Takeaways (hopefully no bonehead misquotes this week):
- Strong, Thomas doubtful
- King probable
- Johnson, Alves out
- Apparently our OL doesn't know what a cadence is, all the false starts were in response to defensive movement
- We will probably see some freshmen get playing time for the remainder of the season, but not as many as the staff (or fans) would like because of injuries
- O was a step in the right direction in the 3rd. Pry wants more tempo and formation variability moving forward
- MIke Hazel and Brian Crist usually assisting with clock management in games. Need to be better, have definitely learned lessons throughout the season.
- First time in 32 years Pry has played a freshman at corner for every snap
- Cole Beck didn't travel last week due to illness. I know some people were looking for him out there
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Comments
I'd say the 3rd quarter offense was more of a massive leap in the right direction rather than a single step lol
True, but when you leap forward and then fall straight onto your ass, your progress is measured to what's closest to the takeoff point.
I guess the question going forward is: do we stay down on our ass or do we get up try again at least?
🤞some freshmen show out and/or we get King+Thomas the rest of the year by some miracle.
which is why I said the 3rd quarter offense and not the 2nd half offense lol
*First time in 32 years Pry has had a DB as good as Delane
Can someone explain what a 'move call' is? Sounds like the DEs we're moving and that confused our line?
That's it basically. The DL does a shift to adjust their lineup against a certain formation or to confuse the OL and draw a penalty (which is apparently shockingly effective against our offense).
And the same thing Dax got penalized for somehow in an earlier game
Can you explain when this would result in a penalty? Pry said in the presser that it's allowed as long as they don't shift on our cadence? I'm confused.
Defenders are not allowed to make calls that sound like the calls the offense is making. So using similar words or signals to intentionally confuse the offense is a penalty on the defense. The offense and defense should have different terminology and signals, and if they mix, flags fly.
So in theory the offense should change their signal to whatever the defense is using as a word to shift and bask in the free yards
And all Dax was doing was pointing out the offensive line's tells and got penalized for it. Total BS.
Seems like I've seen that somewhere before. Like when Wiles used to coach our D line to shift alignments to confuse O lines. Worked for us, worked on us.
+1 for Techmobowl 😃👍
Did we blow Braelin Moore and Cam Johnson's redshirts? If so it's a straight up bonehead move from this staff. Wright and Duke are the only two who you can make an argument for, even then it looks like Duke has gone back down to 5th string RB...
Auburn job is open
All these message board coaches, I was just pointing out where the job opening was so they could show the world how to do it the right way
8 figure buyout to be the coach there two years regardless of record? Sign me up!!
No doubt, me too.
Apologies if my post came across rude, WT101 has that affect. I appreciate your (and other posters) opinions even if they differ from mine. I just believe we need to give the new guy's a chance, 2-3 years, to make a sizable improvement. I get it that a lot of people are gunshy now with how Fuente and Co. turned out. No one should get a free pass from scrutiny but in year one we should at least give the benefit of the doubt.
Pry is going nowhere. He gets his time/shot. But the team looks poorly coached and many people are commenting on that, which is warranted. Thing is, improvement should start being evident somewhere, and so far we've seen very little - and it's concerning.
just playing devil's advocate here
What if Pry is just intentionally setting the bar super, super low for year 1 - that way any improvement in year 2 is seen as a positive. Fuente screwed himself by setting the bar super high in year 1 and then failed to ever reach the same level in subsequent years. Maybe Pry is fine with throwing this season out in the name of building the culture he wants in Blacksburg? What if he's not doing everything in his power to win NOW because he wants to build a solid foundation to win the way he wants to win in the future?
This is where I believe we actually are. I do think he is trying to win but he's trying to win while building the proper culture that he see's fit and getting younger players ready for next year. I really do think he is looking at this year as a wash and evaluating what he has on the roster and who he needs to suggest enter the portal in the off-season.
I've been thinking the same as you guys. I don't think Pry is intentionally losing or anything like that, but it seems like he is trying to feel out the team and coaching staff and lay the foundations for all the offense and defensive systems. For example, our OL seem to be unable to execute the new blocking scheme, but it's better to rip off the band-aid now and try to teach as much of it as possible even if it means sucking, rather than revert to another scheme to possibly eek out another win or two. Pry wants to win now, but is willing to sacrifice the short-term for the long-term health of the program.
As far as coaching mistakes go, I'm glad it can happen in a season like this when it was always a rebuilding year anyway. Maybe in a few years we have a legit good team with big aspirations. I would rather our hopefully up and coming coaches learn now and make mistakes, but also develop pride and loyalty to VT and stick around once they grow into their positions.
I've thought this since before the season started. If you know the team you are inheriting is trash and you have a lot of first year coaches trying to learn the ropes, why not try your approach and see what takes and what doesn't.
Accept that failure is likely and if/when failure happens, learn from it. Failure is the best teacher. All of these team failures are hard to stomach in the moment while the game is being played, but if it provides the coaching staff with valuable information on what to do/what not to do and they can implement that in the next season, I am fine with it.
"Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly." ― John F. Kennedy
"I have not failed. I have found 10,000 ways that don't work." ― Thomas Edison
"Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end." ― Denis Waitley
Hopefully one of these or a hodgepodge of these quotes rings true. Looking back at that Hendon Hooker Transferring to Tenn thread shows that a dumpster fire can turn around. I'm not expecting a #1 next to our name, but any # will be a welcome sight and I think we can get back to that.
I'm not sure what happened to Duke. I feel like he should be getting snaps over or at least even with Houlston.
In all honesty I don't think redshirts matter as much in the portal era. If you aren't giving kids snaps that you want to be on your team for the next 2-3 years they are going to find a team that will. I'm not saying I like that, but I think that's the reality for a lot of players.
Counterpoint: If we're operating under the assumption they're going to transfer in 2-3 years, then what's the incentive to play them a year they won't contribute. Seems pretty mutually exclusive to me.
Offensive linemen take 2-3 years to develop and often need at least 1-2 years of conditioning to make an impact at all. If Braelin Moore is only going to play a couple snaps in 5-6 games as our 7th best linemen, why blow 3 months of conditioning and an extra year of eligibility? Cam Johnson looks more like a cross country runner than a football player, he needs an extra year of S&C and every week of "big squat Friday" he can get.
Fair point, especially with the OLine. I had recently been reflecting on the current landscape of college football and thinking about if it is still worth redshirting a player if they will not stay with your team for 4-5 years. Do you just get them playing time early on while you can? After reading your counterpoint I feel like the deciding factor is how much development they need(which has probably always been the case for a freshman/sophomore, right?), which for most of our current roster is probably a fair amount.
In the end it should be about getting the right players to your team that are a fit scheme and culture-wise and hoping things work out for everyone. You caught me just being a jaded college football fan.
Pry has often said that redshirting decisions involve the player and his family... it's possible that they didn't want to redshirt.
We have only burned 3 RS, Duke and Burgos were done a couple weeks ago, and Delane's on Thursday. Wright will get burned Saturday.
Okay good. Moore and Johnson are at 3 or 4 games?
I really hope no other guys have theirs burned, and Burgos gets some quality snaps at DE not just special teams.
I'm not sure about Johnson, but Moore has to be at at least 3 games already. I notice him in there at LG fairly regularly, so I wouldn't consider that a waste by the coaching staff. If I were coaching, I wouldn't want to burn Cam Johnson's redshirt this year though.
Edit: evidently Johnson is at 2 games and didn't play against NC State, so I'd imagine the coaches are trying to preserve his redshirt. Also Moore has played in 4 games.
Was it just me or did the issue with not hearing the questions on the presser video return? It had gotten so much netter this year (especially without the constant water bottle crinkling). But yesterday Pry I could hear fine as always, but the questions would start off being half volume then fade to nothing with the volume returning to normal for Pry's answers and that pattern repeated. I had to stop watching cause it made it so disjointed. For all I knew the reporters could have been asking him about his golf game or his favorite movie quote. It was almost like a cell phone signal fading in and out.
I haven't been able to figure it out. It's been so up and down all year. The zoom callers sound good and apparently Bitter has brought his own mic to some of the pressers, so I'm not sure if the weeks that sound better have more zoom callers or if PR just forgets to set a mic up for the guys in attendance every other week.
THIS. It's been so good some weeks even WITH the Zoom questions but this one , I could hear the start of the question but then 2 seconds later it dropped to almost dead silence.
They aren't passing or stepping up to the mic is my guess. Maybe they need ceiling mics in the press room to fix this.