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The goals and aspirations for the 2010 football season in Blacksburg took a meager five days to disappear.
Back-to-back losses highlighted by two blown fourth quarter leads, countless missed tackles and blocks and sloppy special teams play have put the Hokies at 0-2 for the first time since the 1995-96 season.
For all those in Hokie Nation who thought this was “the year,” maybe it will be the year that the men’s basketball team’s NCAA tournament bubble doesn’t burst.
It certainly isn’t the year where Tech football makes any kind of positive noise on the national stage or chases a national title.
It’s one thing to lose to No. 3 Boise State in the opener, by a close 33-30 margin. The game was still depressing, as Tech seemingly gave away the game in the first quarter only to surge back and lose the game in the closing moments.
Criticism erupted concerning the scheduling: Why not play James Madison to open the season rather than the No. 3 team in the nation?
The point really seemed valid at the time.
After a shaky game against Alabama to open the season last year, Tech faced Marshall at home and won convincingly, 52-0. The Thundering Herd even made a bowl game in 2009, the Little Caesars Bowl, and lost in overtime to No. 23 West Virginia this past Friday.
However, with the way Tech has been playing so far this year, and especially in Saturday’s game, the topic of scheduling has become fairly irrelevant.
The real question is what the coaches and players have been doing to prepare for games.
Tech linebacker Bruce Taylor, who missed several tackles against JMU, including one that led to a touchdown, stressed the importance of getting back to the basics in practice.
“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. I wish we would’ve had it last week after the Boise loss due to those missed tackles. I’m just ready to get back to practice man.”
Corner Rashad Carmichael was also at a loss of words following the loss.
“Right now I’m in shock. I don’t know what happened, but we got to figure it out,” Carmichael said.
The Hokies didn’t even start off the game that badly, as they held a 10-0 lead in the second quarter. But a lack of intensity led to the Dukes outscoring Tech by a 21-3 margin to close out the game.
What a far cry from the past two contests between these teams, which Tech won by a combined score of 90-0.
Head coach Frank Beamer described his mindset before the game as “concerned,” stressing that JMU shouldn’t be overlooked because they are an FCS squad.
I still don’t see why Tech should have been concerned entering this game in Lane Stadium against JMU, an FCS team.
A version of this article appeared in the Sep 14 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Seriously, it's time to fire Stinespring! Beamer needs to retire if he still defends him after this blunder.
I was disappointed after listening to Tech Talk live, Stinespring sounds like a stuttering idiot and doesn't answer a straight question even after long pauses and Beamer is captain obvious. "We need to play better and fix some things" and he said "JMU is a great football team give them credit" 3 times.
Where's the discipline? Where's the "This loss was unacceptable for this program and we will fix these things asap"
Except for Foster, the rest of this coaching staff just breeds mediocrity and it's starting to show.
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I completely agree with the comments above. The lack of offensive production is ridiculous with the talent on hand. Stiney has been over his head / lost for years. Bud's D has saved us by keeping things close -- even managing to put points on the board many times. Beamer's "Aw Shucks -- That (insert opposing team name here) team is just a great bunch of players and they really surprised us...". Surprised you? Isn't that your job? Study tape, create confusion, adjust, etc.? I thank Frank for all he has done to bring the program this far, but he just lacks the necessary go for the jugular mentality of a head coach. He may just be too nice a guy. Remember how Beamer didn't want to put games away for fear of "running up the score"? Or how reluctant he was to lobby the media for a ranking that would get us into big bowl games. Look back at Pete Carroll's rant. That competitivemess is not in Frank...
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Frank is a coach that can build a program from the bottom, but cant win the big game.
Tech is at the point where we need a coach that can finish!!
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I agree with this 100%. It's always been the play calling at Tech that has kept them from the top 5. As long as they keep mediocre coaches, Tech will always be a top 20 team instead of a top 5 team. I've been watching Tech Football since I was 7 yrs old. It never changes. Instead of playing to win, we play not to lose............You just can't do that in any sport......... and I also blame Beamer. He's standing on the sidelines with the headsets on............WHAT FOR? For example, instead of running our horses on 4th and 1, we throw a pass to the endzone, when we need a yard for first and goal...........Yeah, same ole Tech!
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did you not watch the game!?!?!?!?!!? we couldnt run the ball at all... our OLine is terrible
Great play call on fourth and 1. He was wide open in the endzone, but a bad throw by Tyrod let the defender break it up
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Except for Foster? Everyone's expecting him to be a successful head coach when he's proven he's a descent DC. How do you let a IAA go 7-12 on 3rd down conversions? We played soft...more like premadonnas on defense. Just because you're under Foster's defense doesn't equal automatic success. These b*tches on D looked broken down and got p*ssed on by JMU. Yea, only 230ish total yards but that's pathetic!! Tech won the possession time battle by 10 minutes!!!
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I work in a engineering firm where over a third of the engineers are alumni from Virginia Tech. After this disgraceful loss at home, there is now open rumblings about replace Coach Beamer. His continued loyalty to the Offensive Coordinator (OC) Bryan Stinespring is beginning to be a dragon the whole program. Sure, everyone has talked about firing the OC before, but this is the first time I can ever remember hearing people openly talk about firing/retiring Coach Beamer. It is time for a change. Go Hokies!
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The said thing is, it probably won't happen unless we continue to loose. The Athletic Director Jim Weaver sucks up to Beamer. Although if we continue loosing booster support and money, Weaver may not have any choice. The main thing that will encourage any change here are the fans and the hokie club members and big money boosters.
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*"The sad thing is" .....can't edit after you post.
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I think the word you're looking for is "lose."
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I think everyone will agree that if it wasn't for Beamer, the program would have never grown from its small-time beginnings in the 80's. But I think its obvious, and has been now for a couple years of losing the big games, that Beamer has come to the end of his abilities. He's a great guy, and has helped the program. And now its time for him to step aside and let an actual head coach take charge. But that wont happen for awhile with his new contract until 2016. Its ashame we'll have to wait that long for Tech to finally take the leap from Good team to Elite National title team. Maybe a few losing seasons like Florida State had, and Beamer can go the way of Bowden.
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The "other" embarrassing thing is our uniforms! Can we stop all these "blackouts" and "whiteouts" and be proud of our school colors. Its like we are ashamed of our colors! Let's stop playing games with our uniforms and worry about playing the damn game of football!
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AMEN to this too!
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The "white out" is to make money to be donated to Herma's Readers educational program. It is a good cause. Don't blame the uniform selection for VT's poor play, that's ridiculous..
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Its time we bring in a new coaching staff. Not only to bring a new life to the playbook, but to also get an upper hand on recruits in the area. HOW DOES UVA get higher ranked recruits than we do? After the loss to JMU its going to be impossible to convince players to come to Tech... that game was a joke. Changes need to happen quickly or else the future of our Football Program will be bleek
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For too long this team has been relying on the intangibles that a few star players bring to the team in order to make up for the deficiencies of the coaching staff. When I look at all the talent that has come through the program it makes me sad to know how underutilized they were.
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Im actually glad we lost to BS and JMU, so the program can wake up and smell the roses! The changes will not come unless these things happen to our beloved program. Beamer grabbed the bathon and took it a long way, but now its time for him to pass it on, so the program can advance. Ive been watching tech play since 93 and Im sick and tired of the same crap year in year out. WE are the proram that almost has it, but can neve fully grasp it.
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I see what your saying and to be honest I wasn't entirely devastated with the loss to JMU however seeing how it has not really done anything but anger fans(as of yet), the same lame coaches (Stinespring and Newsome) will probably be in their positions next year unless we go 3-9. Sad but true.
It's going to have to anger the big money contriutors for anything to happen. The coaches are fat and happy and won't leave until they are forced to. If losing a bunch of games brings on these changes for next year with Bud Foster as head coach, I'm all for it. Otherwise it's going to suck and be a long season or several long seasons until things get better.
I have a bad feeling we might go the way of FSU with bobby bowden and his football program and they are still struggling years later.
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If we don't at least make a good ACC run, this program won't get a dime from me after this season unless necessary coaching changes are made.
I promise them that. I'll just watch it on TV.
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It's obvious that Coach Beamer has lost his competitive edge. He needs to be loyal to the school and fans instead of the coaches. Its really unfair to the fans who spend their hard earn money (and time) to travel to these games only to have the team display a lackluster performance. Change is long overdue if we want to move beyond mediocrity.
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Are the athletic department and coaching team listening to the voices?
http://gilesco.info/observer/17652-gilescitizen.html
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All of you guys whining about firing Beamer sound like children. C'mon people. It was one game! I would lay down money that the same people ranting about sacking the coach are the same ones that just 11 days ago were huffing and puffing about THIS IS THE YEAR. Wake up. VT has never had a shot at the title. We recruit pretty good in our state. Beamer/Foster coaches them up well enough to win the ACC every now and then, then go play in the Orange Bowl. That's the ceiling. This is it. The only way VT is going to be a NC contender is if they land a head coach that can recruit the states of FL, TX, and CA. Who's going to come here and do that? Dabo Swinney?? Give me a break. I do agree changes need to be made, but to burn the house down to fix a leaky faucet is insane. I just don't think VT could go out and lure a head coach to BLACKSBURG any better than Beamer right now.
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Firing coach Beamer will hurt the team, but keep Stiney will do that too. I think most of the people here questioning about Beamer is because of his "undying loyalty to offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring, whose squads have chronically underperformed".
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/stewart_mandel/09/15/heisman-trophy-mailbag/index.html?eref=sihp
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Not sure replacing Beamer and/or Stiney would solve the blocking and tackling problems evident in the last 2 games. I watched Syracuse fire Pasqualoni after 10 years because he couldn't win the big ones. So they brought in a new hot coach - yeah now SU football is at the bottom of the big east. I'm sure the slackers on the field got an ass kicking in practice despite Beamer's aw shucks those Nuns are great speech to the media about JMU. The team responded by beating ECU, now it let's see how they do against BC. If they lose to Vaginia then I'll agree it's time to pack up.
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