This is a question I posed in Joe's mailbag for the week that he thought would make a good topic for more folks to chime in on.
Simple question for 2021 Virginia Tech Football: which individual football alum (excluding quarterback, running back, or Frank/Bud) if added to the current team would be valuable enough to add one more win to our schedule next season? Essentially a wins above replacement type metric that is frequently referenced these days in basketball and baseball.
This could be as depressing as getting us to 7 wins instead of 8, or as exciting as getting us to an 9th or 10th win. Interested to see what the community thinks.
Forums:
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Special Teams - David Wilson
(not counting his ability in the backfield as a RB). Simply taking kick offs/punts and flipping field position and/or running it back to the house.
any punt returner who can fair catch and not fumble wins us a few.
Wait TE's are not supposed to return punts? Are you sure?
I dont have the numbers in front of me but can think of a few games lost by muffed punts- most not TEs
Bruuuuuuuuuuccccceeeeeeeeeee!
Sacks are game changers. Having 2 legit edge rushers that could reck havoc in the backfield would be big for the defense. There's a reason defensive ends are one of the highest paid players in the NFL outside of QB.
I forget where I saw it, but someone did a regression model of how important sacks we're in successful defensive series even though it's obvious, the actual numbers were staggering. Like multiple percentage point increase in interceptions, fumbles, and general stops.
My mind immediately started going through position by position what would the most impactful, outside of QB/RB I would think DL or CB, Bruce Smith would be the easy and in my opinion correct choice. Other options would include any of our myriad of successful DBs, one of the Fullers, Hall, Flowers or even Chuck Clarke, maybe under the radar option would be Bruce Arians to replace Corny and/or Fuente
DeAngelo Hall
Gonna answer my own question with Jack Tyler. I suspect our interior DL to be improved this year and the secondary to be better with a healthy Waller/Strong combo, but think a consistent Mike backer would improve things a lot. Could also go for Adibi or Tremaine Edmonds.
Vince Hall is a way better Jack Tyler, also played inside as opposed to Adibi or Edmunds
Top 3: Corey Moore, Xavier Adibi, Antonio Freeman.
I think an elite edge rusher in college football today is a game changer so give me Corey. Adibi's side to side speed would really help against modern offenses. And i think our offense needs a legit #1 option at wideout that can win one on one battles so Freeeman (who i really don't think gets enough love from fans or the program).
Disclaimer: I eliminated Bruce Smith from my list solely because he's the obvious answer to me. He would be worth more the 1 win to this team in my mind.
John Engelberger also came to mind with Moore. Pressure and a dominant end would make a huge difference.
Adibi and Hall were tackling machines. With either of them in the middle the defense gets off the field a LOT easier.
Can I cheat and say a duo of Adibi and Hall?
Defense - Bruce Smith
Dominate the LOS, would guarantee us having the best player on the field at least half the game
Offense - Eddie Royal
Elite kick returner plus a receiver you could line up anywhere on the field and get him the ball.
Tremaine Edmunds- Sideline to Sideline tackler, sorely needed on this team, and 25 pounds heavier than Adibi.
Either one would thrive in today's game and be the best player on our defense. Adibi could have had a long NFL career if he joined the league in the last 5 years.
Yep, agreed.
On this specific team? I want to say either
WR is where my mind goes as well. Royal would prob be my first choice, but would love to see Ford too.
Lots of good answers here already. Here are a couple names I thought might be new to this list.
Dadi Nicolas came to mind (trying to think of a less obvious choice than Bruce) for the DL. Dude had a motor and I think his emotion would be infectious. He's the type of player who gets everyone else on defense hyped up to go win
Offensively, I think a truly great WR can make even a mediocre QB look good. (Just look how good Reggie Ball was when he was throwing to Calvin Johnson). For that reason I think someone like Andre Davis would be a great game-breaker for us if we could just get him the ball.
All the jet sweeps with Andre Davis, Corny would be in heaven.
WADR one thing we DON'T need on this defense is another mediocre tackler at best like Dadi.
Dadi had a great motor and speed, but a good Tackle had him spinning in the weeds on too many plays.
Came here to post Andre Davis. Receiving. Rushing. Returning. 3 TDs in one quarter.
Possibly my favorite quarter of VT football ever. 3rd quarter against Texas in the Sugar Bowl and 4th against Virginia with the big comeback on the road could be there too. Sure I could think of others, but that is off the top of my head.
Danny Coale would always be open.
AND he always CATCHES the ball as he did in the Sugar Bowl!
Shayne Graham gets us one win easy
Andre Davis does too.
Excluding qb...
DL - Engleberger or DTapp
WR/ST - Andre Davis or Eddie Royal
LB - Edmunds
Secondary - Kam Chancellor
Torrian Gray
Macho Harris. Dude could, and did, do it all.
Macho Harris. I feel like we haven't had a consistent leader both in play and presence in a while. Macho was all of the above.
Bruce Arians
As a coach...?
Mike Vick. If we're going to win the coastal we'd need an ACC championship caliber QB.
Ahh. I'll go Eddie Royal then for the speed at a thin position.
Logan MFing Thomas, run that read option to the house every daggum play.
Hell, even playing him at TE would do wonders for a 2ndary target to Mitchell on the other side of the line. Imagine being a linebacker in today's game, trying to defend a jet sweep and Logan MFing Thomas comes up and blasts you back to the 2000s. In fact, our midseason run in 2019 was in part due to our 2 TE sets with Keene and Mitchell.
??
I'd bring him back as a TE, I thought my post covered that....
No, TE is still allowed
I think Logan would have been extremely effective at QB in this offense.
but would he be efficient?
Probably not. "Predictable outcomes" weren't necessarily his strongest suit throwing the ball.
idk man QB power on 3rd- or 4th-and-whatever seems like a pretty predictable outcome with Logan in this offense.....
Macho Harris
It's tough to pick just one! Defensively, give me any one of Macho Harris, Kyle Fuller, Brandon Flowers, or Tremaine Edmunds. Offensively, Eddie Royal or Andre Davis. We've missed a homerun threat at receiver so badly.
Bruce Smith. Defense needed the biggest upgrade. We have had no one on the front that really scares people. Having a dominant defensive lineman that would require double teams regularly could have changed things a lot.
I've often thought that the 5-stars we've been able to land have been good for at least one win per year.
Looking back to actual games that one guy essentially won for us (no QBs, not necessarily five stars) - Macho vs Klempsun, Kyle Fuller vs GT, Corey Moore vs Klempsun, Cam Phillips vs ECU, Shane Graham vs probably a few, Darren Evans vs Maryland, David Wilson tried to win that Alabama game for us.
It's either Bruce smith or Corey Moore - our pass rush and ability to strike fear in the hearts of qbs is the biggest missing piece. It's sad. Either one of these guys win us at least one more game. Likely more.
All of my top choices taken...Bruce, Andre Davis, both halls, adibi, etc...I could go for some Eugene Chung or a Jake Grove on that o-line....they were nasty. And if I had to go one on defense I'll take kam chancellor in that defensive backfield...and somehow keep him from targeting penalties in today's game🤷🏼♂️...if we couldn't get a kam that could stay in the game legally then give me some Torrian Gray as a lock down corner