Collegiate Times

Correction: This story has been modified from its original version. — Bryan Stinespring will retain the title of offensive coordinator.

The Hokies football team continues to change up its coaching staff, announcing Tuesday morning that quarterback coach Mike O’Cain will take over playcalling duties from offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring.

Frank Beamer, head coach, said Stinespring made the decision himself, citing O’Cain’s everyday communication with the quarterbacks as the reason behind the change.

“I think you sometimes get more in tune with what your quarterback likes in certain situations, or he knows why you’re calling things in a certain situation,” Beamer said. “I just think that it is kind of more open in that regard.”

O’Cain, who has been the Hokies quarterback coach since 2006, helped turn Tyrod Taylor into the dynamic quarterback he became by his senior year. This is not O’Cain’s first experience as a playcaller, as he held the offensive coordinator position under head coach Frank Beamer from 1981-85 when Beamer was coaching at Murray State. He also served as offensive coordinator for North Carolina and Clemson. He served as the head coach at North Carolina State for six seasons during the ‘90s.

One reason for the change could be the Hokies’ sputtering offense over the past five seasons. Although the 2010 Hokies offense was the most productive since the 2000 team that featured Michael Vick, the team has had an offense ranked 99th or worse in three of the past five seasons.

Such futility has led to a large group of Tech fans calling for new offensive leadership.

The most vocal fans started websites such as www.FireBryanStinespring.blogspot.com.

The site’s mission statement reads:

“We at FBS believe that offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring bears the largest share of the blame for years of sub-par output from some of the most talented players ever to set foot on Worsham Field. We believe the main objective of the VT football program — a national championship — will escape us as long as Stinespring is making the calls. We therefore advocate the improvement of our football program through the replacement of our offensive coordinator.”

Regardless of reason, those fans are elated by the news that someone new will be calling the plays next season.

Though O’Cain will take over the playcalling on game day, Stinespring will retain the title of offensive coordinator and keep all of his weekly responsibilities.

“Bryan (Stinespring) formulates, with the rest of the offensive staff, the game plan, and then Mike (O’Cain) will be the primary playcaller during the game,” Beamer said. “Nothing has changed in that regard other than Mike will be the primary playcaller.”

In addition to coordinator duties and being tight ends coach, Stinespring will  coach the offensive tackles. Curt Newsome, Tech’s offensive line coach since 2006, will now be in charge of just centers and guards.

“Curt had five positions, and no one on our football team is responsible for five positions,” Beamer said. “So, we took that, and now he has just centers and offensive guards and Bryan has tackles and tight ends.”

With these moves added to last weeks additions of Cornell Brown and Shane Beamer, the Hokies are content with their staff.

“This is what we’ve got,” Beamer said. “I like what we got and I’m eager to see if we haven’t improved ourselves overall.”

A version of this article appeared in the Feb 23 issue of the Collegiate Times.