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That is perhaps the most incredible loss record for attending neutral site games out there. I'm lucky enough that I attended the 2010 game in Charlotte and experienced a win--my only one and I'm not far behind you in the loss category.
I would hate to see Frank churn out 7, 8, 9 or even 10 win seasons over the next few years and then bow out. We've all prayed for Stinespring to go and accepted our fate that Frank would have done it by now so we must accept it as fans and hope for the best. Folks, this is going to be the worst season since 92-93, and it took a lot of suffering in order for the team to turn around in 93-94 to position itself for its first sugarbowl win the following year. Buckle up and get ready for our first SUB 8 WIN SEASON in 20 years.....and pray that after this season, Frank has a sit down with his offensive staff and tells them the decision he has no choice to make. I want Frank around for 5 or more years and I believe he is capable of running the program and I'd like to see him finish off by hiring the best offensive minds that are for hire before he goes.
I'm right there with you. I've been to the same 3 losing Sugar Bowls, a losing Gator Bowl against FSU, a losing trip to Baton Rouge, and now 3 losing trips to FedEx Field.
I was also not terribly excited about going to the game this past weekend. I mainly went for two reasons - to see friends that I don't get to see often, and I wanted to go to a game since I may not get to Blacksburg this year.
FedEx Field was the same hell hole it always is (seriously, go to a Nats game to see what a good stadium experience is like), but it was good catching up with old friends.
Like most people on here, I care too much about this team. I firmly believe that Virginia Tech is capable of getting back to, and winning, the national championship. But even in the down years, I will continue to yell just as loud, get way too excited about the wins, and way too depressed by the losses.
And I also never need an excuse to go back to New Orleans.
I am a 6th year (Go me!) senior, thought not all at Virginia Tech (though I have bled maroon and orange since I could walk), and it makes me so very very angry to see people sitting, people bailing. My tickets this season are right between a sorority and a fraternity (who are apparently connected, btw). I was ashamed to bring my little brother (who is 13) to the Austin Peay game this year because of how awful (and drunk) the kids in both acted. The same also bailed at halftime for the most part, of both the Austin Peay and Bowling Green games.
Is this the student fan base we have now? I wanted so badly to be in the North Endzone this season, and it makes me very mad to see it empty by halftime, meaning that the kids in those seats didn't give enough of a damn about the players, about the game, about their damn school.
I did not grow up in Virginia (North Carolina baby!) but the UVA game is the game I look forward to most every single year. If the house is not packed, if there are a ton of empty seats, no matter our record, then I fully expect to be handing the Commonwealth Cup back to UVA in my final home game as a student.
Maybe I care too much
I have been to four neutral site wins: 1998 Music City Bowl (all I remember was that it was freaking cold -- I was 7), the 2001 Gator Bowl, where we handed it to Clemson, the 2007 ACC Championship in Jacksonville and the 2010 ACC Championship vs. FSU. I have been to FedEx twice for USC and Boise, been to Atlanta for Bama (and will be headed back next year), been to Charlotte for ECU, and went to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. As much as I have hated to see us lose all of those big games (believe me, I take losses by our team way too personally) I still go because of the experience and the undying loyalty to a school I love. Maybe we can win one of those big games, and hopefully sooner than later.
...is that the letdown has come from our "givens." I went into this season with a lot of optimism...a lot....simply because a team with an experienced, talented QB + an experienced, talented defense usually wins a lot of games. Both the defense and the QB have been major letdowns.
This site has done a great job of breaking down LT's problems. It's not the no-brainer issues of high throws and unsuccessful QB Sneaks, it's his mechanics, it's his reads, it's his (lack of) audibles, it's his (lack of) blitz recognition. Logan has been an unmitigated disaster.
Defensively, one thing we knew was that the DLine was going to get after it. That was going to protect this thin, yet talented, secondary while they matured. The LB's could cope with Edwards injury because Taylor was so good and Tyler can play. What we have seen is that the pass rush isn't getting enough pressure, Taylor has been a liability and we have had to go Nickel constantly. We thought we would never have to go Nickel because of the dominant Front 7.
Now, the cold reality is that we need better secondary play and we have 3 Rovers (Jarrett, Fuller, Exum) and 3 other players who aren't ready to be on the field (Bonner, Cole, Manning). I don't know what you do with that. The cold reality is that we desperately need a running game so that we can bring our QB along. We thought it would be the other way around.
I'm a Red Sox fan, so I just lived through an unmitigated disaster of a season. I kept believing, well beyond when I should, that the "talent" would win out. Run differential, too many close loses, this team will turn it on at some time. But, they didn't...because what I believed was true (Lester is an ace, Gonzalez is a triple-crown-threat, Pedrioa produces, the bullpen is great) became a farce. Now, they are completing the worse season in two generations.
My wife watched a good bit of the BGSU game and offered this succinct analysis: "Wow, we're not good this year are we? Logan looks awful and our defense is allowing wide open recievers everywhere. Will we make a bowl?"
Good points, honey.
Well said...
Amen.
love this post. the hokie community is what makes this all so great and worthwhile.
arson. . .their greatest tradition
the fact that the school wants us to not be west virginia towards opposing fans is why we lost the other day? really?
I would have to agree with this article, the fans, the coaches, and the players have become too complacent. I hate to have this happen my senior year but it is something that we unfortunately need as a program. While we are a spoiled fan base getting 10+ wins every year, we need to look past the win totals and over-inflated rankings and judge it off of how we actually play. Lately, we have been playing like a 3-2 team arguably a 2-3 team if we didn't drive for a late score against GT to force overtime. We need a forced reshuffling of the coaches, we need to demand more out of the players, and we need to adapt to recruiting like its 2012 not 1990. This as painful as it is necessary, and the only way those changes will come to fruition. I am not one to call for Frank's head I think he has more than earned the leniency to let him finish out his contract. However, when that day comes I think VT is going to need to look long and hard at itself and decide if that empty trophy case is really their goal, and if so begin making the necessary steps to pursuing that dream.
I hope you're right about Beamer making changes. I disagree about O'Cain being an excellent QB coach. The reason I say that is Tyrod Taylor had a bad year his soph year. During the offseason he and his Dad watched some video of him and found a "hitch" in his throwing motion. They corrected it and he had a much better season his junior year. My feeling is if O'Cain was any kind of QB coach he would caught it before the season started or at the very least during the season. Just my opinion though.
PLEASE post a video of all of DW's kick returns tonight. I believe he had 6 returns for 215 yards, FILTHY!
I think it was our last drive on the third and long when LT hit Marcus Davis and he dropped the ball. I believe there was a defender that made a hit on him there but the underneath route was clear. I remember thinking to myself that Logan was looking for Davis because of what was said to him earlier instead of checking to the underneath route....of course I could be crazy and making things up because we will never know
I definitely can't agree on the Frank Beamer argument. He showed that he can make changes last year by shuffling the coaching staff and it will certainly be interesting to see how he handles the outcry that surely will follow these losses. Nothing will happen until the end of the season but hopefully something will. Regardless, I think Beamer's time will naturally come to an end at the end of his current contract which is 2016. There's no reason in my mind to pull a Florida State and kick him out and Jim Weaver simply won't allow it.
As for everything else, I like the ideas, especially about getting an offensive identity, with the exception of replacing O'Cain. He's an excellent QB coach but I'm not sure how the experiment of him as co(?)offensive coordinator is working out, primarily because I'm not sure how much of a say he actually has in the situation. I'm not really sure I like the more traditional 4-3 defense idea, either. Having a guy like RVD at whip I think will change your mind unless you still thought he should go more traditional when Cody Grimm was back there.
Does not matter. If Fuller is playing that defense correctly, he catches that ball like a punt. He blew the coverage, and says so. He was playing the deep half in an inverted cover 2.
Agreed on Taylor. Cincy might have been the best game he has had since 2010.
"Why was there no safety deep with less than 20 seconds, 3rd and 10 and they needed a touchdown and had no timeouts? Was it a poor call or a blown coverage? "
I can answer this one easy. The Hokies were running an inverted cover two, meaning that the corners play as a deep safety, with each taking a deep half of the field. Given what Cincy called and where Munchie threw, it was actually a perfect play call. If Kyle Fuller had been sharp, he catches that ball like a punt for an interception. It was a complete bust on Fuller's part.
If you want to be critical of Bud Foster on the last drive, I think you have to attach his decision to go with his two normal defensive tackles instead of bringing in Van Dyke for an extra cover guy and using Marshall inside, or going with the four quick defensive end look that we heard so much about. Both Hopkins brothers (who had great games) were not quick enough to prevent Munchie from breaking up the middle on controlled scrambles early in the winning drive set things in motion.
…..and this is what a rebuilding year looks like.
A lot of folks, myself not excluded, spent months convincing ourselves that all of the legit question marks would be “just fine”. Well, we lost FIVE STUDS (Wilson, DeChristopher, Boykin, Coale, and Hosley), and the backups aren’t ready for prime-time, or, even worse, they’re clueless freshmen.
Yes, quite a few things have broken bad for us. Logan has handled sole possession of the spotlight poorly and has regressed. The OL is inconsistent. No separation or standouts from the RB group. On defense, the front seven are pretty good but not dominant like most expected them to be. Exum has failed at the CB switch. All things we were convinced would be fine, but things (other than LT3) that were legit potential issues from the objective observer’s perspective going into the season.
However, there are some positives. The big pre-season question mark of special teams is relatively solid (Hughes, Jarrett, etc). Corey Fuller’s play has been encouraging. Jack Tyler is looking better than most expected.
There’s also the injury factor, that being DJ Coles and Tariq Edwards. Two very good starters who haven’t contributed. Coles, like Coale in years past, could have been the constant that kept drives alive and our defense resting.
All of that said, the doom/gloom predictions are just that. We still can win every game (except FSU), and WILL get better as the season progresses. From here on out, I expect no worse than 5-3, meaning 8-5, or maybe 5-4/8-6 if we go to the ACCCG. Worse, yes, but that’s rebuilding.
While I sometimes feel that we have a mid-major quality offensive coaching staff, and would strongly consider trading them for “insert random coaches here” the reality is that Frank’s too close to retirement to shake things up outside of the existing guys. So, other than promoting Shane to OC, there just isn’t some splash move on the horizon. If that’s what we’re holding our collective breaths for, we should just check back in around 2017.
As for Frank burying the players in his post-game press remarks, that’s a waste. Paul Johnson was doom and gloom after GT-Miami, and look what he got out of his guys yesterday. What Frank says in the locker room is what matters, and none of us are privy to that. He rallied the troops to 11 straight after JMU, so let’s just give them a chance.
The players care. Look at Bruce Taylor’s remarks. Look at Kyle Fuller’s remarks. The players care.
Most of us have made this a damn big part of our lives for quite a few years. And we do it with knowledge that we have zero impact on the outcome. If Saturday was your tipping point for not caring, that’s fair enough. As for the rest of you, I will see you in Chapel Hill.
He had reason to be mad on that play no doubt. He ran a slant over the middle on third down and had no one within 10 yards of him and Logan threw it to a double-covered Corey Fuller for an incompletion. There were some words between him and Logan and they didn't seem to be too pretty. But just because something like that happens doesnt mean he should give up on plays later in the game. If he keeps staying open, blocking, or whatever, he's going to make plays and he doesnt seem to be understanding that right now.
I'll start panicking if we drop ACC games left and right. But seriously, the offensive staff needs to be shaken up. Should've happened years ago in the post-season. But as long as we stay in contention for the ACC, I don't see it happening.
The defense needs to play with a purpose, and tackle properly.
I watched the TV Broadcast and they showed him getting upset when he had a step or two on his guy on a vertical route where he didnt get the ball. He just looked like he threw a temper tanterum on the field. Then later I forget which back probably holmes had a great run that could have been a TD but the WR blocking up field for him couldnt be bothered to block until holmes was almost to him. Guess who the receiver was. For a Sr (which I believe he is) He doesnt seem to be doing much in the way of leadership atleast from what I could see.
Also, I wish I had seen this live... Didn't see a second of the game. :/
Bravo!