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Theoretically, how big of a resume enhancer is "University President"... if one were to express his interest for the position?
#exumforpresident
Wow, that's huge news. Hard to believe we have only had 15 presidents. Does anybody know how the selection process works? Is it just a simple vote by the BOV?
i nominate stiney to replace him. or maybe billy hite. that's how this works, right?
Pretty big news
May 14, 2013
Dear Students,
When one is totally absorbed in doing what one loves, fourteen years pass in an instant. Serving as president of this great university has been the most demanding and yet the most exhilarating and fulfilling experience of my life--from the exuberance at the beginning of the fall semester to the elation at commencement and every single day in between.
Each day, I am inspired and awed by your talent, creativity, and brilliance. You have embraced Ut Prosim and the Principles of Community. You set an example for the faculty, staff, and alumni with your solid commitment to service and strong spirit of community, which sets Virginia Tech apart.
I am thankful as well for our tremendous faculty and staff. Because of them, Virginia Tech is thriving despite the economic challenges that we continue to face. Together, we now have achieved most of the goals that I set out during my inauguration speech in 2000, and we also have seized opportunities as they arose to advance the strategic goals of the university. At all times, we have been guided by the overarching goal to provide our students with the highest quality educational experience--to awaken you to new opportunities and help you to discover your passion in life and acquire the skills and competencies to thrive in a rapidly changing world.
Today, I write to share with you my plans to step down as the 15th president of Virginia Tech. The Board of Visitors is beginning the search process, and I am confident that with the fine caliber of leadership on the board, they will select an individual well-suited to our unique organization. I will continue to serve as president until my successor begins work.
Years ago, I left a career in the private sector to pursue my passion for teaching and profound belief in the transformative power of education. This university and most importantly you--our students--have been my passion for more than four decades, and I have great optimism for the future. Virginia Tech is one of the nation's top universities and has a growing international reputation. The promise of this university eclipses all the challenges.
My wish for you is that when you graduate, you will have found your passion in life and that you will dare to pursue it. I have had that extraordinary opportunity. It has been an honor and a privilege to lead this dynamic university as its president.
With appreciation,
Charles Steger
I just now got a copy of that letter via e-mail from the university. They're sending it to everyone I guess.
So who's gonna sign my diploma when I defend during summer session!?
Seriously though, he did a lot for this place and I hope they take their time finding his replacement.
Expanded article from the Roanoke Times, along with the letter Steger sent out to the community:
http://roanoke.com/news/nrv/1931604-12/virginia-tech-president-charles-s...
Of all the uniform shenanigans I've seen over the past few years, I'm stunned that no one else (including myself) ever thought of adding hokie stone to the uniform accents. Brilliant.
this would be a dream team lineup in the Bad Quarterback League
With regards to your concerns about how much will be in place by late August, CSL pretty much covered that. He said that once you've got the foundation, the rest is pretty easy to install. I LOVE this idea, by the way. It's been said time and time again that Beamer and co. find the need to scale back the offense every October and now we've got a guy who, guess what? wants to install the basics first and build from there. What a concept. It's almost like this guy has coached major college football successfully before or something.
Why not award the SEC champion a National Title and then have one for the rest of us? Where are the divisions between 1-A, 1-AA, or Div 1, Div 2, etc... How do you decide? I sure as hell don't want things decided by the media.
Definitely an addition. Jimmy Smith, welcome to the team.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/former-jaguars-wide-re...
My point is that the West Coast offense was so successful that it has permeated all of offensive football to the point that every offense could claim to be West Coast. Thus, describing an offense as "west coast" will give very little insight into what the coordinator will be running.
Zone blocking or man? Trap blocks and/or toss sweeps? 1x2 personnel, 2x2, 1x1, or even 1x0? Run for short yardage or pass for short yardage? Power back or Scat back? QB in the running game, or a pocket QB? A modern "West Coast" offense can have all of these, or only a handful.
EVERY offense now has routes which coincide with QB footwork, focuses on attacking the defense horizontally, and has players in the backfield being a part of the passing game. From Rich Rod, to Chip Kelly, to Paul Johnson... they all have those elements that Walsh built his Championship teams around. The only offenses with a real lack of West Coast concepts are Single-wing high school offenses. No College or NFL offense will be successful without drawing heavily on West Coast principles.
Nowadays, when someone says that they run a "west coast" offense, all it really tells you is that the QB will be under center frequently and... Well that's about it. The rest is just assumed in a modern offense.
That's why I consider it a definition which is useless.
That was good, and reassuring. But that last question... "Do you feel like the personnel you have fits what you want to do?" I wish Scot would have said: "No, Heather, I brought in two coaches that literally have no idea what offense I want to run."
That was a pretty obvious question.
If we're only at a quarter of the offense installed, I wonder how much will be in place by late August. Hard to fathom, and Bama is going to be tough. I'm pretty anxious to see how the offensive line develops as well, in terms of personnel. Does McLaughlin stay on 1st team? It's good to see Loeffler optimistic, and it seems like he's very pleased with the overall progress from spring.
I could see a hokiestone pattern jersey with maroon numbers and an orange sleeve, with maroon tv numbers as our away uni. This would have to be paired with maroon pants, of course.
I don't think it's lost its meaning, as much as it has expanded and evolved. When I think of west coast offense, fundamental things like: precision passing routes timed with the QB's drop, horizontal attack, players in the backfield being part of the passing game, still come to mind.
Yep, this is definitely Bud
By now the term "West coast offense" has lost most of it's meaning, in the same way that "alternative rock" has. It's so broad, and could can contain so many concepts, that two teams could be running a "west coast offense" and they'd look nothing alike.
It's just a blanket term fora pro-style, multiple formation, focusing on exploiting personnel rather then systemic match-ups, and most of all ball control offense.
An effective West Coast Offense, along with the traditionally tough VT Defense sounds like a formula for success to me; only thing better would be to bring back BeamerBall to its glory days.
A couple of things I found interesting:
Loeffler referred to it is as a "the West Coast system". That's the first time I've heard him refer to his scheme as that, but I guess that makes sense with the slants, crossing routes, and involvement of the H-Backs. Loeffler has emphasized running the ball, and Shanahan's variation of the west coast offense blended with zone blocking schemes (and now pistol / option concepts) has consistently produced great runners. I'm excited thinking about the potential, but am worried that Loeffler wants to do too, but my blood pressure drops when I remember that he was meticulous enough to just install a simple and small base offense this spring.
I do feel better about the o-line. Loeffler confirmed again that the coaches were swapping the linemen around to see how they fit best, and it seems like they want to nail down a starting five in early August. I think we saw a bunch of good individual performances throughout spring, but not a cohesive group effort. Hopefully we'll see that during one of the final August scrimmages.
First-year Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler is in a tough spot. He’s got one of the ACC’s most disgruntled fan bases tracking his progress every step of the way. The debut of his offense in the spring game wasn’t exactly an instant classic, but it also wasn’t an accurate reflection of the progress made throughout the entire spring. I caught up with Loeffler recently to get his take on it. Here are the highlights of our conversation. …
You guys took a lot of criticism for the performances in the spring game. What was your take on it?
Scot Loeffler: My take on it was that for the most part, in all actuality, if you could take out practice 14 and practice 15, the last day, the spring game, we had a great spring. We did some things really good. We ran the ball more consistently than what the public has seen. We didn’t put a lot in for lots of reasons. No. 1, we wanted to find out who we are, find our personnel, and find our identity, what we can get away with to be successful. Obviously the last two practices I was furious with the ball security issues and obviously we didn’t run it very well the last two practices.
The biggest thing we have to do, we have to get Logan’s interception ratio down from [16] to around four or five and not turn over the ball. The fact of the matter is Virginia Tech is 54-4 when they win the turnover battle or tie it. We’ve got to protect the ball. With all of the scrutiny about the run game, turnovers is where Virginia Tech has always won or lost the game.
I’m glad it happened. Because you’re able to have an edge walking into the summer time, an urgency to improve. We’ve got some work to do. We have some work to do up front. We have some work to do with the backs. And we’ve got to become more consistent, there’s no doubt, to compete at that level.
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AP Photo/Dave Martin
Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler said the growth of his offensive linemen this summer will be key.
How much are you changing?SL: Pretty significant.
So it’s a lot for the players to digest this offseason.
SL: No question.
Do they like it? Are they excited about it?
SL: Very much so. I think the biggest thing we wanted to get accomplished this spring was a mentality and a toughness. I think we did that, setting objectives of how we wanted things done. They’ve always had an edge on defense. We want to have the same on offense. We worked on that, I think that was accomplished.
How does the offensive line look? You mentioned getting physical, and I know that was a problem for the guys up front last year. How did they look this spring?
SL: At times we were good and at times we weren’t where we needed to be. I think they’ve all made improvement. Are we where we want it? No. But what we did this spring was we shuffled guys around every day. There wasn’t much continuity in terms of the same five guys playing consistently. That’s going to change in the fall. We’ve got a good idea of who our offensive line is going to be. Are we going to announce who’s starting? No. We want them to compete this summer but really early in camp we’re going to identify the five, we think we know who they are, and build some continuity and some chemistry. They’ve got to improve. That’s an area that is a major concern. They’ve got to have a great, great summer and training camp. They’re going to get to experience one of the best defenses in the country right off the get-go, so it will be good for them.
Yeah, no kidding, starting off with Alabama. There’s a sense of urgency for you. What about the receivers? How are they looking?
SL: Youth. Extremely young. Extremely young, at times they do some really good things, and at times they do things a typical 19-, 20-year-old guy does. They need to be more consistent. Way too many dropped balls. If there was one thing I could be negative with, besides the last two practices, the ball was on the ground way too much. We’ve got to catch the ball better. We’ve got to continue with Logan’s accuracy, which I thought really improved, but we’ve got to keep the ball off the ground.
How much did you actually wind up installing this spring?
SL: Probably a quarter of what we’re going to do.
Wow, so you have a lot of work to do yet.
SL: We do, but the thing is, if you establish a foundation you can put in a lot. The terminology makes sense to the kids. I’ve run this offense, the West Coast system, many many years, and whenever you can establish a foundation, you can build and add during the season and it’s never-ending. You can keep adding and deleting. It’s a good system.
Do you feel like the personnel you have fits what you want to do?
SL: Yeah. I do. I think it’s going to take a little bit of time to get to where we want to be completely, but we’re heading in the right direction, that’s for sure.
Is that so much to ask?
"Since Steger became president, the university has added over 2.4 million square feet of space, mostly in new construction. This surpasses all growth that occurred over the entire period between 1872 and 1960."
via http://www.president.vt.edu/steger_bio.html
Wow.