http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/82752/future-questions-loom-at-vir...
Thoughts:
Unfortunately, I agree with the author. It's an extremely delicate time for Tech football. If we mess up and get 7-8 wins again next season, I'm afraid we're going to start a spiral into mediocrity that will be hard to get out of. Beamer should start thinking of stepping aside at that point. However, if we do well and get 9 or more wins, we will be able to keep the ship steady until Beamer decides to hang the boots 2016-2017.
Basically, next season is the pivotal season for VT Football and its future. Thoughts?
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Comments
I do agree that we need at least 9 wins (including post season) to guarantee every coach's job security. If we can't do that, then we will have to take a look at why we lost games.
But as the author points out what will the next hire bring? What if Foster gets the nod and Tech doesn't improve?
You mean, what if Fosted Flakes?
Edit: His original post said Fosted instead of Foster.
Damn iPhone autocorrect, it should know to NEVER change Foster.
We don't know, I trust Whit to make a hire that will give the highest chance of success, but if Beamer isn't able to get things back on track next season then I just don't see how it's going to ever happen under him, considering his retirement is most likely 3-4 years away in the first place.
I'd rather take the chance that a new HC brings than staying mediocre with a current one.
then you have to hope to do damage control asap and hire better. the program needs a change though.
I don't think anyone knows what the next hire will bring. Yeah, it could be rough. Or, it could be very successful. Beamer is not going to be around forever, so change is inevitable. Saying we should be afraid of change just because we don't know what will happen is futile and defeatist; no one ever knows how it will turn out. If we again have a mediocre season, that will be four in a row. How many passes can we continue to give the staff in that situation? I think Beamer has hired his last OC, so as Loeffler's offense goes, so does Beamer's future, IMO.
What if Foster gets the nod, hires a great OC, and turns out to be an incredible head coach? We can play what if all day, and it doesn't change the fact that coaching changes happen in college football. I trust Whit will make the best choice possible when we come to this decision. I do, however, have a lot of faith that Beamer and Co. can get this thing turned around this season. But, this is a make or break year in a lot of regards. It's time to see if the changes Beamer made were, in fact, the right ones.
I'm not saying I'm against changes, it will happen. But so many fans seem to think the next hire will just make things better. We don't know A) who the next hire will be B) if the next hire will work out C) how will the fan base and money react if Foster is not a great HC?
Agreed. None of us can know what will happen. We have to hope that Whit and the powers that be will make the best possible decision for the future of VT football. I'm just being a glass half full kind of guy. The next hire could be very successful. I think we have a solid foundation at VT, and Beamer is not going to leave the cupboard bare for the next guy, whoever that is. I do know, however, that if we have a fourth-straight mediocre outing, it will be hard continuing to justify Beamer as the guy to dig us out. Like I said, I have a ton of faith in this season, but we will have to wait and see how it plays out.
Well there s a LOT of programs who thought the same thing; are much bigger programs than us and they DIDNT get better... Michigan, Texas, Tennessee, Florida, USC, and then a bunch of others that just stayed mediocre- Maryland, Washington, OK state, Miami, and the list goes on. The thing is, unless you get one of the top 4 or 5 guys, and those guys aren't going anywhere, then I think one is more flirting with screwing up the program with dramtic changes as opposed to hoping the one there now, Beamer, will make the right smaller changes within the program to be successful.. Our foundation with gray, searels, foster and even loeffler is good to excellent- you chg a had coach and many of them bolt too.. as long as we see improvements, and recruiting talent helps too, then stay the course
Taylor being compared to Glennon? Um
I am happy to see Sean getting some love. He was a competent QB that fought an uphill battle against his own QB coach's ineptness and his OLs lack of skill and attitude towards him.
I appreciate his contributions. I hope he can make strides in his broadcasting career.
But that UGA game. Still gets me every time.
I was there -- celebrating at halftime. And then the 2nd half happened. Ugh....
I was there, and had a few UGA fans in my face by half-time. It didn't help that my friends and I had made signs. And, to say that times haven't changed much, the signs were a giant light switch in the "Off" position, and a "fence".
I mean, you don't really need "Defense" signs when you're typically a top 10 defense. But SOMEONE had to cheer for the offense to actually work.
If we see even modest improvements on offense, there is no reason why we shouldn't win at least 9 games and clinch the division, and possibly even contend for the ACC title. The onus of this season rests solely on the offense - it's put up or shut up time for Loeffler and Co. As he has even said, there will be no more excuses this year, especially with so much talent returning on that side of the ball. If we again field a putrid offense, it will be exceedingly hard to justify one more chance for the current offensive staff and likely even Coach Beamer. Winning cures all, however, and if we can rebound this year, I think we're setting ourselves up for Beamer to have one final run over the next few seasons. Our biggest competition in the division are the Jackets, and I think we have the talent to beat them (and we had them beaten last year). It's time to go out and take care of business this season.
I'd certainly expect we will contend for the ACC title if we clinch the division.
But this is the ACC....
Poor choice of wording. I meant likely could beat a Clemson/FSU Atlantic champion in Charlotte.
I think the slide into mediocrity that the author mentions several times is a little less than they make it out to be. Yes we had some down mediocre years (which UVA would kill to have). There were major problems in our recruiting department that have caused the current slide but we made some new hires, revamped the system and as far as I can tell, are already trending back up. Was last year a step forward? Our record would say no, but l say yes. We are about one TD away in each of every loss from being 11-1 which is not asking for much improvement this year. You could say we're that close to a losing season as well, but if we did improve just that small amount, then those close losses become close wins and the close wins become comfortable wins. I'm confident we will continue the trend this year and get to at least 8-9 wins this year.
I also get a kick out of how the author so strongly implies that Beamer's reaching the end of his rope while London enjoys unparalleled recruiting success... given that London has only come close to Beamer maybe once, which I believe was 2010 or 2011.
I'm just gonna be lazy and copy paste an old comment that still states it for me
Since I'm lazy too can you go ahead and copy & paste all the best rebuttals to your position? I'd be particularly interested in any that point out the traveling MASH unit that was our team last year, and maybe mentions the clown show that was our Oline coaching for far too long but, ahem, was corrected very recently.
As a side note: Can folks copy-paste free into from ESPN instead of linking to their site? I'd rather them not get my clicks and ad revenue via that.
Unless its a short excerpt, I believe this is frowned upon in the site guidelines.
Oh is that the case? I stand corrected.
Credit where it's due. (slight aside to anyone that remembers that f@*#&^$ train wreck of a thread)
Hey I believe I commented in that thread so I'd like to receive credit for my work
I'm not sure if that article is journalism, analysis, or editorializing. But it's not very good.
Nothing like equivocating with certainty...with a couple facts, some half-truths, some critical omissions, and a bunch of assumptions.
There is little surprise that VT is in the third year of a rebuilding process. Loeffler got a pretty big setback when Jeff Grimes only stuck around for one year, but Searels seems to be getting into his groove as well.
This is really Loeffler's year. No pressure, but he's sort of had a bye until now. This is the year where he gets to "prove" that he's getting the job done. It looks promising, but the proof is in the results.
I don't really see that Beamer has time to rebuild from scratch again, and the defense is looking elite, so this is the really the year to see results. Will he get another year, regardless? Sure. But no year is likely going to look better than this one.
I think Loeffler stays until Beamer leaves, no OC will sign onto a program for a year or two to just have the HC leave and put their job in jeopardy.
I think this is Loeffler's make or break year like Vtkey mentioned. Last year was plagued with injuries and a QB who didn't even have a full spring under his belt. Plus true freshman at a just about every skill position. With a healthy offense and guys having more game experience and experience in Loeffler's system there is no reason we shouldn't do well this year. Our schedule is set up for it. We do have GT in Atlanta but that's in between FSU and Clemson for them I believe. Plus I think we have a longer week to prepare for them. (correct me if i'm wrong on any of that) If we don't get to 9 wins this year I think we should all be very disappointed. If we are in the ACCCG or a close second from being in it (only due to GT pulling something out and not dropping both FSU and Clemson and having the tiebreaker against us) and can win a respectable bowl game we should be happy.
Also as mentioned above we were very close in all our losses and had multiple turnovers in most. We should have won pretty much all of those games (we were in position to at least, save Miami). We correct those mistakes and we should have a good year.
This may set off a heated debate, so let me start by saying this is just speculation not necessary my opinion, but I think if we are north of 7 wins Lefty is going to be retained no matter what. And next year (2016) will be his make or break season.
It's just a feeling I have. I just don't think his seat is as hot as everyone thinks and i don't think Beamer is going to bring in a new OC for Bristol unless he absolutely must. But I could be entirely wrong.
I also think after 2016 we will see a transition to Bud within 2 years, maybe after 2016, maybe as far out as 2018. Once Bud takes over he will retain as much staff as possible. Again just speculation.
One thing thats hard to argue is the recruiting turnaround at QB as a result of Lefty's efforts. Say what you want about OC ability and results thus far, but I hate to think where we'd be without him at this point. I'm still of the thought that this is the make or break year for him. He has weapons/health/depth (sortof) and veteran experience in his system at this point so now is the time to shine and earn his paycheck.
The real question will be, if we have another year of injury setbacks that start to affect the win percentage, will this be enough to warrant keeping him?
yeah, exactly. Lefty has brought in the QB talent for sure. And I think a lot of people don't realize just how bad things were. the notion that we could rebuild in a year or 2 from where we were and have a competent performing offense is not rational. Last year had to be frustrating with injuries because clearly we had potential. And the OL last year was still coming around.
So is this his make or break year, or simply year 1 of Lefty doing his thing after rebuilding. If it his first year after the rebiulding, then like any coach, unless he absolutely bombs, you would expect at least 2 years.
I think we need to see a clear plan on offense. The last two years, Lefty has started to shape an identity, but I think this year it needs to be clear cut. If we lose games because players aren't executing, that's one thing, but if we only win 7 games, and our offense looks muddled, then Whit/Frank hava a tough decision to make.
We would probably be starting either Bucky or Motley at QB with McMillan and Parker as the other two QB options. (I'm pretty sure Parker was committed to VT and being mentioned as a QB before Lefty was hired, might have gotten more than a token look at QB under the old regime)
"speculation" or wishful thinking?
Count me as one of the "Give Bud the job" homers. #promoteBud
Agree that Lefty is in for two more years, minimum.
As for a transition to Bud, I think not. I love Bud, but I'd be surprised if he's our next HC. No value judgement here, just don't think that's in the cards for him. Not sure that would be best for VT or for Bud, either. He's a great DC and I think he'd dilute his greatness by trying to do HC stuff, much of which has nothing to do with coaching. Just like Mike Burnop is still the color guy and we're hiring a new "voice", Bud's genius lies in his iron vice like grip on our defensive scheme. But like fernleyhokie says, it's just speculation.
Not trying to start any heated debate here either, but I am curious: do you think that Beamer is here at least through 2016, regardless of what happens this year? I understand and support keeping the staff as is intact for the remainder of Beamer's tenure. But if we have another 7-6/8-5 season, is Beamer still automatically back next year?
Personally, I don't think so, and I would prefer not. Had we not rallied and beaten UVa and won the bowl, I thought change might have happened after the season. The general fanbase mood/atmosphere was the most sour I can remember after the Wake game. Luckily, we were able to pull it together, and we were sold on the hopes of a better season next year, with injuries, youth, and inexperience holding us back that season.
Another mediocre season and disappointing offense, and I think excuses will have worn extremely thin. Yes, Loeffler has amassed some great talent on offense, and I think he is unquestionably a great football mind. But at some point, that has got to translate into results. I have a ton of faith we can get things turned around this season, but if we stumble again, I'm personally not in favor of continuing with the status quo into 2016. This team is capable of winning at least 9 and competing for the ACC title this year, and that should be the bar for success. Not trying to start an uproar, just trying to rationally discuss.
As someone who has spoken about immediate change, see above, I feel Frank is here through Jan 2, 2017.
If it's another 7-5 season Frank gets his notice to wrap it up and does so, so I hope, See Bobby Bowden. Because of that 2016 is a sellout and a Beamer fanfest and the atmosphere breeds success and we all leave happy with Beamer.
If it's 10-3 Beamer has 2 years.
At the heart of it, Beamer's game calling/football management hasn't kept up with College football.
Beamerball has been adapted for by all teams.
24/7 rates nearly 7,000 High school seniors pretty reliably reducing the chances of finding many Jake Grooves anymore.
Time of possession means less if you're not scoring points only running the clock. Yea we held the ball longest, and only won by a few points or lost. When your opponent's QB can move you all the way down field in 3 plays it has more to do with leading the sport in points scored
The VT fanbase and culture wouldn't support immediate changes but it's time to start changing as fast as the fans can handle it
A solo running back? Few if any teams do this anymore.
Although I partially agree, I wouldn't really say that last season was a disaster or terrible. Every loss, except Miami, was within a touchdown to tie the game and were very winnable if we had not made offensive mistakes, defensive mistakes for the BC game, or tried to score instead of going for field goals (this one is on the coaches). Not to sound like a romantic or a blind patriot, but I would be very surprised if we don't play better this season. I know anything can happen but with more skill players returning, veteran starters, and an offense that has had more sufficient time under Loeffler's system we should be able to close these close games and tack more wins on the board. I also think that Beamer deserves to coach the Battle of Bristol game because it has been in the works for so long and SWVA is his home.
Beamer will be the HC for 2016 as long as we make a bowl game. And even if we don't, I'm not completely convinced he won't be either. We've enjoyed 22 consecutive bowl berths. If it wasn't for CFB, VT AD wouldn't probably even be a job that Wit would covet. The idea that Wit would pull the trigger so quickly, to me, is quite unlikely.
I have always thought Coach F Beamer was too conservative for my enjoyment, but it was pretty darned hard to argue with the success he did have at a college that was largely irrelevant football-wise prior to his arrival as HC. I felt like his overly cautious approach to passing was a detriment to recruiting top QBs and receivers, with a few notable exceptions, but the man put us on the map. In the olden days, at least post VMI being our primary rivals, I always said we could lose 'em all as long as we beat loluva, but of course I hope for much more now. I believe the Bobby Bowden argument is valid, but also too easy to default to when discussing Frank's departure. I don't think Frank has the ego that Bowden wore on his sleeve, and I don't think Frank wants to be remembered like that. I think he wants to go out on a high note, however, and see that reflected in the new hires and an obvious shift in recruiting priorities. That said, the game is different now, but one of the biggest differences is in the expectations of a fan base used to winning and griping about 10 win seasons like we're "entitled" to them. Realistic or not, that is the expectation of the younger crowd and we need them to stay involved if we're to maintain the momentum created by an iconic coach who took us to a National Championship Game. Yeah, I know, we didn't win that game, but I was there, and we took a lead into the 4th quarter, we were damn relevant, and while Mike Vick was undoubtedly a big reason, he didn't do it alone and Beamer had a lot to do with our success that year, admit it or not. Whit's no fool, he won't risk tarnishing Frank's legacy and alienating those high rollers who fund the program and really love Frank, but he's got to have his eye on the future as well, and I would be surprised if he and Frank haven't had at least a little informal discussion about what to expect. I think, like WHWes that Frank deserves to coach the Battle of Bristol game, and we all seem to believe he'll step down after that year, but who knows what's in his mind and in Whit's hand of cards?
One word for why Beamer is here in 2016 regardless of 2015 outcome: Bristol.
I think it depends on what is at fault in our record.
If we win 8+ games but the defense is at fault, I think we'll keep Loeffler.
However, if it is another season where the offense finishes in the bottom quarter of the country in Scoring and Total Offense, I don't see how anyone could justify keeping him. At this point, there are no excuses. This team has experience and talent across the field. We have a great WR group, a stable at RB, and arguably the best TE in the ACC. The schedule sets up very favorably since we don't draw Clemson, Florida State, or Louisville from the Atlantic. Our hardest games are on the road, but, as bad as our team was at times last season, we still almost won every game but Miami.
The tricky part is what happens with Beamer. I could see an atrocious offensive year pushing Beamer into an early retirement. It's already been said by other people on here that no one would take the OC job with what would likely be only 1-2 more years with Beamer as coach, and I agree. I think if we have to get rid of Loeffler we end up having to get rid of Beamer as well.
I just really hope the offense pulls it together this season so none of that has to happen.
The defense is never at fault. The offense's job is to score more points than the other team.
Such truth, from the Yogi Bera of the NFL.
I agree with that. I guess I say make or break in that if the offense doesn't perform this year and we don't win games because of them and hit 7-8 wins then I think he'll be trending downward. I don't think he will be out after this year if we only get to 7 wins though. I do think we will do a lot better this year though and will get 9 wins in the season at least. If not we'll have some head scratching losses that no one saw coming, similar to a game that wasn't played last year.