Coaches Stress Penalties, Running Game in Practice After GT Loss

After committing four different illegal substitution penalties against Georgia Tech, members of the Hokies' offense had to know there would be consequences in practice.

The staff made it clear early and often that this type of sloppiness wouldn't stand, so when they noticed similar issues in Tuesday's session, the punishment was one of every football player's least favorite activities: up-downs.

"We had 10 guys on the field one time," said running backs coach Shane Beamer. "We're trying to be better with our sideline organization, communicating on and off...So it gets screwed up in practice and that's what happened when the up-downs took place."

The penalties might've cost the offense only a grand total of 20 yards on Saturday, but it's obvious that the staff is taking those mistakes personally.

"It's embarrassing, an absolute joke," Beamer said.

That's the word that seemed to echo among the rest of the assistants after the bevy of substitution infractions against the Yellow Jackets.

"You shouldn't have four of those in a season, to have four in one game is absolutely embarrassing," said wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead.

The flags were particularly galling for the Hokies considering the offense was operating in the friendly confines of Lane Stadium. Illegal substitution wasn't an issue in the deafening environment of the Horseshoe up in Columbus, yet all of a sudden, the team couldn't communicate along its own sidelines.

"We're going to stress it every week," Beamer said. "We really had to be good about it at Ohio State because of the crowd noise, but whether you're playing in front of 50 people or 50 thousand, it shouldn't be an issue."

The staff is still searching for answers as to why the offense had such an issue getting the right personnel on the field last weekend, but a loss of one key veteran could have something to do with it.

"Josh (Stanford) was a great facilitator out there, kind of understanding what was going on, I think we miss that a little bit," Moorehead said. "With Josh and Willie (Byrn) out there, you had guys that knew exactly what was going on...With the young guys, I probably took it for granted that sometimes they're just trying to get their assignment done and get where they need to go and didn't get it talked about enough."

Stanford remains away from the team on a leave of absence, and Moorehead didn't seem to think that would be changing in the near future, saying his situation was "same old, same old."
But for players coming onto the field, it's especially critical that they start relaying what the coaches want in terms of personnel. With young receivers like Isaiah Ford and Cam Phillips, the team could be missing some of that communication.

"The players coming into the game off the sideline need to be signalling it, then the guys that are out on the field need to be echoing it," Beamer said. "Because there could be a receiver or a fullback 35 yards downfield that has to run back and get off the field so we all need to be echoing."

Moorehead is a little less willing to place the blame on the players.

"If there's four penalties that are the same in the game, that's our fault, period," Moorehead said. "I was telling the guys, it's not anybody's specific fault, but I take full blame if anyone's going to."

The former NFL receiver is not one to take things lightly, and it would seem that the staff's issues here are no exception.

"You've gotten to know me over a couple years, I think you can imagine how much that eats at me still," Moorehead said. "I've got to do a better job managing, getting those guys in and out, making sure they're communicating with each other. I don't want to put the blame on those guys, they've got to do a good job of looking at us and communicating with each other, but it starts with us as coaches. And it's not going to be a problem any more."

But should the players not respond to Moorehead's increased efforts, more physical exertion awaits.

"It's going to be up-downs, I'd imagine it's going to be a lot worse than up-downs if anything happens tomorrow," Moorehead said.

Yet what could the coaches devise that would be less pleasant than repeatedly dropping to the ground in full pads and immediately popping back up?

"Running sprints in the middle of practice is a lot worse than up-downs. Especially for linemen," Moorehead said with a smile.

Solving the offense's communication woes is hardly the only problem confronting the unit.

A major emphasis in practice will once again be developing the running game after another inconsistent showing on the ground last weekend.

"I heard from plenty of people after the game about the running back rotation and the use of them," Beamer said.
Considering that the rushing attack is currently ranked 92nd in the county, that isn't exactly a shock.

But Beamer insists that the rotation of Marshawn Williams and Shai McKenzie won't be changing anytime soon.

"It's the same rotation that it was three weeks ago," Beamer said. "Shai and Marshawn are our top two, they alternate series...When Shai starts a series, he's going to finish a series, when Marshawn starts a series, he's going to finish a series. Unless we call for a different personnel grouping if we want to get someone else in for a specific reason."

Moving past the inherent contradiction at work in those last two sentences, Beamer is mostly right about how the rotation worked against the Yellow Jackets.

With the exception of two back-to-back series for McKenzie in the fourth quarter, the backs did indeed largely trade off spending time on the field.

But is that necessarily an effective way to get the backs involved?

"As a running back, you don't want to get a couple, come out, get a couple, come out," said running back Trey Edmunds. "You kind of want a steady pace for a minute."

Yet Beamer asserts that were some mitigating circumstances at work against the Jackets that made things a little more disjointed.

Late in the third quarter, Williams got stuffed on a big third-and-one, after McKenzie carried the ball five different times during the drive for a total of 31 yards. Many were confused as to why McKenzie remained on the sidelines for such a big situation after such consistent production, but Beamer could provide some clarity.

"Shai was running the ball well, but on the second down play he got his ankle rolled up on, so he asked to come out for a blow," Beamer said. "I'm not going to be an idiot and leave my running back in the game if he has a hurt ankle and needs a blow. I'm not going to say 'no, you have to stay.' I got him a blow and water, got Marshawn in, and unfortunately we got stuffed on third-and-one. "

Edmunds also got his first carries of the season, thanks to his familiarity with one set of plays the team used.

"We had one pass protection scheme in the gameplan on Saturday that Trey has done in the past that he's good at and he was in there for those plays," Beamer said.

Shane says he liked Edmunds' burst on his two carries for 10 yards, even if he isn't quite back to his old level just yet.

"The two runs Trey had Saturday really had a chance to possibly score," Beamer said. "Do I think Trey's what he was when he got hurt last year? No, not exactly. But I think he's a lot closer than he was two weeks ago."

Edmunds disagrees with his coach on that point, saying he's feeling back to normal.

"As a whole it just feels better, making cuts and getting hit," Edmunds said."It's hard to say from someone else's point of view. He may see something different that I don't see. All I can do is just work hard and work to get that extra burst."

The coaches have eased him back into a role with the offense, using him on kickoff coverage and the field goal team as his leg heals.

"I did it in high school, so it's fun, another way to go out there and get on the field," Edmunds said. "Whatever I can do to help the team i'm down for."

As the 2013 starter at running back works his way into better health, that's only going to make refining the rotation more complicated.

One way to remedy that problem would be if the Hokies had more carries to go around.

"Last week we got down by 21, we had to throw the ball 60 times to get back in the game, I get it," Beamer said. "But I think we threw it 39 times Saturday. We've got to do what we have to do to win, but ideally I think we're going to be a better offense if we don't have to throw the ball 40 times."

The Hokies did indeed throw the ball 39 times against Georgia Tech, while running it 33 times.

Now they're trying to find a more even balance.

"I know Coach Shane was talking about how we didn't run the ball as much last game, and he wants to improve at least by 10 carries, carry the ball at least 40 times if we can," McKenzie said.

While running the ball more does require confidence in the rushing attack's success, a larger volume of running plays would probably go a long way towards helping the RBs gain some confidence of their own.

"We're just trying to get into a rhythm, go with whoever's hot, don't take ourselves out the game and continue to keep going," McKenzie said.