Recent Comments

Remember those days all too well. The bypass is fantastic.

COWTURD

Certainly where they are ranked comes from the work of the professors and people inside the programs, but the exposure, which leads to interest from students, some funding, and many partnerships come from the success Beamer has had. Without the funding and partnerships specifically, would some of those top professors have come to VT? We may never know, but you can't deny that it's certainly a big pull.

No, SC will not be in Blacksburg. Marty Smith was in town on Tuesday to interview Beamer and I believe it will air on Saturday.

Who's Ditto, never heard of him? Is he from Canada?

Oh how differently Beamer's legacy would have been if he would have gone somewhere else like Alabama or UNC.

And who ever the asshole was that let loose on Beamer's daughter, there is a special place in hell for people who treat kids like that. There is no excuse or any situation in life where these types of incidences should be allowed or brushed aside. Sorry but that's $EC fanbase ignorance right there!

They were both top 25 programs even then.

Would love to see the sauce on this. I know that some programs were ranked high and Engineering has always been the core, but I don't think this is accurate about Architecture. I remember Paul Knox telling me and others that Beamer getting us into ACC with more exposure got Arch massive exposure. And I remember when Arch passed top10, well past when beamer came, and had been consistent top10 for most years following.

We've tangled about this and while your pet peeve is thinking people are saying it wasn't awesome before Beamer mine is reductionist statements about Beamer's impact, which is staggering. Yes VT and the burg was awesome before Beamer. hell, according to my grandfather it was awesome in the late 30's. But just as the school grew, matured and changed from his day to your day the school did so from your day through Beamer. And while it has always been awesome Beamer took VT to heights faster, in a shorter period of time, than ever before. The exposure he gave the school was national. I guarantee you not a single person I knew growing up in the West knew Virginia Tech when I went in 95. But after the 99/00 season every time I went back home people would know. That's game changing exposure.

exposure means dollars. Not just sports dollars, but endowment dollars, research dollars. The more well known a university is the more it attracts. That's just how it works.

So yes, VT has always been awesome. But Beamer elevated it way beyond where it was when he took the job.

I agree with your final point, he's divisive and shouldn't be the choice.

However, I disagree about your insinuation he would bring the 3-3-5 with him or only choose Bud because he was forced to. Much of the early momentum of this combination was due to a rumored mutual respect between Bud and RichRod. There is, IMO, a #4 to your list: He wants Bud Foster as his DC.

I also don't buy that if it doesn't go well, that Bud is the fallguy. I would propose the contrary, that if it doesn't go well, RichRod is the fallguy and Bud is there to take over.

I agree he isn't a great recruiter and that his system isn't well suited for bigtime recruits. I don't care about how he treats his players (easy to find players whining about coaches) or the NCAA issues. I personally like him, I find him entertaining and refreshing.

That said, I am firmly against him being the next HC because he's so divisive. Not high on my list, but I would prefer Bud or even Shane. It would be divisive to hire Shane, but there is at least the potential that Shane can grow into a great recruiter and his offensive system may be more NFL oriented. I don't want Bud or Shane as HC, but I prefer both to RichRod just due to the divisiveness issue.

thanks for expressing what i couldn't in opposition of hiring RichRod.

i just didn't want him because (1) he coached WVU and (2) was given the job to coach a blue chip program (Michigan) back to greatness and couldn't do it. sure, he's had minor success with 'Zona but i had already written him off before he took that job.

so I kid haha

But you are serious too... which is what makes it hurt so bad. Kuzy eases the pain a little though.

Would the Peak brothers be considered in this group? I can't remember if Beamer ever "coached" the second or if he even made it to campus.

Peak (Nubian, Tahrick)

Yep.

I mean, I get it, vtkey thinks its insulting to think that VT is a better school now than when he was there, but that doesn't mean VT was a bad school at any point, either. But the fact remains that the exposure we got from having a good football program and having our name out there made more people take notice that we were there, caused more applications to come in, which forced the university to expand. Hell, I graduated nearly 10 years ago, and I'll openly admit that VT is a better school now than it was when I was there, and it really is because of the football program. Getting us into the ACC got us linked up with so many research institutions in the region and has only expanded our footprint.

VT was a very good school before Beamer came to town. But, because of the success he had, and who our peers became athletically, and the exposure we got nationally, we're set up to go from a good school to a great school. That wouldn't be happening if we were still wallowing in independent begging to be included at the big boy table athletically.