I am in the midst of a bunch of travel this week, but I had a little while to watch East Carolina. Here is what to expect.
1) ECU runs the same 3-4 with a cocked nose that we have seen in past Pirate iterations. Their outside linebackers can either put a hand down and play DE in a four man front or stand up and be an edge player. I really like their nose tackle #56 (former Ocean Lakes prospect Demetri McGill.) McGill is a big body and he keeps his feet moving to slide off blocks. He slants and creates confusion. ECU relies heavily on bodies moving around to confuse the offensive line and McGill is the catalyst in confusing centers. H
Early against South Carolina, the Pirates really struggled against the zone read. On the Gamecocks first touchdown, OLB Kiante Anderson #96 crashed hard on the tailback dive. #22 Terrell Richardson was scrape exchanging and had the quarterback on the keeper. He overran the play wide, and the South Carolina QB walked into the end zone. On the next Gamecock touchdown, Anderson was off the line of scrimmage and playing wide, yet both he and the defensive end both crashed hard on the dive. The quarterback again walked in with ease. Given how Fuente cross-keys the linebackers, Evans could have a big day running the ball.
2) Quarterback Phillip Nelson was really careless with the football in the redzone. Three of the five ECU turnovers came inside the 20 yard line. The first was egregious. The Pirates ran a rub route, with the outside receiver running a slant and the slot running a corner route. The slant was open, but Nelson threw the corner route. He underthrew it badly. The second INT was a curl route at the right pylon. Against tight coverage, that throw needs to be well to the outside so the receiver catches it or the throw is out of bounds. He underthrew the ball short and to the inside and the Gamecocks corner picked it off.
In the passing game, the offense is a mix of Duke last year and ECU. I saw a ton of rub routes against man coverage like ECU has traditionally done. I also so screens, quick levels passes, and quick stop routes like we saw from Duke. Duke's running game is better, and ECU resorted to using James Summers (our tormentor from last season) back as a wildcat QB to sustain some running game.
I like VT in this game. It will be a big test for the offensive line and our secondary- match ups that ECU has won the last two seasons.
Comments
From what I hear, ECU was incredibly careless with the ball against NCSU as well, its just that the Pack couldn't make them pay for it.
If they continue those ways against, us, it'll be a very long afternoon for the purple pirates
BC was probably saying this about us before last saturday. Just sayin.
well then its good we cleaned it up, huh?
its 2016 boys and girls.... Fuente y Foster
i'm just sayin... y'all be underestimating the pace and permanence of the change
but thats ok it will make our ECU friendships better now that they know there is no sense in talking smack about football to VaTech grads
State dropped 3 sure ints, including 1 that would've been a pick six easy by their inside LB. They also missed two FGs and ran a fake FG on 4th and 1 and didn't convert. ECU more or less was handed that game and should be 1 and 2.
Tech needs to do what they did last week - don't shoot themselves in the foot with turnovers and penalties and this will be a solid win.
I just hope we can capitalize on these mistakes. I think forsure the BC game was a one off circumstance where we had maybe 3 or 4 dropped INTS 2 or 3 of which ended up in completions for 1st downs, that is absolutely back braking in a close game which hopefully this wont be.
Have another, I'll buy.
EastEastern CarolinaFTFY
French do you have a youtube link to watch the ECU South Carolina game?
I'm not French, but here you go
Click this
Thanks!
ECU offense https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NOUKWyvT_IQ
For D I relied on highlights.
Thanks
USC O vs ECU D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUmB5vxHtkI
Thanks for the video. Some careless throws there.
Indeed. When not in the red zone, they moved the ball extremely well.
Going to be a tough task for the Hokie D.
Good nose tackle you say...?
Pls no
Terry Williams still haunts my dreams
... and those of most ECU area all you can eat buffets.
That was a hell of a day for him.
Didn't help that Stiney thought the best way to beat him was to tire him out tackling our rb every play.
Hahaha!
Stiney: Hmmm. That big guy is really killing us. Let's make him run six yards into the backfield to tackle our running backs every play. Then, by the fourth quarter, he will be tired....yes...yes.
Great stuff. Safe travels!
Delayed now for Newburgh to Philly. If we miss the connection I am renting a car and driving home
That's absolutely no fun, best of luck to you making your connection.
I just want to Boston College the shit out of East Carolina this weekend.
I am intrigued by the concept of using past victories as verbs in the era of Bud Fu.
i like it but perhaps Addazio instead of Boston College? I dunno I honestly go back and forth. Addazio flows better but I'm not sure most casual sports fans even know who he is. Howbou Leoffler? Mispelled even? Thats a little mean.
BoCo? as in, "we really BoCo'd LOLUVa in Lane North"
Actually I like the use of the whole name. No ambiguity, and it's easily understandable to both people who know football, but also to those who don't.
You know them. You've got to remember, they are simple people. Dwellers of their own airy minds. The uncommon cheese on a busy hors d'oeuvres platter.
You know...
Bud Fu - I like it! Very ninja-like.
Just when you least expect it, BAM! Bud Fu hits you with a roundhouse kick to the gut in the form of a 70 touchdown pass to Ford followed by a Tim Settle manbearpig sack/strip/fumble recovery/score uppercut to leave you dazed and praying that Sam Rogers isn't coming in on the next offensive series.
I can't rightly claim it. I don't know who first said it, but I picked it up from another TKP thread.
The Origins of Bud-Fu
http://www.thekeyplay.com/virginia-tech-football/2016/09/12697/hokies-get-doughnut-defense-offense-breaks-out-big-way-blank
Very well done coining the term/name Bud Fu, Lil Flip! I like it!
Didn't coin it, that honor goes to Brockman_148. Right up there, with Dragon for Tmac
Pretty sure I ran into some Bud Fu while cruising Chinatown in Amsterdam on Chinese New Years back in '72, but I may have been a little confused that night.
It is said that the secret to all of Chuck Norris's powers is his understanding of Bud-Fu. However, even he is not a true master yet. The true home of the art lies in Blacksburg, and the secrets are heavily guarded.
But only on the left side, and, even then, only when he's shown up at practice. Otherwise, Petit guards them and that's kind of like using 1-2-3-4 on your luggage to keep it safe.
If they over pursue in a 3-4; I can easily see us showing middle and using our speed to the outside.
ECU plays a spread and did have some nice plays. For us, we don't want any kind of let down. Like last year, we were winning, and scored enough points but could not stop their running QB, we need to change that by honing on their skill players. I say we play assignment football on D and secure the ball on Offense and we get this win.
yeah, well um... some bad sh** about to go down and it has nothing to do with the past... and of course everything to do with the folks who laid the groundwork
This is the only year other than 2007 and 2008 that I have ever looked forward to this game. I am so tired of these guys. Defense is much improved this year and the offense looks nearly unstoppable when they aren't stopping themselves. I want to beat them in the ground, run up the score, and make sure they know they are never winning another game against Virginia Tech again. ECU is amped for the Tech game every year, and the last two we gave them every reason to be. I want them to return to the little sister status, realize they don't belong in a P5 conference, and move on with the rest of the season.
Rant over.
I like the sound of "little sister pirates".
Yeah, let's get back to that already.
Mission accomplished.
Dude I am just hoping for any win. Even in the tyrod years the pirates were a tough out. I wanna say we played them on a Thursday night in 09 and won like 13-3. And in 2010 we were 0-2 going against them and they were leading in the second quarter before we managed to pull away and then rattle off 11 straight.
I have no memories of ever dominating them and would love for that to change, but really any kind of win will be awesome
ECU is always a tough game. Just hoping for another competitive game with us playing well in all 3 phases and limiting mistakes. This will be a good test for us heading into the UNC game. Coming out 3-1 would be huge.
Didn't you say that you played at ECU? Do you still root for Tech over ECU? If so, why? You don't have to answer but I think it's interesting.
I'm not asking to be a dick or disrespectful, just genuinely curious.
Deleted due to lack of reading comprehension.
Grew up in VA, enrolled at VT before taking a year off (graduated as I just turned 17 and wasn't ready for college) and family moved to north Carolina so lost in-state tuition. Kept in touch with coaches at ECU and walked-on. Never played and had 2 knee surgeries out of it, but did have 3 years on the track and field team. Ended up graduating from NC State, so it's a complex fan/cheering situation between the 3 teams but VT has always been my preferred school.
Gotcha. I figured there was a story behind it. I've always wondered about former athlete's cheering interests after graduating. I know there have been guys that loved Tech but played elsewhere and wondered who they cheered for. Or guys like Reavis who had to leave but still (seemly) strongly support the team.
It's a tough game because this is their Super Bowl, but to us it's a game that we'd rather not have to deal with because it's boring as f***.
I imagine if they make the AAC championship playing a top-5 ranked Houston, that will be their Super bowl. But your point remains, that they are not playing Temple/UCF.
Believe me we are not considered their super bowl and haven't been for a while.
But they are still strongly motivated since a large number of them wanted offers from VT, but didn't get one. Same way they feel about UNC and NCSU.
Watching some of the tape it looks like their QB is good but makes a few too many poor decisions. I think if we keep the ball in front of us to let them dink and dunk down the field with good tackling, eventually he'll get confused by a coverage and make a mistake.
Shame we play them every year. It would be cool to mix in some other AAC teams like Navy or Temple or the Florida schools
Hope we are much better prepared for the jump ball/lollipop throws than we have been the last two years. I'm hoping we play a lot more zone and they aren't as prepared for that.
I'm sure they're expecting to see more zone. What I don't know is how much that will matter...
True. Seeing any zone would technically be more than they are used to.
Yep.... outside receiver slant, slot fades to the outside over and over and over and over and over...
Just re-watched the majority of the snaps from the last two years against ECU. My quick hits: Thank god they graduated Terrible Terry Williams and a couple of those receivers. Our offense was not good against ECU and neither was our defense. Offensive plays took too long and there was too much room for decision making errors (Brewer was a true grit player but half of the crazy good plays he made were required due to the crazy bad plays he made just prior). Our defense was playing all man and loading the box on a team that doesn't run much and spreads it out, it just seemed like a recipe for disaster. Its amazing how different our offense is watching these games compared to last week. I don't want to get my hopes up because this ECU team is scary talented and they know their identity well but from the last couple weeks, I see a totally different VT team on both sides of the ball.
I also have to say I don't really know for sure what we've got in this year's squad. The first week was obviously a vanilla gameplan. Against UT, we let the moment get to us a little and mental mistakes cost the game against a suspect opponent (honestly anyone could have beaten us with those choice turnovers). BC seems too much like a fluke at this point. Hopefully we will get another shut down performance but I'm not quite ready to jump back on the hype train.
If you get a chance, watch the post game from Muschamp and then watch the some of the actual game. It made me feel like we are more than equipped to handle the situation.
SEC fans should be thankful that USCe didn't have the stones to hire Petrino and ended up with Muschamp.
That won't happen again, the way Petrino is going, he can choose between Auburn and LSU this offseason.
I would think he would stay at Louisville but who knows what kind of money those two would be willing to throw around.
It's certainly possible. But I think Petrino realizes right now that he can win and win big at Louisville and probably has an easier path to the playoffs in the ACC Atlantic than he would in the SEC West. The paycheck might be smaller but he's playing with Papa Johns money and that athletic department is incredibly profitable so he might be able to make just about as much at Louisville.
The man is slime, but he has proven he can coach. He has won everywhere he has been (College). But he has also proven he will leave for the greener pasture in a heartbeat. If he leaves again, I don't think Louisville will give him a third shot.
Louisville has plenty of money to keep paying him. Easier path to conference championship and maybe playoffs.
Auburn fans are convinced that they will be getting Herman.
Remember when that was USCe? That was funny.
Now it LSU fans (well, after they are ask what happens when Jimbo won't leave FSU?).
I think we roll. I think our zone secondary is able to prevent them from scoring points. I think we hold on to the ball and thump them when we are on offense.
I find it interesting that USCe scored on their first 3 drives (17 points), stalled and didn't score again until there was 6 minutes left in the game.
Do you think it was because ECU made major adjustments, USCe took their foot off the gas, or a mixture of the two? Their defense looks pretty stout or is USCe pretty bad?
Well consider the head coach for SCAR. And then think about the offensive performance of that head coach at his last HC gig. Then breathe a little sigh of relief
This. Muschamp is such a great defensive mind that he kills the offense of any team he coaches.
Agreed. Isn't their QB a true Freshman? ECU has a good defense and it will be a challenge. We have better rbs than USCe and a better O overall. Our D needs to make a statement. THill needs to be a steady force when he is in and not give up containment. I still feel good about this game compared to last year.
For the first time in a decade, at least, I'm NOT worried about ECU!! GOD THIS FEELS GREAT!