium for a game against Miami and we only paid $20 a piece from a student. Gino Torretta was quarterback for Miami that year. Can’t remember the year right off but it wasn’t a sellout and that was before expansion. VT has come a long way in the last 25 years.
Aaron, forget the WatchESPN crap. They are trying to force folks to pay more money to have their streaming service available. That’s why I fought back by using another web site to watch games whenever and whoever I want without paying a single dime. As far as I’m concerned ESPN have become a pirate of an organization.
Monkees Fanatics. Davy Jones could sing. I’ll grant that. All of their records were don with studio musicians only until the end. The Stone Ponies had a hit ONLY because of some chick named Ronstadt. “Different Drum” was just as lousy a song as “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves”. Being a hit is no evidence of “good”. “McArthur Park” being my primary case in point. The “good” Monkey songs (“Believer” and Last Train” being, maybe, in that category) were written by others and performed by studio musicians, recent B.S. in the press after Jones died notwithstanding.
“Sugar’ Sugar” was still a Top 5 hit, sung by cartoons or not. Bet you liked “Josie and the Pussycats”, too.
Aaron, you can’t really understand the context of bubble gum and how obnoxious it really was compared to the other stuff going on (Hendrix, Airplane, Temptations, Dylan, Santana, even the first two Chicago albums, Tull). I can’t stand the “Urban Sound”, am seriously pop culture challenged after 20 years overseas and therefore would not comment on lyrics I don’t understand and would not pay attention to anyway. I am glad I crack you up. Suggest you check the phrase “O bodi oh doh” or something like it and worship at “Winchester Cathedral” or find yourself “Alone Again, Naturally” to really “get” why “The Day the Music Died” was so tragic. Of course you could always drive your Chevy to a Levee for no apparent reason or jump off the Tallahache Bridge.
Anyone who complains about todays pop music didn;t sit under an apple tree with anyone else but me either.
And even if I don’t think much of Jane Fonda as a human being I Love to watch her strut and appreciate her but I love to watch her strut.
And Crooked Road. Go back and re-read your career advice to Wilson. You have written him off.
Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy.
A kid’ll eat ivy too, wouldn’t you?
Such are the deep, meaningful and heart felt lyrics of a bygone age….
Just for that we’re going with Yummy, Yummy, Yummy I Got Love in My Tummy on Monday.
The game last night was just bizarre. Bronco Mendenhall is simply a moron. I don’t buy into the baseball adage of ‘go for the win on the road, the tie at home’ in football.
He has a very good defense, had held Boise in check all night long, then pulls the stunt he did going for 2? He needed to have a bit more confidence in his defense, which is pretty stellar, than what he did. OT was his, in my opinion, even though neither team displayed much offense, I think he was in good shape.
Excellent story by Mark Berman. My family had the great fortune of sitting beside Ellen and the kids for about a dozen football seasons. Between her seats and ours, we could get a Lane Stadium record 16 people into 8 seats – easily. Front row, put the kids in front, standing at the wall, have the adults sit and look over their heads. That all worked great until the kids started growing too much! Ellen was special.
shaun, I believe that was 1992, and in that disaster of a season, that was really the only game that VT got manhandled, despite a 2-8-1 record. Tech ended up with that abysmal record, but was just a play or two away in a bunch of other games, from being 8-3. WVU and Syracuse won pretty easily, but the other losses were all 4 points or less. It is odd how fine the line is between winning and losing, some years.
In 1992, if you paid $20 for a ticket, you got robbed!
Amazing Zman! You mentioned TULL. My band!
Ian Anderson rocks. Martin Barre is fantastic.
Seen them in concert 3 times.
Don’t care much for Hanoi Jane. Viet Nam vets are not Fonda Jane.
“You need to relax. Bowling Green is a bad team, we’ll win the game and you can then celebrate as though we were good.”
These sorts of comments show more assuming and stereotyping than actual reading and understanding the posts here.
I really don’t think Zman would be the type to celebrate a Bowling Green win as if it were something special. And 99% of the other VT fans here wouldn’t celebrate that way either.
I know that there are delusional fans out there, and in their mind, their team is always right on the edge of a national title. But look around at the posts here. Those types of VT fans aren’t here. There’s no need to keep pretending that they are. The folks posting regularly here are fairly rational.
Bob H – agree but you do know that Bob Seeger wrote that song after watching her walk.
Hokie24 – I will not celebrate if we beat BG. I might breath a sigh of relief if we look good. Maybe. Probably not but maybe.
Aaron I am going to wash my ears out with a little Gene Krupa and “Drum Boogie”.
“You need to relax. Bowling Green (insert Pitt here a week ago) is a bad team, we’ll win the game . . . . ”
That was pretty much the mindset in the Hokie Nation exactly 7 days ago, now wasn’t it?
If anybody is interested, I have a blog post at gobblercountry.com about three things I’m watching for tomorrow versus Bowling Green. I was really surprised by the difference in rushing defense between the two teams.
I think it’s going to be another close and ugly win for Tech…Tech by 7. Yep, my confidence in the offense line ability to crush opponents have waned considerably since the fiasco at Pittsburgh.
H24 — That is a really good point. I don’t recall anyone here predicting national titles or trumpeting this team as one of the best in Tech history; if somebody wants to say those things, no problem, all opinions are welcome, but to argue that kind of stuff’s been rampant around here just isn’t factual. Maybe other places, but not here.
Hell, I picked GT to win the Coastal in the preseason. Not looking like that’s gonna happen, but the point is I can’t recall the last time I didn’t pick the Hokies to win the Coastal — maybe never. It’s usually the chalk pick and works out more often than it doesn’t, and has a good chance to again this year. But something about this year’s team just felt a little “off” to me, and others here have expressed their own reservations throughout August.
Rick I think you were right. I remember Bo Campbell having a great year returning punts. I think he may have returned one that game for a TD? The Canes had a good team that year. It seems like they also had Lamar Thomas and loads of other talent.
I appreciate that, Aaron. So many people wanna go on and on about how VT fans’ expectations are through the roof all the time. I just don’t see that coming from here, or most anywhere… EXCEPT folks who actively root against VT.
I’ll readily admit that I had vision of national championship in my head after watching the offense put up impressive stat against the defense. Then I started to read the coaches evaluations and felt the familiar déjà vu feeling, I realized it sounded like the 2008 season all over again. They talked about having an explosive offense that summer and Ed know what happened the first two games. When GT played here on Labor Day, I knew it would be a hard fought game, and a hell of a game it was. For some reason unknown even to me, the offense haven’t clicked the they did during the summer. That is what is driving me nuts.
Someone made a good point on Bitter’s blog, he think Tech fan are more upset with how they lost, rather than the loss itself.
Do I think Tech goes to the ACCCG? I honestly don’t know. Right now, it looks like GT is playing like they want it badly. There’s still 9 more games and I’m trying to keep that in mind.
9 games left is nine wins for us. Beamer starts the lastest winning streak this week. 52-7 blowout is comming and this starts the bus. Get on the bus and ride it all the way to our next BCS bowl game in jan. Yeah we took a loss last week but you know we respond every year to a early season loss. We made a mistake to take a bad team in PItt lightly. They were not that good but when we make them look like football gods by giving the ball to them anyone can win.
If this were last year’s Hokie team, I would be inclined to agree that the score might be 52-7 VT but I am not convinced that it will be a blowout. If Tech does not try to overcompensate and just stays with steady mix of creative runs and play action, it will be around 28-13 VT. If they overstrive or get off to a bad start, look for a 7-7 halftime score. As was the case in last week’s game with Pitt, miscues were the culprit. I see the final on this one as 20-17 VT, just don’t think VT has it together on all cylinders to achieve a blowout. Injuries during the game and not just from last week will probably be a factor in the game. Other notes; David Wilson will get a shot in a couple of weeks and will probably redeem himself a great deal, he just has to learn to respond and not to react. Coughlin is a good coach, both of players and of men. FSU will have little trouble with Clemson, FSU 28 – Clemson 17.
shaun, that would be the same Miami. Lamar Thomas had a great game, from what I remember. Miami was #1 in that game (I plucked it from hokiesports.com, to be tell you the truth), but don’t remember how they finished up. I just remember Miami getting out really quick, then coasting. The score was a lot closer than it really was. Miami could’ve put a 100 up, if they wanted to.
The thing I remember the most about Lamar was how skinny he was.
And, yes, Campbell was a bright spot on that team.
There was just too much offensive inconsistency (geez, does that sound familiar, or what?) for that team to have done any better than it did.
The best game offensively was against UVA, which coincided with their worst defensive game (aside from Miami). Somebody from UVA, if my memory is correct, ran a couple of INT’s back for TD’s, that kept UVA a comfortable distance ahead as the game went on.
Aaron – I didn’t argue VT would go all the way this year but I did hope for 12-0 as I thought we were stronger than we are. I also don’t believe in FSU or Clemson yet although if we can do it I want one of them to. I am tired of the SEC.
My kid (the one who played ball in Europe) told me that the World Baseball Classic is goin on over there and that ESPN is there and MLB.com is broadcasting. Martin says that among the guys he played against were Bolsenbrook, Dewald and Kepler. Kepler signed the biggest contract ever for a European with MLB. he also says he pitched to Ludwig Glaser in relief and got him to pop out. So if you have any interest at all you can check this out. On the sigh side, MLB Scouts were at several games my kid played and didn’t sign him (not that he had any real hopes).
Ever since the last episode of Breaking Bad and they played “Crystal Blue Persuasion” I can’t get the damn song out of my mind.
Hey Bob H – going back to our era of music I’ve seen everyone I care about EXCEPT Tull.
Springsteen is very hard to beat in concert. I saw him in Dallas a couple years ago and Jon Bon Jovi came out on stage as an unannounced guest. I think it was an ad-lib because Bon Jovi obviously hadn’t rehearsed with the band.
In a small venue I thought Earth, Wind and Fire did the best musically. 11 guys on stage, tight as hell, no background overplay. A real band. So were Creedence, The Dirt Band, Clapton, Santana and The Police. Some from our era never played a club circuit and needed too much “stuff” on stage (“Yes” and “ELP”) to take a live performance as anything but listening to a recording in a big venue.
Marcus Vick, what a joke, what a disgrace..!!!
Crosby, Stills Nash and Young still at the top for 60′s and 70′s period.
Barry, much agreed…maybe a little John Sebastian too…