Tech Sports Blog

TechSideLine.com has posted a number of historical photos of Lane Stadium. With the expansion of the West stands expected to be completed at the beginning the upcoming football season, now is a good a time as any to remember the days of Lane Stadium when there were less seats and less people filling those seats.

The 1999 and 2000 photos really bring back memories. Well, who could forget the ’99 season? But the Thunder Bowl is one I’d rather forget. Most people remember it as the night Lee Corso’s rental car got struck by lightening. I remember being in the stands when skies opened up and thinking, “It’s only a thunderstorm. It’ll pass, and the game will get started.” The rain never stopped, and the game was never played. I had to walk back from Lane Stadium to my apartment at Pack Place (Prices Fork Road, across from Turner Street). Instead of walking, I jogged back, because I was quite uncomfortable due to being completely soaked through.

However, of all the old photos, this one from 1972 has got to be my favorite. Check out the gobbler head on top of the scoreboard. That is one pissed off turkey!

Yup, it’s that time of year – pollen is flying through the air and there’s very little going on in the world of sports. Ok, so maybe I don’t really have “the blues”, but my sinuses are fully congested and football news has sharply dropped off in the wake of the draft. I’m sorry, I’m just not much of a fan of MLB. After the strike, my interest waned, and the
controversy surrounding the steroids issues has completely pushed me away. The NFL really is America’s number one pro sport. They have the right idea with revenue sharing, and they have the strongest drug policy of the Big 3. I know
the NFL isn’t perfect, but it is the most well-run professional sporting league of in the US. But I digress …

Getting back to the topic of Virginia Tech athletics, as reported earlier this week, Marquie Cooke was dismissed from the men’s basketball team. While I am sad to see such a talented recruit leave the team, I am happy to see that Coach Greenburg has that team first attitude that brought so much success to the football and basketball teams. While the men’s basketball team didn’t have a super year by ACC standards, they had one hell of a year by VT standards. A number of the games they won were earned by not giving up late, and that helped to galvanize them as a team. According to TechSideLine.com, as well as this Daily Press article, Cooke wasn’t exactly the ideal team player. His dismismal was the culmination of a poor attitude during the entire season. For Greenburg to dismiss him under that pretext tells me much about the kind of program Greenburg is building. What was that catch phrase of the 2004 football team? Team United.

Virginia Tech’s most heralded basketball recruit since Dell Curry has been dismissed from the team. The only thing in this HokieSports.com news story is …

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Virginia Tech freshman guard Marquie Cooke has been dismissed from the Hokies’ men’s basketball program.

“Marquie failed to abide by a set of standards we set for our basketball team,” Virginia Tech head men’s basketball coach Seth Greenberg said. “We wish Marquie well in the future.”

Here is the Roanoke Times article with a little background information. However, it is still unclear if there was a specific incident that set this off.

I just saw this article on the Roanoke Times website reporting that Bryan Randall has signed with the Atlanta Falcons. Randall is the Falcons’ #4 quarterback and will likely stay on the practice squad this year. However, Ty Detmer doesn’t have too many years left, so Randall might be able to move up the depth chart in the next few years. They also report that …

• Jim Davis signed with Jacksonville,
• Jared Mazzetta signed with St. Louis,
• Mikal Baaqee and Mike Daniels signed with Washington,
• and Travis Conway signed with New England.

ESPN is reporting that Dr. Pepper will be the title sponsor the ACC Championship Game. With Boston College joining the ACC this year, the ACC will have an annual championship game in Jacksonville, Forida. It is a 5-year deal between
Dr. Pepper, the ACC, and ABC Sports. At this point, there aren’t any more details in the article.

Vincent Fuller was the 7th pick in the 4th round (108th overall), picked up by the Tennessee Titans, and Jon Dunn was selected in the 7th round by the Cleveland Browns. Jon Dunn joins Andre Davis, Lee Suggs, and Ben Taylor as Virginia Tech Hokies turned Cleveland Browns. Fuller, Dunn, and Eric Green were the only Virginia Tech players chosen in this year’s draft, leaving Jim Davis, James Griffin, and Bryan Randall to enter the NFL the hard way – as undrafted free agents. The big surprise to me was that Jim Davis wasn’t a late round pick. I hope that all three up get their shot in the NFL.

With Jon Dunn joining the Browns, that means there will be 4 former Hokies in Cleveland. Atlanta has 5 former Hokies, and there are a number of teams with 2 former Hokies. So, that makes the Atlanta Falcons the Hokies South, and the Cleveland Browns the Hokies North.

As the 75th overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, Eric Green was selected in the 3rd round by the Arizona Cardinals. I figured he would have gone in the 2nd round, but he was the 11th player picked in the 3rd round, so that isn’t too bad. As expected, no other Virginia Tech Hokie was picked today.

Was it just me, or was today’s draft a letdown? The first round was incredibly long, lasting nearly 6 hours. I ended up just watching the first 7 picks, the end of the 1st round, and a few picks at the top of the second round. I probably should’ve found something to occupy me while the ESPN analysts tried to fill the time in between picks. There weren’t any blockbuster trades in the top 10. I guess that isn’t too surprising, given the lack of blockbuster players at the top. That said, there are some tidbits from the draft that I’ll comment on …

• San Francisco had a great day. They picked the best quarterback available (Alex Smith – Utah), a solid center from which to receive ball (David Baas – Michigan), and a good running back to hand the ball off to (Frank Gore – Miami FL).
• My NFL team, the Cleveland Browns, also had a good day one. They picked arguably the best wide out in the draft (Braylon Edwards – Michigan), they helped out their defense (Brodney Pool – Oklahoma), and picked up the quarterback they wanted (Charlie Frye – Akron). Edwards is the kind of player who should make an impact his rookie season. It’ll be interesting to see how he fits in, as Andre Davis, Dennis Northcutt, and Antonio Bryant are already established. I have a bad feeling that in the long term, Andre Davis will get the short end of the stick.
• How about Auburn tearing up the first round! Three players picked in the top nine, four selected in the first round. While they have a few holes to fill, that’s going to be great for their recruiting.
• Maurice Clarett was picked by Denver as the final pick of day one. Denver used a compensatory selection on him – obviously they felt they could take a chance with the extra pick. Personally, I would’ve waited to see if he was around in round 5 or 6. I don’t think he deserves to be a 3rd round pick due to how slow he was at the combine and his attitude at the combine. However, I am glad he is getting a chance in the NFL. I don’t really like him, but I feel like he deserves a second chance. Now he’s got that second chance with the Denver Broncos.
• Last, but not least, if I were a Green Bay fan I would be excited about Aaron Rodgers. I think he’s an excellent value at the 24th overall pick, he gets to play behind one of the best in the business for at least a year, and you know he’s going to have a chip on his shoulder when he does start playing. I think that’s a great fit.

Tomorrow is day 2 of the NFL Draft, and hopefully we’ll start seeing some Hokies selected. Vincent Fuller and Jim Davis should be picked up in the early part of the day. Where will they go?

Here we are, roughly 12 hours away from the 2005 NFL Draft. There aren’t very big names at the top, so the the top 10 this year will be very interesting. No one really knows who the 49ers are going to pick. They might even trade down. There is alot of uncertainty in this draft, and the first round should provide much drama.

Unfortunately, there is one thing that is certain for Hokie fans – there won’t be very many Virginia Tech players chosen on Saturday. At this point, only one player will be chosen on the 1st day, and that will be Eric Green. As reported by Kyle Tucker, of The Virginian-Pilot, Vincent Fuller looks to be the second Hokie picked in this year’s draft. However, Kyle is reporting that Fuller is going to be a fourth round pick. The biggest question for me is whether or not Bryan Randell gets drafted. While Randall had a great year last year as Virginia Tech’s “general”, he will be very lucky to even get drafted.

The lack of Hokies at this year’s draft tells us alot about the 2004 Virginia Tech football team. The term “overachievers” has been used over and over again, but I think that is too strong a word. The phrase “team united” has been applied to them, and that is definitely the best description. Having a true, honest-to-god team with no individual standouts playing as one unit can bring you much more success than just a group of great players. This is demonstrated by the difference between the 2003 and the 2004 teams.

While I won’t be able to celebrate very many Hokies getting drafted this weekend, my lack of celebration will only make me more proud of what the Tech football team accomplished last season. Their success came through a hardworking, blue-collar attitude that made me proud to be a Hokie.

So, here I am, diving into the world of blogging. After 3 nights of playing with Blosxom, its plugins, CSS, XHTML, and W3C‘s CSS & HTML validators, TechSportsBlog.com is ready for action! I suppose I could’ve used a site dedicated for blogging, but I have the server space for it. Besides, it is a good experience to build a site from the ground up! There are still a number of things I’d like to do to improve the site, but most of the work is done.

This week seems like a great off-season week to “open the doors”, so to speak. Last Saturday was the Spring Game, Marcus Vick was named #1 on the depth chart at QB earlier in the week, and the NFL draft is this weekend. Unfortunately, this draft won’t feature very many Hokies, but I’ll comment more on that in a future post.

That’s all I have for the time being. Expect a post or two about the upcoming NFL draft in the next few days.