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.
Jim Weaver
- As of Monday, Tech has sold around 5,500 tickets for the Orange Bowl. They
need to sell 17,500 to meet their requirements. Tech sold 3,300 during their
pre-sale. - There was a meeting in Blacksburg on Monday morning between Weaver and the
Orange Bowl reps. They are starting to coordinate all the details. It will
be a very busy three weeks. John Ballein will go to South Florida on Tuesday
to get things coordinated. - This will be a matchup of great quarterbacks. Andrew Luck will probably go
#1 in the NFL Draft. Tyrod Taylor finished off his ACC career in high style. - This is 18 bowls in a row, and the fans have been a big part of it because
of their attendance. Hopefully they’ll all make the trip to South Florida. - This will be Tyrod Taylor’s third Orange Bowl. The Hokies need to finish
it off in style. Weaver is very proud of the team for winning 11 straight
games. This has been as good as anything he has experienced in 40 years of
college athletics.
Orange Bowl Rep Jeff Rubin
- The Orange Bowl matchup is great. The Pac-10 has only been to the Orange
Bowl three times. - Rubin’s first trip to Blacksburg was for the Georgia Tech game, and he had
a great time. He’s glad to be back, despite the weather. - The Orange Bowl chose Stanford over UConn. Stanford vs. Tech was just the
better matchup. It’s two highly-ranked teams. The nation will be more
interested in this game. - Ocean Drive on South Beach will be closed down from the 31st to the 2nd.
There will be a stage set up right there with national artists, etc. It’s
going to be a great time. - Of all the Top 25 teams, Stanford is #1 in graduation rates and Virginia
Tech is #2. The ACC has great schools who value academics. - Tickets for the Orange Bowl and hotels in the area are very reasonably
priced. You can get them on Hokiesports.com. - Virginia Tech will be the home team in the Orange Bowl. The entire
southeast quadrant is reserved for Hokie fans.
Seth Greenberg
- Greenberg isn’t 100% done with his virus, but he got a full day’s work in
on Monday. - Tech had two chances to win, and they showed good perseverance in both
games, but they didn’t make the plays when they needed to make them. - They need to find what they are doing well and get better at it, while
eliminating the negative things. - The team isn’t going to get caught up in the negativity that is going on.
They’ve lost some close games. They aren’t going to panic. The team had
Monday off. The only thing they can do is practice hard and get better. - Greenberg thinks his team is playing pretty hard. They didn’t defend as
well as they could in the first half against UVA, but when it comes down to
it they need to be better offensively. - It’s not one huge issue for Tech. It’s a lot of little things that are
creating the close losses. Tech has to get more easy baskets and be better
in transition. - Tech is doing too much watching after they take shots. They need to get
more active on the offensive glass. - Greenberg isn’t going to have a kneejerk reaction and start changing his
lineup. He’s very loyal to Dorenzo Hudson, who was All-ACC last year. He’s
going to get out of his slump. - You’ll probably see more Jarell Eddie against Penn State, and they want to
work Ty Garland in a little as well. - Shooters can shoot their way out of a slump if they take good shots. If
they aren’t good shots, they’ll keep slumping. Tech has to get Hudson more
opportunities, and he has to run the court a little more consistently. - If Tech remains focused on the task at hand, they’ll be fine. Tech has
played a very tough schedule so far. They are going to win a lot of games.
They have a great role model in the football team, who struggled early in
the year. - Greenberg likes the way Victor Davila is coming along. He has good
ownership in what the team is doing. He’s being physical on offense, and
he’s rebounding better. Jeff Allen needs to score more down low for Tech to
be successful. - Renardo Sidney, one of the top freshmen in college basketball, will play
his first game for Mississippi State against Virginia Tech. He was suspended
for the first nine games, but conveniently Tech is their 10th game. He’s a
big time player. He’s huge with really good skills. - Penn State has a lot of good players back. Talor Battle is a really good
player. They hit the glass very hard. They are a good team, and they change
their defenses a little bit. - Tech hasn’t been able to work on their own game for a few weeks. They’ve
had so many games that they’ve had to spend each practice preparing for the
next opponent. They will spend the next two practices working on Virginia
Tech stuff. - It surprised Greenberg that Cadarian Raines couldn’t play against
Virginia. His foot was really throbbing, and he told the trainer that he
couldn’t play. He’s broken his foot twice. Tech is going to reevaluate him.
They still might decide to redshirt him. They have to make a decision by the
Carolina game. If he has to have another surgery, he will be out 6-9 months.
If they wait until after the season, he will go another full summer without
skill work. That’s not a good thing.
Bud Foster
- The last 48 hours have been a whirlwind. He got back to his house about
5am on Sunday morning, and then flew out with some other members of the
staff to go on a big recruiting trip. - Tech wanted this recruit to know how important he is to them. He saw the
coaches on TV on Saturday night celebrating, and on Sunday night they were
spending time with him. - John Ballein texted Foster about 30 minutes before the game and said that
FSU might be starting E.J. Manuel. Tech was prepared for Manuel to play a
wildcat role. They stuck with their regular defense when they found out
Manuel was playing. - All of Tech’s All-ACC players had big plays at some point. John Graves,
Steven Friday, Bruce Taylor and Davon Morgan. Bruce Taylor had a big play on
that pass deflection. - Tech had to get stops on third downs, and they did a better job of that as
the game went on. - Jack Tyler had a great week of practice, and Bud Foster felt comfortable
with him in the game. He didn’t play good … he played great. He made some
big time plays. Foster was glad they didn’t have another linebacker injury,
because they didn’t dress a fifth player. Had something bad happened, he
would have moved Jeron Gouveia-Winslow to backer. - It was big for Rashad Carmichael to play in the second half. He did a
great job. Kyle Fuller wasn’t as sharp as he needed to be in the first half.
It tore Carmichael up to not be able to play against UVA in his final home
game. - To beat Florida State in a championship game was a great win for the
program. They have been a thorn in Tech’s side for a lot of years. Jimbo
Fisher is a good friend of Foster’s, and he’s doing a great job with FSU. - Tech wasn’t great at zone blitzing this year. They had a lot of youth on
defense this season. - Foster watched Andrew Luck a couple of years ago, when he was a freshman
or sophomore, and he thought he was the best quarterback in the country back
then. He’s a major challenge. Foster is very excited about the opportunity.
He expects it to be a great game. - There is only one game better than the Orange Bowl, and that’s the
National Championship. It’s quite an accomplishment for these seniors to go
to three Orange Bowls in four years. - Foster was contacted by Vanderbilt, and they wanted to meet on Sunday.
Foster told them he had a recruiting trip. He hasn’t heard back from them
since. - Vanderbilt is a great school, but Foster probably has a better job at
Virginia Tech. Seeing Randy Shannon get fired does change his perception
somewhat. Being a head coach isn’t what motivates Foster. He loves
motivating and interacting with players. You don’t get to do that as much as
a head coach. It’s different. - Foster won’t cry himself to sleep if he’s never a head coach. He knows his
window of opportunity is closing. If Tech can keep on doing what they are
doing for another four or five years, that will be enough for Foster. He’ll
be more than happy to ride out into the sunset in Blacksburg. - Foster hates to lose. He doesn’t think he could go somewhere and win just
four or five games a year. That would drive him crazy. You have a chance to
win every game at Virginia Tech, and that’s exciting. - Foster works for the best head coach in America. Beamer is a great
motivator, and he lets his coaches coach. Nobody panicked when they started
0-2. - Foster gave credit to his assistants, Charley Wiles, Jim Cavanaugh and
Torrian Gray. They didn’t have a lot of experience coming back, and they did
a great job of coaching. - Tech fans can’t take the Orange Bowl for granted. You never know when the
next opportunity will come, so Foster encouraged everyone to make the trip.
You never know when you’ll get the chance again.
John Graves
- Graves stated how proud he was to be a part of this team and how proud he
is to call this team his family. They went through a lot together, and a lot
of teams could have folded. They got it together and won 11 straight. - Graves wasn’t really worried when Lyndell Gibson and Bruce Taylor went
down with injuries. Jack Tyler and Tariq Edwards had been practicing well.
He was confident in them. - It wasn’t really different with E.J. Manuel in the game. They played their
same offense. Manuel played really well. - The coaches do a great job with recruiting. Tech had some injuries this
year, but they had some quality play from the backups. - Graves feels like he knows Miami pretty well there. This is their third
trip to the Orange Bowl. He can’t wait to play in this one. - Graves hasn’t seen Stanford very much. He doesn’t know much about them,
other than they have a Heisman Trophy finalist. He did a little research,
and Andrew Luck has great numbers. He completes a high percentage of his
passes. Tech has to play very disciplined on defense.
Tyrod Taylor
- Taylor felt like the voting for conference player of the year was too
close between him and Russell Wilson. He felt like he deserved it, and he
wanted to go out and prove it against Florida State. Coach Stinespring put
him in a position to make plays. - Taylor felt like everything was clicking. All of his touchdowns came on
third downs. It felt good. - Danny Coale did a great job of staying on his routes and playing through
the whistle. Coach Stinespring had them well-prepared as far as what looks
they were going to get from the defense, and what personnel groupings they
were going to see. - On his touchdown run, Taylor thought the backside would be open for a run.
He looked at all of his receivers, but he took off and he only had to make
one guy miss. - Taylor has seen all different sorts of defenses. He’s seen one or two
spies at linebacker, he’s seen all out blitzes, and he’s seen defenses
playing contain with their ends. Florida State mixed up their blitzes to
throw him off, but it was nothing he has never seen before. - Taylor wanted another shot at FSU. Some FSU fans got his number before the
game and were texting him and calling him. He didn’t answer because he
didn’t recognize the numbers, but he would text them back and ask who was
calling. They’d start in with their trash talk, and he just texted back
“thanks for the motivation”. - Tech has had great seniors this year. It would have been a letdown if they
didn’t finish strong, and they did. - Mike O’Cain has done a lot for his development. He’s taught him how to
watch film, taught him where to go with the ball, and taught him how to read
defenses. - Taylor’s favorite TV show is “Everybody Hates Chris”. It’s about
Chris Rock’s life. - Taylor has never met Andrew Luck, but he’s seen highlights. He saw him
when the Hokies were watching Wake Forest film, because the Demon Deacons
played Stanford this year.
Billy Hite
- Hite can’t say enough about this team and what they’ve done this year.
He’s proud that they are not only great players, but great people. - Virginia Tech is the first team in the history of college football to lose
their first two games and then win 11 in a row. The players just found a way
to get it done each and every week. - The way David Wilson performed in the preseason, it was a no-brainer that
he should play this year. He’s a major threat with the ball. He’s a
spectacular player. - The offensive line played very well against Florida State. Curt Newsome
has done a great job with that group. The line really got after the FSU
defense. - Tech ran a lot of crossing routes against FSU. They were playing some man
coverage, and rub routes can be successful against that type of coverage. - Hite rotated the running backs every series against FSU. It just worked
out that Darren Evans had just six carries, and David Wilson had more than
anyone. Evans had some big plays in his six carries. All three performed
very well this year, and they will stay with that same rotation. - Hite met with Williams and Evans on Monday. He recommended that they send
their information to the NFL and get a good feel on where they would go in
the draft. If they are projected to go in the first three rounds, then they
need to go. If not, they need to stay. - Shyrone Stith made a mistake by listening to Mel Kiper, who said he was
going to be a first round pick. The NFL told Stith he was going late in the
draft, which is exactly what happened. (Editor’s Note: Stith was a redshirt
junior on the 1999 team. He left early for the NFL and was drafted in the
7th round, as the 243rd overall pick. He had 20 career NFL carries for 55
yards, all of them coming in the 2000 season, and has not been on an NFL
roster since 2002.) - Kevin Jones is coming back to school, and he’s renting a house down at the
Blacksburg Country Club. He and Hite are going to be neighbors. His advice
can really help Williams and Evans as well, because he has been through the
NFL process before. - Darren Evans is married with a child, so he’s in a little bit of a
different situation. Hite thinks Evans and Williams will both make the right
decision. However, he thinks it is unlikely that they will both be back next
season. He thinks one of the two might be back. - The back with the best nose for the end zone that Hite has ever coached
was Dwayne Thomas. To Hite, the biggest win Tech has ever had was against
Miami in 1995, and Thomas ran all over them that day (24 carries, 165
yards). - Tech was probably one first down from possibly playing for the National
Championship, or at least going undefeated. One more first down against
Boise State might have done it. They are on the right track. - The Hokies have good depth and good coaching. When guys go down, the
backups have stepped up, such as Jack Tyler and Tariq Edwards. They are
always well-prepared for opponents. - This is the most satisfying season that Hite has ever had. The Hokies
finished very strong. There was no quit in this team, and the players showed
a lot of character. - Even more than winning, the best thing about being a college coach is when
a former player comes back and tells Hite that the things they learned
playing college football have made their lives more successful. Many things
in football transfer over into the game of life. - Playing in the Orange Bowl is great. The weather is perfect, and the
Orange Bowl people treat the Hokies very well. - Rashad Carmichael said he had no setbacks after the ACC Championship Game,
so he should be ready for the Orange Bowl. Dyrell Roberts plans to play as
well. - Coach Beamer is a great competitor, whether it’s on the sideline or
playing racquetball. That’s a major reason why the Hokies are so successful.
He makes all his coaches feel very special.
Monday was Day 2,200 of Virginia Tech’s continuous possession of the Commonwealth Cup.
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