Thug Life

So I am in my new apartment and have internet set up, but I haven't gotten my television out of storage, so I am only following sports from my computer and from the two bars we have here in Clarksville. From what I can tell, Virginia Tech is the new Dennis Erickson-era Miami. These guys are thugs and they should be called out for what they are: another football factory with a glaring disconnect between the majority of the athletes and the rest of the student body. Virginia Tech gives a bad name to schools with "Tech" in their title.

I am all about smash-mouth football, but these guys were insane this year. I watched most of Virginia Tech's games this past year and what struck me was how few execution penalties they received but how many "The Replacements" style tomahawk death chop penalties they committed. How many personal fouls did Virginia Tech have this season? A cursory glance at the penalty statistics shows nothing too extraordinary: in 13 games Ron Mexico Tech committed 81 penalties. They were 46th among all D-1A schools in least amount of penalty yards per game with 108.8. None of this is too spectacular, GT did worse. Nothing really stands out until you look at the game by game. The Miami loss seems to me like a turning point. Against Miami, VT had 8 penalties for 56 yards, not too crazy. But compare that with the FSU game, where they committed 17 for 143. That is only about eight and a half yards per penalty but consider this: one 15 yarder and two five yarders average to about the same. That is a personal foul or agressive play penalty (pass interference, etc.) once out of every three penalties! Against Louisville they averaged over 13 yards a penalty (seven for 93 yards).

This, coupled with recent events involving Little Mexico point to a larger issue. Saint Beamer has lost control of his program. The fact that it was the university and not the coach that dismissed Vick should show that. On the bright side, the dismissal does seem to indicate that VPSU is intending to clean up their act. If not, maybe VT should issue body armor to its opponents during pregame warm-ups. -yb