I think the postgame pressers tend to have a little less coach speak, and Pry talks a bit more openly about scheme or specific plays/personnel. Anything with quotes around it is a direct quote, everything else is paraphrased.
The coach speak:
- Aaron Rouse (VT Football alum and state senator) talked to the team at breakfast today, presumably giving some sort of motivational speach
- The fast start was very important, otherwise it would've been more of a dog fight. Bitter circled back to this later, and Pry mentioned that this was a point of emphasis all week.
- We played better, but "no where near" what we need to do.
- "we're making good adjustments at half time"
On specific players:
- "We had to commit to [the run game]. Sometimes you need a little patience, and just keep handing it off to 33. I wanted to see what he could do. He was banged up a little bit. And the true dog came out. He wanted the ball, despite the injury, and he came through for us"
- APR had 4 sacks, tying Bruce Smith's single game record. Bruce was in attendance, as were a lot of APR's family/friends.
- Chaplin injured early, but will be fine, Xray is fine. Pry was impressed with Johnny Garrett's ability to hop in and play the whole game (my words, not his). Complemented 'Johnny' a few times.
- Lane was injured most of camp (I don't remember this being a thing, but maybe I missed it?) - Pry says he's finally "greased up" and "feeling like himself"
- Keli is a bit banged up but Kaleb is practicing well and earning playtime
On the defense:
- On the two big runs we gave up - the first was a miscommunication: "one of the guys thought he heard something that put both of them on dive, putting them both on the QB. That can't happen." On the other one we "missed the fit." Pry said "that's going to happen sometimes, but it has to be 10 or 20 yards, not 30, 40, [or] 50."
- The goal was to force ODU to drive the length of the field over and over again, because he didn't think they could.
- On ODU's third string QB - they watched his high school film and knew he would be a threat given his speed. He talked a bit about how this influenced their defensive strategy.
- When asked what changed in the third quarter, Pry talked about minimizing explosives and making them drive the field. They controlled the QB in the ally, and the DBs did a nice job.
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The 4 sacks in a game is held by APR, Bruce, and JC Price. So some one is gonna get yelled at by his DLine coach later
Only APR and Bruce have done it twice, sorry coach
This result has to be taken with a bit of a grain of salt because of ODU's QB situation, but there's no doubt that VT has played progressively better in each of its first three games.
It's clear at this point in the season that Virginia Tech is a running team on offense, and struggles to stop the run on defense. It is what it is. It's the job of the coaching staff to make it work as well as possible. Are we capable of winning 9 or 10 games in the regular season? Very unlikely. But we're probably good enough to still reasonably hope for 8-4 and maybe a bowl win.
We have played 3 bad teams and looked meh for much of it. Still screams 6-6 ish to me.
6 and 6 or 7 and 5 looks likely. We have Rutgers, the u, Syracuse, bc, Clemson, and gt to navigate through . Wishing for 3 and 3 for these games
Hahah, well I did say "reasonably" and "hope." Not "expect."
That being said, we are one inexplicably foolish duplicate jersey penalty away from being 3-0, although it would admittedly be an uneasy 3-0.
Even with the Vanderbilt loss, this roster is still 7-3 in its last 10 games, with all 7 wins by 17 or more points (average margin of victory 23.8 points). We haven't played great in 2024 so far, but we aren't totally hapless either.
I don't think it came out during camp but Pry did say after the Vandy game that Lane was banged up which was why they had Jennings returning punts (leading to ZeroGate)
The reason those are long runs is because both the QB and the RB were better athletes than our entire defense. Once they got loose, not a single Hokie defender had enough speed to catch either one. That is where we are right now as a program.
I dont think the 2nd TD was because of athletism, #43 ran the wrong way and there wasn't any one behind him to clean up
I'm certainly being a bit sarcastic, but generally speaking, we need to elevate the athleticism on this team significantly
Honestly, I think we have to many athletes and not enough guys that can do what they're ask to do well. Keli Lawson is wildly athletic, but I watched bumfield shed a guard and make a nice tackle that haven't even seen Lawson do that. Bud made his name on guys that weren't athletic, but he made them work in his system and they got to the right place at the right time.
That's not to say we don't need more athletes, but I'd take a Vince Hall or cody grimm any day of the week.
Why does it feel like every play we run, it's the first time it has ever been called/practiced? VT offense has been this way for some time IMO. Slow, timing is off, passes are just off, missed assignments, etc.