It was Frank Beamer's birthday on Monday, and Bill Roth says the coach got just what he wanted -- a shutout win on national television against a ranked opponent.

Amid the many congratulatory calls prompted by the Hokies' overpowering performance against Syracuse, Coach Beamer and Roth agreed that it's a good week to be off and savor such a euphoric win.

The team will have two days of practice this week, will lift and do conditioning Saturday, then get back into preparation next week for Pittsburgh. The JV team hosts Hargrave at 2 p.m. Friday.

The coach twice brought up his post-game conversation with Chris Fowler and how impressed the ESPN host was with the whole VT experience.

In Beamer's first reference to it, he said Fowler was "so amazed" at the atmosphere, the team and the program in general. Beamer later said that Fowler was "s-o-o-o impressed" and "just amazed" about the enthusiasm shown by the VT fans.

Beamer thanked the Tech supporters for being just as loud at 6 p.m. as they were for College GameDay, and said "our fans are right in the middle" of where things are headed. The bowl people in turn see this enthusiasm and know how well VT travels: "The bowl people, you can see it in their eyes."

All of this will affect recruiting, he said. All the recruits that were called by the coaches last week were reminded "Be sure you watch us at 6 o'clock Saturday." Tech had about 40 recruits at the Syracuse game. No details were given.

A caller asked Beamer which VT team has been his best, offensively and defensively. "This one could be," he said, but that can't be answered until this team's finish is known. The 1999 team has a chance to be very good, but Beamer said that if the SU game was the high point and the team doesn't prepare for what's ahead, then it may not be the best VT team.

The Hokies played very well overall, Beamer said, and met every offensive and defensive goal that was set for the SU game. It was the first time in Beamer's 13 years of coaching at VT that the defense met every goal. He said there were some problems in kickoff coverage that he expects to get corrected before the next game. The Hokies played hard and smart with few penalties. He credited good senior leadership and a great week of practice leading up to the game. Syracuse has the best defense of the nine-year Pasqualoni era, he said.

Bud Foster said he was surprised that Syracuse didn't feature more of its option attack and multiple formations that had been shown in earlier games. He said he was surprised that the offense was "so simple," and said the Orangemen were "very vanilla" on offense. He said that was dictated in part by the fact that SU fell behind so early.

Foster said the defense hasn't played its best game yet, though it was "close the other day," and needs to keep working. "I want to challenge them: why can't we play like that the last five games," with the same focus, intensity and enthusiasm.

Anthony Midget played his best game, he said, and Smith and Hawkes really stepped it up at LB. He was pleased with the results of the playing time from backups. Moore and Engelberger were purposely rested early as part of a plan for playing a fourth quarter game that never materialized.

Roth said the Hokies intimidated the 'Cuse and inflicted pain time after time. "It was just one of those nights," Foster said.

A caller talked about a great rundown play by DE Derrius Monroe when he caught a speedster going down the sideline. At 6-5, 260 and a 4.55 time in the 40, Monroe is as talented a player as VT has in its program. Unlimited potential, said Foster.

He said the Hokie Huddler staff calls him "No Typo Monroe" because people have questioned the Huddler's listing of Monroe's 40 time as 4.57.

Beamer and Foster elaborated about some of the freshmen who are redshirting this season.

Foster said Nathaniel Adibi is the first to come to mind. "He looks outstanding."

He said he has been impressed with Vegas Robinson and said LB Chris Buie is doing a good job. DB Garnell Wilds is probably good enough to play now. Simington and Lewis enter in January and are promising.

Then Foster got going about the talent of receivers Ernest Wilford and Andrae Harrison. Wilford was originally listed as a tight end but is working at WR at his own request. Foster just gushed over Wilford, saying "he's gonna be a star." He described him as tall and rangy (6-5, 210), a 6-foot-8 high jumper who "runs like a deer."

Roth said Wilford reminds him of the NFL's Herman Moore. Beamer later invoked Herman Moore's name as well, and said he hadn't heard Roth make the same comparison early in the show when he was on with Foster. Beamer said they'll determine the best position for Wilford later. "It may be" at receiver.

Discussion turned to just how deep VT's receiving corps is, with Harrison, Wilford and Provitt all redshirting. "We may go to the all no-huddle here and just let Mike drop back," Foster quipped.

Roth asked Beamer to reflect on the Michael Vick redshirt debate of a year ago, when some fans called on Tech to play Vick and give up his redshirt year.

Beamer said the decision to stick with the redshirt was based on two things: it was not in the best interest of Michael Vick because a freshman isn't really ready in that situation, and also he had given Vick's high school coach his word that he wouldn't play him as a freshman. Beamer said it is important to do the right thing and to have credibility by keeping your word. That often comes back around in your favor later. Indeed, he said, the assurance of keeping their word in the Vick case was a factor last season in the recruiting and signing of Adibi.

Beamer made a point to say that Tech fans should pat Coach Jim Cavanaugh on the back every chance they get for his recruiting efforts that brought Vick to VT. He talked about Cavanaugh's contacts in-state and how he really works at recruiting.

The Hokies' Oct. 30 game at Pittsburgh will be shown at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.

Not a lot of detail was offered about that game. It will be the subject of next week's show. Beamer did indicate he was surprised at the outcome of the Pitt-BC game after seeing Pitt on film against SU.

Runway repairs at the Roanoke airport will force the team to stay overnight in Pittsburgh after the game. Rather than fly back into another city very late on Saturday night, the Hokies will stay over and fly in to Roanoke after noon on Sunday.

Foster said the Panthers may have the best offensive line that Tech has seen this year, plus a big running back and good receivers. QB Priestly threw for about 300 yards vs. BC. Pitt has lost 3 games by a total of 14 points, including a narrow loss to Penn State.

The game will be Tech's first 1999 contest on artificial turf. Beamer said he doesn't worry about games on turf anymore and there is no special preparation for turf because the team frequently practices on turf in the field house anyway. He said he doesn't talk about the turf factor anymore because there are more important things to focus on.

• The Nov. 6 game at West Virginia is still tentatively on the CBS list to be televised regionally at 3:30 p.m., according to Roth.

• Virginia Tech leads the nation in scoring offense AND scoring defense. The D has allowed just six touchdowns and two field goals through six games.

• Lee Suggs will have a scoping procedure on his knee Tuesday. He has problems with it puffing up Beamer said they need to determine what the problem is. No word on how this could affect his playing time. No other significant injuries reported.

• The College Football Hall of Fame's induction ceremony including Jerry Claiborne and the late Frank Loria will be attended in New York in December by Beamer, Jim Weaver and President Torgersen.

• The penalty for an illegal block that nullified the punt return touchdown by Ricky Hall "probably was a good call," Beamer said. The block occurred, although Beamer said it was clear that the SU defender wasn't going to make a play on Hall.

• Beamer talked about the broad special teams knowledge of the VT coaching staff. Several coaches have special teams assignments, including Beamer, Foster and Hite. Cavanaugh had special teams responsibility at N.C. State, as did Pearman at Alabama, and are good sounding boards.

• Beamer said he has heard some rumblings about eventually getting away from conferences hiring their own game officials and instead having one national pool of officials, much like the NFL.

• Steve DeMasi graded at 82 percent, supposedly good for an offensive lineman, in his first start at center. Beamer credited him for the job he did with little game experience.

• Roth briefly reviewed stadium expansion plans after a caller asked. Weaver would like to "wing in" the north end zone by next season presumably by adding more metal bleachers around to the permanent stands, increasing the bleachers by 20 rows in height and then adding a video board behind those seats. The other end zone would have seating expansion for 2001 and the pressbox/luxury box work would be done in 2002.

• Beamer ticked off the names of some people they will be looking at in the JV game Friday: Burnell, Briggs, Wilkinson, Ferugio, Franklin.

• Next Monday will mark the release of the first BCS rankings of the season. Roth and Beamer agreed that they will mention the BCS rankings once in the show each week and then will turn talk to the week's opponent.

• As of Monday, the Hokies were at Day 17 in possession of the Commonwealth Cup.