Beiro will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery; Wang, Farris, Roberts TBD for Saturday
Fullback Riley Beiro will have surgery on his bothersome shoulder Thursday and miss the rest of the season, Virginia Tech announced Monday.
Beiro, a redshirt sophomore, hasn’t played much this year, serving as a backup to Joey Phillips at fullback. His one moment in the spotlight this year was being called for a hold that negated a Martin Scales touchdown against Cincinnati, a call running backs coach Shane Beamer called “God awful.”
Scales, who played fullback his first few years at Tech, will work there in addition to tailback this week. Joey Phillips remains the starter.
The Hokies have several other injuries to watch this week. Left guard David Wang (knee/ankle), backup guard/center Caleb Farris (ankle) and starting wide receiver Dyrell Roberts (concussion) are all expected to miss practice today. Their status for Saturday is to be determined.
Matt Arkema is atop the depth chart at left guard in Wang’s place. Demitri Knowles and Kevin Asante are next at Roberts’ flanker position.
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Here are a few more notes and quotes from Frank Beamer‘s Monday teleconference ….
** Beamer doesn’t think Duke’s 5-1 start is a mirage. “I think they’re a good football team, a solid football team, extremely well-coached football team,” he said. “And do things and play with great effort. So they’re good. Their records are good and they’re good.”
** The coach is trying to get the Hokies back on track after getting off to their worst start since 1992. He doesn’t think they’ll turn it around by dwelling on past performances. “If you live in the past, you’re not looking at what’s right in front of you,” he said. “And right now, Duke is right in front of us.”
** Beamer has said several times that he doesn’t think the Hokies are playing “Virginia Tech football.” He mentioned giving up a kick return for a touchdown, something that hadn’t happened in 237 games. He also brought up the ball running back Michael Holmes had stripped at midfield, a costly turnover in the third quarter. “Those things just usually don’t happen,” he said. Beamer doesn’t expect wholesale changes to the team’s approach, though. “We’ve had a lot of success for a lot of years,” he said. “And one of the things that is right about our program is there’s not much change. I think the kids know what to expect. We’re not an up-and-down coaching staff. So I think have a great week of practice and play consistent on Saturday. That’s our goal.”
** No surprise here that North Carolina running back Giovani Bernard earned ACC Player of the Week honors after running for 262 yards against the Hokies. It was the fifth-highest single-game rushing total for a player in Tar Heels history and was the most ever gained against Virginia Tech in a game.
** Virginia Tech’s game Oct. 20 at Clemson has been set for a noon start. It will be televised by ABC, ESPN or ESPN2. Here’s the full schedule that week:
- Virginia Tech at Clemson, ABC, ESPN or ESPN2*, Noon
- Wake Forest at Virginia, ACC Network, 12:30 p.m.
- Boston College at Georgia Tech, RSN, 3 p.m.
- NC State at Maryland, ESPNU, 3:30 p.m.
- North Carolina at Duke, ESPN2 or ESPNU*, 7 p.m.
- Florida State at Miami, ABC, 8 p.m. (split national)
- *Networks selected after the games of Oct. 13
October 8, 2012 - 12:35 PM
Did Beamer happen to say why it took 3 losses and 6 games to finally get to work on “leverage, proper gap, and tackling”?
As Clark W. Griswold would say, where is the Tylenol?
It’s not like they haven’t worked on it this season. It’s clearly not at a satisfactory point, though.
Andy,
I can agree with yuor post but you cannot ignore that part of the problem is the denial of the coaching staff that there was a problem.
1) The GT game was against pretty bad competition, as it turned out.
2) Austin Peay outrushed VT for most of the game. And they are a bad D2 team. Even then they missed some plays that could have been big ones.
3) Pittsburgh ate VT’s lunch. And all we heard about was how GOOD Pittsburgh was (they lost to Syracuse last Friday night BTW).
4) Bowling Green: Missed several wide open passes. This is a lower level D1 team, real lower level.
5) Cincy: More excuses. A play here, a missed block there. We just need some tweaking. Oh, and a God awful call on a holding penalty.
6) UNC- Total domination. And now the staff realizes it isn’t working.
Denial for games 2-5 set up the UNC result Saturday.
And I don’t see us beating Duke either, who is very due in beating VT BTW. They outplayed us last year and should have won the game. #4 on defense is a beast and #2 will be the best WR the Hokies have seen all year. And VT is a 9.5 chalk?
Somebody is drinking Draino out there.
I think you’re confusing their public comments with what they’re actually working on. I think the coaches realize there has been a problem. A lot of times, they just won’t come out and say it. They don’t seem like a group to publicly throw their players under the bus.
And yeah, no way VT covers vs. Duke. I think I’m predicting a 1-point win for the Hokies, but I’m not sold on it. Will have to research the Blue Devils a little more.
It isn’t throwing the players under the bus to say that the coaches have not been instructing the players “leverage, proper gap, and tackling”.
You ough tto check out Beamers comments (if you can find them) at the half of the 2006 VT/BC game. We were getting killed at the half (the final was 22-3) and FB said at halftime that the team was playing just fine.
Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
Come on people. I don’t enjoy losing anymore that anyone else. STAND BEHIND YOUR TEAM! Lets go…HOKIES!!!!! We can win out and still win the coastal! Let’s cheer them on a fight for a victory! If NC State can beat Flordia State, than so can we!
I’am Going With DUKE-38 VT-17
Not ready to hand this game over to Duke yet, although they came very close last year to beating the Hokies; probably should have. If you look closely at last year’s Hokie games you will discover they could have lost 6 of them as easily as they won them. And then we all know what Clemson did to them. So in all fairness, how much worse are the Hokies this year than last, given a point here or there or a bad call or a break. They can still compete for the remainder of this season, with a break here and there. If they beat Duke, which they can, anything is possible when the smoke clears. Shaney Beamer keeps harping on that holding call in the Cincy game; get over it and start doing the job that he is paid to. His days are numbered if things continue to fall apart. All it takes is for some of the big time endowment folks to call for someone’s head in that turkey patch.Go Tigers!!
I’m with Adam. Fans shouldn’t be kicking their team when they are down. Players and coaches need our support when they are down. What good does it do to point fingers on a blog?
I got killed on Fearless Forecasters last week. Went from a game in front of Berman to tied with Doughty. TIED WITH DOUGHTY!!!!!!!
Man, keep that up and you’ll face an even bigger indignity — being tied with me.
So Beamer says it does no good to dwell on the past. No, but those that don’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it. I think we are in the repeat phase. They had better get back to fundamentals this week, like tackling.
Virginia Tech has gotten away from what made them a tough team to beat…a relentless running game which allowed them to controll the clock and keep the defense rested…our offensive line play has steadily declined during the past decade. Remember, as great as the VT passing attack was when Vick was here, he only threw the ball about 15 times a game…with all the talk about getting back to basics, I hope they get back to what made them so tough. GO HOKIES!
Andy, coaches just don’t seem to have them ready. I was just curious, is there dissention among the coaches due to Coach Beamer bringing Shane in?
Since everyone is worried about injuries theses days i’m wondering if high school teams still do conditioning(gassers,sprints) like they used to 20 years ago? Do they do it college
No offensive line – Has gotten worse every year since Newsome has been there as has the OL Recruiting! I see no improvement in OL next year – Time to recruit some 6′ 6′ 300 Plus Pound OL-men and stop taking 2 or 3 years to beef them up or convert Tight ends! Look at the size of the 2013 OL Recruits. Get a new OL Coach!!!!!
Looks like the Linebackers may be missing a step – Have the foot surgeries on Taylor and GW made them a step slower?
Also Hosely left a big gap!
After this season it will be interesting to see how many of those Fair Weather Hokies that have taken all the Good seats from all us 40 year fans continue putting up the Big Bucks! Hey, Beamer and Weaver looks like a the Hokies are in BIG TROUBLE and you better address some Coaching issues on Offense now!
A Duke win a must to have even a chance for a 6-6 season.
Still love my Hokies – Go Hokies!
I think Frank thinks the Hokies have been fine over the past ten years but the truth is we are in a very weak conference. The ACC is pathetic now. Wait until we face Alabama next year. I am going to be one of the many on here asking why is it we still haven’t made coaching changes. Numbers don’t lie and we lose to Duke by 14 or more. We lose to Bama next year 56-7. I wish I could agree with Adam but I have been supporting the Hokies since I sat in Lane Stadium watching Bruce Smith play and we stunk back then. As a matter of fact today’s team reminds me of then and it isn’t the players. I love my Hokies and that’s why I want change. Once again what is Franks record vs top 10 teams? Still love my Hokies and always will but enough is enough.