On the offense's first two plays against Miami, offensive line coach Stacy Searels saw exactly what he wanted to see from his group.
The line fired off the ball against the Hurricanes, helping RB Marshawn Williams pick up a gain of three yards and then one of six.
But facing third-and-one, the group faltered when it mattered most, as Williams got stuffed for a loss. Searels says that set the tone for much of the rest of the game.
"We got stopped because of a mental mistake up front and that was really frustrating," Searels said. "In crucial situations big time players have to step up and make big time plays. We've got to execute and we didn't and that had a lot of bearing on the way the game went."
While that one play was just a small part of the Hokies' 30-6 embarrassment at the hands of the Hurricanes, it's also pretty emblematic of the line's inconsistent play this year.
Against Miami, the line looked alternately dominant and helpless. The unit helped Williams run for 100 yards on the night (of just 134 total yards by running backs), yet it also let quarterback Michael Brewer get sacked twice for a combined loss of 22 yards and let the Canes defensive line pressure him all night.
"There's just little mistakes keeping us from almost gashing (the defense) on every play," said guard Wyatt Teller. "One inch this way, one inch that way, blocking this guy instead of the other guy. There's little things that we need to work on and perfect and I feel like we're going to get there."
Teller started for the first time against the Hurricanes, and his inclusion in the lineup, which shifted David Wang to center and Caleb Farris to the bench, seems to have been an initial success.
"The last two games Wyatt's probably been the most productive player on the offensive line, he's had the most pins, most knockdowns," Searels said.
The move is certainly encouraging for the embattled unit, but there's still a long way to before the o-line can be anything close to what the Hokies need to succeed consistently on offense.
"We're looking for a lot more out of the whole group," Searels said.
He's not wrong to have higher expectations. By every measure we have, the line has been underwhelming in most respects this year.
The Hokies rank 90 Football Outsiders' adjusted line yards, the group's measure that tries to separate the ability of the running back from the talent of the offensive line (less than 100 is bad), and they don't fare much better in any of their other metrics.
In stuff rate, the metric measuring the percentage of caries stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage, Tech ranks 91st (20.7%). In power success rate, which measures the percentage of runs on third or fourth down with less than two yards to go that achieve first downs or scores, the Hokies are 93rd.
The line shake up could certainly be a step toward improving these dismal statistics, even if it could've likely come a bit earlier, but it hardly solves the whole problem.
Searels can only work so much magic with a line that's been lacking the kind of talent that used to grace the program in its better years.
Curt Newsome is a popular punching bag around these parts, but while watching the way the line has performed over the course of the last three years, it's hard not to get angry all over again at the way his poor recruiting has had ripple effects that we're feeling even now.
It's not as if Newsome never did good work with the Hokies. Tech's lines were talented leading up through the 2011 season, when a starting five of Blake DeChristopher, Jaymes Brooks, Andrew Lanier, Andrew Miller and Greg Nosal paved the way for David Wilson and the Hokies' last great running game.
But then it would seem that he, or Bryan Stinespring, or absolutely everyone else on the offensive staff, floundered a few years off when it came to OL recruiting. And this squad, even in 2014, is absolutely worse off for it.
According to Rivals.com, from 2010 to 2012, the final three years of Newsome's tenure with the Hokies, he managed to sign just 8 offensive line recruits. Just two of those recruits were rated better than a 3-star prospect, 4-star OT Laurence Gibson and Mark Shuman. Adam Taraschke and Jack Willenbrock were 2-star prospects Tech wanted to develop, but as redshirt sophomores neither have been factors. 2011 3-star signee Jake Goins left the team before the 2013 season.
By 2012, four of the five starters that made the line so effective were gone, and Newsome hadn't re-stocked the cupboard.
In 2011, DeChristopher managed to earn first team All-ACC honors, with Jaymes Brooks coming in on the second team and Greg Nosal getting honorable mention status.
Hokies offensive linemen haven't come close to that kind of success since. Not a single player on the line earned recognition of any kind in 2012, while Andrew Miller and David Wang got honorable mentions a season ago.
That kind of stagnation had a direct effect on the offenses of the Logan Thomas days, and likely contributed quite a bit to the drop off in Thomas' performance after 2011.
The results bear themselves out in the numbers.
In 2011, the Hokies ranked 35th in the nation in Football Outsiders' Fremeau Efficiency Index (FEI), which measures a team's scoring rate and adjusts for things like strength of schedule. Specifically, Tech ranked 38th in the nation in its methodical drive statistic, or the percentage of drives that contain 10 or more plays.
This measure is particularly revealing about the play of an offensive line. If the line is opening holes for the running game consistently and keeping the quarterback upright, there's little doubt the offense is going to run more plays on the field.
That's what makes this precipitous decline in the offense's numbers seem so squarely attached to the line's performance.
In 2012, a year the Hokies had to replace four of five starters on the line, the bottom fell out on offense. The team ranked 69th in FEI overall and 112th in methodical drives.
The next year was much of the same story. The offense was 78th overall, and 63rd in methodical drives. This year, the numbers look even worse: 104th and 75th respectively.
There are certainly other factors to consider, particularly the drop off in the quality of skill position players after 2011. David Wilson, Danny Coale and Jarrett Boykin weren't lacing up their cleats for the Hokies anymore, but that's only one piece of the puzzle.
The line's pass protection numbers also took a dive starting in 2012.
In 2011, the line allowed 17 sacks in the whole year (T-24th nationally). By 2012, that number was up to 25 (T-63rd), and it skyrocketed to 33 (T-99th) the year after.
The OL has improved slightly in this area this year, with only 15 sacks (T-57th) allowed so far, but it's a depressing trend that can be mostly attributed to the lack of talent at one of the most crucial position groups on offense.
Searels, and Jeff Grimes before him, have made a concerted effort at turning this trend around, and they deserve to be commended for that. The Hokies have already managed to land six commitments from offensive linemen between the 2014 and 2015 classes, and Searels is chasing several other prospects this cycle.
But it's undeniable that the Hokies are playing catch-up in this area, and it's cost them.
There is hope for the future. If Teller performs well against Miami and holds down a starting spot for the rest of the season, then the Hokies can count on retaining three of five starters heading into next year counting tackle Jonathan McLaughlin and guard Augie Conte.
"I think Wyatt's got a bright future here, he's going to be a really good player," Searels said. "At times he gets a little bit sloppy with his technique, but I like Wyatt a lot."
But the team is painfully thin, and if players like Eric Gallo, Colt Pettit and Alston Smith can't come in and contribute right away after sitting on the bench this season, then the team will be in trouble once again.
No team can fix its offensive line overnight. It's a process that requires time and lots of planning, and its one that the previous bunch of offensive assistants bungled.
The Hokies are still paying off that debt, and they have to hope that Searels and company have taken the lesson to heart.
Comments
Really need to continue the improvement and recruitment of offensive lineman. Not going anywhere without it.
Wow . Offensive player recruiting has been poor for a number of years , but it's hard to believe it was as bad as it was from 2010-2012. A good & sobering analysis .
And that includes the 2011 class, which included all of one (ONE!!) offensive line prospect - Jake Goins, who is no longer with the program. You may notice a distinct lack of r-Jrs on this team, which is around when most OLine prospects can be expected to consistently perform. Alas.
What is strange about the Miami game was the contrast between the first half and the second half. The OL got embarrassed and humiliated in the first half. Then they came out in the second half with what appeared to be a "damn the torpedoes" mindset. The play calling was out to prove a point: we are going to run the ball and we are going to prove we can run the ball. Arguably they ran the ball too much on that opening drive. But it worked. They moved the ball down the field on the ground. If only they could have that mindset and execution for an entire game, and before they get in the hole on the scoreboard.
That's the thing that makes it so frustrating. If they can do it at the start of the second half, why can't they do it all the time? I have trouble accepting the argument that these guys just aren't good enough, because at times it appears that they are good enough. Searles sounds like he's as frustrated as I am, and I'm sure he's actually 100 times more frustrated than I am. But isn't it his responsibility to teach and motivate these guys to play like that every snap?
I just don't know if it's sustainable. We're so thin on the offensive line, and we just bulked everyone up, seemingly to the detriment of athleticism. Can we hurry to the line and push people over for 4 quarters? I'm not sure
I think the success early in the 2nd half was a little misleading. Miami was already protecting a lead and the pace caught them off guard. I don't think we can expect it to be a lasting trend.
You can teach and motivate till you're blue in the face but if the kid's aren't taking your lessons to heart there's not much you can do
Great article Alex! Excellent analysis and explanation on the current state of the o-line.
Alex, you hit it on the head! 3rd and 1 Searels referred to drove me crazy, should have been an easy QB sneak. I know Brewer is not that big but that play never seems to be an option on short yardage plays anymore.
As French noted in his review, the play call was perfect. You have to assume your guys are at least gonna remember their blocking rules for a fairly simple power play.
Yeah, but I would still like to see the sneak a little bit. Or at least the old First Man Through play to Sam Rogers. I've never been a big fan of taking the ball 3-5 yards behind the line to hand it off on 3rd or 4th and a yard or less. Also never been a big fan of trying to run outside the tackles from a power I set in the same situation. We don't have the burner back right now a.k.a. David Wilson.
Going off subject here, but I hope Shai comes back strong next year, he was starting to run with some power, and IMHO I think that, if healthy, he may be the starter right now.
If Brewer is injured as it appears he is, putting him in position to take more shots via a QB sneak isn't a good idea. The play was setup and at times the players need to get their assignments straight and execute. There are going to be miscues but you need everyone on the same page on 3rd downs especially.
Oh, I agree that execution is key to any successful play, I just don't like bringing the ball that far off of the line.
I keep hearing hints that Brewer is injured but I have seen nothing from Tech about this, and have not seen an indication of this on the field. What is his injury supposed to be? I have seen a difference in his play, but it appears to me to be more along the lines of a "happy feet" or confidence issue. This may be a combination of the line issues and his interception issues. Looks to me like there are times that he starts bailing out of the pocket before being pressured (jittery after taking hits because of inconsistent line play). And he has been more hesitant in his throws than he was earlier in the year (not wanting to throw the pick). This causes him to throw the ball behind the receivers or just plain off target, where earlier in the year he was pretty accurate, except for 2-3 throws per game.
If indeed he is injured, then I agree that the sneak is a bad idea. If he is not, I see no reason not to run it every now and then.
He missed a year at TT for a bad back. Many are speculating that it has flared up again.
Key word there "speculating".
I knew that he had the back problem from TT, but that had been cleared a long time ago. I've heard people say back, concussion, whatever. I still don't see the evidence of an injury on the field. I think that people are using the invisible injury as a way of justifying how he could go from Superman who beat OSU to struggling QB. I may be completely wrong here and he may be hurting, but I think it is more of the issues that I stated above. Add that to the fact that this is his first time starting and he's only been at Tech and had the playbook since summer and you have a very green (young didn't seem right here) QB, who has had his confidence shaken by a leaky line and throwing a number of picks. He needs a good game to get his feet back under him, let's hope that happens this weekend.
Well, let's look at this from a different angle. In 2011, we had a ton of success with LT3 running the sneak in short-yardage situations. In 2012 and 2013, not so much. If opposing teams know it's always going to be a sneak when we've got less than a yard to go, things aren't going to end well for us. Maybe Brewer could've checked if he saw no one was covering the center, but still. Bringing the ball off the line gives us so much more flexibility in terms of playcalling. We can run power, zone, counters... and then if safeties keep coming up on 3rd or 4th and short, playaction to Ford or a TE for a monster gain. That's why I'm very much ok with not sneaking even when the opportunity might present itself.
I see your point. And I don't want to sneak every time, just once in a while so that the other team has to respect it. That will make some of the other plays work better.
Believe I saw the sneak against Pitt. It wouldn't surprise me if Brewer has the option to sneak it. It's called a "Goose" call where the QB will simply push his hands up against the center's butt asking for the snap. No need for a snap count or rest of the team to really know because not much blocking goes into a sneak other than the center pushing forward.
I tweeted that right after we were stopped on 3rd down. Drove me absolutely nuts that it wasn't a QB sneak. You only needed inches and there is no reason to go backwards to give it to the RB for a couple of inches.
Agreed. In the 4th qtr against Ohio State Brewer did a QB sneak on 3rd and inches. It worked perfect and he picked up almost 2 yards.
Good article. I think that our team will continue to improve over the next couple of years, but that depends on stability and consistency from the coaches. I knew that we had had some OL recruiting issues (didn't know it was quite this bad) but I also believe that having 3 coaches over the past 3 years has hurt. Next year the line should be better because of being in the second year of Searels coaching and schemes. They will be more familiar with what they are expected to do and should be better able to execute it. Knowledge is power.
Hammer, meet nail.
one thing to remember about the recruiting in the past is that is wasn't done by position but by each recruiters territory. I think that was part of the problem with the o-line recruiting as well.
That's definitely been one of the best results from the coaching shakeup - coaches still have territory obligations, but they're allowed to spot-recruit their positions. If I'm not mistaken, Loeffler and Searels have essentially no responsibilities outside of QBs/OL, respectively. Definitely will help to make sure we never have this issue again.
This made me lol. Thanks.
If you want to see what sustained OL investment can do, look at Dallas this year in the NFL. If you want to see how fast OL downturns can torpedo an offense, look at the Patriots immediately after they traded Brady's guard.
I just hope our line improves by next season, whether it's better players or more comfort in Searels' idea of a line
Or... y'know... the Hokies.
Very true. Just trying to pick a team where not many people would blame the Scot Loeffler coached quarterback ;)
Looks like the coaches took a couple years off and did not recruit offensive linemen , or a lot of good offensive players decided they did not want to play in a " one yard and a cloud of dust offense".
You want to see what happens when a OL goes from good to bad?
2013 Carolina Panthers - 12-4, 1st round bye in Playoffs
2014 Carolina Panthers - 3-4-1
All they lost was Jordan Gross, but they had absolutely nobody waiting to cover for him. They moved Byron Bell over to LT, and it has been a disaster since day 1. Defenses are just pinning their ears back and Cam barely has time to get to the end of his drop before he has to avoid a sack.
You like to rub in the parallels between my two favorite teams...
I guess I'll join
Cats' Sunday:
Hokies' Thursday:
My thoughts exactly. If we put a huge emphasis on OL recruiting we WILL get better.
According to 247, we're currently evaluating about 30 guys (including JUCOs, actually, it might just be 30 JUCOS) on the offensive line. Searels & co. are serious about fixing this ASAP.
He has to land them though. Arnold, Smith, and Johnson are all projects. Ultimately all of the guys that Grimes hooked (Mitchell, Pettit, Pffaf, and Gallo) look to be centers or guards no matter what their position is listed as. I have not heard the Hokies listed as serious players for any top level OL prospects. McGirt was a surprise for an official visit. Burrell picking VT would be stunning. Damien Prince would be fantastic but I have not heard that we are a factor there. And, Virginia's 2016 crop doesn't look impressive at OL.
I keep saying this, Searels was a backyard recruiter. It isn't too much of a sell job to get Memphis/Mississippi River Valley/Louisiana kids to come to LSU. It isn't hard to get Georgia kids to go to Georgia. And, for most Texas kids playing for the Longhorns is a dream. When you go back and look at his recruiting record, it is impressive when you just look at the stars. Closer inspection shows that those kids were home state kids. He wasn't going out and stealing top guys in other recruiting areas. Virginia does not produce great depth of offensive linemen. Here, he has to go out of state and get guys. Based on track record, Grimes could do it. Searels can't. Until I see him land a Damien Prince or McGirt, I just don't buy it. When you couple that with some of the strange personnel decisions and the regression of fundamentals we have seen this season from essentially the same group of players, I am not buying Searels stock right now.
Edit: I apparently can't read paragraphs in sequential order.
All very good points. I've been a little confused by the regression from a fundamental standpoint myself. I know for a fact he teaches them, but for some reason, it just doesn't get to the field.... I'm stumped. I'm not upset with the decision to hire Searels, but there's no doubt I'd be happier if Grimes had stuck around.
On the recruiting front, I'd be shocked if we got Burrell, but we seem to be in decent shape with McGirt. However, I think we'll be getting more than one JUCO to get things straightened out right now, and not wait for project guys to develop.
Do you buy the theory that the Gibson/McLaughlin flip may have something to do with Andrew Ford being a southpaw? Does it make any sense to get your best tackle ready to play the right side early if you have a left-handed QB in the pipeline?
I have wondered about this also. Why were Gibson and JGlock switched, unless there's a lefty QB in our future? Would love for someone with more knowledge than me to chime in.
Great article. It shows how bare the cupboard was and how much work we have but that the issues are correctable. Correctable but its going to be another year or 2.
I take a back seat to nobody in my disdain of Newsome. I wanted him out after about 3 or 4 years. He was a cancer on this program.
I have to point the finger at Frank Beamer too though. Great man, and extremely loyal -- but he let his personal feelings overrule what his coaches brain had to be telling him for far too long.
He should have been more cognizant of the horrible O-line recruiting that led to the current woes. 8 low-rated O-lineman recruits in 3 years is just about as close as you can get to negligent homicide of a football program.
Sploosh.
What irritates me the most is that there were numerous people throughout the fanbase who had seen the downward trend and were legitimately worried we were headed down the path we eventually went down, and the masses ganged up to silence them, citing the banner of the 10 win streak and the Coastal titles. And then the bottom falls out, and a lot of these same people have absolutely little to no patience to wait for Loeffler & Co to develop and cultivate the offense he wants with the personnel he needs.
I agree, people are too quick to call for coaches to be fired or to retire. What makes them think that the new people, be it OC or Head Coach, will be better (or near as good) as what we currently have?
BECAUSE FIRE EVERYBODY AND PUT IN LEAL!!!!!!
Just seemed an appropriate place for this:
People are too quick to call for coaches to be fired., And I agree that if people are doing a complete 180 like Alum mentioned, they are the worst...
But as one of those people who saw the writing on the wall about Newsome/Stinespring very early in the process and was told to "Just wait," "give him time," "get people in his system," "trust the coaches," "frank beamer is the winningest coach I think he knows better than some internet nerd," etc...It makes one a little twitchy on the "Just give the new staff half a decade the turn everything around despite few real demonstrable improvements in the offense" a tougher pill to swallow.
I do agree that SL needs more time, and that the offense was completely devastated when he got here, but it was completely devastated when we got here because "TRUST THE COACHES." Therefore "TRUST THE COACHES" cannot be the default position moving forward. We need to look to the past, learn from it, and more forward to avoid making the same mistakes again. This means approaching offensive related decisions in a frank Beamer led team with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Trust, but Verify.
It's an incredibly hard decision to get right. The longer a coach stays, the more chances he has to have a good season where people can say: "look, he just needed the time!" Example: Frank Beamer staying after a terrible season. On the other hand, sometimes a coach like Newsome stays for too long. Or a coach can be fired after one season (Chizik (sp?)) and his replacement has immediate success. Or a coach can be fired after a short term and have success elsewhere (Rich Rod), while his replacement struggles (Hoke). There are just so many scenarios that can surround a coaching change, I feel like any one situation has had a good and bad result.
Frank Beamer's approach has been to give people time, because he bakes continuity and was given time himself early on. I can't fault him for that, but I ABSOLUTELY see where you're coming from, and appreciate that you didn't paint it black and white
I fall squarely in the "trust the coaches" camp right now, but what is getting me the most is that I'm not getting the feeling that Frank is in this camp. I saw a different offense out of this team the first few weeks of the season than I am seeing now. I liked the fact that changes were being made, and while there were struggles, you could see we were working on things, and when everything would eventually come together, you could see that we had the potential, even with this squad, to be a very good team capable of beating anyone at anytime.
I don't see that anymore, and from what I have read and from what I have heard, its because Frank kinda told Loeffler to cut it out with the new scheme and go towards the power game that he's more comfortable with. Now, I'm seeing the same out of our offense that we did in 2012, after seeing this potential earlier in the year, and its just... its frustrating.
Where did you hear this?
I've only heard speculation here, nothing with any source.
Just what I've gathered from post game comments and interviews as the season progressed.
So, you are mad a Frank for something you've "figured out".
I haven't seen any of that so, I'm not buying it.
So yeah, the recruiting was bad, but Wang, Farris, and Gibson are seniors with lots of experience. I feel for those guys because they've had 3 coaches during their time at VT, but they should be better. I don't want to hear about star ratings. One of the things that made our program great is the way we developed unheralded recruits into all-conference players.
The poor recruiting has lead to an extreme lack of depth, but I still think that an O-line that was starting 3 seniors at one point should be better. At the very least they shouldn't be committing the penalties they they do, and that has nothing to do with talent. It's not just the recruiting, it's not just the play-calling, it's not just the OL coaching turnover. It's all of it. And it sucks.
How much does losing Shuman and Benedict hurt the OL performance this year? They were both the large-bodied, road graders Searles prefers (and he recruited BB at UGA).
Good point; I forgot about those loses prior to the season. Also Shuman was listed as a starter when he went down.
It's hard to say exactly, but I would say probably stings more than people realize.
I'm going to guess Teller will move to tackle next season and Smith will step in at a guard position. Going to be interesting to see who emerges at center.
First time poster, long time reader.
Couldn't agree more with what I've read, particularly about the current state of the OL.
1.) The cupboard is pretty bare. Sure, we have some guys that are going to pan out most likely, but if you've soaked up French's OL breakdowns, a solid OL consists of a entire group working together, not solid individuals. It's only as strong as the weakest link, and we have plenty of that suiting up at the moment. Unfortunately, we've had some rather pathetic results when it comes to recruiting, and I guess it's time to pay the piper. We have far too many projects that are going to yield results similar to our current product, so I don't see any change in the foreseeable future. I hope I'm wrong...
2.) As for future recruiting, I'm not sure what we can do (outside of some sort of epic hire) to convince top-level talent to come to Blacksburg. It's a pretty vicious cycle when you think of it. We're unable to bring in good talent, so we're forced to work with less. In the end, the product isn't as attractive to the next cycle of recruits....and repeat. It also affects the skill position recruiting as well. Who wants to run or throw behind a line like that? Have the coaches ever thought of going the JUCO route just to get a quick influx of talent?
I appreciate the effort given by our current players, so I won't call them a dumpster fire, but we need better talent to make this thing work. I don't think we'll turn the corner until we do, and the fact that most of our current back-ups aren't even close to pushing for playing time over the current starters tells me something as well about the next couple of years. VT needs to improve in the trenches on both sides of the ball (Foster's unit can use an upgrade as well.) That's where this game is won or lost anyway....
Yes, and this used to be fairly common back in the mid-90's. However, Tech's admissions department has made it much more difficult in the past decade or so, particularly for kids who didn't qualify out of high school. The addition of Whit (and Buzz for that matter), had made me think that a few exceptions will be made and I'd be very surprised if we didn't end up with at least one or two JUCO OL by the time next season rolls around.
And of course, thanks for finally posting and joining the party!
"Inadequate recruiting at o-line has put Tech's front-five behind the eight-ball."
An article after my own heart. I have been watching VT recruiting for years now. For the past 5-6 years there has been little O line recruitment. I did know that this would kick us in the butt. There is no pipeline of talent. What do we have on the board now, two? There needs to be eight! I truly believe that there were too many years of Stineburgspring and newsomness. Can the present admin overcome the moronic decisions of the past? What the hell.......we run at VT... come here and bust someone's ass on the D line for us! Its not that complicated. Other than the fact that you will be in B'burg and not, pick a city, Miami or Athens. There is my point Athens is a dump, but you will play for georgia in the sec. Sell the Hokie family and to the recruits......
This article. Sub in the words "Last Seven to Eight Years" for Offense in the article title and you are spot on, sir.
The only position that did not have a starter coming back from last year was right guard, yet Searels changed all the returning starters around to new positions??.
If Benedict could have returned we would have had basically 5 starters returning. The guys were working pretty well together at their positions as the season progressed last year, baffling.
I am watching L'ville play like the VT of old!
Well the game is over and it is like VT of old.