Recent Comments
Every comment I've in this post, except quite possible your's, has been pretty respectful and not over the top.
Among many things, I appreciate that my time in Blacksburg reinforced that certain behaviors are expected in the Hokie Nation:
1. You are loyal to your colleagues and can expect that loyalty to be reciprocated.
2. You maintain your composure and dignity when things are tough and others are showing their character flaws.
3. You treat people fairly and demonstrate compassion for those who are suffering or less fortunate.
4. You do the "right thing" even when the personal costs are high or your choice is unpopular.
I don't really know much about football (and neither do you if you are being honest with yourself!), but I do know that you Monday quarterbacks should show some character, gut it up, admit that this season will not be Frank's best, and do everything you can to help the players and coaches make sure next season is better. That includes supporting your team during these bad times. Though I believe somewhat in your Freedom of Speech, any potential recruit reading your posts should have second thoughts about wanting to play for a university whose fans are so fickle.
Your continuing character assassination of the coaches, players, and administrators (...oh, I love Frank but I cannot resist the chance to stab him in the back...) on this board and on other boards is beneath the dignity of a Hokie. Would you make such venomous statements if you could not hide behind the anonymity provided by your self selected user name? If Cornell Brown or Shane Beamer was sitting across the dinner table, would you have the cojones to tell them what you are saying in your posts?
Hokies stand behind our own kind. You don't have to like this year (I sure don't) but I am encouraging you to stop these Wahoo-like verbal tantrums; they are not Virgina Tech.
Oh yeah, before someone gets flip, my name is NOT Bryan Stinespring! If you want my number or email address, just drop a note.
*Cough* Torrian Gray *Cough*
Look, head coach is largely a figurehead who delegates a LOT... that said, he needs to look at who he is delegating TOO.
Frank needs to take a step back and remember where we came from from a program perspective- and that's a blue collar, hard nosed program that: 1) ran the dang football, 2) recruited players who, worked hard, did not feel 'privileged' had a chip on their shoulders with a nasty streak- not necessarily the top recruits.
He then needs to look at this staff and see who he's delegating the development of HIS program to. Who can develop those players with the proper attitude plus technique. Stinespring and Newsome ain't cutting it. Guys like Torrian Gray are. Bottom line- Frank, this is your 1992 moment... you may not be called in to the AD's office like you were by Dave Braine in '92 and told this is a business (and to put friendships aside), so your're going to have gain that impetus for staff change from within.
• I want to see the end of this lackluster performance. Is it me or does this team never seem excited or fired up. We have some good talent on the team, but the lack of enthusiasm is greatly holding them back.
• Improvements for players across the board and the emergence of underclassmen as potential playmakers next year. These younger kids understandably are making mistakes this year, but if they can get themselves in line for their remaining years, this years depressing display will be a less painful memory a few years down the line.
• The emergence of Logan Thomas as a more prominent leader. LT is a tremendous talent and there is no doubt that the team respects him, but I feel like he could be doing more. He is rarely seen on the sideline improving moral. He is always sitting down on the bench staring at the game or with those damn headphones on. He needs to be a bigger voice on the sideline and more envolved with firing up his teammates. Like i said, he is not a bad leader but I feel he could do more.
• I want to see the coaches take more charge and push these kids harder. I feel like beamer can afford to be tougher. But foster doesn't have to be the only loudmouth on that staff. These are college kids after all, and you cant let them get away with too much. Reform of the coaching staff after this year would not be to bad either in my opinion.
• Fans act like they should. Quit leaving at half time and quit making paper planes! These are our boys and they need our support.
we can pull magical new helmets out of our ass, but we cant find a single pair of maroon pants anywhere in the equipment room?
"It's not our ugliest helmet!"
Who developed this severe fetish for everything white and orange? And when? And why?
Wow that really sucks, man I hope he gets another shot at it next year
If Virginia Tech was a longterm SEC program with a goal of winning a national championship, Beamer would at least be on the hot seat right now. The SEC used to be as good ol' boy as Virginia Tech, Tennessee firing Phil Fulmer for Lane Kiffin, a true outsider, was probably the last remaining program to stop valuing loyalty to those who had played for a school and/or been a long tenured coach. Now the SEC is a what-have-you-done-lately league, much like the NFL.
Does Beamer deserve to be fired? No. The man has won an impressive amount of football games, and seeing how hard it's been to win this season, with a pretty talented roster, it should make you appreciated the 10-game win streak more. Furthermore, the season is not over yet. I know it looks bleak, and I'm not optimistic, but the man has turned piss-poor starts into ACC Championships before.
In the not so distant future, he'll have tough staff decisions to make. If he's loyal to a fault, and losing 5-6 games becomes a trend, then I think a discussion is worthwhile and warranted. At some point further down the road a new athletic director will need to be hired, (s)he and Beamer will have to outline a clear succession plan (that doesn't mean handing the job to someone on the staff), if such a plan is not already in place.
I've said this before on the site, but when the time comes to find a new coach I don't want it handed to a current member of the staff. The program should conduct a national search and hire the best candidate. Preferably the person is young, but experienced and has ties to the region. If that person is already on the staff, I'm content with that because there are talented young coaches onboard that I don't want to lose. It probably goes without saying, but Jim Weaver shouldn't make the decision.
YES it's really time for Beamer to go. I've been calling for this for at least a year now.
I understand that he got us here and he's the main reason that our program is what it is and why we love the Hokies so much and why this site even exists. I get all that, trust me I do, but still enough is enough. I think most Hokie fans agree with me but don't want to let him go either out of loyalty or out of fear that we won't be as good as we are now.
If you're problem is loyalty then my response is this "If Beamer won (or wins) a nat'l champ then he can be our coach until he dies because then he becomes more important to our program than Michael Vick" I wanted Beamer gone before this season started but if we would have won the natl champ this year then I would have shut up forever about replacing him. How much longer can we be loyal to a coach that doesn't give us what we want?
And if you're problem is fear of failure then my response is this "I feel very confident that we can get a proven, successful coach to replace him. Even though we blow all the big games, we're still nationally known and widely respected. To add to that, we're in one of the best states for high school recruits. What up and coming coach at a smaller school wouldn't want to come here? Besides, if we stick with Beamer we'll never win a national championship. It's just the truth"
My vote goes to Paul Roads from Iowa State. He's proven that he's a good coach and we're a better program than ISU. Or what about Mike Leach? If I was him I'd rather be the head coach at Virginia Tech than washington state. And if you're response to Leach is that he put a concussed kid in a closet then we're not on the same page. I realize that was a terrible thing to do and I'm not justifying his previous actions, but if we want to be an elite program competing with the traditional powerhouses then we have to give up this idea that being a standup program is more important than being a powerhouse program because it's not. I don't want us to lose all morals and end up like unc or penn state or anything similar, but we need to treat this college football thing like the business it is and go all in it to win it, and you don't do that by keeping a coach that consistently loses even if he is a major part of who we are. I believe it was Joe that compared us kicking Beamer out to fsu kicking Bowden out, but it's not at all. Bobby won them championshipS and they kicked him out.
Paul Roads is my first choice though, Leach was just a thought.
I'm sure the majority of keyplayers will have some distaste with this post, but I feel very good finally getting some of this off my chest. I love Beamer and I love what he's done for our school and what he's done for me personally as a huge Hokies fan but the time has come.
It's tough because everybody knows that the key ingredient to Beamer's success has been loyalty, which has brought consistency. But at the same time his loyalty has held him back. I'm afraid that I don't believe Beamer can be ruthless enough to make the changes to win a national championship.
I don't think there is any chance whatsoever of Beamer getting fired, if results were to be so bad i.e. if we were to lose out and get thrashed by UVA, he would resign.
But then that throws up the next problem which is I don't think Bud would be the right man to take us forward, and how do you hire someone ahead of him as HC and keep him happy...basically what I'm saying is I think it's all or nothing, if Beamer goes I think Bud would go if he didn't get the big job and who in their right mind would keep the current Offensive staff in place?
... does anyone know the official grades and number of plays for the BG and Cincy games? I'm not surprised this info hasn't gone up on hokiesports.com for the UNC game yet, but I haven't been able to find it for BG or Cincy either. Are they no longer going to post that, or are they posting it somewhere differently from where it was before (the notebook)?
I look forward to see that post
While I agree with you on all points, the chances of point 2 happening is somewhere between slim and UVa giving up on bringing Zima back. The only scenario where Beamer shuffles the staff (or gets rid of staff) is when Weaver comes to him and says that it's either a staff change or a forced retirement - neither of which will happen (and I don't think firing Beamer should be on the table).
There will be excuses about the offense being inexperienced, refs will be blamed for bad or missed calls, players not executing, etc. What won't happen will be hearing the staff taking any responsibility.
It's going to be a rough remainder of the year, and I will be surprised if VT sees a bowl game.
- Logan Thomas keeps improving. He had a rough start to the season, and his mechanics still aren't consistently great, but they're getting there. However, he's bounced back, and has been able to move the ball a little better each week. Tech will need a polished quarterback if they have a chance at beating Alabama in 2013.
- Frank Beamer takes a serious look at his offensive staff, and makes tough decisions. I think all of the offensive coaches have underperformed, some have developed a consistent record of doing so. Almost as bad are how the responsibilities are delegated. Stinespring is an offensive coordinator who doesn't call plays. Newsome coaches just the interior linemen. O'Cain doesn't have the final say on a gameplan, but calls plays. It's a mess. Everyone has just enough responsibility so there is no accountability. Coaches need to ditch being "multiple" and run a system those on the staff are familiar with and works with the talent on the roster. If there's not a match, Beamer needs to find new competent coaches that can come in and develop players to do the job.
- Play the best, hardest working players at all positions. They will give you the best chance to win now, and tomorrow.
- Watch leaders emerge on both sides of the ball. Who will be the Vince Hall that'll grab control of the defense and tell them to play hard and fight to the whistle? Will there be a player on offense that decrees no excuses like Danny Coale?
- Beat Virginia and get to a bowl game, more for the practice than the experience.
- Fans continue to support the team.
Don't think Bruce will be able to make it in the NFL, coming out of the VT system? And I hear Worilds is doing pretty well, but they've got a good set of starting LBs, and then he was injured all preseason. His time is coming.
I wonder if we can take recruiting stars with a bigger grain of salt than usual when it comes to our LB recruits. As someone else pointed out, we want smaller, faster guys at LB than most teams. Smaller, faster guys are less likely to be 4* LB recruits precisely because they are undersized.
isn't DVD slated for backer?
I'd still love to see Kyle at FS/Rover. If Antone continues to improve from a cover standpoint, I think I would rather keep him at corner than Kyle. Kyle just seems to be better suited to be a free guy rather than a lockdown corner based on his tackling ability in space and his football IQ. I would be stoked if our starting secondary looked like this next year:
Jarrett/Kyle Fuller at Rover/FS
Antone at Boundary CB
Donaldven Manning/Kendall Fuller at FC.
they have an offweek.
I agree... Maybe we need to take a page out of CPJ's book.
No it's only strange to us because Beamer never does it. Schools all around the country replace coaches during the season.
Thanks
unfortunately what our team does is not within our control. What is tho is what we do as fans. I want the students in the north end zone to stay standing. I want the stadium to be packed 15 minutes before gametime. I want Lane Stadium to be the loud and proud arena that we know it can be. I see people just selling their tickets left and right because "i dont wanna watch our team lose" or "we are bad this year." AND!!??? If you wanna be there when we finally win that national championship then you had better be there when we are struggling to stay above .500. Thats what I want. I want loyalty and pride in our team. cheer loud and proud for them no matter what their record is.
The biggest problem I have with Frank as of late is that he has seemed to forgotten what was one of the most important aspects for us to become such a national fixture and turn the tide of big games/compel the offense and defense to victory:
BeamerBall.