Hokies Hype the "Battle at Bristol," Even as the OSU Matchup and an Uncertain Future Loom

With Virginia Tech's vaunted season opener against Ohio State in Lane Stadium looming, the average Hokies fan likely isn't thinking too much about the "Battle at Bristol" right about now.

That's something that Frank Beamer, Whit Babcock and some assorted Tech players and coaches did their level best to change Tuesday for a simple reason: tickets don't sell themselves.

NASCAR driver Ty Dillon stopped by Blacksburg with his sizable automobile in tow, flanked by more than a few representatives from the Bristol Motor Speedway, where the Hokies will face off against the Volunteers on September 10, 2016.

Dillon ran through some (very light) drills with the players, and spent time hobnobbing with Beamer, a noted fan of racecar drivers.

"I follow those guys and admire those guys, they do something I couldn't do out there," Beamer said.

While it may seem odd that Beamer and company took time to pose for pictures and talk NASCAR with the date with the Buckeyes now under a month away, Babcock provided a little perspective on the issue.

The Hokies were allotted 40,000 tickets to sell for the game, with a payout for the program increasing based on how many seats they can fill. So far, they're halfway there.

"Last time I heard, we were crossing over 20,000, Tennessee's already through their (40,000)," Babcock said. "But I'd like our fans to know that we need to sell the full 40 tickets to get the full guarantee, so we need some help there."

If the Hokies meet that lofty goal, $4 million will be headed their way, so Babcock has plenty of incentive to play the salesman. Considering that Tennessee met the 40,000 ticket figure by last January, it's fair to wonder if Tech was too conservative in the way it structured its sales.

"Up until October 1st, only our donors have a chance to order and we'll probably loosen it up a bit," Babcock said. "Maybe in hindsight we were a little too tight with it, but with a year to go, we're not too concerned about selling those tickets."

Even still, Babcock is careful to note that opportunities abound for fans concerned that sponsors or the speedway itself might claim the right to prime seating areas.

"Our fans can rest assured they can buy the best possible seats in our sections and I hope they will," Babcock said. "We're gonna ramp up, obviously we've been focused on this season and Ohio State, but we're gonna refocus on the Battle at Bristol very soon."

In the more immediate goal of packing the house when the Buckeyes come to town, the Hokies are closer to reaching capacity. Babcock estimates the team is in "really good shape" when it comes to season tickets, with just 270 left overall in addition to 170 of the team's "mini-plans."

"We expect the mini-plans will go first and then season tickets and after that we'll start doing individual game tickets for Furman and other games where the visiting team doesn't take all their tickets," Babcock said. "But the chance to bounce back and get this thing moving in the direction of being sold out more, hopefully every game, but more than we have been is a big testament to our fans."

The AD notes that the team also anticipates pushing past the goal of selling 100 club-level season tickets, a number that will help the program afford its recent cosmetic improvements and "pay off the renovations in two years."

But beyond even just the simple allure of dollars and cents, Babcock says he prefers having all this hype directed toward a game on campus instead of at a neutral site.

"I like playing games on campus, there'll be times like Bristol, maybe a game in Charlotte at some point, the game in DC, but in general, we always want six or more home games here," Babcock said. "I just believe in playing as many games as possible on your home campus and getting people here."

Part of the drive to get people on campus includes some rumored efforts to secure a major concert at VT ahead of the big game. Country crooner Brad Paisley is the popular subject of those rumors, but Babcock declined to provide any details so as to err on the side of caution.

"We'd like to have some type of festivities Sunday night, nobody's trying to be difficult, it's just when you're in the final stages of a contract, everybody would feel better with that done," Babcock said. "Hopefully we'll have more on that soon and I just can't speak to it yet, it's better to be safe than sorry later. But we would like to make that entire weekend one heck of an event for Virginia Tech."

One thing Babcock can confirm: there won't be any live performances of "Enter Sandman" on tap on Labor Day or through the rest of the season.

"Metallica, when we checked because we do have some connections to their manager, they're touring Amsterdam and Germany, etc, so Blacksburg was not on that (list)," Babcock said. "That is something that we're working on, we're looking at dates for next year. I don't know that it will work out or be a full-blown concert, but if we could have them play here, they've been good to Tech, and we've been good to keeping their music in the limelight too."

The absence of the band won't be the only notable one on September 7. RB Shai McKenzie is suspended for the contest after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges this offseason.

"We talked to Shai, and I do think for a young person to not have a chance to play in that type of game, it's not light on the punishment," Babcock said. "People may argue with that, but the fact of the matter is it was a misdemeanor, he's cleared the student code of conduct, I think he's got a few other things to handle to get back in good standing, but we felt like it was right, and we talked about it and visited with Shai and that's what we came up with."

But despite that bit of unpleasantness, the anticipation level for the game remains through the roof. While Beamer has talked plenty about the fan base's level of readiness for the matchup, associate head coach Shane Beamer also shared plenty about his dad's enthusiasm for starting up the season.

"Believe it or not, he probably took less vacation time this year than I've ever known him to take," said the younger Beamer of Frank.

The Beamer family traditionally takes an extended vacation at their home on Georgia's Lake Oconee, but Shane says some tragic news helped jolt Frank back into action. When the head Hokie got the news about former athletic director Jim Weaver's passing on July 2, he couldn't stay at his leisure much longer.

"The day that coach Weaver passed away, we were actually headed to play golf with Rich Rodriguez that day," Shane said. "I'll never forget, he came out in the driveway and told me what happened and he said 'I need to stay and handle things out the house, you go play.' So I went and played with Coach Rodriguez and then he went back for the funeral and I think at that point he decided, 'I'm vacationed out, let's roll' and that's what he did."

Shane insists his father spent plenty of time on the lake, golfing with college football luminaries like Rodriguez, Jim Grobe and Dan Mullen, but notes he could hit the links "only so many times" before the itch to return to Blacksburg became unbearable. Weaver's death simply served as a catalyst to get him back to the team facility.

"We technically didn't have to be in the office for two more weeks, but he never went back to the lake," Shane said. "He spent less time at the lake than he ever does and I told him 'you ought to relax and get away for a little bit, the season's gonna be a grind' but he was like 'nah, I'm ready to get to work, and let's go.' And he came back and he was in the office for two weeks working by himself when the other coaches were on vacation, so the energy level is certainly back."

Shane notes that Frank isn't one to encourage his staff to "just be in the office just to be in the office" so his presence was certainly meaningful.

"He always tells the coaches since I've come back to work for him 'I'm not gonna be one of those guys who have office hours, I'm not gonna be one of those guys who's going up and down the hall making sure you're working, I trust you to do your job, that's why I hired you. I trust you to do your job, get your work done, and when you're done, get on out of here and go see your family,'" Shane said. "And that's not to say he's leaving at dinner time each day, because he's out here some nights later than all of us."

One assistant who has a bit of trouble with that message is offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler. The OC is infamous for showing up to practices bleary eyed and unshaven after long nights in the office, and the younger Beamer says he can't even begin to count the number of times Loeffler has slept on the couches in the football offices.

"I can remember the first spring he was here," Beamer said. "It would be like March, I would come in on a Thursday morning and he'd be like 'Shane, it was awesome man, I stayed up til like 4 o'clock in the morning watching the San Francisco 49ers run game, and I broke down every concept they run offensively.' That's just how he is, he loves football."

But Beamer says that drive isn't simply to avoid the wife and kids at home. Rather, it stems from his obsession with the game.

"He's got a beautiful family, has a baby at home, so he's been home from that standpoint," Beamer said. "I've been around some coaches that stay in the office because they hate going home, and that's not the case. He loves going home, he loves his family, but football is really important to him."

Thankfully, Beamer feels this offseason might not require the same level of stress for his OC.

"We've got more weapons than he's had since Lefty's been here and you don't have to stay up there all night long trying to devise ways to get guys open," Beamer said.

Beamer says he's even seen Loeffler making time to exercise occasionally, and he pledges that this season will be the one where he haunts the facilities a little less frequently than in years past. Of course, these are easy promises to make in the preseason.

"We're four days in and Scot typically says the right things in August," Beamer said. "Now, when it gets to be Wednesday night of the Ohio State game week, that's a different story, because he's just wired differently."

Determining the wiring of a bunch of assistant coaches might not be Shane's province at the moment, but Frank seems ready to consider handing him that burden someday. But at this point, Shane is staying typically tightlipped on the whole episode.

"I can't speak to his conversations with Bud (Foster), but him and I have never talked about that," Shane said. "I think he's like any head coach, if you asked any head coach in America 'coach if you're still here when you retire, would you like to see someone on your staff get the job?' I'm sure every coach in America would say that. But he's never discussed anything like that with Bud and I. It's tunnel vision. When I heard that, it's like 'ok, let's get ready for the first day of fall practice, let's get ready for Ohio State.' That's all that any of us are thinking about as a staff right now, is Ohio State."

But as the elder Beamer casts his eye to the matchup in Bristol a year down the line, the thought of when he might hand over the reins to the program have surely bubbled up. It's inevitable as he contemplates how the team might look in his 29th year at the helm.

For now, Shane sees his father as the same competitor he's been all his life with the 2015 season moving ever closer.

"He's an extreme, extreme competitor and certainly has an edge about this season," Shane said. "So he's motivated, he's ready to go and on his toes and as excited as I've ever seen him."