First of all, let me say that I'm hesitant to criticize members of the media, for two reasons:

• I know that they read the site, and in fact, I have gotten to know several of them via email, because I'm HokieCentral's webmaster.  For the most part, I've found them to be nice guys, and professionals who are proud of their work, like the rest of us.

• It's popular and easy to criticize media coverage in a blanket fashion, and let's face it:  you can never get enough coverage of your favorite team, and it can never be positive enough or informative enough.

• What do I know about their jobs?  Not much, and you should never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes, and as I'm fond of telling you, I'm not a sports journalist, so I have no idea what they face every day.

But I can't stay quiet any longer, because I've got a bone to pick.

The other day at work, a Hokie friend of mine (and in fact, a HokieCentral member) passed by me in the hall and barked, "Is Tech going to play football this year?"   When I answered, "Yep," he groused, "You'd never know it from reading The Roanoke Times.  When are they going to run a damn article on the Hokies?"

I told him, "You know, I spent a few days down in Raleigh last week, and every day, the Raleigh paper had something about the UNC Tarheels in it.  On some days, it was just a few columns, but there was something there, every day."

My friend said, "When I lived down in South Carolina, every day they had something on Clemson, South Carolina, and Furman.  Every day."

So my bone that I'm going to pick is this:  why can't The Roanoke Times, and perhaps even The Richmond Times-Dispatch, have just a little something every day on the Hokies?  I understand that you can't write a feature article every single day - it's ridiculous to expect that, and frankly, there's not that much going on.

But why not allocate a little space in the paper every day for "Hokie Notes" and give the Tech faithful just a few bullets and tidbits on what's going on in Blacksburg?  Just call Coach Beamer up on the phone and ask him what happened that day.  "Any injuries, coach?  Any position changes?  How'd the freshmen look?  Is Houseright going to play much?  What about that kid Johnson?  Is he really that good?"

There's a million little questions you can ask like that, and it only takes a few minutes.  Don't want to hassle Beamer every day?  Call him on Monday and get enough material for a few days - trickle it out a little at a time, a few items a day.   Tech fans would love it - and I recognize that the papers would have to do the same for UVa, but hey, that's the price you pay.  Put the UVa material in its own box, and I'll ignore it.

I'm sorry, but when I hear that down in Florida, the papers have been full of daily information and updates about Florida and Florida State for weeks, while we in Virginia get articles trickled out to us here and there about Tech and UVa, I get steamed.

And Thursday set me off.  Thursday, on the Bristol Herald Courier's web site, for crying out loud, they posted a nine-paragraph article on Wednesday's football scrimmage, including a quote from Frank Beamer.  That's a great job covering the Hokies, by a paper that is based over 100 miles away.  As a matter of fact, I'm starting to think that Robert Anderson of The Bristol Herald Courier must be living in Blacksburg, because his recent coverage of the Hokies has been nothing short of awesome.

I don't know Robert - I've never even exchanged emails with him - but in the last couple of weeks, he has been incredibly proficient in producing articles about the Hokies.   It seems as if Robert (and the BHC) are producing articles about Tech almost daily, while the staff at The Roanoke Times and the Richmond Times-Dispatch have been conducting business as usual, producing articles for media days, but very little else.

How did The Roanoke Times cover the scrimmage?  I looked in Thursday's paper, and they posted a rinky-dink three paragraph summary (which looks like it's probably a copy of what VT SID Dave Smith FAXed and emailed out to everyone) and buried it in their "In the Region" report, four pages deep in the Sports section (which, by the way, isn't even on the front page of its own section - it's buried four pages deep in a section titled "At Work").

Hell, it's not "In the Region," it's Hokie football, for crying out loud.  "In the Region" should be reserved for reports on high school track teams, and local 5k fundraising runs.  Hokie football ought to be in its own section, clearly titled and blocked off so it's easy to find.

I'll be blunt:  The Roanoke Times ought to be embarrassed, because their coverage of the scrimmage was a distant second to the Bristol paper, which is twice - perhaps three times - farther away from Blacksburg.  It's that simple, and I'm ticked off about it.

Understand, this is not a criticism of Randy King (Roanoke Times) or Jeff White (Richmond Times-Dispatch).  This is a criticism of policy, namely, their papers' policy of not providing enough information for thirsty Hokie fans.   All I'm asking is a little bit, folks, every day.  I mean, look at the volume I produce here at HokieCentral, and this isn't even my real job.

Because you know what it boils down to?  Every day, thousands of Hokie fans go out to their paper boxes in the morning, like me, and every day, they flip to the Sports section and scan the headlines for the words Virginia Tech, or Hokies.

Most days, there's nothing there.  Would it kill the staff to hand out just a few tidbits, every day?  That's what they do everywhere else for their local teams.

Speaking of Wednesday's scrimmage, here are a couple of reports on it (one of which is my copy of the Bristol Herald Courier report that I linked to above):

Scrimmage Report - www.hokiesports.com

VT's Houseright Shines in Scrimmage - Bristol Herald Courier

It looks as if the coaching staff played a lot of the freshman in this scrimmage to see what they could do, and I'm sure that they liked what they saw in Jake Houseright, as he led the defenders with nine tackles.

Defensive Coordinator Bud Foster is quoted in this week's Hokie Huddler as saying, "I will tell you this:  everything you've read and heard about him (Houseright) is true."  Geez, given what has been written and said about Houseright, that's quite an endorsement of him by Coach Foster.

The Houseright situation is interesting.  He is fast becoming a very popular Tech player, as he meets more and more fans, and everyone who meets him is impressed by him.   And then in the first scrimmage, the first thing you hear is, "Houseright had nine tackles."

As Hokie fans - and coaches, and the media - begin their love-fest of Houseright, who appears to rival former Hokies like Ken Oxendine in the "character and likability" department, the odd man out in all this is Jamel Smith.

Jamel Smith, a junior, is in an unenviable situation.  He shares the same position as Houseright, the "Backer" linebacker slot, and in fact, Jamel owns the position.  He's the starter.  He is a gifted player in his own right, one who is poised for a breakout year, but he's also going to be on the outside looking in as Hokie football fans clamor to see Jake, Jake, and more Jake.

Hopefully, Jamel will understand that a vote for Jake Houseright is not a vote against Jamel Smith.  Me personally, I'm hoping that in the long range, the Tech coaches will find a way to get them both on the field at the same time, but that might be impossible, because neither Jamel or Jake is currently suited to play the other linebacker positions, Whip and Mike.

As a fan, there's nothing wrong with having an embarrassment of riches at a certain position, but when I think about the two players individually, I want them both to get a lot of playing time.  Too bad that's probably not possible.

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