Tuesday: Choosin’ tailbacks, suspendin’ refs
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Frank Beamer says “four tailbacks is too many” and that he thinks splitting the carries in practice is affecting the running game’s consistency. They’re going to pare down the rotation during the bye week. Sounds like something many of us have been saying they needed to do all year. The question is, why did it take eight games to come to this realization?
ZEBRAS SUSPENDED: I was surprised to get an email from the ACC yesterday announcing suspensions of three officials — two from the Duke-UNC game and one from thee FSU-Miami game. Didn’t know they made those things public. Anyway, the two from the Duke game will sit out one game “for failure to adhere to correct mechanics of the game and rules related to player safety.” The FSU-Miami ref — Giles County resident David Epperley — was suspended “for failure to properly administer the 10-second runoff rule” at the end of the first half.
WHAT I WANT TO SEE… is replay officials face the same scrutiny. To me, the most egregious errors are those overtuns/upholdings of calls that are clearly in error. On-field guys are going to make mistakes. The game is fast.
SKUNKED: The Giants beat the Cardinals 9-0 in Game 7 of the NLCS and advance to face Detroit in the World Series, with Game 1 tomorrow night. This should be an excellent Fall Classic. Looking forward to it.
DEALING WITH THE DEVIL: Remember how the Longhorn Network was going to make Texas unstoppable in the Big 12? Well, now coach Mack Brown is complaining about his weekly time commitment to produce three shows, the network’s access to practice and the tips opposing coaches might get from watching it. He says he “didn’t ask for” the network. Gotta take the bad with the good, Coach.
RG3: Didn’t mention him at all yesterday but should have. That guy’s unbelievably entertaining. We ran a story today in the paper about the Giants players gushing about how good he is. You worry about injuries with all that running/cutting, but when he’s healthy, I’ll be watching the Redskins a lot more than I used to.
OUCH: Some big injury news in the ACC, as FSU leading rusher Chris Thompson is declared out for the season with a knee injury. Maryland loses quarterback Perry Hills for the year to a torn ACL. So if you’re counting, that’s two Terps QBs out for the year.
LANCE: The International Cycling Union shovels a little more dirt on what was left of Lance Armstrong’s legacy, formally stripping him of his seven Tour titles. Nobody will be credited with the victories, largely because pretty much everybody else who finished high on the podium has been linked to doping, too. Still, all that stuff coming out in SI and elsewhere about Lance’s pattern of intimidation tactics and bullying is pretty grim for him.
ODDS AND ENDS: The Bears improve to 5-1 with a win over Detroit in Monday Night Football…The Panthers fire their general manager…Richmond will be the future site of Redskins training camp (it’s been in Ashburn for a decade)…Norv Turner says none of his Chargers players have used Stickum…Roanoke College AD Scott Allison is giving up his men’s soccer coaching duties after 27 years…Apparently Brady Quinn is still alive. Not only that, he’ll start for the Chiefs this week.
NAME THAT TUNE
Still looking for that blue jean, baby queen
Prettiest girl I ever seen
See her shake on the movie screen, Jimmy Dean
(James Dean)
October 23, 2012 - 8:28 AM
Watching the Lions game last night, it reminded me of the Hokies. Defense played well and kept them in the game. Special teams weren’t great, but not horrible either. Offense could move the ball decently, but stalled in the Red Zone, turned the ball over both on failed 4th downs and actual turnovers, and they went for it on 4th down when they could have easily gotten points with Hanson kicking. Result, they’re 2-4 and toast for the season, given how competitive the NFC is. They will struggle to finish better than 5-11…last year was an anomaly.
You’re right, better late than never on the tailback situation. 8 weeks in? Only now they realize that 4 backs getting snaps is too much? Holy hell. I guess bashing their head into the proverbial wall finally helped them realize that what they were doing wasn’t working. But again, 8 freaking games in before you accept that? Ugh.
The ACC is a joke in how they handle their officiating. They need to suspend a few more, and I absolutely agree that the replay officials need to face the same potential scrutiny and suspensions if they are found to be blatently ignorant, which, many of them are.
Looking forward to the World Series, obviously, and I really hope the long layoff doesn’t hurt the Tigers because they were hot. I like their chances, but San Francisco is a scrappy team that has really played well all season and especially in clawing back in 6 straight elimination games to win the NLDS and NLCS. It should be a great series.
Congratulations to all of us! We all have won as many Tour de France titles as Lance Armstrong! Ok, I need a rest now, that was exhausting.
Oh, and that would be David Essex, Rock On.
It’s not the sharing of the load for RBs in practice that is the problem. It’s the sharing of the load in the GAMES that is the problem. No Hokie RB has had more than 15 carries in a game yet this season. In three games, no RB even got TEN carries. This from a Hokie offense that historically rushes the ball about 42 times a game over the last decade or so.
It’s not the carries in practice, it’s the carries in the game, where it matters. I know Shane doesn’t really know what he’s doing, but his daddy should have figured out by now that having 4 ‘equal’ RBs means you don’t have ANY RBs. It takes eight games into the season to notice that? Talk about stubborn resistance to change.
Not to mention, that should be about priority #8 on the list of things to address. Maybe this next game we can have Marcus Davis & Dyrell Roberts both do three end arounds and a couple of WR passes. THAT would be tricky, right Stinespring?
And, Maryland ought to see if Scott Bakula has any eligibility remaining, they might need his help at QB…or did he exhaust it at Texas State?
I doubt the Longhorn network is the reason the Texas defense is so bad this year. I am sure the time to make the shows is a bigger issue. Speaking of coaches shows I wonder if Mike London’s “Building a program” show will continue next year if UVA only wins two games this year? I didn’t even know they still made stickum. For all the younger fans on the blog players up to the early or mid 80′s as I remember used to have stickum on their arms and chest especially the db’s. So ridiculous did it get that some guys look like they had slathered it on lol.
Lane Armstong’s biggest mistake was in making his ‘comeback’. If he’d stayed retired, they’d left him alone. Ego prevailed, and his legacy crumbled. He doped, and beat the other cheaters while cheating himself. I can’t generate any outrage over that, especially when the cheating was SO rampant the ICU can’t find anybody clean to award the title to during that entire decade.
Honestly? The only reason anybody in the US cared about the TDF is because an American won. Both with Greg Lemond & Lance Armstrong, they were the only draw. Now the title is vacant, so what? That just means the VS network, or Lifetime, or OWN or whatever channel it’s televised on these days will have to draw .06 share instead of 1.5 share.
Anyone catch the MMA move Ndomakingkong Suh put on Jay Cutler last night? Complete with leg sweep, it looked like Joe Rogan was about to go beserk.
Wonder if it made Cutler smile? Nothing else ever does…
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8525719
Rock On. David Essex.
You would think the ACC could afford better refs or a control center, watching the games with internet access to the proper rules.
The ref that blew the FSU called got conned by Fisher and let him have his way.
Thinking about the Longhorn Network, just think how rough it would be on the Hokie Network. If all the opposing coaches could detect our tendencies and predict when we would spring our trick plays. They could determine our plays by the formations we ran, and when we ran them. They’d know how to defend Beamer Ball’s special teams excellence, and focus on our tells on defense.
Thank goodness we don’t have to worry about all that.
Apparently, Virginia Tech scored a big wrestling commit yesterday according to 247sports.
8 games into the season, and coach Beamer decided 4 is too much. I just wonder why it took so long to reach that conclusion.
I had a ball yesterday blasting the ACC for their failure to monitor the quality of the replay officials. The logic is it’s ok to penalize the officials for not penalizing the offending players, but it’s not ok to penalize the offending replay officials.
Rock On
Just a heads up for all the breathless NASCAR & Dale Jr fans out there. This afternoon will be when NASCAR’s Dr. Jerry Petty (nice last name) announces that Junior is cleared to go fulfill his sponsorship obligations… err… I mean drive at Martinsville.
With today’s mentions of the SF Giants and Lance Armstrong, it reminded me of this connection. A current photo of someone we all used to discuss.
http://network.yardbarker.com/mlb/article_external/heads_up_colorado_skinny_barry_bonds_is_cycling_your_mountains_this_summer/11291692?linksrc=foxrg_mlb
I guess he found a new hobby where he could apply his knowledge.
Rock On – David Essex
Rock On. David Essex
You guys are good. Rock On it is.
I hate that song so I won’t name it. Just Rock On.
I have a suggestion for some other officials who could use suspending, but it would be a game late. And while we are on that subject, what good does it do to suspend an official? The game they messed up in is over and the result unchanged. The “wrong” can’t be made right. If the Ref doesn’t know the rule, teach ‘em. If the Ref is just lousy, drop ‘em.
I say RGIII is Rookie of the Year and a Pro Bowler. Maybe MVP if the ‘Skins win some games.
Lance. Well this one has to go into the “what goes around comes around” category. I am sure there are lots of people who are reveling in today as he gets his. Tyler? You there? Trouble is, I suspect that Livestrong is a good organization and good people will now suffer harm because Lance is the way he is.
Lance is the way he always was, and that’s coming from a Lance fan. At least I was a fan while he was winning, then once he retired, it was just about the cancer foundation for me. Lance didn’t start out devious, but he quickly recognized that was the well trod path to success.
What tickles me is the language used by the USADA – ‘the most sophisticated & powerful blah blah blah…’ Like they were trying to make him into some mastermind. His worked better than the other guys, that’s the only difference. If the USADA went after Michel Indurain, or George Hincapie, they’d find the very same thing. It’s just that Lance is American, those guys aren’t, so they’ve got to fluff their own pillow on Lance.
The real negative is what Zman mentioned, the damage to the cancer foundation.
Ho Hum when it comes to World Series, who cares !!! Beamer took 8 games to see running back problems, how many YEARS will it take for him to see crummy o-line blocking due to BAD coaching. Will he ever make special teams “special ” again ???
Looks like this RB issue will go down as Shane’s first major coaching gaffe.
You would think with his father and Billy Hite’s influence that they would have guided him better with the running back situation. Very surprising.
Yes, they definitely need to discipline the Replay Booth Officials as well. I think its ridiculous that they don’t do it already.
Victor, are you really blaming Billy Hite for Shane Beamer not knowing how to coach RBs? That’s the way it read. I can understand assigning blame to Frank Beamer for not making sure his son didn’t embarrass himself in the job he gifted to him. Billy Hite’s responsibilities were made pretty clear by Frank Beamer – Get out of the way for my son. He’s going to be the next head coach, so don’t slow him down.
Maybe Shane needs to think of something beyond a boxing glove on a stick to coach up the players. I know it will be hard to top that one, but if anybody is genetically programmed for innovation, it’s got to be Frank Beamer’s son.
Of all the officals to be suspended why did they not review the screwjob that happened in Death Valley?….Anything to make us lose is good with the ACC?
bbat, I didn’t watch the LSU game. Were the officials bad there, too? You mentioned Death Valley, so I thought…
Unless they are going after all the blood dopers … ie the entire field…. they should leave Lance Armstrong alone. The focus on him IS due to his being an American. Every other player in the field was doing pretty much the same thing…so…competitive advantage due to blood doping = none. Was he supposed to play it straight and be a laughing stock at these races? By the way….doping implies the usage of some illegal drug. This is mostly not the case here. If I understand things correctly, our blood loses some ability to carry oxygen after a very extreme exertion. I believe that the ‘dopers’ simply had ‘optimal’ blood drawn from their veins. This blood was then transfused back in after each segment. In other words, the dope was the man’s own blood.
This whole thing could be made indisputably fair if it were desired. No alone time during the event. They all sleep in a barracks staffed with the sport officials. They eat in a communal cafeteria also attended by sport officials. They go to bathrooms with attendants made up of sport officials.
Before crying about ‘role model’ this or that, who ever said that Lance has to be anyone’s role model. The child is yours, influence them.
The question I have. Is Coach Beamer ok? He looks rough. He lost weight, but it looks as it does when a cancer patient loses weight. If coach is unable to perform the job with as much intensity, that would help explain the downturn…or part of it. I think we may see some changes this next off-season. Coach sure isn’t going to do it now. The mid-season firings almost always backfire. As far as the RB rotation, none distinguished themselves until the Duke game. I think we will see much more Coleman coming up. I LIKE this little man with a big man’s impact!! As for me, I think we are predictable, but I also thing we have too many plays that take too long to develop and start too far in the backfield. Why hand off 5 – 10 yards in the backfield? I saw Salem HS do hand offs almost at the line. I understand the possibility of disruption of the handoff, but when a guy has to run forever to get back to the line, then it seems to me as if it adversely impacts the chance of positive yardage. At this last Clemson game, their defense was moving to where our guy was going to be – before he even started moving there. Clemson knows something. Virginia Tech has beat itself all year. I am a VT fan. So, I hope for the best. My whining here won’t affect things a bit.
Go HOKIES!!!!!
I watched all of the Tech-Clemson game, didn’t see Miami-FSU, did see a clip from Duke-UNC. I can fully understand the refs from Duke-UNC getting suspended. The UNC linebacker absolutely cold-cocked the Duke receiver as he was lining up and the side judge was looking right at the hit.. no call, no flag, nothing. If player safety is supposed to be paramount, that was pretty egregious. The calls (no calls) in the Tech-Clemson game were horrible in my opinion, but still typical ref/judgement calls, if anything the replay officials need to be retrained at the very least. To add some perspective to the Mack Brown/Texas situation. Texas is currently going through a season in which the team with a lot of new faces is underperforming (sound familiar?) with a defense, highly touted in the Spring, that is consistently getting gashed by seemingly inferior opponents (sound familiar?), and the Longhorn faithful here in Austin are pretty vocal in wondering if the long-tenured coach has let modern football pass him by (sound familiar?) It’s not too surprising that Mack would let the LHN situation make him a little chippy, with Longhorn fans calling for his head and a years worth of overinflated expectations on his back. But that’s the life of a football coach. Kind of makes me wonder how Coach Beamer would react if he had a whole network of media scrutinizing his every move and broadcasting it to half the country?
4 backs isn’t the problem. The problem is the offensive schemes and the blocking. A well designed offense with creativity (not passes from the WR) will make the skill players successful. Problem is we lack skill beneath the headsets. Going down to two backs will not change the fact that the game plans, in game adjustments (non-existent), and play calling aren’t effective. We will be lucky to finish the rest of the regular season .500. Nothing will change until the OC and the play caller change. Otherwise we Hokies will continue to hope with blind optimism. That’s just what we do.
That’s a pretty good post, Dan, especially about Texas. I’m hard pressed to argue that Texas is rich with history and tradiations, so Mack Brown has an elepant sized monkey on his back, and it has been a few years since Colt McCoy-led Longhorns were in the national championship game against Alabama. Given the resource that Texas command, I can understand why the fans want Texas to be in the national championship picture every year like Alabama, and they are losing patience.
I think fans, regardless of who they root for, are emotionally invested in their teams, and sometime it does distort reasons. Look no further than this blog or at Andy’s blog, or via Twitter.
I think that the social media have ratchet up pressure considerably, especially with coaches and players having their own accounts (via Facebook or Twitter, for example), and they get a lot of hate/love from fans/haters alike. I know I have sent a couple of tweets to Logan to encourage him, but I’m sure if he read my timeline (highly doubtful), he would see that I make a lot of sarcastic, witty, and over the top color comments about Virginia Tech during the game, he might wonder if I’m a fan and a hater at the same time. I think I just contradicted myself.
I’ll freely admit I should have been a bit more honest with myself and said that the team won’t be that good this year. Did I see Logan Thomas’ performance take a slip this year? Honestly, no. I thought he would be solid as he was in the summer camp. Did I think that the defense would be lights out? Yes I did, but I should have realize the thin secondary was the weak spot due to transfers, dismissal, and injuries. Did I think that the offense line would be good? Honestly, yes I did, especially with them beating up the defense during the summer camp. What I’m trying to say what I saw during summer camp led me to believe that they would be better than they are right now, and that’s where I am disappointed. I should have been a bit more honest with myself.
Right now, what I am wondering about is why did it take Beamer and the staff 8 games into the season to finally say enough with the running back by committee? Will he answer that question? Probably not, and that’s his right, it doesn’t mean I have to accept that answer. I am also wondering why is it that the interior of the offense line are being decimated by injuries but not the tackles. Is it because Newsome’s coaching is inadequated to help them handle the chores of being a grunt? I think this team has more questions than answers, and it’s something they are probably going to answer in the offseason.
What changes will they make? Who knows?
So Terry Francona is the new Cleveland Indians manager, and Ozzie Guillen has been fired as Marlins manager. Turns out that the Marlins have gone through eight managers in the last eleven years. It would be nice to see the Indians become competitive ala Orioles/Tigers/Oakland this season.
Trevor, your comments about the questions surrounding the team point directly to the coaching staff. It’s not just this year that many of those problems have existed. We’ve just had remarkable talents to cover it – Boykin, Coale, Williams, Wilson, etc.
Loyalty is a great thing, but in the performance of a business, and college football IS a business, sometimes it can be the weak link of the chain. The closed loop ‘family’ nature of the football program has inhibited its’ progress and evolution. We can’t stay in the bubble forever. It’s never going to be 1999 again, especially with this staff.
Changes need to be made, but there really is no indication in Frank Beamer’s career that he’ll make the REAL hard nosed changes. That is the unfortunate part of this. He’s created his own glass ceiling, and he’ll fight tooth & nail to defend it, oddly enough. There’s not even substantive discussion of it allowed with him for public consumption. That should give an indication of his mindset about it.
Lots of people love Hokie sports, and it’s not fair to their emotional investment over the decades to provide them a less than optimal product. We’re a long way from the end of the tunnel, unfortunately.
I am very optimistic that tech will win this weekend.
RG cubed! getting tired of RG III! has been lead story 19.3 percent of RT’s sports fronts since he blew in from Baylor. well, hs volleyball postseason is on way to provide relief!
Ah, now I get it, though the officials were awful, they were the reason the Hokes lost again. Whew!
Go Bayou Bengals!
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Of all the officals to be suspended why did they not review the screwjob that happened in Death Valley?….Anything to make us lose is good with the ACC?
Comment by Beamer Best all-time — October 23, 2012 @ 11:48 am
Concerning Tech football: I always thought that the DC and the OC made great half time adjustments for a better second half of most games. Now I find that they are not making great mid week adjustments before games. NOW we have mid season adjustments to the backfield that will surely be the right answer! Is there a pattern here? Next we will have the end of season adjustment. As a long time hokie fan, I’m not real excited right now.
Hokie fans, stop complaining about the officiating. You have been on the receiving end of so many favorable calls in Blacksburg over the past 10 years that it isn’t funny. UNC, Georgia Tech, Nebraska games, just to name a few. The Hokies are a very mediocre team playing in a very mediocre conference; they could still win the Coastal and be number 65 in the polls.