John Graves makes a tackle against the JMU offense in the Hokies' loss Saturday.
The Virgina Tech Hokies are feeling rather water logged, as the pouring rain not only washed out the crowd’s annual “White Out,” but also what was supposed to be an easy victory.
For the first time since 1995, the Hokies dropped their home opener in a 21-16 loss to the James Madison University Dukes.
Though the Hokies were never the dominant force that they were expected to be, they did have the lead for most of the game. It was only after a fourth quarter run by quarterback Drew Dudzik that the Hokies found themselves looking up to JMU.
Tech started the game well with a defensive stop followed by a 17-play, 96-yard scoring drive that ate up more than eight minutes of the first quarter.
After using the rushing attack almost exclusively in the drive, it was capped off with an 11-yard completion to Jarrett Boykin, who found a hole right behind the JMU linebackers for the score.
Again using the run, the Hokies tacked on three more points two drives later with a Chris Hazley field goal from 30 yards away.
Things continued to go smoothly for the Hokies until JMU running back Jamal Sulivan broke tackles from Bruce Taylor and Jayron Hosley – turning a simple screen pass into a 77-yard touchdown.
“We have got to come back next week and tackle better,” Taylor said. “We will probably have a ton of tackling drills, and I'm glad we are.”
The play gave the Dukes their first sign of life, as they had just 15 yards of total offense before the touchdown.
The Hokies were able to respond with a 41-yard Hazley field goal with 19 seconds to play in the half, but the 13-7 score was anything but the blowout predicted.
Following the break, the Hokies drove all the way to JMU’s 10-yard line, but had to settle for yet another field goal.
The Hokies have just four touchdowns in nine red zone possessions this season, a significant drop from 2009, when they scored a touchdown 60 percent of the time once in the red zone.
“It’s very frustrating,” said running back Ryan Williams. “I’m used to last year. We would get in the red zone and punch it down low and get into the end zone regardless of whether it’s a pass or a run.”
JMU countered Tech’s field goal by putting together its first long and sustaining drive of the game – going 66 yards in 14 plays for the touchdown.
The drive was aided by more defensive miscues, as several missed tackles and a defensive holding penalty gave the Dukes first downs on several occasions.
Suddenly, Tech was in the midst of a 16-14 battle.
Tech continued its downward spiral when a Tyrod Taylor pass was intercepted by JMU’s Jonathan Williams just four plays later.
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The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Bryan Stinespring needs to be fired tonight. Not tomorrow, not next week, not at the end of the season. If Frank Beamer continues to put his personal relationship with Bryan Stinespring over his responsibilities as head coach of this football team then he needs to go too. I have reached my breaking point, and while I will always love my alma mater I will no longer support its football team in any way, shape, or form until this problem is resolved. It's time to fix the glitch.
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Actually, I think our offense is playing pretty well this year and Stinespring has been doing some great play calling. It's our special teams coach that needs to be fired, or at least replaced! That and our defense needs to stop with the dumb penalties late in the game. We'd be 2-0 this season if it wasn't for a couple of key penalties by the defense late in the game. All things considered, our offense is what's keeping us in the games this year!
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Guess who coaches special teams......Frank Beamer
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16 points against JMU is a good offense? Special teams hasn't been that bad, we did block two kicks against Boise. And what do you want the defense to do when they are on the field the majority of the game with their backs to the goal line? Stinespring has called two terrible games this year; you can't actually watch the games and say otherwise using any sort of football strategy or intelligence.
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Brad is correct. I understand that Coach Beamer likes to have cohesivness with his coaches and that it is often a recruiting tool to have a solid staff with longevity but....Stinespring needs to go! We have way too much talent to not be "coaching them up" to play big-time football. Yes there will be "young-guy" mistakes but that is what the coaches are for. Beamer's special teams are also a disaster. I will pitch in for two one-way tickets to another program for Weaver and Stinespring. We took a 2.3 million payday to move the Boise game up to the first game....man would I like to give that back!
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•Insanity is the second album from melodic death metal band Darkane. It was released on March 6, 2001.
Maybe it's time to retire "Enter Sandman" and try something new. Doing the same thing over and over. So boring like the Hokie Football Team.
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AGREED! It is year after year of the same terrible play calling and has become painfully frustrating to watch. We have one of the most easy to read offenses in the FBS.
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Amen brother. We need an injection of killer instinct into the football team, and getting a new OC is the first dose. Everyone knows what Tech is up to, and it no longer works.
People need to start a revolution 'round Blacksburg. I'm all for it.
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I'm with Brad on this. I've been saying it for 2 years but I didn't think It'd get this bad. Maybe it's good and will actually create incentive to clean house and change for the better which will allow tech to advance to the next level in a few years. One could only hope. Otherwise we will go the route of FSU and Miami and become a 6-6 team if nothing changes.
What angers me most is Beamer saying the same old crap after every game and Stinespring throwing tyrod under the bus for underthrowing a pass!
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Good point about Miami & FSU. We seem to be trending in the same direction where coaches are taking the easy route by living off of brand recognition in recruiting to entice athletes at the skilled positions instead of doing their homework and focusing on recruiting lineman. Both games were lost between the tackles!
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Amen Brad. I've complained about the coaches for couple seasons but this is the final straw. There is NO excuse for this. We lost because of poor coaching. I'm not spending one dime on this program until coaching changes are made.
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Coach Beamer is awesome. What kind of Hokies are you to question a hokie who has done so much for the football team and school for so many years. They will get better. The weather was horrible today. I think that affected not only the fans but the players too. Everybody looked slow. Congrats to JMU. That will never happen again.
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Excuses like these are the reasons we loose games. No excuses! If we are to become a top program and remain so, there are no excuses!
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It's excuses like this that cause mediocrity. If we want to ever become a top program, there are no excuses to what just happened today. It's time for the coaches to accept responsibility! It's time for the fans to demand change! It's time for us to win a National Championship this decade!
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Holy Crap! The weather was horrible for both teams! If we don't take any action now, it will definitely happen again and again.
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You can say the same thing about Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden. Look at Penn State, can they compete with top 10 competition? other than Florida States bowl win last year look at the last five years of Florida State....All good things eventually run their course. You can't just bailout these such entities and expect results/product to change.
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I just checked. Penn State was a top ten program last year. I like Frank Beamer, but he's no Paterno until he wins national championships. I think it would be nice if we could get to that level consistently. This year is gone already. Maybe we win another crappy ACC title.
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Stop right there with ANY comparisons of Frank Beamer and Joe Paterno, and even moreso any discussion of Va. Tech and Penn State. The ACC is no Big 10 and Va. Tech has never won a NC. Frank Beamer is a nice coach. Nice coaches win games they are supposed to and never win the games they aren't. Beamer Ball is a joke and always has been.
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We will not win a National Championship using the same old formula (other teams watch film too) if we only aspire to win an ACC title! Sorry but judging by the salaries and bowl-game/tv money, this is a business not a fraternity!
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Our JMU team had also to play under the same weather circumstances. There are no excuses to be made, but JMU did a better job on Saturday. Go Dukes!!!!
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The rain is no excuse, this team is better than JMU and they are better than Boise too. Beamer needs to step up and take full responsibility for this horrible coaching job. The team was unmotivated and played horrible (the rain is no excuse.) This all goes back to coaching. Beamer Ball is dead. I was in Blacksburg when Tech was starting to look like a football team (90's)...the guys played with heart then...now they expect wins and think they do not need to do anything to get those wins. I think the coaching staff thinks the same thing. It starts at the top people and the coaching staff needs to look in the mirror.
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VT is better than JMU? Better than Boise? No, VT is positively disgraceful. Any outsider would say they're worse. Only a VT fan would claim they're better than the teams to which they lost.
The scoreboard tells all. VT is inferior to Boise State and JMU (that's why we have a scoreboard).
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I would be willing to bet if either of those games were played again, VT would win. Especially against JMU. NO way would JMU win again.
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It's time for an overall coaching change. When the Hokies played in the late 1990's, they were up and coming contenders. They played with heart, tenacity and all 60 minutes were competitive. Today, it's different - they come on the field feeling they are the chosen ones and they don't have to come to play whistle to whistle.
It's time for a new page in Hokie football. It's time to tell Frank Beamer, yes, tell Frank Beamer, to retire. We need new blood in the entire coaching staff. Frank's "gee shucks, we got beat, but we'll go 8-4" doesn't cut it anymore.
When Alabama's program was in the doldrums, they made changes and got Nick Saban. Now look where they are now.
Virginia Tech will never succeed with Beamerball out of energy and out of tricks.
BEAMER MUST GO!
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This is absolutely correct! 8-4 and conference championships don't cut it for National Championship teams (watch Les Miles get fired this year from LSU). We need new blood when Duke and JMU are threats! We need Kevin Rogers back from the Vikings and Chris Beattie from West Virginia for recruiting. Has anyone seen how UNC is beating the crap out of us in recruiting? Now Virginia will too with Mike London.
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At least there's Fantasy Football to look forward to. Oh, by the way, you're welcome Michigan. We are now the laughing stock of college Football. Thank you Tech. I have to remove my license plate holder now. One good thing though. It makes the Boise State win not so great for them, thereby preseving the intergrity of the BCS.
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It became clear after yesterday's loss. Boise State is not that good. We just stink. We are definitely overrated. Don't get me wrong. I went to VT. I was there when we only won two games a year and still love this team. But we stink, stink, stink. When will we become an elite program. With what we have, never!!!! Tech should schedule New River Community College. Wait a minute, they don't have a team. Well at least it will be a win.
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Boise is good. The transitive logic I hear when talking about Boise is ridiculous. Oklahoma beat Utah St. by 7 at home while destroying FL St. the next week. Is Utah ST. better than Fl state? Probably not, but because Boise threatens the traditional powers when it comes to a NC, they will use Va tech as a reason to punish Boise. Pathetic system, pathetic fans. Va Tech has a lot of talent on that team and need to be in every game. JM is a wake up call
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Don't look now, but lowly Eastern Carolina (what a moron that wrote this article) are coming to town next week. I might rethink things if I were you - I'm not so sure that's a "W" for VT. How does 0 - 3 sound?
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The ECU offense is going to eat our horrible D alive.
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next week, VT vs Blacksburg High
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Maybe we could borrow Blacksburg High's OC for the weekend. I'd be comfortable with that.
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It is sickening to me to donate so much money to a program and get so little in return. If we put it all out there and lose, well that's just football. If we lose like we did the first too games this year; well that is just pathetic. Beamer has gotten too comfortable in his job and as long as Stinespring, O'Cain, and Hite are allowed to have jobs, we will not win any games of importance. Virginia Tech football has reached its ceiling ceiling with Frank Beamer as coach. He just does not have what it takes to get us to the next level. My fear is that it will be another Florida State situation where they allow him to coach years after his worth is gone. Stand up Hokie Club members and stop donating and attending games. Money is the only thing that can make our voices be heard. What's going on in Blacksburg is flat out pathetic and needs to be dealt with NOW!!
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As my name implies, this weekend proved two things:
1. The ACC is the weakest BCS conference (yes inferior to the Big East).
2. It's been three years the Stinespring should have been let go. Congrats Beamer, now you're heads on the choping block as well.
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We stopped playing and started making mistakes in the fourth quarter. The ill advised fourth down play, the late hits out of bounds, the fumble . . . Both the players and coaches need to get smarter fast. At least we have the ACC championship to look forward to.
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I have only been watching football for four seasons, since I came to Tech from China. I loved the atmosphere in the stadium when 60000 fans are shouting loud for their team, even when their team giving up offense so easily. Football shares the same spirit with the other team sports, you can not win if you rely purely on defense. Football field is a battle field, you can not win without attack. There is a old saying in China that offense is the best defense. When you crash the opponents physically and mentally, you win. VT coaching team needed a change. When we were always come out short to be a top team, we knew that change is needed. Don't lie to ourselves anymore.
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This guy just started watching football and knows something is wrong...WOW! Maybe we should find out who this guy is and hire him as coach!
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The sad thing is, despite how low this program has gotten at the start of the season and how bad the coaches are (foster excluded). Nothing will be done. Stinespring will probably come back next year as long as we win a few games and Beamer will still coach until 2015 or so. Nothing will change. The old money donors will chalk this up as a "fluke" ect. and they won't do crap until we become the old 2-9 team again.
It sounds bad but maybe the team doing terrible isn't so much a bad thing if it forces Beamer's hand since he won't do it himself and no one will dare challenge Beamer to retire. change for the better in the long run. It's terrible for the players and it's the players I go out to the games and support.
Otherwise it's us the fans that have the power to force change by not paying the Hokie club until Stinespring is gone, writing letters to Beamer and Weaver ect. Lets take some action ourselves!
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Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.
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Couldn't agree more with the majority of comments on here. Our coaches for too long have been relying on the intangibles provided by a few key players. We have very talented athletes, but let's face it, Vick is long gone and we are never going to ride raw talent to a NC shot like that again. It's time for a staff that knows how to take the talent we have, make a formidable team of them, and not put the burden of winning on the stars making big plays week after week.
It makes me miss the old Big East days when we didn't have all these expectations for the team. Of course back then we'd go into November riding high until we faced a Pitt, Syracuse, or WVU and THEN we'd have our hopes crushed.
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A lot of you are Fareweather fans, excuse the pun, but....when we win, the team, players and coaches are the best and deserve awards, and when we lose they should be fired!! I was there at the game. I have stood in the rain. I have season tickets. I have had season tickets for over 15 years. I know what is is like to be a winning and a non winning team. Yes, changes need to be made, and the coaches know that...Some players play with heart some may not, some but 1/2 the team has never started. We Stop giving your money, you were the ones that came when M Vick started winning for us!! Just like everyone else!! I was there b4 that like a TRUE Hokie!! I will support the HOKIES win or lose, and stand in the rain, sleet or snow. They do have heart, and Beamer, he does love his team, and football. He is a man with respect integrity, and a drive and passsion to win football for Tech.
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"Beamer, he does love his team, and football. He is a man with respect integrity, and a drive and passsion to win football for Tech."
I'm sorry...I just don't see it.
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Sorry, but some of us couldn't be following for 15 years as I only started as freshmen in 03 and finished in 07. I LOVE VIRGINIA TECH and the football team, but come on. It's the same thing year after year. We're happy with 10 win seasons apparently?! That seems to be fine with FB and the rest of the coaching staff, but how many 10 win seasons can you be satisfied with?! Starting 0-2 and losing to JMU at HOME is unacceptable!!
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Farewather fans or not, we should not accept what has happened this season. Beamer said the season is not over.....it certainly is over...what is there to look forward to. We lost to Boise State, OK. They out played us. We lose to JMU....no excuse. The coaching staff is not getting the players ready to play and the players are not playing like they are a college football powerhouse. Beamer prides himself on special teams and so far special teams has cost the hokies two games. Everything should be questioned after a loss to JMU. Look at Michigan since they lost to App State...
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I was there when Tech was 1-9 and those teams had heart. The coaches cared. What I saw was "well darn boys this team just won't lay down for us...dont they know we are Virginia Tech." I am a Hokie fan but not when the coaches do not care enough to prepare our players for a game. Beamer gets paid more money a year than almost the entire JMU coaching staff combined. There are children starving one mountain over from Blacksburg maybe Tech should give his salary to them...it would go to better use.
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Lets just see how they play this weekend against East Carolina. I'll make sure to encourage any football players I see on campus this week and let them know we are behind them... Or maybe I should just tell them it doesn't matter because the coaching staff is so horrible and they need to be fired. I think i'll go with plan A. GO HOKIES!
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I think you should go with plan B and just tell them we're still pulling for them as players individually. That's what I'd do.
Some fans still have their heads in the sand and still insist we have the best coaches and everything will be ok even after this. You can continue pulling for the coaches until the cows come home, but that won't change the fact tech will likely never content for a BCS bowl..let alone a championship with this coaching performance. For some fans that's ok, for many including me..it's not.Why breed mediocrity?
Maybe at this point, showing up at the ACC championship is a lottery ticket. At least we've won 3 of them already.
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Dear Weaver,
Please pay what it takes to get Kevin Rogers back from the Vikings and/or Ricky Bustle from University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Since we already sold out to ESPN/Nike, I figure we can make them both good offers.
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If anyone's willing to initiate a petition/demonstration, I would contribute all that I have to support it!
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"Something wicked this way comes!!!!"
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All this weekend showed, once again, is that the ACC is weak in football. In fact, does the SEC even think any of the ACC teams play competative ball.
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... correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Chick-fil-A bowl the #2 seed in ACC vs #5 in SEC, and hasn't the SEC embarrassed the ACC in that match-up enough yet? I would almost be willing to wager that the #2 Big East team may have better shot at it!
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I love seeing turkeys shaking in their tail feathers... after a decade of being overrating perhaps it is time for a little humility. The only thing that is going to be better is when UVa drives to the blackhole, maybe we can chant "Beamer Gotta Stay!"
Cheer up Turkeys, it is only a few months until basketball season. Then you can whine about not being apart of the big boy tourney because your AD can't understand the SOS doesn't include ACC teams because YOU HAVE TO PLAY THEM!
Go ECU!
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Fantastic comments from a classy Hoo on a Virginia Tech message board. Don't you have anything better to do? What has your program done in the last five years?
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We have a better record than tech right now... was third for the director's cup... and have the highest GPA of any ACC program... plus there are plenty of turkeys on the UVa message boards too.... seems like y'all can dish it out but can't take the heat when it comes your way.
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Plus 5 first round NFL draft picks in the last five years...
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madison, james madison, we are the dukes of JMU!
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