Thursday, August 16, 2007
Cleaning up leftover piles
Randy King
Randy King's Tech Insider is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Thursdays in season.
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BLACKSBURG -- It's the dogs days of August, so let's get out the pooper scooper and clean up some loose debris from all over the football field.
Let's start with the big dog of the house, some guy named Beamer.
Coach, this team is getting a lot of preseason love in the polls. Your 1999 team made it to the national championship game. Can this team get back to the big game and possibly win it all?
Beamer: "[Long pause] ... I think the one thing that every championship team has ever done is they haven't gotten ahead of of themselves. First off, you've got to stay healthy and you can't predict that.
"You know, we've been there, we know what it takes, and hopefully if we get back to that some time we'll do better.
"I think there's a good bonus in my contract for it. My wife [Cheryl] is pulling hard ... but my wife hasn't even been thinking about it. I think there's a lot of football left before that."
Besides beating everybody on your schedule, what's the hardest part about chasing a national title these days?
Beamer: "It's hard because we've got a bunch of writers who keep writing how you're going to be. Y'all get all this stuff going about how we're going to be favored in all these games [besides Sept. 8 at LSU] and stuff like that.
"I don't read the papers. But my kids do, that's the problem. I still think the team that can just stay level, play this week, get ready to play as hard as you can and take the results. I think those are the ones that usually win out."
A lot of people have said that Tech could be become "America's Team" this season in the wake of the April 16th shooting tragedy on campus. What are you thoughts on that?
Beamer: "I don't know. I do think more people will notice Virginia Tech. I think more people will look in the Sunday paper, and then [Tech] is on [TV], tune them in. I think probably the other side of it more people will be pulling for us.
"But I think that gets back to how we play. I think if we go out there and stink it up, we won't even be Blacksburg's favorite team."
In lieu of the on-campus tragedy, some people have made the statement that the Hokies will be treated like a bunch of choir boys by fans when they go on the road. Think this might have been a great year to go to Morgantown?
Beamer: [Laughs]. "I don't know if it's ever a good year ... "
Next we've got Chris Ellis, the Hokies' playmaking senior defensive end.
Just why is Tech's defense so darned good year after year?
Ellis: "I think the biggest key is we hold pressure on each other ... because if I don't hurry up and make my play, 'X' [Xavier Adibi] is going to run past me and make the play. There are so many playmakers on the field that if you don't stay focused then you won't even be involved, it's hard for you to even get a play. With guys going back and forth, the secondary with [Brandon] Flowers and [linebacker] Vince Hall, you've got to battle out there just to get in on a play because you've got so many good players."
Have you thought about the LSU game yet? Be honest now.
Ellis: "Yeah, that's definitely up there. That one ... and I've been thinking about Florida State [Nov. 10 in Lane Stadium], 'cause I'm still mad from the ACC championship game [in 2004, when FSU upset heavily favored Tech]. As far as I look at it, we may have to play them twice if we see them in the ACC [title game] again.
"So it's definitely a big year. Every game is important, only because it's the last one. We don't get no more after this."
You were ruled off-limits to the media for most of last season. What are the chances of you being a "Tuesday guy" this year, meaning you'll be available to sit down and chat with the media at the weekly news conference?
Ellis: [Laughs]. "I wouldn't put my money on it, catching me on Tuesdays. They [the football brass] like to keep it more basic, I guess you would say ... more general, give you guys what [they] want. Because I know y'all would be fishing for it. It just comes with the business. I've always kind of laughed at it. it was never a big problem to me because I'm a in-your-face guy anyway. It's been like that since I've been here."
Here comes Vince Hall, the Hokies' star senior linebacker. Hey, Vince, I've got something different to bounce off you here.
In the wake of the Apr. 16 shootings, if you guys somehow get to the big game and win it all ... man, wouldn't that be like something out of a Hollywood script?
Hall: "Yeah! Just think, there might be a movie called this right here coming up. And, hopefully, we can make a good ending on it, too."
Just curious, but who would be your choice of actors to play you in that movie?
Hall: "They've got to play ... play me! They got to, they've got to get me on that! I've got to get a bonus check or something! They can't do me! They can't do better than me, I tell you that!"
Last, but not least, we have Bud Foster, the guru of Tech's nasty defense.
All these guys on your defense, coach, play the game so dadgum hard. You were a strong safety/linebacker from 1977-80 at Murray State? Did you play like that, too?
Foster: "Well, we did. We had Coach Beamer as our defensive coordinator [1979-80], so we played that way. Plus, I was a 4.7, 4.8 40-guy, so I had to play as hard as I could play. I was one of those ol' boys ... I had to do everything I could do, you know, to be on the field."
Suffice it to say, no one ever called you a "blur" as they do many of these guys who play for you, right?
Foster: "No, no, no. I can tell you one thing, though -- you didn't want to be caught standing around the pile with me out there [laughs]."
Speaking of piles, that's all for this week. They're scooped.
