Shane Beamer
The whole team was miserable on Saturday night. The players were hurting when they reported on Sunday, and you want that as a coach. They had good meetings, and they had a great practice on Sunday night. They plan to learn from what happened.
The coaches expected ECU to play well. They played South Carolina very tough and probably should have won that game. The Hokies didn’t panic when they got down, but unfortunately they couldn’t finish. You’ve got to give ECU credit. They made some plays.
It’s unfortunate to lose Desmond Frye for the season. He will have shoulder surgery and take a medical redshirt. The surgery will take place on Tuesday.
Trey Edmunds is working really hard. He’s the biggest cheerleader the Hokies have right now and he’s bringing great leadership. Sam Rogers has been tremendous.
Marshawn Williams and Shai McKenzie are getting better every day. They are very steady guys and they are great competitors.
Tech had some one-on-one opportunities in the second level on Saturday, and the backs need to do a better job of winning them. They won their share, but they lost their share as well.
The backs have only had one mental error the last two games, which is a good sign. It was the first play of the game against ECU.
Shai McKenzie probably needs some more reps. They basically rotate series, but Shai had more series that ended in three and outs. He says he feels great physically.
Sam Rogers is a jack of all trades. He plays special teams and fullback. He’s a great football player. He can do anything you ask him to do.
The coaches preached attention to detail during Sunday’s meetings. Saturday was a good lesson for everyone, players and coaches.
Shane Beamer knew ECU DT Terry Williams when he was in high school. He has known for a long time that Williams is a really good player. He was great against Tech again on Saturday, for the second year in a row.
At one point, Tech only had 10 men on the field on one punt return. For whatever reason, one player didn’t go out on the field even though he had done so for all the previous punts in the game.
At one point during the Ohio State game, Michael Brewer had to call a timeout because the play didn’t get to him in time. He came to the sideline and in no uncertain terms said “Tell Lefty he has to get the play in quicker,” or something to that effect. That’s what you love about Brewer.
Losing Ryan Malleck for part of Saturday’s game hurt. Tech had mostly two TE packages gameplanned for Saturday, and losing Malleck hurt them.
Last week was a busy week for Scot Loeffler. His wife went into labor while Tech was gameplanning for the run game on Monday. Frank Beamer basically had to force him to leave and go to the hospital, but he was still texting the rest of the offensive coaching staff about the gameplan until about 10:30 that night.
Beamer noted that Tech has an unbelievable group of recruits visiting this weekend, so he hopes the Hokie Nation will show them a great atmosphere.
Frank Beamer
Beamer said they learned a lot from the ECU tape. They went through some growing pains, as he said in the preseason they would at some point. As a football team they didn’t perform well enough or consistently enough. They can really learn from that game and be a better football this week.
After watching the tape, Beamer now questions whether he did a good enough job of getting the team ready to play a noon game. He is going to try and do a better job of getting them ready to go this week.
From a coaching standpoint, noon games give the coaches more time to start getting ready for the next week’s opponent following the game. However, he would still rather have a later kick or a night game in Blacksburg. But whatever TV says Tech will play, that’s when they’ll play.
When you have good position, Beamer feels like defensive backs need to look back for the ball. They have as much right to the ball as the offensive player. But those back shoulder throws make it tougher. Sometimes guys just have a hard time getting turned. It’s all about if you are in good position or not.
Brandon Facyson isn’t 100%. He isn’t running quite as smooth as he did last year. He missed a lot of practice time. He just has to work his way back into it. He’s a smart guy, and he will.
Tech had pass protection breakdowns on the first two plays of the game. One was on a running back, and one was on the offensive line. After that, Beamer felt like Brewer was trying to get further away from the line of scrimmage on his drops, and that makes it harder for the offensive tackles to protect. Brewer has to stay at the proper depth. It was a little bit of everything going on against ECU.
On ECU’s last drive, there was confusion amongst the Tech coaches between plays on what grouping the defense was going to be in on the next play. That penalty was on the coaching staff, not the players.
Beamer still feels better than ever that this is going to be a good football team. They hung in there and fought back to tie the game. The showed they have the ability to come back. The growing pains were there. He likes the talent level and he likes his players.
Justin Thomas is Georgia Tech’s new quarterback. He’s very fast. He is Georgia Tech’s leading rusher, and he can throw as well. The Yellow Jackets have big receivers. That helps them down the field, and it helps them block the edge as well. They are a very difficult offense to defend.
Ted Roof is Georgia Tech’s defensive coordinator, and he has a very athletic defense. They are playing hard. The Hokies have their work cut out for them.
Ryan Malleck’s injury is a concern. Tech will know more as the week goes along. He has a knee injury and an ankle injury. They hope to get Kalvin Cline back on Tuesday. Corey Marshall looked good on Sunday, but now Luther Maddy is banged up.
The injury to Desmond Frye will give CJ Reavis more reps. He has a chance to be a really good player. Tech has played 11 true freshmen this year, and they played 11 last year. Beamer likes the potential of those young guys.
Tech doesn’t have a lot of defensive players who have played against Georgia Tech’s offense, and that inexperience is a concern.
Saturday’s game is big. Beamer hopes the fans will show up and be loud on Saturday. The team needs them. Also, this is a big time recruiting weekend, and he hopes the fans will impress those recruits.
Monday was day 3,579 of Virginia Tech’s continuous possession of the Commonwealth Cup.
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“From a coaching standpoint, noon games give the coaches more time to start getting ready for the next week’s opponent following the game. However, he would still rather have a later kick or a night game in Blacksburg.”
1.) I thought Beamer was on record plenty of times before saying that he’d always want to play at noon (media and TV aside) because it is a lot less time for his players to be stressing and getting anxious about the game?
2.) I don’t like hearing Beamer say, again, that the coaches might have failed getting the players ready for the game. That was our Achilles Heel for so many bowl games (and probably other big games that we lost) and I thought Beamer had sworn to never let that happen again.
Well, it happens to every team. Every year. At some point. Not every team brings their A-game each week. Are you as a person at your best every single day? Nope. I’m not either.
I remember a game in high school where the coaches told me all week that if the tailback got an outside pitch, he was probably going to throw deep to the WR. They told me that all week, in every practice. And what did I do when I got into the game? I immediately charged the tailback and he threw it right over my head for the touchdown. That wasn’t the coaches’ fault. That was mine. They told me all week what was going to happen, but I blew it anyway.
Tech’s coaches told the VT players all week that ECU was good. But the Tech players didn’t necessarily listen. It happens. It’s not always the fault of the coaches.
Apparently, important recruiting weekend. Guys give them a good show. Lets as fan show how much we love our Hokies.
TSL is doing a great job this year on all their articles, Thanks Chris…. and Will & Staff 😉
Great job!!
Chris I really appreciate getting the TTL notes in such a timely manner. I don’t listen anymore since the notes are so fast and comprehensive. Kudo’s……
No problem…it’s a lot easier when the show is only an hour long! Those two hour shows made me absolutely hate Mondays.
Yeah, it’s easier for the coaches, players, and staff involved, but for the fans it is disappointing. So many people I have talked to are no longer very interested in TTL because now it is just the coaches that we’ve heard dozens of times before. Yeah, there are a few good nuggets in there, but for the most part it’s the same old coach-speak. What I miss is being able to meet the players, hear about their experiences at VT, what hobbies they have, what they plan on doing after college, what their recruiting experience was like, etc. Now there is hardly any incentive to get to Bull & Bones extra early (so I can get a bar seat) and be excited about the show.
That being said, Chris, we all do appreciate the work you guys do, especially these TTL transcripts. Forgot to mention that in my little rant!!