Letter From the Editor: Digging for Material in the Dead Zone
by Will Stewart
TSL Extra, Issue #19
Dear Readers:
The other day, I received an email from a reader who complained to me that TechSideline.com "had no news" on it lately. I checked my calendar and thought to myself, "Yep … right on time."
Those emails start coming in this time of year, about a month after spring football has ended and the Hokie fan base starts to realize that there's nothing going on and nothing to talk about. There are always a few readers who, without realizing it, blame this circumstance on the newspapers and Internet sites and send an email wondering why there aren't any stories about the Hokies.
Hey, we didn't create what my friend Jim Alderson calls "The Dead Zone," folks; we're just the victims of it.
I hate this time of year. I suppose it's necessary, so that everyone can slow down and recharge their batteries, but it's awfully boring, and usually, the only news is bad news. Have you seen the ESPN.com college football home page lately? It's all stories about football players breaking the law and universities breaking the rules, as it always is this time of year. It always gives me flashbacks to that hideous summer of 1996, when it seemed that Tech football players couldn't step outside their apartments without getting arrested en masse.
So at this time of year, we all sit here with nothing to do. Everyone except the Tech coaches, that is, who are traveling all over the state and all over the mid-Atlantic region, recruiting players.
Which brings us nicely to the point of this issue: recruiting content. For a mid-May issue, we've got lots of recruiting stuff for you, including the complete list of players who attended the Tom Lemming photo shoot in Blacksburg on May 5th, our first-ever TSL ranking of in-state players, and profiles of Fred Lee, Xavier Adibi, and Michael Malone.
On the football (non-recruiting) side of the ledger, we've got (yet another) spring football wrapup, and we award the first of what we hope will be many TSL Extra Defensive Player of the Year awards.
Throw in a couple of other articles, and we have an issue that is surprisingly robust, given that it is being produced squarely in the middle of the Dead Zone. I get a feel for TSLX issues as they're getting ready to go to press, and I like this one.
I hope you do, too. Enjoy issue #19.
