Back at it
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Let’s crawl out from under the pile of wrapping paper and get back to work.
CHRISTMAS STUFF
-You’ve probably heard by now, but just in case, don’t miss this story of Tech cornerback Antone Exum showering three random youths with Best Buy merchandise. Really cool.
-My dream came true when I received a framed picture you see on your left and the complete series of “Get a Life” on DVD. I had totally forgotten about the “Zoo Animals on Wheels” episode. What a classic.
-In a similar vein, our man Travis Williams has an excellent blog entry about what 80s television characters would be perfect for a nativity scene.
-What was your favorite gift you either gave or received?
BOWL MANIA
-The bowl guide is off to a 4-2 start against the spread, that woeful Fresno State pick notwithstanhding.
-David Teel argues the Hokies’ offensive staff needs a complete overhaul. I focused on Bryan Stinespring last week, because I think that’s the most difficult breakup for Beamer to make, but agree with Teel’s premise as well.
-James Gayle is considering entering the NFL draft, plus some other Russell Athletic Bowl news and notes.
-I’ll be joining Andy in Orlando tomorrow.
NAME THAT TUNE
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn’s got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, “Peyton Place”, trouble in the Suez
December 26, 2012 - 8:37 AM
We Didn’t Start the Fire – Billy Joel
Billy Joel — We didn’t start the fire.
Have fun sharing ABittner’s microcar in Orlando.
Given VT’s somewhat surprising recruiting success, I wonder about the effect of a total coaching overhaul.
However, I also wonder about the lack of demand for VT’s coaches in the rest of the NCAA– don’t recall seeing too many coaches hired away by others.
Good thing the CSU basketball loss was so late the other night that no one learned of it.
We are in a bowl for the 20th straight year and NO school in VA, WVA,NC or Maryland has ever had a program this good for so long. (at least in my days of following college football and Im 57) a big reason for the lack of demand is because the coaches like working for Beamer. This is not Groh, Davis, Rodriguez etc. Hope you stayed up late watching the CSU game and enjoyed it.
I get the “bash the coaches” game but I still come backt to:
1. We run the scheme Beamer wants (pound the rock and kick it on D)
2. Our scheme sounds allot like Alabama but they do it better.
3. 8 seasons of 10 wins is not chopped liver.
4. Do you really go to “parade rest” because 1 year in 9 isn’t want you want?
5. Do you really go to parade rest when you have your top recruiting class in the history of the program?
6. Fans don;t know didley about football.
7. I am never sure sportswriters know didley about football. I see them as better educated fans (sorry AM and AB no matter how much I respect your work).
8. We are running the scheme that Beamer wants.
9. We are running the scheme that Beamer wants.
10. We put tons of kids in the NFL.
11. The program makes money and has brought the school well into national awareness.
But the really big one:
“And replace them with what?”
Fans scream for change but bitch like hell against the changes made previously. Some thought the world would end when Billy Hite left the field. Some are convinced that Beamer has a family dynasty planned. Some fear that Bud will leave but are now critical because “nobody wants our coaches”.
GIVE ME A BREAK. If I could I would yell louder.
Vent all you want but do not expect that Beamer will take your advice.
I don’t buy your tripe. He shouldn’t either.
I only wish that I could view YOUR professional life from afar and judge it publicly. How would you like it?
Welcome back AMac and Merry Christmas.
I think I’ll save my thoughts on Tech’s coaching “changes” until after the bowl game. With all the speculation of what MIGHT happen with the coaching staff, who’s going pro and who’s staying put there is so much that is up in the air with the football program right now. We will see what actually transpires in the coming weeks.
JJ’s run and gun offense finally run out of gas the other night against the CS Rams….I know that may be an indication of what’s to come later in the season as the Hokies open ACC play. They will pull a couple of upsets in league play, but with the depleted ranks due to injury and shortage of scholarship players it could turn into a long grinding ACC schedule.
Zman with his blind support of all thing Beamer is business as usual. Maybe he is the one who’s really scared of change if he continues to blindly defend Beamer without taking a look at the offesnd’s statistics under Stinespring. Call me names all you want but the truth is, you are scared of change. Typical apologists stance.
If Zman is “blindingly” following then what are the things he enumerated? Trevor, you have made some great points in the past, but your critic of Zman post today does you no justice.
Zman makes some good points, stumbles on others. He’s like Beamer, hung up on 10 win seasons. If we had done it in the SEC it would have a little more credence with me. Change is needed, Beamer knows it’s needed and how he reacts will determine his cred as a hall of fame coach. Zman talks about the NFL players Tech has produced as a affirmation of the coaching staff. I see just the opposite, all that talent and zero’s in games of substance. Look at UVA, probably have as many players in the NFL as Tech, maybe more, and less to show for it than Tech so talent is not an indication of how good the coaching staff is but what they can accomplish with it. Beamer needs to do what most top 10 programs do, spend the money, hire a top rated OC and turn it over to him.
The Kool-Aid is still flowing. Trot out the tired “10 win seasons” and “20 bowl games” but turn a blind eye to the details behind them — the 10 wins against lesser teams and the ACC and the inability to win the big bowl game. This season isn’t a one-season blip, but the culmination of years of problems. Yeah, yeah, VT got a great recruiting class, but they have been great in years past but what has been the outcome? Mediocrity. Change is good.
I agree 100% with David Teel and with Aaron McFarling. It’s way past due for a complete makeover of the offensive staff. It should have been done immediately after the loss to Kansas!
The Hokies are in a bowl game for the 20th straight year because the talent level in this state is that good. It definately isn’t because Beamer is that great of a coach, and it sure as heck isn’t because Stinespring is great either. It’s the state, not Beamer! Beamer will go into the Hall of Fame and everything, but Beamer just doesn’t seem to understand that football talent in this state is more like driving a Saleen Mustang instead of an Oldsmobile!
Personally I feel that changes are needed on the offensive staff as well. I do agree with Zman on many of his points though, particularly points 1, 8, and 9. I think that anyone expecting wholesale changes or some radical change in philosophy is going to be majorly disappointed. Changes in the staff (if any) will be in line with Coach Beamer’s own philosophy as Zman notes and will more than likely have a very Virginia/ACC flavor. Coach Beamer and AD Weaver’s attitude toward keeping the athletic staff a “family” affair and the emphasis on stability are key. I can’t see them bringing in anyone high profile (in the Tony Franklin vein as many were wishing), more likely it will be someone with local ties and who the athletic department feels will be around long term rather than just coming to Blacksburg, making a name for themselves and moving on to greener pastures (see as example the James Johnson hiring in BB). Again, it will be a person (or persons) who will not stray to far from the Beamer/VT philosophy of strong running game and dual threat QB play. In short, don’t expect anything much different than what we have seen over the Beamer tenure. Maybe they just find a staff who can be better and more efficient at it than Stinespring/O’Cain, but don’t expect the Hokies to look like Oregon or West Virginia or even Nevada for that matter, it’s just not happening.
Seems like the offensive coach changing carousel still just everyones guess in VT land. Another 7-10 days will determine if the winds of offense change sweep through or everything remains the same.A lot for Coach Beamer to think about whether or not the Rutgers game is presumably his only concerns.
Welcome back Aaron. Hope you had a great Christmas including a trip to Nicoletti’s. here’s wishing you a happy and prosperous New Year. Glad to see you have strong support in the “VT Sports Writer’s” regarding the VT offensive coaching staff. I know you do with many VT alum and contributors. Keep calling it the way it is.
Zman,
You have a point. But, I would say, that the only true hope for the VT offense is Ralph Friedgen. Ralph has been a longtime FB friend and he would have the ability to convince FB to new offensive strategies. Something apparently BS and the well traveled O’Cain have not done.
And, BTW, the guy also just happens to know a thing or 2 about offense….
I’m a big Beamer fan, always have been. To attribute this team’s success to anything other than the man who brought the program out of the depths of totally mediocrity is absurd. But he is not without his faults. The most noteworthy IMHO being his loyalty to his coaches (his employees) and his apparent complacency that set in after many conference championships, top 10 rankings and consecutive bowl appearances. Yet despite the general belief that the he’s an old “set in his ways”codger who cannot adapt, I disagree, at least to an extent. He has shown his willingness to make changes, witness the periods in the 90′s and again in the 00′s when his team lacked discipline both on and off the field and he instituted changes to make improvement in that regard. And yes he remains very much a “ball control” advocate on O but look at VT’s O today and say that of 10 years ago and there are vast differences (other than their inability to execute!). I am optimistic Beamer will make a clean sweep on O and go with an OC with proven experience. Just a gut feeling but his past tells me Beamer can and will do it.
Bob H. You know, that I could see. Because the Fridge got dumped at MD many would see him as damaged. On the other hand, your point about his relationship with Beamer is well taken and he has had his success’.
My view of “replce them with what?” just changed.
I hope you were serious because it makes sense to me.
I am no BS fan. I just doubt that Beamer sees his staff the way the fans do and I doubt that he needs our advice.
As far as “Beamer Kool-aid” goes, well, the Aristohokienation has grown so entitled in its view of football that it will never be satisified until it has multiple national titles. I don’t think 1 will do.
Since I go back to the days of Charlie Coffee I know how bad a team can really be. I remember scoffing at a guy I worked for (yes, I worked my way through school) who said that “Tech could be another Alabama” if they put their mind to it.
To my mind they have done very well with Beamer and that is not to be scoffed at just because the SEC is now dominant in the way the Big 10 and PAC 10 were in bygone days.
Beamer does not deserve the scorn that the Aristohokienation heaps on him on this site. From my perspective it is the Aristohokienation that has a kool-aid problem.
Can Beamer get us over the top? I don’t know and he is certainly running out of time. However, the sun will still rise no matter how frustrated and angry Aristohokienation gets and hopefully they will someday see that their venom is without effect. But fangless snakes are still snakes.
My personal theory for the decline of the ACC is that the conference schools are collectively too conservative, preferring to either stick with what they know (i.e., keeping Stinespring or hiring a coaching retread like Friedgen).
There may be a younger assistant at one of the ‘hot’ offensive programs out there who may be ready to step up to an OC job. To me, it makes more sense to hire someone with direct experience in such a program than constantly using the offseason to visit other schools and try to ‘learn’ their systems from the outside.
As a Penn State fan, I’ve learned this from personal experience. The program had long grown stagnant, and Bill O’Brien was a no-name hire. Turns out, he is a brilliant offensive mind capable of actually coaching quarterbacks, and he’s not afraid to take risks. I’ve said it here before, but Tech’s program arc has long resembled PSU’s. As the program has become more ‘established’, they have lost what got them there. Special teams aren’t special anymore. Gadget plays are a nonfactor. They are hanging on due to reputation rather than aggressively trying to improve themselves.
Zman,
I was 100% serious about Friedgen.
When you consider some of what has happened offensively for FB while HC at VT, disasters like Gary Tranquill come quickly to mind. I am not sure if there is an insecurity streak in FB, there should not be one at this point in his career. But for whatever reasons, it is obvious that he places a higher priority on loyalty to him than production on the field.
The defense has had its share of changes and trouble throughout the years too. Phil Elmassian (suitcase Phil) never substituted enough and as a result his starting 11 were often gassed at the end of a game (google the 1996 Orange Bowl). Then there was the disater of co-defensive coordinators which featured the now shamed Rod Sharpless as one of the “co’s”. YeeeOUch!
Foster gives Beamer the best of both worlds-performance on the field and loyalty to the boss. Stiney has nothing on his pedigree, at all, which indicates he should be OC at VT. O’Cain is not even decent sloppy seconds or even thirds.
I don’t know what Ralph’s settlement terms were with UM so I don’t know how available he is. But he is the one guy that I think could work under FB and improve the offense to an acceptable level.
Go Hokies.
BTW, if you go back to Coffee you must have been at VT when I was there. 77 grad myself!
Bob H – ’75 and ’77. One of my graduate school laboratory mates was a former player for Coffee and would regale us with tales of the team. A couple of the other guys in our lab were VMI and two had played on the team that beat us. Interesting chats in Norris Hall in those days.
I also did some classes with the 11th guy on the bench for the basketball team (he was a CE major). These were the days of Duke Thorpe, Phil Thieneman, Ernest Wansley and Wayne Robinson.
I was heartbroken about the shootings and doubly broken since they largely took place in that building.
I don’t blame anyone for valuing loyalty when making decisions. The last thing any program needs is a Bobby Petrino (good luck with that Western Kentucky).
To some degree Beamer is snake-bit. We had FSU in 2000. We had ‘Bama after 3 qtrs. in the chick-fil-a game. Our start against Boise gave the game away. We had USC. I still say Coale’s TD was good. Over the years we have become deeper in talent and I believe our fitness program is first rate.
I think our problem is really more mental than physical or schematic. They need a good staff sports pschychologist more than they need any specific technical coaching changes.
That said, I do think Fridge would be an asset.
I recall our first big Bowl victory as being a blow-out against Texas. The UT coach had left Wake Forest to take that program and my sister (well known in Winston-Salem and a Wake alum) was well acquainted with him. We watched it at my parents’ place in Winston. I watched the ’96 game in the Mess Tent at Taszar, Hungary. That one was tough because Taszar was 8 hours later than East Coast US time and I was up about 32 straight hours – something I usually only do for poker and blackjack). I remember it well as I watched it with a Duke grad who was a huge Tech fan as well.
Zman,
Phil Thieneman and I were buddies. He was a business school grad and used to borrow my class notes when they were away on road trips. Also knew Dennis Shrewsbury pretty well too.
Small world. Agreed that Beamer got outcoached in the big games. Particularly the FSU game. Special teams collapses and Bowden rolled the dice and went for it on 4th and 1 on his own 40 down 29-28. If we make that stop we are in the endzone in 3 plays- their defense was totally gassed from chasing Vick all over the field. Instead they went on a time consuming frive that revived their defense and won them the game.
Only Don Nehlen has done less with more……
The Kansas game in the orange bowl was a total loss on the coaching staffs shoulders. I know people from Kansas and they called me and said if they played tech ten more times tech would win 9 of them. Coaching was horrible.
Beamer`s thinking might be that Brian did not have much to work with this year. Was not the 2nd best offensive player a guy who was running laps on a yellow brick road last year. A poor man`s Danny Coale who thankfully is not in Kansas anymore. That doesn`t say much for some of our recruiting efforts on the offensive side of the ball the last few years. I`m not sure even David Wilson could have done much behind this years`s line. Who knows-maybe LT likes O`Stiney. Would that play a role in any decision? Remember “Hoosiers”? Coach stays, I stay. Coach goes, I go. Stiney recruited Logan too. Stiney stays somewhere O`Cain goes and Logan has a fantastic year showing that he can walk on the Pacific-not just in it.
Well as they say, timing is everything and there is a Tech grad out there who would make a great head coach and it will never happen at Tech, Bruce Arians the OC/ interim coach for the Colts. He has been the mastermind of the offense of many teams in the NFL for years and fits the old Tech philosophy. He establishes the run and sets up his play action offense. Oh well it will never be but is definitely an opportunity missed. He’ll probably end up at San Diego.
Oh by the way, it’s Coffey guys.
Rutgers 45 – VT 3 The game will be further evidence of the decline of the ACC. If Georgia Tech continues to improve, that could save the conference.
Gotta love Barry the optimist. I didn;t see Rutgers play this year and have no idea if they are any good.
I saw a picture of Phil in a Southwest Airlines magazine within the last couple years. At least I assume it was “our” guy.
I loved watching him play. He was undersized, worked his ass off on the court and made the occasional big shot. He also was very self-aware (according to my memory). He once said in an interview that he had no pro aspirations and that he fully expected to play rec league ball after college. I do believe he could have played abroad if he wanted but doubt he did.
And I used to play pinball with Wansley in the Squires Center. I don’t know what kind of student he was. He was too tall and strong for pinball. If he touched the machine at all it would tilt. I could rattle them some and get away with it. Not him…
Zman, do you remember the year Tech got an unexpected NIT bid and Phil was down in Florida and had to hustle back for the game? I think he might have made a couple of foul shots to win the game. Present day for anybody-who would you rather have Green or Delaney.?
Barry if GT continues to improve maybe they’ll beat VT (which happens infrequently) and maybe they’ll get to actually win a conference championship and maybe they’ll get into a bowl without getting a special waiver and maybe they’ll get to keep their conference championship without the NCAA taking it away from them and maybe they won’t hire a terrible coach like Al Groh and maybe they’ll develop a passing game so their O is no longer a one trick pony and…
Hokes don’t know that their Charlie Coffee was actually Charlie Coffey.
See http://www.google.com/search?q=charlie+coffey+virginia+tech&rlz=1C1RNNN_enUS355US361&aq=0&oq=charlie+coffey+virginia&sugexp=chrome,mod=16&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Roll Tide!
If VT is going to announce any coaching changes after the Russell Bowl, it’s truely been a well kept secret. In todays information age and loose lipped society, still not knowing is astonishing by any and all pundits. If a change will be made , the decisions and key components have already been contacted.The other scenario is the song remains the same.Time to see the river card soon.
45-3 barry, are you serious? Maybe that’s the pounding USC plans to put on Georgia Tech in the lowly Sun bowl. What’s funny is that even though they now have only a freshman QB for the game, USC disrespects GT so completely that they blew off the Sun Bowl team dinner until GT finally got tired of waiting for them and left:
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/eye-on-college-football/21459957/usc-leaves-hosts-georgia-tech-hanging-at-sun-bowl-dinner
I now truly understand your inferiority complex and the need to bash the Hokies all of the time.
Last night’s Duke/Cincinnatti game typified ACC football this season. Only an ACC team could have the ball at the opponent’s five yard line with second down and 1:40 left in a tie game and end up losing by 14 points. Until ACC schools find out how to win games like that one, the
conference will continue to be irrelevant and an afterthought in the BCS
Give it up Zman. While you make some good points, you are way off with your characterization of the “haters” as wanting a national championship or three. At this point, most Hokie fans just want consistency and the ability to win the games that count — like against top-10 teams or in major bowl games. The coaching staff has thrown away too many games (Kansas, Boise State, Michigan) with poor play calling, bad decisions, and no in-game adjustments to conservative and well-known plans. Perhaps if Beamer were to go back to his early years, when he was building up the program, and make special teams special again, to use a few more “trick” plays (whatever happened to the “wild turkey” that was used effectively?), and to put some passion back into his coaching, then VT football would be and could be an up-and-coming program again.