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If you’re trying out a boxing career, it’s probably not the best idea to schedule Evander Holyfield for your first fight.
That’s been the mentality lately at Virginia Tech, and it’s clearly backfiring.
For the third time in four seasons, the Hokies played in — and lost — a crucial early season game against a premiere opponent.
For the third time in four seasons, the Hokies cost themselves a shot at an unbeaten season and a national championship.
This time around, it was Boise State ripping the souls out of the Tech faithful with a five-play, 56-yard drive in the final two minutes to win 33-30.
“I really wish in college football we had an exhibition game or a scrimmage against somebody other than yourself,” said Frank Beamer, head coach.
Beamer’s wish could easily be his command.
Eight ACC teams opened their seasons on Saturday against lower-level FCS opponents. All eight won, by an average of more than 30 points.
Instead of introducing seven new defensive starters against the nation’s highest-scoring offense from a year ago, they could have tuned up against a creampuff in Blacksburg.
That’s what Miami and Florida State did. Both of those teams cruised to wins at home Saturday before showdowns with No. 2 Ohio State and No. 7 Oklahoma, respectively.
The Hokies played undisciplined, immature football against Boise State, which is to be expected with so many newcomers on such a huge stage.
The miscues started on the game’s second play, when quarterback Tyrod Taylor lost a fumbled snap deep in Hokie territory.
“(Center Beau Warren) thought I was in the shotgun,” Taylor said.
It continued on the next Tech possession with a blocked punt by Boise State, which led to a 10-0 Broncos’ lead just five minutes into the game.
“It was a new guy communicating to a new guy,” Beamer said. “We turned their best punt blocker loose.”
That doesn’t happen in week two or three.
Usually reliable kickoff man Justin Meyer kicked the ball out of bounds after the Hokies’ first touchdown — with the wind at his back.
“We made some critical (errors) that just aren’t Virginia Tech,” Beamer said.
And the biggest blunder of them all came from redshirt freshman D.J. Coles, who committed two fouls on a single play that led to the Broncos taking a 17-0 lead.
All in all, four special teams miscues contributed to a 20-point swing in the first half, yet Tech amazingly only trailed by six points at halftime.
Once the Hokies regained the feeling in their stomach from being kicked so hard early, it was an inexperienced offensive line that was the ultimate downfall.
A version of this article appeared in the Sep 8 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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So according to the article Boise State had nothing to do with the loss. Everything had to do with an inexperienced offensive line and inexperienced linebackers. Boise State was playing the first game of the season as well, with about 3/4 of the stadium against them. Give some credit where credit is due. You got beat. Deal with it.
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uhm yeah. Tech practically spotted Boise 17 points, then had to play catch up.
Then to top it off Stiney decides to throw the ball to kill run the clock. Then Williams runs OOB, then we heave it deep twice to try to get into field goal range in one go.
Stiney just does not understand Offense and his O-line is as poris as swiss cheese.
Add the two blown calls by the officials, and I have to say Boise did absolutely nothing spectacular in this game. They just got lucky breaks and blown calls and coverages.
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could not agree more
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I agree the lost can be blamed on our inexperience. I think that's obvious from the way we started the first half...But, if this program wants to be one of the elite programs in the nation, then playing Boise State in the first week or the tenth week shouldn't matter. There is a pattern of us being weak early in the season, and coincidently, there's a pattern of us not being considered one of the elite teams.
It all just boils down to this...go out and play tough football and don't make excuses.
But look on the bright side, at least we've got the biggest lockers in the nation now, that should count for something.
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lockrooms dont count for anything! winning big games accounts for EVERYTHING
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I'm pretty sure the locker room statement was supposed to be sarcastic...
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Fire Bryan Stinespring. It is as easy as that.
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I agree! 4 long-bombs in a row? No quick out routes? Why are we snapping the ball with 15-25 seconds on the clock when we are trying to kill the game?! Worst OC EVER!
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As much as I hate Stinespring, Tyrod was calling those plays at the end. The QB runs the <2 minute drill.
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yes, and when Tyrod is given five terrible plays to choose from, whose fault is it?
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It would be the thing we have to do at last. So why not do it early and sharp the offense now?
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Will someone give Frank Beamer a pacifier.
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As much as much as we love the guy, ...the truth is Beamer is not the guy to bring us to a National Championship. Beamer is a nice guy with an "we played hard but we got to improve" personality season after season.
Take a guy like Nick Saban who has a no excuses personality and is pretty hard core. Look what he did at Alabama in just a few years. We don't need a coach as hard cut as Saban but maybe a mix of Beamer and Saban traits. Enter Bud Foster.
Foster is a "get the job done" type of guy and doesn't take excuses but he also gives credit to his players when it's due.
Beamer is just too complacent how the program is to win a championship. Granted he built the program out of nothing but even Beamer said he is totally ok if he retires with an empty trophy case.
So maybe we just shouldn't get our hopes up every year despite the talent and just come to expect a "decent" team but not a national championship caliber team. We just lack the discipline and preparation against top opponents (0-25 against top 5)as it showed against Bosie State.
It just won't happen with Beamer and now that his contract is extended, we shouldn't expect it until 2016 and IF Foster is still around to take over.
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Blowing games like this and embarrassing ourselves on national TV to add to our 0-25 record against top 5 AP opponents is another reason why we shouldn't schedule big games. This is why we only get 3 and 4 star recruits in VA and neighboring states. Given that we still have the talent to do well and build a powerhouse program (like Alabama), just not the discipline.
Just consider the recruiting potential if we beat a top 5 opponent on National Television. We were so close and had it made but we gave them the game at the end.
What a shame and waste of potential.
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You didn't "give them the game at the end", Kellen Moore took the game from you. Man up and accept your loss.
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A lot of things have to go right to win a national championship, considering the number of teams with the talent to go undefeated. Even if a unanimously agreed-upon "best" team falls, there are plenty of others to step up and take their place. That's why the SEC always manages to send someone to the national championship. All it takes is one team to have the right combination of luck and skill, and when your conference usually has at least 3 or 4 such teams, one is bound to win out. While a loss in week 1 is devastating because it all but ends championship chances, a team like VT that is trying to prove it can hang with the big boys without Michael Vick must play these games. We would not have beaten Alabama last season no matter when we played them. Top opponents also get better after week 1.
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Terribly self-centered article. The Holyfield analogy doesn't work, unless you are talking about HIS first fight as well. The fact is that if you are going to beat a top 5 team, you may as well play them first and hope that your summer preparation is better than theirs. A lot of the premier teams looked real sloppy last weekend. Just another excuse for losing.
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Jesus, every year Tech fans say the same thing, over and over and over and over and over. "Beamer has to go! Foster is the man!" Our defense rules!" Yada, yada, yada,yada, blah, blah, blah.
Virginia Tech is lucky to even be where you are. Every singling freaking year you guys are simply HANDED a shot at the national title. EVERY YEAR! You whine about tough schedules and playing cupcakes, and I say to you, YOUR SCHEDULE IS A JOKE. HOW MANY CUPCAKES DO YOU WANT TO PLAY?????
Four non-BCS games this year. FOUR! Nobody else in the whole damn ACC plays as many!Nobody else in the COUNTRY plays as many! Then you have to man up against DUKE, WAKE FOREST and NCSTATE? And MARYLAND? And you are crying because of your HARD SCHEDULE????
For the love of all that is holy, please, shut up. You guys are ridiculous. What, do you want to add William and Mary (again) and make it five on your way to a NC?
As if.
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That's why the 10 wins season mantra can only be taken so much because half of those wins are against weak out of conference (cup cake teams) and weak ACC opponents. Maybe Georgia Tech, Miami, UNC/Boston College in some seasons are actually the more challenging teams. The rest are a joke. I'm a hokies fan but I partially agree with you on that.
However I think the fans are frusturated with not seeing a positive trend. We seem to be settling on 10 wins against the same teams (most part) a season year after year and maybe an ACC championship if we are lucky. We've only been close to the NC ranked 4th once since 1999 which was in 2007. Every other year we seem to choke a game or two that shouldn't have happened because of the same old story "we didn't execute". The coaches don't execute.
That is what the fuss is about. We are saying we shouldn't play these top opponents because we don't deserve to. We just don't have the coaching skill/discipline to pull it off. Look at Beamer's record for crying out loud!
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Ok, if you want to consider Boise State in the same class as ECU, CMU, and JMU...
Our strength of schedule is certainly not the best, but it's far from the worst. Alabama has Duke, Georgia State and San Jose State on their schedule. OSU has Marshall, Ohio, and Eastern Michigan. Don't get me started on Boise State's and TCU's cupcakes. Texas has Rice, Wyoming, and Florida Atlantic, not to mention several in-conference snoozers. That rounds out the top 5. Want me to keep going?
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If I'm not mistaken, Boise State made us move the game to the first week. It was originally scheduled for October 2nd, and the first game for VT was supposed to be against some team from Michigan. The way I see it, Boise State figured they would have to play well above their level to beat the hokies in october, so they moved it to the first game, hoping tech would beat themselves, which was the case.
Boise States offense proved nothing to me during the game. They got 17 points handed to them. The only time they had a decent drive was the last drive, which was aided by some terrible play calling by tech and some sketchy penalties or lack their of. I would be fine with admitting that Boise was better if they actually were, but I can't say that, because the hokies beat themselves on monday.
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I wish, wish, wish, wish that the opening games were in Lane Stadium if we are the HOME team!!! If this keeps up, NOVA will have a new facility..."Lane Stadium North"! Come on Weaver, keep Hokie football in the 'burg!!
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Some of these people leaving comments about Coach Beamer are out of touch. You should be thankful he is still here. The Hokies have consistently performed well season after season. They lost by 3 points to one of the best, if not the best team in the country. I agree VT should consider beating up a cupcake for their first game, but all this nonsense about coaches and staff for VT is nonsense. VT will do great this season and you know it.
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@Hoosier-Hokie
What does beamer's record against top 5 teams tell you?... 1-26. Even dumb luck/sheer statistical odds would have a higher record like 6/26.
I mean if you are content with consecutive 10 win season's against the same opponents and a decent bowl that we sometimes blow and sometimes win then you have a point but some fans ....actually a lot of fans would like us to do better since we have the talent to do so, just not the intellectual coaching ability and discipline. Perhaps a lot of fans like yourselves are complacent/naive/oblivious to what we could accomplish with the right coaching and play calling which is why we haven't won a National Championship yet. Nothing will change until the fan base and boosters call for it.
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watching ya play an inferior team right now and there are 15 secs left
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If we can't beat JMU, does any of this matter?
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I'm not tired of the big games early. I'm tired of being overrated early. Also, we only had that game on Labor day because ESPN and Nike paid big $ to get us to move it and wear those uni's.
Now we lose to JMU (seriously?). I kind of miss the pre-Vick days where we didn't know what to expect out of the year. At least then I my hopes weren't crushed by week 2. Oh yeah, and learn to kick a friggin field goal so you don't need to panic to get a TD at the end of a game.
PS. Fire Stiney
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Show courage. Don't just give the tepid "fire Stinespring". It's time to put BEAMER out to retirement.
When Alabama was getting kicked around a few years ago, they shook up their coaching staff and brought in Nick Saban.
Why can't we have a Nick Saban like coach in Blacksburg as opposed to Frank Beamer, who is content to just show up at the game, not win it.
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Jim Weaver needs to give Coach Beamer 2 options:
1) You either fire Brian Stinespring or
2) I fire both of you
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who do we schedule easier than jmu? its not the schedule, its the team. were just not good this year. and we have the tech writers covering up how bad we are by blaming the schedule.
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they played team on basically 3 days rest and preparation after what was essentially a bowl game: returned in the wee AMhours of Tuesday...so it was a lost day, somewhat recovered on wed after hopefully normal day of sleep and school, thursday first full normal day of practice/prep and class, friday normal home game prep, sat game....i blame weaver not the team or the coaches.
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