Bob MolinaroGREENVILLE, N.C.
People who wonder why college football teams would bother to meet in a non-conference game in November will have to look elsewhere for a good answer.
ESPN needs Thursday night fodder. Understood. But moving down a weight class didn't ignite a seemingly waning Virginia Tech or inspire an overmatched East Carolina.
It added up to a 16-3 dud in favor of Tech. Hope nobody missed "The Office" for this.
Since Tech lost to North Carolina last Thursday, the Hokies' offense has been under fire again for lacking potency, not to mention imagination. This game will provide the critics with more ammunition.
To blame, according to the most disgruntled fans, is offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring.
Poor guy. It's all his fault, these fans say, which is why some overzealous students last week handed out fliers calling for his dismissal.
Judging from the reaction of these tender geniuses, Frank Beamer is just a spectator, and Stinespring must accept all the responsibility for the predictable play calling.
Shows how much the idiot fringe knows. First, it's not the plays, but the players that make the difference. Second, if Tech's offense lacks pizzazz - and it does - that's on Beamer. It's his team, his call.
Play calling shouldn't have mattered against ECU, which was a generous host, committing enough key penalties and turnovers to keep Tech from feeling genuinely threatened.
Tech should have taken more advantage than it did, but the tone was set early when Hokies drove 75 yards before settling for a field goal. This surprised nobody who has seen the team play recently.
In the second half, Tech scored only three points, and then only after ECU turned the ball over in the waning moments deep in its own territory.
Teams lose that way if they are unfortunate enough to be playing a stronger opponent. But don't wait for Tech to spread the field, run creative schemes or put its playmakers in position to make big plays.
Beamer Ball is vanilla flavored. Ball control. Field position. Nothing sexy. But when the defense is strong enough, it's usually good for 10 victories or more.
For what it's worth, handing the ball off to Ryan Williams produced the game's biggest gainer: a 46-yard run from scrimmage. Williams is Tech's best weapon. Why wouldn't you use him?
On the same drive, quarterback Tyrod Taylor fumbled through the end zone after he reached the 1-yard line on a designed draw. Did Tech fail to score that time because of inadequate play calling? Was it Stinespring's fault?
Should Beamer open up the attack? Sure, he should. Back-to-back losses to Georgia Tech and North Carolina revealed that Tech's defense alone can't win games.
But Beamer isn't going to change anything this year. By nature, he doesn't take risks. If Taylor were my quarterback, I'd be that way, too. The junior is overrated and severely challenged as a downfield passer.
Some of the hysteria exhibited by a portion of Tech fans is attributable to predictable bouts of delusional thinking. The polls didn't help, hoisting the Hokies to No. 4 at one point.
It's been a long, hard descent from there.
The victory over ECU stops the slide, but fails to alter the impression of a Tech team that has been brought down to earth.
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If the VT defense and
If the VT defense and special teams did not produce so much offense VT would not be mentioned as a ranked team. The fact remains the OFFENSE is OFFENSIVE and there is no reason to be defensive about it.
"On the same drive,
"On the same drive, quarterback Tyrod Taylor fumbled through the end zone after he reached the 1-yard line on a designed draw. Did Tech fail to score that time because of inadequate play calling? Was it Stinespring's fault?"
-Wow, now you are really reaching to make your point, VT fans don't blame Steinspring on fumbles or unlucky plays, idiot. We base our criticism of Steinspring on years and years of horrible offensive play calling and execution. Steinspring's offense has been holding back VT for years and enough is enough! If you don't get that, you either don't follow VT football or you're just plain stupid!
Hysteria!
"Some of the hysteria exhibited by a portion of Tech fans is attributable to predictable bouts of delusional thinking. The polls didn't help, hoisting the Hokies to No. 4 at one point."
-Not sure what you mean by this, handing out flyers is hysteria? My God, I can't believe they handed out flyers! How Horrible! They should have been arrested for the hysteria!
"Predictable bouts of delusional thinking?" -So I guess it isn't ok for Hokie fans to get excited about their team when they are ranked #4 in the nation? What's the point of being a fan if you can't get excited about your team? I guess we should just all stop going to VT games and just knit sweaters on Thursday and Saturday nights.
Hokie Hater! Continued...
For the record, you called the majority of hokie fans the "idiot fringe". LOL, hokie fans aren't idoits, we're just tired of predictable, bland play calling and mind numbing horrible execution on offense and we know a change is needed, unfortunately, Beamer insists on "BeamerBall" and relying on our defense. Well, this year we found out what happens when our defense has a down year. I bleed orange and maroon and I don't like being called an idiot, but then again you probably bleed orange and blue and you've got a whole barrel or worse problems than VT, IDIOT!
Hokie Hater!
Wow you obviously are a Hokie Hater! That is fine. I disagree with many of your points. You state that it's not the plays, but the players that make the difference. Well Steinspring recruits and develops the players on offense, if it is the players not executing, that falls on him as well. Also Steiny doesn't know how to use his talent. Where has Greg Boone been? Had Ryan Williams been used correctly vs ECU (not running up the middle behind our center who was starting his first game -you probably didn't know that, but Steiny should have) he would have had 250 yards and 2 td's. On one series, RW didn't even see the ball, we ran a quick slant (for the 10th time that almost got picked off because it was so predictable), an end around for a loss of 10 yards, and then a bomb thrown in triple coverage, ehh? Of course Beamer is to blame as well because he keeps Steiny every year and our offense never gets better. If you talked to the hokie fans call idiots, you would find out that we all believe Beamer is to blame as well. I could go on and on about how horrible Steiny is, but your software doesn't allow me to type much more. For the record, you called the majority of hokie fa
Don't blame Stinespring
I understand the lacluster play calling of Stinespring upsets some of us, however stop and think about our quarterbacks coach too. If in fact Tyrod Taylor is as good of an athlete as they say (and he is) why does he have so many problems. Michael Vick had no more if as much talent as Taylor but was able to improve just about each week. Why? The reason was the quarterback coach. renenber Rogers was there for Vick. So if you are going to throw Stinespring under the bus be sure not to forget to throw
Mike O'Cain under there with him.