Va. Tech is falling into the Joe Paterno/Bobby Bowden mess of a coach who should probably hang it up, but won't because they are a legacy. Frank Beamer has lost his touch. They don't have one elite athlete on their offense. They got by on smoke and mirrors for years with elite defenses/special teams in the Big East and ACC because they had one big game a year: FSU or Miami. Well now the rest of the ACC (all of college football for that matter) has caught on to what they were doing and they just look dull. Bud Foster is probably going to take over once Beamer decides to hang it up, but who knows when that will be.

They got lucky beating OSU since the Buckeyes were still reeling from losing Braxton Miller and the defense all of a sudden forgot how to do anything. Michael Brewer looked like a Heisman candidate against OSU. Now he's barely holding onto the starting job for the Hokies.

Are we sure "they got lucky beating OSU"? If I recall correctly, it seems to me they pretty well handled them for the whole first half. Maybe they simply played their best game of the year.

Luck in that they were facing Barrett in his 2nd career start and the Ohio State team was still trying to figure out who they were. There wasn't much tape of Brewer for OSU to see, and the DBs for Va. Tech thrived off Barrett's inexperience. If they played again it would be totally different. But yes, the Hokies probably played their best game of the year.

I understand they are saying the same thing in Athens, Ga, up in Oregon, down in Alabama, over in East Lansing, also in...

It did cause me to look at the records of some of those "over the hill" coaches. to see how their records late in their career compared to their record over the entirety of their career. If indeed they are coaching beyond when they should be, their record should drop off. Now, some of the coaches mentioned had to vacate some wins, but that's a different problem that has nothing to do with whether they were too old to still coach, so I included the vacated wins in my analysis.

Paterno:
Last 5 years: 46-15 .754
Earlier years: 363-121-3 .748

Bowden:
Last 5 years: 38-17 .691
Earlier years: 339-112-4 .749

Beemer:
Last 5 years: 41-21 .661
Earlier years: 225-111-4 .668

Solich:
Last 5 years: 38-23 .623
Prior years, Ohio only: 32-31 .508
Prior years including Nebraska: 90-50 .643

For Beemer and Paterno, there is not much difference between their records in the last 5 years from their records in earlier years. When you consider that their final five year were probably harder than their earlier years (with Penn State having moved to the Big Ten in 1993 rather than playing an easier independent schedule, and with Virginia Tech having moved in 2004 to the ACC), their records over their final 5 years is probably more impressive than their longer term career.

For Bowden there does appear to be some dropoff in his final 5 years.

For Solich, hit most recent 5 years is significantly better than his earlier years at Ohio, and nearly equal to his earlier years even including his years at Ohio.

I have no problem with people of age. In fact I work with some of them. I have a friend who is....older. When I go golfing they usually out number us, but it's not like I find that uncomfortable - but things are different with them there. I do like that they tend to go to restaurants earlier so I don't have to eat around those people, but there are a lot of them here in the south, and it has always been that way. It's normal - everyone is happy with the way it is. Now when they want to marry, to be honest, that is where I draw the line. That is just not right. Kinda gross if you ask me. :)

Hey, Frank is young at heart!

LC,

The reason Paterno's and Beamer's records are similar throughout their career is because they had to essentially build the programs themselves. Of course the early years were going to be hard, then there was probably a peak somewhere in the middle of their careers. I'm just guessing.

Beamer had a run for Va. Tech where his teams won 10 or more games for eight straight years. It has been a significant drop off ever since. His record against FBS opponents since 2011, including last night, is 16-17. That's a big problem. I often wandered if the Michael Vick connection had anything to do with it, but I looked it up and that's not a significant thing according to his coaching record.

And his age really has nothing to do with it. They just don't have the same players, IMO. Same thing that happened to Bowden at FSU and Paterno at PSU.

I would agree with that post, GoCats. Building the program is a challenge, for sure. The flip side is that once the program was built, some schools moved to a harder conference.

As far as talent, I think Virginia Tech in particular has been hurt by the recent strength of the SEC. It has to be harder to recruit some of those southern kids up to Virginia Tech now.

No team was more overrated in the 2000s than VTech. Preseason top ten every year, and like Oregon, they always seemed to duck it up...

Even more than Chokelahoma?

There is no shoe. We're talking about football. I could care less how old a coach is. Bill Snyder is doing pretty damn good isn't he? You've already gave your opinion though, so maybe turn the shoe to yourself. Us young whippersnappers don't have time for this stuff because we've got too many tweets and grams and snaps to look at.

Someone's been listening a little too much to 97.1 The Fan in the afternoons.