As a fan at the game, the minimal long commercial breaks was really nice. My mind is also more at ease now that Mr. Redshirt man has a big timer on a stick.
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When I was just starting out as a teacher, a gym teacher I was helping out was trying to give examples of how to fit exercise into our students' daily routines.
Knowing most of them were Madden players and myself also being a gamer with NCAA probably 08 at that point, I mentioned what I did, not being much for devoting time to exercise, doing Corps of Cadets style pushups during the game, then sit-ups for the total number of points scored, then jumping jacks for time of possession advantage.
I challenged our students to do that while playing on Freshman difficulty with 15 minute quarters.
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normally, I would gladly join you. I think I over did it with push ups a few months ago and screwed my shoulder up big time, can't do push ups or dips.
I'll hit some body weight squats though
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I tried to convince my Southern Cal buddy to do it, too. He didn't so I did his for him and ended up doing 299 yesterday lol....glad my Steelers won with only 18 points today, I was sore
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At half time the call went up in the mens room looking for an offensive coordinator. We figured somebody in there could have done at least as good a job.
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Fam. I feel like all the staff is trying to have Drones do stuff in games that aren't his strengths to help his draft stock but they're putting the team in bad positions/exposing weaknesses unnecessarily.
If we're ahead by 21, go ahead and go heavy on the dropback throws. But if the game is in any kind of question, you use the best weapons in the arsenal.
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I think the same thing is happening. Did they manage to keep him on the roster by telling him they will work on making him a more rounded QB for the next level? Pure speculation here, but I don't think he has the talent for that, nor does our OL have the ability to protect for that length of time.
Go back to running the same offense that won down the stretch last year. Misdirection, inside/outside zone, use him as a battering ram in the run game. Unfortunately, he isn't a NFL QB. The priority should be winning football games and building the program, not chasing a pipe dream.
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Even if they did, they should immediately move away from that because it's hurting the entire team. His best path to being drafted is to execute our bread and butter and make tough passes when he has the opportunity.
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FAM! Avoided the CW stream hunting and took the (other) fam to some breweries for the afternoon and checked in periodically on my phone. Got chased from the first for a private event but a solid stress free afternoon compared to actually watching that first half. Or so it seems.
A wins a win though and sounded like the crowd came through. Shout out to all you who were there.
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FAM! Glad we got the win and it ended up being comfortable at the end. Tons of improvement from the defense (though they weren't tested much on option fundamentals) and the offense found itself in the second half. Let's hope this continues!
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Yeah this is my biggest takeaway thus far. The hype was just that. This team isn't particularly well coached or fun to watch. Think we will be in for a very bumpy ride which is disappointing now in year 3. But long season to go.
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FAM!!! I had a dinner reservation so I missed the whole 4th quarter...seemed like other than 2 awful plays in the 3rd, the defense did its job. As far as the offense, Clements has got to go...either that or scheme plays away from him.
Bowen needs to learn how to adjust quicker....Tuten averaged 7 yds a carry in the first half, but we were hellbound to pass the ball. The offense had much more of an identity in the second half, but we are far from a finished product and doesn't help improve my outlook for this year.
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.seemed like other than 2 awful plays in the 3rd, the defense did its job
The one long run accounted for half of Marshall's offensive production. and the 2nd touchdown was on the special teams punt team giving the ball to Marshall on the 6 yard line. All (well MOST teams besides US it seems) can score with first and goal in that position.
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When asked about that run Pry said "Yeah we didn't fit that and get him on the ground"... This has happened way too fucking much the past 10 years. We are showing teams something on film on defense - an alignment that takes one fucking block to spring a 60 yard run. Perhaps our "defensive" head coach could get this cleaned up.
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I've watched a decent bit of other ACC action today, and I will say this: barring a miraculous turnaround, we are going to get boatraced by ACC teams. Miami and Clemson are leagues better than us, and even the lesser teams are going to feast on our OL. If Marve can call more games like today the D will hopefully give us a fighting chance (still not sold), but our offense is not ACC caliber at all. Not even close. To think we were actually thinking we had legit ACC aspirations this year...
I know we don't do coaching changes mid season at VT, but if I were Pry I would seriously consider some adjustments. Crooks has been abysmal at OL and honestly Brent Davis needs to manage our OL and run game moving forward. I'm 100% convinced it was him taking over things last year. Since he is a former OC, you almost have to wonder if he could take over the offense from here out. Bowen has shown an inability to adjust and his playcalling and slow starts are going to kill us.
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I've watched a decent bit of other ACC action today, and I will say this: barring a miraculous turnaround, we are going to get boatraced by ACC teams. Miami and Clemson are leagues better than us, and even the lesser teams are going to feast on our OL.
Isn't this the same as last year? Any team with a top 40ish front 7 destroyed our line, and the rest we were able to scheme around? Why would we expect anything different this year?
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I think you have to give Crooks more than one year to make chicken salad out of chicken shit before you judge his performance. He hasn't had a lot to work with.
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On one hand, I agree with you. I get that - especially at OL - it takes time to develop talent, which means we can't cycle the Fuente players out as quickly. I get the supply/demand issues in the portal.
On the other hand, we've seen other staffs at better, similar, and lesser programs help shitty lines improve. We saw this line take a BIG step back in year one, then (at best) return to 2021 levels.
I just don't know what the right balance of grace and critical-ness (for lack of two better words?) should be. I'm understanding of both views.
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I definitely understand the counter argument, but I also think that giving this unit its fourth position coach in five years (assuming he's replaced at the end of this season) probably won't magically make everything better. I guess the right hire theoretically could, but the odds are likely against it.
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It's not Crooks. He is a good college OL coach. He is exactly who we would be able to replace him with. No need to change for change sake unless we want to pay 1.5 million for an OL coach. The issue is all 3 elements to what makes a good OL- scheme, get rid of the ball, work together. Fans think " the ol sucks" when we get sacks, etc. Maybe so, but most often you can make your OL look a whole lot better with a good scheme and getting rid of the ball. that's 2 out of 3 things that make the play work. Blocking the guy in front of you is only one piece. Crooks is fine. Stu Holt? we can have THAT conversation. Sure.
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THIS. Our OL was bad last year but we schemed around it. The first half on Vandy we tried to just run inside zone with no misdirection and got stuffed 100 times. The first half during Marshall we tried vanilla drop back with 3-4 vertical routes and it was a jailbreak up front. Need to move the pocket and keep the DL moving laterally to help our very apparent weakness on this team.
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Yea the playcalling needs to be more varied. In the first half we were forcing the passing game which just invited the rush. In the second half we ran more, used play action, and moved the pocket. Suddenly, Drones had time to actually throw a deep ball!
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I was furious with Holt after year 1 and then he seemed to be good last year. Based on the last 2 weeks he seems to have regressed to his year 1 self or maybe even worse.
I forgot which thread I was in.
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That was a good football team right there. That's not the Marshall of old that would get pushed around; Charlie has them going in the right direction...
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The face on view of the Lane punt return TD, Gosnell laying out for that bomb, Felton TD, that one Lovett PBU, Delane pick, and honestly that one handed grab by the Marshall WR was probably the best play we're going to see in a Hokie game this year
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I only got to see a few minutes of the game live on tv, but I saw that and was shocked they didn't call OPI. Then I saw a few other plays on that drive where I was shocked they didn't call DPI - so at least they were consistent-ish.
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I will say this was one of the better officiated games I've seen recently, for any team. They let the guys play and never lost control of the game. Face masks and dangerous blocks got called.
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A win is a win I suppose. I intentionally did not watch the game, and in looking at the play-by-play we have a lot of work to do on offense. Too many 3-and-outs, too many penalties, and too many short passes. Take out Gosnell's long catch and Drones is 13/20 with 90 yards passing. I don't know if the poor O-line play is dictating our passing attack or if we're just unable to stretch the opposing team's secondary, but there is plenty to fix.
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The O-Line pass blocking was dreadful, but I think we also might be underselling how bad-to-mediocre Drones was. He was pressured way more often than you'd like to see, but his pocket presence was really bad. He was indecisive and slow to react, and when he did react he often made bad choices. And he looked timid when he ran for some reason. He looked like a guy making his first college start, not like a player we hoped to build a 10-win season around.
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He looks like a guy whose instincts are telling him to tuck it and run, but his brain is telling him he needs to show he can stay in the pocket and pass, so he just runs around for a while and throws it away. The constant pressure he's under isn't helping him improve at all. In fact, I fear it's reinforcing bad habits.
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I think this is it. He needs to use his legs because our OL is terrible, but he wants to show his ability to be a pocket passer and it's slowing down his decision making.
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I think they have tried to prep Drones for the NFL and have conditioned him to stay in the pocket and look downfield. Only explanation for it. He's just not an NFL-style drop back passing QB. And that's fine, he's still very talented. But I think he and the coaches are eyeing the draft for him and it's to the detriment of our offense.
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I hope that is what Drones is on-board with in terms of NFL prep. Our program doesn't exactly have a strong recent history of getting conventional QB's into the NFL. And, just by guessing at Pry's & Bowen's prior football roles before arriving at Tech, they don't have ANY experience getting a QB into the draft.
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I think personally the best draft prep is being in a successful offense first and foremost. Cam Newton played in a gimmicky Gus Malzahn offense and was a top pick and had a successful career. Jalen Hurts played in the air raid and is doing ok for himself. I think if we highlighted Drones strengths and put out an offense that was productive it would be better than forcing him to be something he's not.
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FAM! Advanced stats review thread on hold for the moment. Looks like the data aggregation for the third quarter is broken on ESPN. It ends with Daquan Felton's TD catch and says we didn't run another play the rest of the game.
Based on what is available, we were one AJ Turner-70 yard run away from holding the Marshall offense to a negative for each quarter. On offense, our first half EPA per play was significantly worse than against Vanderbilt (which doesn't take into account giving up a blocked punt).
But another +10 point second half offensive quarter shows that when things work, boy do they work.
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That is accurate though, as that play finished at the end of the quarter.
I don't think ESPN is going fix their box score data that the API pulls from but I could probably scrape the rest of the data from the ACC site. Would need to review the EPA/PPA methodology though.
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Missed the game as the wife and daughter decided we were going to go to the shore this weekend. Sounds like the first half was rough. Thankful they pulled it together in the second half. Hope for further improvement in game 3.
FAM to all.
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FAM! The CW announcers REALLY liked Lane stadium and the surrounding environs, as seen from the blimp helicopter.. Obviously they are unaware that weights weigh the same but it is nice to get a little love for the nice things we have.
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The helicopter was super weird. I didn't think about a terrorist threat, but the repeated announcements of #21 changing jersey numbers had me thinking something was up. It was like the intercom code phrases schools have for certain situations, and 911 dispatchers have with banks and other high value businesses.
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That thought crossed my mind too. I didn't realize the chopper was for TV. I thought it was security and I was thinking, man, that's a lot of fuel money just to have an extra set of eyes in the sky. At that point, just have a tethered drone in a good spot if you need eyes up high like that.
I'd still say that a few drones and a shit ton of batteries and chargers would cost less than the fuel they burned.
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PS- Was it me or was the person in charge of the Music in Lane this weekend just god awful? The timing and the way they played out Sandman and We Ready was just...off
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Also, I wish they wouldn't play music when the refs have their mics on. Oddly enough, I want to hear what they're saying even if they get boo'd at half the time.
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They had this issue last year for the first game. The sound system was too loud and the timing was off. It got better after that last year. Hopefully they make those adjustments for the next game. I also wish it didn't take the first game to figure it out each season.
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I can't stand all the music between plays. It helps the kids and family have a good time, but it distracts fans from the football. It literally just sucks the juice out of the fans. It used to be that fans would yell and scream between 1st and second 2nd downs, and especially between 2nd and 3rd. Like scream your face off through the entire play clock up until the snap. But now HokieVision and music are determined to distract fans from making noise between plays. They think it helps, but it doesn't. It is awful...even someone like me who loves yelling tends not to yell and scream over the music. And then they cut the music 2 seconds before the snap.
I also much prefer the old Enter Sandman days...cut the music right when the team leaves the tunnel and fans have to make the noise. Stop pumping noise, it makes the fans much quieter, it takes the fans out of it. Get back to relying on loud fans to have a loud stadium.
The crowd numbers were impressive. The stadium was full. But I've never heard fans be so quiet when our defense is on the field. And I blame HokieVision and the music. Let the fans be loud.
Oh well. We had a great time at the game! Family had a blast! First half in-game adjustments are bad bad bad. Kyron is struggling to give his receivers a chance knowing he has pressure coming every play.
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I've gone to a lot fewer football games over the past few years. Visiting this weekend (despite the great time I had overall) reminded me why: the interminable TV timeouts and the incessant noise from the Jumbotron.
It's not just Tech. NCSU and UNC here in the triangle are just as bad. It's awful.
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Nah, not really. You make an excellent point. There really isn't a need to have full-blast noise all the time, other than crowd noise. I'd like Rutgers to experience full crowd noise.
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My thoughts on Marshall... 1. They didn't totally maul our defensive front 7 like last year- so that's a win I suppose. 2. Without Lanes punt return (which he should have fair caught in 99% of situations) that offense/scoring was putrid and unacceptable in the first half. 3. I feel NO better when I hear the coaches say "welp we got together at half and decided to run the ball." WTF? how about an effective game plan BEFORE the fucking game kicks off? 4. Despite the win and decent second halves this year... zero people on this board are going to be happy if we sleep walk at the carrier dome and are down 24-3 at half. zero people. - Point being I am staring at 6-6 right now. I do not see a better than average team - at all. Could we improve? maybe. But the schedule gets tougher too. That's where I am- 6-6.
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you're more optimistic than I am. I think (HOPE!) we beat ODU. Rutgers I think will beat us like Vandy did. I think Miami, GT, Cuse and Clemson are all losses. I don't feel good about traveling to Stanford. BC is always tougher than it should be. I have no idea what Duke is gonna look like this year but I'm sure as hell glad we didn't have to play them last year. UVA is really the only solid win I see left on the schedule. I think if we get to 6-6 that will be kind of a surprise to me, based off these first two outings. And given the talent and experience we have, 6-6 would be a massive failure by this staff. I won't be shocked if we go 5-7 or worse. I'll be pleasantly surprised if we're 7-5 or better. I think it's highly unlikely that 8 wins is even in play at this point. Time will tell. We shall see. But the coaching just isn't there, IMO. I think if we go 6-6 and Pry doesn't make significant staff changes in the off season we're going to be in a world of hurt for the next several years. At least.
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We are not as good as I thought we would be. I know it's 2 games, but a really good team blows out Vandy and Marshall. And let me say this now- in year 3 with a proven QB, the NIL and portal era and with legit offensive weapons and veterans all over the defense.... if we are up 4 Saturday with 2 mins left and lose the game- I am done with Brent Pry. I will never take him seriously if we blow a late lead and lose to ODU. I thought this game would be a laugher because we were better, but we aren't. Our program is at a point where we are basically nip and tuck with Old Dominion. That is simply the facts. That is not about luck or execution or recruiting etc. It's simply where we are. We are in the Marshall/ODU tier right now. We had a 3 point lead at half in Lane against Marshall. We lost to them last year. Its who we are right now. Lower tier ACC G5 type team. IF we fire on all cylinders, sure we can beat a GT or Cuse, etc. but the program as a whole is right around where ODU is. So it won't be easy on Saturday, and if we aren't prepared to execute at a higher level and we lose, I am done with Pry officially. He won't build the program to where we want it losing to ODU twice. He won't.
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ODU: Until we win in Norfolk I'm not chalking that up as a W
Rutgers: Not a snowballs chance. Rutgers will be, by far, the most physical and best team we've faced. We aren't ready.
Miami: Not sure we keep this competitive. I could see us losing by 28+
Stanford: After two physical games and a long flight I'm not convinced about this game.
BC: Another extremely physical team that has a strength where we have a weakness. They will run all over us.
GT: Another pretty good team. Again, much more physical and disciplined than VT.
Clemson: Yikes... Much like the Miami game. Wouldn't be surprised to see us lose by 28+
Duke: I could see a win here.
UVA: Win.
All in all, I only see 2-3 winnable games left on the schedule. I don't think we win games on the road and I don't think we can compete with the physical P4 teams that come into Lane this year.
And like you said, it's a damn shame. We have a veteran squad that has regressed from last season. If we finish the season with 3-4 wins I'll tap out on Coach Pry. Unless he makes major staff changes.
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Not on their level at this stage of the VT Program: Clemson, Miami.. we will not win those games with the takent we have at this stage.
On their level- Stanford, Duke, UVA, BC- I still believe this.
Toss up - GT
Saturday will tell us something. We go in there, get the offense cranking, play sound defense, defend the run and win by 28? That changes my opinion a bit. We win by 10, struggle to move the ball? yeah not going to be a good year.
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Totally agree here and would add Syracuse to the "Toss up" category.
The bummer of all of this and the question I am asking is, is this our ceiling now? Meaning same level as Stanford, BC, etc.
We are going to lose a ton of production on offense next year and we already suck on offense so far this year. Pry has yet to figure out the defense and we'll lose a lot of starters there next year too.
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Yes this is our ceiling now. Why? Justin Fuente burned the program to the ground, and Whit's response was a first time head coach and 2 first time coordinators. You think he was serious about football? Beating Clemson and FSU? no we was not. So until he is serious about football, your ceiling is Dave Dorean. Your ceiling is NOT FSU, Clemson, Penn State, etc. So we need to re-set expectations until Whit gets serious about football.
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Haha... yes. Somehow I forgot Syracuse. But no, I don't see that as a win since they are playing better than us right now and we haven't won up there in 25 years or so.
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She holds it up as a signal for the somebody on the field to murder/mangle somebody on the next play? Or was that their signal to have a fake cramp and get a free time out?
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"She" is actually the guy from Michigan in disguise who has moved south now that Harbaugh is gone. The doll's eyes are actually a binocular digital camera trying to steal the signs.
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Offensive Line (Send Clements back to the cornfields, he's fucking awful... I am almost convinced he has black mail on Pry... There's no way we don't have anyone better than him)
Student fanbase (emptied out at halftime... yes yes yes, college kids gonna college but damn, in my day, I couldn't ever leave a game early)
Quick Note/Observation: I wouldn't be surprised if we see Christian Fitzpatrick in the portal as a grad transfer after this year. Seems like he would be a solid pick up for us with a lot of new WR's starting next year.
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Offensive Line (Send Clements back to the cornfields, he's fucking awful... I am almost convinced he has black mail on Pry... There's no way we don't have anyone better than him)
Going back and reading French's notes on Cunningham from when he committed out of the portal, I can't believe he hasn't gotten a snap yet. There's no way he's worse than Clements. Is this some weird "showing respect to a senior player" situation?
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Nah- OL coaches determine who plays. OL coaches that coach for their living and put food on the table, don't play players because they are seniors. They play the best guys.
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This is a great point. VT Football hasn't been fun to watch in over a decade. It's easy for me to look at the students and shake my head because they leave games early when we never did as students. At the same time, the product on the field stinks. Hard to blame them for not sticking around. If our team was actually good to watch maybe they'd stick around like we used to
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I mean.... NEZ is usually always filled. Did they show up for beginning of game, absolutely... But the usual 50% peace out at halftime. I get we've sucked/been mediocre for last few years (even decade) but maybe it's just me... I was at VT during some not so great years and still couldn't imagine leaving early, especially when I knew game wasn't going into the night. The game ended at like 7:30 pm. Plenty of time for hitting up bars/parties/chasing tail.
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Yeah it's always filled, but an hour before kickoff? I never left a game early as a student. First one I ever left early was the infamous JMU game. But from 03-07 we were kicking ass at football. 10 win seasons. It was worth staying because Bud's defensive players could do something ridiculous at any time. I'm not sure I would stay if the game was in hand as a student today.
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Is a VT game ever really "in hand"? Very rarely and I have sen monstrous comebacks quite often from both VT and opponents- think about that BC 2007 game (that never happened)- with three minutes to go and how it had gone to that point, I doubt anyone but BC team would have imagined the comeback in those last 2 minutes.
No lead is safe and no deficit is impossible no matter how improbable(See 2018 UVA -VT)
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Comments
Let's all pretend the first half didn't happen fam!
For this whole season so far.
fam
Glad we were able to grind it out and assert ourselves. One step at a time.
FAM, may we never play on the CW again.
I enjoyed the minimal number of commercial breaks... just not the constant boner pill ones
BlueChew!
Is BlueChew the new Spurtle? Lol
It's nuts!
No, the Spurtle will forever be superior.
"Hard things together..."
I thought people use BlueChew so they CAN Spurtle?!?
As a fan at the game, the minimal long commercial breaks was really nice. My mind is also more at ease now that Mr. Redshirt man has a big timer on a stick.
Watched the whole game with my 6-year-old twins, and fortunately they never asked what those commercials were about.
my 5 year old daughter said "I should ask my doctor about that?"
My 11 year old twins asked.
Sure beats spurtle commercials, if only for a change of pace.
Spurtle sounds like a reason for Bluechew
I liked the ump cam camera shots, little else. The glare and shadow was the biggest headache.
That glare and shadow was rough in the East Stands too!
Glad to get the win fam!!
Unamused FAM
We won!
I welcome all my fellow Hokies to my football health journey and do 1 push-up per point scored, Corps of Cadets style, this season.
We only got to 99 this game (by padding my own stats with 10 good luck/faith halftime push-ups), but a win is a win!
Let's go!!
Edit: corps not mascots ftw
"Mascot style"
That's a Corps of Cadets thing.
Corps of Cadets style, it is!
I'm with you though. Helps me burn off all the bourbon during games. Every year, I'm gladder and gladder we barely have an offense.
When I was just starting out as a teacher, a gym teacher I was helping out was trying to give examples of how to fit exercise into our students' daily routines.
Knowing most of them were Madden players and myself also being a gamer with NCAA probably 08 at that point, I mentioned what I did, not being much for devoting time to exercise, doing Corps of Cadets style pushups during the game, then sit-ups for the total number of points scored, then jumping jacks for time of possession advantage.
I challenged our students to do that while playing on Freshman difficulty with 15 minute quarters.
How many children has this killed?
I've always played varsity on 5 min quarters, and I'm confident I wouldn't have lived past 5th grade doing that program.
they weren't that good.
normally, I would gladly join you. I think I over did it with push ups a few months ago and screwed my shoulder up big time, can't do push ups or dips.
I'll hit some body weight squats though
It all plays!
I tried to convince my Southern Cal buddy to do it, too. He didn't so I did his for him and ended up doing 299 yesterday lol....glad my Steelers won with only 18 points today, I was sore
Any win is a good win FAM!!
As long as we don't have major injuries!
We beat the CW curse!!
Tyler bowen apparently hates first halves fam!!
Well, he's certainly made the fans hate them.
At half time the call went up in the mens room looking for an offensive coordinator. We figured somebody in there could have done at least as good a job.
Sir, this is the FAM thread, not the Dad Jokes thread!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Dads are often integral parts of FAMs
FAM !!
CUBAN SANDWICHES AND BEER FAMMMMMMM!
More relieved than anything Fam
First win of the season FAM
Hal-le-FAM-lu-jah
Beating a team we lost to last year FAM
The numbers don't add up but that's cool fam
these numbers add up better than the commentator subtracing 14 from 31
You mean it wasn't a 2 score game! Every time he said it, I yelled at the TV, a 17 point lead is a 3 score game, you dumb ass.
Is there a black hole in Lane Stadium where even time can't escape?
ESPN game cast is missing stats as well. Prioleau only shows 2 carries and he had at least 7. Probably didn't update the last 9 minutes of the game.
That's ok, we didn't watch the last 9 minutes!
Fam!!!!
Jeez...theres almost 9 minutes unaccounted for.
FAM to everyone that made it through that game
FAM?
Fam. I feel like all the staff is trying to have Drones do stuff in games that aren't his strengths to help his draft stock but they're putting the team in bad positions/exposing weaknesses unnecessarily.
If we're ahead by 21, go ahead and go heavy on the dropback throws. But if the game is in any kind of question, you use the best weapons in the arsenal.
I think the same thing is happening. Did they manage to keep him on the roster by telling him they will work on making him a more rounded QB for the next level? Pure speculation here, but I don't think he has the talent for that, nor does our OL have the ability to protect for that length of time.
Go back to running the same offense that won down the stretch last year. Misdirection, inside/outside zone, use him as a battering ram in the run game. Unfortunately, he isn't a NFL QB. The priority should be winning football games and building the program, not chasing a pipe dream.
Even if they did, they should immediately move away from that because it's hurting the entire team. His best path to being drafted is to execute our bread and butter and make tough passes when he has the opportunity.
FAM! Avoided the CW stream hunting and took the (other) fam to some breweries for the afternoon and checked in periodically on my phone. Got chased from the first for a private event but a solid stress free afternoon compared to actually watching that first half. Or so it seems.
A wins a win though and sounded like the crowd came through. Shout out to all you who were there.
FAM! Glad we got the win and it ended up being comfortable at the end. Tons of improvement from the defense (though they weren't tested much on option fundamentals) and the offense found itself in the second half. Let's hope this continues!
FAM!! So glad to have won, but we really aren't a very good team. Maybe not as good as last year. Happy, but.....
Yeah this is my biggest takeaway thus far. The hype was just that. This team isn't particularly well coached or fun to watch. Think we will be in for a very bumpy ride which is disappointing now in year 3. But long season to go.
solid defensive effort. love that
FAM to the second half. But dear god that first half...our o-line is prodigiously bad. Gonna get worked in ACC play.
FAM!!! I had a dinner reservation so I missed the whole 4th quarter...seemed like other than 2 awful plays in the 3rd, the defense did its job. As far as the offense, Clements has got to go...either that or scheme plays away from him.
Bowen needs to learn how to adjust quicker....Tuten averaged 7 yds a carry in the first half, but we were hellbound to pass the ball. The offense had much more of an identity in the second half, but we are far from a finished product and doesn't help improve my outlook for this year.
The one long run accounted for half of Marshall's offensive production. and the 2nd touchdown was on the special teams punt team giving the ball to Marshall on the 6 yard line. All (well MOST teams besides US it seems) can score with first and goal in that position.
When asked about that run Pry said "Yeah we didn't fit that and get him on the ground"... This has happened way too fucking much the past 10 years. We are showing teams something on film on defense - an alignment that takes one fucking block to spring a 60 yard run. Perhaps our "defensive" head coach could get this cleaned up.
At least Strong caught him from behind....proof why you never give up when you get beat!
We're still in trouble fam
Hokies leaning into the run game FAM!
Fam! Shoutout to whoever reminds Bowen at halftime that Tuten exists.
FTFY
Not a pretty win, but the streak has to start somewhere. FAM!
I've watched a decent bit of other ACC action today, and I will say this: barring a miraculous turnaround, we are going to get boatraced by ACC teams. Miami and Clemson are leagues better than us, and even the lesser teams are going to feast on our OL. If Marve can call more games like today the D will hopefully give us a fighting chance (still not sold), but our offense is not ACC caliber at all. Not even close. To think we were actually thinking we had legit ACC aspirations this year...
I know we don't do coaching changes mid season at VT, but if I were Pry I would seriously consider some adjustments. Crooks has been abysmal at OL and honestly Brent Davis needs to manage our OL and run game moving forward. I'm 100% convinced it was him taking over things last year. Since he is a former OC, you almost have to wonder if he could take over the offense from here out. Bowen has shown an inability to adjust and his playcalling and slow starts are going to kill us.
Isn't this the same as last year? Any team with a top 40ish front 7 destroyed our line, and the rest we were able to scheme around? Why would we expect anything different this year?
I think you have to give Crooks more than one year to make chicken salad out of chicken shit before you judge his performance. He hasn't had a lot to work with.
On one hand, I agree with you. I get that - especially at OL - it takes time to develop talent, which means we can't cycle the Fuente players out as quickly. I get the supply/demand issues in the portal.
On the other hand, we've seen other staffs at better, similar, and lesser programs help shitty lines improve. We saw this line take a BIG step back in year one, then (at best) return to 2021 levels.
I just don't know what the right balance of grace and critical-ness (for lack of two better words?) should be. I'm understanding of both views.
I definitely understand the counter argument, but I also think that giving this unit its fourth position coach in five years (assuming he's replaced at the end of this season) probably won't magically make everything better. I guess the right hire theoretically could, but the odds are likely against it.
I tend to agree with you - it would be nice if the OL recruits from the last 2-3 years were able to develop under a single coach.
But I understand why reasonable fans are frustrated with the status of the OL.
Isn't this his second year?
He was hired late. Basically had half of fall camp before last season. Full spring/fall camp this season.
It's not Crooks. He is a good college OL coach. He is exactly who we would be able to replace him with. No need to change for change sake unless we want to pay 1.5 million for an OL coach. The issue is all 3 elements to what makes a good OL- scheme, get rid of the ball, work together. Fans think " the ol sucks" when we get sacks, etc. Maybe so, but most often you can make your OL look a whole lot better with a good scheme and getting rid of the ball. that's 2 out of 3 things that make the play work. Blocking the guy in front of you is only one piece. Crooks is fine. Stu Holt? we can have THAT conversation. Sure.
THIS. Our OL was bad last year but we schemed around it. The first half on Vandy we tried to just run inside zone with no misdirection and got stuffed 100 times. The first half during Marshall we tried vanilla drop back with 3-4 vertical routes and it was a jailbreak up front. Need to move the pocket and keep the DL moving laterally to help our very apparent weakness on this team.
Yea the playcalling needs to be more varied. In the first half we were forcing the passing game which just invited the rush. In the second half we ran more, used play action, and moved the pocket. Suddenly, Drones had time to actually throw a deep ball!
I think there is a reason that when I play CFB25 the only recommended runplays are inside zone
I was furious with Holt after year 1 and then he seemed to be good last year. Based on the last 2 weeks he seems to have regressed to his year 1 self or maybe even worse.I forgot which thread I was in.
So I'm thinking Dante will be a dbu legend
Mansour had a great game, keep it up
One of my biggest takeaways was that I feel good about one of the corner spots next year with Lovett. Seems like a dog.
That one PI that he got it too look like both were fighting was really smooth
FAM
That was a good football team right there. That's not the Marshall of old that would get pushed around; Charlie has them going in the right direction...
If your last name is Gosnell, you're expected to get 1st downs. Every time. God bless their momma.
Play calling was bad
Defense was solid
It's a win
New uniforms 🔥 FAM!
The Ump Cam!
FAM!
as X2 said in the game thread... the DRUNK cam. I got a headache!
It took awhile to get used to the ump camera, but I liked it. That's the closest I'll ever get to being on the field for the HOKIES!
1:00 AM Sunday finished watching the recording FAM!
Some good, some (OLine) bad.
Should I cook up a GIFTORY today?
If so, does anyone have any suggestions?
Every Parker Clements whiff
not enough bandwidth!
Parker Clements running over Kyron again.
Oh fuck, when was that?
The face on view of the Lane punt return TD, Gosnell laying out for that bomb, Felton TD, that one Lovett PBU, Delane pick, and honestly that one handed grab by the Marshall WR was probably the best play we're going to see in a Hokie game this year
That was an amazing catch that was 100% OPI. It was so good that I didn't care he pushed delsne and kept he arm extended.
Yeah, he had him by the collar.
We were trying to figure why the ref didn't call OPI. Figured he was too stunned by the catch.
I only got to see a few minutes of the game live on tv, but I saw that and was shocked they didn't call OPI. Then I saw a few other plays on that drive where I was shocked they didn't call DPI - so at least they were consistent-ish.
I will say this was one of the better officiated games I've seen recently, for any team. They let the guys play and never lost control of the game. Face masks and dangerous blocks got called.
Any part of the Lane punt return for a TD. That was awesome.
Tuten run where he had good blocking.
Gosnell catch (2:17 left in first half).
Gosnell catch (6:17 left in 3rd)
Fuga tackle (4:14 left in 3rd)
One handed catch by Fitzpatrick (12:41 left in 4th). Gotta give him cred for that, wowza)
A win is a win I suppose. I intentionally did not watch the game, and in looking at the play-by-play we have a lot of work to do on offense. Too many 3-and-outs, too many penalties, and too many short passes. Take out Gosnell's long catch and Drones is 13/20 with 90 yards passing. I don't know if the poor O-line play is dictating our passing attack or if we're just unable to stretch the opposing team's secondary, but there is plenty to fix.
The O-Line pass blocking was dreadful, but I think we also might be underselling how bad-to-mediocre Drones was. He was pressured way more often than you'd like to see, but his pocket presence was really bad. He was indecisive and slow to react, and when he did react he often made bad choices. And he looked timid when he ran for some reason. He looked like a guy making his first college start, not like a player we hoped to build a 10-win season around.
He looks like a guy whose instincts are telling him to tuck it and run, but his brain is telling him he needs to show he can stay in the pocket and pass, so he just runs around for a while and throws it away. The constant pressure he's under isn't helping him improve at all. In fact, I fear it's reinforcing bad habits.
I think this is it. He needs to use his legs because our OL is terrible, but he wants to show his ability to be a pocket passer and it's slowing down his decision making.
I think they have tried to prep Drones for the NFL and have conditioned him to stay in the pocket and look downfield. Only explanation for it. He's just not an NFL-style drop back passing QB. And that's fine, he's still very talented. But I think he and the coaches are eyeing the draft for him and it's to the detriment of our offense.
I hope that is what Drones is on-board with in terms of NFL prep. Our program doesn't exactly have a strong recent history of getting conventional QB's into the NFL. And, just by guessing at Pry's & Bowen's prior football roles before arriving at Tech, they don't have ANY experience getting a QB into the draft.
I think personally the best draft prep is being in a successful offense first and foremost. Cam Newton played in a gimmicky Gus Malzahn offense and was a top pick and had a successful career. Jalen Hurts played in the air raid and is doing ok for himself. I think if we highlighted Drones strengths and put out an offense that was productive it would be better than forcing him to be something he's not.
wrong thread FAM
We went 1-0 this week FAM!
FAM! Advanced stats review thread on hold for the moment. Looks like the data aggregation for the third quarter is broken on ESPN. It ends with Daquan Felton's TD catch and says we didn't run another play the rest of the game.
Based on what is available, we were one AJ Turner-70 yard run away from holding the Marshall offense to a negative for each quarter. On offense, our first half EPA per play was significantly worse than against Vanderbilt (which doesn't take into account giving up a blocked punt).
But another +10 point second half offensive quarter shows that when things work, boy do they work.
It also has the punt return TD occurring at 0:00 time expired in the first quarter.
That is accurate though, as that play finished at the end of the quarter.
I don't think ESPN is going fix their box score data that the API pulls from but I could probably scrape the rest of the data from the ACC site. Would need to review the EPA/PPA methodology though.
Can we start games in the 3rd quarter please? /s sorta
Missed the game as the wife and daughter decided we were going to go to the shore this weekend. Sounds like the first half was rough. Thankful they pulled it together in the second half. Hope for further improvement in game 3.
FAM to all.
FAM! The CW announcers REALLY liked Lane stadium and the surrounding environs, as seen from the
blimphelicopter.. Obviously they are unaware that weights weigh the same but it is nice to get a little love for the nice things we have.That helicopter freaked people in the stands out. People were wondering if there was a terrorist threat at the game.
The helicopter was super weird. I didn't think about a terrorist threat, but the repeated announcements of #21 changing jersey numbers had me thinking something was up. It was like the intercom code phrases schools have for certain situations, and 911 dispatchers have with banks and other high value businesses.
You would think a drone would have been cheaper than to pay for a helicopter to circle for over three hours.
That thought crossed my mind too. I didn't realize the chopper was for TV. I thought it was security and I was thinking, man, that's a lot of fuel money just to have an extra set of eyes in the sky. At that point, just have a tethered drone in a good spot if you need eyes up high like that.
I'd still say that a few drones and a shit ton of batteries and chargers would cost less than the fuel they burned.
There was at least one Drones in the stadium but I'm not sure if that was cheaper to pay for.
Rumor has it at least one Drones in that Stadium is getting a million a year.
Sounds like a good time to be in the Drones business. Hopefully the investors can get some ROI
FAM! Late to the party since I just got home from Blacksburg, but progress was made!
Yup. Just keep getting better every week.
Late to the party, but FAM!
PS- Was it me or was the person in charge of the Music in Lane this weekend just god awful? The timing and the way they played out Sandman and We Ready was just...off
Also, I wish they wouldn't play music when the refs have their mics on. Oddly enough, I want to hear what they're saying even if they get boo'd at half the time.
They had this issue last year for the first game. The sound system was too loud and the timing was off. It got better after that last year. Hopefully they make those adjustments for the next game. I also wish it didn't take the first game to figure it out each season.
I can't stand all the music between plays. It helps the kids and family have a good time, but it distracts fans from the football. It literally just sucks the juice out of the fans. It used to be that fans would yell and scream between 1st and second 2nd downs, and especially between 2nd and 3rd. Like scream your face off through the entire play clock up until the snap. But now HokieVision and music are determined to distract fans from making noise between plays. They think it helps, but it doesn't. It is awful...even someone like me who loves yelling tends not to yell and scream over the music. And then they cut the music 2 seconds before the snap.
I also much prefer the old Enter Sandman days...cut the music right when the team leaves the tunnel and fans have to make the noise. Stop pumping noise, it makes the fans much quieter, it takes the fans out of it. Get back to relying on loud fans to have a loud stadium.
The crowd numbers were impressive. The stadium was full. But I've never heard fans be so quiet when our defense is on the field. And I blame HokieVision and the music. Let the fans be loud.
Oh well. We had a great time at the game! Family had a blast! First half in-game adjustments are bad bad bad. Kyron is struggling to give his receivers a chance knowing he has pressure coming every play.
I've gone to a lot fewer football games over the past few years. Visiting this weekend (despite the great time I had overall) reminded me why: the interminable TV timeouts and the incessant noise from the Jumbotron.
It's not just Tech. NCSU and UNC here in the triangle are just as bad. It's awful.
Needs more cowbell.
Nah, not really. You make an excellent point. There really isn't a need to have full-blast noise all the time, other than crowd noise. I'd like Rutgers to experience full crowd noise.
My thoughts on Marshall... 1. They didn't totally maul our defensive front 7 like last year- so that's a win I suppose. 2. Without Lanes punt return (which he should have fair caught in 99% of situations) that offense/scoring was putrid and unacceptable in the first half. 3. I feel NO better when I hear the coaches say "welp we got together at half and decided to run the ball." WTF? how about an effective game plan BEFORE the fucking game kicks off? 4. Despite the win and decent second halves this year... zero people on this board are going to be happy if we sleep walk at the carrier dome and are down 24-3 at half. zero people. - Point being I am staring at 6-6 right now. I do not see a better than average team - at all. Could we improve? maybe. But the schedule gets tougher too. That's where I am- 6-6.
you're more optimistic than I am. I think (HOPE!) we beat ODU. Rutgers I think will beat us like Vandy did. I think Miami, GT, Cuse and Clemson are all losses. I don't feel good about traveling to Stanford. BC is always tougher than it should be. I have no idea what Duke is gonna look like this year but I'm sure as hell glad we didn't have to play them last year. UVA is really the only solid win I see left on the schedule. I think if we get to 6-6 that will be kind of a surprise to me, based off these first two outings. And given the talent and experience we have, 6-6 would be a massive failure by this staff. I won't be shocked if we go 5-7 or worse. I'll be pleasantly surprised if we're 7-5 or better. I think it's highly unlikely that 8 wins is even in play at this point. Time will tell. We shall see. But the coaching just isn't there, IMO. I think if we go 6-6 and Pry doesn't make significant staff changes in the off season we're going to be in a world of hurt for the next several years. At least.
This also tracks with kford ratings we're now down to a projected 6.4 wins down from 7.8 when the season started.
https://kfordratings.com/projections
We are not as good as I thought we would be. I know it's 2 games, but a really good team blows out Vandy and Marshall. And let me say this now- in year 3 with a proven QB, the NIL and portal era and with legit offensive weapons and veterans all over the defense.... if we are up 4 Saturday with 2 mins left and lose the game- I am done with Brent Pry. I will never take him seriously if we blow a late lead and lose to ODU. I thought this game would be a laugher because we were better, but we aren't. Our program is at a point where we are basically nip and tuck with Old Dominion. That is simply the facts. That is not about luck or execution or recruiting etc. It's simply where we are. We are in the Marshall/ODU tier right now. We had a 3 point lead at half in Lane against Marshall. We lost to them last year. Its who we are right now. Lower tier ACC G5 type team. IF we fire on all cylinders, sure we can beat a GT or Cuse, etc. but the program as a whole is right around where ODU is. So it won't be easy on Saturday, and if we aren't prepared to execute at a higher level and we lose, I am done with Pry officially. He won't build the program to where we want it losing to ODU twice. He won't.
I'm not sure I even see 6 wins TBH...
ODU: Until we win in Norfolk I'm not chalking that up as a W
Rutgers: Not a snowballs chance. Rutgers will be, by far, the most physical and best team we've faced. We aren't ready.
Miami: Not sure we keep this competitive. I could see us losing by 28+
Stanford: After two physical games and a long flight I'm not convinced about this game.
BC: Another extremely physical team that has a strength where we have a weakness. They will run all over us.
GT: Another pretty good team. Again, much more physical and disciplined than VT.
Clemson: Yikes... Much like the Miami game. Wouldn't be surprised to see us lose by 28+
Duke: I could see a win here.
UVA: Win.
All in all, I only see 2-3 winnable games left on the schedule. I don't think we win games on the road and I don't think we can compete with the physical P4 teams that come into Lane this year.
And like you said, it's a damn shame. We have a veteran squad that has regressed from last season. If we finish the season with 3-4 wins I'll tap out on Coach Pry. Unless he makes major staff changes.
Not on their level at this stage of the VT Program: Clemson, Miami.. we will not win those games with the takent we have at this stage.
On their level- Stanford, Duke, UVA, BC- I still believe this.
Toss up - GT
Saturday will tell us something. We go in there, get the offense cranking, play sound defense, defend the run and win by 28? That changes my opinion a bit. We win by 10, struggle to move the ball? yeah not going to be a good year.
Totally agree here and would add Syracuse to the "Toss up" category.
The bummer of all of this and the question I am asking is, is this our ceiling now? Meaning same level as Stanford, BC, etc.
We are going to lose a ton of production on offense next year and we already suck on offense so far this year. Pry has yet to figure out the defense and we'll lose a lot of starters there next year too.
Yes this is our ceiling now. Why? Justin Fuente burned the program to the ground, and Whit's response was a first time head coach and 2 first time coordinators. You think he was serious about football? Beating Clemson and FSU? no we was not. So until he is serious about football, your ceiling is Dave Dorean. Your ceiling is NOT FSU, Clemson, Penn State, etc. So we need to re-set expectations until Whit gets serious about football.
Was at Syracuse not even worth mentioning because of...[gestures at everything]?
Haha... yes. Somehow I forgot Syracuse. But no, I don't see that as a win since they are playing better than us right now and we haven't won up there in 25 years or so.
Can someone please explain to me what job this lady has to hold a creepy Chucky doll the entire game?
She holds it up as a signal for the somebody on the field to murder/mangle somebody on the next play? Or was that their signal to have a fake cramp and get a free time out?
"She" is actually the guy from Michigan in disguise who has moved south now that Harbaugh is gone. The doll's eyes are actually a binocular digital camera trying to steal the signs.
Boy if we're sign stealing and still struggling that's sayin' something.
I figured he was working for Marshall. The binocular camera is focused across the field at the Tech sideline.
Good:
Bad/Horrendous:
Quick Note/Observation:
I wouldn't be surprised if we see Christian Fitzpatrick in the portal as a grad transfer after this year. Seems like he would be a solid pick up for us with a lot of new WR's starting next year.
Going back and reading French's notes on Cunningham from when he committed out of the portal, I can't believe he hasn't gotten a snap yet. There's no way he's worse than Clements. Is this some weird "showing respect to a senior player" situation?
Nah- OL coaches determine who plays. OL coaches that coach for their living and put food on the table, don't play players because they are seniors. They play the best guys.
To the students' credit, they were there early and ready to go. I got to my seats with 56 minutes left on the pregame clock and the NEZ was filled.
Agreed. Students showed up...offense didn't. Don't blame the students for leaving for more entertaining things in these short attention span times.
This is a great point. VT Football hasn't been fun to watch in over a decade. It's easy for me to look at the students and shake my head because they leave games early when we never did as students. At the same time, the product on the field stinks. Hard to blame them for not sticking around. If our team was actually good to watch maybe they'd stick around like we used to
I mean.... NEZ is usually always filled. Did they show up for beginning of game, absolutely... But the usual 50% peace out at halftime. I get we've sucked/been mediocre for last few years (even decade) but maybe it's just me... I was at VT during some not so great years and still couldn't imagine leaving early, especially when I knew game wasn't going into the night. The game ended at like 7:30 pm. Plenty of time for hitting up bars/parties/chasing tail.
Yeah it's always filled, but an hour before kickoff? I never left a game early as a student. First one I ever left early was the infamous JMU game. But from 03-07 we were kicking ass at football. 10 win seasons. It was worth staying because Bud's defensive players could do something ridiculous at any time. I'm not sure I would stay if the game was in hand as a student today.
Is a VT game ever really "in hand"? Very rarely and I have sen monstrous comebacks quite often from both VT and opponents- think about that BC 2007 game (that never happened)- with three minutes to go and how it had gone to that point, I doubt anyone but BC team would have imagined the comeback in those last 2 minutes.
No lead is safe and no deficit is impossible no matter how improbable(See 2018 UVA -VT)
so am i hearing things or did pry (?) scream "RUN RUN RUN" to jlane before he could even think about fair catching?