Friday, October 3, 2008

I agree with everything this guy said

There's a guest column on TechSideline right now about the difference between Nick Saban and Frank Beamer. As the headline states, the difference between the two coaches is attitude.

Saban was upset over how his team played in its thrashing of highly ranked Georgia on the road. Beamer was thrilled with his team's escape against mediocre Nebraska on the road.

While Coach Saban was ranting about how unhappy he was with his team's dominating performance in a win over a top-10 team, Coach Beamer was dancing after escaping with a five point victory over a team that will be struggling to get seven wins. Does anyone else see what is wrong with this picture?


The main point of the column is Hokie Nation is complacent with winning 10 games a year and competing for an ACC title. They've come to expect not to compete for the national championship and accept their 10-win season.

That's something I touched on before the season. It's time this program took the next step and started competing for national titles regularly. The talent gap has lessened and until we start expecting to be in the national title hunt year in and year out, we never will be.

UPDATE: Naturally, the column is getting grilled on the TSL message boards, both free and paid. Guys, it wasn't a criticism of Beamer, it was a criticism of our complacency. Frank's dancing is fine, he's just using it as an example of what our program's attitude is.

I'm fine with Frank dancing in the locker room. What happens in there should stay in there. But our perceived attitude takes a hit when it looks like we're OK with holding on to a win over a mediocre team.

Maybe if Frank wouldn't post videos of him getting down on BeamerBall we wouldn't have this problem. After all, if I'm not dropping $35 a year to see him dance, I doubt recruits are.

UPDATE NO. 2: Here. I made a diagram.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Against Mississippi State two weeks ago, a reporter asked Paul Johnson if he was happy going into halftime up 21-0. Johnson about ripped that reporter's head off because he was not happy that Mississippi State played the entire half without punting the ball.

hokieglenn said...

I think Saban and Beamer simply have different personalities. You could argue CFB keeps his assistants longer because he is more laid back, while Saban's guys loath him.

But they are so different you can definitely stir up an argument.

hokieg

www.virginiatechfan.com