HokieCentral message board poster "GalaxHokie" has been kind enough to step up to the plate this year and recap the weekly Hokie Hotline radio shows on the message board. I used to recap the shows, but I never did it in the kind of detail that Galax does. He does a heck of a job, so I thought I would cut and paste his work here in the News and Notes section for those of you who don't get to see the message board before the notes are pruned, or for those of you who (egad!) are not message board posters.

Here, in Galax's own words, is a summary of Monday's Hokie Hotline show, which was held at the Volume II Bookstore. GalaxHokie tells me that all grammatical and spelling errors are intentional and shouldn't be taken too seriously....thanks for the hard work, Galax!

Here are notes from tonight's Hokie Hotline, which featured offensive coordinator Ricky Bustle during the first half-hour.

It sounded like our very own Will may have been in the crowd at the bookstore where the show was set tonite. A guy named Will asked about Al Clark's performance Saturday, and he sounded like HokieCentral Will (note from Will: yes, it was me). Russian Hokie also asked a question.

Coaches confirmed that OL coach J.B. Grimes faces triple bypass heart surgery. Bustle heard it is to be Tuesday; Beamer later said Wednesday morning. Grimes has 3 arteries blocked to varying degrees, 70-90 percent, Bustle said. Grimes is fit, runs 40 minutes a day, they say. Apparently Grimes' father had similar heart problems at the same age (42), however.

Roth said maybe Grimes was listening in tonight. Bustle said Grimes tried to listen Saturday after leaving the stadium, but wasn't able to continue. No wonder.

No word on recovery time. Brian Stinespring, the tight ends coach, will take over the line for now.

Roth noted 1994 was the last time VT was sacked 6 times in a game -- was Grimes' absence a factor? We wouldn't say that, Bustle said. Film showed no confusion on blocking assignments, we just got beat on blocks, and our backs missed some blocks.

Roth noted Miami/Ohio players' comments that they knew they could block a punt against VT. Bustle said Miami's rush was the same scheme we like to use, we just didn't execute the protection.

Shawn Scales "may" be able to play this week. Status is questionable, Beamer said. Injury is a tendon that slips out of place. He can play with it, except when there's swelling and the tendon won't slip back into place. They are working at controlling the swelling.

The stacked receivers formation on both sides that we saw Saturday was actually devised for Syracuse but not needed. Bustle called it a different wrinkle off of what we do and said we'll see it again sometime.

Parker is not 100 percent healthy yet, but is coming on.

Former Tech QB Cam Young called in to offer his thoughts on behalf of Coach Grimes.

Caller asked about appearance of running so many deep routes, 35-40 yards, and nothing in 15-yard range. Bustle said somebody breaks long on most routes, even when it's not intention to throw deep. Got to spread the receivers and let backs position themselves at first down yardage.

Re the fake punt, Bustle said: "I haven't seen the ball yet!" Said he saw it at the game and twice on TV before he could see what they did. "You've got to hand it to them. It was a heck of a play."

Beamer said it was a play they used to run during his coaching days at Radford High School.

A 13-year-old girl got on SOMEHOW, and when Roth asked her about the Hokies, she said she didn't know what a Hokie was, that the was just trying to call "Eric." Sheesh.

Boston College's defensive coordinator is Tim Rose, who was def coord at Cincy when we played them in 1995. Last year he was at Minnesota and Bustle said they looked at lots of Minnesota film over the summer. "We've got a good handle on it," he said.

Coming back from a commercial I missed most of what was said about BC injury situation. All I heard was that RB Omari Walker can play. Not sure status of QB???

Beamer talked about how important the conference games remain for us, especially for a conference that doesn't completely share revenue. There's a huge difference between payout to the alliance qualifier vs. lower bowls.

Roth asked about Miami coach's comments that VT band played better than the FB team. Beamer called it disappointing, said he didn't know what caused him to say that. "When they beat you, they can say whatever they want to."

Roth noted that DiNapoli told the media after the game that Coach Beamer tells them to win with class, lose with class, and therefore he just wouldn't respond to what Miami coach said.

PUNTS: Beamer said there is no problem with the formation, but rather a breakdown in technique. Miami blocked one with an inside guy and another with an outside guy. The blocks were not the same problem as at Rutgers, where positioning of protection was the problem. Once last week, Kibble lapsed back to taking a third step, Beamer said.

Caller asked about Shane Beamer "hitching" before snapping on deep snaps. Frank said he actually cocks the ball -- "it's a cock, not a hitch" -- and that they work at varying the rhythm on cocking and snapping it. This has resulted in two offsides penalties by the opposition -- one last week.

Did Miami return man touch the punt in the critical situation during fourth quarter? Beamer said the film, when slowed, shows the receiver pulled his hands back but the ball got a piece of his shoulder. Larry Green was covering and said it hit the guy. The Miami blocker back there pursued the ball hard, which suggests he thought it was touched.

RE Al Clark: Al did pretty well, was off on a couple of throws. Scrambled a few times when he should have looked back at his receivers (Beamer said McNabb does this part so well). Al needs to look downfield as he keeps moving, Beamer said. "He'll keep getting better and we'll win a lot of games with him."

Practice was good Monday. Beamer told team Miami was really ready, that there's a thin line between us wanting to play, how we played Saturday and how we played vs. Syracuse.

He regretted situation of players with the media last week. Players were trying to give honest, candid answers to questions about schedule, etc., but the comments served as motivation for Miami. When VT players say they'd rather play somebody else, or that it's important to score/win impressively because of the situation, it motivates the other team. "We weren't talking about going undefeated, but a lot of other people (media) were."

BC leads conference in total offense, but has committed a lot of turnovers. Their OL is best we've played this year, Beamer said.

Miami hurt us in the middle with post pattern while maximum protecting. We're going to have to find other schemes for bringing pressure, he said.

Fake Kick: "It gets back to how sharp we are." Beamer acknowledged coaches were preoccupied with their substitution at the time. We had a player late coming off the field and it was a distraction, he said. Meanwhile, the coverage team didn't recognize the funky formation in time to call time out or stop the play.

A caller who was 11 rows up on student side said he never saw the ball either.

We haven't blocked kicks ourselves at usual pace this year because other teams respect our reputation. They are rushing their punt teams onto the field and snapping it right away. Some wait til 25 second clock starts before they send their punt team out.

The questionable Oxendine fumble was "close," Beamer said. He saw it on TV and thought the ground caused the fumble. I understood him to concede that, on film, the ball may have been coming out. I think he used the word "close" twice.

Til next week...

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