Sorry to disappoint those of you who want to see this, but Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer is not going to fire offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring before Saturday’s game against Division I-AA Furman—or any time in the foreseeable future, for that matter. Beamer is staunchly loyal to his assistants, and a few hundred message-board missives aren’t going to change that.

Also, Beamer almost certainly won’t bench senior quarterback Sean Glennon this week in favor of sophomore Tyrod Taylor, despite all the weeping and gnashing of teeth in the peanut gallery after Glennon’s two-interception performance during Saturday’s loss to East Carolina. I’d be shocked if Beamer scraps his plan to start Glennon and redshirt Taylor because of one loss, ego-bruising as it was.

That said, the offense underachieved down in Charlotte, and Stinespring and Glennon must shoulder some blame for that. You know the deal by now: Tech’s 243 yards were 87.5 fewer than it averaged last season. (This is the point at which those of you with lofty expectations for this team—and mine might have been just that—ought to reconsider just how much the Hokies’ inexperience will hamstring them this season. Then again, they play in a league that looked incompetent this weekend, so I suppose it’s all relative.)

Stinespring took over as offensive coordinator in 2002, and heading into this season, the Hokies have averaged about 357.6 yards per game in his tenure. They have averaged 400 yards in just one year under Stinespring—2003. In their six seasons before Stinespring became coordinator, they averaged about 391.4 yards per game and thrice surpassed the 400-yard mark: 1996, 1999 and 2000 (in those latter two seasons, of course, they had a fellow named Michael Vick playing quarterback, and I understand he was pretty good).

Here are Tech’s six worst offensive-production seasons under Beamer, now in his 22nd year ...

1987 (first season)—261.7
1988—295.1
2006—295.2
1989—301
1998—316.9
2007—330.5

Of course, Tech from 1987-89 was nothing like it is now. The Hokies went 2-9, 3-8 and 6-4-1 in Beamer’s first three years. So if you take those years out, two of Tech’s three worst offensive performances under Beamer have come in the past two seasons.

As for Glennon, he has now thrown four interceptions and one touchdown in his past two games—wrapping back to last season’s Orange Bowl, which I realize is sort of a silly way to analyze someone’s performance.

Glennon has played admirably at points since becoming a starter for the first time in 2006. Most recently, he threw for three touchdowns in last season’s ACC championship and was named the game’s MVP. In the previous game, against Virginia, he threw for 260 yards and hit receiver Eddie Royal for a pretty, 39-yard touchdown pass with 12 seconds left in the first half to give the Hokies a 20-14 lead, after the extra point.

And remember that in seven games before the Orange Bowl, Glennon threw just one interception—in the ACC title game (of course, he barely played against Florida State in the regular season’s penultimate game because he suffered a concussion). Look at it like this: Glennon threw 153 passes in the seven games before the Orange Bowl. Just one landed in an opponent’s hands.

That said, we live in a world where only the present matters, and Glennon certainly wasn’t very consistent on Saturday. Consistency—or lack thereof—has been his biggest problem during his career. In 31 career games, he has completed 58.7 percent of his passes for 4,263 yards, 25 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.

But moments like his second interception Saturday have raised eyebrows. He threw an ill-advised pass over the middle on third down and 16 from his own 17-yard line (even if completed, the pass more than likely would have ended with the Hokies shy of a first down). Nick Johnson picked the ball off and returned it to Tech’s 1.

***

Chatted with a friend after the game who attended East Carolina and was in the stands. He said there was some brief discussion as the clock wound down about rushing the field, but everyone was too sun-burned and pooped from tailgating earlier in the day.

It wouldn’t have been the first time the ECU fans stormed a neutral field. They did it and tore down the goalposts at North Carolina State’s Carter-Finley Stadium in 1999 after they upset No. 9 Miami—the Pirates’ biggest win, in terms of opponent ranking, before they beat No. 17 Tech on Saturday. That game was moved to Raleigh because Hurricane Floyd had ripped through Greenville.

Of course, the N.C. State administration was furious about the goalposts. In the regular-season finale, State and ECU met in Greenville, and the Pirates stuck it to the Wolfpack again. The Pirates were the better team that year, but their fans still tore down the posts after they beat State 23-6 in the Wolfpack’s first ever game at ECU. It also ended up being Mike O’Cain’s last game as State’s coach; he was fired shortly thereafter. O’Cain is now Tech’s quarterbacks coach.

Fully aware of the ECU fans’ rowdy reputation, I turned to Kyle Tucker of The Virginian-Pilot after the game, as we stood on the field and watched the Pirates celebrate. “This city is going to burn tonight,“ I told Tucker. But the ECU fans seemed to behave themselves last night, best I could tell, and when I rolled out of town in my trusty Corolla earlier this afternoon, downtown Charlotte was still standing.

Posted by Darryl Slater in • College Sports • Virginia Tech
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