Stinespring and Newsome Show Lack of Common Sense

I had an interesting last Saturday.

Another Saturday, another loss for the Hokies. The game in Chapel Hill was atrocious from start to finish, the special teams allowed a kickoff return for a touchdown for the first time since 1994 and UNC running back Giovani Bernard ran for an astonishing 262 yards.

The defense’s struggles are well documented this season and, frankly, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that the Tar Heels racked up 533 yards of offense. Larry Fedora’s spread offense is averaging 44 points and 487 yards per game and Tech’s secondary is woeful to say the least. Spreading the defense out with an offensive line as talented as UNC’s and a running back like Bernard behind it is a recipe for disaster for just about any team. It left the Hokies literally scrambling as French shows in his film review.

I met up with some friends at Blacksburg’s Brew Do and got a chance to meet one of their friends (who shall remain nameless) who is an injured player on the football team. He asked me if I saw the game earlier that day and I told him that I had to turn it off and get out of the house in order to stomach it.

And then, without prompt, he said the magic words. “Yeah, we really need to get rid of Stinespring.”

He had no idea that I follow the football team almost religiously, that I wrote an article back in 2010 called “Hokie fans need to board the ‘Fire Bryan Stinespring’ Bandwagon” and that I promised Twitter two weeks ago that I’d have Stinespring and Curt Newsome fired by the time I graduate in (hopefully) May of 2014.

We continued talked for a little bit about the playcalling, each of us agreeing with the other’s complaints, attempting to laugh the pain of the loss away and talking about other players on the team. “I’d be sitting in the stands with my Dad watching the game and I’d tell him ‘Watch [defensive player], he’s going to go to the left because the ball’s going to the right.’ And it did.” He also had some choice words for a former Hokie and Charley Wiles for not playing the Hopkins brothers at tackle regularly.

With echoes of Purnell Sturdivant in my ear, I decided to ask him about Newsome. “I love him but our best guard is sitting on the bench because he doesn’t think Laurence cares or that anyone likes him. But it’s the complete opposite. Arkema is fucking terrible and nobody likes him. He can’t even run the simplest blocking schemes.”

I allowed him to continue but for the life of me I can’t remember much else of what he said because of the beer and my sheer shock at what he just said. For weeks we’ve been trying to figure out how and why Laurence Gibson is barely being given a shot at guard. Well there’s your answer, his coach doesn’t like him.

And for years we’ve been trying to figure out how and why the offensive line, regardless of the number of returning starters, shits the bed day in and day out. And for years we’ve been trying to figure out how and why the playcalling is so atrocious.

Apparently what it comes down to is a lack of common sense. On a team with next to no cohesion on either side of the ball, we won’t play someone because the coach doesn’t think he cares. And an offense that can’t move the ball just runs the same plays over and over expecting a different result.

When I wrote my first article about Stinespring in 2010, I broke down film to hammer my point home. Now, French is doing it better than I ever could so I won’t go into how the Hokies will get fascinated by one particular play and run it for the entire game. Or how they’ve only averaged 390+ yards per game four times in the ten years he has been coordinator with the highest coming last year at 413.

Stinespring is touted as one of the best recruiters on Tech’s staff and while that may be true but nobody should want to play for an offensive line that has only gotten one player drafted before the fifth round since 1992. And for all of his supposed recruiting prowess, try putting what he’s done in the past five years next to what Shane Beamer and the other adjustments Frank Beamer made has done in one and a half.

The same argument is made for Newsome’s recruiting abilities but you can make the same exact arguments. Tech has not sent a player to the NFL from the interior of the offensive line since before Newsome came to Blacksburg from JMU in 2006. Since then his lines have ranked 115th, 111th, 87th, 86th and 23rd out of 120 teams in the country in sacks allowed per game. The line currently ranks tied for 56th this season but the rushing offense ranks 91st. Apparently they can only do one thing well per season.

For all of the issues the line has had over the years, one would think that the team’s “ace recruiters” could lure in some of the nation’s top talent. Oh wait, they did. And he’s sitting on the bench because he “doesn’t care.”

I hope we’ve all come to accept that this year’s team is not a good one. And maybe, just maybe, that will force Beamer’s loyal hand into getting rid of Stinespring and/or Newsome. They both need to go because until we get another first round draft pick at running back, a 5-star recruit at quarterback or record holders at wide receiver, the offense will continue to be terrible.

Don’t believe me? Just ask the players.