Thursday, September 22, 2005
'Did we get paid, hon?'
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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The crowd in Lane Stadium was jacked. The football was on the tee. The opening kickoff to the 2000 BCA Classic pitting Georgia Tech against Virginia Tech was just seconds away.
Then, lo and behold, a huge bolt of lightning came flashing out of the skies and struck about a pitching wedge's distance away. More charges of lightning and a torrential downpour of rain followed. The game was called off and never rescheduled.
Fourteen months ago on the golf course at The Grandover Resort in Greensboro, N.C., Duke head football coach Ted Roof told me a story I hadn't heard about that night.
Because the ball never left the tee, the game never officially started, and thus, robbed Roof, then the Yellow Jackets' defensive coordinator, and the rest of the Georgia Tech assistant coaches of an extra game's pay from the school.
"Isn't that unbelievable?" said Roof, watching me as I traipsed towards the woods in search of my ball after yet another ill-struck blow.
"Believe me, I'll never forget that game, and the doggone thing was never even played!" bellowed Roof, suddenly making me not feel so badly about another shanked short iron.
"A few more seconds, that football gets kicked off, and we all get paid. Then comes the lightning, the ball doesn't leave the tee, and we didn't get a dime. Try and explain that story to your wife come bill time."
Although I didn't make the connection at the time -- well, our group had passed the pretty girls and the beer cart several times by that point -- now I perhaps understand why a 7-handicapper like Roof was hitting range balls off several tee boxes during the round.
When the ill-fated scenario of that game came up Tuesday in Frank Beamer's weekly Tuesday news conference, I couldn't resist asking the Hokies' head honcho whether the univited lightning bolts had similarly singed his and/or the Tech assistants coaches' pockets that night, too.
After firing the question, the always so-prepared ol' ball coach gave me an incredulous blank look.
"I don't know," said Beamer, taking several seconds to respond verbally. "My wife [Cheryl] handles my money, I don't know. My assistants get money for those extra games. And I assume we did.
After mulling the question over for a few more seconds, Beamer added: "You know, I'm going to go back and check on that. ... I'm going to go back and check with my wife on that. That would be a heck of a deal, wouldn't it?"
Believe me, Beamer got his money, and so did his coaches. The trusty beat man would have had to heard somebody grousing if not, right?
"Obviously, you guys have better agents than those guys do," I cracked.
Beamer just laughed. Cha-ching. Depositville. End of story. Yes sir, Ol' Fancy Gap Frank and his boys don't miss an angle, folks.
TALKING POLLS: When seeing Hank Kurz in the house Tuesday for Beamer's media session, I suggested to the Mark McGwire look-alike who does a slam-bang job as the head sports guy for Virginia's Associated Press office that he should pepper the Tech coach with a few questions about Tech's No. 4 ranking in both major polls.
Kurz, a mammoth red-head who goes about 6-7 and is only a few pounds this side of 300 pounds on the scales, didn't let me down. When big Bill Dyer, the official "sheriff" for the Hokies' sports information who easily tops three bills on the Toledos, asked the room if there was "any more questions for coach?", Kurz stepped and tried to take Beams deep.
As I snickered to myself in the seat beside him, Kurz asked Beamer: "I know you don't like to talk about polls, coach, but, hey, being No. 4 in the country is pretty heady stuff. What do you do to make sure your players pay no attention to the polls?"
"The only time I ever discuss is with you guys," said Beamer, supplying the same answer he offered a week before.
After some more Beamer yada, yada, yada, Kurz fired back, asking, "what would you do if you heard one of your players talking to another one about the polls?"
"I don't think you will," Beamer replied. "I don't think you'll catch our players talking about where we are in the polls. As far as I know, it's just get ready to play Georgia Tech."
Kurz refused to go quietly, retaliating by asking: "So how do you find out where you're ranked?"
"How do I find out?" responded Beamer, trying to camouflage a grin. "Dave Smith [Tech sports information director] comes in and tells me."
Wild child Kyle Tucker of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot then came in a sudden, late blitz off the edge, asking, "So you don't pick up the paper on Mondays?"
"I pick up the paper, but the polls is not the first place I go to," Beamer responded.
I'm guessing it can't be the comics page.
When asked about the subject, senior right guard Jason Murphy swore the head man wasn't a jive act.
"I tell you what, Coach Beamer, he don't lie," the 6-2, 303-pound Murphy said. "We don't talk about it. I know I don't talk about it. Yeah, I know we're ranked 4, though. But we don't talk about it."
So how does Murphy get the news? Dave Smith certainly doesn't stroll into big Murph's crib to deliver the weekly rankings.
"Well, I watch ESPN," Murphy said. "I do see [the rankings] at the bottom [of the television screen], but it's not like I'm, 'oh, yeah, we're ranked No. 4.' "
TRASH TALK: When asked who's the best trash talker on the team, senior defensive tackle Tim Sandidge didn't require much to answer.
"I have to go with J. Dub ... Jimmy [Williams] ... Jimmy will talk to you," a grinning Sandidge said.
And what about on the defensive line?
"A silent type, I would have to say [Darryl] Tapp," Sandidge said. "Tapp will just give you that look after he makes a play and you already know what time it is.
"But vocal, it's Chris Ellis. That's my boy. I have to give it to Ellis."
DEMASI LEGEND GROWS: When asked if he's ever going to be at his high school weight again, the 300-pound Sandidge laughed.
"I don't think 225 is going to be there," he said. "Probably 'bout 260, something like that. I don't think I'm going to see 225 again unless I'm an old, old man, and have no muscle at all."
When it was noted that former Tech offensive linemen like current graduate assistant coach Steve DeMasi now look like wide receivers, Sandidge shook his head.
"You'd never know that DeMasi was a center," he said. "I don't think I'm going to get like DeMasi, though. DeMasi has lost a lot of weight."
DeMasi, who lettered for the Hokies from 1999-2001, was dubbed in his playing days as "The Blacksburg Pimp" by some of his fellow offensive linemen for his smooth operating ways in local watering holes.
"Yeah, you see DeMasi out here and there around everywhere," Sandidge noted. "DeMasi is getting a little bit of something everywhere."
