Ahhh, it's the day after taxes are due, and while many of you were knocking yourselves out forking over cash to Uncle Sam, I was hard at work, toiling away at a massive site restructuring that is now complete (except for the inevitable minor errors and omissions).

In a nutshell, I have melded the main site (www.hokiecentral.com) and the Members Only site into one web site.  This means that all content, free or not, is now accessible from www.hokiecentral.com.  You 1998 members can forget about the address of the Members Only site, because you can now get to all the Members Only stuff from the main site.

But don't forget those username/password combinations that I sent to you!  You still need them to access Members Only content, which is now flagged with a little icon.  Anywhere where you see that icon, you must be a 1998 HokieCentral member to access that content.   When you click on one of those links, you'll be prompted for your username and password, and once you enter them, you'll be able to see what you clicked on.  As always, you can email me for help.

This update heavily affected the Archives and Sights and Sounds pages, which have been massively updated.  Check them out, and you'll see that much of the content has been flagged as Members Only with the new icon (in particular the Archives page, which now contains the full two years of HokieCentral archives, most of which is Members Only - the same amount of material is free as before, but now there's all sorts of new links which are Members Only).

As you have also noticed, there are some new Members Only links in the left-hand borders, too.  This is material that was previously accessible only from the Members Only web site, but it has now been linked to the main web site.

I hope that this revamp makes it easier for everyone to find their way around and reduces some of the confusion that was created by having two separate sites.  Remember:  forget about the old Members Only site, and use the main "www.hokiecentral.com" site to access everything!

Unfortunately, all of this site restructuring has meant that I've had zero time to spend on creating new content, so I hope you've been keeping up to date with Spring football on the message board.  Here's what I've been able to pick up from the board and The Roanoke Times:

• The defense is mauling the offensive line daily, making it nearly impossible for Tech's offense to get in synch and run some plays.   For the time being, the pipeline of good offensive linemen that Tech has always had seems to have run dry.  The new linemen are all very inexperienced, and it's going to take a long time, maybe an entire year or more, for them to gel into a good line.  In the meantime, it's hard to figure out if the defense is that good, the offense is that bad, or both.

• QB Dave Meyer is currently out with bruised ribs, but he should be able to play in the Spring Game.  For practice and scrimmages, the Hokies are down to two QB's now:  a still-gimpy Al Clark, who has been thrust into service, and walk-on Denny Randolph, who is probably getting more practice than he ever thought he would.  Meyer and Randolph will get most of the work in Saturday's Spring Game.

• Center Keith Short is out (concentrating on academics), so Tim Schnecker, a Blacksburg native who has previously been able to hide deep down the depth chart, is now getting serious playing time.  At 6 feet, 268, Schnecker is a "little light," according to Coach Beamer.  He is splitting playing time with JUCO transfer Anthony Marchant.

• In the Roanoke Times, Beamer raved about John Engelberger, who, as we have noted earlier, has been playing at the tackle position instead of defensive end.  But again, he's working against an O-line that is struggling.

• Nobody has stepped up at the fullback position.   Nobody.  What say we go with the one-back, four-wideout set?  (Don't roast me - I'm not serious.  I think)

Woo-hoo!  We finally beat the Hoos in something!  It's been a rough year.

Remember, HokieCentral is having a "Bring Your Own" tailgate this Saturday, prior to the Spring Game.  I'll be starting around 11:00 in the morning.  I'll park the HokieCentral mobile at the following location:

I'll have some HokieCentral goodies for sale there - most notably, ten HokieCentral baseball caps that are in production as we speak.  I won't know the price on the hats until I find out how much I'm paying for them on Friday.  I'll also be hawking some HC mouse pads and drink huggies left over from last year, so bring a little extra dough with you.  I'll probably bring some other stuff, too, but I haven't figured that out yet, so just show up and see what's there, if you're interested.

The game is at 2:00 this Saturday.  Admission is free.  The latest weather forecast I saw was predicting sunny skies and temperatures in the 60's, so it should be great weather.  See you there! 

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