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.
Monday night’s Tech Talk Live featured regular visits from Jim Weaver and
Frank Beamer. Quarterbacks coach Mike O’Cain also joined the show, as well as
wide receiver Danny Coale and free safety Eddie Whitley.
Jim Weaver
Note: The Tech Talk Live feed was interrupted for part of Weaver’s segment,
which made it much shorter.
- The Tech defense forced BC to throw the football, which is exactly what
they wanted to accomplish heading into the game. - If TV picks up a game, Tech has no control over what time the game kicks
off. For non-televised games, Tech sets the kickoff time for 1:30pm. - Tickets are available for the Central Michigan and Wake Forest games. If
you want to see the Hokies in action, you can get tickets for those games.
Mike O’Cain
- Tech has great kids in the program, so they’ve been able to stay together
as a team despite the 0-2 start. When guys want to be good, it’s a lot
easier to stay together. - Tech probably runs the ball too frequently on first down in the redzone.
But that’s who the Hokies are. When you’re winning, it doesn’t matter. When
they get it at the 20, they are going to run the football. They are a
physical football team, and they believe in running the ball. Should they
throw it a little more in the redzone? Probably. But the first priority is
to be a physical football team, and let the chips fall where they may. - Tech is as physical up front as they need to be, most of the time at
least. In every football game you play there are a few plays here or there
where you need to be more physical. - Boston College had an extra week to prepare, and Frank Spaziani and Bill
McGovern have been coaching against Virginia Tech for a long time. Those
guys were prepared. Both teams knew a lot about each other. BC does an
excellent job defensively. They force you to run the ball outside, and that
forces a bad matchup with a wide receiver trying to block Mark Herzlich at
times. - BC has a great group of linebackers. They are a very sound defense and
they don’t beat themselves. - Tom O’Brien has done a great job at NC State. They’ve had a lot of
injuries over the last couple of years. They are playing very well this
year, and they have a lot of confidence. They are much better defensively
this year. - O’Cain said BC didn’t play any man coverage against the Hokies. In fact,
the Hokies haven’t seen much man coverage at all. More teams are playing
zone, and very little man. (Note: the Tech coaching staff considers man
coverage to be cover-1 or cover-0. They consider cover-2 to be zone, even if
it is man coverage underneath the safeties.) - The key to playing quarterback is having a pretty good idea before the
snap of what you want to do with the ball. Bud Foster and his defense do a
great job because they can disguise coverages presnap, which confuses
quarterbacks and wide receivers. - Logan Thomas is doing well. He’s getting better and better every day.
O’Cain believes he’ll hit the ground running next spring. Tech would like to
get him in the game now, but it’s hard when he’s the second quarterback. - O’Cain likes throwing outs. Tyrod is very good at it. He’s got a strong
arm and a good sense of timing. - Tyrod has missed some of his deep balls, but overall he’s been throwing it
pretty well. O’Cain teaches Tyrod to let his receiver get a chance to put
his hands on the ball, so that’s why some of his deep balls are underthrown.
It doesn’t do any good to throw the ball five yards over his head and have
it go out of bounds. - The Hokies have to make sure that everybody is on the same page before
they play NC State. They have to make sure everyone understands the blocking
scheme or where the ball should be run depending on the defensive alignment.
It’s not as easy as it looks. - NC State is a fast defensive team. They give you a lot of different looks.
They have multiple fronts and multiple coverages. They’ll blitz a lot. Tech
has a lot of work to do.
Eddie Whitley
- Whitley’s season is going pretty well. The defense is starting to hit on
all cylinders. - Whitley is a football junkie. He watches film, watches other games, plays
football video games, checks up on his cousins playing football, etc. He
loves football. He takes pride in his craft. - The defensive players have believed in each other. They have come together
very well, and everyone is getting comfortable playing with each other. - The defense prides itself on getting better as the game goes along. That’s
what they’ve done against East Carolina and Boston College. - Whitley is the free safety, but in the nickel package he slides down to
whip to replace Jeron Gouveia-Winslow. In another nickel package he plays
whip, while Gouveia-Winslow plays a different type of linebacker position. - Regardless of where Whitley lines up, he’s still making all the defensive
calls before the snap. That was difficult when ECU was going no huddle. - Russell Wilson is a great player, a Virginia kid. He’ll be motivated to
play against the Hokies on Saturday. - Whitley did not play as a senior in high school because he tore his ACL.
It was tough to sit out that year. - Whitley’s parents loved Virginia Tech when they went on their visit during
the recruiting process. They raided the bookstores for Tech merchandise
while they were in Blacksburg. - Whitley considers himself a blue collar type guy. He has a
"Relentless" tattoo because that’s the type of player that he is. - Whitley has his mind of the NFL for his future, but he says his mom would
never let him leave school early for the pros. - The team always knew they were better than their 0-2 record. Things are
starting to come together now. They always had confidence that they would be
good. - Whitley believes that true freshman cornerback Detrick Bonner is going to
be a great player. Bonner is currently redshirting. - After playing Alabama and Boise State, Whitley believes Alabama is the
better team. Their running backs were very strong. The whole team was huge. - About 30 people from Whitley’s high school go to NC State, and he’s got
cousins who go there as well. They are all talking a lot of trash already. - Russell Wilson can beat you with his arm or his feet. He always keeps his
eyes downfield when he’s scrambling. He’s different from Kellen Moore and
Dominique Davis, but he’s every bit as effective.
Danny Coale
- It took a full team effort to beat BC. The defense played great. It was
great to finally win a game at Boston College. - BC is the bend but don’t break type of defense. The play is never over
with Tyrod Taylor at quarterback, and Coale was able to slip behind the
defensive backs for a big gain. - Tech is searching for answers for their redzone offense. You need all 11
guys doing their jobs. They just have to get better, and they will. - NC State looks really good this year. They have a lot of talent and a
really good coach. They also have a great atmosphere at that stadium. - The best defensive backs Coale has ever faced has been in practice, with
Brandon Flowers and Macho Harris. Mark Herzlich is the best linebacker he
has ever faced in pass coverage. - The team has been saying that the future is ahead of them and the past is
behind them. They aren’t going to look back on those losses. They can only
control what’s coming up. They still have a shot at the ACC, and they are
going to fight for that. - D.J. Coles just broke Coale’s front squat record for wide receivers. Coale
is going to have to go and get that record back. - NC State’s defense is very fast. They have a lot of talent returning.
- The Hokies have been good away from home throughout their years in the
ACC. They have a good road mentality. They stick together, and they also
feed off the road crowd. They actually enjoy playing on the road. - School is going well. Coale only has two classes left before he graduates
in December. He’s thinking about adding a second major after he graduates.
His first degree is in finance. - Coale liked the black uniforms that Tech wore against Boise State. He
didn’t enjoy losing, but he had a lot of fun in the black jersey. He wasn’t
crazy about the orange shoes though.
Frank Beamer
- Eddie Whitley and Danny Coale are two great kids. They are perfect
examples of what this Virginia Tech team is like. The players are fun to be
around. - Beamer gave credit to the coaches and the players for winning at BC. Tech
hasn’t played well there recently, and BC had two weeks to prepare. - Tech didn’t get the ball in the endzone against BC. They need to execute
better. They need to score on those short fields. It’s one thing here and
one thing there. - Offensively, there were several plays where all but one player executed
their assignments. If one guy messes up, it throws off the whole play. - The Hokies have a toughness about them that Beamer likes, but there are
times when they should probably throw the ball a little more on first down
in the redzone, and maybe they will. But the Hokies have a tough mentality,
and they believe on being physical and running the football in that
situation. However, Beamer admitted that maybe they should mix it up a
little bit. - Execution is the key to the offense. The coaches are taking a hard look at
it, and they plan on being better this week. - Luckett slid into the punters left foot on the roughing penalty, and it
was incidental contact. Beamer is waiting on a response from the ACC about
that call. Steven Friday didn’t hear the whistle on his personal foul
penalty, and neither did most of the players on the field. It was a tough
call. - Tech’s defensive ends played very against Boston College. You see them
getting a little bit better every day. - Alonzo Tweedy is getting better. He made a great play on the punt coverage
team on Saturday. He’s back to almost 100%, and that’s really a plus for the
Hokies. - Chase Williams traveled to Boston College, but he didn’t play. They are
going to continue to work with him. He’s going to be a great player, and the
coaching staff wants to do the right thing with him. - Russell Wilson is a very hot quarterback right now. He’s very accurate and
he’s doing a great job for his team. This is as good a receiving corps as
Tech will face all year. That offense is hitting on all cylinders. - BC did a great job in coverage on Saturday, but Tyrod probably held on to
the ball a little too long a couple of times. A couple of other times you
also would have liked to see him check down and get it to the running back
in space. But overall, he did a great job. - On kickoff coverage, how good your coverage is depends on how good the
kick is. Right now the kicks are inconsistent for the Hokies. They have to
continue to work on that. - The Tech offensive line is working hard, but they just have to keep
pounding it. They are a lot closer than they look sometimes. - Cheryl Beamer isn’t back to 100%. That’s going to take awhile. She’s been
fighting through it, but it’s a long process. - It’s good to have Jayron Hosley. He made an outstanding play on the ball
in the endzone against BC. - Everyone connected with the offense wants to be more consistent. They
expect more, and they are going to get more. - NC State is for real. They’ve got some good running backs, and they’ve got
a hot quarterback. Defensively they are very fast. They are solid in the
kicking game. They’ve got a really good team. - Tech will announce Ryan Williams’ status on Thursday.
- Tech needs to play fast on Saturday. It has the makings of a great
football game. Both teams are very similar.
Monday was Day 2,130 of Virginia Tech’s continuous possession of the Commonwealth Cup.
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