While the eye of the storm last week centered around Marcus Vick, there was a
lot of turbulence circulating around Frank Beamer and the VT football program as
well. Sparked by “The Stomp,” fans and media took the opportunity to
question the behavior of the VT football team as a whole, and Frank Beamer’s
disciplinary methods for the Hokie program. Vick is gone now, as of last Friday,
and it’s an opportunity for the Hokies not just to heal and move on from the
Vick area, but to look at how they do things, top to bottom, and improve.

While
opinions on the message boards ran to both extremes –which is their nature,
since people tend to post only if they’re really happy or really ticked off —
the Hokie fans I canvassed in person over the weekend said one of two things:
(1) “It was the right decision”; or (2) “I’m not sure what I
would have done, but …” followed by a shrug, indicating that they didn’t
feel what VT did was wholly right or wrong.

Me personally? I’m in the camp that thinks that VT’s hand was forced by
Marcus’ repeated inability to control himself, and through his
“cumulative” record of problems, as VT President Charles Steger put
it.

I’m just glad it’s over. (I heard that one over the weekend, too.) Marcus
Vick’s career at Virginia Tech created quite a bit of message board furor and
work for me personally over the years. Last Friday, the web site did about
850,000 page views, an astronomical figure for a site that averages about
350k-450k page views a day during football season and usually does 550,000 on
the Monday after a football game. While fans view Marcus’ career and last week’s
controversy through their own set of criteria, it’s impossible for me to remove
from consideration the tremendous amount of stress and strain that the site
underwent every time Marcus veered astray. That stuff takes its toll, and I’m
glad it won’t happen again. Not centered around Marcus, anyway.

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