The Hokie Hotline (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 at Awful Arthur’s in Blacksburg, and you can also watch the archive on hokietv.com.
Hokie Hotline Notes, sponsored by Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech
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Jim Weaver
- Beamer and Weaver met last Thursday about Bud Foster. They decided to take
Bud’s salary to $350,000. His salary this year was $277,000. They feel like
it’s a fair and deserved raise. - If Bud got offered the head coaching job at WVU, he’d have to take it. They
are a BCS conference contender. - Weaver isn’t going to give Foster a Jimbo Fisher type contract. Bobby Bowden
is almost 20 years older than Frank Beamer. - If the VT job was open right now, first he would look within the program. He
would also look at people with experience from the outside. - Duke made an outstanding hire with David Cutcliffe. He has quite a
reputation for developing quarterbacks and passing games. It was important for
Duke to hire someone with head coaching experience. - Weaver would have preferred to have the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte
for the next two years, and then go to Tampa. However, it couldn’t work out
logistically for Charlotte next year. - Tech has sold a little over 15,000 Orange Bowl tickets. Weaver would like to
sell the allotment, but he’s not confident that will happen. Tech fans are
getting smart about getting tickets for cheap. - Kansas is 11-1. They are a very quality football team that almost ran the
table. They play much better defense than people give them credit for. It’s
going to be an exciting game. - Weaver would like to have two former players serve as honorary captains
before every VT-UVA game. That would be a nice addition to the series. - It was a great year for Tech athletics. Football, basketball, men’s soccer,
softball, track & field, etc. They also had their highest graduation rate
ever as a department.
Curt Newsome
- The line got better as the season progressed, especially after Ed Wang
came back. Everybody kept working hard. Nick Marshman got back to guard, and
that was huge. - Duane Brown is a special player. He’s very underrated. It’s tough to find a
left tackle like Brown. - If you sign a special offensive linemen, it’s not likely he’s going to be
able to start until he’s a redshirt sophomore. These young guys could still
need another year. - Jaymes Brooks and Blake DeChristopher are two guys who will have a chance to
play next year. However, they still need a spring of development. March and
April will be key for them. - Tech brought in a great group of linemen last year. They will help the
Hokies a lot down the line. Right now, the coaching staff is concentrating
more on the offensive tackle position in this recruiting class. Those guys are
a little harder to find. - Ryan Shuman is having his knee drained weekly. He’s a tough guy that can
play through pain. In Week 13, you’re going to have a lot of banged up guys. - Kansas has the defensive lineman of the year in the Big 12. They play very
hard, and they are extremely well coached. The are very solid on defense. You
don’t see any big plays against them. - Kansas has a very good secondary. That could be the strength of their
football team. - Newsome has his players grade the opposing players they are going against
each week. They have to stand up in the meeting room and give reports on
opposing players. - Newsome doesn’t remember Duane Brown giving up a sack on a one-on-one battle
this year. He’s that good. - Tech’s next recruiting weekend is January 18. They are having a great year
of recruiting. They got a lot of verbals early.
Seth Greenberg
- The team had a very good practice on Monday. The team competed hard
against ODU. Greenberg is really proud of them. They missed some assignments
offensively and defensively in the first half. There are so many freshman
that have to play key roles this year. 
They made some bad decisions, but at the same time, they did a lot of very
good things to get back in the game. ODU hit some big time shots in the first
half, and three of their outside shots were defensive mistakes.- It is what it is. You deal with it, and you continue to develop those six
freshmen. - Malcolm Delaney did a better job of keeping Brandon Johnson in front of him
and contesting shots. He was more poised handling ODU’s pressure. He made some
shots and made some nice plays in transition. - ODU didn’t score a field goal unless it was off a bad turnover in the last
five minutes of the game. Tech’s defense was good in the second half. ODU got
nothing out of their half court sets. - Deron Washington is trying to do too much. Greenberg met with him about that
on Monday. He’s trying to make too many plays. He’s got to defend, get to the
offensive glass and run the floor. - Tech had an option to go for two points or three points on their last
possession. If the defense flowed towards A.D. Vassallo on the flare, then
Allen was supposed to slip in for the two. If they didn’t, he would have
kicked it out to Vassallo. The defense reacted to Vassallo, but Allen made his
slip to the basket a little too late. - Greenberg has no problems with going for two in that situation. There would
have been about eight seconds left, and they would have had a chance to foul,
with plenty of time to get a final shot. - Jeff Allen is playing great, but he can play better. He’s really rebounding
the ball at a high level. He’s physical around the basket. He’s got to check
people a little better. He’s a very good player, and they have to hold him to
a high standard. - Tech is re-doing the floor at Cassell next year. The logo and everything
will be new. The women’s three-point line will remain the same, but the men’s
three-point line is being moved back a bit, per NCAA rules. The logo might be
a little different, and the baseline might read “Virginia Tech”
instead of “Hokies”. - Wake Forest is a good, young basketball team. They are defending very well
right now. Greenberg hasn’t really looked at them yet. He’s focused on
Liberty. - Liberty has a former ACC point guard in T.J. Bannister. They have beaten ECU
and Niagara, and those teams have beaten NC State and St. John’s. - Jeff Allen has great hands and a terrific rebounding instinct. Lewis Witcher
played very well in the first half, but he wasn’t quite as good defensively in
the second half. He’s got to be more assertive and aggressive. He’s talented,
and he has to embrace that talent. We’ve still got to remember that he’s just
nine games into his sophomore year. - Seth was upset that ODU was allowed to put their cheerleaders and mascots
within the six foot retaining area under the basket. They were very close to
the action, making a lot of noise and movements when Deron Washington was
shooting free throws. They were in an area where they aren’t allowed to be. - Allen Calloway is doing much better. He’s off his experimental medication.
He’s starting to put on some weight, and he’s very upbeat and positive. - Shawn Harris is working with troubled children and helping as an assistant
coach at Matoaca, his old high school. - Jamon Gordon recently called Greenberg from Turkey, where he is playing
basketball. He said the guys in that league don’t play any defense. Zabian
Dowdell is in France, and Coleman Collins is in Germany. - Liberty is a long, athletic team. They will mix in some zone defenses. They
shoot the ball well. They have senior oriented guards. They are a good team. - One thing Tech needs to do better is putting Jeff Allen in a position to
make a quick play, because his turnover ratio isn’t very good. He’s got to
make better decisions. He’s like a little kid at Christmas. He’s got so many
toys, he doesn’t know which one to play with. - Greenberg likes Tech’s team. They have four losses, and three of them are by
seven points or less. One of those was in overtime against a Sweet 16 team. - There are some talented young players on this team, but they are still young
players. The first focus is getting them to defend. If they are going to be
behind in any area, it’s going to be offensively. - This core group of six freshmen and the upperclassmen have a chance to
develop into a very good basketball team. - Dorenzo Hudson will get more minutes as the season goes on, starting on
Wednesday against Liberty. He has a very high basketball IQ. He is picking
things up. Tech can’t play Deron and A.D. so many minutes.
Frank Beamer
- Practice was very good on Monday. They practiced without the seniors, had
a scrimmage at the end, and everything went well. - Devin Radford had some nice runs at tailback. Ike Whitaker and Zach Luckett
played well at receiver, as well as Brandon Dillard. The backup offensive
linemen showed some toughness. - Tech is practicing without seniors for the first time. They have a little
more time since they aren’t playing until January 3. It gives the seniors a
reward, and you get to concentrate on some young players. - Bud Foster deserved his raise. You have to pay people what they’re worth or
what the market says they’re worth. Each assistant gets a raise each year. The
better the bowl game, the higher the raise. - Beamer would give Bud Foster a very high recommendation. He is ready. Beamer
would help any of his coaches get a promotion. - Beamer was surprised at first that Rich Rodriguez left WVU. However, the
competition in the Big Ten isn’t that much better than the Big East, but the
conference has a lot more prestige. - There are some young, talented receivers on this team. Patrick Terry and
Ervin Garner have a chance, and so does Danny Coale. They are being redshirted
this year. There are also some current commitments from receivers that are
going to be very good. - Darren Evans and Josh Oglesby are getting noticed. That’s what spring
practice is all about. - Les Miles told Frank Beamer recently that LSU played their best football
game against Virginia Tech. Beamer thinks they’ll beat Ohio State for the
National Championship. - Tech has a lot to play for in this bowl game. They could be the first team
ever to win 12 games at Tech. They’ll finish in the Top 5. There is a lot of
incentive. - Beamer is proud of this team. They beat a lot of very good teams to end the
season. They also did a great job overcoming injuries. - Kansas is very good. They are just sound on both sides of the ball. They are
second in scoring offense and fifth in scoring defense. They are very
efficient in all parts of the game. - Their quarterback is small, but accurate. They have four big receivers. They
have a big running back, and a fast running back. They have a very good mix of
players.
Monday was Day 1,115 of Virginia Tech’s continuous possession of the
Commonwealth Cup.
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