Tech Talk Live notes for December 8, 2014

Lyle Wolf (Special Assistant to Buzz Williams)

Wolf’s duties are endless.  His #1 responsibility is team travel.  That takes up 60% of his time.  Other than that, he tries to support the staff in many different areas such as budget, team managers, etc.

Getting into the sports industry isn’t as glamorous as many think, but luckily there are a lot of smart people at Virginia Tech that provide a lot of help.  Wolf is from Lexington, Kentucky, so he grew up around great basketball.

Wolf played basketball at Transylvania for a year.  After college, he quit his job as a financial analyst to start working summer basketball camps.  He did a camp at Marquette, and he built a relationship with Buzz Williams.  Williams eventually offered him a job.

Buzz Williams is very good at taking care of his people.  Staff members like to stay with Williams, and he brought most of his staff with him from Marquette.  Wolf has a very strong relationship with Williams.

Williams is a creature of habit.  He likes a nice routine.  Once everyone gets used to the routine, it gets comfortable.

There was some excitement amongst the staff at Marquette when Buzz took the VT job, because they knew he was looking for a change.

Everybody was disappointed in the loss to Radford.  Everybody knows they could have done something more to help win that game.  They recognized their struggles, and they were in a sour mood last night, but there as positive energy on Monday.  They have the spirit to improve.

Winning is very fragile, and the small things are very, very important.  The Hokies had their chances, but they have to do the little things better.  They need to start putting more pressure on the rim so they can get to the free throw line more.

Tech has Tuesday off, but then they will practice Wednesday through Saturday in preparation for Alabama A&M.

By far, Wolf is enjoying the people in Blacksburg more than anything else.  Everybody has been very supportive since Buzz and his staff arrived.  It has felt like home the whole time.

Steve Beck, Executive Director of the Military Bowl

The Military Bowl has been talking to the ACC for the last few weeks about their preferences.  Beck was in Blacksburg for the UVA game, and it was a great atmosphere.  They had to wait and see how the final weekend shook out.  They had five programs to choose from, but they had their eye on Virginia Tech the whole time.

Clemson not getting the Citrus Bowl added NC State to the mix for the Military Bowl, but they felt like Virginia Tech was the best fit.  They are pleased with the matchup with Cincinnati.

The Hokies have sold all but 700 tickets to the Military Bowl.  Beck knew Tech would sell a lot of tickets.  This game will be played in a small stadium, and it will be a great atmosphere.  The fans of each school will have the best tickets, and not corporate sponsors.  That will help the bowl atmosphere.

The teams will stay in Washington, DC and they will arrive on December 23.  They will have a mall tour, etc.  Fans can either stay in DC, or wherever they feel most comfortable.

Tech will wear white for the Military Bowl, even though they are the home team.

Shane Beamer

Frank Beamer is doing great.  He was at home on Sunday resting and watching the Bowl Selection shows.  He feels good, and he’s eager to get going on bowl prep.  The throat procedure is causing some communication issues right now, but he’s okay.

Navy has a great stadium, and it’s a very picturesque place.  It was one of Shane’s most memorable trips as a player at Virginia Tech.  He is a history buff, so it was exciting for him to make that trip.

Shane was at Fork Union for a combine all day on Monday.  There were a number of schools in attendance.  He’ll be in South Carolina all day on Tuesday and Richmond all day on Wednesday.  Tech will practice on Thursday morning, and then go recruiting again on Thursday and Friday.

Tech will get in 13-14 practices before the bowl game.  They are going to practice more this year than they have in the past simply because the team is so young.  It can be like an extra spring practice.  They will also use the time to take a closer look at the players who are currently redshirting.

Shane remembers being at Georgia Tech with George O’Leary, and the team did two-a-days during bowl prep.

Tech only has four chances in the entire high school career of a prospect to sit down face to face with him in his home or in his high school.  They only have two weeks in December and two weeks in January to get those visits in, so these are busy times.

Shane noted that the addition of extra recruiting staff has helped the coaching staff quite a bit this year.  Chuck Cantor and Thomas Guerry take care of most of the day-to-day work, and the Hokies are a lot better now than they were a year ago as a result.

Beamer thinks the committee got it right.  He feels like they got the top four teams in the NCAA Playoff.

The Brandon Facyson injury is a shame.  It was during drills of the wide receivers vs. the defensive backs.  Beamer feels for him because he’s such a great kid.

Beamer feels good about how J.C. Coleman has played over the last three games.  It’s good to see him have some success.  He ran hard and broke a lot of tackles against UVA.  Tech now has four backs on this team who have 100 yard rushing games in their career.

Tech likes this current freshman class a lot.  Many of them have already had a big impact, and they like the guys who are redshirting also.

Holland Fisher is doing a good job on the scout team playing safety.  The scout team just finished all their strength and conditioning for the fall.  They have gotten bigger and stronger over the last few months.

Spring practice will be big, but even more important is the offseason months spent with Mike Gentry.  That will be huge for this young group.

Everybody expected to be better than 6-6, but this is a fun group to work with.  It’s a joy to be around this group.

Stacy Searels has done a good job creating some flexibility up front, with some guys who can play multiple spots.  They are trying to sign as many quality linemen as they can find in February.  They want to get 3-5, but if they can sign more they will take them and worry about the numbers later.

Virginia Tech has held the Commonwealth Cup for 3663 days. #ItsGood2Be #Hokies

— Commonwealth Cup (@CommonwlthCup) December 8, 2014