Hokies are routinely favored by newspaper

The Roanoke Times is a biased paper!

Virginia Tech is closer to Roanoke, but UVa is still a Virginia school and should get recognized properly!

UVa always takes second billing to Tech, win or lose. Tech lost to Boston College and received front page sport headlines and UVa received a small section for defeating Georgia Tech. After UVa beat Tech, you could not come out and congratulate UVa for its victory outright; it's "first win in four years," or "latest fall puzzles Tech."

Nothing positive about Virginia.

You have a negative attitude toward UVa. If Tech would have won, the headline would probably say, "Sweet Tech Victory," or something similar. Your mission statement says "We believe that the cornerstone of our enterprise is journalistic integrity. We insist on honesty, accuracy and fairness in all our reporting." So where is it?

I guess I will have to subscribe to the Charlottesville Daily Progress to read something positive about UVa!

ABBY TRENOR
SALEM


Beamer, his aides can't take Tech to top

To Randy King:

You do a wonderful job of calling a spade a shovel when it comes to the Hokies and I appreciate that. They are my team and I live and die with them. However, I am getting to the point that I am tired of dying with them in the second half of every season.

In business, it is the responsibility of the management to motivate employees to be aggressive and accomplish the corporate goals and to make certain their employees do achieve the objectives, or the management is at fault.

That being said, I feel and have felt that maybe it's time that Frank Beamer and/or Jim Weaver might give serious consideration to taking a page from South Carolina and Lou Holtz. Maybe it is time that some of the coaches are held responsible.

Unfortunately, I believe the coaches and the players have their ear a bit too close to ESPN and the rest of the media. You have to play the games before you can win them. Sportscasters have an opinion, just like you and I have ours. We don't have to play the games, though.

The coaches should be able to have them as ready every week as they do for Syracuse and Miami. That is their job, for which they get paid extremely well - in fact, too much for the results that we are getting.

Beamer has done a wonderful job of bringing us from nobodies to this level, but are he and his staff capable of taking us to the next level? I, for one, do not think so.

BILL WATSON
CHRISTIANSBURG


Tech needs modern offense for title bid

To Randy King:

I am a subscriber to The Roanoke Times. We moved here, about a year ago, so I am not attached to Virginia Tech. I do have an objective opinion and am a bit surprised of the response to the Hokies' record. I am referring to your article, "Fighting for leftovers," in last Saturday's paper.

Consider that Nebraska fired its coach, Frank Solich, who had a better record than Frank Beamer. You see Nebraska expects to win national championships, because it, unlike Virginia Tech, has.

Tech has always been mediocre, with the exception of Michael Vick's 1999 season when it won the Big East. Tech has two problems, the second stemming from the first.

Frank Beamer is their biggest problem. His style of football is no longer effective. Consider that the top 10-ranked teams in the BCS all have "pro-style" offenses, made popular by the Miami Hurricanes in the 1980s.

Tech still has the running quarterback who only passes when he must. Look at each of their losses: they fell behind, or were falling behind, and abandoned the strongest part of their offense, the run, and started to pass.

They are not a passing team! As soon as they start passing, they start losing. Just look at the numbers. They will never be successful until either Frank Beamer learns to play modern day football and not have a running back disguised as a quarterback, or Tech does, as Nebraska had the guts to do, get a new coach.

That is why he schedules patsy schools for nonconference play. Look at the nonconference games of the top 10 in the BCS. It helps those teams win the tough conference games! Playing William and Mary doesn't do that.

They only have one win to be proud of, which was against the Miami Hurricanes, who actually beat themselves by giving Virginia Tech 21 points off of turnovers and throwing an interception at the goal line, which was another seven-point loss.

They stayed ahead and did what they do best, run, until there was no more clock. They didn't have to throw the ball, so they won. It's pretty simple, but people around here don't get it.

That's why Frank Beamer has the safest coaching job of anyone. They actually still think he's a good coach. They were losers for so many years before he came, they see him as a winner!

Furthermore, when they get into the ACC next year, their losses will mount even more since it is a strong conference. Why they wanted to get in is completely beyond me.

RANDOLPH RUSS
CHRISTIANSBURG


Beamer, assistants outcoached in losses

To Randy King:

The Hokies are puzzled by their losses? Well, let me enlighten them. Frank Beamer and his staff have been completely and totally outcoached by most of their Big East opponents during the last three years. This year they were embarrassingly outcoached by West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Boston College, and Virginia, as well as Temple, for goodness sakes.

Time after time they fail to make adjustments during the game and they failed to make seasonal adjustments once every team figured out all they had to do was crowd the line of scrimmage and wait for the very slow-developing handoff to Kevin Jones. Then five or six defensive players, each with 4.4 speed, are all over him like ants on a picnic table.

The scheme and play-calling are abysmal. Where are the draw plays? The screens? The quick openers and misdirection? Why so very few rollout pass plays by such gifted running quarterbacks? It's obvious to even the most casual observer that Bryan Randall throws much better on the rollout than in the pocket.

I do not believe offensive-line coaches make good offensive coordinators. They are way too conservative and usually design an offense and call plays that best suits the offensive line, regardless of the talent at the skill positions.

It is a blatant failure by Coach Beamer to have not become more involved in the offense (and defense, as well). Tech will never be able to move to the next echelon, or even be able to compete in the ACC, with the current offensive scheme and offensive play-calling. Unless, of course, they manage to get the league's best defense and can win games 14-7 and 21-10.

STEVE GRIFFITTS
STAFFORD

 

U.Va.: perfect record but blemished schedule
5-0 Cavaliers display cohesion while waiting to face their first formidable opponent
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Dec 8, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Five games, five victories. In a pivotal season for Pete Gillen, the University of Virginia's embattled basketball coach, his team has yet to stumble.

Records can be misleading, of course. Unlike, say, Michigan State, which already has faced Kansas, Duke and Oklahoma, U.Va. hasn't encountered anything resembling a marquee opponent. The Cavaliers have ventured outside University Hall only once, and that was for a short trip to Lexington.

Still, Gillen has reason to be encouraged. His players aren't rebounding well or shooting well from 3-point range, but they're working hard on defense, taking care of the ball and making the extra pass. They're hustling. They seem to enjoy each other's company and listen to their coaches.

"I think they look like a team," Virginia Military Institute coach Bart Bellairs said after the Cavaliers' 78-56 win Friday night at Cameron Hall.

The turmoil that rocked Gillen's program in 2002-03, when Virginia staggered to a 16-16 record, turned off many fans. The crowds at U-Hall have been disappointing this season, but U.Va supporters who show up are finding they like this team and its attitude.

"I'm really impressed with the class of Pete's kids," Bellairs said. "You can see a difference. I don't know how that's going to translate in wins or losses for them, but those kids are good-looking kids and they look like they like each other. I wouldn't bet against their chemistry this year.

"Not that Pete needs my endorsement, by any means. But it's something I see from a distance. They look good, and I'm excited about Virginia basketball."

With junior Jason Clark academically ineligible - U.Va. hopes to get the 6-8, 235-pound forward back next week - Gillen has had only 10 scholarship players this semester. Five are freshmen, including 6-6 swingman Gary Forbes, who's tied with junior center Elton Brown for the team scoring lead (15.2 ppg). Another first-year player, reserve center Donte Minter, is shooting 76 percent from the floor and averaging 9.4 points.

The infusion of young talent has sparked a program that, before this school year, lost three players who had eligibility remaining: center Nick Vander Laan and guards Keith Jenifer and Jermaine Harper.

"This team right here I like," said Brown, who's dropped about 30 pounds since the end of last season. "The chemistry is there."

U.Va. has played only two teams from elite conferences - Virginia Tech and Minnesota - and neither is expected to contend for its league title. Even so, Virginia has been outrebounded 219-199. If the Cavaliers are to avoid another disappointing season, their board work must improve. They also need to shoot better - they've made only 30.9 percent of their 3-point attempts and 66.7 percent from the foul line - but have the personnel to do so.

A season ago, guard Todd Billet and forward Devin Smith ranked among the ACC's most-feared 3-point shooters. Through five games, Billet is 8 for 24 from beyond the arc. Smith, who's been slowed by a back injury, is 1 for 14 from long range, and he's averaging only 6.0 points. U.Va.'s top 3-point shooter has been sophomore forward Derrick Byars, who's 9 for 14.

"I'm not concerned at all," said Byars, who's averaging 12 points and 6.2 rebounds. "We have a lot of shooters. It's going to come."

Until those shots start falling, U.Va. may have to rely on its defense, heretofore a weakness under Gillen. The Cavaliers allowed opponents to shoot 43.5 percent from the floor last season. They've held their first five foes to combined 35.2-percent accuracy.

"I know compared to last year, we're talking more on defense and rotating more," Byars said.

Virginia, off this week for exams, plays host to James Madison next Tuesday. Then comes a visit to Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, followed by a home date with Coastal Carolina. The Cavaliers could well take an 8-0 record into their ACC opener, Dec. 28 at N.C. State.

"We still have tons of work to do," Gillen said. "We're still, certainly, just beginning, but I think we have an upside."