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Monday, April 19, 1998 Rain Dampens an Already Depressing Spring Game Most of the observers of Tech's Spring football game, a rainy 10-0 White victory over the Maroon, came away grim-faced, talking about an upcoming year in which most Hokie fans believe Tech's offense will struggle mightily. If you thought last year was tough for the offense, strap yourself in and hang on in 1998, because it's going to be a bumpy ride. It has been popular to talk about how poorly Tech's offensive line has played in the Spring scrimmages, and how badly the defense has been manhandling them, and on Saturday, those who braved the rain saw for themselves first hand that the offense is indeed greatly outmatched by the defense. It is also popular to say "Well, at this time of the year, the defense is always ahead of the offense." Hmmm. Then explain to me how, in UVa's Spring game a couple of weeks back, QB Aaron Brooks rung up 180 yards passing, and running back Thomas Jones 140 yards rushing, against a Hoos defense that should be excellent this year. Disclaimer: not being a UVa sports fan (my favorite oxymoron) I could have those numbers wrong. But Brooks and Jones did not struggle, that's for sure. And you can talk about the defense being "ahead" of the offense all you want, but what I saw on Saturday was a defense that was light years "ahead" of the offense. When there is only 106 total yards of offense in the game, there is cause to drag out the tired old phrase, "Houston, we have a problem." In all fairness, a hobbling Al Clark, who played the entire game for the Maroon offense, was off-limits for tackling, so every time a defender got just a hand on him, the play was whistled dead. This led to some skewed stats, because a number of bogus "sacks" were rung up on Al, including two safeties. Al also wasn't allowed to make plays when the pocket collapsed (but whether he even could make plays on his bad knee is another subject entirely). In addition to the two safeties, the White team scored a TD on Ricky Hall's very nifty 50-yard punt return. The extra point was an attempt for two that was not successful. In the next few days, I'll be writing up my Spring Game report, which will be mercifully short, because not much happened offensively, so analysis of the offense will be difficult. Likewise, analysis of the defense is tough, because it was all good. They all swarmed all over the offense. But there were some highlights and lowlights, and some players to watch, and we'll touch on those. Look for it later this week. Till then, check out the reports on the game from the real media: Tech's defense
blooms in spring football game - Randy King, Roanoke Times
Congratulations to former Hokies Todd Washington, Gennaro DiNapoli, Ken Oxendine, and Marcus Parker, whose names were all called on day 2 of the NFL draft Sunday:
Tampa Bay seems to like the Hokies. Jim Pyne plays for them, Jermaine Holmes and Dwayne Thomas both spent time in their camp (with Thomas nearly making the team before a knee injury ended his chances with the Bucs), and now they have drafted Todd Washington.
One of the real highlights of the Spring Game was Bruce Smith's appearance at half time. The former Tech defensive end and current (and forever) Tech legend presented the Spring football awards at halftime. The following lucky Hokie footballers got to shake Bruce's hand as they received their awards:
I can tell you that it was a pleasure to see Bruce on the grass of Lane Stadium once again, and I can also report that although his trademark slightly-pigeon-toed gait is still present, his caboose has gotten a lot smaller since he roamed the turf in Blacksburg. Bruce learned very early in the NFL if that he wanted to be successful, the big butt had to go, and he started eating better and exercising more. That's when his career took off. Bruce was on the news Saturday night, remarking that Tech's new facilities were impressive, and that the "commitment to excellence" was obvious. Bruce, a generous supporter of Tech, no doubt penned yet another check to the athletic department while he was in town. His appearance on the news didn't cause nearly as much of a stir, however, as his rumored appearance in downtown Blacksburg Friday night. I was told that Bruuuuuce was tooling around the 'Burg in a limo, and he made stops at Arnold's and Top of the Stairs during the night. Just like I used to do... not! Dopey me, I missed it. I was at home getting ready for the HokieCentral tailgate. Speaking of which...
Although it rained steadily during the actual game, most of the HokieCentral tailgate stayed dry, up until the very end. That wasn't a problem, because thanks to the efforts of message board poster N2VTFTBL, we had a nice 10x10 tent to keep us dry (although not everybody fit under the tent). About 30 or 40 people stopped by during the tailgate, including the ever-popular Russian Hokie, who entertained us with tales of his days in Russia, which included watching Rocky IV and rooting for Soviet superfighter Ivan Drago to pound Sylvester Stallone into the mat. I've got news for ya, RH: many of us here in the U.S. were rooting for the same thing. Turns out we Americans and Russians do have a lot in common, after all. The highlight of the day was the giveaway of HokieCentral's genuine 1995 Torrian Gray Virginia Tech football jersey (remember when I told you I was going to give away something special?). The jersey was won by frequent message board poster Atlee Hokie, who was so jacked that he squeezed the jersey on (that thing's small, folks) and did a few Heisman-like poses after the Spring Game. Atlee committed the sin of letting me take pictures of him posing in the jersey, so when I get the film developed, we've all got that to, uh ... look forward to. Thanks to everyone who helped out and attended, including Mrs. HokieCentral and N2VTFTBL. See you back here soon, when I do the Spring Game report.
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