Has he lost his touch? I see VTech drifting into a FSU (under Bowden's last few years). Am I wrong?

The league needs VTech up near the top...as they have an SEC type fanbase that reps well on TV and bowl games.

I believe former ECU head coach Steve Logan has said it best in his regular radio appearances here on FM 99.9 (the Fan) in Raleigh -- paraphrasing:

"I (Logan) went to the VT@UNC game and it was evident that Bud Foster and Frank missed on some recruits the last couple of seasons... VT made a living off of the Tidewater area and it's possible that the UVA coach has eroded VT's influence in the area"

Something to that effect.

Having said all of that -- the league doesn't necessarily NEED Virginia Tech at the top as long as FSU is strong.

What the league needs is:

1) North Carolina (love 'em or hate 'em) to be strong. They have the best "brand" recognition of any school in the conference (again, love 'em or hate 'em). The Heels would have destroyed LSU had they not been exposed as an "agent" shop of horrors back at the start of the '10 season.

2) FSU and Clemson to remain dominant at the top of the Atlantic Division.

3) Maryland to find its way back and routinely challenge FSU and Clemson.

4) Syracuse returning to some sort of its 80s glory when it enters league play. Please beat Louisville.

For the ACC to be respected again in football, FSU, Miami, Clemson, and VT need to be good most years with GT, Pitt, SU, and UNC picking up the slack in those years one or two of the top four falters. And we need all of the ND games against these 8 teams when at ACC home venues preferably at night. Pitt/ND had great overnight ratings despite being up against the premiere match-up of the season Alabama/LSU.

Of course, I am biased on 7 of those 8 teams (and ND), since I got hooked on college football during the 80s and early 90s.

I did an analysis of 1980 through 1993 final AP polls and then assigned points and the overall rankings for this time period were as follows:

1. Miami
3. FSU
9. ND
t10. Clemson
20. Pitt
21. SU

Also during this time frame, Miami, FSU, ND, Clemson, and GT all had NCs.

Back then, the SEC was still tough, but it didn't dominate the way it does today.

Cheers,
Neil

David Teel's article about this - "How steep and extended will Virginia Tech's football decline be?"

His conclusion:

Quote:"Tech’s return to its standards hinges not only on the 66-year-old Beamer but also his successor.

As Florida State learned with Bowden and Texas is with Brown, timing an icon’s retirement is challenging. As Notre Dame learned with Gerry Faust and Charlie Weis, Nebraska with Bill Callahan, Miami with Randy Shannon, and Florida with Ron Zook, poor coaching hires are debilitating.

All of which makes the next few weeks, and years, at Virginia Tech intriguing, indeed."

v tech is just having a down year, sometimes you miss on guys you recruit but their lack of a run game this year & special teams let them down IMO

I am hoping Pitt can fill some need here. Our biggest enemy the past 4 years has been stability. We need Chryst to stay and give us the needed long term stability all teams need to be consistently successful.

oh yea, and a QB that can freaking scramble!

(11-06-2012 11:57 AM)ecuacc4ever Wrote:  What the league needs is:

1) North Carolina (love 'em or hate 'em) to be strong. They have the best "brand" recognition of any school in the conference (again, love 'em or hate 'em). The Heels would have destroyed LSU had they not been exposed as an "agent" shop of horrors back at the start of the '10 season.

First, the sheep have never been one of the football "names". Even a 10 win ACC champ sheep team couldn't do better than the Bluebonnet Bowl vs a 7 win SWC team in 1980. Mack Brown couldn't do better than the Gator Bowl.

Second, we are talking about a program that was not only cheating, but committing wholesale academic fraud and still couldn't win but 8 games a year. Depending on sissy blue for anything football related is like depending on France to back you up militarily.

(11-06-2012 12:21 PM)omniorange Wrote:  For the ACC to be respected again in football, FSU, Miami, Clemson, and VT need to be good most years with GT, Pitt, SU, and UNC picking up the slack in those years one or two of the top four falters. And we need all of the ND games against these 8 teams when at ACC home venues preferably at night. Pitt/ND had great overnight ratings despite being up against the premiere match-up of the season Alabama/LSU.

Of course, I am biased on 7 of those 8 teams (and ND), since I got hooked on college football during the 80s and early 90s.

I did an analysis of 1980 through 1993 final AP polls and then assigned points and the overall rankings for this time period were as follows:

1. Miami
3. FSU
9. ND
t10. Clemson
20. Pitt
21. SU

Also during this time frame, Miami, FSU, ND, Clemson, and GT all had NCs.

Back then, the SEC was still tough, but it didn't dominate the way it does today.

Cheers,
Neil

Neil:

I agree with your premise that many of the ND/ACC games should be at night, but the Pitt/ND game kicked off at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time and still received very good ratings.

LSU/Alabama kicked off at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time, I believe.

ND home games will be afternoons usually, and the ACC home games will likely be night games because 3:30 is a split national audience on ABC usually.

I think it's interesting how Notre Dame found its way into a thread called "Beamer", considering we're the only ACC team never to play the Irish (though Frank Beamer has faced Brian Kelly before - winning the '09 Orange Bowl against Cincy).

I wonder if Frank will still be around when VT finally does get around to playing Notre Dame.

(11-08-2012 11:15 AM)TopayVT Wrote:  I think it's interesting how Notre Dame found its way into a thread called "Beamer", considering we're the only ACC team never to play the Irish (though Frank Beamer has faced Brian Kelly before - winning the '09 Orange Bowl against Cincy).

I wonder if Frank will still be around when VT finally does get around to playing Notre Dame.

I doubt it.