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Monday, December 13, 1999 Michael's Excellent Adventure Michael Vick went to New York over the weekend. He got to see tall buildings, meet some great athletes, have a lot of fun … and he's the Heisman frontrunner for next year. In an unprecedented 11-0 season that will end in the national championship game, perhaps this is the most unlikely occurrence of all: Tech freshman Michael Vick finished third in the Heisman balloting this year, behind winner Ron Dayne of Wisconsin and runner-up Joe Hamilton of Georgia Tech. Here's a breakdown of the voting for the top 8 finishers:
All you need to know as we look forward to next year is that every one of those players is a senior, except for Vick and Brees, a junior who will return next year for his senior season. That places Vick and Brees 1-2 as the Heisman frontrunners going into next year. Virginia Tech hasn’t had a legitimate Heisman candidate in decades, and maybe never. Maurice DeShazo was mentioned as a Heisman candidate entering his senior year in 1994, but he got off to a bad start that year and quickly disappeared from the few lists he was on. With the Hokies returning 9 starters on offense (10, if you count Emmett Johnson as a starter over Ricky Hall), Vick isn't likely to have a bad year next year, and he isn't likely to drop off the Heisman lists like DeShazo did. Not to mention that Vick will be at the top of most lists, whereas DeShazo was never a serious contender. This season, Michael Vick has thrown a lot of sensible notions right out the window. For example, I was one of many who steadfastly insisted before the season started that the freshman would cost the Hokies at least one game with costly mistakes from the quarterback position. Instead, he cost the Hokies no games, and won a game (West Virginia) with quite the opposite: a heady play made under immense pressure. Yes, he has been surprising, and amazing. But beyond all the obviously suprising things he has done, he may also one day accomplish something I thought a Tech player could never do: win the Heisman. People have asked me if a Tech player could ever win the Heisman, and I have always told them no. Probably not under Frank Beamer, and most certainly not under assistant coaches Rickey Bustle and Billy Hite. Why not? The logic is simple. Typically, offensive players win the Heisman, and more precisely, quarterbacks and running backs do. In order to win the trophy, a running back usually has to average close to 200 yards a game, and this is next to impossible in Billy Hite's platoon system. What about a quarterback? Not likely there, either. Tech has a run oriented attack. According to the Big East web site (www.bigeast.org), the Hokies had 559 rushing attempts this season, and just 199 passing attempts. Vick himself only threw the ball 152 times in 10 games, or 15.2 attempts per game. If you want to win the Heisman as a quarterback, you have to rack up gaudy stats, and there's no way even Vick can rack up gaudy stats with only 15 attempts a game. We're talking 300-400 yards passing per game and 25-40 touchdowns. That's hard to do if you're only throwing it 15 times a game. Joe Hamilton threw the ball 305 times, Pennington 405 times, and Brees an astounding 494 times. How is a Virginia Tech quarterback supposed to put up Heisman-like numbers when he's only throwing the ball one-half to one-third as often as the other candidates? Lastly, the reason I thought a Tech player would never win the Heisman is that the Hokies offense is simply too balanced. Heisman-winning quarterbacks and running backs come from pass-oriented or run-oriented teams, respectively, and again, although Tech is "run-oriented," a single Tech running back never gets the 30 or more attempts per game that it takes to roll up Heisman numbers. A Tech quarterback, meanwhile, just doesn't get the attempts, as chronicled above. So a Tech player will never win the Heisman, eh? That's what I believed. Never mind that -- I never thought a Tech player would even be considered, much less finish in the top 5. So to me, the single most suprising thing about this season is not the undefeated season, or the #2 ranking, or the chance to play for the national championship. It's not even ESPN's constant fawning over the Hokies. It's the idea that one day soon, a Hokie football player -- Michael Vick -- could win the Heisman. "Virginia Tech Football 1999 - The Perfect Season" Hello Hokie sports fans! I was lucky enough to be able to view an advance copy of the 1999 football season highlight videotape, and thought some of you would enjoy a "fans perspective" review of it. I typically like to call my columns "N2's View", but I guess I should title this article "N2's Review." First, here's some important details about this year's highlight tape. This year's tape is titled "Virginia Tech Football 1999 - The Perfect Season", and will be available exclusively at the Tech Bookstore starting December 10. The tape is once again produced by ISP Sports, Inc., the official sports marketing firm of Virginia Tech athletics. The tape is narrated this year by 1986 Virginia Tech alumni and former award-winning Roanoke sportscaster Greg Roberts. This version of the tape has a running time of 23 minutes. The reason I say "this version" is that, obviously, it doesn't contain Nokia Sugar Bowl highlights. I've been told a second version will be made available sometime in January, after the Nokia Sugar Bowl, that will contain all the great highlights of the bowl game. Why two versions? Well, it was explained to me by a good source that many fans are expected to want this version of the tape now, before Christmas, as gifts and stocking stuffers. Additionally, speculation is that if the Hokies lose to Florida State in the Nokia Sugar Bowl, many people might cool on the idea of purchasing the tape. I'm not sure if I agree with that. Personally, I know this fan would have purchased the tape regardless of the outcome of the bowl. I guess it will be up to each fan's individual taste. Now, let's go to the tape! After a nice introduction by Roberts voiced over some neat general clips of the team, as well as the "smokin' VT helmet" (you'll see), the tape moves on to the highlights of the season. I'm happy to report the game highlights are shown in proper sequential order, unlike the 1998 tape that showed all the out-of-conference games first, and then Big East conference games, totally disregarding the progression of the season. Each game is "set up" by Roberts, and this year, a nice new feature has been added. For each game, a text graphic briefly displays the date, the VT team record, and the VT rank in the A.P. poll preceding that particular game. To the best of my knowledge, all of the key highlights are shown for each game, but I found myself remembering certain plays that aren't covered that I had hoped would be. I'm extremely happy to report that with the exception of the Rutgers game highlights, the "artsy" special visual effects like tilted cameras and funky screen filtering effects are not used this year. For those of you who own some of the highlight tapes of the past, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. In the Rutgers highlights, the producers decided to get a little fancy with some effects when it really wasn't necessary. They didn't do anything really weird, but they did use some flashes of "negative" screening, where anything white becomes black, and vice-versa. It's very quick, and not obtrusive to the point of being annoying, but it is there. It's almost like it's supposed to be a lightning flash. Additionally, on several clips, they use a shifting effect of normal motion speed, to fast motion speed, back to normal speed, all in the same clip. It actually looks like someone hits the fast-forward button on the tape machine. I have no idea why anyone felt it was necessary to add these visual effects to the clips of the Rutgers game and only the Rutgers game, but thankfully, the other game clips remain "true." Throughout the course of the tape, brief "perspective" interview segments featuring Coach Beamer, Corey Moore, Michael Vick, Shayne Graham, Cory Bird, and Jamel Smith are shown. All six come across very well and add a nice touch to the progression of the magical season. Some of the other positive aspects of the tape are the usual radio voice-overs of Bill Roth and Mike Burnop on some of the best plays (Roth's call of the end of the West Virginia game is classic stuff), and a very cool "open field mic" on some of the best hits and tackles. I absolutely LOVED that addition to this year's tape. On the best hits, a field level directional mic is used to really capture the sound of the impact, as well as the "grunts and groans" of the players. It really gives the fans a new perspective of the "feel" of those plays. It's too cool, gang. On a relatively negative note, I'm disappointed in the ratio of field-level clips to press-box-level clips. In my opinion, this tape leans too heavy on the field level perspective, and not nearly enough of the "high-up" views. It's difficult to see the nuances of a great play from field level, but I would estimate 75% of the clips are field level. That's really a shame, because I know the press-box level camera captures the entire game as well. Overall, I think the tape is a good product, and definitely an improvement over several of the previous versions. Roberts does a great job with the narration, as he has a very positive and enthusiastic speaking voice. But there's still room for overall additional improvement in future tapes, especially in the field view vs. press box view aspect. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, I'd give "Virginia Tech Football 1999 - The Perfect Season" an 8, and definitely recommend you add it to your collection. Tech Bytes Project: Thank You Returns: Message board poster Nova Hokie 95 is back with the latest installment of his Project: Thank You. For those of you who have seen it before, PTY is essentially an organized fan mail effort from the HokieCentral message board posters to Virginia Tech athletes. This time around, NH95 is organizing a fan mail effort for the Hokie football team as they prepare for the national championship Sugar Bowl. So, if you would like to participate by writing thank you fan mail letters to Hokie football players (who wouldn't?) just visit Nova Hokie 95's Project Thank You home page. HC's Sugar Bowl Page: since its introduction, HC's Nokia Sugar Bowl Info Page has a couple of new additions that are worth checking out. Number one, a new "Sugar Bowl Related Hokie Links" section has been added to the bottom that includes a link to an HCMB Sugar Bowl Attendees data base where you can view the arrival dates, departure dates, and hotels of HokieCentral Message Board (HCMB) posters. Take a look and participate if you're so inclined. The service is provided by message board poster "SteveInBaltimore." The page also has a new InsideNewOrleans.com link in the "New Orleans Links" section of the page that contains a great visitors guide. Between InsideNewOrleans.com and Nola.com, you can find out anything you ever need to know about the Big Easy right on the web, a luxury we didn't have back in 1995. Lastly, the Nokia Sugar Bowl page has a new sponsor: CampusWhere.com. What's their deal? Well, you know that blazer with the VT lining that Lee Corso wore on TV during GameDay's first visit to Blacksburg this year? CampusWhere.com's got it! Take a look at this truly unique product by clicking on the CampusWhere.com ads that are on HC's Nokia Sugar Bowl Page. Housecleaning: folks, if you're surfing the HokieCentral message board with a version 2.0 browser, please upgrade it! The HCMB is a finely-tuned piece of software that gags on old, old browsers. They don't like each other, and the HCMB (and its server) will get along a lot better, and the board will operate a lot better, if you upgrade your browser. For browser upgrade links, check out TechLocker.com's "splash page" at http://www.techlocker.com.
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