By: tjbhokieon April 6, 2021, 9:55 AM | 74 comments
Not trying to create noise, I just need a shot of optimism into my arm from the Patts. I'd love to hear what people are highest on going into this season.
An actual offseason. Time in the weight room, live reps, etc. It's not something fully virtual or where we would be depending on each and every player to hold up their end of the bargain.
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Better Defense. The offense may be better as well if the qb can stay healthy. But, if the defense can take two steps forward while the offense only takes a half a step back, we should see a significantly more competitive team on the field. FANS IN THE STANDS!
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*cue the curmudgeons saying we'll never attend a football game ever again*
Came here to say the same thing. Got my first cootie shot yesterday (I was a big boy and didn't cry when I got poked...but my arm is sore as shit), so I'm itching to get out and get loud this fall.
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I got my second last week. I was on my ass for all of the next day with fever, chills, and a little nausea. Best of luck to you. Hopefully it's not that bad.
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From those I have been around, the side effects are random and can range from a little soreness in the arm to dramatic chills about 12 hrs later. I am one down with just normal flu shot like soreness.
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I had Pfizer and about 30 mins after the first shot, my face got flushed and hot for 30-45 mins or so, then sore arm for roughly a day. After the second shot the arm soreness wasn't really prevalent but I did have chills and aches the next day for about 8-12 hours. Never developed a fever though. Seems the side effects are very random.
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When I got my first shot (Pfizer), the doctor told me the side effects are generally worse for younger people. I get my 2nd shot next week and I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
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First Pfizer jab last Wednesday- shot itself painless; injection spot sore from hours 12-35 along with chills and fever of 100-101.6 for hours 18-36; fine by Friday morning with just a tiny bit of residual soreness at injection site. 2nd shot won't be til 04/22 or later. All in all for an Air Force brat who had to get shots in childhood for typhus, typhoid, yellow fever, tuberculosis and smallpox, it wasn't bad.
Main reason I got it was 'cause job "strongly encouraged' it and in case attending games this fall required proof of vaccination or allows me to attend without masks.
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Got my first Moderna a week ago. Through Monday, it was like it had ramped up my pollen allergies to 100, but I'm fine now. Very odd.
I hear the 2nd Moderna hits you like a freight train. So much looking forward to that at the end of the month. But you know what, if it removes me from the list of at risk people for this virus, its absolutely worth it.
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I think the Moderna second shot is either a hammer or a whimper. Mom and wife's second shot laid them out flat with worst flu like sympton either said they ever had. Mother in law and her sisters all got second shot and didn't even have the soreness in arm that they got with the first shot.
Did hear at least one doctor say that if you had the big reaction to the second shot, it meant it was probably working better.
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24+ hours later, I woke up feeling more sore in the joints than my aging self usually does. Arm is sore at injection site about the same as the first shot. No other symptoms, just a little achy all over and slightly tired.
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2nd was no big deal for me at all...a little achy...took 2 tylenol and was good to go
first moderna was so high up on my shoulder it irritated/inflamed the tendon (pain shot down my arm when the needle went in)...soreness and limited ROM for 3 weeks.
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My manager told me it put her head in a fog for about a week, and that's pretty much what happened to me as well. I just chalked it up to allergies, but as I said, I'm fine this morning, and we're fully in the yellow fog of piney doom down here in NC.
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Yeah - my second pfizer caused some soreness, but otherwise was a slightly ramped up version of season allergies. Head in a fog, minor sore throat, little headache, itchy eyes. Lasted about 24 hours. My 21 year old son, who had had COVID with mild symptoms over the summer, got a bad enough sore throat from the J&J to get tested for strep.
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A full spring, a more regular summer schedule for unofficial stuff run by the team leaders, and the defense. I think the DL and LB corps have potential to take a substantial step forward. I still worry about depth at LB, we probably can't afford many injuries at those positions but the 1's are good (and playing in their best positions).
I expect the DL to take a step forward. Adding Jordan Williams to a now veteran group of Senior Dashawn Crawford, Juniors Norell Pollard and Mario Kendricks, and R-Soph Fuga should be the strongest interior DL we have fielded since 2017 by a good margin. Being able to rotate that group should keep everyone fresh. The talent is less than the 2016 rotation, for example, but we have veteran depth a multiple body types/types of players to mix and match with.
The DE line room has also been rebuilt from the tattered ashes of a pretty G5 level situation we were at. Barno and Belmar the likely starters with a lot of bigger bodies with high upside behind them. I'm less confident about this room than the iDL room simply because there is more unknown. Their potential is likely much higher, but there are more reps and experience on the interior. If one or two of Wooten, Beadles, or Bryant step up as major contributors that would be very exciting.
Last year we should have had a great secondary, but after Farley (opt out), Waller (hurt basically all year), and Hunter (kicked off the team) basically didn't play at all our secondary was a patchwork for most of the season. You throw in guys being out for COVID, and we have a situation where we were playing multiple true freshmen and even walk-ons as starters in some games. One of the few silver linings of that situation was the emergence of Dorian Strong as a likely multi-year starter at CB. He got valuable reps and experience and should hopefully benefit from a full offseason of S&C. If we can stay healthier this year, I believe we will see a notable improvement in the secondary. I think getting someone like Tae Daley could pay big dividends on the back end. I'm less certain about our FS spot, but maybe a full offseason playing there will make a world of difference for someone like Devin Taylor. Conner has quietly manned our nickel/nickelwhip spot despite being rather prolific in terms of stats for the last few years. He has been rock solid for us.
So, basically, the short answer is the defense.
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A full offseason (fingers crossed), is the biggest thing by far. I think this defense has a chance to succeed with Ham in charge, but they need to have a chance to really put their system in place and learn it inside and out. Also the full offseason isn't just in terms of practice, but also a full summer of strength and conditioning.
I think Burmeister getting an offseason as "the guy" and getting all those reps will be huge. I think the UVA game showed his capabilities and that's exciting. I'm higher on end then most people on the board probably.
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1) Not going to be playing QB roulette this season. We have a QB1 that the coaching staff gets the entire spring, summer and fall camp to plan around
2) Lot of talent on the first-team offense. Starting offensive line (Tenuda-Smith-Jordan-Hoffman-Clements) is going to be good if the Clements hype is real. Much better depth at WR with Payoute getting back to 100% and Hodge actually having an offseason to learn the offense. Mitchell will be better than he was last year.
3) Having an offseason to break apart the "Bud Foster Triple Option Defense" and actually being able to spend three weeks just teaching the defense. I think Dax moving to MLB is going to make a huge difference. Tisdale getting an offseason to get Hilgated. Getting Waller back. Strong getting an offseason to improve. A ton of well-regarted young DLs getting to learn under two great DL coaches.
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It's year one for Coach Fuente with FIVE years of recruits! I don't see how we can lose with those kinds of numbers! Plus basketball season will start in November if I'm wrong!
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When a key defender goes to his coach and says something like, "hey coach this new defense is actually easier to play"...in November 2020...tells you all you need to know about trying to prepare and coach football last year. We were playing a lot of sandlot football on defense and it shouldn't be difficult to improve quite a bit over 103rd in total D next fall. The only dropoff in ability is probably vice-Diablo; but I'll take 11 guys actually knowing and practicing their assignments over last year, anytime.
OL is thin but we return 3 starters and a former starter. Receivers/TEs are back and should have more versatility, explosiveness and depth. Everyone knows who the starting QB is.
Need to find an alpha RB, a couple kickers, a punt returner, and some OL depth. That's not an unusually long or scary list of needs.
We'll be better.
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I would like to think that with a full (knock on wood for the love of God, please) offseason, we will have raised the floor of the team. Installing playbooks on offense and defense, actually learning positions, not plugging in guys just to make practice work (hello Matheny and Tisdale at safety). Additionally, not playing 9 straight weeks, not having 20 guys out weekly, not having multiple coaches out weekly (again, please dear lord) would do well. I don't think the play matched the record last year, for good reasons and bad, but I think we do better this year.
If the depth holds at QB and OL, RB and WR regress toward the mean (meaning we lose some of Herbert's ability but WR actually picks up some this year) and the defense continues to build overall the floor is seven wins next year. That still isn't what I would consider a good season, but if we pick up at least two wins out of UNC, WVU, ND, Pitt, and Miami - then that's nine wins and actually a good season. I think that is doable, but not easy.
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I would like to think that with a full (knock on wood for the love of God, please) offseason, we will have raised the floor of the team. Installing playbooks on offense and defense, actually learning positions, not plugging in guys just to make practice work (hello Matheny and Tisdale at safety). Additionally, not playing 9 straight weeks, not having 20 guys out weekly, not having multiple coaches out weekly (again, please dear lord) would do well. I don't think the play matched the record last year, for good reasons and bad, but I think we do better this year.
it's almost as if VT was the only team affected by the pandemic in 2020
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I didn't say they were the only school, but that also doesn't mean all schools were affected equally. I said that our record didn't match our play for better or worse, that includes games I don't think we win absent a weird, pandemic season.
But thanks for putting words in my mouth and shitting on what was supposed to be a more positive look at why we might be better. Wouldn't expect any less.
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woah there fella. Didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. I'm not putting words in your mouth. I am optimistic that the defense will be much improved. We'll see what happens.
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CMY has only gotten better each season he has been here. He started with a couple pieces and now is in a position to have multiple transfers out and we still look to get better than we are. I know its the first day of a long offseason but there is plenty of work to be done to get back to the dance next year. Hopefully CMY can keep improving as he has done so far.
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By the end of next season we will be better.
1) .500 or above is a better finish than this past year
2) I don't see Fuente surviving another sub .500 season, if that happens -> he gone = we better
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2) I don't see Fuente surviving another sub .500 season, if that happens -> he gone = we better
ehhh...I don't think this is so automatic. I agree that Fuente probably doesn't survive another sub-.500 season but just because he's gone doesn't necessarily mean we'll be better. Everyone on TKP knows that I don't think he has done a good enough job to this point but going out and finding a better coach isn't a guarantee. Unfortunately, you don't really know what you've got in a coach for at least a few years. It's hard to get it right. You can think you've hit a home-run and then 5 years later realize that it was a foul ball and you're back to square one. I think that's where we find ourselves now. We'll have to hire someone on some amount of faith and hope that they can make VT better but we won't really know for a few years whether or not they will achieve that. Making steady progress on the recruiting trail as well as the gridiron should be indicators that a coach is finding success. If they're not showing measurable progress on the trail or the field those might be reasons to cut losses and move on. Knowing how hard it is to find the right guy, we should expect VT to go through a few more coaches before finding the next great one.
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Am honestly struggling with this one quite a bit. This is typically the season of hope, where we pore over every detail of a well-attended Spring Game with optimistic takes on player, scheme, (and coach) development. It is a much needed shot of enthusiasm in the arm (oops...not the Dad Joke thread) that helps us weather the long, slow, off-season drought of news and analysis. Am sure that Whit and company thought this one out and came to a logical conclusion...but, after a season where Whit felt the need to hold a press conference to formally endorse his head coach, it seems like that they could've thrown a weary fanbase some sort of bone. But then again, am admittedly playing armchair QB.
So yes, fingers crossed, I think we have a good shot at improvement next season. Hearing about Burmeister's first team reps, and schematic changes to keep him healthy, have me hopeful.
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Defense should definitely be better. Defensive line has depth and some good talent. Secondary should be better as well with Waller back and Strong with a year of experience under his belt.
Also, I know everyone had to deal with coronavirus, but it's 100% fair to say that we were more affected than most teams in college football. We didn't get a spring practice to implement the new defense. Then when August rolled around, a bunch of key contributors had to miss 10-14 days because of protocols, something that did not affect every team around that time.
Also, it seems like players might be more committed to the weightroom this offseason than previous ones.
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Disagree on Covid. Everyone had to deal with it. VT wasn't any harder hit than FSU or NC State- 2 examples. It's another excuse for this coaching staff to not be held accountable for not competing in the coastal. I'm not even talking about higher expectations than that.
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We will have much better data than really anything you can objectively pull from the 2020 debacle. There is so much information we will never know about exactly who all was out when and for how long that it's difficult if not impossible to even make comparisons between schools last year. Not to say the outcome was by any means desirable, but I will certainly defend the premise that there are far too many variables and far too little specific information (from VT as well as other schools) to draw comparative conclusions about "who handled things better" last season...exit soap box mode.
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I'm fine with throwing 2020 out. That's not my point.
But if we look at 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 the data is all over the place. 2016 - good. 2017 - good. 2018 - train wreck. 2019 - mixed bag (some good, some very very not good).
So if 2021 is like 2016 or 2017 do we say that's enough data to argue these coaches are fine?
Alternatively, if 2021 is more like 2018 or 2019, do we say that's enough data to argue these coaches are in over their heads?
It's hard to do this when we're just strictly looking at the results on the field. They haven't been great. They're not as concerning as the recruiting trends though.
The merits to throwing out 2020 as a data set is debatable but even if we do will 2021 provide us with enough additional data to know what we have with these coaches?
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Always a moving goal post for this staff. It's ridiculous. There will be an excuse for 2021 too- wait and see. Unexpected injuries, JHAM needs 6 years to install his scheme. Duke is a tough out. Charlottesville is a tough place to play, etc.
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Same situation hit Alabama in July/August as well. Same with Clemson.
LSU's situation had way more to do with replacing almost their entire team on both sides of the ball. They also hired Bo Pelini in the offseason to replace elite DC Dave Aranda.
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And VT hired Justin Hamilton to replace elite DC Bud Foster. Plus, because our coaches can't recruit, we didn't have any talent either. VT and LSU are much more similar than VT and Clemson/Bama
I'm not excusing 2020 by any means. I'm not trying to pretend that Covid-19 didn't impact VT either. I don't think VT's coaches did a particularly good job in 2020 regardless of the pandemic. Was 2020 a bad job by the coaches, exacerbated by the pandemic? Or was it a bad year because of the pandemic, exacerbated by poor coaching?
My arc of faith in this coaching staff has gone from believing they would elevate VT (2016,2017) to feeling bad for their circumstances but wanting to believe they could still do it (2018,2019) to just plainly not believing that they are the right coaches for this job (2020). I'm not convinced these coaches know what they're doing. 2021 is their last chance to change my mind. I think by the end of 2021 I'll either be cemented in my view that these coaches ain't it or I'll be confused because they're winning lots of games despite not recruiting well.
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I acknowledged how everyone had to deal with it. I think it hurt us more in some aspects. Not everyone had a new coordinator and system to break in. That's really the biggest thing for me.
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You are correct, assuming you meant "coordinator." However, not every team had a new coordinator.
The canceling of spring practice severely hindered the ability the defensive staff had to implement the system. Couple that with the COVID issues in August, another time when they could have been learning the system, and it's a recipe for disaster. Tough to implement the system in between games when you are supposed to be planning for the opponent. A majority of programs had COVID issues at one point or another; it was just unfortunate VT's happened to be in August.
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Fair point. We were 107th in total defense. Not all of that was "newness". though. Must get better on that side of the ball- no matter who is calling the defense.
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I think the system change hampered the front seven and injuries/dismissals/opting out blew up the secondary. I have no idea how much better the defense would have been under normal circumstances, but I agree we must grow up and get better on that side of the ball.
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Comments
An actual offseason. Time in the weight room, live reps, etc. It's not something fully virtual or where we would be depending on each and every player to hold up their end of the bargain.
Hopefully with the vaccination we don't have people dropping out either
Better Defense. The offense may be better as well if the qb can stay healthy. But, if the defense can take two steps forward while the offense only takes a half a step back, we should see a significantly more competitive team on the field. FANS IN THE STANDS!
Say no more
*cue the curmudgeons saying we'll never attend a football game ever again*
Came here to say the same thing. Got my first cootie shot yesterday (I was a big boy and didn't cry when I got poked...but my arm is sore as shit), so I'm itching to get out and get loud this fall.
Mine was sore for about 36 hours. Shot two is next week.
Just got shot # two. My arm was a little sore the morning after the first one. Hoping second is about the same.
I got my second last week. I was on my ass for all of the next day with fever, chills, and a little nausea. Best of luck to you. Hopefully it's not that bad.
Friend of mine (early 30s, in very good shape) said it put him on his ass hard. Weird.
From those I have been around, the side effects are random and can range from a little soreness in the arm to dramatic chills about 12 hrs later. I am one down with just normal flu shot like soreness.
I had Pfizer and about 30 mins after the first shot, my face got flushed and hot for 30-45 mins or so, then sore arm for roughly a day. After the second shot the arm soreness wasn't really prevalent but I did have chills and aches the next day for about 8-12 hours. Never developed a fever though. Seems the side effects are very random.
I had some wild chills about 12 hours after but just a headache beyond that.
When I got my first shot (Pfizer), the doctor told me the side effects are generally worse for younger people. I get my 2nd shot next week and I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Good luck!
Shot #2 on Saturday. Had some chills and was pretty beat down on Sunday. Monday morning I was back in action. Not bad.
First Pfizer jab last Wednesday- shot itself painless; injection spot sore from hours 12-35 along with chills and fever of 100-101.6 for hours 18-36; fine by Friday morning with just a tiny bit of residual soreness at injection site. 2nd shot won't be til 04/22 or later. All in all for an Air Force brat who had to get shots in childhood for typhus, typhoid, yellow fever, tuberculosis and smallpox, it wasn't bad.
Main reason I got it was 'cause job "strongly encouraged' it and in case attending games this fall required proof of vaccination or allows me to attend without masks.
I got out lucky, first shot of Phifer and my arm was stiff after sleeping on it, but nothing worse than a normal flu shot.
Got my first Moderna a week ago. Through Monday, it was like it had ramped up my pollen allergies to 100, but I'm fine now. Very odd.
I hear the 2nd Moderna hits you like a freight train. So much looking forward to that at the end of the month. But you know what, if it removes me from the list of at risk people for this virus, its absolutely worth it.
I think the Moderna second shot is either a hammer or a whimper. Mom and wife's second shot laid them out flat with worst flu like sympton either said they ever had. Mother in law and her sisters all got second shot and didn't even have the soreness in arm that they got with the first shot.
Did hear at least one doctor say that if you had the big reaction to the second shot, it meant it was probably working better.
Got my second Moderna shot about 3 hours ago. Went back to work and so far don't feel anything other than slight ache at injection site.
Let us know how you feel tomorrow. Hope it is still fine.
24+ hours later, I woke up feeling more sore in the joints than my aging self usually does. Arm is sore at injection site about the same as the first shot. No other symptoms, just a little achy all over and slightly tired.
Hope it doesn't get any worse and you feel better soon.
2nd was no big deal for me at all...a little achy...took 2 tylenol and was good to go
first moderna was so high up on my shoulder it irritated/inflamed the tendon (pain shot down my arm when the needle went in)...soreness and limited ROM for 3 weeks.
Glad you said that because my throat is soreee this morning, like allergies or something.
My manager told me it put her head in a fog for about a week, and that's pretty much what happened to me as well. I just chalked it up to allergies, but as I said, I'm fine this morning, and we're fully in the yellow fog of piney doom down here in NC.
Yeah - my second pfizer caused some soreness, but otherwise was a slightly ramped up version of season allergies. Head in a fog, minor sore throat, little headache, itchy eyes. Lasted about 24 hours. My 21 year old son, who had had COVID with mild symptoms over the summer, got a bad enough sore throat from the J&J to get tested for strep.
A full spring, a more regular summer schedule for unofficial stuff run by the team leaders, and the defense. I think the DL and LB corps have potential to take a substantial step forward. I still worry about depth at LB, we probably can't afford many injuries at those positions but the 1's are good (and playing in their best positions).
I expect the DL to take a step forward. Adding Jordan Williams to a now veteran group of Senior Dashawn Crawford, Juniors Norell Pollard and Mario Kendricks, and R-Soph Fuga should be the strongest interior DL we have fielded since 2017 by a good margin. Being able to rotate that group should keep everyone fresh. The talent is less than the 2016 rotation, for example, but we have veteran depth a multiple body types/types of players to mix and match with.
The DE line room has also been rebuilt from the tattered ashes of a pretty G5 level situation we were at. Barno and Belmar the likely starters with a lot of bigger bodies with high upside behind them. I'm less confident about this room than the iDL room simply because there is more unknown. Their potential is likely much higher, but there are more reps and experience on the interior. If one or two of Wooten, Beadles, or Bryant step up as major contributors that would be very exciting.
Last year we should have had a great secondary, but after Farley (opt out), Waller (hurt basically all year), and Hunter (kicked off the team) basically didn't play at all our secondary was a patchwork for most of the season. You throw in guys being out for COVID, and we have a situation where we were playing multiple true freshmen and even walk-ons as starters in some games. One of the few silver linings of that situation was the emergence of Dorian Strong as a likely multi-year starter at CB. He got valuable reps and experience and should hopefully benefit from a full offseason of S&C. If we can stay healthier this year, I believe we will see a notable improvement in the secondary. I think getting someone like Tae Daley could pay big dividends on the back end. I'm less certain about our FS spot, but maybe a full offseason playing there will make a world of difference for someone like Devin Taylor. Conner has quietly manned our nickel/nickelwhip spot despite being rather prolific in terms of stats for the last few years. He has been rock solid for us.
So, basically, the short answer is the defense.
A full offseason (fingers crossed), is the biggest thing by far. I think this defense has a chance to succeed with Ham in charge, but they need to have a chance to really put their system in place and learn it inside and out. Also the full offseason isn't just in terms of practice, but also a full summer of strength and conditioning.
I think Burmeister getting an offseason as "the guy" and getting all those reps will be huge. I think the UVA game showed his capabilities and that's exciting. I'm higher on end then most people on the board probably.
1) Not going to be playing QB roulette this season. We have a QB1 that the coaching staff gets the entire spring, summer and fall camp to plan around
2) Lot of talent on the first-team offense. Starting offensive line (Tenuda-Smith-Jordan-Hoffman-Clements) is going to be good if the Clements hype is real. Much better depth at WR with Payoute getting back to 100% and Hodge actually having an offseason to learn the offense. Mitchell will be better than he was last year.
3) Having an offseason to break apart the "Bud Foster Triple Option Defense" and actually being able to spend three weeks just teaching the defense. I think Dax moving to MLB is going to make a huge difference. Tisdale getting an offseason to get Hilgated. Getting Waller back. Strong getting an offseason to improve. A ton of well-regarted young DLs getting to learn under two great DL coaches.
It's year one for Coach Fuente with FIVE years of recruits! I don't see how we can lose with those kinds of numbers! Plus basketball season will start in November if I'm wrong!
When a key defender goes to his coach and says something like, "hey coach this new defense is actually easier to play"...in November 2020...tells you all you need to know about trying to prepare and coach football last year. We were playing a lot of sandlot football on defense and it shouldn't be difficult to improve quite a bit over 103rd in total D next fall. The only dropoff in ability is probably vice-Diablo; but I'll take 11 guys actually knowing and practicing their assignments over last year, anytime.
OL is thin but we return 3 starters and a former starter. Receivers/TEs are back and should have more versatility, explosiveness and depth. Everyone knows who the starting QB is.
Need to find an alpha RB, a couple kickers, a punt returner, and some OL depth. That's not an unusually long or scary list of needs.
We'll be better.
I would like to think that with a full (knock on wood for the love of God, please) offseason, we will have raised the floor of the team. Installing playbooks on offense and defense, actually learning positions, not plugging in guys just to make practice work (hello Matheny and Tisdale at safety). Additionally, not playing 9 straight weeks, not having 20 guys out weekly, not having multiple coaches out weekly (again, please dear lord) would do well. I don't think the play matched the record last year, for good reasons and bad, but I think we do better this year.
If the depth holds at QB and OL, RB and WR regress toward the mean (meaning we lose some of Herbert's ability but WR actually picks up some this year) and the defense continues to build overall the floor is seven wins next year. That still isn't what I would consider a good season, but if we pick up at least two wins out of UNC, WVU, ND, Pitt, and Miami - then that's nine wins and actually a good season. I think that is doable, but not easy.
it's almost as if VT was the only team affected by the pandemic in 2020
I didn't say they were the only school, but that also doesn't mean all schools were affected equally. I said that our record didn't match our play for better or worse, that includes games I don't think we win absent a weird, pandemic season.
But thanks for putting words in my mouth and shitting on what was supposed to be a more positive look at why we might be better. Wouldn't expect any less.
woah there fella. Didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. I'm not putting words in your mouth. I am optimistic that the defense will be much improved. We'll see what happens.
CMY has only gotten better each season he has been here. He started with a couple pieces and now is in a position to have multiple transfers out and we still look to get better than we are. I know its the first day of a long offseason but there is plenty of work to be done to get back to the dance next year. Hopefully CMY can keep improving as he has done so far.
Hopefully CMY gets a nice pay bump for handling the football operations as well.
Storm Murphy.
We will keep the Cup at HOME where it belongs
I don't see it happened but that's just my opinion
It's going to be hard to do worse than 2020. I think there's a decent chance we'll be better, even if we aren't very good
Good point
Year 2 is usually better than year 1 for a head coach.
I'll see myself out
By the end of next season we will be better.
1) .500 or above is a better finish than this past year
2) I don't see Fuente surviving another sub .500 season, if that happens -> he gone = we better
ehhh...I don't think this is so automatic. I agree that Fuente probably doesn't survive another sub-.500 season but just because he's gone doesn't necessarily mean we'll be better. Everyone on TKP knows that I don't think he has done a good enough job to this point but going out and finding a better coach isn't a guarantee. Unfortunately, you don't really know what you've got in a coach for at least a few years. It's hard to get it right. You can think you've hit a home-run and then 5 years later realize that it was a foul ball and you're back to square one. I think that's where we find ourselves now. We'll have to hire someone on some amount of faith and hope that they can make VT better but we won't really know for a few years whether or not they will achieve that. Making steady progress on the recruiting trail as well as the gridiron should be indicators that a coach is finding success. If they're not showing measurable progress on the trail or the field those might be reasons to cut losses and move on. Knowing how hard it is to find the right guy, we should expect VT to go through a few more coaches before finding the next great one.
Valid, but we don't need to have the next great one to not have back to back sub .500 seasons, so, we better (hopefully)
Am honestly struggling with this one quite a bit. This is typically the season of hope, where we pore over every detail of a well-attended Spring Game with optimistic takes on player, scheme, (and coach) development. It is a much needed shot of enthusiasm in the arm (oops...not the Dad Joke thread) that helps us weather the long, slow, off-season drought of news and analysis. Am sure that Whit and company thought this one out and came to a logical conclusion...but, after a season where Whit felt the need to hold a press conference to formally endorse his head coach, it seems like that they could've thrown a weary fanbase some sort of bone. But then again, am admittedly playing armchair QB.
So yes, fingers crossed, I think we have a good shot at improvement next season. Hearing about Burmeister's first team reps, and schematic changes to keep him healthy, have me hopeful.
I don't know about this upcoming season, but I'll say tailgating in 2024 should be interesting.
Might lose our rabid home field advantage, though I'm not sure anyone would necessarily care, all things considered.
Defense should definitely be better. Defensive line has depth and some good talent. Secondary should be better as well with Waller back and Strong with a year of experience under his belt.
Also, I know everyone had to deal with coronavirus, but it's 100% fair to say that we were more affected than most teams in college football. We didn't get a spring practice to implement the new defense. Then when August rolled around, a bunch of key contributors had to miss 10-14 days because of protocols, something that did not affect every team around that time.
Also, it seems like players might be more committed to the weightroom this offseason than previous ones.
Disagree on Covid. Everyone had to deal with it. VT wasn't any harder hit than FSU or NC State- 2 examples. It's another excuse for this coaching staff to not be held accountable for not competing in the coastal. I'm not even talking about higher expectations than that.
It is ridiculous to think the covid-effect was the same for every team. It isn't an excuse it just makes 2020 a bad data point.
So if 2021 goes like either 2016 or 2019 will we have enough data on these coaches one way or the other?
We will have much better data than really anything you can objectively pull from the 2020 debacle. There is so much information we will never know about exactly who all was out when and for how long that it's difficult if not impossible to even make comparisons between schools last year. Not to say the outcome was by any means desirable, but I will certainly defend the premise that there are far too many variables and far too little specific information (from VT as well as other schools) to draw comparative conclusions about "who handled things better" last season...exit soap box mode.
I'm fine with throwing 2020 out. That's not my point.
But if we look at 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 the data is all over the place. 2016 - good. 2017 - good. 2018 - train wreck. 2019 - mixed bag (some good, some very very not good).
So if 2021 is like 2016 or 2017 do we say that's enough data to argue these coaches are fine?
Alternatively, if 2021 is more like 2018 or 2019, do we say that's enough data to argue these coaches are in over their heads?
It's hard to do this when we're just strictly looking at the results on the field. They haven't been great. They're not as concerning as the recruiting trends though.
The merits to throwing out 2020 as a data set is debatable but even if we do will 2021 provide us with enough additional data to know what we have with these coaches?
Always a moving goal post for this staff. It's ridiculous. There will be an excuse for 2021 too- wait and see. Unexpected injuries, JHAM needs 6 years to install his scheme. Duke is a tough out. Charlottesville is a tough place to play, etc.
Yeah 2021 data is better than 2020 data. That goes for all of CFB. 2020 was a shit show.
That gosh darn covid causing us to ice the Liberty kicker when he's lining up for a FG 15 yards longer than his career long.
What are your data points that it hit VT harder than say UVA? or any team for that matter. ?
Who knows. That is the point. 2020 is a pineapple in a basket of oranges.
Well over half the team tested positive for Covid back in September.
Same situation hit LSU in July/August. They didn't have a good season either.
Same situation hit Alabama in July/August as well. Same with Clemson.
LSU's situation had way more to do with replacing almost their entire team on both sides of the ball. They also hired Bo Pelini in the offseason to replace elite DC Dave Aranda.
And VT hired Justin Hamilton to replace elite DC Bud Foster. Plus, because our coaches can't recruit, we didn't have any talent either. VT and LSU are much more similar than VT and Clemson/Bama
I'm not excusing 2020 by any means. I'm not trying to pretend that Covid-19 didn't impact VT either. I don't think VT's coaches did a particularly good job in 2020 regardless of the pandemic. Was 2020 a bad job by the coaches, exacerbated by the pandemic? Or was it a bad year because of the pandemic, exacerbated by poor coaching?
My arc of faith in this coaching staff has gone from believing they would elevate VT (2016,2017) to feeling bad for their circumstances but wanting to believe they could still do it (2018,2019) to just plainly not believing that they are the right coaches for this job (2020). I'm not convinced these coaches know what they're doing. 2021 is their last chance to change my mind. I think by the end of 2021 I'll either be cemented in my view that these coaches ain't it or I'll be confused because they're winning lots of games despite not recruiting well.
I acknowledged how everyone had to deal with it. I think it hurt us more in some aspects. Not everyone had a new coordinator and system to break in. That's really the biggest thing for me.
VT was also not the only team with new coordinators.
You are correct, assuming you meant "coordinator." However, not every team had a new coordinator.
The canceling of spring practice severely hindered the ability the defensive staff had to implement the system. Couple that with the COVID issues in August, another time when they could have been learning the system, and it's a recipe for disaster. Tough to implement the system in between games when you are supposed to be planning for the opponent. A majority of programs had COVID issues at one point or another; it was just unfortunate VT's happened to be in August.
Fair point. We were 107th in total defense. Not all of that was "newness". though. Must get better on that side of the ball- no matter who is calling the defense.
I think the system change hampered the front seven and injuries/dismissals/opting out blew up the secondary. I have no idea how much better the defense would have been under normal circumstances, but I agree we must grow up and get better on that side of the ball.
All of you are right.
If fans are allowed in Lane then they should have alcohol sales. Positive right?
Alcohol kills Covid!
My VT son and all his roommates have direct scientific research that is not a true statement. But it probably made them drink less for a little while.
Football season is now the "wait until basketball season" for me.
Oof. Chin up