According
to a press release on HokieSports.com, four Virginia Tech football players will
miss the Chick-fil-A Bowl with Georgia on December 30. Ike Whitaker, Jahre
Cheeseman, Antonio North and Jared Develli will not participate.
Whitaker will not travel with the team to Atlanta because of “personal
reasons” according
to HokieSports.com. But an article
released later in the day by the Roanoke Times indicates that
Whitaker will miss the bowl game because he is enrolling in an alcohol treatment
program. He will also miss all practices leading up to the game.
Whitaker missed half of spring practice because he was arrested and charged
with public intoxication, underage possession of alcohol and destruction of
property. He returned from his suspension and managed to beat out Cory Holt for
the #2 quarterback position.
Offensive lineman Antonio North will not make the trip and will never play
football for the Hokies again. He is suffering from a herniated disk, and every
type of treatment the training staff has tried has been unsuccessful. North will
stay in school on scholarship, but it will not count towards the 85-player
limit.
Former cornerback and current backup tailback Jahre Cheeseman has missed most
of the season with a Lis Franc sprain in his left foot, and he will miss the
Chick-fil-A Bowl as well. Cheeseman is expected to be ready to go when spring
practice begins in March.
Jared Develli, Virginia Tech’s kickoff specialist, will also miss the
Chick-fil-A Bowl. Develli underwent surgery for a hernia back on December 13,
and he will not recover in time to play on December 30. He is expected to be
ready for spring practice.
ACC Basketball Standings
Virginia Tech opened conference play with a 63-60 victory over Wake Forest on
Sunday. Tech is one of four teams with a win in the ACC so far. Here is how the
ACC looks in mid-December:
| ACC Basketball Standings |
||
| Team | Overall | Conference |
Virginia |
6-1 | 1-0 |
Boston College |
7-2 | 1-0 |
Virginia Tech |
7-3 | 1-0 |
Miami |
7-4 | 1-0 |
Clemson |
10-0 | 0-0 |
Duke |
9-1 | 0-0 |
UNC |
8-1 | 0-0 |
Florida State |
8-2 | 0-0 |
Maryland |
10-2 | 0-1 |
NC State |
7-2 | 0-1 |
Georgia Tech |
6-3 | 0-1 |
Wake Forest |
5-4 | 0-1 |
Clemson is the only undefeated team remaining in the ACC, but they have yet
to play a conference game. ACC play gets started in earnest for the Hokies on
January 6, when they travel to Durham to take on Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
ACC Football Coaches’ Salaries
There have been quite a few coaching changes in the ACC since the regular
season ended. Butch Davis is heading to UNC, Tom O’Brien is moving from Boston
College to NC State, and Randy Shannon will replace Larry Coker at Miami. Each
of those schools wants an improved football program, and the North Carolina
schools in particular were willing to pay.
| ACC Coaches’ Salaries |
||
| Coach | Team | Total Compensation |
Frank Beamer |
Virginia Tech |
$2,008,000 |
Al Groh |
Virginia |
$1,785,000 |
Butch Davis |
North Carolina |
$1,711,000 |
Bobby Bowden |
Florida State |
$1,691,900 |
Ralph Friedgen |
Maryland |
$1,691,864 |
Tommy Bowden |
Clemson |
$1,198,028 |
Tom O’Brien |
NC State |
$1,150,000 |
Chan Gailey |
Georgia Tech |
$1,009,191 |
Jim Grobe |
Wake Forest |
$987,843 |
Randy Shannon |
Miami |
$800,000 |
Ted Roof |
Duke |
$370,200 |
| Note: Salaries do not include potential bonuses. Salaries of new coaches are for the 2007 season. Salaries of others are for 2006. |
||
Frank Beamer is still the highest-paid coach in the ACC by a fairly wide margin.
Al Groh ranks second in the conference. North Carolina and NC State hired new
coaches in the offseason, and they both dished out $1 million or more to get
their man.
Butch Davis’ contract is very lucrative. He will be paid more
than $1.7 million per season in Chapel Hill. That’s an
attractive offer by itself, but that’s not all Davis could get.
Davis’ contract also has a special retention clause. UNC will place
$100,000 into a fund each year for the first five years of his contract. They
will place $300,000 per year into the fund for the final two years of his
contract. The money in the retention fund will be available to Davis if he
coaches UNC for five seasons.
Tom O’Brien was making $733,626 per season at Boston College, so he is
getting a substantial raise at NC State with a
$1.15 million contract. Incentives and bonuses could give O’Brien
a maximum of $1.85 million.
From data gathered by USA
Today, we have determined that Frank Beamer could be as high as
10th nationally in compensation amongst college coaches. Coaches that make more
than Beamer include Bob Stoops (Oklahoma), Kirk Ferentz (Iowa), Pete Carroll (USC),
Mack Brown (Texas), Tommy Tuberville (Auburn), Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee), Jim
Tressell (Ohio State), Dennis Franchione (Texas A&M) and Charlie Weis (Notre
Dame).
Data for some schools was unavailable. Those schools are Tulane, Temple,
Vanderbilt, Stanford, Rice, Army, Pittsburgh, Penn State, Northwestern, BYU and
Notre Dame. The Notre Dame (Weis) information was found in this article
from ESPN.com.
DeBerry Retires, Beamer now with Third-Longest Active Tenure
Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry retired last week after serving as
head coach for 23 seasons. DeBerry, 68, compiled a record of 169-109-1.
Now that DeBerry has retired, Frank Beamer is the third-longest active
tenured coach with his current school in college football. The 2006 season was
his 20th season in Blacksburg. Joe Paterno is first on the list with 41 seasons
at Penn State. Bobby Bowden has spent 31 years at Florida State.
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