Jim Weaver
Nobody expected that on Saturday. Every now and then you will have a game like that. Weaver can tell you that nobody expected that, and the Hokies don’t practice like that. The team seemed all business-like at the team hotel.
A B-25 bomber will fly over pregame on Saturday, and a P-51 will fly over at halftime as part of Military Appreciation Day. They are World War II planes. They will be doing test flights on Friday around Blacksburg.
The Cincinnati game will not be any earlier than 3:30pm. The networks decided to exercise their 6-day option.
Virginia Tech and Florida State are the only undefeated and untied teams in women’s soccer. VT is ranked #9 in the country. They will play #5 Boston College on Sunday at 1pm.
Weaver thinks the academic scandal was the reason Chancellor Holden Thorp resigned at UNC.
Tech is planning on building a locker room for the women’s soccer team, but it’s on hold right now for the same reasons that the new football facility was on hold over the summer.
The most Tech has ever paid for a buy game was around $800,000. The lowest amount paid these days is around $300,000, and that’s for 1-AA schools.
Even though they only play five football games per year against the ACC, Notre Dame is a member of the ACC for all other sports. If they ever decide to leave, they pay the same $50 million buyout fee that everyone else would pay. Notre Dame is a great brand, and it’s great for the ACC. It’s great for Virginia Tech.
The ACC’s opponent in the Orange Bowl is expected to be Notre Dame, the Big Ten, or the SEC. Or, it could be the Big Ten and the SEC, without Notre Dame. Weaver thinks the Orange Bowl will be worth somewhere around $60-75 million. The deal should be announced soon.
There have been a couple of times where the ACC didn’t have enough bowl eligible teams to fill out all of their bowl slots. Weaver has no problem with Notre Dame being involved with ACC bowls. He thinks it could help the ACC add another bowl to its slate.
Bud Foster
The Hokies had bright and early meetings on Monday morning, and a “spirited” practice on Monday afternoon.
Foster woke up at 2:45am on Monday to think about what he was going to say to his players in their early meetings. He had quite a bit to say.
Tech’s three keys to success were to be 1) more physical, 2) play with passion and 3) communicate. They failed all of those goals.
Tech gave up too many yards on the perimeter. The defensive backs looked a little tentative with their tackling, and that’s disappointing. The most disappointing part was the inconsistent effort. The fumble that Gouveia-Winslow caused could have been a recovery if the Hokies were running to the football. That’s not who we are, and that’s the message Foster delivered on Monday morning.
Tech takes the pads off on Thursdays, and Foster doesn’t like that, but he understands it’s to keep guys healthy, particularly after playing two games so quickly to start the season. Tech was sluggish in practice on Thursday, and Foster threatened to start it all over again. They practiced well after that threat, but then they just came out on Friday and they were flat.
The Kyle Fuller injury was big. Tech had a whole defensive package designed for him when Pitt went to their 11-personnel. Tech’s freshmen aren’t ready for prime time yet. Donaldven Manning could have been a factor on a couple of those passing plays, but he wasn’t.
Foster thought the Hokies were slow on their reads at times. In football, you try to find one more defender than the offense has blocking. Pitt was running a little zone play, and the Hokies always have an edge guy coming down. On their first touchdown, the Hokies had a free hitter there to make the play, but the runner bounced it outside of the free hitter. For whatever reason, the Hokies were a step slow and off their game.
Everything that Pitt did, they had help from Virginia Tech. There wasn’t one play they ran that the Hokies didn’t prepare for. Tech had too many collision hits (hitting without wrapping up), and the Hokies don’t teach that.
Bruce Taylor practiced Monday-Wednesday. He flew to Pittsburgh late on Friday night. He’s not 100% right now. He sat out the Austin Peay game with an ankle injury, and he has a bit of a groin injury too. Tariq Edwards practiced on Monday, and he did some good things. It would be good to get him back.
Foster thinks Edwards will be out for one more week for sure, and maybe two. He really doesn’t know. We’ll see how he progresses.
The defense has the majority of their players back from last year. They know what it takes to be successful because they’ve done it before. You can’t play great defense unless you play with passion and intensity. They know the formula. He told the defense this morning that if they want to be successful, then get on board. If not, then transfer somewhere else. Foster only wants guys who want to be successful. They had a heated discussion. They aren’t just accountable to each other. They are accountable to everybody who played defense for Tech in the past. They have built a great tradition here.
Bowling Green played Florida tough. Their line is a little more athletic than Pitt’s. Their receivers are athletic, but not as big as Pitt’s. (editor’s note: however, Bowling Green starts four freshmen on offense).
Foster said Tech will respect Bowling Green. He hopes his defense plays like a wounded dog, like Pitt played this past week.
The MAC is known for their quarterbacks, and Dave Clawson has always done a great job with his quarterbacks.
Certain personnel groupings will make the Hokies play man defense, because Foster thinks the run fits are better that way. Tech did play some 2-deep and some man free on Saturday.
Foster challenged his players, telling them that he will learn a lot about their character this week.
Eric Martin
The players aren’t happy with the way they came out and played. They weren’t ready to play, and that’s not like them.
The team looked at film of Pitt’s games against Youngstown State and Cincinnati, and the coaches told them they were going to face a much better team than they saw on film. They were definitely right.
Practice was great on Monday. Everybody knew that they had to bring a new level of intensity, and they did that.
Catching the first touchdown of the season still seems a little surreal. It was really loud catching it right there at the back of the south end zone.
Martin is majoring in sociology. He was thinking about local police work back home, but there are a lot of options out there.
The offense is still confident. The turnovers on Saturday is not who they are. There are a lot of little things that go into those interceptions.
Bowling Green is a tough team. They really brought it to Florida in the first week. They are going to come after Logan hard on Saturday, so the team has to be ready to protect him.
Kyshoen Jarrett
The blocking was set up very well on his punt return for a touchdown. After Ronny Vandyke took out two guys, he just had to make one guy miss. He probably owes Vandyke lunch.
It feels good to get the ball in his hands when the opportunity allows. Once you bring one back, it builds your confidence, and you can’t wait to do it again.
It was obvious that the tackling wasn’t up to par. They’ve got to rally back this week. They are going to attack it. Their tackling and communication will be better going forward.
The coaches always say that other teams will give Tech their best shot. They definitely got Pitt’s best shot, and they were caught off guard.
The coaches aren’t allowing the players to hang their heads. They will come back and have a better game this weekend.
The biggest difference between corner and rover is the communication responsibilities. Other than that, it’s still about covering and tackling.
Jarrett’s brother has cerebral palsy, and he’s blind as well. Jarrett spent his high school years taking care of his brother. His mom was a single mom, so it was up to him. His brother loves coming to Tech games. He always gets excited when he hears Kyshoen’s name over the loud speaker.
Tech has great support from the fans, and they are going to attack Bowling Green the way they attacked teams before Pitt. They are going to be fine.
Tech has to communicate better and tackle better. They have to attack things and play with passion. They have great coaches who will get them through it.
Jarrett is studying Human Development. After football, he would like to help take care of people with disabilities. He could help his mom and brother even better that way.
Frank Beamer
On tape, Beamer saw a lot of things that go against winning. They didn’t make a fourth a one. They got a personal foul on third down. Just a lot of things they did wrong. The good thing is that they are things they can correct.
Beamer never had a sense that it would be “one of those days”. He thinks he should have done a better job of preparing Tech for what type of Pitt team they were going to see. He should have done a better job of preparing the team. They didn’t play with as much toughness and emotion as they need to, and that “goes back to me”.
Beamer feels bad for our fans. He knows they let the fans down, especially the ones who travelled.
Pitt does deserve a lot of credit. They have a lot of tough players on that team. They are in a good recruiting area. They have a lot of tough, Chris Drager types up there.
Logan battled and competed all day long. He had some tough plays, and some of that was his fault, and some of it was the fault of other players.
Tech needs to establish a running game. It was 21-0 early, so they had to throw it more. Beamer is proud that the team hung in there and sort of got back in the game. They had their opportunities.
Beamer thought the team practiced very well on Monday. The players are disappointed. They got outplayed, and that’s the bottom line. Everybody is disappointed, and now they just have to deal with adversity.
If David Wang can’t go on Saturday, either Michael Via or Matt Arkema will start at left guard. Wang’s ankle isn’t broken. He’ll be back, but the staff doesn’t know when.
Tech needs to get into a better rhythm on offense. They have to put some good plays together.
There is some big play potential. Logan Thomas was just off on what would have been a deep touchdown pass to Marcus Davis. They are pretty close. Maybe they have too many young guys. They just need to get them playing more consistent.
It has been good to get special teams going a bit. Kyshoen Jarrett is making a big difference with his punt returns.
If teams are loading the box, then you want to play-action pass and go down the field like they did in the first play against Pitt. If they aren’t loading the box, then the Hokies just have to go through their reads in a traditional passing game.
Tech’s running backs have talent, they are just young. They’ve just got to keep working. It even took Darren Evans about five games before he got going.
Beamer doesn’t think any of the older players are getting complacent. They just played a bad game. He feels for the fans. Everybody is disappointed. There’s a thin line between winning and losing, and you have to bring your best each week.
Logan Thomas will be fine. The people around Logan have to step up as well. He can’t do it all.
Bowling Green is a good team. It’s no fluke that they played Florida tough. Dave Clawson, their head coach, built the team that won the National Championship at the University of Richmond. This is a very well-coached team.
Tech will have to beat Bowling Green. They aren’t going to lay down. They’ve already played Florida tough, so they won’t be intimidated.
In this business, there are highs and lows. Tech didn’t give their best effort on Saturday. That’s what hurts. It’s a learning experience. They have to keep improving as a football team.
It’s easy to practice and play when things are going well. Tech’s character will be tested this week. Beamer knows they want to play better, and hopefully they will.
Monday was Day 2,852 of Virginia Tech’s continuous possession of the Commonwealth Cup.
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I understand that fans are disappointed but to trash Beamer like he has been is idiotic. I WISH SUCH FANS WOULD TURN IN THEIR TICKETS and become ” fans ” for another team, perhaps become a Wahoo. I am sure that their fans would love to have our record and success. Shameful . Such negativity might make some very good recruits go elsewhere
Remember that we are supposed to have fun at a game. It is only football
Love hearing from all these Negative People turned coaches. If you can’t be positive stay home. I am sure you people jumped on the Band Wagon when we started winning. Just keep coaching but keep your negative thoughts to yourself. we could be on Probation or in the hole $ wise. GO HOKIES
I get really sick & tired of these negative people that call themselves fans. they are spoiled people who probably have never played ball. i have been there for 40 years. where were they when VMI Richmond & William & Mary use to beat us. were they among the 500-1000 people there? i sure not. I was there. sure we got beat & embarassed sat. but life goes on. I was there & am still proud to be a Hokie fan. Fans like these negative people should stay home & suck their thumbs like most Babies do. (WA WA). Frank & his staff have made Va Tech proud over the years. GO HOKIES
I suspect I have been a fan longer than you (VT ’55). CFB does need to fix the offense. Even a loyal fan can see that. As far as complaining fans, that is a part of having a board for discussion. Take the good with the bad.
Same old bunch of compainers after every loss. I think Coach Beamer should select someone from this crowd to secretly direct the preparation and call the plays for each game left on the schedule. That would guarantee 13-1 season!
Folks, let’s face it – we suck. This just gets old, year-in, year-out.
11, 15, 10, 14, 9, 18, 7, 10, NR, 14, 18, 6, 3, 19
Our year end rankings out of 120 FBS team since 1998… Yeah, we suck.
If you are tired of winning and being one of the best teams in the country – then stop being a fan. If going undefeated is your only goal, or winning a National Championship, then I hate it for you. Grow some thicker skin.
Thanks Mark88 for the penetrating analysis and profound conclusion. I think that you used the wrong pronoun. The personal pronoun might have been more accurate.
Beamer is started to alibi like Stinespring. It is time for the Coaches to act and talk like leaders. Start by demoting the Coach that called the 4 and 1 QBS immediately following a failed 3 and 1 QBS. Fake the sneak and throw a 1 yd pass to an open TE, dummy. Also, make the players run laps after turnovers–get tough or retire. Do the unexpected instead of the same ole play that the opponents watch on tape–insist upon teamwork or we will not come back. From an old Hokie.
I think we handed off to the tailback on that failed 4th and 1. Pay attention bitter old hokie.
We definitely handed the ball off.
Makes me wonder how the man is even a head coach. I’ll bet your sage advice is just what he needed.
I’ve been following the Hokies since I matriculated. Coach Beamer, with all due respect, you are that team. The Hokie football team has a history of not being fired up, not executing, or not “getting after ’em” about once or twice a season (whether you win or lose the game).
That said, I’m not willing to “sell out” with the kind of win-at-all costs attitude that results in sanctions such as those at UNC recently, or other schools in the past. I prefer your family atmosphere, but get the family fired up or fans will be fed up.
Family is important. However, “while you gotta love ’em, you don’t gotta like ’em” (a quote from my wife when she was age 5). Start being disliked by your family on the offensive coaching staff and DEMAND more from them.
Sincerely,
goVT86
+1
I hate to say it, but that empty MNC trophy case will always remain empty as long as Frank is running the show. The world of college football is constantly evolving, and he refuses to make the changes we need to keep up. He did great things for the program and the school in the 1990s. He absolutely deserves a giant Frank Beamer statue in Lane Stadium. But he cannot constantly be rewarded today for what he accomplished in the 90s. He has no accountability whatsoever. He could go 7-5 every year for the next 20 years and the majority of the VT community would be just fine with it. Can you imagine the pressure Nick Saban would be under if Alabama lost to 0-2 Pitt? What if USC lost to JMU @ home? What if Les Miles went 1-5 in BCS bowls? We, the VT community, are allowing these atrocities to occur by not putting enough pressure on Beamer to permanently fix the weakest links within his program. Beamer’s formula works for finishing 2nd in a weak conference. It does not work for winning the National Championship. We are so close to being one of the elite powerhouses of college football. But since Beamer can never be fired, we are stuck with mediocrity until he retires. Get used to it. I’ve accepted it. I look forward to playing for the National Championship again in 2041.
Atrocities? Slow your roll man. It’s a bit offensive to call a loss an atrocity.
I’m just so tired of Beamer’s incompetence. Tired tired tired.
He is incompetent in the Following ways :
1. Failure to adequately prepare for big games. I.don’t care if we play the redskins 100 times and lose 100 times. As long as the coaches do their job and put players in a position to succeed, that’s all I ask. Beamer and his coaches can’t do that(except Foster) .
2. Lack of game mgmt, time mgmt, in game adjustments.
4. Not having enough fire in his belly. I serious ly believe that he doesn’t have the desire nor drive to win a national championship. I
ant understand how if you’re wanting to win the NC, you can continue to be like that. I seriously am afraid that coach beamer might be coming down with early symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Doesn’t he get.sick of the same story year after year and repeating that we need to get good in a hurry? Well no shit.
3. Delusion about being able to win a NC with ball control offense. That only wirks if you have Alabama talent.
2. Failure to adequately prepare for small games. The players underestimated Pitt Because beamer underestimated Pitt. It was moronic of Beamer to do that.
First time I have actually heard Beamer apologize for a debacle. K. Jarrett is officially my favorite guy on the team. Big heart on and, more importantly, off the field,
So if Beamer feels it for the fans, then is he gonna do something to fix the problem?? this is getting old… Shocking losses to teams we shouldn’t lose to every season, while NEVER winning the big games that would fix our reputation as the chokies… meh… same old same old..
The Hokies lost three games last year…two to a pretty good Clemson team and a tight one to Michigan. I didn’t think any of those games qualified as shocking.
We lost by 20 and 28 to a Clemson team that lost by 37 to WV, 21 to USCe, 14 to GT, and 24 to NC State.
Clemson was OVERRATED last year. They beat an 8-5 Auburn team early in the season and everyone thought they were going to be great because they beat an SEC team.
Michigan was 10-2 going into the game against us and played nobody all season. Ohio State was down, they lost to Michigan State and Iowa, and ND wasn’t that good. Nebraska would have been a good win but South Carolina crushed them in their bowl game.
We were in the redzone 8 times against Michigan and came away with 1 TD and 4 FGs.
That should be pretty shocking to VT fans but with our current coaching staff it is not.
So the sky is falling, right? How soon we forget.
8 times in the redzone! 8 TIMES!!
Think about that. We had the opportunity to beat Michigan 56-14 and that’s about how one-sided the game looked … at least between the 20’s.
There’s seems to be a trend that we will undoubtedly lose some head scratcher game every year against some team we would beat 9 times out of 10. But that SB 2012 was a different, like we couldnt help but find a way to not win the game despite how well we played.
Oh yeah, sorry to digress, back to Pitt woesmeees.
I picked Clemson to beat Furman 45 to 3. My Clemson buddy said “What are you thinking? The last time we held anyone to 3 points was when we played VT! When you have an O like ours, you are going to lose big games, and some of the small games. Time for a change on O. I know the D doesn’t get a pass, but I’m tired of scoring 3 against Clemson and having basically 10 points against Pitt. And you are right, the Michigan game is still shocking.
Go Hokies!
Mr. Weaver, sir, I expected that on Saturday.
Beamer says he should have prepared the team better, feel like this could be said after almost every single game. You would think he could see that too
For every bad loss … where we have no business losing like Temple, the Sugar Bowl, JMU, and now Pitt … the next home game, every fan should get $5 to $10 … and it comes out of Frank Beamer’s salary. That should be incentive enough to “prepare” the team better. It’s real easy to say “sorry, my bad” and go your merry way collecting millions of dollars each year.
the first time we kicked it to make it 21-3 i feel we should’ve gone for it on 4th down. The time we tried to go for it and failed, is when we should’ve gone for the field goal. *sigh*
lets make it up by beating Clemson, FSU, Miami, and uva. Let’s screw up everyone of their big break-out seasons (well, not uva).
+1 (poor old hoos)
This team can NOT beat Clemson and FSU. No way. We will have 4 losses minimum.
I don’t care about big play potential. We rely too much on the big play. I want moving the chain and consistency. Convert 3rd down. Sometimes we get too big play happy and try too many low-percentage plays. Don’t try to get a HR. Just play.
We hear actually it seems frequently that “this is not us?” When i hear it from an offensive player, I wonder “is it?” because couldn’t they say the same thing against Austin Peay or other teams when they can’t seem to get fired up, play with strong effort, execute? Perhaps it is them. MOST top 10 programs don’t have this type of game every year or often enough that we hear the coaches or players say “this is not VT football” or “us”…. Doesn’t it seem like we hear this at least once a year?
There’s a Persian saying ‘qatra qatra darya mesha’ which means ‘drop by drop makes a river’, or fix the little things and string small successes together.
In our case, we need more players winning their individual battles which will lead to positive yards per play which ultimately results in moving the chains, or preventing the other team from doing likewise. I’m sure the players have been coached techniques to help them win their battles, but I’m not sure that the campaign strategy is effectively putting them in position to succeed. Either it’s not simple enough to prevent heads from tying up feet or we’re not matching strengths against weakness effectively. As for that Pitt game, we lost a LOT of individual battles, particularly at RB, LB, and DB. The last two were probably anomalies, I hope. The first one, jury is still out for another game or two. OL is another subject altogether.
But what is truly strange reading this article and comments is CFB talking about HR play potential and a TSL blogger asking to just move the chains. What in the world of Jerry Claiborne is going on here??!! Talk about cats and dogs moving in together, I’m heading for the hills …
We hardly ever m ake 4th and ones. Kick FG’s – put points on the board.
I thought that was an underated momentum changer. Usually I favor aggressiveness, but that play I felt we needed a confidence booster, instead we lost more.
The time to go for a 4th & 1 is when you have to make it to stay in the game.
So game situation is paramount in making the decision to go on 4th & 1.
If you can kick a field goal – kick it.
Most 4th & 1s are unsuccessful. The majority of field goals are successful.
I’m with Durham – put points on the board.