Recent Comments
Sooo.... it's snowing. Eshiben5? Any thoughts/forecasts?
Caption: Come at me broseph!
Don't have enough instruments in today's music period.
*Whit and Buzz at the pep conference*
Without that song, would everybody know that the world is full of stupid people?
i can just see an errant ball getting caught in that blacksburg wind and crashing through bud's office window.
everybody:
The move to the ACC was not a popular decision with many at the time.
When Virginia Tech was invited to join the ACC, former Roanoke Times sports editor Bill Brill expressed his displeasure, saying "Virginia Tech will not win an ACC championship in my lifetime.
It's only in retrospect that the move was absolutely a good decision, and Weaver made it without the benefit of hindsight. As for the UNC story, if you beleive Beamer's book, his almost leaving had little to nothing to do with Weaver.
#FRENCH4PLAYERDEVELOPMENTPERSONNEL
The ACC didn't want us. We got into the ACC because of Jim Weaver, Frank Beamer, and Mark Warner.
My wife and I are both Hokies, and she has a master's from VCU. So our loyalties have been simple: we're VT fans through and through, but when it comes to basketball, we're VCU fans. We also live in Richmond, so we have seen first-hand what the Havoc bandwagon has meant to the city. If Shaka leaves, and VCU falls back to mediocrity, it will be a sad, sad thing for the commonwealth.
Perhaps using the word 'fantasy' was a poor choice. I didn't intend for any of my comment to come across sarcastically. I genuinely like seeing someone post something that didn't put JW in negative light.
There are two that I don't think I've seen yet:
Spin Doctors - Two Princes
The Refreshments - Banditos
Also, you should just include the entire Empire Records soundtrack.
We got into the ACC because our football program was an absolute badass and just a couple seasons off of a National Championship Game berth, while Duke & UNC balked at the whole conference expansion plans, allowing the commonwealth politicians to put pressure on Casteen to force VT as a replacement to Cuse.
If our football program wasn't such a hot item at that time, the move doesn't happen. And before you give too much credit to Weaver for that, remember that he almost lost Beamer to UNC because he wasn't willing to up the ante for our assistants to be paid market price.
He was a good administrator, a very good manager, especially with finances. He got a lot accomplished.
He was a poor visionary, especially in his later years, and hinged too much of his fundraising efforts on 'reseating.'
The VT athletic director should be a visionary first, a manager second.
Banditos is an awesome song.
In addition Weaver's fiscal responsibility, he is also a big reason why we are in the ACC. Do we land Buzz freakin Williams if we're still in the Big East? I'm not confident we do. Joining the ACC is one of the best things that's ever happened to VT athletics. I'm all for doling out some credit to Weaver.
Two points for Lou Bega, and any other retro swing, mambo, funk or other fad that used brass. We don't have enough brass instruments in today's music.
I had Fake Plastic Trees, but Karma Police, Paranoid Android, and Creep are all classics.
I also am not a big fan of the Weaver downplay. Could he have made better decisions regarding coaches over the years? Sure, but he also oversaw a profitable operation that added varsity sports in his tenure during what has obviously been the most successful time in Virginia Tech athletics in the history of the school. The wrestling team and the swimming team are seeing success and a lot of that is because Weaver put the right people in place to do that. Are we now experiencing a different sort of leadership? Absolutely, but as Whit himself has pointed out, its because of what Weaver left him that he has been in the position to step forward so quickly in doing the things that are getting done. Whit didn't have a lot to do with the Indoor/Outdoor practice facility being approved, most of that groundwork was done by Weaver, all the battles over Stadium Woods, etc. Weaver played a big part in us being in the ACC, which saves us a ton of money in non revenue sports and is without a doubt a prescient move considering where the Big East is now as a conference.
Last I checked this was Hokie Nation, we look people in the eye when we shake hands, we drink bourbon, not Zimas, and where we give a man his due for seventeen years of hard work done to better Virginia Tech.
Now lets get back to being excited for what Whit is going to build on the foundation Weaver laid.
I started reading about these extended staffs prior to the 2013 season. I recently posted the makeup of Bama's recruiting staff on another message board. They have a staff of ex-coaches and ex-players who do nothing but evaluate talent and develop players. It enables them to extend offers to over double the amount of blue chip talent we offer. That's the key to their recruiting dominance - quality and quantity of offers.
Another huge omission, 2 Skinnee J's "Mindtrick"
Great article Brian, very funny. I caught a little buzz reading it.
We got into the ACC because of Jim Weaver. He ran a tight ship and every athletic department in the ACC respected us for that. For the last ten years, we see these reports in the summer about who made money and who didn't. We always were in the black, even when we were in the Big East with their backwards revenue sharing and prorated entrance fee.
Jim Weaver set Whit Babcock up perfectly, good job for highlighting that point.
Think about when this is actually built, you can show all recruits, basketball and football, all the new facilities and amenities they have at their disposal. Our facilities minus Cassell (which I expect to be rectified shortly) have got to be some of the best in the country.