Guys, I'll be updating this regularly as info changes, but here's our hot board with the skinny on each candidate: http://rvls.co/1Meu2sO

As always, feel free to chime in.

If Bud could recruit we would have depth, we wouldn't have Linebackers playing defensive end and the smallest defensive line in the country. Position recruiting has been a bust. Motu would not have lasted 2 games at any other school. Lack of steady linebacker quality and depth over the years has hurt us the most. Last of all look at all the top 5 nationally ranked defensive players that left the state.
You do have to take into consideration the suck ass offense over the years has hurt recruiting on both sides of the ball.

http://www.roanoke.com/sports/colle...cle_d38b20c5-8fda-5a7f-a37d-3a10cd8e5777.html

Of particular note, to me, was one of Dabo Swinney's comments...

“In this day and age, it’s all about how you start, and if you don’t start good, they fire you,” Swinney said. “And boy I’m glad that that wasn’t the mentality at Virginia Tech when they hired Frank Beamer, because this game and a lot of players would’ve missed out on one of the best that’s ever walked the sidelines.”


Good stuff. Thank you, Frank Beamer, for all that you've done for so many kids/young adults and for representing Virginia Tech with class and dignity.

Like him or not he recruits talent. If he left in 4 or 5 years the roster would be stocked. With a stacked roster we will attract a bigger name coach, If we aren't hiring a coach we expect to have for 15 or 20 years.

My fellow Hokies, I have ZERO inside info but as Jason pointed out there are some rumblings that old RR is in the running (if not the leader) to replace Coach Beamer. What else do we know or at least think we know?

1) We all know that Whit didn't want to fire Beamer and likely wouldn't have, IMHO. Did they work out a retirement deal to save Whit the trouble?

2) Whit and Beamer are friends with RR. Whit's connections go back to RR's time at WVU.

3) Bud's contract isn't set up well for VT unless he is retained at VT (DC or HC). Keeping him helps balance the budget, a budget that already pays two former basketball coaches.

4) It has been reported that the next HC will be offensive minded (so no on Bud, but a plus for RR).

5) Early reports of Beamer's retirement came from Arizona.

Word is that RR wants out of Arizona and would like the job at VT. Given the current season he's having, a RR hire could certainly come with strings. First, I could see Whit keeping Bud, Gray, Stiney and Shane as part of a deal to have Frank retire. Stiney moves to recruiting and Shane coaches Special Teams and works with recruiting. Bud moves to Assoc. HC and DC. Gray stays put. The rest of the staff who knows. Also, Whit could continue to build around the recruiting department with a familiar face in Stiney.

While I don't agree with a RR hire at the moment I'm trying to be objective. There are more than a few people out there that believe Whit's primary target is RR.

Need 4 UNC Tickets, please contact me at oviedohokie@yahoo.com if you have any to sell.
Thanks.

Just got fired by the Colts...he needs a job.

I'm not able to go to the UNC game so I got tickets to the UVA game. Is anyone else going? I have a feeling we're going to end up turning that game into a home atmosphere for Frank.

If anyone else has 2 tickets to sell, please let me know. Thanks!

Hopefully we are smart enough to turn this thing over to Bud.

Little of subject from the past few days but wanted to see if you made it to the scrimmage buzz was holding for the students. Buddie of mine was impressed with zac Leday and seth allen. Also said Hudson had the hot hand early on.

Assistant coach Bryan Stinespring speaks briefly on Frank Beamer and what it's meant to coach with him: http://rvls.co/1Mc5IVd

Assume we give the coach three years. What are the goals we want to see over the next three years or more. I am curious what our expectations are!

Guys, I couldn't be more proud of my writers. Brittany has followed up Kelly's story yesterday with a great column of her own: http://rvls.co/1Q5A81m

Mine are pretty obvious and simple. In order they go...

Justin Fuente
Tom Herman
Kriby Smart

Guys, hope you all have had great weeks! It's sure been a busy one with the news on coach Frank Beamer. We'll be holding this week's chat at 3 pm ET tomorrow (Thursday), to give those of you who prefer that time a chance to join us. LOTS to discuss, including coaching candidate updates, recruiting updates and more! Take advantage of and get the very most out of your subscriptions and join us tomorrow! And if you can't make it, you can email me directly, post questions here on The Gobbler or catch the replay.

Chat link: http://bit.ly/1PmMD74

If you haven't seen this, I think you will enjoy reading a little bit about Coach Beamer.

https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/farewell-to-frank-beamer-college-footballs-most-authentic-man

I told Kelly, but this might be the best article she's written for us so far, on Frank Beamer's retirement and the emotions from different aspects: http://rvls.co/1kpJ4RT

Not a huge fan of the way he did business at WVU but I do really like his offensive scheme better than the other candidates other than Herman. But if you go back and look at the explosiveness that WVU had it was fun to watch an having something like that at VT would be very exciting to me. If you look at our top qb's over the past years our biggest success was the mobile QB. Also we have had excellent backs too. Put those together with a RR scheme and it could be very dangerous and nice to see at VT. Thinking about how good Lawson and TM would look with Rogers on the other side of Lawson. I would like to have that scheme here honestly

I just ordered 5, and someone "in front of me" ordered 9.

If you want one for the remaining games, you might wanna swing by HP (if you are in the 'burg) or call them.

Dunno what they look like (outside of orange lettering on maroon tee), but who cares?

According to reputation, he is a mediocre recruiter. I don't know that to be true, but if it is, Whit isn't likely to hire him, regardless of history & friendship. He knows our greatest need.

If some of you recruitniks can shed light on the matter, that'd be great. Thx.

Per Footballoutsider....VTs O and D are given 2 efficiency rankings which account for the strength of the opposing units O or D, garbage time, big plays given up or made on O and D, red zone, and critical times....etc. Below are the ranking as of today for VT out of 128 teams....

Offense
Ranked 78th and 68th for an average of 73rd in the country.

Defense
Ranked 65th and 28th for an average of 46.5 in the country.

"Hey, our O is playing better than our D this year.". LMAO......emotion, not supported by facts. As a matter of fact, even in the year of 2015 with this once in a decade-down defense, it's still not even close.

Also......the Ole " our D let's us down at critical times" or the ole "running Qb argument" and "big run plays or plays over 20 yards".......well, that's ALSO accounted and measured in their statistical formulas. Again.....its not even close. Once again in 2015....our Offense remains FAR more of a problem that our defense.

Just the facts man.

As always, what's posted here, STAYS HERE. Don't de-value your own subscription by giving away information to others who don't pay like you do. It's also a violation of our terms of service and will result in the termination of your subscription.

Guys, not sure if I'll have something every day, but for all the days I do get updates, I'll post an INsider like this.

First off, this has been a decision coach Frank Beamer has been pondering for about a month now. As I'd posted last week, Beamer said no when asked if he was ready to retire after the Duke game. But it sounds like he already made his mind up and told Whit Babcock and Desiree Reed-Francois late last week that he would be retiring. I mentioned on Saturday how I asked Beamer at the very end of his post game press conference whether he would be getting more sleep. He responded, "I think I'm gonna sleep better, yeah. I didn't sleep much last week, though." During that last part, he looked directly at Babcock, who was sitting next to me in the back of the room. When I looked at Babcock, he looked right at Reed-Francois.

First off, it's not a coincidence that one of the first media outlets to report on the news yesterday was Fox Sports Arizona. Rich Rodriguez, currently the coach at Arizona, is very much a top candidate. And the news FSA got was from Rodriguez's camp. Not saying Rodriguez is for sure the guy, but he's in the top five candidate list without question.

I touched base late last night with Matt Moreno from GoAZCats.com, our Arizona site. He told me that though it's been relatively quiet with Rodriguez, that his interest in the Hokies job has "grown legs." Moreno said that things have shifted a bit in the last two weeks with Rodriguez and that Moreno got the sense in talking to Rodriguez last Wednesday that Rodriguez "didn't want to be here." Moreno was in Seattle Saturday for the Wildcats' loss at Washington and said that after the game, he got an even better sense that Rodriguez would be leaving. I'll be following up more with Matt today.

A very, very good source for me (and I don't mind sharing this one) is Gabe DeArmond at PowerMizzou.com. Gabe is very well connected and has been in on a lot of coaching moves around the country. He's also who has been in contact, through sources, about Memphis coach Justin Fuente. As I said last week, I can confirm that VT has been in contact with representatives of Fuente. Gabe got a text last night from a very good source of: "VA Tech/Fuente...strong" Fuente could be the top target here, but he's another who is certainly in the Hokies' top five of candidates.

PLENTY more coming. I'll be at the 12:30 pm presser and will post any updates over the next few weeks or month, whatever until the next head coach is hired for VT.

Per Shane in the interview. First I have heard this. If this is correct and Frank turned the job down, perhaps many of us on this board owe the man an apology - me included. Yes, he should have retired a few years ago, but his loyalty to VT is an incredible testament to his character and integrity.

Guys, a very, very good source just told me that athletics director Whit Babcock has reached out to all 17 of the Hokies' 2016 commitments. He told them that VT has "strong interest" to keep them on board. He told them he knew other schools would try to poach them from the Hokies, but asked each to wait and see who the new hire would be before making a final decision.