Turnovers have become characteristic of this team. Are these players just lousy? No, certainly not, and certainly no worse than Virginia’s, Wake’s, MTSU’s, or Rutgers’ players. That leads me back to coaching. What were they doing all spring and summer, if the players still don’t have a mastery of the basics? Even if the problem was the players, it is the coaching staff that recruits them and then positions them on the depth chart.

On the radio, Scott McBrien was placing the blame on the players rather than the coaches, which is fair. They are the ones who were making mistakes, and at game time, that type of thing is out of the coaches’ hands. But Virginia scored zero points off of those first half turnovers and the only turnover in the second half was the pick-six late in the third quarter.

The offensive play calling was not capitalizing on our opportunities. Before the first missed field goal, we were successfully running the ball. And then they went to the pass. Franklin has these plays where we line up without anyone in the backfield, or where we have just a fullback or just a running back in there. This makes it all too transparent as to what kind of play is going to be run.

I really don’t think Friedgen is the root cause of most of our problems, but that is where the buck stops. He is ultimately responsible for whatever they fail to do. I hate to say it, because I like Ralph a lot, and I am not anxious for the Franklin era, but we might as well get that over with now, right? Like I posted earlier, that at least opens the possibility that we get a different offensive coordinator.

I like this one from 2004 . . .

"You won’t see me around here a whole long time if we do this a whole lot. They won’t have to fire me. I’ll quit."

Ralph Friedgen
November 19, 2004
Virginia Tech 55, Maryland 6

For Debbie Yow’s sake, I hope Ralph honors his pledge. If not, expect the Hokies to make it clear to everyone that the football program in College Park has not improved over the last 5 years.