Recent Comments

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS KEEP THEM IN FRONT OF YOU AND YOU WIN! WHERE THE F IS THE SAFETY? WHY IS COLE 10 YDS BEHIND THE CATCH?

I don't even know what to say. And, I'm tired of Beamer's press conferences. Get pissed. Show you want win. Don't talk about how the offense improved through out the game. NO SHIT, you got 36 total yards in the 1st half. Stop deferring and talk about how it's not acceptable. How you need to improve. How you MUST make each coaching decision ACCOUNTABLE.

McFarling starts with questioning (http://www.roanoke.com/sports/mcfarling/wb/314740), but more accountability is needed. These questions deserve truthful answers:

How do you plan to defend Clemson, FSU, and Miami when you have CB that either gets beat or commits a penalty over 50% of the time in coverage?

How do you account for the regression of Logan Thomas? Why has his mechanics gotten so much worse from 2011?

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?

When do you expect your new hybrid offense with pistol and pre-snap motion to become effective? Are we expected to give you 6 games to a year to get it into effect?

Why was Arkema starting? Why did RVD just start his first game this past game? Why don't you get the best players on the field?

I've always thought this would a rebuilding year, and in 2013 VT would be nationally great. I don't know, but I don't have much hope for 2012 or 2013 based on these 5 games. Maybe I'll see something later in the year that will change my mind.

...controls it.

I thought they blew the spot on the long completion to Davis to the one yard line. They spotted it outside of the three and we ran the sweep, got a holding call then threw an interception. Could Beamer have challenged that spot?

Yes, Virginia Tech has been known to find all sorts of diamonds in the rough and turn them into top notch players that get drafted. But look at our players now. These guys coming in (regardless of of their rankings out of highschool) are expecting to magically turn into top notch players and move onto the NFL. I've got some friends that know Antone Personally, and before the season even began, he had stated that if the D had a good year this year, he was headed to the draft.

The players have developed a sense of entitlement and its really hurting us on the field. They no longer feel the need to earn every yard, or make every tackle because they still believe they will make it to the league. The best player's we've had recently have decided the WANT to be the difference maker. David Wilson, yeah he struggled at times to find holes and whatnot, but you can't say he didn't put everything he had into every play. Kyle Fuller last year. That guy played with everything he had, and this year he has struggled with getting bruised up. The issue is that our players are no longer leaving everything on the field. Did you see Marcus Davis yesterday on some of those outside runs? Holy Shit the guy behind me and I were raging. Other than Brent Benedict, our O'line isnt putting people on their asses. James Gayle isn't completely manhandling every single O-linemen he comes up against like he is capable of.

It's a struggle and frustrating to watch as a fan no doubt. Could I do better? Not a chance, but If I'm expected to bring my A-game and yell on every single defensive play irregardless of down or distance, I expect the players to be just as out of breath as my asthma-having self every play. Thats just how it is. Hard work will always trump talent.

I'm going to have to agree with bicbuck - the fans are not the problem. Most of the students there are just being introduced to Tech football remember, so expecting them to be hardcore while we struggle against mediocre big east teams is asking a lot. Put a hard working, over achieving team on the field and you'll get the hard core stadium response from even the average fans though.

"Then a bunch of Madden playing, whining, never played a down of football in their worthless lives pussies started booing from the cheap seats and getting on message boards talking about how "predictable" and "boring" the offense was, and Frank Beamer, in the ultimate no-no for a coach started listening to these morons."

Yea.. I'm going to have to disagree with you there french. While I wholeheartedly agree with everything else in your post about the team, I think you got this part wrong. People weren't calling for fancy Oregon-esq offenses that put up 40+ a game, they were calling for better play calling - something that actually did happen under O'Cain. The problem wasn't the number of points or total yards of offense, it was the consistent 3 and outs and screen plays used while we had oodles of talent in the backfield and at wide receiver. Consider this, in 2007-2008 (the really bad years) we arguably had more overall offensive talent (or at least experience)... and had a WORSE 3rd down conversion rate than we do even this year. While I didn't know anyone that booed us at the games or actively campaigned against Stinespring (though I do know it happened), the general sentiment was that a good power run game with play action passes were still favored by most fans, just done with better play calling than what we saw between 2004-2010. But enough of that, most of those critiques stopped once O'Cain started calling the plays.

While I am no football scheming guru, it seems to me the issue with our offense is partly due to scheme -- but not so much in that the coaches messed something up. Looking back at the days when our offensive line was a bunch of converted tight ends, and you saw similarly bad offensive lines. The difference was they at least were decent at run blocking, and we had running backs capable of picking up tough yards.

Now look at this year: we have a bunch of linemen who are OK at pass blocking, and only a handful who can run block. Combine that with running backs who are young and who can't consistently beat their man one-on-one (admitted here on this very website in numerous articles) and imagine what you must be thinking if you knew this as a coach going into spring practice. What did they do? They built an offense (the pistol) around the most consistent player they had last year, who they thought they could count on again this year. The problem with this philosophy is that Thomas hasn't been making plays. Sure there have been issues with how the offense has been implemented, but I'd assume so much of the focus was on to turning Thomas into the main play maker that the offense goes as he does. There is no more run game to rely on, and I don't know if thats going to be fixable until maybe next year. With this offenses struggles, we can't just swap running backs or make better play calls. Sure some of that might help, but as long as our QB is over throwing his targets, this offense is not going to put up points.

That said, we know both Thomas and Leal have the talent to make this work. It is the coaches job to help them with their mechanics or whatever it is that changed since last year and get them ready for game time. That squarely falls on the shoulders of Beamer, Stinespring and O'Cain.

...and yes, I miss the days when Exum was a Safety and full of potential, instead of a CB who makes me nervous every time the QB looks his way

I agree that we need to get back to real Virginia Tech football but I don't believe that Frank Beamer is capable of doing it at this point. He's become complacent and "set in his ways" and it's going to take something like us losing 4 or 5 more games before he does anything about it IF he does anything. He is ultimately responsible for what is going on. We can blame O'Cainspring and Newsome all we want but ultimately it falls on him. Mediocrity has become the accepted norm. I watched him during the Pitt loss and he just looked old and tired, like I've never seen him before. I'm not saying I want him to retire or be fired but I'll admit that I am starting to wonder if maybe it is time for him to retire. Just to hear some of the statements he's made after these losses leads me to believe he's either lost him mind or just doesn't have the strengh or the will to make the changes that are needed. If we do become a 7-6 team or (God forbid) a 6-6 team and he still doesn't make any changes this will all but confirm my assertions.

The changes that need to take place in my opinion are as follows:

1.) Get some fire and passion back into the program and play with a chip on our shoulder. We have become soft.

2.) Replace O'Cain and Newsome and demote Stiney to strictly either OL coach and/or TE coach. I know a lot of you probably want him gone but I believe he's a good position coach but he is not a OC plus he's valuable as a recruiter.

3.) GET AN OFFENSIVE IDENTITY! Whether it's I-formation (my favorite), Spread Option, Pistol whatever. Pick one and go with it and recruit to it. This is mainly why our offense is in disarray. We have enough talent and experience on our offense that it should be better than what it is.

4.) I think it's time that Bud Foster switches to a more traditional 4-3 defense. I understand that the reason we run this scheme is because we haven't had the talent on defense that other teams do but it's hurting our recruiting efforts with elite prospects. I think if Bud makes the switch to a more traditional 4-3 we could start getting more elite prospects on defense.

These are my feelings/suggestions on how to fix the Virginia Tech football program. I'm sure most of this (if any of it) won't happen, at least not until Frank Beamer retires. Thoughts?

When you contrast Munchie's performance last year after Collaros went down (Rutgers) to what happened yesterday, he has made astounding progress in technical skill, execution, and most importantly confidence. He's not perfect but he could one of the greatest ever to throw the ball for UC.

His performance yesterday reminded me a lot of Bryan Randall or even a younger Tyrod.

I don't care that kids throw paper airplanes. I don't care if they do the wave - they're just having a good time, which is what going to a game is supposed to be about. Blaming apathetic students for not being as into a team as we were when we went to school (I was 2003-2006) is apples and oranges. Look at what they have to be stoked about on the field! No wins against the top 10, but losses to JMU and Big East teams! Fans don't build programs, programs build the fans. I totally agree with the warmup comparison that french made - it blows my mind to see other teams do that kind of thing and come out FIRED UP vs. us going through motions. I knew Miami would give us trouble last year after watching warmups.

I'm not giving up on this edition of Virginia Tech football by any means. Still going to Chapel Hill next weekend, still going to Duke and FSU in Blacksburg. And if we lose each of those games, it'll still be worth driving the 3/4 hours from Williamsburg because I love football, but my expectations have lowered quite a bit in the last three weeks. I honestly think the best thing for us as a program is to bottom out (for us, a 8-4, 7-5 season?) and have an actual shakeup on the staff for the first time in a decade. Not because I think that will fix the problem mind you, but because it can't make it any worse and it might just help. Better to try and fail than to keep failing with status quo?

"Butch Jones had a sharp, organized, purposeful, and energetic pregame warmup. Their stretches, chants, drills, everything was sharp and done with enthusiasm. Every helmet was on, every player was engaged.

Then, if you looked across the field, the dichotomy was palpable. The QBs and WR's all had their helmets off. Every position drill activity looked like guys going through the motions. The stretching had guys looking around the stadium and not focused on getting lose. The coaches were disengaged, only stepping in with their group. When everyone was huddled, it was one guy talking and no energy from anyone else."

I've spent the majority of the last two years following UC, my girlfriend's alma mater, in addition to following VT, my alma mater. This game was a big focus of mine because, aside from the obvious personal reasons, I saw this is a game to prove that the big programs could still hold down the smaller programs. Virginia Tech is a football school; UC is not. We devote millions of dollars every season, and some cases tag government officials, to ensure our football programs stays in the national spotlight. UC is a admitted basketball school with football as the afterthought. I was speaking with my girlfriend's father (another UC alumni) and he told me that UC's board of directors did not want to leave the BE because they did not want to give up the quality basketball opponents. When you consider those facts, as well as the paper talent between the two football squads, there was really no reason, in my opinion, why our team should not come out victorious.

However, over the last several months, I began to lose sight of a key fact in determining all football games: fire. I still thought we had this fire; the same fire that took down an undefeated Miami sqaud in 2003, the same fire that went undefeated in 1999 to play for a school's first BCS title game, and the same fire that won the conference that many felt didn't want us in the first place. Yes, we always lose the "one game" that we aren't supposed to lose but few fires burn eternal, and some fires need some kindle to burn bright. While painful, I viewed that "one loss" as the kindle to keep the fire going.

I'm not sure if its the fact that we have become too comfortable in the ACC, our recruitment efforts, or Frank's inability to admit when there is a problem, but our fire is gone. Maybe I chose to ignore it, or pretend its there, but it isn't and French's comment above sums this up.

We follow a team, a coach, and an administration who is perfectly content with 10 wins and a coastal division and/or ACC title year after year. Contrast that to the views of the UC team and coaching staff, who is out to prove that the small programs can compete and even take down the big programs with larger AD budgets and better recruiting resources.

Why did we lose to the University of Cincinnati yesterday? We lost because UC has become what VT used to be: a team with fire.

Forget a 10 win season...I'm not even sure we can pull off a winning season, let alone a bowl game. If we keep playing like this, I can see us going 2-4 down the stretch.

I kept trying to give the O-line the benefit of the doubt. "Wait until Newsome gets the guys he needs for his scheme, things will turn around," I told myself. Right now, the offense has no identity. Everything looks like a mess.

I too fell in love with this school/football program because it was made up of guys that no one else wanted. We were looked down upon or ignored until we punched them in the face and took what we wanted from them. How the tables have turned - now teams with less talent are punching us in the face and taking our lunch money.

I don't know why this team struggles so much when we have high expectations. Is it because we've never been there? Is it complacency? Whatever it is, it needs to stop.

Is it Monday or Tuesday when Roth has Beamer on the show? I will mail someone a crisp new $10 bill if someone would take what French said and Joe said from the recliner picture down and recite it verbatim on the show...

I would love to hear his response.