I've been watching the discussions on the message board the past week concerning who's right in the Weaver/Hussey situation, and I thought I would weigh in here in the Members Only section with my opinion.  I promise, after this, I'm done with the subject.

First of all, I sympathize with Coach Hussey. He's a hard-working man who has been fired from a job that he poured his heart and soul into, and it caught him off-guard. It's a tough situation to suddenly be out of work, particularly at his age.

But while I "feel his pain," so to speak, his situation does not cause me great distress. He was kicked out unexpectedly, yes, but he was shown the door with a $280,000 check in hand. So while his pride and self-esteem are wounded, his ability to make his mortgage payments and feed his family are not.

In 1994, I was a peon caught in a political struggle between two companies, and in order to keep a $400,000 account, my employer chose to fire me. It's a long story why, and although I hadn't done anything overtly wrong, I did have some responsibility for exposing myself, and I paid the price.

It was a very small amount of responsibility, however - the bottom line is, my firing was 98% not my fault, and for the most part, it was just a new company president choosing to flex his muscle and make a statement that got me dismissed. He wanted to establish his power base and mark his territory, and he did so by getting me fired, which pretty much ruined my life in the process.

I went from having my own career and owning my own home to being unemployed and living in a spare bedroom in my parents' house in Pulaski. I lost everything - my job, my home, and my friends. But I took my medicine, accepted what had happened, and got on with my life. It took me nearly four years to fully recover, but I did it, and I'm a stronger person with a better life now (after all, before I got fired, I was living in Charlottesville!).

Having been through that personally, I have very little true compassion for a man who is given a $280,000 check as he is shown the door. Thoughts of Bobby Hussey will not keep me up at night.

I'm also a little incredulous that he felt "blindsided" by Weaver's moves. Let's review the facts:

1. Weaver did not hire Bobby, and therefore had no loyalty to him.
2. Tech had two straight losing seasons under Hussey, and beat only one Top 50 RPI team (GW) in two years. The Hokies often got blown out in embarrassing fashion.
3. A star recruit transferred out (Grindstaff), and the following year, another star recruit (Mims) was publicly considering it.
4. Attendance hit a 38-year, all-time low for Cassell Coliseum.
5. At least one colleague/friend had said to Hussey, "I'm hearing things. Are you okay there?" (I think it was Odom, but I'm not sure).

And he was "blindsided"? Please. Surprised, yes, since Weaver had made two public statements indicating that he wouldn't be fired, but blindsided? Someone was in heavy denial.

Jim Weaver hates rumor-mongering and speculation, and here's my guess as to why - it leads to fans, staff, coaches, players, and the media all asking questions. Tons of questions. And it takes time to answer all those questions and defuse all that speculation and kill all those rumors. Tons of time. And Jim Weaver doesn't have time for that, because he's got a job, a very huge job, to do.

So that's why he played it close to the vest with Bobby Hussey's firing and Ricky Stokes's hiring. He was going to do it anyway, and by keeping it a secret, he was able to do it in expeditious fashion, so he can move on to other items, such as Lane Stadium expansion and membership in an all-sports conference.

Despite my knowing this about Jim Weaver, he surprised me with the easy way that he made misleading statements to the press regarding Bobby Hussey's future. I keep going back to that statement he made to Jeff White of The Richmond Times-Dispatch, when Jeff asked him if there was any reason Hussey might not return next year. "Not that I can think of," Mr. Weaver replied.

And at that point, he had already made up his mind to fire Bobby.

Before continuing, let's separate ourselves from the question of how he could have handled it differently, because that's not what I want to debate. I want to tell you why the way he handled it bothers me personally.

Here's why: as an unofficial webmaster, my continued existence relies at least partly on a relationship of good will between myself and the Virginia Tech athletic department, mainly Jim Weaver. It's common knowledge that Jim Weaver hates the Internet ("The Internet is completely out of control" -- Jim Weaver, 3/16/99), and therefore, he's probably not a big fan of HokieCentral.

I try to run a tight ship and not cause any difficulties for the Tech athletic department. I want to continue doing what I'm doing, but even without that, I never want to cause trouble for the sports program that I love so dearly.

I've met Jim Weaver. I had lunch with Jim Weaver, and he seemed to like me, and to leave the meeting feeling better about me personally and about HokieCentral. But now, after what happened with Bobby Hussey, if I meet Jim Weaver face to face, and I ask him, "Mr. Weaver, are we okay?" and Jim Weaver says, "Sure, Will. I think you're doing a great job with HokieCentral," I've got one simple question for you: can I believe him? Does he mean what he says? Or is he trying to figure out some way to eliminate the web site whose message board (and the rumor-mongering he hates so much) is such a pain in the ass to him?

That's why the way Bobby Hussey was fired scares me personally.

So although I now fear him for my own self-interests, I will tell you that I think Mr. Weaver is exactly what Virginia Tech athletics needs right now. Virginia Tech athletics, to a large degree, is still a small-time operation run at least partly by a good ole boy network that very often seems unable to separate itself from personal issues and make the correct business decisions. I have grown tired of it, and Mr. Weaver is out to change that, and I applaud him for it.

I'll give you a small, very small, example: did anyone else get tired of hearing PA announcer Pete Peterson call Pierson Prioleau "Pierson Prey-loo" for four years? Can't anyone respectfully take Mr. Peterson, a Tech icon, aside and tell him that he's pronouncing a star player's name wrong?

And we won’t even get into the important stuff that Tech still does in rinky-dink fashion because the same people have been doing the same jobs for 30 years, since back when Tech was nobody on the NCAA athletics scene.

Like it or not, Mr. Weaver is grabbing Tech athletics by the scruff of its neck and dragging it, kicking and screaming, into the big time. As Lee Iacocca used to say all the time, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way." Bobby Hussey got in the way.