French and I attended the open scrimmage this afternoon. We wanted to give you an accurate practice report as quickly as possible, hence the following stream of notes. Much of this was written at Texas Roadhouse on our phones, so appoligies in advance for any typos. If you have any specific questions, ask them in the comments and we'll be happy to answer them. If you attended pratice, please leave your thoughts. --Joe
French's evaluation:
1) 1st team offense ran either pistol or the shotgun almost 70 percent of the time. Pistol featured dual motion, usually with the tight end moving from a set position to a wingback (similar to Clemson's TE Dwayne Allen) and then the flanker motioning to either run or fake a sweep. Also, as the scrimmage moved to 1's vs 1's, the Hokies featured the fullback out of the pistol, starting in an offset I and then motioning to a wing.
2) The offensive pace is MUCH faster, featuring no huddle, and sprinting to the line out of a huddle and going on quick snap counts. The offense uses a tremendous amount of misdirection, and worked well to get quick hitting inside plays (veer, belly, and power.) Logan Thomas looked comfortable, although he wasn't showcased much in the running game. He did run three zone reads, keeping twice, but the runs had more counter action rather than straight ahead power, which I liked to see. They did not run speed option, but used the rocket sweep (motion behind the TB from the flanker) as the secondary option read.
3) The first team offensive line had an excellent scrimmage. Bruce Benedict looks like he has lost more than 30 pounds, and Vinston Painter is sculpted. Andrew Miller, Benedict, and Wang all were effective pulling and blocking in space, and the second effort was outstanding. This is an athletic BIG group of linemen who can really move, yet get movement inside. In pass pro, there were a couple of struggles, especially on the left side with Becton and Wang. Foster got two sacks blitzing the whip and the mike (see the blitz featuring Jack Tyler and Kyle Fuller in The "Blitz" French on the Bench). JGW got both sacks, and Kyle Fuller blitzed once from the field corner spot to force a sack.
I thought that Shuman, Via, Farris, and Gibson really stood out, with great point of attack blocking against the 1's and the 2's. Farris had several nice efforts getting movement on Derrick Hopkins inside. Gibson had a fantastic one armed throw technique knockdown block on a DE who stunted across his face. Shuman looked every bit the part as next year's starting left tackle.
This is a good, deep group. Communication and assignments will be the key. Don't be surprised at all if this group is much better, especially run blocking last year.
4) Ryan Malleck will be featured prominently. He was the exclusive #1 TE, and was used as both the tight end and the motion guy from the wing, very similar to how Clemson used Dwayne Allen. He caught passes on bootlegs, pulled to block on counter and power plays. Dunn had a catch, but it appears that his blocking isn't trusted enough to go with the ones.
5) Michael Holmes got most of the work with the ones. He is a patient runner, working off blocks and running hard. He had several nice runs early on, but he wasn't being fed carries like a workhorse back. He also seemed to be less noticeable as the scrimmage went on, except in pass protection where he was effective.
JC Coleman had limited snaps with the 1st team, but made the most of them. He ran two nice quick hitting off tackle plays. On one, Kyle Fuller met him in the hole for what should have been a 4 yard gain, but Coleman put a subtle cut on Fuller, leaving him on his behind, broke a tackle by Exum, then Corey Marshall, then finished the 52-yard run by going through Exum. Later, he had another quick gashing interior run gaining over 15 yards.
Trey Edmunds was used with the 2's and 3's (more 3's), but he looked the part of a traditional VT workhorse back. He ran from the I and ace (one back) but not from pistol. He had several nice carries and shows a knack for making a subtle cut on the interior. Even on plays where he got no blocking, he was able to gain positive yardage. I have to assume that he hasn't adjusted yet to the pistol and shotgun stuff (he doesn't fit that look either) and perhaps isn't ready for pass pro. When he was in and they passed, it was play action and he dove into the line.
Scales had a nice 10 yard run off tackle on the 1st carry of the scrimmage, and then wasn't noticable. Mangus wasn't noticeable on limited touches.
Joe's observations:
The Whips played well today. G-W ran with the ones, Ronny VanDyke with the twos. Tweedy worked with the third group. G-W played close to the line of scrimmage and was sent on a bunch of blitzes. Play on the QB wasn't live, but he had 2 or 3 "sacks". Vandyke is a glove in coverage, and really pops the ball carrier. It seems like Tweedy is an afterthought, but he made a nice tackle on special teams.
I was really impressed with Corey Fuller and Kevin Asante. Both worked with the first team. Logan had a knack for finding Fuller, who caught everything thrown his way. Asante got a lot of reps playing with all three teams. Tech is clearly scheming ways to quickly get him the ball, like on a screen, to let him use his speed in space. He's a deep threat, and showed it today too. The buzz around Stanford is justified. He looks like he's been practicing for three years, not three weeks. He ran good routes and caught a couple of balls. I would have liked to have seen him rep with ones, but he made the most of his opportunities. Davis and Roberts took a back seat to Fuller and Asante, but that was the point of this scrimmage. They blocked well on screens. Right now, top four receivers going into fall are: Coles, Roberts, Davis, Fuller, then Asante and Stanford. At least that's my opinion, and now I feel much better about the depth at receiver.
The defense was lackadaisical at the start of practice. Exum got beat a couple of times early, but made a really nice play on a ball in the back corner of the endzone. He located it, went up, and swatted it down for an incompletion. Early in practice Fuller got beat in coverage by Marcus Davis, but was able to recover enough to force the incompletion while falling down. Had Davis caught the ball, he would have housed it. He finished strong. James Gayle didn't participate. Bruce Taylor nabbed a nice interception. There doesn't appear to be any issues with his movement. Edwards didn't participate, but we knew that since he just had surgery to remove the screw from his knee. There were a couple of plays were both defensive ends were standing up, so just the two d-tackles were the down lineman. French had predicted that would be a look Foster would use to combat the spread.
Finally, Painter's body type, human skin over the batsuit.
Thanks to Mrs. French for getting this picture.
Leanest 309 pound lineman ever.
Comments
painter looks like a freak .. did you guys get the feeling that the defense was laying off or lax for most of the practice or that the offense is looking crisper and better than some may have expected?? if they're looking this good against a stout defense like ours ... hmmm
also sounds like this pistol/spread/up-tempo thing may have some teeth, unlike some of the previous offensive "experiments" that never came to fruition.
The offense did just what Clemson did, they took what the D gave them and MOSTLY made the right reads. The defense really looked like it was reading.
that is just scary...an O-line his size in single digit bodyfat...
if football doesn't work out he has a career in pro wrestling.
This comment of french's excites the hell out of me
"The offensive pace is MUCH faster, featuring no huddle, and sprinting to the line out of a huddle and going on quick snap counts."
Offense
Wow, what an interesting experience it was to watch practice today. The above thoughts were based on my notes and we worked to get some high level bullets together quickly. Now that I am sitting and not trying to type on the blackberry, here are some additional thoughts.
1) Turn your expectations on your head. Offense dominated this scrimmage. The starters used no huddled after most successful plays, featured significant motion, options, and counter-action to completely neuter the defensive pass rush. Asante was really featured, both down the field and in the screen game. He got snaps with the ones after looking excellent with the twos. Corey Fuller also made several nice plays beyond the touchdown catch.
2) Dudes, this offensive line is pretty good. And, there are four good backups. They will run the ball inside better this year. Pass pro was also effective. I can say right now, if Shuman, Gibson, Farris, or Via have to start this year, I am comfortable with them.
3) I thought Logan Thomas was muted today. He made one brutal throw that Kyle Fuller should have picked off. He threaded a beautiful throw into triple coverage on a seam route but it was dropped. His throw for the Fuller touchdown was beautiful. At the same time, Marcus Davis and Dyrell Roberts were really quiet and not targeted. Roberts was used on motion on ton, but Davis was targeted deep a couple of times and didn't get open. I wanted to see him make a play down the field and it didn't happen. Both blocked well for eachother on screens.
4) The Hokies ran pistol, but they used a fullback much more out of that formation. Both Malleck and Phillips would line up on one side, and pull like a guard to kick outside linebackers and ends. They both blocked well and the cross action confused the defense.
French I know you're going to touch on this in a little bit but what did you think about the identity of the offense? Just the bottom line. Could you tell with the limited snaps?
I would've liked to see Branthover punt some during the scrimmage. I was watching the punters in warm ups and he looked pretty good.
I don't know if you guys saw DJ Coles on the sideline but he looked a little overweight(fat) to me.... I get he's a big boy but I didn't remember him being that large.
I was surprised at all of the misdirection they ran. I remember them saying they added it but I was expecting to see it on what seemed to be the majority of the plays for the first team.
The defense just looked flat today. A bright spot though was the first team didn't allow a single touchdown. I'll be back at the scrimmage on Wednesday and I hope to see Gayle back and the defense playing with a little more passion.
It looks like the 1's are going to be a pistol/shotgun team. They may mix in some basic formations, but it looks like the starters are going with that system.
I didn't notice Coles, but (and Joe will kill me for saying it), Gayle looked heavy. Don't kill the messenger.
And now, some sour with the sweet: The Defense
The defense did not have a good day.
It started with James Gayle coming out in shorts and t-shirt and in the middle of stretching he was sent back in to the locker room by a coach. It looked stranger when he came back out and did work by himself on the sideline without much engagement with the coaches or team. It just had a strange vibe (especially when we have heard nothing about him dominating camp like he did in the spring.) Again, it may be nothing, but my spidersense is tingling and the last time I did that, we invaded Nicaragua.
I was much more focused on offense, but I looked for D guys to grab my attention, and very little did. Wilson started at stud and Marshall at end, with Maddy and Derrick Hopkins inside. Marshall got one sack on Mark Leal, but otherwise there was almost no pass rush from the defensive line. JR Collins worked with the 2nd team early on, then took Wilson's place with the ones. The twos moved the ball, and the 1st teamers moved the ball well in the 1st team vs 1st team. Matt Roth was the 4th DE in the rotation. Ekanem played with the 3's, but if injuries forced them to pick between Roth and Ekanem because of injuries to the starters, I think Ekanem plays.
At linebacker, you noticed Jeron Gouveia Winslow because he played on the line and blitzed frequently. He had 3 "sacks" by my count, but he got trapped upfield a couple of times on interior counters. Ronnie Van Dyke is bigger and looks more like a traditional 4-3 outside linebacker. With the twos, he defintely was the leading tackler, and he was very proficient in pass coverage on the slots. In a 4-4 G coverage, he covered the slot, who ran a short out to the flat. RVD read Leal's eyes, dropped into the throwing lane, and made a nice deflection. Tweedy got a sack on the 3's and was great on special teams, but he clearly isn't in the mix.
I don't really know what to say about Jack Tyler, Bruce Taylor, and Chase Williams. Taylor had great read to pick Leal, and Tyler combined with JGW on a sack, but otherwise, I didn't notice either at all (or Chase Williams.) Zach Snell was the most effective of the underclassmen, but Clarke isn't ready to help, and the others are not guys who they can play and expect to win. If Edmunds isn't going to get carries this year, they must get him to linebacker immediately.
Also, Tariq Edwards was on crutches.
The secondary, ah the seconday. Marcus Davis got a step on Kyle Fuller early, and Fuller lost his feet but Davis didn't make the catch. Fuller also had a clean shot on JC Coleman on the 60 yard touchdown run, and ended up on his can (we argued over if Coleman broke his ankles or knocked him over.) However, as the scrimmage went on, he started making plays. He blocked a field goal. He beat his brother to the spot on a curl route and almost picked off an LT3 pass. He was very vocal in the secondary.
I really wish I could get a read on the safeties, but I my attention got drawn away. I saw Bonner come up and force the QB aggressively on a bootleg, and Jarrett made several nice tackles on run support. I don't know how either guy did in coverage.
Exum. I really don't want to beat up on Exum, but he was really shakey at the start. Asante caught a 10 yard out against Exum in man coverage, and then Exum fell down as Asante broke up field. That really didn't instill confidence. Later, Exum attempted to tackle Coleman twice, but Coleman broke away once and then dragged him into the end zone.
Later, Exum was challenged on an out and go, and he ran perfectly with the receiver (I believe Josh Stanford) all the way. He was outleaped for the ball, but at full extension he got a hand on the ball and deflected upwards, and then outfought the WR on the drop. That was the one play where I stood up and when nuts. "PRAISE JESUS, HE FOUND THE BALL." Still, he is my #1 worry amongst the returning starters.
The backsups in the secondary are bad. I don't know how else to put it. They were torched all day.
Gayle
French are you hinting that Gayle was being punished or that he mit be hurt?
Again, this is me and I don't have any inside information, but my paranoid side says he may have reported out of shape, and perhaps the injury is the result. I am not sure which coach got in his ear during stretches, but it didn't look like a happy exchange, and Gayle went to the locker room with great haste.
Facts on Gayle
I'm not hinting he's injured, he is injured. Virginia Tech listed him as questionable with an ankle on the injury report for the scrimmage. His injury was noted by Tech for the Thursday practice as well.
As for his weight, it's not a debate, he's a bigger player this year than last year. He's listed at 269, previously he was 260. I can't find the exact numbers, but if my memory serves me he tweeted out some insane 40-time again this year and he was one of our best performers in strength testing, again. By my eyes, he didn't look out of shape, and I don't recall any of the coaches mentioning weight as an issue (Beamer called out Caleb for reporting heavy).
This afternoon he came out without pads on and went through the stretching lines. Then the team spread out to continue their stretching. I didn't see it, but according to French one of the coaches went up to him, and he left the team stretching. I did see him walk by and say something to Cav on the way towards the tunnel, but later on he was out on the sideline working. I've been to a few open pratices, the guys in blue who do not participate in pratice usually do conditioning on the sidelines, I remember in 2010 a bunch of them were running the bleachers while the team scrimmaged.
To be frank, linking the injury, his weight, and what happened today is speculation at best. Honestly, I don't find it plausible because: the coaches knew his weight at the start of camp, he was listed on the injury report with an ankle, from 50 rows up on the sideline we have nothing but a guess at his deamenor, if he was able to practice, not practicing as a "punishment" would be the most counter-intuitive thing possible. This isn't peewee ball.
What's concerning to me, is that two weeks before kickoff one of our best defensive players has a possible season-long nagging injury to deal with.
It is absolute speculation and I don't want anyone to think otherwise! Still, usually decisions are made about the level of participation are made well before a practice begins. Everything about that scenario played out in a strange way.
Usual standard practice for an injury scenario is for the player and his position coach to go out prior to a practice and go through a series of footwork drills to see if he can participate pain free. For a sprained ankle, it would have been a figure 8 drill. Then the coach and trainer would make the decision on if he would stand on the sidelines with the guys who are immobilized (ala Tariq Edwards and Adam Tarasche) or if he would get a blue, no contact jersey and participate in drills.
I don't think he was being punished, per se, but clearly something happened that was out of order. I think either he did something with the trainer after individual work started to test the injury that we didn't see and then he reported out to the coach (more likely), or he did the test prior to the stadium opening up, and he was declared non-contact (which would explain shorts and a t-shirt) but the coach got cheesed when he jumped in the stretching line. I can actually hear one of my coaches yelling "if you are healthy enough to stretch, you should be participating in non-contact drills." Again, pure speculation, but I can assure you, nothing about that situation was "by the book" on an injured player.
Nicaragua
/dying
Special Teams: Kickoff
Special Teams:
Kickoff returns were Roberts and Gregory, and Exum with Coleman.
Jarrett was the punt returner. I was frustrated that he let several hit the ground. That kills you with field position.
Journall missed a field goal, and on kickoffs he kicked much shorter (but higher) than Branthover. Branthover is now a kicker, not a punter. He put both kicks deep in the endzone, with the second being unreturnable.
Punters, AJ Hughes is the guy folks based on this scrimmage. Good hang time and distance. He needs to be quicker from snap to kick. Hunter Windmueller got a couple of kicks, but he shanked one and Fuller blocked a second.
One more thing folks. I tried to stay off Twitter to avoid the post-scrimmage interviews and the beat writer/blogger comments so it wouldn't cloud my post. With the offensive pace, coupled with being a fan and being excited for things and frustrated at others, it was very challenging to keep up. My notes looked like they were written by a 6 year old who was learning sanskrit.
Looking to the future, guys who looked promising.
1) Ronnie Van Dyke
2) Trey Edmunds (if this was 2006, I think he would start at RB)
3) Kevin Asante (he had at least 10 touches today)
4) Josh Stanford (didn't get a shot against the 1's, but he looks polished)
5) JC Coleman (much more assertive inside on quick hitters)
6) Ken Ekanem
One other notation
When the Hokie offense was in the pistol or the shotgun, the defensive ends stood up about 90% of the time. A coaching friend of mine who joined us said that the standup technique allows the ends to see the play develop better. We saw it used against Michigan's spread, so I would be willing to bet that they use that look against Clemson. I must admit, seeing Marshall standing up at end looked strange.
Other than what has already been said I noticed that the 2nd team O lined up in an I formation and shifted to the Pistol. I like that because I think it will keep opposing D's off-balanced and guessing(when have we been able to say that?).
Also I noticed Zack McCray playing DT the whole scrimmage.
Michael Holmes is a patient runner and has good vision. He's not the fastest runner but I believe he will get positive yardage whenever he touches the ball.
I like the way Trey Edmunds runs the ball but I still would rather have him at LB. I don't believe it's necessary to play him at RB when you have three RBs ahead of him on the depth chart and also Drew Harris coming in next year with another RB (and possibly more) coming in 2014. Go ahead and let him start learning LB now.
I concur that the D play was not really impressive but I did notice a little later on in the scrimmage the 1st team DL was getting a lot of penetration against the 2nd team OL.
I'm concerned that if teams stretch the field against us with speedy WR's(i.e., Sammy Watkins) our DB's won't be able to keep up with them. French I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
I agree. Speed on defense is an all around concern. They are as big as I can remember up front, but with Taylor, Tyler, and JGW at linebacker, this is not a fast front seven, and we saw what Watkins did to Bonner last year.
I'm going to try not to repeat French's solid assessment, but here are some things that struck me during the scrimmage:
- Asante touched the ball on the first three plays of the scrimmage; hitch-and-go, screen, and sweep in successive order I believe? He appeared very quick and had a knack for finding space. As people have said already, it was very clear that they are looking to get him involved in some way or another. The thing that struck my brother-in-law and I was how shaky he looked receiving the ball. On at least two occasions he let the ball get in on him, trying to catch it against his body rather than using his hands to bring it in (one of which was during the passing drill prior to the scrimmage, where it banged off his chest on a simple stopping route). I believe the word we used for Asante was an "adventure."
- Coles is still clearly bothered by the knee. The last few days we've been hearing how he is progressing and doing much better, with a lot of talk being about how he has been in a sleeve rather than a brace. He was out there catching balls in the practice session, but his running looked labored and he was very tenuous in his cuts. It made me a little worried about how far away he is, but who really knows...
- JC Coleman looks much better with the extra weight. He was much more patient and hit the holes with good burst.
- Stanford was as advertised...not much seemed to go his way, but I watched him on a number of plays and he looked smooth in all of his actions.
- Trey Edmunds is a big, powerful guy. What really caught my attention was how long his strides are when he is running with the ball. He gets upfield quickly, but I would like to see him run with his legs underneath him more in traffic. Also, can someone please get him to tuck the ball, he carries the thing like a loaf of bread.
- Leal didn't inspire a ton of confidence in me today. He had a number of moments where the pocket would collapse on him and he would continually throw the ball off of his back foot. He got away with it on some of the deep passes where he needed to put a little air under the ball (e.g. the Fuller TD I believe), but he missed his spots a lot, especially over the middle, a number of which could have been picked.
- RVD looked like he might kill someone on the field. He was solid in pass coverage and I honestly thought he would have taken off Dyrell's head as he was pushed out of bounds (on what would have been a late hit), but luckily Dyrell spun away at the last minute. The dude's motor is incredible.
- Manning got chewed out a couple of different times by both Torrian and Bud for missed assignments. I didn't spend a ton of time watching the secondary as I wish I had, but he was the one guy the coaching staff was get into (which isn't necessarily a bad thing).
- One last comment; I liked the (limited) things I saw from Holmes. Very patient, let things manifest themselves and then made the read. He doesn't look spectacular, but he looks like a good anchor, which is something we're going to need this year out of our talented but inexperienced backfield.
Boy, it was tough to keep everything in frame when they went at that pace. Great insights here. Asante does let the ball get to his body a bit. At the same time, he was so sharp in his route running that he stayed open. The little in route that he caught going towards the north endzone was pretty. Logan actually threw it behind him just a bit. If he didn't have to pause slightly to pull in the pass, he would have come close to scoring.
We all commented that Holmes doesn't look impressive, and then you would look at the sticks and he got 4-7 yards. I was suprised that he only got three carries, but each run was effective and the first man never brought him down.
Edumunds didn't get to the endzone, but if this was the old Hokies, I think he would be the workhorse. He had small holes, and always seemed to make the right cut. I kept thinking "Lee Suggs, Lee Suggs, Lee Suggs" but more in between the tackles. At the same time, he didn't get one snap with the offense in any of the "new formations." I have to assume that he has struggled with some of the nuances of the spread/pistol.
I am glad to see that RVD's numbers and the observations of other Key Play posters and beat writers bears out what I thought of his performance. With the lack of depth in the secondary, the Hokies need the whip to be a solid cover guy. RVD looked terrific in coverage, and at the same time, it looked effortless. Yet, at the same time, he was around the ball more than the #2 backers and mikes in run support, and when he hits, you can feel it in the stadium. He needs to see the field, and soon.
I wish I could say more about Bonner and Jarrett, but I really lost them in the shuffle. I wish I could be there Wednesday to focus more on them.
Left this out... Fuller blocked a kick, not a punt (read notes wrong.)
Also, Alston Smith made a nice tackle for a loss during 3rd on 3rds. Given how little productivity there was from the tackle spots, that was nice to see. Matt Arkema struggled against Kris Harley some as well, but I didn't catch Harley making a dynamic play.
did Corey Fuller go over the middle at all?
Kyle Fuller's almost INT covering Corey was on an inside curl at the hash mark. The first team stayed away from throwing over the middle for the most part. There were some sharp curl routes, screens, and a bunch of seam routes from the slot receivers. The Fuller TD was on a beautiful post corner.
Malleck's catch was on a bootleg. He caught it in the middle, but he was moving to the side line. The only intermediate route over the middle was a 10-13 yard route by Randall Dunn from Leal.
? about OL
seems VT OL have to block man power and a lot of zone. How does adding the Pistol change the blocking scheme? for the good, better or indifferent?
Beer Control, That is a great
Beer Control,
That is a great question, and it is a little tough to answer. Watching with a sideline view always muddles things when I watch in person, so please take this with a grain of salt.
The 1st team offense ran about 70% of their plays from the pistol or the shotgun, with additional plays coming from an I with twins. The first team did not run from the I. It appeared that, while they ran plays from the pistol, the plays looked very similar to their offense from the ace set when Mike Imoh and Cedric Humes were the tailbacks. The motion not only served as an option, but forced the potential backside pursuit to respect the potential for a rocket or a jet sweep and the quarterback bootleg going the other way. Up front, it looked like hat on hat on most plays, with the tight end (Malleck) who was flexed back to an H back pulling and kicking out. They also used Joey Phillips on those cross blocks, flexed from a pistol offset I formation.
The back behind Logan (mostly Holmes) got very few touches, so it was difficult to tell how much the staff wants to establish the dive (which I think is critical to make everything else work.) However, on a wider Holmes run, Painter, Benedict, and Andrew Miller all pulled like an old Green Bay power sweep and made three outstanding blocks, with Miller really looking impressive. Unfortunately it was called back on a holding penalty.
Joe noted how absolutely freakish Vinston Painter is, but another real standout is Brent Benedict. He dominated the inside and was excellent on pass protection, and it was very clear that reports of him losing 30 pounds were not exagerated. He was massive and top heavy in the spring, but he looks like a completely different person now. I am really excited about the right side of the offensive line, and I saw no reason to be down on Becton, Wang, and Miller.
Oh, and it is worth noting that the JC Coleman 50+ yard run was the #2 offensive line against the defensive starters. Kyle Fuller was put on his behind by a Coleman spin move, but the play was also well blocked, with Laurence Gibson pulling and kicking out, with Via, Martin, and Dunn (on Tyler) delivering great down blocks.
Everything from the I and one back sets from the 2's and 3's was quick hitting, even from the deep I. The days of the slow developing spring draws and wide runs may be a thing of the past.
In addition to what French said, I really like the more athletic line blocking out of the pistol sets. These guys don't lumber, and they really moved well in space. The quick hitting plays really played to their strengths.
If Painter is Batman, Benedict is Bane.
Banedict
All of the Fuller's
And I thought I was the only one who went to Texas Roadhouse. Love that place! Great stuff, guys!
Just wanted to share my favorite part of the scrimmage: Corey Fuller makes a nice catch, then the next play, Kyle Fuller makes a mean tackle. Then, somebody told me this crazy rumor that there is a Kendall Fuller coming to VT next year! Cray.
Just watched the video highlights of the scrimmage on www.Hokiesports.com/football and the Tony Gregory touchdown run really stands out grabbing my attention.
The play starts out in a one back formation, with a tight end right and a second tight end lined up at H back just behind him. The flanker is also to the same side. This formation was the Hokies bread and butter for running their stretch play and the zone play to the strong side last year.
On this play, they motioned the flanker and faked a jet sweep to him (Marcus Davis) while Gregory moves to the same spot where he would get the hand off on a stretch play. Logan fakes the jet sweep, then counter option pitches to Gregory. The two tight ends block down, and Painter pulls to kick out the outside linebacker, while Andrew Miller pulls and leads up through the hole and kicks out the corner. Martin and Malleck both had nice lead blocks. It is a thing of beauty.
(Also, note that the whip of the future RVD almost chased Gregory down from behind after blitzing from the opposite side of the field.)
For those who are interested, the plays at 19 seconds and 26 seconds were both great examples of how the Hokie offense lined up and what kind of movement they exhibited.
The video is at http://www.hokiesports.com/football/ . You must scroll down and click on the box on the left labeled "latest video."
Corey Marshall
Please watch Corey Marshall run with JC Coleman on the big play. While the attempt at knocking JC down could have been better, the kid is an athlete.
At the scrimmage, I yelled about his hustle. He tried valiantly to punch the ball out. He also got the only pure 4 man pass rush sack that I saw from the 1's or 2's.
Fair point
About him trying to punch the ball out. Actually very smart with tackling help there. I'm blaming a hangover.
michael holmes
he honestly kind of reminds me of darren evans in the way that he runs, has obvious power to where if a secondary player tries to tackle him without squaring up hes going to run over them, hes not the fastest, strongest, or quickest back, but hes always moving forward and will be a consistent force out of the backfield
I don't even know what that means
My brain simply cannot process or comprehend these words "Dudes, this offensive line is pretty good." That just doesn't make sense to me. Is it in English?
I've been saying it since summer workouts in 2008... Vinston Painter is a fucking monster. Pictures don't even do him justice. I'm glad he's finally coming into his own.
Hope y'all ate 6 pounds of cinnamon butter.
It was the first time in my life I couldn't finish a steak. Damn you, Sub Station II and your delayed filling.
The four new starters on oline have been my biggest concern all summer. Hearing that from French makes me feel much better but I wonder how much of it was the D's less than stellar outing.
GT has an experienced and talented front 7 who you better believe will be ready to play come Labor Day.
Is it safe to say that what you all saw on Saturday was a radical change in offensive philosophy? We kept hearing about the pistol during the off-season, but it sounds like we took a page out of Clemson's playbook and are trying to run more and more plays per game...how is this going to impact our rushing and clock management strategy?
I think it is safe to say that they have clearly adopted a new philosophy. Even the 3rd team, which played much more from the traditional formations that we are used to seeing, still ran quick hitting running plays on the interior rather than the slow developing zone right/left, sprint draw stuff that we have grown accustomed to.
While there were SOME elements of Clemson's offense (the flexed tight end being the most similar), it doesn't look anything like Clemson. Imagine the 2004 offense, except lined up in 3 wide, with the QB away from the center. The purpose of the motion at the snap is to keep the backside pursuit from filling the lane. After the next scrimmage, we will draw up some play diagrams to show how some of this looks.
The only downside of it is that I think all the footwork fundamentals required for this offense may not play to LT3's strengths as a runner.
To give folks some idea, this video shows a play we saw a couple of times, the off tackle power. VT added a motion guy, who got a fake from Thomas on a jet/rocket sweep after he already handed the ball to the running back.
http://youtu.be/m3vf8cZmkgI
We saw some counter option as well, but for VT and Logan Thomas to really make this offense go, I think they must establish the read option. The counter stuff worked well, but it was slow developing. We did not see the straight read option one time in the scrimmage.
http://youtu.be/-rSsd5ZlNuI This has Logan moving more towards the line, with a singular read. This has much more big play potential and sets up play action even better than the power plays from the pistol. Still, I like the single wing style run better, and we KNOW it works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1RsQCvvhuU
We probably didn't run any regular read option because of the whole yellow jersey touch him and he's down stuff.
Also just another observation: our pistol formation looks a lot more crammed than theirs. Our back was usually 2-3 yards behind Logan. Nevada looks like it's 4 yards.
agreed. splits are not as wide either.
I know they keep saying they met with the former Boise/current Texas OC in Austin, but I don't remember Boise or Texas running this offense. Am I on crazy pills?
no, not at all
boise ran a lot of pro set / college west coast stuff.
I think the biggest takeaway from Bryan Harsin (Texas coach formerly the offensive coordinator QBs coach at Boise) was pace of play, and how to manage it, mechanics of getting in and out of the huddle effectively, etc...
No.
This.
Is this perhaps the direction that the offense is headed?
Interesting read @ grantland
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8287610/packaged-plays-rethinking-co...
I like that kind of system because it takes the coaches out of it and puts the quarterback in charge (the field general of yesteryear.) However, I don't think that this is quite where the Hokies are at right now.
On the base pistol set that I saw, it gives the Hokies 4 options on the same basic play movement. The tight end pulls on the play, and Logan can either give on the read option for an interior or an outside dive to the tailback; or he can keep and follow the tailback after a fake, which emulates a veer "double dive;" or he can fake to the tailback and hit the tight end, who goes to the short flat on play action.
The Hokies didn't run any screens or straight pass pro from the pistol. All the screens came out of the I formation with twins, and all the passing from the pistol came on play action.