Collegiate Times

There's no denying the fact that offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring has come under heavy fire from the media and fans in recent years for, what some consider, questionable play calling and lack of offensive production.

But Stinespring has kept his position throughout all the condemnation and has remained in good standing with head coach Frank Beamer, who has stuck by his offensive coordinator since Stinespring was promoted to the position in December of 2001.

Beamer even successfully lobbied for a five-year contract for Stinespring several years ago.

"If anybody can come into my office Friday afternoon and convince me he's more knowledgeable than Bryan Stinespring, I'll listen to him," Beamer said in a press conference earlier this season. "Until then, I'm going to continue to listen to Bryan."

Stinespring joined the Tech coaching staff in 1990 as a graduate student after coaching four years of high school football.

"I came to Tech to get my master's degree and try to get some collegiate coaching experience," Stinespring said. "I did that for two years in hopes to make an impression on coach Beamer. After the 1992 season, I was hired onto the staff. It was one of the best days in my life."

Since Stinespring's first season as offensive coordinator in 2002, Tech's total offensive numbers have slowly declined. The Hokies have only had a top-40 offense once in the last seven years and ranked 99th and 100th nationally in total offensive yards in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Because the Hokies' offense featured several NFL-caliber players such as wide receivers David Clowney and Eddie Royal and running back Branden Ore in the past two seasons, much of the blame was placed on Stinespring for poor statistics.

"A lot of people pay attention to stats and where you are in comparison to other teams," Stinespring said. "All I really get caught up in, though, is how we're doing record-wise. If you're doing a nice job on offensive, defense and special teams, then the only stat that really matters is the final outcome of the game."

This season, however, the offensive numbers have been even lower than the average under Stinespring. Currently, Tech is ranked 113th out of 119 Division I-A teams in the country with 280 yards per game of total offense. The Hokies have also averaged 120 passing yards, good for 112th in the country.

"I think the reason for the poor statistics from the offense is that we're not getting yardage in chunks," Stinespring said. "We've had a tough time coming by the big plays -- whether it's running the ball, throwing the ball or yards after catch. We've only had a few plays this season that have gone for 20 or more yards. I think some of it is due to inexperience and injuries, and some of it is due to our inability to explode. When you're not capitalizing on those big time plays, I think those absence of yards adds up."

Amidst the decline in production from his offense, Stinespring's coaching philosophy remains simple.

"My goal is to put our players in a position to be successful on and off the field," Stinespring said. "I try to do the best I can preparing the players that I've been put in charge of. I try to make sure I've placed them in a fundamental situation in which they're going to be successful come Saturday."

Stinespring claims that he focuses solely on this objective. He has repeatedly insisted that he does not pay attention to the assessments from the media or fans.

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