Watching both the VT game and UT-UGA CBS game of the week today, and the CBS crew (Gary Danielson, I believe) was talking about what Hooker said about transferring from VT. The general quote they relayed from Hooker was (my paraphrase), "I'm just really enjoying playing for a coaching staff that lets me play my game, instead of trying to fit into an offense that I don't fit into."
Not trying to beat a dead horse. But, this is the first time I've heard Hooker comment on the situation, after transferring.
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Not even shade-just facts
I see them forcing Malachi into that weird no-block central run which seems to work for Blacksear;
Malachi is more find the holes kinda guy when the block scheme is hat-on-hat
Question that remains is exactly who does fit into the CJF/Corny offense...,
Any battering ram will do
No wonder this staff can't recruit.
Can't imagine this conversation going well with prospective student athletes and parents:
VT Coach: We use brute force methods to gain yards instead of intelligently crafted finesse plays that will develop new skillsets for your son and complement what he already does well.
Parents/Recruits: So you're saying your offense is run the QB into a brick wall? Get out!
Great coaches adapt their schemes to their players best attributes and minimize their weaknesses. All the while great coaches work with those same players to help them improve their skills through a combination of tough love and encouragement.
Mediocre coaches are over-confident in their systems and believe players should adapt to them. The problem with that philosophy is that is almost always poor leadership due to bad recognition of the facts of the situation.
This sums up the Fuente tenure. The stubbornness around systems vs player strengths resulted in a culture where players were not able to make the most of their abilities. It also exposed a lack of recognition or arrogance in player evaluations - aka if that player can't do what you need them to do well AND you (the coach) won't adapt why recruit that player?? Why not focus on pure fits?
Hit the nail on the head, friend. It hurts how right this is, but you're dead on.
Great point-you don't get a mulligan in year six...erm, I mean year One
plaid this man
I think you're right in everything except the last sentence. We've had success with certain players (biggest with Evans and Herbert). Yet we see so many recruits, both traditional and through the portal for QBs, RBs, and WRs. What I keep coming up with is that they don't even know what the right fit is, other than when we get a person and they can just "do" the offense right.
And the other point that seems damning as well, given your point about great coaches, is how Fuente said he wanted to be the best developmental program in the country and there's still a revolving door of players.
Yawn. Like most players who transfer, they don't look in the mirror.
Don't understand how you can apply this logic to HH, especially given his performance so far this year.
Yeah how can you blame anything on Hooker when he's playing better and for a better team than last year
Or know how to deal with the cold. He ain't anything special at VT or Tenn. Both teams are busts with Tenn having a ton more talent than VT to help boost his "skills". I do agree coaching is much better than what we have.
i think hooker does fit fuente/corn's system. the problem is they don't trust their players, and the players can't play loose, because they are scared to death of making a mistake and being benched.
This goes hand in hand with the above comment from Mickelmarcus. Except I don't think Fuente doesn't trust the players. He's too bogged down in the analytics, and sometimes just needs to go with his gut. Loosen up.
They opened the playbook against Duke, and it paid dividends. Look how loose everyone played Saturday when given just a little rope to test the playbook. It might be too little too late, but I'm glad we could muster more than 3 passing yards Saturday.
The trouble with that is how much of opening the book is because of how bad Duke is? Maybe they don't do it against better teams because the consequences of a turnover seem so much higher. I guess we'll see next game, but my guess is we go back to what we've seen in other games before Duke.
Have you seen the scores on UVa games? There are definitely some points being scored by the other teams.
So whatever they did for Duke, they need to keep doing.
I think that the lack of trust in the players is firmly imbedded in the system. We have seen mentions on social media by players that the coaching staff flat out does not allow audibles. Many fans and analysts have suggested that read plays might not be actual reads, they just look like it. It almost seems like Fuente is so traumatized by his playing experience as a QB when he was thrown to the wolves before he was ready that he is way over-correcting in the opposite direction, like, "I'll protect you by taking every decision out of your hands". Hard to see how a player could develop in a situation like that.