"Yeah, I still don't like the media. I think they make players out to be better than they really are. I think if you want someone's opinion on a player, you should go get a coach's opinion." -- Tech DE John Engelberger

The big stir created at Wednesday's Media Day wasn't over Michael Vick, and it wasn't over Tech's high expectations, and it wasn't over the three verbals from football recruits that the Hokies received that day.

No, the big stir was centered around John Engelberger, who at long last spoke to the press. At length. And man, was it ever worth the wait.

"I could care less what (all-star teams) I make. I just want to play football."

Sometimes, when a player who hasn't spoken to the media for a long time finally opens up, you find him to be unlike what you expected. Not so in the case of Big John.

He is a self-made football player, a walk-on who made an immediate impact back in 1996, when he registered two sacks in the second game of the season, on the road against Boston College. He has built himself into an All-American candidate and possible NFL player through sheer hard work, and his energy and relentlessness on the field are a model of how a football player should be. Engelberger just shuts up and gets the job done.

He shut up until Wednesday, that is.

"Yeah, you guys (the media) are probably getting a big kick out of this. It's just a hassle for me."

Engelberger's reticence is legendary, and when Corey Moore was approached early last year (I think it was after the Clemson game) by a reporter who asked him to describe Engelberger, Moore grinned and uttered the now-famous line, "Silent but violent."

It was a nickname that rolled off the tongue and stuck like glue, and amongst the Hokie faithful, it was suddenly cool that Engelberger wouldn't talk to the press. It became part of his mystique and his persona. The man who was previously known only for his defensive line play and his frequently misspelled last name (E before L, folks) was now known as the U-boat of Tech's defensive line, sneaking up and firing deadly torpedoes, then slinking away unnoticed.

As the TV cameras and tape recorders focused on Corey Moore all last season, Engelberger was his partner in their endless game of "meet you at the quarterback." Moore's position as team spokesman and world record holder in the category of "Most Held Defensive Lineman" earned him national accolades.

Meanwhile, Engelberger's play earned him the respect of Hokie fans and opponents, but little else. He toiled away mostly unnoticed by a national press that didn't know what to make of a player that wouldn't talk to them.

"All this stuff, all this attention, doesn't mean anything to me. I could care less what anyone writes about me."

Engelberger finally held court with the media at the fifty yard line during Media Day, and although I wasn't there, I can imagine that even though he was taking good-natured pot shots at them and telling them that they were no more important to him than an annoying gnat, the assembled media had to be grinning and eating it up. I would have.

If I was Engelberger, I would quit right now. His comments yesterday were laugh-out-loud funny in many cases and only added to his ever-growing legend. There's nowhere to go from here but down. Continuing to talk to the media might earn him All-American status, but since he couldn’t care less about that, why bother?

If he goes back now to letting his play do the talking for him, his status as one of the great defensive linemen - and one of the great characters - in Virginia Tech football history will be solidified.

"If I have the opportunity to (play in the NFL), fine. If not, I'll go be a cop or something like that. If they need someone to go do some dirty work, I'll do it as long as they give me a paycheck every month."

For complete Media Day coverage, see HokiefromWV's VT Hokie News links for more articles than you can shake a gobbler at.

During Media Day, Coach Beamer called out Garnell Wilds, Nathaniel Adibi, and Deon Provitt as true freshmen who are the most likely to gain playing time this year.

I can tell you that during the practice I watched, Provitt was getting a lot of work at the receiver position. Provitt has good size (6-1, 190), and the QB's were throwing a lot of balls his way. He caught some and dropped some, much like anyone else who had the ball thrown to him that day. As an out-of-stater, Provitt enters Tech without much hype, but Coach Beamer mentioning him verifies the fact that he could be a big-time player for the Hokies.

As for Adibi, he is big, lean, and looks like he's physically ready to play. I have no idea how he's going to crack the two-deep on Tech's defensive line this year, particularly if Derrius Monroe's Spring Game performance was more than an aberration. But he reminds me of Cornell Brown, from the standpoint that as a true freshman, Cornell was physically impressive. Adibi is the same way. Adibi is every bit of the 6-3, 235 stats listed next to his name on Screaming Lizard's recruiting page.

As for Wilds, Notre Dame wanted him, and although I didn't watch him a lot during the practice I saw, I do remember one drill where he bumped the receiver at the line, broke downfield with him, and stayed on him like glue down the field. If the coaches continue to work on his technique, and he continues to get stronger (he is listed at 5-11, 180), he may turn out to be a good man-to-man cover guy in the mold of Ike Charlton.

Other players that were impressive were linebacker Chris Buie, who had the good fortune to be worked out one-on-one by defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Bud Foster. Imagine being an 18-year old true freshman and getting a one-on-one workout with the coach I jokingly call "Virginia Tech's next head coach" (okay, maybe I'm not joking), one of the top D-coordinators in the country, a man who turned down the Florida D-coordinator job.

Buie is a stud, rock solid, and almost big enough to be a defensive end in Tech's scheme. But it appears at this point that he is destined for linebacker, so he likely won't see playing time this year, since Tech is so deep at the linebacker position.

Shawn Witten is everything I thought he would be when I named him the Sleeper of this year's freshman class. He was working out at receiver, and he, too, got a lot of passes thrown his way, mostly on deep patterns or middle-of-the-field curl patterns.

Witten is listed at 6-1, 185, and he's got a competitive, hustling quality about him that will earn him playing time (not this year, probably, but definitely in the future). He positions himself well when running routes, always gets his hands on the ball, and repeatedly laid himself out, even though the players were working in limited pads. Hustle-wise, Witten is "all that," and he's got good speed and body control. I'm not backing off of my accolade of Sleeper of the Year for him.

One other player of note is Keith Willis, who worked out at the tight end position and also had a ton of passes thrown his way during practice. Willis has redshirt written all over him, because he needs to put on some serious weight before he'll be plugged in at tight end for the Hokies. He's tall (6-5), but at this point, he has more of a basketball player's build than a football player's body. So look for Keith, who is one of the most polite people you would ever want to meet (Yes-sirs and no-sirs abound when you talk to him), to show up on the radar screen in the year 2000, if he can put on weight during this offseason. At last report, Keith was also going to play basketball for Tech, so it will be interesting to see how he balances the two sports.

Tech Tackles

I thought the other significant thing that came out of Media Day was confirmation that Carl Bradley is almost completely healed from the separated shoulder that was operated on in April and that kept him out of spring football.

Bradley's recovery has been characterized as "remarkably quick" by Tech trainer Mike Goforth (and Conquer). Along with Nathaniel ("Don't call me Nate") Williams's recovery from knee surgery, the Hokies will have four healthy, effective defensive tackles going into the season, barring injury during the preseason.

For all the talk of John Engelberger and Corey Moore, the tackles are a huge part of Tech's defensive success. When Waverly Jackson departed after the 1996 season, he took with him substantial size, NFL ability, and the last remnants of a dominating quartet of defensive tackles from the 1995 Sugar Bowl team. Jackson, J.C. Price, Jim Baron, and Jeff Holland were the interior stars of that defensive line.

Entering the 1997 season, the inexperienced Williams and Bradley were the starters at tackle. The Hokies struggled with bringing pressure on the quarterback, and the lack of experience of their tackles was no doubt a significant factor.

Now, two years later, Williams and Bradley each have three varsity letters, loads of playing time behind them, and talent to burn. The even-better news is that two players with varsity letters will back them up in Chad Beasley and David Pugh. An injury at the defensive tackle spot this year will not cripple the Hokies as it may have done in 1997.

Looking down the road, Beasley and Pugh are just redshirt sophomores, so they'll return as the starters in 2000 as just juniors, and each of them will have significant playing time and probably two varsity letters each. The Hokies will continue to have great experience and talent at the defensive tackle spot, and that will allow Tech to break in new starting defensive ends (leading candidates are Lamar Cobb, Nathaniel Adibi, and Derrius Monroe) with plenty of support from the interior.

The key question in the 2000 season will be who is going to back up Beasley and Pugh. The loss of 1998 recruit Marlan Hicks, who attended Hargrave last year but was never able to qualify, hurts here. Looking at BCE's Depth Chart, no names really jump out as backups and successors to Beasley and Pugh.

Kudos to the Hokie Club, and to Tech Fans Everywhere

On Wednesday, an article about Tech fund-raising (Virginia Tech Enjoyed Strong Fund-Raising Year) ran in the New River Current section of The Roanoke Times, and although the article (which is interesting reading) spoke primarily of Tech's general fund-raising efforts, it did mention that in the fund-raising year from June of 1998 to June of 1999, the Hokie Club raised $8.9 million, which is a new record and beat the previous year's record by a whopping 41 percent.

I asked a Hokie Club staffer if the increase was due to a few big donors, a large influx of new donors, or just a general increase in giving.   She told me that the Hokie Club's membership was now just over 9000 members, which isn't really a big increase from the figure of 8800 that I've heard quoted from the year before.  And the $8.9 million total wasn't really due to a few large donors dropping big bucks, but from a general increase in giving amongst the existing Hokie Club members.

Success begets success, and certainly the bowl victory over Alabama and all the exciting things going on in the Tech athletic department have boosted donations and interest.  The staffer I spoke to expressed a little concern about "What do we do to top this?"

Mentally, I scratched my head and thought about the Lane Stadium expansion that is on the horizon.  The project will probably be finalized and formally announced next January, and when that happens, I don't think the Hokie Club will have much trouble reaching $10 million ... and beyond.

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