I can't remember a time in HokieCentral's short history in which there seemed to be so darn little going on in Tech sports.  The news these days is of the minor variety (some of which I'll recap later this week), and these days, when I update News and Notes, I find myself mostly just repeating what I read in the papers or hear on TV.   Sure, I embellish it a little, but to be honest, there's not really much I can add to what I'm passing on to you, and for once, I feel as if I just ... well, don't have an opinion on what's going on these days.  Not much of one, anyway, not one that makes a difference.

In the last year or two, there have been a large number of topics that have driven me to long spiels of praise, criticism, or comment.  First, it seemed as if our football players couldn't go a month without getting hauled into court, and that stirred up more emotion than you could fit into one web site (and one message board).

Then, our athletic director quit last summer, and that led to an outpouring of opinion on whom we should hire, and how that person's legacy would be measured by the 800-pound gorilla of all-sports conference membership.  The pro-Sharon McCloskey and anti-Sharon McCloskey groups rallied to their arms, and in the end, an unknown but eminently capable (or so it seems) man named Jim Weaver was hired to the post, and everyone has stood back to this point and watched him gun down our little annoyances and fix what's broken in Tech sports, bit by bit.  So far, most Hokies are happy with his performance and feel that we got the right person (and in the deal, we somehow managed to hang onto Sharon McCloskey, who stands head and shoulders above most of Mr. Weaver's support staff).

And through it all, in the last two years, there were many great players, coaches, and games that stirred our emotions as well.  The players went by the names Cornell Brown, Jim Druckenmiller, and Ace Custis, and the coach we'll remember the most who is no longer here was a quote machine who calls himself Bill Foster.

We were treated to an NIT championship, a Top 10 basketball ranking, an NCAA basketball appearance, two Big East football championships, a Sugar Bowl victory, and an Orange Bowl clash with Nebraska that featured awe-inspiring performances by Jim Druckenmiller and Ken Oxendine, and left Hokies feeling almost as if we won the ballgame.  Our baseball team even got into the act in the spring of 1997, making the NCAA's and stealing a win before bowing out.

The men's basketball team crashed down to earth quickly and firmly, posting two straight losing seasons, but the football team seemed to still be in stride.  They continued to tear through their schedule, right up to October 4th, 1997, the day that Miami of Ohio made us look suddenly human again.

Since then, except for one glorious week in February when Jake Houseright, Michael Vick, and Lee Suggs all signed their names to Virginia Tech letters of intent, there has been little to cheer about.  We lost our last three football games in ugly fashion, our football conference has floundered on and off the field, our men's basketball team struggled to attain double-digit wins, and a star point guard that could thrill the rapidly-shrinking Cassell Coliseum crowds with a flick of his wrist suddenly and inexplicably turned his back and said goodbye.

On the fields of play, only the women's basketball team saved us from total embarrassment with their late-season heroics last March (with apologies to some of the lesser-known "non-rev" sports, some of which have done well.  But that doesn't float Joe Hokie's boat like football, basketball, and baseball do).

Yes, it's been rough, in many ways, but after the successes of 1995, 1996, and early 1997, I guess this lull was bound to happen.  You can't be king of the hill all the time, as we're finding out, particularly when you're a relatively small-budgeted athletic program with fractured conference membership, like Virginia Tech.

If you're an optimist, it certainly seems that better days are ahead of us.  The football team is restocking with three straight strong recruiting classes, including this year's "best-ever" class, the schedule is being upgraded, women's basketball is on the rise in talent, coaching, and interest, and men's basketball ... well, losing Grindstaff hurt, but it's going to get better.  It can't get worse.

Our facilities continue to improve - the Merryman Center is mere months away from completion, and Jim Weaver, depending upon what day you hear him speak, is likely to utter the words "luxury boxes," "end-zone expansion," and "Jumbotron" in the same sentence as the words "Lane Stadium."   Our Hokie ship is in the hands of an athletic director with vision and energy, one who is likely to move us as far forward during his term as Dave Braine was able to in the ten years he spent here (or at least, we can hope so, eh?).

If you're a pessimist, storm clouds are brewing.  The Big East Football Conference, once strong and proud - anyone remember 1993, when an excellent Tech team was only the fourth best team in the conference? - is being undermined by the split nature of the conference as a whole, and the fact that the office of the commissioner is filled by a man who completely lacks the vision and the fortitude of will to take this conference by the neck, wring it hard, and clean the situation up.  Mike Tranghese is trying to plug 11 holes in a leaking dyke, and he's only got ten fingers ... and, like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, no brain.  And that's not even mentioning the "courage" and "heart" requirements that are included in the job description for "Conference Commissioner."

Around us, as some conferences get stronger and plow forward like juggernauts, others are flying apart at the seams.  The SEC, Big 10, Pac 10, and ACC are picking up steam, and TV contracts, and bowl bids, and money, while on the other hand, the WAC is breaking up, and the Big 12 appears to be intentionally tanking it, so their conference will disintegrate, and the big boys can take their toys and play elsewhere.  These days, when it comes to conference membership, the definition of "stability" has disappeared from the handbook, and change is the name of the game.

And unfortunately, Virginia Tech is not a mover and a shaker in this scenario.   Always on the outside, the only thing we can do is stand on the corner, hat in hand, and hope that some generous passerby takes us off the street and gives us a home.

But, despite the fact that some of us are optimists and some of us are pessimists, one thing is true of all of us:  we're all waiting.  We're waiting for our young football team to develop.  We're waiting for those great home-and-home football series - Clemson ('98 and '99), Texas A&M ('02 and '03), and perhaps even Penn State ('05 and '06?) - to get here.

We're waiting for the Merryman Center to be finished.  We're waiting for Lane Stadium expansion, which is pretty far down the road, to begin, and we can't wait to see what it's going to include.  15,000 new seats?  Skyboxes?  A Jumbotron?   And how are we going to pay for all that?

We're waiting to see if Jim Weaver can work more magic.  We're waiting to see if Bobby Hussey is a good coach who suffered through a bad year, or if he's the next Frankie Allen.  We're waiting to see if incoming center Dennis Mims is as good as advertised, and if he can pull us out of the bottom of the A-10.  We're waiting to see if we'll ever sell out Cassell Coliseum again.

But most of all, we're waiting with nervous anticipation to see if we're going to get into the Big East for all sports, or perhaps the SEC ... or we're waiting to see if (gulp) some place like Conference USA is our ultimate destination.  There is a lot of noise and hoopla surrounding other issues and happenings in Virginia Tech sports, but the steady drumbeat in the back of every Hokie's mind, the one nagging question that won't go away, is the conference membership issue.  Our very future in NCAA athletics, and the amount of enjoyment that each of us will get from Virginia Tech sports in the coming decade, depends upon it.

So while the summer wears on, and it seems as if "nothing's happening," all I can tell you is that you're partially right.  Nothing's happening right now, but at some point in the future, we will no doubt look back on these days as the calm before the storm.  Only the future knows whether that "storm" will be cause for celebration or concern, and whether the future of Virginia Tech athletics will be bright ... or clouded over.

Have we seen our best days in these last few years?  Is it all down hill from here?  Or has our recent success just been the beginning of something great?   Who knows?

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