Cam Martin is ready... are his knees ready?

In a recent interview with BeamerBall.com, the Hokies' Cam Martin had this to say about Frank Beamer:

"I'd recommend that he continue to push the discipline. He really dropped the hammer and that's the best thing he could have done.
I'm not saying that things got away from him, but, he has complete control of this program and they respect him. It's not like they're scared of him, and I know he doesn't want that, but they know he means business. They know if they screw up, if they don't hold up their end of the bargain, he'll send them down the road. I'd tell him to keep that up because it's working. And, as a player, you respect it because you know that the guys who stay in the program, you know that they care about it just like you do and they don't want guys in the program who don't take it seriously and it only makes you want to play that much harder for your teammates. You know that it's important to them just like it is to you and you respect that."

My thought? A freaking football player said that, and I love it. Cam pointed out exactly what helped drive this Virginia Tech football team towards the end of last season to their first ever BCS bowl victory. Frank Beamer decided that he was finally going to put on the man pants and dish out some tough love to his players, and what happened? THE PLAYERS RESPECTED HIM FOR IT. You hear all the time that troubled kids just need boundaries, but I always used to think it was a load of crap. I thought that kids wouldn't respond well to boundaries because why would they give into rules that they never had to follow before? I think the answer is that they all want to be football players more than they want to have free control over their decisions. The glorious possibility of the NFL and the roars of the Thursday night crowd are enough to make them obey.

I was proud of Cam Martin in this interview. You can tell when an athlete is saying something just because it's the right thing to say, and it's quite obvious that Cam was saying these things about Frank Beamer and the new discipline because he believes in it. If a senior who has started since his sophomore year can get fired up about the the new order, then he's going to lead other players to the same conclusion. Now, am I saying that all of this good stuff will lead to the Hokies fulfilling the lofty expectations that have been put on the team by the media and the other coaches? Absolutely not... this coach and this school have let me down far too many times for me to immediately back up a statement like that. But I have hope... and I think that can tide me over until the team gets a chance to prove it on the field.