Thursday, October 11, 2007
Houseright handles media blitz
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 -- In his three-plus seasons in Virginia Tech's football program, Jonas Houseright has had this running joke with Hokies assistant sports information director, Bryan "B.J." Johnston, concerning possible interview requests from the media.
"I used to always joke around him, saying, ‘do I have any?,' " Houseright said, laughing.
Johnston's response had always been the same ol' "yeah, right." Until this past Monday. That's when Johnston informed Houseright that he "was on the list" of players who had been requested to show up at Tech's weekly Tuesday news conference.
"He thought I was kidding at first," Johnston said. "I said ‘you've been requested.' I think once he realized I was serious, he was shocked more than anything ... a little overwhelmed, I think."
Around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, as a horde of reporters was circled around place-kicker Jud Dunlevy on one side of the Shott Media Center room, Houseright bopped into the place on a back-door cut. The fourth-year junior linebacker parked himself in a metal chair on the the other side of the room, where he sat and fidgeted for a couple of minutes.
Then came the onslaught. At first, it was just one reporter. Then a couple more. A few minutes later, a full blitz of perhaps 10 writers had converged on Houseright.
"I haven't really had a chance to come in here," said Houseright, when asked if it was the first time he had been on the Tuesday stage
At that point, one reporter blurted out, "who is this?"
While some players might have felt somewhat disrespected by such a query, Houseright grinned and politely responded, "I'm Houseright."
"Oh," the reporter answered.
Ha, like the guy had a clue who that was.
"Yeah, I'm a little nervous," Houseright confessed. "I'm not used to answering media questions much, but we'll see how it goes."
Then came the relentless rapid fire of question after question. It didn't take but a couple of minutes before beads of sweat started to populate Houseright's forehead. Talk about being on the proverbial hot seat.
Why are you sweating so much, one wisecracking writer wondered.
"It's hot in here!" a smiling Houseright retorted.
Yeah, kid, it tends to get that way when you have a horde of beefy scribes encircled around you. So much for any air flow permeating a crowd that only 45 minutes earlier had made short work of a buffet offering of lasagna and spaghetti.
Houseright, however, held up well in the barrage for a first-timer. By my count, he fielded 41 questions in approximately 15 minutes. Pretty strong assault, I'd say. Shoot, I mean that's only 10 questions for every snap he's played on defense this season.
"Four," Houseright responded with a giggle when asked how many plays at linebacker he's had in the first six games. "I got in one against William and Mary at the very end of the game. Last Saturday [at Clemson], I played three."
It's those three snaps that earned the ex-Gate City High standout an invitation to Tuesday's gathering. With star Vince Hall out with a fractured wrist, Houseright now suddenly finds himself as Tech's backup middle linebacker behind junior Brett Warren. With Warren slowed by a hamstring pull at Clemson, Houseright was the guy who played a series in the fourth quarter while Hall was on the sideline getting his injured wrist put in a splint.
Houseright, a regular member on Tech's kickoff team, also saw action on the punt team, taking Hall's spot as the right-side slot blocker. Normally, Houseright is the backup left-side slot man.
Tech coach Frank Beamer tossed the walk-on from Gate City some love on his Monday media teleconference, saying: "I appreciate the job that Houseright came in and did in a major ball game for us. He doesn't get much work in practice as far as with the first groups, but he was prepared when it was his time."
Little surprise there, considering Houseright's bloodlines. Jonas is the fourth member of his family to play at Tech. His father, Bill, played for the Hokies, as did his brothers, Billy and Jake.
"I was wanting to come here my whole life, growing up and watching my brothers play here, and hearing about Dad," Jonas said. "It's an experience to come here and play.
"I didn't have many offers coming out of high school ... just a bunch of smaller schools like back at home, nobody real big."
Jonas only goes 6-feet, 205 pounds, which is not exactly prototype Division I linebacker size. Should something happen to Warren, he's the next man on deck to step into Hall's spot. He's only one play away now from being the No. 1 guy.
"Yeah, that definitely has run through my mind a couple of times," he confessed. "I try not to think about it. You can't worry about stuff. If that happens, then it happens. You've just got to be ready to step in and play."
Shake it off, kid
Eddie Royal returned a punt 82 yards for a touchdown last week at Clemson. He would have had another one if not for a block in the back penalty on redshirt freshman Rashad Carmichael that wiped out a 76-yarder for a score.
When asked what if he said anything to Carmichael about the penalty, Royal shook his head no.
"Naw ... I mean he felt so bad about it," Royal said. "He came up to me apologizing so much. I felt bad for him because he was so mad about it. He was just working so hard. I would be mad if he wasn't going all out and made a block like that, but he was working hard and trying to protect because he thought the guy was going to have a clean shot on me. That's why he did it. I can only respect a guy like that."
"You talk about ‘Rock' and how he made the block in the back, well, on the one I scored on he made about three key blocks to get me into the end zone. A lot of people look at that one play, the block he had in the back, but without him I probably wouldn't have scored on that first one."
Helps to be liked
Think the guys who vote in the coaches' Top 25 poll like Beamer? Certainly, he rates much higher on their list than South Carolina's Steve Spurrier, the guy his son, Shane, works for.
Evidence was supplied in this week's Top 25 polls. While Tech was 12th in the AP poll, the coaches had the Hokies 10th. It was just the opposite for Spurrier's Gamecocks, who were seventh in the writer's poll and 12th in the coaches' rankings.
