Tech Talk Live notes for October 27, 2014

By: Chris Coleman | Lead Analyst and Columnist

Whit Babcock

Babcock leaves the football coaching to the people who do it for a living, but he was very impressed with the Tech crowd on Thursday night.  They had a great crowd, and Marty Smith delivered a great message.  He was honored to be there for his first Thursday night game.  He thanked the fans for coming out and being so loud.

Tech has been working on their schedule trying to shift things around in the future.  Ideally, they will have 6-7 home games per year.  They want to have at least one non-conference marquee opponent each year.  Tech will NOT have seven road games in 2019.  They will shift things around to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Another neutral site game isn’t impossible, but the Atlanta game isn’t at the top of the list right now.  They don’t have any big announcements on a neutral site game coming soon.

Tech and WVU have started a Black Diamond Challenge that will cover a variety of sports.  Baseball, wrestling, football, men’s and women’s basketball, and other sports are also involved.  He likes it from several perspectives, including the budget perspective.  Tech can bus to West Virginia and not have to fly.  He would like to look into something with Tennessee, too.  He doesn’t have any interest in playing Maryland right now.

Babcock would never consider covering empty seats with advertisements.  He thinks Lane Stadium is the perfect size, and they hope to start filling it up again.

Tech will talk about going to a tiered pricing system for football.  It won’t necessarily happen, but that’s something they’ll talk about, especially lower priced tickets for first-timers.  They are trying it in basketball this year, and they’ll gain experience from that.  Basketball ticket sales are going pretty well, the student interest seems up, and the marketing people are doing a great job.

Tech had a senior staff meeting on Monday.  They talked about the UNC scandal.  It’s scary and surprising.  Babcock told his staff that if they have any inkling that anything like that is going on at Tech, they need to report it right away.  Tech’s academic support staff reports directly to the University Provost, and he considers that a good thing.  The cover up is actually worse than the crime, and they aren’t going to have that at Tech.

In some ways, Babcock understands how the NCAA handles autograph.  A school can say “if you come here we’ll set you up with an autograph show and somebody will pay you $50 grand for your autographs.”  He thinks it opens Pandora’s Box to cheating.  He’s not a fan of a pay for play system.  It should be an amateur sport.

Frank Beamer

After getting hammered, sometimes you want to throw up after watching the tape, but that wasn’t the case after the Miami game.  They just have to execute better and take care of the football.  He was proud of the way the players and coaches handled themselves.  They ran into a team that was hot.  Beamer doesn’t know if he’s seen a guy who gets in and out of the hole quicker than Duke Johnson.

Tech has to come out and run the ball better in the first half.  It takes pressure off the quarterback, and it makes it easier to be unpredictable with their play calling.

Beamer thought Brewer made a few poor throws in the first half, but he also saw a play on film where the receiver wasn’t at the right depth.  That wasn’t Brewer’s fault.  There were some things he thought right after the game that weren’t true after watching the film.

Tech will give Mark Leal some more reps in practice, but Beamer feels like Michael Brewer gives them the best chance to win.  He does a lot of things well.

The Hokies wanted to get their best talent on the field against Miami, and that’s why they pulled Jerome Wright’s redshirt against Miami.  Marshawn Williams, Wright and Sam Rogers give them the best chance to win.

Marshawn Williams has a great attitude and he’s a team guy.  Beamer is really high on him as a player and a person.  He brings a lot to the table.

Trey Edmunds continues to work hard.  He’s still got a ways to go with his rehab.

Execution builds confidence, and Tech is looking for execution right now.

Tech’s backs didn’t have a single fumble last year, but they lost three against Miami.  They’ve got to do a better job of holding it high and tight.

The Hokies have to do a better job of starting better on offense, and they are working hard to get that done.

Beamer would like to see Demitri Knowles back in there.  He has gotten lost in the shuffle.  They want to get the ball down the field more, and he would fit into those fans.  Tech is spending a lot of time in practice working on the deep ball.  Hopefully they can do that better going forward.

Beamer really appreciates the fans, and he’s sorry they were disappointed.  He knows the team didn’t live up to their end of the bargain.  He knows how much the fans care.  He knows that when the team doesn’t do well, if effects a lot of things in the athletic department, and he doesn’t like that because he wants to see the whole department do well.

Beamer wishes Brenden Motley had been able to go through preseason practice.  Mark Leal played well against Miami.  When you replace your quarterback, it’s always a lot of second guessing.  If it works, great, but if it doesn’t there is always a lot of second guessing.  The bottom line is everybody needs to play better around the quarterback.

Tyler Murphy, the BC quarterback, is a transfer from Florida.  He is their leading rusher, and he does a good job of distributing the ball.  You can expect BC to try to hammer the ball against Tech.  They are big and solid up front.

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  1. I had hoped we would never stoop so low at to play WVU again in anything. They have not changed any since the last time we played them in Morgantown. We need to treat visiting teams with respect and often times it is reciprocated. I remember when LSU came to town, how many compliments there were on how we treated them. But with WVU, they will show no respect period. For sure you will never catch me going to Morgantown.

  2. It is my hope that VT never plays West Virginia in any sport ever again. That fan base deserves all the derision that is thrown their way and VT does not need to play them.

    1. Have to agree. Does anyone actually ask Whit about this in these events or does he just deliver speeches? He was on the AD staff at WVU in 2003 and almost assuredly was at the game that night. Why does he think things have changed? Does he think that behavior was ok? Why is he so hell bent to start up with WVU but has no interest in Maryland? At least Maryland doesn’t have to pepper spray their fans on a regular basis. Someone in the press needs to push questions and get answers.

      1. People did try to get answers and stop Tech from playing WVU. No one listened. Hundreds of Hokies gave their stories of violence on multiple sites. I wrote a letter to the Governor and the Roanoke Times all of which were documented stores.

        The Roanoke Times got blasted by WVU fans. They can beat people burn down towns but you can’t speak against them. The press isn’t going to touch the topic now.

        The Governor called Tech’s president after he received the letter. They had Weaver call and talk to me personally about the matter since I wrote the letters. Weaver said they planned to play the football game. However, if there was any more violence at WVU the planned future games would be canceled and Tech would never play them again. Well, The Governor is going to jail, Tech’s president and AD at the time are now gone. WVU just had a huge riot damaging property and future games with WVU should be stopped. No one is left to do what was promised.

        Add to the fact Tech now has an Athletic Department that is a satellite office for WVU. Few people in VA have ties to coal so the Black Diamond Trophy is all about the people of West Virginia and WVU. The trophy has nothing to do with Virginia Tech or the citizens of Virginia. It’s a great deal for WVU to have a team that will draw money for them. WVU will benefit from not traveling across the country for Olympic sports but it’s not helping Tech. We already have close teams in the ACC and can add easier trips like TN, MD, and SC.

        Now you know the issue has been pushed at all levels. I also find it shocking that Tech and government officials want to play them with so many wanting it stopped because of their violet fans. I’ve never seen Hokies try not to play a school but we tried.

        WVU fans say it’s just a couple of bad fans and all teams have them…I’ve been to a lot of away games and never seen what WVU does to people anywhere. Hide your pregnant wives…they have beaten them too. Ask the 5 mo pregnant LSU fan and her husband that was air lifted to Pittsburgh in order to save his life after the WVU/LSU game. That’s not including batteries, coin rolls or sand filled bottles thrown at players and coaches.

        Get ready to watch Blacksburg burn and see our colors changed to blue and gold. Get ready because you can’t stop it even if you want too. No one will listen.

  3. Typical Beamer speak. Both a pro and a con in itself. This team has hit rock bottom. You would think logic would encourage you to do something different. I have never seen an offense regress from the start of the season towards the end so badly. Leal or Motley may not be the better than Brewer but I wish Tech would change up this stagnant seaspool of an offense with something new. BC has a defense that can make this current offense even more dismalm

    1. Team could be a lot worse, ie France. We will win a couple more games. If we can beat BC, I can see us winning out.

      1. I wish you were right about winning out. But I can easily see us losing nearly every game as well (especially the way that Tech is playing right now). It could get even uglier.

  4. I have no problem in Whitt’s future scheduling for our sports teams playing big teams close to VT. But I sure wished I could hear something different from our Head Football Coach …

  5. I’m all for playing Tennessee more in sports, especially football and basketball, but I hope Tech will continue to play Maryland in some sports, especially, basketball, lacrosse, and soccer since we depend on that area for recruiting. Plus Tech has 1,200 undergraduates from that state and it has the most alumni outside of Virginia.

    1. I think in the short term ACC schools are going to more or less unofficially boycott UMD to the degree possible for their exodus from the Conference. Once the exit fee is settled I imagine it will blow over.

  6. Re: 2019

    “Hello ECU, can we move the 2019 game to Blacksburg? We’ll extend the series for another 2-3 yrs….”

  7. “Another neutral site game isn’t impossible, but the Atlanta game isn’t at the top of the list right now” I know…..how about WVU…..I bet Whit could pull that off.

      1. Yes, I’m aware of the teams (VTvsWVU) playing at FedEx….the comment was 110% sarcasm. Better choices are to play USC in Charlotte,Penn State in DC, Maryland in Baltimore, or Georgia in Atlanta.

  8. Whit sure seems to be promoting WVU a lot. I thought he was hired as the Virginia Tech AD. WVU has lost money -making rival games and playing Tech will only help WVU ticket sales. Playing baseball at Princeton did nothing for Tech and everything for WVU. Tech has classier teams and fans to play against now. There are still lots of tech fans who never want to play WVU again. Good job trying to get WVU sales up. Stop promoting WVU!

    1. Git r dun. We need a legit rival (whistle past the grave yard of UVA) and we will weather the storm of Beamers retirement. F$U is fine post Bowden.

    2. WVU has been a great rival in the past—- the two ADs need to make sure they address the fan treatment problems. Especially the WVU administration needs to take a more active roll in fixing the behavior of students and fans. They could start by kicking some of the malefactors out of WVU.

      2. I must agree that there is no reason to play WVA now, until they have cleaned up their act. The way opposing fans are treated has no place in college football. Please save us from that agony.

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