Virginia Tech Football: Hokies-Hoos Commonwealth Cup Preview

Welcome to Hate Week. The stakes will be high when Hokie Nation trudges to Lane Stadium on a blustery Friday November night. This year's edition of Hokies-Hoos has seemingly become a referendum on Frank Beamer's future. In addition, critical recruits necessary to boost the program's talent level, like blue chip defensive end Josh Sweat, will be in attendance. Finally, with a win Tech would extend its bowl streak and consecutive wins over Virginia to 22 and 11 years, respectively.

There isn't a flowery speech to give. This group of Hoos has never beaten the Hokies, and there's doubt in the back of their minds. While the matchup may look good for Carruthers from Charlottesville, this game always seems to be determined by the Hokies playing a more physical, disciplined and committed brand of football.

Can Frank Beamer and his staff somehow get the necessary performance out of his players? For the last decade Bud Foster has produced blitz and coverage concepts that have befuddled Virginia quarterbacks. While Greyson Lambert and Matt Johns are marked improvement over David Watford, you expect that Foster will find a way to keep UVa's screen and misdirection offense from putting significant points on the board. For Frank Beamer and Scot Loeffler, who both could be coaching their last game in Blacksburg, to generate a win the maligned Virginia Tech offense has to score points against a Virginia defense that may be the most talented they have played since Ohio State.

Running on the Hoos

With a talented front, defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta looks for his defensive tackles: 6'1", 295 pound junior David Dean (No. 55), 6'2", 285 pound junior Donte Wilkins (No. 93) and 6'4", 265 pound junior Mike Moore (No. 32) to eat up blocks and keep (in my opinion the best middle linebacker in the ACC) Henry Coley (No. 44) clean to pursue sideline to sideline. With those defensive tackles tying up blockers, it frees Virginia's defensive ends: 6'5", 240 pound sophomore Max Valles (No. 88) and heralded but undisciplined 6'4" 250 pound junior pass rusher Eli Harold (No. 7) to get up the field and be disruptive. Senior outside linebacker Daquan Romero (6-1, 230, No. 13) plays a similar style to Deon Clarke, as most often you will find him aligned on the line of scrimmage threatening an edge rush. Strong safety Anthony Harris (No. 8) is dynamic in run support, while outstanding true freshman Quin Blanding (No. 3) is an excellent tackler as the UVa's last line of defense. They are big, physical, and aggressive, but everything starts with their defensive tackle play and safety support.

Let's take a look at how UVa defends a simple inside zone read against UCLA.

Dean and Moore, the latter often slides inside to defensive tackle against spread teams, both violently engage the combination blocks on the inside, effectively tying up four blockers. Moore does a particularly good job on not being moved and knocking the blocker down that has to block Coley on the play. Coley is a stud, load to meet in the hole (6-2, 245) and has the quickness to get sideline to sideline. Coley was the best player on the field against the Hokies last season, and after Virginia Tech struggled to get similar-styled linebackers like Brandon Chubb and Steven Daniels blocked, I'd expect Coley to have a huge game. Finally, you can see Harris flying up from the field safety position to help with the tackle. As the season progressed, Harris played more and more around the line of scrimmage as UVa faced more run focused teams like Duke, Pitt and Miami.

This is a very tough front to attack, but teams have had some success by maintaining possession and wearing down Virginia's defensive tackles. David Dean is one of the most underrated players in the ACC, but in his role of taking on double teams, he needs some depth to help him get rested. Additionally, even though Eli Harold is extremely talented, teams have opened up running lanes by allowing him upfield only to chip him with a tight end. That frees offenses up to double-down on the defensive tackles, then slide off to block either of the safeties or Coley.

Duke runs an inside zone read. The left side of the Blue Devil line doubles down on Dean and gets some movement. The H-Back runs right past Harold, but Harold has gone too far upfield to close the hole. The H-Back leads on Blanding (whose size, tackling ability, and talent are comparable to Duke's Jeremy Cash) and gets a piece of him, while the double team on Dean seals Coley to the inside. When you watch the play again, it is also interesting to note that senior corners DreQuan Hoskey (No. 22) and Maurice Canady (No. 26) are very slow to pursue the play. More on that in a moment.

The Hokies had success last season getting to the edge by running the stretch play off an inverted veer action. That worked for two reasons: 1) The threat of Logan Thomas running inside tied up Coley and often caused the defensive ends to lean inside on the dive, making them easier to down block by the Hokie tight ends, and 2) Virginia was really hurting at the safety position last season. Harris was ejected for targeting early in the game, and Blanding was still patrolling the secondary for Bayside High School. Both are much stronger in run support than the Hoo safeties that were dominated by Trey Edmunds last year.

Also, Tech's options at tailback are much more limited in this year's tilt. Edmunds has been declared out. J.C. Coleman and Sam Rogers seem to be the only backs that have the trust of the staff, and Michael Brewer is certainly not a threat on the inverted veer. I can't imagine a scenario where Brenden Motley doesn't factor significantly in the running game, as he gives the Hokies not only the size to run inside, but also is enough of a threat to freeze players like Harold and Coley in pursuit.

Exploiting the Cornerback Position

Virginia has one big weakness on defense, and that is the cornerback position. The Hoos only have three healthy experienced corners with Demetrious Nicholson and Brandon Phelps out as result injuries. The remaining corners have good size, but are not great in man coverage and tend to be very slow to provide run support. With Tenuta basically committing the defensive line, two linebackers and at least one safety to stopping the run on almost every play, the Cavalier's pass coverage will show many looks, but almost always drop into a deep-off man or cover 3 shell. Like Boston College, that leaves a ton of room for receivers to run the deep in, out and curl routes that Isaiah Ford and Cam Phillips have had success on all season.

Duke quarterback Anthony Boone, doesn't have terrific arm strength (much like Michael Brewer), but Boone had great success throwing underneath Virginia's deep shell coverage using many of the same routes that the Hokies have looked their best on this year.

Here is a great example of Jamison Crowder working back to the football under UVa's safe man coverage. Boone rolls to the boundary. The UVa corner turns and runs when Crowder threatens his cushion, and Boone throws the curl as Crowder comes back to the football.

While Blanding and Harris are dangerous ball hawking safeties, Bucky Hodges will force them to pay attention in coverage. This makes a deep dig route with a go route from Hodges in the slot a very attractive play. On this play, Duke runs a similar pass combination.

UVa's corner plays outside leverage on Crowder. Duke's slot receiver runs as hard as he can right into the lap of the deep safety who has inside leverage help for the corner. Crowder threatens the cushion of the UVa corner (Hoskey, No. 22) and then breaks hard to the inside, right where the UVa safety should be. Instead, Crowder's break creates a huge gap with Hoskey (nearly 8 yards) and there is no safety to help him. Boone gets an easy completion for a big play.

The Hokies have had success on similar passing looks. Here, the Hokies run a very similar route combination, with Byrn breaking short and out, and Hodges driving right into the body of the safety.

ECU's corner is playing outside leverage against Cam Phillips. When Phillips breaks to the inside, Hodges has eliminated the safety, giving Brewer a clear throwing lane without an interception threat to the inside.

Those routes take time to develop, and a clean pocket has not been something Michael Brewer has benefited from most of this season. Tenuta has a reputation as being an aggressive blitzing defensive coordinator, and the Hokies have struggled with blitzes all season. Harold and Valles are both strong edge rushers, and Romero, Harris, and Coley all excel at timing their blitzes as demonstrated here against UCLA.

Coley very casually points out the running back and doesn't show blitz immediately. At the snap, he waits for the guard to clear on the influence pull and then times the blitz to move in behind him. With the back on the run fake, there is no one to pick up Coley, and it takes the special size and speed of Brett Hundley to prevent this from being a huge loss. Coley leads the Hoos with 8 sacks, and Harold and Valles each have 7.

Does Tech have the horses? I think the Hokies have a big advantage in talent on the outside, but Hodges, Ford and Phillips have struggled against veteran corners with lesser ability before (see Pitt). I don't know if Brewer has the self confidence to sling some of the tricky timing comeback routes that will be open against many of Virginia's coverages like at Ohio State (which runs a similar defensive system). Would Brenden Motley shock everyone and create a sustained spark similar to how Vic Hall willed a depleted UVa team competitive against the Hokies in 2008.

I am not sure. Last season, I thought UVa had a big advantage up front with their defensive line against the Hokies offensive line. Scot Loeffler, in perhaps one of his most impressive play calling halves of football, mitigated that risk by using counter-action and getting to the edge while Trey Edmunds ran wild. Demitri Knowles had a huge impact on that game, but has been invisible on everything except poor kickoff returns for most of the season. My head just can't say that the Hokies will win this game.

But, my head isn't my heart. Every year it seems, some unheralded upperclassmen shines in this matchup. Knowles had a great game last year. Alonzo Tweedy made play after play the year before. With this being potentially the last game for three offensive lineman, what better way for such a maligned group to redeem themselves a little than beating up a defensive front that everyone expects to kick their tail? How about Willie Byrn, a former walk-on who has seemingly become persona-non grata the last couple of weeks, finally getting to the end zone on a throw over the top? How about Brewer, maligned perhaps more than any Hokie quarterback, recovering some of that Ohio State form? Maybe the defense takes the next step from just forcing negative plays and starts turning the ball over for points? It's clear Tech will need someone to step up and be a difference maker if the Hokies want to extend the bowl and Virginia streaks.