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For the first time during his streak of 15 straight winning seasons and bowl appearances at Virginia Tech, coach Frank Beamer seems to be feeling some heat in regards to fan and media criticism facing his team. Beamer first went on the defensive when a caller identified as “Jason from Arlington” got through on Beamer’s weekly radio show. Jason took Beamer to task about the offensive woes; here’s how the exchange went:

Jason from Arlington: “We talk about winning 10 games a year and winning ACC championships, but I mean, who are we kidding? We’re not going to achieve our goal of winning a national championship in football with the offense we’ve seen over the past seven years. I mean, [defensive coordinator]Bud [Foster] does a great job, but he can’t give us a top-10 defense every year.

“I hope we don’t miss, haven’t missed, our window of opportunity of winning a national championship. I’m just thinking like if we don’t make a change here, like an overhaul, I’m thinking VT football has hit the ceiling. You’ve brought us to a really good place but in order to get to the next level, we’re going to have to get an offense to go with that defense or ACC champs is the best we’re going to get.”

Frank Beamer: “I think you’re all wrong. You know if you go back, and I didn’t bring my stats here with me tonight. When you say seven years, some of those teams have been some of our better-scoring football teams. And then, I look at it putting a football team together and sometimes and we haven’t always talked about inexperience for seven years. That’s not been the case. Now if you can’t look at us and tell what’s going on right now, I’m not sure you know a lot of football.

“I’m gonna say this. We’re gonna get better. When we win two ACC championships and play for a third, and understand, I’ll be the first to tell you a couple of those offensive teams weren’t as talented as we wanted. I said last week, you know the talent on our offense hasn’t been as good as the talent on our defense. We got behind in a couple of areas, and that’s just a fact. But what we did, we put together two ACC championships and played for a third one, and I think you’re kind of getting it out of whack when you start talking about it because we want to win a national championship.

“But I can assure you. We’ve got good coaches, the players are going to get better and we’re going to continue to win, and I think you’re out of whack.”

Yikes. If you heard the tone of Beamer’s voice, you could tell he was very defensive and annoyed. That was on Monday. During today’s press conference, Beamer was even more riled up and this time, he brought stats to defend his beleaguered offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring.

Beamer pointed out that four of the Hokies’ top eight scoring seasons of all time, and four of their top eight seasons for scoring touchdowns have occurred in the past five seasons. What he failed to mention was how many of those touchdowns were defensive or special teams scores. He also failed to address that his offensive has been ranked 99th and 100th in the past two seasons, and is currently ranked 100th … out of 119 teams.

Beamer also invited Stinespring’s critics to schedule appointments with him to prove that they know more about the offensive than he or coach Stinespring. In today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, he was reported as saying, “If anybody can come in there and convince me that they know more than Bryan, I’m gonna listen to them. Until then, I’m gonna listen to Bryan. We’ll set aside an hour. I’m gonna tell them in about the first 10 minutes whether they’re smarter than Bryan or not, or smarter than our offensive staff.”

I wonder how many calls he’ll get? I’m sure the fans could think of a few offensive coordinators at other schools that they’d like to schedule a meeting with Beams on their behalf. But, the fun isn’t over yet! Next up, the players talked about the pressure they’re feeling and how they’ve noticed a change in the coaches’ attitudes.

On Kyle Tucker’s blog today, he posted quotes from interviews with players and it was clear that they have noticed that the coaches are getting fed up with the lack of performance and the criticism.

Orion Martin on Beamer blowing up a little bit in practice: “I thought he seemed a little mad. Gosh. He seemed a little pissed yesterday. At the team meeting, in practice. Our practice was a little harder yesterday. He seemed demanding, like, ‘We’re not going to take this crap anymore.’ You could just tell. He just kept saying, ‘We’re going to get it right. We’re going to get it right.’ ”

Said RB Kenny Lewis, Jr., about whether the fans should lay off: “I feel like we need that. We need somebody to get up in our face and tell us it’s time. If we don’t get that, then we might just sit back on our heels and it might just pass us by. He’s told us that. Coach Stinespring, he wanted us on a different level. I haven’t seen him snap too much or get too riled up, but yesterday he was at his breaking point. He’s had enough.”

The heat is on in Blacksburg and if the Hokies can’t get things going against the Yellow Jackets on Saturday, expect the burner to get turned up another notch. The Hokies, based on their play in the first two games, have a legitimate shot at losing their next three games and starting the season 1-4, which would mark their worst start since the 1988 season, Beamer’s second season as coach, when the team started 1-4 and eventually finished 3-8.

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