■ 26 October 2009 | 12:06 PM
Below, you'll find head coach Frank Beamer's Monday morning thoughts. They're pretty standard fare. But there's one answer in there I think you'll find notable.
Sounds like this illegal blocking by Georgia Tech was actually pretty significant to the outcome of the game two Saturdays ago. If true, it's pretty unfortunate that an officiating crew contributed to costing a team not only a national title shot, but likely a conference crown, too.
I've got a call in to the ACC office to try to get some further details on how many plays were sent in and how many total should've been called for penalties. When they get back to me, I'm also planning to ask if the league will discipline the officials involved.
The SEC just suspended the crew who blew critical calls in two big games. If this is as bad as it sounds, something certainly needs to be done.
HEAD COACH FRANK BEAMER
OPENING REMARKS ON UNC: “I think in North Carolina, you have a very talented team. Some of them are young. But you look around there, and they’ve played extremely well, particularly in the first half of the Florida State game. A lot of misdirection in their offense. On defense, you look at their front four, really their front seven, and they’re tough. They’re very, very good. And in the secondary, they’ve got juniors playing, so they’ve got some experience there. I think we’ve got to get ready to play each and every week in the ACC, and that’s for sure this week.”
ON THE OFF WEEK FOR THE HOKIES: “I thought it was good. We had good practices. I thought the rest was good. We came back and practiced good on what we call our Monday-Tuesday practice. So yeah, I think it went OK. But we’ll see how we play Thursday night. That’s the determining factor.”
ON UNC’S PASSING STRUGGLES AND WHAT HE SEES AS THEIR PROBLEM: “I think what you’ve got is some new guys there in the offensive line, so you have some inconsistency there. But they’re getting better all the time. You’ve got some young wide receivers, so you’ve got some inconsistency there. But they’re getting better all the time. So I see this as a team that continues to improve and has a lot of talent.”
ON SECONDARY COACH TORRIAN GRAY SAYING THE ACC AGREED THERE WERE FOUR ILLEGAL BLOCKS BY GEORGIA TECH ON FS KAM CHANCELLOR AND WHETHER THERE WERE MORE: “Yeah, No. 1, there was more. And No. 2, the final touchdown was one of those plays on Kam that should’ve been called. I think when it’s dangerous plays, we need to get that out of college football. That’s the ones that worry you, plays that could hurt a player.”
ON CORNERBACK STEPHAN VIRGIL’S HEALTH AFTER THE OFF WEEK: “I think the rest (helped), and he’s been working with Mike Goforth, our trainer. I think resting him during the week is something that has helped Stephan out quite a bit.”
ON USING A BYE WEEK TO SELF-SCOUT: “We always self-scout. We want to know what the other team knows and try to change up things from week to week so you don’t form a tendency that carries over throughout the season. We’re always doing that.”
ON WHAT HE SAYS TO HIS TEAM TO KEEP THEM FOCUSED AND MOTIVATED NOW THAT THE HOKIES DON’T CONTROL THEIR OWN CONFERENCE DESTINY: “Go get ready to play North Carolina. There’s a lot of football to be played. You’ve got your BCS standings. You’ve got your conference situation, and there’s just a lot of football to be played. What we can control is how we prepare and how we play against North Carolina. So that’s the key thing for us right now, to put all our efforts toward North Carolina.”
ON WHAT HE SAW IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL DURING THE OFF WEEK: “Again, there are surprises every Saturday. You’ve just got to go play a game. Nebraska turns the ball over eight times (in a loss to heavy underdog Iowa State) and I think five of them were inside the five. You just never know what’s going to happen. In sports, you better just keep playing yourself, be as good as you can be yourself, and then see where you stand at the end.”
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