It took me until today to fully realize the importance of last season’s game against Arkansas State. The Hokies were coming off an uncomfortably close 17-10 win against East Carolina on the road and rookie quarterback Logan Thomas went 8-of-20 for 91 yards, no touchdowns and an interception.
The Red Wolves were 1-1 when they came to Blacksburg having blown out Memphis but got pushed around by Illinois 33-15.
The Sun Belt Conference being what it is, only the most pessimistic of Hokie fans thought this game would be a challenge. The final score of the game was 26-7 but it was how the team got there that bothered many fans. Logan Thomas threw two interceptions and David Wilson was held to 85 yards on 20 carries. The offense as a whole looked shaky and failed to score from the one yard line in the first quarter.
But nobody cared that the Hokies held State to just 7 points and 269 yards. Nobody was interested in the 292 yards our tight end recruit threw for that game or Danny Coale’s five catches for 112 yards in the first quarter alone.
Did they know that the Red Wolves would finish the season averaging 469 yards and 32 points per game? No. Did they know that this would be the last loss for the Red Wolves until their bowl game? No. Did they know that the Red Wolves would finish the season ranked 25th nationally in scoring defense? No.
So many fans, particularly students, left the game early in disgust but that doesn’t mean the ones that stayed were any less upset. “Logan Thomas is a piece of shit quarterback,” I heard. “We need an actual quarterback back there, not a tight end. Somebody who can throw the damn football.”
Everybody I walked by seemed to expect that nothing would change when Tyrod Taylor graduated. We “knew” we were the better team, we knew that we would win this game and we knew we would win 10 games on the season. Many fans also “knew” we would win the ACC Coastal division and play in a BCS Bowl.
Fast forward to the beginning of this season. Fans once again “knew” a lot about this football team. Logan Thomas is already a legendary quarterback who will have no trouble learning an entirely new offensive scheme with only two other returning starters back around him. After all, he would be a consensus Top 5 overall draft pick. The defense will be the best it’s been in years despite having no depth whatsoever in the secondary.
Whoops.
Virginia Tech is now 3-2 with losses to Pittsburgh – who opened the season with a loss to Youngstown State – and Cincinnati. Everybody is looking for someone to blame and rightfully so. Neither of these losses should have happened. Anybody who knows anything about football and watched these games can tell you that the Hokies were the better overall team. Without turnovers in the red zone and slow starts, these games turn out differently and I’m probably not writing this article because while the troubles I’m attempting to address would still be there, there would be no sense of urgency for me to do anything about it.
Let’s say I write this article just after the 42-7 win against Austin Peay and the team ends up being 5-0 right now instead of 3-2. No one takes me seriously because, while there are difficulties, we’re doing well enough to make it back to the ACC Championship and, considering all of the losses on the offense, that’s good enough.
And right there is the underlying problem the Virginia Tech program is facing. Let me explain.
This team was built with and because of Frank Beamer. His coaching philosophy is this: we’ll find the best kids that nobody else wants, coach them up and put the best ones on special teams to create a mismatch.
That was in the 1990s when it was a luxury to have a cell phone, recruiting sites didn’t exist nor did the BCS nor Twitter and spread offenses were considered foolish. It is 2012 and the college football landscape is drastically different but Virginia Tech as a team has not changed their identity one bit.
The coaches still go out and find four, not five, star players where others don’t even look, they still emphasis special teams and they consistently crank out ten-win seasons. “Beamerball” fits the school as a whole perfectly and there is no reason whatsoever to make a drastic change from this.
The issue is that no changes have been made in nearly any capacity. Other teams around the country have seen how Frank Beamer succeeded and have mimicked his special teams philosophy, thus removing the decisive edge the Hokies had. Bud Foster is one of the best defensive coordinators in the country and is the only coach to seriously modify how he coaches during his time in Blacksburg, switching from a 4-4 to a 4-3 to better cover more passing teams.
Now we are absolutely required to have the better athletes and coaches to win games. In the ACC, this works well enough to get 10 wins annually but, as fans are all too well aware, this does not work out well out of conference or when the ACC has elite teams. The Hokies are 1-28 all-time against Top 5 teams, 17-58 against Top 15 teams and 48-79-1 against Top 25 teams.
But despite these pathetic statistics versus ranked teams, we as fans have grown a sense of entitlement. It’s as if we forget that Virginia Tech was an entirely irrelevant program before 1995 and that the Hokies have played in a single national championship and lost it. We get angry when Enter Sandman isn’t considered one of the greatest traditions in the country when it has been around for less than two decades.
To be perfectly blunt, Lane Stadium has lost some of its luster. The games are sell outs and the students turn out but they aren’t terribly loud unless it is versus a ranked team and throw paper fucking airplanes in the middle of them. Many fans, particularly students, leave the game early because “the game is already over.” That is simply not okay because it adds to the problem the players and coaches have.
Speaking of the players, they are saying the right things but are failing to do them on the field. It would truly be unfathomable for the Hokies to beat a ranked team 62-0 or 51-7 again. The closest we’ve come was a 31-7 win in 2009 against a #9 Miami team that finished the season 9-4 and ranked 19th. When Virginia Tech was still emerging as a power, players like Corey Moore came out with something to prove every single game. They finished games with tenacity and never in a million years would have allowed a loss to JMU or Pitt, especially not one two years after the other.
Antone Exum and James Gayle were great shit talkers this offseason but have been largely invisible or noticed for all the wrong reasons. Then the team gets back on Twitter after the games to tell us that it won’t happen again when it does two weeks later.
And the coaches have failed miserably to adjust to the changing recruiting times. Bringing back Shane Beamer and reshuffling some of the staff to help with recruiting has been fantastic but this move has come far too late. The ranked teams by and large bring in dozens of the nation’s highest rated players while the Hokies continue to get just one or two of those players per year. And with the explosion of recruiting interest, fewer and fewer players are flying under the radar for Tech to swoop in and pick up.
The program is now sending slightly more players to the NFL than it was in the late 90s and early 2000s and doing so in higher rounds but the teams they leave aren’t ranked as high or accomplish as much during the season. This discrepancy comes down to two things: the coaches as a whole have not done a great job adjusting to the new schemes and facets of the game and the program thinking it is better than it actually is.
Every underdog out there gives Virginia Tech its best shot and we more than often fail to hit back until late in the game or, like in this season, it is too late. This is why I said that the fact it took me so long to write this article is the underlying problem the program is facing.
We, the players, coaches and fans, are only acting when it is beyond apparent that the things we’ve been worried about for years have finally broken rather than trying new ways to fix the problem when they first pop up. We cannot assume we are the best but have to go out and prove it every game.
The Virginia Tech football team has woven itself deep into the identity of the university and I refuse to sit idly by and let things get worse. People say it’s easy to criticize when you’re not a player or a coach and those people are right. But when the players and coaches refuse to do what is necessary to keep Virginia Tech in the national conversation, somebody’s got to do something. Let’s all do something more than talk shit about a rookie quarterback’s mediocre day. Let’s all offer the support the team and coaches need but also be critical enough to make sure that change happens when it needs to. Let’s go back and earn the reputation we’ve built as a team and a fan base. Let’s go Hokies.
Comments
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?
I agree on most points but
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.
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.
Our players have started looking ahead.
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.
Comment about Marcus Davis
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.
I remember the play where he got mad.
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.
That would explain another play I was thinking about
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
Argh, MD drives me batty! He just doesn't seem to care at all. He doesn't seem put in the effort that I would expect and it doesn't feel like he's as willing to sacrifice for the team as, say, Danny Coale.
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 remember standing next to you and Danny at the end of the Nebraska game. Everyone else had deserted us when they thought we lost the game. That night we (rightfully so) told them all about what they missed. I have never left a game early and never will, but I'm afraid I'm in the minority.
My point is...All the problems on the field aside, we as fans need to get our friends' acts together. Why would players try hard every play when they don't have support in the stands? Isn't it wise to think ahead to their careers if people are leaving at halftime? Hokie Nation is awesome. We need to show it.
Great article, jcace!