Character Counts

Before the 1995 season, Virginia Tech made a controversial decision to ally itself wholeheartedly with ESPN’s newest brainstorm: NCAA football on Thursday nights. The last 11 years have seen Tech leverage this usually-exclusive venue into a major boom in the program’s visibility. For all that can be said about ESPN, they’re loyal to their friends; Thursday night appearances led to more Saturday slots, which led to a quarterback named Michael, who brought GameDay in 1999, which generated a higher national profile, more interest, and greater appreciation for the football program of a once little-known school in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. As time passed, praise kept rolling in, the players kept getting better, and the coach became essentially unquestionable.

That visibility finally backfired in the fourth quarter last Thursday night, when the questions came hard and fast from ESPN color commentator Kirk Herbstreit. Watching an undisciplined Hokie team commit four personal fouls during a 22-3 implosion against Boston College, Herbstreit condemned the change in character of Hokie teams post-Michael Vick. He noted the Hokie coaches’ prior ability to meld a strong team out of unheralded pieces, and by comparison condemned the egos that came with Tech’s post-Vick access to more-talented, but NFL-focused and self-centered players — and the coaching staff’s inability to control those players. He then pointed out that the only time since 2000 the Hokies had finished a season strongly, leadership came from a player: senior quarterback Bryan Randall in 2004. Herbstreit finally excoriated the lack of leadership on this year’s team, conveniently illustrated during that fourth quarter by junior linebacker Vince Hall and senior rover Aaron Rouse nearly coming to blows on the sidelines and senior safety Brenden Hill dancing on the field to the BC band’s rendition of Sweet Caroline as the Hokies’ run defense took a late-game pounding. Herbstreit is no Hokie hater; far from it, he practically begged coach Frank Beamer to re-establish the discipline and character he’d seen in his early visits to Blacksburg, even appealing to Beamer’s family watching at home to try to make sure his message got through.

I wish I had something to say in Tech’s defense. I don’t, though. He’s right.

Carolina's Cup flies high

Thanks to David, I managed a ticket to last night’s sold-out NHL season opener in Raleigh, where the Carolina Hurricanes raised their 2005-06 Stanley Cup banner before falling 3-2 to the Buffalo Sabres in a shootout. Doing ten hours of driving in a twenty-four hour span becomes a worse idea every time I try it, but some things are worth the misery afterwards.

It’s the beginning of the season, and both teams’ play reflected that. Carolina was moving pretty quickly at the beginning of the first, and registered an 11-1 shot disparity early, but didn’t have many good chances out of that flurry; when they did, Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller stood tall. Though neither team was in midseason technical form, the competitive level picked up where the Eastern Conference finals left off just four months ago.

Of Carolina’s new acquisitions:

• Tim Gleason earned the second star, and justifiably so. He was all over the ice with speed and didn’t look out-of-sync with this teammates even on four days’ practice. I’m still hesitant on the Jack Johnson trade, but if Gleason becomes a key to this team making another deep playoff run, Jim Rutherford will look pretty smart again.
• Eric Belanger will take more time to evaluate. Fast forwards tend to look bad early in their tenure with a new team, because their excess speed puts them further out of position before they understand what their teammates are doing; Justin Williams had this problem for several months in 2003-04. Style-wise, he fits this club, but he needs to find a steady line and learn his wingers’ tendencies.
• Scott Walker came advertised as a heart-and-soul guy, and two high-defensive-zone blocks did nothing to shake that reputation.
• Trevor Letowski looked like the generic third-line forward he is. I suspect either he or Walker will be trade bait when Cory Stillman returns in December.
• David Tanabe has been a polarizing figure on the message boards, and Wednesday night won’t change that. Positionally he was OK, but I counted at least three times in his zone when he dodged contact. I’m going to pay close attention to him on Saturday night in Washington against a harder-hitting team; how he handles the Caps will help me decide whether, like David, I’d rather give Anton Babchuk the slot.

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