With a rash of VT injuries and a rising Central Florida team facing the Hokies this week, the Tech coaches were saying Monday that it's important to put the Miami loss behind them. Don't let Miami beat us twice, is how they put it.

Coach Beamer said he doesn't think Michael Vick will play Saturday, that he is "certainly questionable." Vick could not move very well on Monday and the best thing would be for him to rest versus UCF. Nike is developing a special shoe for him.

Andre Davis will not play and will be rested this week plus the open weekend of Nov. 18.

Apparently available but beaten up are: Emmett Johnson and Wayne Ward with shoulder sprains, Browning Wynn and Willie Pile with shoulder injuries, Corey Bird (hamstring), Jake Houseright (ribs) and Matt Lehr (knee strain).

Coach Bustle talked about how quality players look for their openings to opportunity and said a number of backups will have their opportunity at Central Florida.

The Knights are 7-3 and have four wins in a row, including a win at Alabama week before last. They nearly defeated Georgia Tech and played Louisiana Tech about as closely as Miami did. The game will be their first one at home since the win against Alabama and the final game of the season, and a record crowd is expected.

Brief discussion at the end of the show highlighted UCF's quarterback Schneider (sp?) who has completed 66 percent of his passes, and receiver Henshaw, who Beamer said has 87 catches and about 100 yards per game.

As for the Miami game, Bustle said the film revealed that Tech's offensive front 7 played well against the Canes' front 7, but the Hokies just didn't make some plays downfield. Tech's OL and tight ends played as well against good people last Saturday "as maybe they have all year," Bustle said. He credited Lehr for his blocking on Damione Lewis, who had just four assisted tackles in the game.

And as for Vick at Miami, Bustle said MV persuaded the trainers and coaches that he was ready and able to play.

Bustle was questioned about the option play calls when Meyer was in the game. He said Meyer can run the option and that he felt the Hokies had to run it early in the game to establish it in the Canes' minds as part of the VT attack.

Beamer and Bustle disagreed with the pass interference call against Shawn Witten. Bustle said the defensive back gave Witten a forearm and Witten spun off of him and kept running. But the flag was thrown later, about 15 yards downfield. Whatever may have happened, Bustle said, it didn't affect the play.

Monday started with the usual 7 a.m. team meeting and Bustle said he saw some long faces because it hurt the players to lose. They talked with the team about how they have to get over it. Miami had a great day and has a very good team, said Bustle: "We've had some days like that ourselves around here."

Bill Roth said that for the first time, it showed up that there was no Engelberger, Moore, Midget, or Charlton on the field.

Beamer added that he considers the coaching job done by the staff in 2000 as maybe one of the better jobs by a VT staff. He said that considering the loss of eight starters on defense, the defensive coaches have coped quite well. Which players had troubles at Miami, he asked: mostly young guys who haven't been in a game of that magnitude, as he stressed the relative youth of the team and high expectations for 2001.

Coach Gentry will have an opportunity to get the two redshirt freshman defensive ends bigger by next year, he said. True freshman Eric Green will become one of the great cornerbacks at Virginia Tech, he said, but again needs to get stronger under Gentry to improve his tackling ability. The defensive backfield situation will turn out well by next year, he predicted, with the return of injured corners Austin and Wilds, and some good recruits in the wings.

The coach gave an interesting response to Roth when he was asked what sort of pre-season prediction he had for this team in the back of his mind. Back in August, Beamer said, he thought that 8-3 would be a great season and that 7-4 was realistic, considering the losses on defense and kicking game and the road games looming at ECU, Miami and Syracuse.

Tech's passing game came under varying discussion. Beamer acknowledged that he'd like to see more passes to the backs as coverage drops back downfield. Also said he'd like to see a situation where they put one up and let Wilford go up for it. Bustle said Wilford's lack of work in spring practice (due to injury) has shown. He mentioned that Ron Moody is ahead of Terrell Parham in depth.

TECH NOTES

• Beamer saluted the retiring WVU coach Don Nehlen, calling him a good friend and class guy in the coaching business, who may not be fully appreciated by some WVU fans until he's gone.

• Beamer said he may be responsible for messing up punter Bobby Peaslee by stressing in practice last week that he kick the ball high against UM's Santana Moss. He thought Peaslee may have been concentrating on that too much in the game, causing him to kick inconsistently after kicking better in the Pittsburgh game.

• The coach thought Ben Taylor had an "amazing performance" at Miami, considering the pain he was in with an ankle injury. Beamer said he told Taylor that "I respect what you're all about."

• The Central Florida game has regional ESPN coverage at 6 p.m. Saturday. It will be shown on the Fox station (WJPR/WFXR 21/27) in the Roanoke market.

• Thanks to mnmvpi97 for standing in for me on the Hotline notes last week. Good job.

• Monday was Day 401 of Virginia Tech's possession of the Commonwealth Cup.

-- GalaxHokie

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