The writing was on the wall all year. Not being able to overtake Drones as starter was pretty damning evidence he had no chance. With a new HC and what I considered much better QB talent coming on to the team I think this is the only move if he wants to continue to play the QB position anywhere.
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Pop joins Quincy Patterson under the heading of "guys I got way too far out over my skis about." I thought both of them could have been the QBs to make VT relevant again at different times. Turns out those times are the times where I'm just an incurable homer.
If he leaves, his name will go where Drones' name used to be down below.
ugh I'm going to have to put the caveat of "Undefeated vs UVA in a VT uniform" aren't I
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I went to this HC event in the offseason before 2018 and Fuente was speaking there.
Some old guy asked if QP was going to beat out Josh Jackson and Fuente looked at this dude like he was fucking nuts then took a deep therapy breath (similar to what I do when one of my toddlers asks something objectively insane) and calmly explained that QP got way less reps in high school than most QBs and he needed a lot of practice.
In hindsight, it's wild how much expectation-managing Fuente tried to do that day. I think he knew 2018 was going to be a step back. I don't think he expected the locker room issues and whatnot.
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I don't have the full rundown, but I talked to the dad of one of the players on the team at the time and all I know is that it involved Hill and Dalton Keene, and by the end of it Dalton Keene basically had Hill pinned down and was punching his lights out. We never got any disciplinary action against Keene, so I can only assume Hill started whatever it was and poked the wrong bear.
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ah ok. i had heard allusions to hill talking shit about someone's special needs kid. as a father of a special needs kid, i would prefer such people get their heads caved in. good thing i was wrong.
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Wish him the best, he had some moments but if he wasn't good enough to be head-and-shoulders better than Drones and force the Staff to put him on the field, then its hard to see him as part of the plan going forward.
Which then brings the question.....what (and who) is the plan at QB going forward??
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Pop was somewhat inconsistent, but probably no more than Drones, and I would have given him the reigns when it appeared that Drones was just going through the motions later in the season. Seems to me the coaching staff continued to go with Drones over the course of the entire season because (1) he was healthy, and (2) he was the senior leader of the offense, regardless of his ineffectiveness. At that point, it probably would have been a good idea to see what we had in Pop, but that's water under the bridge now.
I guess we're looking for a "bridge" QB before Hahn is ready, so picking up someone like Grunkenmeyer could negatively affect Hahn's development, and would likely result in Hahn transferring. However, Grunkenmeyer looked rather effective finishing the season, so deciding whether to go after him would be a tough decision for the coaching staff. I wonder if Franklin has any renewed interest in Beau Pribula, former Penn State backup and Mizzu QB, who has another year of eligibility remaining. I also think Alonza Barnett III could be a nice "bridge" QB.
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This is where I miss the old days. Grunkenmeyer would be a RS Soph next year. RS Huhn. Then after next year we have a RS JR and a RS Freshman ready to step in after he leaves. It is what it is now though. Just bring in bodies that can actually throw a ball at this point and I'm happy because good QBs are gonna leave to start somewhere.
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The guy who became interim HC had an incentive to see if he could be named permanent if he did well enough. Or at least showcase himself for another position. And he chose to stick with Drones anyway. That seems to say something.
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I said this to everyone clling for Pop to play. He would have been killed. "But he's more accurate than Drones and makes better decisions" kinda a moot point if you lose you're entire ass head cause our OL let 4 linemen through untouched and you only weigh a buck forty five.
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For as much crap as Drones got all season, if he had a line that could have protected Pop, his performance would have been improved enough that the backup wouldn't have been needed.
In one of our games this year, ESPN noted he was the most pressured QB in the P4. Only a generational talent kind of guy can overcome that kind of consistent pressure and still get good results. If he had received even basic protection, he probably ends his career as a competent but not exceptional QB.
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Yeah, we all have to admit that Drones never had a lot of time to throw, and he took a lot of hits that would have ended Pop. And then got set for the next play.
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I tend to agree. This team had so many weaknesses, that it just created a vicious cycle. Maybe the perfect QB and coach could have changed this vicious cycle into a virtuous cycle, but I don't think TyGod Taylor himself could've gotten this team and this coaching staff to >6 wins.
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Which is why his numbers as a Hokie are even more phenomenal. Go look where Drones is in our historical stats. Now imagine where he ends up if he had one iota of an offensive line protecting him.
Passing Yards: 7th in 3 seasons. 5 of 6 above him had 4 seasons (not all as the starter.)
Passing TDs: Tied with Tyrod for 4th
Total Offense: 4th behind Logan, Tyrod and Bryan Randall
Total Touchdowns: 3rd behind Logan and Tyrod
Completion %: 9th behind Evans, Hooker, Marcus, Randall, Brewer, Glennon, Willis and Wells (Not the list you would expect)
QBR: 12th
YPG: 8th
AY/A: 10th
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The crazy thing is that our coaches just refused to build the offense around his strengths. They just utterly failed to optimize the pieces available to them. I don't think our offense was ever going to be Chip-Kelly-era-Oregon but it could have been more productive despite the deficiencies up front. The coaches exacerbated our weaknesses instead of mitigating them. 5 step drops from shotgun formations with 4 vertical routes into cover 4 with receivers that haven't demonstrated any ability to get separation or win 50/50 balls and an Oline that couldn't block a peewee team and we wonder why Drones struggled.
Drones wasn't a great college qb. He likely would have ridden the bench at most other P4 schools. But the offensive design did him absolutely no favors. These coaches would have made Tyrod Taylor look like Jameel Sewell
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I think Bowen figured it out in Year 2. He did a lot of plays that overcame the line's weakness. I want to say that was the most productive our offense has been since Pry started, then he went and took the OHState gig.
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BRM on Sons of Saturday pretty consistently describes Bowen as "calling plays, not running an offense." Gotta say I agree. Bowen called lots of individual good plays year two, but if we were off script we were fucked. Of course under Monty, he installed an offense, the intent was much more obvious, it was just the absolute wrong offense with the horses he had.
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Whatever you want to call it, he seemed to be able to call plays that worked (for the most part) for the players we had. It did seem like there were a couple games where they weren't as effective, but we got points on the board. I think our defense just wasn't able to get the stops to get the W's.
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Edit: I want to say there was a game where he got very limited playing time, but he had been listed as questionable, so was probably a case of, let's give him a few touches and see if he's okay, but he wasn't.
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Comments
The writing was on the wall all year. Not being able to overtake Drones as starter was pretty damning evidence he had no chance. With a new HC and what I considered much better QB talent coming on to the team I think this is the only move if he wants to continue to play the QB position anywhere.
Good luck to pop. He won us a uva game, and that solidified his career for me
Earned himself a spot on someone's TKP signature.....
it should honestly be on a plaque or an empty wall or a video board somewhere in Lane
Pop joins Quincy Patterson under the heading of "guys I got way too far out over my skis about." I thought both of them could have been the QBs to make VT relevant again at different times. Turns out those times are the times where I'm just an incurable homer.
If he leaves, his name will go where Drones' name used to be down below.
ugh I'm going to have to put the caveat of "Undefeated vs UVA in a VT uniform" aren't I
Really thought Quincy Patterson was going to be special. Physical freak, great arm talent, smart kid...thought he was the total package.
I went to this HC event in the offseason before 2018 and Fuente was speaking there.
Some old guy asked if QP was going to beat out Josh Jackson and Fuente looked at this dude like he was fucking nuts then took a deep therapy breath (similar to what I do when one of my toddlers asks something objectively insane) and calmly explained that QP got way less reps in high school than most QBs and he needed a lot of practice.
In hindsight, it's wild how much expectation-managing Fuente tried to do that day. I think he knew 2018 was going to be a step back. I don't think he expected the locker room issues and whatnot.
I don't think anyone expected the locker room issues that year. I sure didn't
does anyone have a full rundown of the trevon hill post odu locker room debacle?
I remember listening to the post game and it sounded like a brawl was breaking out
I don't have the full rundown, but I talked to the dad of one of the players on the team at the time and all I know is that it involved Hill and Dalton Keene, and by the end of it Dalton Keene basically had Hill pinned down and was punching his lights out. We never got any disciplinary action against Keene, so I can only assume Hill started whatever it was and poked the wrong bear.
That explains why Keene was so hyped the next year when we played at Miami
Stole Hill's celly when he got the td
ah ok. i had heard allusions to hill talking shit about someone's special needs kid. as a father of a special needs kid, i would prefer such people get their heads caved in. good thing i was wrong.
I did too. I thought he'd bring us a natty, as silly as that sounds now
Wish him the best, he had some moments but if he wasn't good enough to be head-and-shoulders better than Drones and force the Staff to put him on the field, then its hard to see him as part of the plan going forward.
Which then brings the question.....what (and who) is the plan at QB going forward??
A question only the magic portal can answer
Let's hope it's magic!
JMU's Barnett announced earlier that he's entering the portal...
Trade Pop for Alonza?
I like Alonza Barnett, but we should be able to do better than him
In my cfb26 dynasty he lead us to the CFP final
won a heisman with him
Good luck to Pop.
Good luck, but it was inevitable
If he couldn't beat out Drones last year, he wasn't beating out whoever Franklin has this year.
I really liked his confidence. Stepping into the Miami game and throwing a long completion was pretty cool.
Pop was somewhat inconsistent, but probably no more than Drones, and I would have given him the reigns when it appeared that Drones was just going through the motions later in the season. Seems to me the coaching staff continued to go with Drones over the course of the entire season because (1) he was healthy, and (2) he was the senior leader of the offense, regardless of his ineffectiveness. At that point, it probably would have been a good idea to see what we had in Pop, but that's water under the bridge now.
I guess we're looking for a "bridge" QB before Hahn is ready, so picking up someone like Grunkenmeyer could negatively affect Hahn's development, and would likely result in Hahn transferring. However, Grunkenmeyer looked rather effective finishing the season, so deciding whether to go after him would be a tough decision for the coaching staff. I wonder if Franklin has any renewed interest in Beau Pribula, former Penn State backup and Mizzu QB, who has another year of eligibility remaining. I also think Alonza Barnett III could be a nice "bridge" QB.
This is where I miss the old days. Grunkenmeyer would be a RS Soph next year. RS Huhn. Then after next year we have a RS JR and a RS Freshman ready to step in after he leaves. It is what it is now though. Just bring in bodies that can actually throw a ball at this point and I'm happy because good QBs are gonna leave to start somewhere.
Agreed. I'm very pro-player-empowerment, but I will readily acknowledge that the transient nature of the sport is detrimental to the fan experience.
In addition, we had a coaching staff with no incentive to see what we had with Pop.
The guy who became interim HC had an incentive to see if he could be named permanent if he did well enough. Or at least showcase himself for another position. And he chose to stick with Drones anyway. That seems to say something.
I think they kept running Drones out there because he had 50 lbs on Pop. I don't think Pop would have survived two games behind our OL.
I said this to everyone clling for Pop to play. He would have been killed. "But he's more accurate than Drones and makes better decisions" kinda a moot point if you lose you're entire ass head cause our OL let 4 linemen through untouched and you only weigh a buck forty five.
For as much crap as Drones got all season, if he had a line that could have protected Pop, his performance would have been improved enough that the backup wouldn't have been needed.
In one of our games this year, ESPN noted he was the most pressured QB in the P4. Only a generational talent kind of guy can overcome that kind of consistent pressure and still get good results. If he had received even basic protection, he probably ends his career as a competent but not exceptional QB.
Yeah, we all have to admit that Drones never had a lot of time to throw, and he took a lot of hits that would have ended Pop. And then got set for the next play.
I tend to agree. This team had so many weaknesses, that it just created a vicious cycle. Maybe the perfect QB and coach could have changed this vicious cycle into a virtuous cycle, but I don't think TyGod Taylor himself could've gotten this team and this coaching staff to >6 wins.
Which is why his numbers as a Hokie are even more phenomenal. Go look where Drones is in our historical stats. Now imagine where he ends up if he had one iota of an offensive line protecting him.
Passing Yards: 7th in 3 seasons. 5 of 6 above him had 4 seasons (not all as the starter.)
Passing TDs: Tied with Tyrod for 4th
Total Offense: 4th behind Logan, Tyrod and Bryan Randall
Total Touchdowns: 3rd behind Logan and Tyrod
Completion %: 9th behind Evans, Hooker, Marcus, Randall, Brewer, Glennon, Willis and Wells (Not the list you would expect)
QBR: 12th
YPG: 8th
AY/A: 10th
The crazy thing is that our coaches just refused to build the offense around his strengths. They just utterly failed to optimize the pieces available to them. I don't think our offense was ever going to be Chip-Kelly-era-Oregon but it could have been more productive despite the deficiencies up front. The coaches exacerbated our weaknesses instead of mitigating them. 5 step drops from shotgun formations with 4 vertical routes into cover 4 with receivers that haven't demonstrated any ability to get separation or win 50/50 balls and an Oline that couldn't block a peewee team and we wonder why Drones struggled.
Drones wasn't a great college qb. He likely would have ridden the bench at most other P4 schools. But the offensive design did him absolutely no favors. These coaches would have made Tyrod Taylor look like Jameel Sewell
I think Bowen figured it out in Year 2. He did a lot of plays that overcame the line's weakness. I want to say that was the most productive our offense has been since Pry started, then he went and took the OHState gig.
Yeah, year 3 might have been the charm, but we didn't get to find out.
BRM on Sons of Saturday pretty consistently describes Bowen as "calling plays, not running an offense." Gotta say I agree. Bowen called lots of individual good plays year two, but if we were off script we were fucked. Of course under Monty, he installed an offense, the intent was much more obvious, it was just the absolute wrong offense with the horses he had.
Whatever you want to call it, he seemed to be able to call plays that worked (for the most part) for the players we had. It did seem like there were a couple games where they weren't as effective, but we got points on the board. I think our defense just wasn't able to get the stops to get the W's.
I liked the one game where Tuten got like 4 carries the entire game, that was tremendous strategy
/s
Wasn't he injured though?
Edit: I want to say there was a game where he got very limited playing time, but he had been listed as questionable, so was probably a case of, let's give him a few touches and see if he's okay, but he wasn't.
Yes. It was the Clemson game. Both he and Drones could barely move.
Guess there was no confidence in the backups.
Huhn
I just want someone at qb who can give us 2 years
I wonder how common that is in P4 these days.