Jason Monastra

My life and thoughts out on the web

I have been attempting to watch VT football since my departure in 1997 and it continually gets harder and harder to stomach.  Are we so blind that we have not evolved with the game.  Do not get me wrong, I follow each game and enjoy the school.  I believe that we have unlimited potential but have gotten away from the well rounded basics that make our football team great.

Yes, we are young this year but it does not account for the many years previous where our team has been set up for failure by the press and coaching staff.  Frank Beamer, love him.  Great guy and great coach.  Down to earth and really a strong anchor for the school.  However, we need to look at the offense and its supportive staff from the coaching perspective.  VT defense is always good.  VT special teams - they speak for themselves.  But the offense.  Where is it?  We have had teams that have had more firepower than others, but none has exalted themselves as a scoring machine that brings fear into the hearts of opposing defense.  Look at what we have today.  Tyrod Taylor - great athlete….average QB.  There is no one that does not know this kid cannot throw down field.  He can run, so they stack the box and ask you, nearly beg us to beat them throwing the ball.  How can you do that when you have someone that cannot throw farther than 10 yds accurately.

Recruiting and more recruiting.  Look at the athletes we get.  Defense are great.  I think Frank could turn anyone into a great special teams player.  But the offense - where do we go from here?  Recruit from outside of the state.  Look how many people we have that come from VA, specifically the Tidewater area of VA.  Tons.  Major programs gather talent from all of the US, bringing people sometimes cross country to play for them in hopes of winning a title.  We need to look outside the area and bring talent that would not normally look at us otherwise.

Recruiting and schedule go hand in hand.  Since we began this turn around and started going to bowl games in 1993, the program has been consistent with setting non-conference games with some of the weakest teams available.  WHY?  Who is that helping?  Face it, the ACC has no real strong teams.  We are one of the weakest conferences and cannot hold a candle to the SEC or some of the Midwest divisions.  Start setting team schedules that play those larger programs in an effort to not only develop the team, but better assist recruiting letting them know that they are playing the major teams which get the major TV time.

Lastly, beg the AP and every other ranking system to keep us low and out of the spotlight.  Annually they rank us higher than we are capable of playing, only to be ripped from the ranking in an embarrassing loss to some unranked team that we should have beat.  This happens every year.  Reason being, we are not a Top 10 team.  We should be in the 20-25 range most of the years…peaking into the teens occasionally.  Play better talent, develop the players and let the team understand what it takes to get to the top.  But as long as we keep playing Western KY and Akron, and floating in the ACC - we will never develop into a national program that is feared when it comes on the field.

It is finally nice to see someone like Dexter Jackson win the Mr O. After all of the years dominated by over sized mounds of men, the title has been given to someone with extreme attention to detail for his sport, symmetry across all lines, and a dominate figure that anyone would be proud to have. Nice job Dexter.

Somebody give me a break on this.  This is an accident and to have the guy flagged and then penalized for this.  Look at the angles and see where he was coming in, then at the last minute the angle is changed dramatically by an immediate hit from the backside thus forcing the reciever’s head down and causing the helmet impact.  Now I understand the rules, but let us use some common sense.  There are simply time where things are an accident and do not require someone to be punished.  This is one of those times.

Unbelievably sad…..

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=3092889

That is some of the best news I have seen in sometime.  An actual ranking that we can stick by.  Every year being the same song and dance, I was relieved this afternoon to see an unchanged ranking coming off the win at GT.

Hokie faithful I am all about, but lets not be delerious.  We are good, but we have had so many bloated records against sub-prime teams ascenting the AP poll only to be dismantled by a team that is truely the caliber of a top 5.  LSU being the prime example this year.  Trust me, BC should not be there either.  They have escaped many a game, including our loss two weeks ago.  Fate caught up against FSU and as soon as more people start blitzing and pressuring Ryan, the BC windfall will continue.  Now they are playing Maryland this week so it might not manifest itself, but with an away game at Clemson on the 17th, I believe we will see the end of the BC top ten hoax.

11th in the country, 2nd in the ACC Coastal with our bowl future all dependant on our ability to finish games and put people away.  Our defense has been not up to the stellar performance of the past with currently being ranked 10th in rushing and 38th in passing in the nation with a total defense ranked nationwide at 11th (boosted heavily by our innate ability to score on defense - currently ranked 4th in the country).  Our offense is crippled ranked 108th overall in Division I-A.  Beamer has got a tremendous game plan on the defensive side of the ball, complimented by one of the best special teams at any level - eluding him and a national championship is a team that can score.

I am not much of a baseball guy but I find it amazing that this guy will boycott the pinnacle place of his sport.  The Hall of Fame for any player, though probably not the initial goal of all professionals, is a legacy that everyone is looking to achieve when they see their game rising to the level where these players are.  Baseball has been nagged by tainted allegations of steroids for the better part of this decade, naming some of the most highlighted people in the sport.  I really want to know who really cares?

Anyone that has played any sport at any level beyond HS knows that steroids are a serious part of the athletic world.  Speaking otherwise is that of ignorance or quite possibly delusion.  The amount of people that actively partake during the season or off-season, or both in the use of performance enhancement drugs is the majority….not the minority.  Let us take Bonds comment of not knowingly using performance enhancing drugs.  This is the equivalent to Michael Vick saying he was not aware that dogs were being fought on his property in VA.  Let me tell you if Barry Bonds had a federal indictment against him and the threat was years in jail…..he would have been the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the baseball world.

I guess what really gets me as a former athlete is that why people see this as such a surprise or shock.  People cheat, the rules are broken and most of the coaches, refs, and management know it is going on.  If  they wanted to stop it, they could.  Drug testing every week, no doctor assistance, all personally watched when supplying specimens, physicals and blood tests for additional screening and security.  The reason these levels of screening are not done consistently and without pre-warning to the athletes is that people want to see them play.  Watching a 255 lb linebacker who runs a 4.3 hitting a quarterback is good fun.  We love it, they love, coaches love it - and we all pay for it one way or the other.

To summarize, I am sure there are plenty of people in various Hall of Fames that have used performance enhancing drugs at sometime in their career, therefore contributing to their legacy of greatness and propelling them to the pinnacle of their sport.  So let Barry have his day, no asterisks - just an induction for a guy that can play some great baseball.

Well it was over after the onside kick.  From there GT was out manned, out fought, and simply out played.  VT rolled with superior passing and a running attack that amassed nearly 500 total yards on the GT defense.  To add to their dismay, it was captained by the replacement QB Sean Glennon, the former starter who was benched for Tyrod Taylor - the true freshman who has been starting since the VT dismantling by LSU.

Sean, I must say, looked good.  With poise in the pocket, his passing percentage, down field passing and collectiveness  under pressure ( 6 sacks) he was able to strongarm the defense with a combination of short and long passes patched with small running plays to keep the defense on their toes all night long.  Confidence is a huge factor with this game and Sean had it tonight.  Coming off the crushing loss to BC at home, the team did not lose a beat bringing heavy pressure on GT’s offense causing 6 turnovers.

Our boys in Blacksburg move to 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the ACC controlling their own destiny to a potential rematch with BC in the ACC title game.