Kyle Tucker
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Category: Virginia Tech - ACC
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■ 09 September 2008 | 3:50 PM
Beamer blows off some steam ...
Wow, Hokie Nation! Some of you heard Coach Frank Beamer's comments last night on Hokie Hotline with Bill Roth. If you missed it click the button below to hear a recording of the exchange:
The radio show featured a call from listener “Jason from Arlington” who was not pleased with Tech’s offensive playcalling/production the last several years and he let Coach Beams, as the players seem to be calling him these days, know it.
Frank fired back. Here’s most of what the two guys had to say:
Jason from Arlington: “We talk about winning 10 games a year and winning ACC championships. But who are we kidding? We’re not going to achieve our goal of winning a national championship in football with the offense we’ve seen over the past seven years. I’m just thinking if we don’t make a change here … VT football’s hit the ceiling. You’ve brought us to a really good place, but in order to get to the next level, we’re going to have to get an offense to go with that defense.”
Frank Beamer: “I think you’re all wrong. If you go back … we haven’t always talked about inexperience for seven years. That’s not been the case. Now if you can’t look at us and tell what’s going on right now, I’m not sure you know a lot of football. I’m going to say this: We’re going to get better. And when we win two acc championships, and play for a third … and understand, I’ll be the first to tell you a couple of those offensive teams weren’t as talented as we wanted. I said last week, the talent on our offense hasn’t been as good as the talent on our defense. We got behind in a couple areas, and that’s just a fact. But what we did, we put together two ACC championships and played for a third one. And I think you’re kind getting it out of whack. … We want to win a national championship, but I can assure you we’ve got good coaches, the players are going to get better, and we’re going to continue to win. And I think you’re out of whack.”
As anyone knows who’s been listening to Beamer for, oh, any of the last 20 years … he doesn’t often say much. I mean, he says a lot, but he tries to communicate very little, I think, with the words he speaks.
He prefers to be vague and be cordial and is known – and with most fans loved – for his “aw, shucks” approach. So last night’s confrontational tone was more than a tad out of character for Beamer.
Apparently Tech’s big whistle was also pretty fired up in yesterday’s team meeting … and word was, practice Monday was pretty intense. I can believe all that, because then this afternoon, Beamer walked into his normal Tuesday press conference with looking stressed. He had a frown on his face.
And he launched into a 400-word continuation of last night’s angry response to his radio buddy from Arlington. Below, you’ll find his unprompted intro to the press conference. And throughout the rest of this Q & A session, you’ll find some pretty fiery/entertaining remarks.
Enjoy …
COACH FRANK BEAMER
OPENING REMARKS: “I must be missing something here. The thing that matters to me is how many times you put points on the board and how many games you win. And the stats I didn’t have last night, when I had a caller on the call-in show complain about our offense for the last seven years or whatever it was, is that out of all the years at Virginia Tech, the last five years … we’ve had four out of the top eight teams in total points and four out of the top eight in total touchdowns. Now, I don’t care where we rank (statistically). I care how many times we win, and how many points we put on the board. And I think part of being good coaches is look at what you’ve got and, OK, what’s the best way for our offense to help our defense win. Sometimes it’s to be conservative, take care of the ball, punt it, play good defense, get good field position, score. And that’s happened to us a little bit. So four out of the top eight teams in total points, of all-time, in the last five years. Then I go down here and in the ACC, we ranked among the top two in the ACC in scoring four years – that’s out of the last five – and were No. 4 the other year. And then I look, and it’s us and Southern Cal are the only two teams that’s won 10 or more games in the regular season the last four years. So I’m kind of missing it somewhere (where fans are coming from). I’ve got good coaches. We look at what we’ve got – and it’s not like the NFL, where we go get a player if we need one over here – we look at what we’ve got and we try to win football games. Now, if something’s wrong with that, then I’m not sure where people are coming from. And I’ll say this, too. I like my offensive staff. Bryan Stinespring is a tremendously knowledgeable guy. And if any of you – I’ll schedule and appointment with anybody on Friday afternoon, and if any of you can come in there and show me you’re more knowledgeable than Bryan, or callers out there … if anybody can come in there and convince me that they know more than Bryan, I’m going to listen to them. Until then, though, I’m going to listen to Bryan.”
ON WHAT IF UCLA OFFENSIVE WHIZ NORM CHOW CALLS: “Norm Chow? Hmmmm … if he calls in, I’m going to listen to him, too. (laughing) Get off that! I feel better now (having vented).”
ON GEORGIA TECH’S TEAM: “Georgia Tech’s off and running. Nesbitt, the quarterback, has done an excellent job for them, made some big plays last week. Dwyer, he’s a fullback but they get him out there on that speed option and he’s averaging 110 yards a game. He’s been good. They’ve got good players on defense. They come after you. This is the first ACC game, and I think all of us on our football team, those freshmen, everyone concerned, we need to have a sense of urgency about turning it up a little bit. I think when it gets down to your conference games, that’s when you hit another notch. It’s just like the NFL, they say they play these exhibition games, then when the regular season starts, there’s a different tempo. And I think there needs to be a different tempo for us.”
ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE: “We need to consistently block better. But I think you’ve got to understand this, too: What happens in the offensive line, you work as a group. And I don’t question the dedication of that offensive line, because I saw what they did this summer. They stayed here and lost weight. I don’t question that. And if you look at them as a group, they grade out well. But what happens is, the play here, this guy misses a block and guy’s in your backfield and the play looks awful. That’s kind of been our issue so far, is we haven’t consistently performed well. But I think we will. I do believe. You miss a twist and a guy’s in the backfield right away, that thing looks awful. But four guys could be doing pretty good. I think that’s kind of the situation with our offensive line.”
ON SEEMING TO FEEL THE NEED TO VENT, AND WHETHER HE’S FRUSTRATED BY THE VOCAL FANS: “I understand it. I appreciate their passion. I appreciate their caring. But let’s don’t get out of reality here, either. I mean, we’ve been pretty good. I’ll be the first to tell you: When we played for the (national) championship in 1999, we were good on both sides of the ball. … That’s got to all come together if you’re going to win the national championship. I understand that perfectly. And I’ve also said, overall, at every position we haven’t been as talented on offense the last few years as we have been on defense. And that’s just a fact. You try to keep on working and get matched up and hit it where the breaks go your way and all the sudden play for a national championship. But I don’t want our people to lose sight of: We won two ACC championships. We played for a third one. There’s two teams, us and one more, that’s won 10 games the last four years. I think sometimes you do your best coaching job when the stats don’t bear it out and sometimes the wins don’t even bear it out, but we’ve done a heckuva coaching job. And I think some of that’s happened the last couple years to be quite honest with you.”
ON WHETHER, DESPITE THIS TEAM’S OBVIOUS YOUTH, THAT THE LAST FOUR YEARS SET EXPECTATIONS TO HIGH FOR THIS YEAR: “Again, I kind of deal in reality. And we’re out there practicing every day. The kids are practicing hard, and I still say we’re going to be a good football team. It’s a work in progress right now.”
ON MENTIONING THAT SOMETIMES AN OFFENSE NEEDS TO BE CONSERVATIVE, AND WHETHER THIS YEAR’S YOUNG GROUP IS THAT TYPE OF TEAM, NEEDING TO PLAY CONSERVATIVELY: “I think we’re in a growing stage right now. When your tailbacks are new and your receivers are ne, I think we’re in a growing stage. That’s where we are. I would hope you’ll see us improve a little bit each and every week, we’d get to where we can throw the ball a little bit better each and every week, get to where we can run the ball a little better each and every week. I think that’s where we are.”
ON WHETHER SOME TECH FANS ARE SPOILED, WHETHER THAT’S THE WORD: “Well, again, I understand they’re passionate about Virginia Tech. And I appreciate that. I appreciate their loyalty and I appreciate their support. I think what’s happened a little bit, and this is a fact, is we screwed up two bowl games. And I think those two bowl games just kind of live for a whole year. And if things don’t go right early the next time around … uh, I’m not sure. I know what we’ve got. I know the talents of our coaching staff. I know our players are working hard … it’s full speed ahead for us.”
ON WHETHER HE HEARS NOISE FROM FANS WHEN HE GOES TO KROGER THESE DAYS: “I don’t go to Kroger. Are you kidding? I don’t go to Kroger. I mean I support Kroger, but … you think I’m going to be out in town? I send my wife to Kroger. Let people scream at her a little bit.”
ON TECH’S RECENT HISTORY OF BOUNCING BACK LATER IN THE SEASON: “I think it’s good coaching, and I think sometimes your schedule plays into it a little bit. But I think you keep on working, keep on getting better, and you’re not usually judged by how you play your first couple games. You’re judged how you play your last five or six, really. I appreciate the fact that we had a couple stunning losses last year and we came back from them and won the ACC championships. To come back from LSU (blowout), to come back from Boston College (last-minute loss), I think we had some good coaches and some good players.”
ON WHETHER HE WATCHED RECENT VT GRAD EDDIE ROYAL IN HIS NFL DEBUT, MAKING NINE CATCHES FOR 146 YARDS AGAINST THE RAIDERS: “I watched the first part of it. He had a big night. I’m proud of him. Proud of him.”
ON HOW MUCH HAVING TYROD TAYLOR’S PLAYMAKING ABILITY HELP GET ALL THE OTHER YOUNGSTERS UP TO SPEED FASTER: “I think it helps. I think it helped Saturday. When a guy can get out there and make a long play or two when it may not be exactly right, I think that helps your offense.”
ON WHETHER THAT TAKES PRESSURE OF THE RECEIVERS: “Well, they’ve just got to keep getting better, and they will. That run (Taylor’s 50-yarder), two of our receivers made great blocks. I mean, they’re giving great effort. They were down there running and their blocks set him for another 30, 40 yards. I like our receivers. They need to line up right, which they didn’t do a couple times the other day. And play the game faster, more a sense of urgency. When you were in high school last year, you don’t understand quite the sense of urgency it is playing in the ACC. But that’s where we’re going to get to this week.”
ON HOW BIG A CHALLENGE THIS GAME IS, CONSIDERING THEIR YOUTH AND GT’S OFFENSIVE SCHEME: “It’s definitely, definitely a challenge to our football team. They run that option offense that’s a little bit different, and they run it well. They’ve got a quarterback that can run it. They’ve got a fullback that can hurt you inside and can hurt you outside. For us, it is a challenge.”
ON PLAYING BEAU WARREN SOME AT CENTER: “We are. I think Beau’s a fighter in there and a good, tough kid. We can get Shuman to relieve some of our guard play there … try to stay fresher so we can go full-tilt every single play. (Shuman still the starting center, and the No. 2 left guard). Brooks is working his way in there at right guard. I think he’s coming along. Let’s keep people a little fresher.”
ON WHETHER HE’LL ANNOUNCE THE STARTING QUARTERBACK BEFORE THE GAME: “We’re not talking about our quarterbacks this week. We’ll talk afterwards (after the game).”
ON WHAT HE KNOWS OF GT COACH PAUL JOHNSON: “We played in that Chick-fil-A Tournament this year. We were in the same foursome for 18 holes. Good golfer.”
ON WHAT THE FANS WOULD HAVE TO DO IF THEY WANT TO TAKE HIM UP ON THAT OFFER TO PROVE THEY KNOW MORE THAN STINEY: “They come in and interview. We’ll set aside an hour. And they need to prove to me … but I’m going to tell in about the first 10 minutes whether they’re smarter than Bryan or not (smiling). (((HE’S KIDDING. I DON’T THINK HE WANTS PEOPLE SHOWING UP AT HIS OFFICE))).”
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You guys would look so foolish if you met Coach Beamer
Those of you that think you know football: I would love to see how foolish Coach Beamer and Coach Stinespring would make you look when they showed you specific defensive formations and asked what you would do with them as an OC. Then, when the defense did this, what would you do? And then, this? It would be hilarious watching you embarrass yourselves. Fans need to be fans and let the coaches be coaches. Coach Stinspring and every other coach on the VT staff know more about football than any of you EVER will.
Stinespring
Someone set up an appointment with Beamer PLEASE we need offenseive production