What to do during the long hot days of summer?

Sigh. Summer. And by sigh, I mean, I love summer, I do. I love the beach, not having to wear a jacket, not having to help the Football Children with homework, sitting outside in the evening with a beverage, fireworks, cookouts and all that other small town America stuff.

What I do not love, however, is that the college football season is still so very far away. I can be doing any of my usual summer activities and things just pop into my head, like, “Will Logan Thomas be any good this year, Cam Newton like hype notwithstanding?” Or, “Will David Wilson injure himself trying to do more than 10 backflips in a row and therefore be unable to be awesome this season?” Or, “Who decided that THIS was a good idea? Have the scheduling geniuses not learned from the last two losing efforts?” And I have no answers. I just have to wait. Wait, wait, wait.

But then, something awesome has happened to balance out the waiting. The Football Boy (my son) discovered You Tube this year, and began searching for Virginia Tech highlight videos, amongst other inappropriate things. (Happy Tree Friends? Really? And not quite as inappropriate, but equally as stupid, Nerf gun wars. They’re everywhere. Who films these?) His favorite?

Although I’m partial to this one, bad video quality and all:

Best part of this new obsession? I can now waste hours on You Tube looking at VT football stuff because, hey, it’s for my kid, right? We’re bonding. Spending time together. Yeah.

A Change Will Do You Good?

Is he in? Is he out? Both? Neither?

“Seek opportunity, not security. A boat in the harbor is safe, but in time it’s bottom will rot out”.

And so it is with Virginia Tech.

In 1992, faced with the worst season in ages and told that something had to give and fast, Frank Beamer was forced to make some pretty big coaching changes. He did, and pretty much hasn’t made too many since. Until this week.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy with what we’ve accomplished this season,” says Beamer, who is finishing his seventh season at Tech. “But we’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

That was Frank Beamer at the end of 1993. And, I for one, am finally glad to see he’s still got bigger fish to fry. 10 win seasons? Good stuff, but I think that these off season moves signify what all fans have been curious about; that Frank wants more. And these changes, however cosmetic they may seem, signify that he is going to try to get there. Relationships nonwithstanding. Jerry Maguire learned that it’s not show friends, it’s show business. It’s not personal. Football is a business.

FACT: Young coaches win championships. Gene Chizik, 48. Urban Meyer, 46. Chip Kelly, 47. Even Jim Tressel is a youthful 57.

FACT: Old guys don’t. Joe Paterno, 104.

Even though Beamer is only 5 years older than some big names like Nick Saban and Pete Carroll, he’s not getting any younger, and college football is increasingly becoming a young man’s game. (Thanks to Gobbler Country for already doing this research for me, as I found when I googled “how old are the last few college coaches to win a championship”). Beamer can’t make himself any younger, save for finding that elusive Fountain of Youth (was it Ponce DeLeon who was looking for that? I never can remember my explorers). But what he can do, is surround himself with talent. Young talent.

“Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make…”-Lord Farquaad

Is this the be all end all answer to the Hokies woes? Probably not. Stiney is still helming the ship, though in some kind of reduced capacity. And I hate it for the guys who are now forced into administrative roles. Hite is older than the program itself, and it’s always sad to see an institution die. However, sometimes sacrifices must be made, one taken for the team, as it were. Same with Cavanaugh, although this one hurts a little more, considering ESPN had just named him one of the top 25 recruiters in the country. Also on that list though, Shane Beamer, and look where he is now. I don’t know how much Shane knows about coaching running backs, per se, but apparently he’s a heck of a recruiter, and the Hokies could use a couple more of those right now. I do hear that Cavanaugh has been on a Hokie Club tour and is not making much secret of either his ambivalence about his new role, or about the fact that VT is seriously hurting in recruiting particularly O-Line guys. Nonetheless, something is always better than nothing in the Virginia Tech coaching universe, and we shall wait to see how this one unfolds.

Because no self respecting Hokie blogger should let this week go by without it:

 

Never, ever gets old.

Bah ha ha ha ha, Dukies. Maybe it doesn’t get anyone off the bubble, but is sure felt damn good.

 

 

 

What happened this week in VT athletics

We are few weeks removed from the Spring Game and the NFL draft, and usually the headlines are pretty quiet abut this time.  However, this was a pretty interesting week in the Hokie Halls. 

1.  Jake Johnson decided to transfer (plus so did Patrick Terry, but I’ll be honest here and say I didn’t know anything about him, so I can’t get too worked up about it).  I was sorry to hear about Johnson, though.  He started last year with some promise, and some (albeit) raw talent.  However, the move from LB to defensive end apparently did him no favors.  It’s a shame that all this:

didn’t transfer to the field.  But, I wish him well and much success at whatever D2 school he chooses.

2.  Malcolm Delaney decides NOT to continue with the NBA draft process.  He announced it himself on Twitter and it was confirmed on ESPN.  This is good news for the Tech basketball team, and should hopefully be a step toward actually making the tourney next year. 

3.  Heather over at the ESPN ACC blog released her spring wrap-ups for all the teams.  She still gives Miami way too much preseason love, and even predicted the Canes upsetting the Hokies on November 20th, but at least had enough sense to rank the Hokies 1st in post spring power rankings.  Thanks, Heather.

And, completely unrelated, but something I can’t get out of my head because of the grossness of it, we found out this week that Jessica Simpson only brushes her teeth three times a week, because she doesn’t like them to feel “slippery”.  Um, yuck.

So, that’s it folks.  Just a little something to keep you going until Boise State, 121 days from now.

The Spring Game AND the NFL Draft. What a great weekend!

For Tech football fans, this was one of the best weekends in quite some time.  We had both the Spring Game to get excited about, and the draft to follow.  So much football stuff flying around, I hardly knew where to look first….

SPRING GAME

I’m not exactly sure what the Spring Game tells us offensively, because apparently the O-Line is split between the Maroon and the White Team, so I would imagine that the line is kind of a hot mess train wreck.  But, it seems that the backup quarterback race may have gotten a little less muddy, if the Hokie blogging nation is to be believed.  Logan Thomas, QB of the Maroon team, provided us with a touchdown drive in which he went 5 for 5 passing.  Clayton had a few more passing yards, but threw his 5th pick of the spring and had no TD’s.  Apparently neither QB played particularly well in the 2nd half and Thomas even got sick and had a little vomiting incident at the end of the game.  Again, if I had to call this one right now, I’d say Thomas will end up with the job, even though technical skill wise, it sounds like he’s got a looonnnngggg way to go.

The defensive side of the game seemed to be dominated by some pretty fierce play by both Steven Friday (DE), who had two sacks and seemed to really have some speed off the edge, and by Antone Exum, who judging by the tweets about him during the game, is an absolute beast.  It seems that the combo of Friday and James Gayle is going to be a good one.  I’m looking forward to hearing what Bud Foster thinks of his starting guys. 

NFL DRAFT

As everyone knows by now, the Hokies had 5 players drafted this year, beginning with Jason Worilds, who went in the second round (52nd overall) to the Pittsburgh Steelers, a team that I haven’t liked in years because of their lack of Hokies on the roster.  Although, they seem to be making up for it now.  Other Hokies selected were:

• Kam Chacellor, 5th round to the Seattle Seahawks
• Ed Wang, 5th round to the Buffalo Bills
• Brent Bowden, 6th round to the Tampa Bay Bucs (which surprised me.  A punter being drafted?  Odd).
• and finally, the feel-good moment of the draft, Cody Grimm in the 7th to the Bucs

Some other Hokies signed free agent deals, including Stephan Virgil, who signed with the Bills, and Sergio Render, who signed with the Bucs.  Wow, if those guys stick around I’ll be watching quite a bit of Buc and Bill football, something I never thought I’d say.  Hokie Sports.com also reports that deals were signed by Cordarrow Thompson (Steelers), Greg Boone and Nekos Brown (Bucs again) and Demetrius Taylor (Steelers).

Statistically speaking……

Virginia Tech: third-down conversions. Statistically speaking, the Hokies weren’t really bad at anything. So let’s focus on their two ACC losses, to Georgia Tech and North Carolina. In those games, Virginia Tech was a combined 8-of-23 on third downs, well under its season conversion rate of 43 percent.

From espn.com, where they took the Coastal Division teams (Duke, Miami, GT, Virginia, VT and North Carolina) and suggested one improvement that could take each team from good to great.  Or okay to pretty decent.  Or, from hopelessly crappy to marginally sucky.  Something like that.

Cause I’m a sucker for a feel good story….

Spring practice and scrimmages are upon us, and so we are being treated to almost daily (!) updates from Kyle Tucker of the Virginian-Pilot.  Thanks to him, I now know that our d-line is seriously depleted, and thank the good Lord that we still have John Graves;  that secondary coach Torrian Gray has some concerns about Cris Hill’s focus, although he may be close to turning a corner, but Jayron Hosley could be a player of Macho Harris/Brandon Flowers caliber;  and that Kenny Lewis Jr. is one heck of a tough kid.  (Kid?  Man?  He’s 25.  What do I call him?)  He also shares some scrimmage stats for who may be winning the backup QB race, although I don’t put much stock in scrimmage stats.  I prefer to wait until fall practice starts to begin panicking about such things.  (Although, if I was a betting kind of chick, which I’m not, I don’t have the cash for it, I’d put what little scratch I have on Logan Thomas.  He’s just more physically gifted.  The rest will come). 

Finally, if you are experiencing March Madness letdown, the guys (Kids?  Men?  What would you call them?) over at The North End Zone have decided to find out what is the best movie quote of all time.  Although I’m slightly embarrassed by my lack of knowledge of many of the quotes, it is certainly worth a look and a vote. 

If my math is right, we are a mere 115 days away from FOOTBALL SEASON.  It’s about time.

 

Does it make sense to move Oglesby to fullback?

I was out of town for a few days and came back to the news that Josh Oglesby has been moved (because the tailback spot is a wee bit crowded with a heck of a lot of talent) to fullback. 

Hmmm.  What to think of this?  I have a couple thoughts, none of which are probably worth anything, but you’re here, so you might as well read about it. 

I first thought the move was a kind of death sentence for Oglesby.  After all, fullbacks haven’t been much of a factor in the Hokie offense in the last, say, seven years.  This was confirmed by Kyle Tucker’s article, which showed this:

VIRGINIA TECH’S FULLBACK PRODUCTION

2009: 0 carries, 1 catch for 7 yards

2008: 1 carry for 2 yards, 4 catches for 21 yards

2007: 6 carries for 4 yards, 9 catches for 31 yards

2006: 7 carries for 17 yards, 8 catches for 72 yards

2005: 0 carries, 3 catches for 15 yards

2004: 2 carries for 4 yards, 3 catches for 24 yards

2003: 5 carries for 23 yards, 16 catches for 123 yards

Yikes.  And Oglesby isn’t a half bad RB.  He just has the misfortune of being around when the Hokies have two kick ass tailbacks in Darren Evans and Ryan (mf) Williams.  But then, and I swear this is true, I thought, wonder if VT is planning to revive the fullback position and restore it to it’s former glory, a la the Jarrett Ferguson years.  (Really.  I actually did think this, and lo and behold, it’s true.  At least that’s what they are telling us anyway). 

Check out these numbers:

2002: 23 carries for 122 yards, 16 catches for 128 yards

2001: 50 carries for 193 yards, 38 catches for 376 yards

2000: 72 carries for 314 yards, 13 catches for 191 yards

1999: 52 carries for 259 yards, 12 catches for 181 yards

1998: 51 carries for 246 yards, 12 catches for 166 yards

1997: 101 carries for 531 yards, 29 catches for 272 yards

1996: 78 carries for 338 yards, 15 catches for 223 yards

Almost seems like a whole different position, doesn’t it?  And it isn’t like the Hokies utilized the fullback because of a lack of tailbacks during all those years.  The early 2000′s in particular were the Lee Suggs years. 

I don’t know much, but I kind of like a fullback as an option.  Maybe this will be a good thing all around. 

 

If I were a football player, I’d be an offensive tackle

And not because I’m that big……

I just finished taking the Wonderlic test, the test given to NFL draft prospects at the Combine, and I scored a 32.  According to ESPN.com, average scores by player stack up like this:

Offensive tackles: 26
Centers: 25
Quarterbacks: 24
Guards: 23
Tight Ends: 22
Safeties: 19
Middle linebackers: 19
Cornerbacks: 18
Wide receivers: 17
Fullbacks: 17
Halfbacks: 16

Average scores in other professions are as follows:

Chemist: 31
Programmer: 29
Newswriter: 26
Sales: 24
Bank teller: 22
Clerical Worker: 21
Security Guard: 17
Warehouse: 15

I’m not a chemist, either.  I guess I’m just really, really smart.  (Actually, I’m pretty surprised I scored as well as I did.)

And, just because I had that kind of time on my hands today, I poked around a little and found out some scores of former Hokies:

• Marcus Vick-11
• Bryan Randall-19
• Michael Vick-20
• Kevin Jones-15
• Ernest Wilford-19
• DeAngelo Hall-23
• Josh Morgan-19/26 (the site I found these said these were ones who took it twice)
• Duane Brown-29/32
• Chris Ellis-14/22
• Xavier Adibi-13/20
• Vince Hall-14/23
• Orion Martin-23/47

(Meh.  It was a way to pass some time.)

Oh, and just in case you don’t have enough bracket groups to enter, here’s another one.  This one is pretty cool, though, cause you can win a Virginia Tech t-shirt.  I know I’ll be entering.  I won’t win, of course, but it’s good to dream.

2010 VT football schedule is out

And here it is:

Date		Opponent	Time/Result	TV	Location
Spring Game
Sat., Apr 24, 2010		White vs. Maroon	2 p.m.		Lane Stadium
Mon., Sep 6, 2010		vs. Boise State	8 p.m.		FedExField, Landover, Md.
White Out
Sat., Sep 11, 2010		James Madison	TBA		Lane Stadium
Sat., Sep 18, 2010		East Carolina	TBA		Lane Stadium
Sat., Sep 25, 2010		at Boston College *	TBA		Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Sat., Oct 2, 2010		at NC State *	TBA		Raleigh, N.C.
Sat., Oct 9, 2010		Central Michigan	TBA		Lane Stadium
Sat., Oct 16, 2010		Wake Forest *	TBA		Lane Stadium
Sat., Oct 23, 2010		Duke *	TBA		Lane Stadium
Thu., Nov 4, 2010		Georgia Tech *	7:30 p.m.		Lane Stadium
Sat., Nov 13, 2010		at North Carolina *	TBA		Chapel Hill, N.C.
Sat., Nov 20, 2010		at Miami *	TBA		Miami Gardens, Fla.
Sat., Nov 27, 2010		Virginia *	TBA		Lane Stadium
ACC Championship
Sat., Dec 4, 2010		Atlantic vs. Coastal	TBA		Bank of America, Charlotte, N.C.
What do you think about the Boise State game being the “White Out” game?  Do we want all white stands for an ESPN night game?  Just wondering….

Signing Day 2010

I have never really been huge into Signing Day, kind of falling along the same lines as the guys at The North End Zone that ranking recruiting classes based on the high school playing ability of 18 year old boys is kind of stupid.  The guys at the NEZ listed the top 5 recruiting classes LAST year.  Hmmm.  Didn’t seem to work out so great for those guys.  (And I know all you recruiting people are going to lecture me on how it takes a few years for a class to develop.  Yeah, yeah.)

1.  Tennessee  2.  Michigan  3.  FSU  4.  Georgia  5.  Oklahoma

But, the Hokies did seem to score a pretty solid class.  While only landing one ESPNU 150 guy, safety Nick Dew, they did land seven of Virginia’s top 13 players, and 10 of the top 25, including defensive end Zach McCray and offensive lineman Mark Shuman. 

The Hokies also continued the trend of having signing siblings of either current or former players.  This year, four players, Kyle Fuller (brother of former player and current Tennessee Titan Vincent Fuller), Mark Shuman (brother of former player Ryan Shuman), Tahrick Peak (brother of current player Nubian Peak), and Derrick Hopkins (brother of current player Antoine Hopkins) will begin their Hokie careers. 

The class will probably end up ranked somewhere in the mid twenties, but the Hokies have a history of doing very well without the flashy recruiting.  The Hokies had the 23rd ranked class last year according to Rivals.com, and the 18th in 2008.

If you want to see the entire roster, click here.