Tech is two games into the 2003 season, and we haven’t learned a lot as of yet about the nature of this team. We were already aware that we can put up a bunch of points against overmatched opposition, so the 92 scored comes as no huge surprise. The jury is still out on this Tech team, and the game against Texas A&M will go a long way towards determining whether this edition of Hokie football is the real thing, or as over hyped as the last two teams have been.

As they did last year, the A&M Wrecking Crew will have something for us, including a defensive coordinator by the name of Carl Torbush, last seen by many Tech fans yucking it up in the Gator Bowl press box on 1/1/98 as he called for RUTS over a Tech team riddled by injury and illness. Tech has done fairly well since that game and resides in the same Top Ten that was occupied by North Carolina before Torbush did about as good a job of running a very good program straight into the ground as has been seen in these parts in some time, the major reason that, unlike Frank Beamer, Torbush is no longer a Head Coach. Welcome to Lane Stadium, Nascarl.

We did learn last Saturday that there is a player on the JMU team who, when given what is likely to be his only opportunity to ever experience a legitimate big-time college football atmosphere, will use it to deliver a cheap shot on one of our star players. His claim that he didn’t realize he was out of bounds seems ludicrous, as I assume they are not playing arena football at JMU and the walls of Bridgeforth Stadium do not constitute the sideline.

It was also hard to miss last week’s publicized griping by Dukes' coach Mickey Matthews that payment of $2906.98 per point was insufficient compensation for the beating taken by his football team. One does wonder about the size of the guarantees offered by Maine and New Hampshire. He could have been hammered a lot cheaper, as the large amounts of clock run by Frank Beamer and Bryan Stinespring running out of a two-tight end Power I straight into an eight-man defensive front indicated that Bryan was taking it easy on his alma mater. They could have named the score. Tech is doing the cash-poor JMU program a favor by scheduling these games, and if this is the gratitude received, then in 2007 Tech will spread a little of its football largesse to a different part of the state, namely, William and Mary.

Tech has pounded, as expected, a quasi-legitimate opponent and a team that is no longer a particularly good I-AA outfit, but so far, the more interesting stories in football have taken place elsewhere, including our soon-to-be new conference, the ACC. I doubt I was the only Hokie amused by the constant media barrage of stories last summer informing us how improved was the brand of football played there, most notably that by NC State, Maryland and the Hoos. Those erstwhile powerhouses have combined for a rousing 2-4 start highlighted by the Terps somehow managing to lose to a Directional MAC team. Yikes.

Does anyone still doubt why ACC commish John Swofford found it necessary to pursue a football expansion which such fervor? With the exception of Wake Forest, riding high under Jim Grobe, who is fast establishing himself as one of the great coaches and is probably not long for Winston-Salem, the ACC looks, as usual, like a Florida State team that finally again has experience all over the field, and everybody else. Some additional football juice was needed.

Much of that juice will be provided by Miami, where new quarterback Brock Berlin grew up in a hurry and led the Canes to a huge comeback over the Florida Crocs, ruining the evening of former Beamer assistant Ron Zook. The Canes have some inexperience on the field, most notably at the vital quarterback position, but when they obtain the familiarity that only comes under game conditions they will again be a very formidable opponent with which to deal. I missed every last down of Miami’s overtaking of the Crocs. I had been waylaid by a very long day of travel, tailgating and football and slept right through it. Comebacks, like rust and unlike me, never sleep. I don’t know about the Tech team, but I certainly can use the week off.

Sunday morning, I was consuming my usual weekend breakfast of a whole wheat bagel slathered with cream cheese [with chives and onion] and topped with smoked salmon, coffee, orange juice and the handfuls of vitamins I gobble every day in an attempt at staving off the effects of the years that are steadily advancing on me like the Wermacht through the Ardennes or the South Carolina offense through the Hoo defense [I was not aware that Schaub played on both sides of the line of scrimmage] that caused me to sleep through the stirring Miami comeback and perusing the Saturday scores. Two jumped up at me, the first being Temple losing to I-AA Villanova. After their protracted battle to gain admittance from the Philadelphia Eagles to brand new Lincoln Financial Field, this is how the Owls react. The L’il E is actively searching, and in a couple of cases begging, for replacement teams for Tech and Miami, but plans are proceeding apace to boot out Temple. The Owls continue to demonstrate why.

The other score that caught my eye was my good friends at West Virginia pounding East Carolina 48-7. This was a WVU team who had its chief perceived preseason weakness, inexperience along the lines, promptly exploited in their first game, as they were worn down by a physical Wisconsin team. ECU could not begin to offer that kind of resistance. The Pirates are in a grim situation under rookie head coach John Thompson. While, due to insistence on ACC expansion voting order by John Casteen, Tech was the first domino to fall in conference realignment, East Carolina is beginning to look a lot like the last that will remain standing.

It seems a given that the L’il E will add Louisville and Cincinnati from Conference USA, and rumors abound that CUSA will be further gutted by defections of TCU, Tulane and maybe Houston to the WAC and Memphis and South Florida to the MAC. ECU is being linked to no one other than what might be a very small number of teams left in a CUSA that just might be the conference that does not survive realignment. While a Pirates team that has been out-scored 10-88 in its first two games would seem to be auditioning for membership in the RUTS Belt Conference, I don’t believe this is what they had in mind when they poured tens of millions into a stadium expansion and new strength and conditioning building.

It is not hard to gaze at the dire situation in which ECU finds itself and not see Virginia Tech, had Dave Braine not talked our way into the Big East as the eighth and final member. Yes, the BE treated us like dirt right up until the point where we were in a position to return the favor and did, but we were given an opportunity to compete on college football’s big stage that is very likely not to ever come to East Carolina. That is something to think about as we wait for the Aggies to come to town, along with the next visit by Lee and Kirk.

In the meantime, we have a week off. I can use it, although I suspect that by Saturday morning the temptation will be become strong to scoot down Route 86 to Wallace Wade Stadium and observe that major intersectional clash between Duke and Rice. If it passes, I will spend this Tech non-Gameday in my recliner watching football from around the rest of the country, recharging and getting ready for aTm. See you next week.

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