I don't have time to make a huge initial post, but I thought today's coordinator media availability was worthy of a thread.
A few tidbits that I found worrisome from Corn (at least from perusing the tweets):
1) We're thin at tackle (freshmen will be getting reps);
2) Burmeister is the clear number 1 at the moment (this was obvious, but the acknowledgment is unique);
3) We need him to bulk up in the offseason for durability; and
4) We are not looking to add any more depth at the QB spot.
So, we seem content to enter the season with a single established QB, with acknowledged durability issues, and a lack of depth at tackle to protect him. My goodness, we better hope the kid takes summer workouts seriously and has some better luck with the injury bug this year. Otherwise, we are choosing between Kadum, a freshman, and an athlete who has not played QB in several years. I'm not trying to be overly negative (I think many of these guys have potential), but with us virtually leading the country for QB runs by non-option teams, this has me very concerned.
Comments
Feels like we haven't seen anything remotely close to this since Fuente's first season here. Going to be interesting to see (1) how no competition affects BB's psyche and (2) if/how extra 1st team snaps help offensive continuity.
considering that was the best year we've had under Fuente, maybe this bodes well?
FTFY
considering that was the
best yearfirst year we've had under Fuente, maybe this bodes well?was last year Year One or is this year? I forget
I'm pretty sure 2020 was "technically" year one but because of Covid 2021 will be "actually" year one. And if Burmeister gets hurt and we don't have a QB then 2022 will be "for real" year one.
Don't forget to carry the one...common mathematical mistake!
So does that mean if Fuente gets fired after this coming season, he'd have been fired before his tenure had "actually" begun? Seems unfair, maybe Fuente knows what he's doing with this Year One stuff after all.
This just tells me that BB will be transferring before the season starts...
I'd feel better about this if A. Burm wasn't a featherweight and B. he hadn't needed months off for injury because an offensive linemen stepped on his toe.
Buckle up for the Knox show.
Edit: for clarity, not criticizing the injury - just pointing out that Burm is not big enough to withstand expected or unexpected injuries at the QB position, as we saw with Brewer at the same size
Dude you try to break multiple toes and then play quarterback at the D1 level.
Yeah broken toes are no joke for a quarterback. Can't plant or set their foot properly.
I couldn't play football with 20 good toes. I'm not criticizing needing the downtime - rather, pointing out that he was sidelined for an extended period for a comically tragic injury (his own OL stepping on his foot), and the real concerns of a guy his size being able to withstand the typical and atypical beatings he will take for a full season.
Brewer was the same size and height, if I recall, and we saw what happened with his injury history. Now make a guy like Brewer carry the ball 15-20 times a game, and I think it lines up for disaster.
So...how many feet do you have?
Does Nike make a steel toe cleat?
Would go well with hard hat mentality
I still fully expect Fuente to say there's an open competition for the starting job in the summer.
Let's hope Devin Taylor has a breakthrough year. Having a season in the defense, plus spring ball, might be the difference. Jenkins seems like the odd man out right now, though, undeservedly. He looked good against NC St.
where was the interview posted?
edit: found it. they just posted it a little while after the interview was complete
edit edit: added new links as original videos were removed
Cornelson Interview
Hamilton Interview
Those videos have been removed...apparently. At least, that's what my internet tells me
Optimists only access.
This is becoming pretty dumb.
Sort of like "year one" jabs.
I think I've been pretty consistent about moderating both sides of the fence. I don't think poking another TKPer — whether it's a glass half full or empty perspective — helps moves the conversation or creates a discussion. It makes for contention.
I dont know... I feel "noise" is incredibly loosely defined. Year one comments should absolutely count as noise but never get moderated and are prominently posted by at least one mod... people who point out overly pessimistic posters are way more likely to get called out based on what I've seen and "noise" is enforced and defined very selectively. I also know people who disagree with you are often shown the door, so this will be the extent of my commenting.
there's a big difference between "overly pessimistic" and "Those videos have been removed...apparently. At least, that's what my internet tells me"
nobody really calls folks out for pointing out "overly pessimistic" views but it starts to get ridiculous when vaguely pessimistic views are hounded as pessimism.
i tend to think i'm pretty in-the-middle on things around here. i don't know if a single "year one" comment (made yesterday) really counts as me "prominently posting" that mindset. but it did get memed by the fanbase, so i guess it counts as noise. thanks for the feedback
"Year one" jabs are completely different. Attacking me with pessimism comments are personal attacks. Joking about "year one" is making fun of a silly comment made by the athletic director. We're not attacking Whit's character by making fun of something he said.
Both are becoming pretty dumb. I didn't say they were dumb for the same reason. Neither is funny. Neither is going to inspire conversation.
yeah, I'm not going to debate with you about how dumb "year one" jokes are but they're not against the CGs. Personal attacks are very much against the CGs. Personally, I think Joe is taking it kind of easy on Hokie Hounds regardless of how dumb it is. There are lots of jokes and tropes on TKP that don't necessarily inspire conversation. Many of them are tired and dumb but not many people complain about them.
No debate. One is personal and one is what I would consider noise, which is indeed against CG although I admit it is subjective. As far as Hokie Hounds comment, I think it was an attempt at humor and one might not consider that an attack if one assumes your banner is inviting discussion regarding optimism and pessimism. Go hokies. I won't speak anymore on the matter.
I think it's fair to say both are attempts at humor. One is personal. One is arguably noise. Whether or not it is funny really is up to the reader. Some folks are going to find one funny and the other one not. Or both. Or neither.
via GIPHY
Agreed. Both attempts at humor were funny once and now not so much. 🤷
posted the updated links, I think the original videos cut the interviews short a little
Sorta fits in this discussion. ACCN radio did their 2020 VT Season in Review.
At least one segment ended up about media relations of the VT football program and about how there are 2 programs in the ACC that those ACCN shows don't get the head coaches - Clemson (Dabo has an exclusive with Packer's afternoon show on ESPNU) and VT.
The VT representative for this 2020 Season in Review recap - TE James Mitchell. Awesome opportunity for James, and he did a great job but it definitely becomes a different interview than discussion team outlook/state of the program with a coach.
One thing that bothers me is that I feel like Tre and Tavion are going to be wasting their last years here with Burmeister..i'm going to take a wait and see approach, but i just dont feel like Burm is accurate, throwing the ball down the field
I mean, it's not like HH or QP were particularly accurate either.
I think that's very fair to say about QP isn't very accurate, but Hooker threw 162 and 150 passes in the last two seasons and completed 61% and 65% in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Burmeister completed 56.5%. While completion percentage doesn't perfectly capture accuracy because of drops and PBU's, etc. (I wish we had something like SECStatCat for following the deep QB stats for our QB's but if it's available somewhere I haven't found it) I still think it's safe to say that based on what we've seen there is a difference in accuracy between Hooker and Burmeister.
with the single exception of the Clemson Game, I thought the offense just looked more dangerous and potent with Hooker at QB than Burmeister. I don't think Burmeister is a clearly better QB than Hooker. It's disappointing to me that we haven't been able to find a good QB since Evans. Whether or not you think it's poor coaching, poor evaluations, poor recruiting efforts, or just lack of execution from the players themselves, it's a pretty serious problem for our program that we're going into the 5th year without Evans and still don't have a QB to get excited about. There are obviously very different opinions about the root cause but I don't think anyone would argue that we don't have a QB problem in Blacksburg.
I guess I agree. I think HH is slightly better than BB, but I don't think the difference in ability is enough to make a significant difference in the W/L record.
STRONG AGREE
Hooker had a shotgun arm.. the ball would wind up in the general area of where it needed to go. And that worked when Cornelsen could scheme a receiver wide open, but even then he'd rarely hit the WR in stride. Accuracy aside, his main weakness was that he had limited ability to make multiple reads in the passing game.. either because he lacked confidence/ability throwing into tight windows or just couldn't process the defense quickly enough, it seemed like he would lock in and wait for his primary target to get wide open instead of looking off to other options. A positive side effect of that was few turnovers, because he rarely forced a pass, but it also left a lot of 1st downs & TD's on the field.
Burmeister doesn't have the arm strength of Hooker but he showed more precision in the Clemson & UVA games and a better ability to work through multiple reads. Ultimately he's not going to throw a receiver open 40 yards down field or fit really tight windows but if he can continue to work through progressions and find the open guy on passing downs he's going to be more effective than Hooker.
I'm in no way arguing that Hooker was operating a functioning drop back passing game, but at this point there is nothing I've seen to suggest that Burmeister will be better than what we got from Hooker the last two seasons. A look at their sports reference pages tells a very clear story about what they've been to this point in their careers. I have no idea what went down in and around that Clemson game, but I do not have high expectations for Burmeister developing significantly as a QB this upcoming season. I hope I am wrong, and will root for him to improve over the offseason, but I don't think there is substantive evidence to point to that suggests we will see a sudden and substantial increase developmentally from him at this point in his career.
In you're opinion, is there anything to suggest that BB will be significantly (or at least noticeably) worse than what we got from Hooker the last two seasons?
I think this is a fair question. The overall point, though, isn't that QB A is better or worse than QB B; it's that none of our QBs are really P5 caliber starters capable of punishing a defense with their arms. I know you already know this but I wanted to point out that we're talking about the best bad option right now. There are no good options and that is the real problem.
I think his career stats tell the story of a QB who is not P5 level as a passer, while stats don't tell the whole story, there is usually something there when the stats are awful.
Strictly off observation of his play on the field I do not see a strong arm or consistent accuracy, particularly outside the hashes. The arguments over him being better than Hooker stem from the bizarro Clemson game, where imo neither QB played particularly well and we got blown out, and one "good" game against UVA. Hooker had plenty of performances last year that were equivalent or better than Burmeister's one game against UVA. In the earlier games as a starter (3 games to start the season) he did not look like an effective passer at all.
I'm not trying to be overly negative about this, and I'm trying to be as fair objective as possible (it isn't possible), but I'm struggling to find anything beyond the hope of VT fans (which I don't hold against anyone) that suggests he will be a good QB for us. Though "good" is a moving target and subject to an individual's interpretation.
Summarizes the trajectory of the program as whole right now. There's almost nothing 'proven' to be good on this team. If this team/program excels, it's because there's talent (be it on the coaching staff or in the locker room) that no one knows about yet. Unfortunately, there tends to not be many secrets in college football these days.
I think the one area where there is a chance to see some substantial improvement, without reaching, is the defense. We return a lot of key pieces, and added some crucial transfers in Daley and Jordan Williams. Most important to this thought is the assumption that we will get spring practice. Having a defensive install exclusively in the Fall, and the most interrupted and irregular fall practice in our team's history at that, was always going to be an unenviable task. Then you factor in that our defense was missing our two elite/high end corners almost all season. I don't think we will be fielding an elite defense next season, but I do believe there is hope we will field a more consistent unit.
I totally agree that there is cause for optimism on defense, but JHam is at best unproven.
Crossing my fingers and toes that guys like BB and King (any plenty of others) have a monster off season with workouts at the very least (skill increase would be great, too, but perhaps more difficult). Would love to see some of these guys bulk up to the size/weight needed to withstand the entire season a little better
If the play is drawn up perfectly and the first read is open, I think Hooker is better. If the play breaks down due to progressing to other reads or a pass rush, I think BB is the better quarterback. BB may in fact be more accurate but has less velocity on throws. Hooker is better as a runner if it is a short yardage run down and BB is the better runner in open field. BB can feel his hands in cold weather apparently better than HH. I believe I would rather have BB in a situation where I need a final drive to win because he can get through progressions and extend plays.
Regardless of the QB, those guys will have to improve their route running and ability to create separation if they want to play professionally. If they can consistently get open without the schemed misdirection of the playcall, I think our QBs might suddenly look better