Tech Talk Live (football and basketball season)
When: Every Monday from 7:00-9:00 during football season, 7:00-8:00 during basketball season.
Where: Click here for a list of radio stations, and to find the link for listening to the show on the Internet (look to the right on the hokiesports.com page that loads when you click the link). You can see the show in person Bull & Bones Brewhaus & Grill in Blacksburg.
TSL Welcomes Bull and Bones as Sponsor of our Tech Talk Live Notes
The
new Tech Talk Live show is broadcast from Bull & Bones Brewhaus and Grill in
the First & Main shopping center in Blacksburg, and TechSideline.com is
pleased to welcome Bull & Bones as sponsor of our Tech Talk Live Notes. Bull
& Bones Brewhaus & Grill is a brewpub with both an upscale dining room
and a separate sports bar with a casual dining area
- Call Ahead Seating: 540-953-BULL(2855)
- Hours: Sun.-Sat. 11am-2am, Sun. Brunch 11am-3pm
As a special treat for TechSideline.com readers, each
week we’re giving away one $50 gift certificate to Bull & Bones
to the reader who wins bourbonstreet’s weekly football game score prediction
contest. Just watch the TechSideline.com football board for bourbonstreet’s
weekly prediction thread, and you could have a shot at dinner on us!
Jim Weaver
- Weaver thought the Miami game was the most complete game Tech has played in
three or four years. - More rain fell on Saturday than on any other day in Blacksburg since 1987,
over a 24 hour period, according to Bill Roth. Weaver said the field held up
okay, considering all the rain. The center part of the field isn’t as good as it
was last year because it wasn’t a good growing season for Bermuda Grass. - Tech recently beat NC State in men’s and women’s soccer. Both programs are
off to a 2-0 start in ACC play. - Tech’s tough early season schedule will help them in the computer ratings.
Playing Alabama helped Tech get ready for Nebraska and Miami. - Weaver isn’t very involved in basketball scheduling. Seth Greenberg, Tom
Gabbard and Weaver establish a philosophical basis on what they are trying to
accomplish. At that point, Greenberg takes control and sets the schedule. That’s
how basketball is handled at most schools. - Duke played Tech very well in Lane Stadium last year. This game won’t be
easy. Duke has good players. The Hokies have to take it one game at a time.
Jim Cavanaugh
- It was a well-rounded game. Offense, defense and special teams all
contributed. Ryan Williams is a great runner who changes field positions. - Rashad Carmichael took himself out of the game on the punt block. Jacob
Sykes, who got the block, replaced him. He wasn’t even supposed to be in the
game. - Bud Foster does a great job at in-game adjustments. The players are also
well-prepared. The players have to make defensive calls based on what formations
they see pre-snap. - Cavanaugh used to coach at schools like Maryland and UNC, and back then it
was easy to recruit players from Virginia because neither UVA or Tech was very
strong. Now the VT program is very strong, and they are controlling in-state
recruiting. - Cody Grimm is a great player. He has a great sense of what’s going on around
him. He’s a quick learner. He has a lot of reps under his belt. Grimm is very
good, and very productive. - Tech took away certain things from Miami’s offense. They weren’t trying to go
to the tight ends on purpose, but the tight ends happened to be the best options
on many of their plays because Tech had all the wideouts covered up. - Dorian Porch played very well. He was the coaches’ defensive player of the
game. - The team is pretty confident right now. They have played some very good
teams. At times the tackling has been poor, but they have played some
outstanding tailbacks. - Tech would like to be 4-0, but they are 3-1 and hanging in there. Duke had
33,000 fans for the Richmond game, so they are starting to get better support.
David Cutcliffe is a very good coach, particularly offensively. - Tech is successful because they keep Virginia players at home. They also do a
good job with brothers, such as the Warrens. - “I don’t like Paterno, I’ll be real honest,” Coach Cav said.
- Virginia Tech is fortunate to have an athletics director who is great for
facilities. That helps the Hokies compete in recruiting. - Tech’s 2010 recruiting class is almost filled up. Underclass recruiting has
started, and Cavanaugh has already offered four juniors. - Cavanaugh has always had a straightforward approach to recruiting. He’s
honest with players. Some coaches will promise playing time, etc., but you can’t
do that. In 40 years of coaching, Cav has told just one recruit he would start
as a freshman, and he was a prep school recruit. That was Mike Quick, who played
in the NFL for a long time. Even Michael Vick redshirted. - Cav doesn’t like Penn State because they have some questionable recruiting
tactics. They make promises to players that they don’t keep. They promised
Michael Robinson he would play quarterback, but they didn’t put him there until
his senior season.
Matt Reidy
- Reidy planned to turn around and block while someone else picked up the ball
on the blocked punt, but nobody could get a handle on it. So he just scooped it
and scored. - His teammates are telling him that he’s going to get a big head after scoring
a touchdown. He’s joked with Billy Hite that he needs to move to tailback
because nobody can tackle him. - Coach Foster put quotes up in the locker of each defensive player. It
reminded them of their low defensive stats through the first three games, and
how it was their responsibility to make it better. - Last Tuesday, the Hokies did some extra tackling drills. They viewed the
Miami game as their statement game. - It was awesome on the field. The crowd was great. The Nebraska game was loud,
but the Miami game was even louder. 
Tech has played some good offenses through the first month of the season.
They have played good quarterbacks and running backs. Tech is 3-1, and that’s
pretty good with the schedule they’ve had.- The coaches do a great job of preparing the players for each game. Coach
Foster’s motto is “What’s Important Now”. This week, that’s Duke. - Reidy liked to play at Nebraska in 2008. It was a huge stadium, and it was a
lot of fun to win in that place. - His favorite uniform combination is the white on white throwbacks.
- Cody Grimm is the biggest prankster on the team. One day he brought a snake
into the locker room and scared everybody. - It’s great to go to Tech. The whole football team is really tight. There are
a lot of friends on the team. You don’t find that everywhere. - Reidy played tailback in high school, and he scored a lot of touchdowns, but
none of them compared to scoring in Lane Stadium.
Beau Warren
- Warren was going nuts when Reidy scored his touchdown. “I’ve never
scored a touchdown, and I’m never going to,” Warren joked. He’s living
vicariously through his roommate. - It was a pretty intense week of practice. The coaches did a great job of
preparing them for Miami. - Stinespring told the players to focus on playing with passion. The Hokies
played with passion, and it showed up in the final score. - Warren has gone up against Terrence Cody of Alabama and Ndamukong Suh of
Nebraska. Cody is a big guy and more of a space eater. Suh has some great moves,
and great strength. - Playing Alabama and Nebraska helped Tech get ready for Miami. They had
already seen some great players. - Ryan Williams is incredible. All of the running backs are good.
- Warren liked playing in the rain in high school, but now he has to snap the
ball, so there is more responsibility. The ball was a little heavier. - Warren likes to play at UVA, just because he knows how much they hate Tech.
- His favorite uniform combination is the all-maroon, because it makes him look
slimmer. - Beau Warren took a lot of visits to other schools because he didn’t want it
to seem like he was going to do the exact same thing his brothers did. In the
end he picked Tech over Vanderbilt. He already had so many connections at Tech,
so it was hard to turn down. - Warren looked up to his dad his whole life. His dad is the former starting
tight end for the Washington Redskins. His father still calls him before every
game. - The best defensive lineman he’s ever had to block was Suh from Nebraska.
Billy Conaty
- Conaty was on the team from 1993-96, so he got to experience Tech’s first
four bowl games of the Beamer Era. The Independence Bowl was a special feeling,
and obvious the Sugar Bowl was too. - Conaty played in the NFL for nine years, then went to Rutgers to get his law
degree. - The Independence Bowl team is very tight. There were a lot of young players
starting on that team, and it was Tech’s first bowl of the Beamer Era. They all
did something special together. - Conaty almost missed the comeback against UVA in 1995. He was in the locker
room with an injury. He heard the Tech fans going crazy, so he went back on the
field and saw Jim Druckenmiller’s drive to take the lead.
Frank Beamer
- The Miami win was a team win. Every area of the team contributed to the win.
The Hokies didn’t turn the ball over on offense, as bad as the weather was.
Beamer is very proud of the team. - The team had great practices leading up to the game. The media was on Miami’s
bandwagon, and they weren’t saying anything about Virginia Tech. That will get
anybody’s motor going. - The Hokies are proud of their program. They have won 10+ games for five years
in a row, but all the talk was on Miami. That helped motivate Tech. - Tech has to stay focused. #6 Cal got blown out by unranked Oregon. #4 Ole
Miss lost to unranked South Carolina. The Hokies have to stay consistent. - Cody Grimm is a great player. He has great instincts, and he finds a way to
get things done. - Ryan Williams has been named ACC Rookie of the Week three out of four weeks
in September. He’s an exceptional running back. There aren’t many backs who can
make a defender miss and run through a tackle. He has speed, vision, toughness,
and he’s a dependable guy. - Tyrod Taylor is a really good player. He’s a competitor and he’s tough.
Beamer is glad to have him running the show. - Blake DeChristopher didn’t practice on Monday, and Davon Morgan is banged up
as well. Beamer hopes everybody is back by Saturday. Hopefully John Graves
missing the Miami game will help his ankle in the long term. - Every kick and snap was an adventure for both teams. Tech’s defense stepped
up after the bad punt snap and stopped Miami. - Getting Stephan Virgil back was big. He’s a great player, and it’s good to
have his experience. - The defensive coaching staff obviously did a great job of preparing their
players and keeping Miami off balance. - David Cutliffe has done a great job at Duke. They are well-coached. Duke is a
very young football team. They are very capable, and the Hokies will get their
best shot.
Monday was Day 1,766 of Virginia Tech’s continuous possession of the Commonwealth Cup.
Tech Sideline is Presented By: