Yesterday was a lot of fun. It was a classic Virginia Tech football game. Tech ran the ball right down Cincinnati's throat, made some big plays on a special teams, and the defense made enough plays to keep this game out of reach for Cincy. In my opinion, this is one of the most complete bowl games Tech has ever played, start to finish. The only other bowl games that I can conjure up were the 2009 Chick-Fil-A Bowl, the 2000 Gator Bowl, and the 1993 Independence Bowl. Hopefully this turns a corner in bowl preparation.
I loved almost everything I saw yesterday. Whether it was Joey Slye being mobbed after making that 49 yarder right before the half, Shane Beamer riding Greg Stroman after his fumble return, or the entire team jumping up and down holding up 4 fingers at the end of the third, the energy and intensity were always there. My dad has been watching Tech football since the 80s, and he said it has been a really long time since he had seen the team do that (obviously it hasn't been since the 80s, but still).
Also, the fan support yesterday was incredible. With all these bowl games, especially ACC ones, being a quarter capacity, it was nice to see Tech sell out their allotted tickets and even take over Cincy's side. That had a huge effect on this game.
Now, let's talk about Shane Beamer. I'm not really sure how much Frank Beamer has left in the tank. My mom noticed in 2012 that Frank seemed not so much like himself (2012 was the year he lost all that weight; it was also the year things hit the fan). He's lacking intensity, unless it's him chewing out a referee. I was skeptical at first about Shane taking over field head coaching duties for this game. Now, I know it's one game, but I loved almost every second of it. I wish he would have handled the timeouts better at the end of the first half to perhaps give Slye a closer field goal, but all's well that ends well. Plus, if you heard Bud's post game interview (if you haven't, go listen), he seemed really confident in Shane. Y'all may know me as the Rich Rodriguez advocate, but Shane Beamer really opened my mind yesterday. Would I still not mind Rich Rod being hired? Yes. But would I be upset if Shane got some serious consideration or got the title "head coach in waiting"? No.
Speaking of Bud Foster, in 5 years when the conversation comes up on whether or not he's going to leave Tech, let's revert back to that post game interview where the man was in tears about Coach Beamer. Bud Foster is Virginia Tech football and Virginia Tech football is Bud Foster. I really do not see him leaving now.
The offense looked stout yesterday. Scot Loeffler called a very good game, as he did against UVA. Although I am still upset about what happened in the Wake Forest game, it's probably best to let it go and be happy at this point. This offense is very young and will only get better. The offensive line should get much better. When you give Michael Brewer time to throw, he is a good quarterback. Although he has made some poor decisions this season, but he's a true leader and probably got hit more than any Tech quarterback this season than I can remember. Plus, a full year of experience is really what this guy needed with the limited snaps he took at Texas Tech.
I am very interested in this offseason, more so than any for a long time. If Dwayne Lawson does commit to Tech like we all think he will, that'll probably put 5 guys in the mix for the starting quarterback spot (i.e. Andrew Ford, Michael Brewer, Brenden Motley, Dwayne Lawson, and Andrew Durkin). Right now I think Brewer will get the nod. He's a senior who has shown great ability and leadership. I think we will still see Motley in wildcat formations next year too. The rest, though, is up for debate. We are not entirely sure what Lawson will decide and how good he will be, we have no idea how good Andrew Ford actually will be, and we have no idea how good Chris Durkin actually is. I highly doubt Lawson will enroll early if he does commit, though, which will put him behind all the other guys when August comes. I cannot wait to watch this thing unfold, though.
Now, for the running backs. J.C. Coleman has looked incredible since the Duke game. He even set a record yesterday for most rushing yards by a Virginia Tech player in a bowl game. He beat out players like Kevin Jones, Lee Suggs, Ryan Williams, Darren, Evans, David Wilson, etc. That's pretty amazing given the offensive line Tech has had this season. Now, was there a difference in the level of play of the offensive line in run blocking between now and the beginning and middle of the season? Yes. But, J.C. looked amazing out there, and it'll be interesting to see what will happen when Trey Edmunds, Shai McKenzie, and Marshawn Williams are all healthy (it's pretty amazing to me that of all this players J.C. is the only one to stay healthy). One option I think the coaches should consider is moving Trey back to linebacker. With DiNardo and Chase Williams graduating, I could see the coaches at least considering moving Trey back to that side of the ball, granted he'd be a little small for linebacker, but DiNardo and Williams were pretty small too and did alright. Plus, we saw Justin Hamilton make the move from running back to safety back in 2005, and he was a wide receiver before he was a running back. But, as we found out this year, you can never have enough running backs apparently. I can't wait to see what unfolds.
Here's to yet another Virginia Tech football season coming and going. This is one of the toughest years we ever had to endure as fans, and it's certainly one of the toughest the coaches ever had to endure. But, with all the young talent returning, Bud Foster staying, and a healthy team (that's relative to this season), there's no reason we shouldn't be excited for 2015. Till September 7th, BEAT OHIO STATE.
Comments
Very nice post. I agree with a lot of your sentiments with the EXCEPTION of moving a redshirt Junior (trey) to linebacker. He is our top back when healthy. I am praying he stays healthy the next 2 seasons.
77 yd TD vs Bama.
Very true. Having 4 running backs with starting experience next season could be very good.
I have to disagree with that. I don't understand where all the hype for trey comes from. Outside of one play vs alabama he has done nothing. No burst of speed or overwhelming power. Plus he got smoked yesterday on a pass block or two. I'd take Shai juice or jcc over him
The problem is that Shai and Juice may not be ready to play next year as they recover from their ACLs. We get some more RBs is the mix but Trey is usually one of our better pass protectors even though he made a few mistakes yesterday.
I get that but agr said trey is our top back when healthy. Assuming that meant when all backs are healthy.
I feel the same. He was the best back in a year that we had no backs. If there is a chance he could be a great linebacker, I would make the move because I don't see him as being a great running back.
Moving a kid the spring before his r-junior year into a system as complex and demanding as Bud's when we already have a stud in Motuapuaka (a r-soph) coming up seems like a great way to set a kid up for failure. He's a RB and always will be. Zero chance he moves to LB, barring comically catastrophic injuries.
What I'm saying is that if he could be a great linebacker, and I don't know that he would be, it would be doing him a disservice keeping him at a position that he has no professional future at. But hey I could be wrong about his rb potential as well. I just don't see a natural running back even though he is a hell of an athlete.
Do you really think the coaches hadn't considered that given our recent misses at LB? If we had had the same injury situation at LB as we did at RB this year, we'd be even more up a creek. If he would have made a better LB than RB and could have contributed there sooner and for longer, I'm quite positive the coaching staff would have put him there. They recruited him, they talked to him and his coaches, they see him in practice every day; I think they know him and his abilities a little bit better than we do.
When would they have considered it? The need for rb was greater than linebacker when he came in and Bud even mentioned that he wanted him. Coming into this year he wasn't healthy. He might be in the best situation already. If the coaches don't try him, I will agree 100%, since like you said, they see him every day.
You may be confusing Trey with his little brother, Tremaine Edwards who has verballed with VT and is an outside linebacker in H.S.
Trey was recruited at both positions.
That's correct but his brother is coming as linebacker.
Moving Trey now to LB would be a waste. He's been spending the last several years learning RB.
I'm sure they considered it during his redshirt year and maybe even a little bit last year. However, with AMot looking to step in at Mike and Deon holding down the fort at Backer for another year, I seriously doubt that the coaches are even remotely thinking about flipping Trey to defense.
More to being a RB than breaking 70 yard plays. Playing behind a less-than-all-conference-talented OL, he showed the best combination of speed, power, vision and burst later in the year (2013) when he was healthy. Miami game, anyone? This year was essentially wasted for him with injuries, but I think he'll be a very productive back this upcoming year, and we'll need him and JC to perform well with Shai and Marshawn staring down likely redshirts.
Trey was beginning to build steam late in the season last year and put a few good games together. He was ripping UVA prior to the broken leg last year. This is all lost because he was not ripping off long ESPN highlight runs but he was plowing ahead for the tough yards. The play where his clavicle popped was a nice run until he had to pull up due to the injury.
We are going to need trey at RB next year because who knows if or when Shai and Marshawn will be back. It is too late to think about moving Trey back to LB at this stage of the game. He would contribute nothing. Foster's LB typically need at least 2 years in the program to contribute. This would be a total waste of his talent and there are other guys already preparing to fill these holes.
Trey was not fully healthy and hasn't been all season. He played out of his mind at the end of last season. I would take a healthy Edmunds over any running back on the roster.
Correct. Especially if Marshawn and Shai aren't ready to go come fall practice.
Trey is by FAR the best pass-blocking back on our roster.
If I were to move a back to a different position it would be Caleb. I know he has bounced around the offense a lot, but to me he looks like a safety. He doesn't have the look of a back to me. He runs too tall and lacks that instinct to find the hole.
Shane certainly looked the part. However, I don't think its his time at VT yet.
Not this again...
If Trey is healthy, he'll be the starting running back next year. Marshawn and Shai should probably redshirt. People forget how good Trey looked before he got hurt vs UVA. He looked better vs UVA in 2013 than any back has looked since. Plus, he looked solid vs Duke this year (even though he wasn't at 100%) before hurting himself.
Dude is a really good running back. Even if he wasn't, you can't just move players to linebacker and expect him to make any kind of impact. This isn't Madden or NCAA '14 where you can just change a players position and expect no dropoff.
But... but... he's an 89 overall at MLB!!!
With JCC's last four games, do you think there's zero chance he regains his starting spot come spring?
I don't think it's a foregone conclusion by any means, but based on his film the last four games it really does look like JCC has arrived.
If Trey Edmunds is healthy, I'd be very surprised if it's not at least a 50/50 split.
You nailed the part about the perceived preparedness of the team. The coaches had those boys ready to play. After watching that game and listening to Bud, does anyone think Beamer Co. lost the locker room? (Rhetorical question, because they didn't.) Insignificant (and seemingly less committed) players left the program, but it wasn't an epidemic.
I never did buy the story that CFB lost the locker room.
That smelled of false from the outset.
Thank you for bringing this up. There are a lot of other programs that would have given up after that Wake game (imagine a Miami team after that one). I'm hoping we are looking at that game as a positive program turning point.
It still begs the question why they couldn't have the boys ready to play play for a number of our regular season games?
I never bought that Beamer had lost the locker room, but the preparation was woefully inadequate for many more important contests this season (and the last few, honestly)
Preparation was never the problem, it was execution. Effort was there all season, but a lot of youth and chemistry issues.
Rich Rod coming to VT aint gonna happen IMO. I dont have any idea who will be the next coach but I just dont see him as fitting into this program. Everybody sees our offense struggle, so hiring Rich Rod will get us a Nat Championship. He has had some good offenses but thats not all we need to look at when hiring our next coach.
Just my guess but I feel almost 100% that Brewer will be the starter next year. He is the guy, and a true freshman is especially not going to bump him out of that spot. I think it will be Brewer with Motley or Durkin getting some plays or packages. With what we have on offense, I think having those guys who can run will help us move the ball.
The RB situation will be something to watch once again. Healthy Coleman and Edmunds can be plenty productive if the line continues to build off of these last few games. I guess everyone recovers differently, but McKenzie should RS, and come back in '16 looking to play one year and get to the NFL. He has already had 2 ACL injuries, but who knows he could be 100% by the fall. Hard to predict the recovery, same with Williams. He will have less time to recover. I dont see how he could come back in August and be better than he was this year. It just sucks these guys had that happen to them.
Don't mean to be a downer, but I see a lot of talk about our stud freshman RBs coming back in a year or two, which we all hope and pray for. But the conversation is incomplete if we don't acknowledge the real and significant risk that Shai never comes back to contribute in a meaningful way.
is it really incomplete? I mean what you said is 100% conjecture. Does that need to be in the conversation to be complete? I haven't seen any medical updates on him lately to even hazard a guess at his ability to return, meaningful or not. let him heal, maybe redshirt and then see where he's at. Many players have come back, more have not. That's why you always recruit RBs and skill positions.
I'm not a coach, but have managed large technical staffs and have significant project management experience. I think any leader is looking at the scenarios and probabilities, and not only acknowledging the risk, but planning on only having one of the two studs back in any capacity after knee injuries. That's not conjecture, it's standard risk mitigation that needs to be done. You don't need to hear a full injury report, just the words "tear" and "second-tear" to know that you need to take action in your planning efforts.
I don't mean to sound flippant to your comment. I also manage, an entire company in fact, so i appreciate what you're saying. I did not mean to talk down to what you said. rather to point out that there is no real conversation there to have.
I am sure Shai, his family, doctor and everyone in Hokie football is evaluating his prospect at coming back and how much time he needs. But there is no conversation here. He is either healthy or not. If he's healthy he will play, if not he will redshirt. If he is still not healthy after that then I will feel really bad for him because he looked to have a great potential, but another RB will play.
But he is either going to be back or not. As RealDiehl posted we have a lot of depth at RB now:
Marshawn Williams
JC Coleman
Shai McKenzie
Trey Edmunds
Joel Caleb
Jerome Wright
Deshawn McClease
DJ Reid
Travon McMillian
Injuries happen, and again that's why you always recruit skill positions.
I did in fact single out Shai. You are absolutely correct, any discussion concerning him and his future should start and end with wishing him a speedy and fast recovery. I hear your points and appreciate clarification.
But going back to my original post, I do feel any discussion of depth is incomplete without mentioning attrition due to injury. Of course this is not 100% certain or hopefully not even probable, but with 2 ACLs on the mend we are on the cusp of a strong possibility of losing at least one. I personally feel that this should be given equal or more consideration than the comments on Trey's lack of development at RB, or a Joel Caleb transfer, or JCC durability as an everydown back. Most if not every comment concerning this seems to take it for granted that they both will be back except for the occasional acknowledgment of a redshirt possibility.
I also hope that Shai gets a RS. I think he is the best RB out of the group, but the guy needs to rehab. Two ACL tears in two years is a lot.
M. Williams is a big kid. A RS for him may be a good idea also. His weight could put a lot of strain on his knee if he isn't 100% recovered.
I like Trey and JC as the top 2 guys next year. Trey just needs the offseason to recover and JC has a lot of momentum and confidence going into next season.
Part of JC's success is that he was allowed to get into a rhythm because there was nobody else coming in for him. I hated all of the packages where one guy gets a play or two and then gets subbed out for someone else. Pick 2 RBs and let them get a bulk of the carries.
A nice issue that we have is competition at certain positions that we haven't had for some time. It's amazing what a couple of good recruiting classes can do.
I'm going to be satisfied as a fan with sitting back and seeing how the competition shakes out in the spring.
1st priority, IMHO is close out on recruiting-get the players committed at positions of need. The coaches should be enthusiastic with the season ending as it has and let that play over into the recruiting. This could be a special class.
2nd priority is to get the team (and Coach Beamer) healthy. Not to conjecture, but I have concerns about Beamer's recent procedure. But prayers have been sent.
3rd priority is to let Coach Gentry work his magic over the off-season.
All to get ready for spring practice next year.
Moving Trey to whip isn't completely far fetched. Like I said, Justin Hamilton made his move right before his senior year. But, as we learned this year, there is no such thing as too much depth at running back.
Well since the whip position is becoming nearly obsolete, even if the notion of being capable of playing the position isn't far fetched, the notion of actually doing so is.
Good thoughts though I don't think there's a chance of Shane being the next head coach of VT and don't see a move of Trey Edmunds to defense.
Already saw this year why there needs to be depth at RB especially with potential of Marshawn and Shai missing next year also as mentioned he has had success at RB before. There's depth at LB with Deon Clarke, Andrew M, McKinnon, RVD as well as redshirted 4 star Raymond Minor.
I think Shane Beamer should get a look as a non-P5 head coach sometime in next couple of years but doesn't yet have the resume of a P5 head coaching candidate.
I could see this team winning 10 games next year. The roster is young with a lot coming back. Hoping that there's a good QB competition in the spring and some young OL make an impression.
They need to keep trey at RB if I were coach, I'd redshirt both marshawn and shai. Shai is coming off his second major acl injury and they both will need lots of time to heal. With JC breaking out and trey an animal when healthy we have some options to give shai and marshawn plenty of time to heal
Bingo. If we have some injury issues week 3ish and one of the two is 100%, I say pull the redshirt. Otherwise, let 'em heal, let 'em learn, and we'll see what we have in McMillian and Reid.
I just want to point this out after browsing through our roster:
On offense alone, we will return 17 players who have started a game for VT.
On defense, 11 players who have started a game will return.
Of course, 5 of those offense players are running backs, but take those away and you still have 12 others with starting experience. 2015 should be good.
The win was wonderful and it certainly seems like the players enjoy playing for Shane.
But he's no where near ready for a Head Coaching job.
I spent most of the year pulling my hair out over his running back rotation (what other team insists on rotating RBs every series!?) and I'm not blown away by his recruiting just yet.
He's only 37. I'm happy to have him on staff when the next HC is installed in the next few years, maybe he'll be ready to be an OC or something like that but please don't jump the gun here.
We still haven't gotten a definite answer from anyone on who calls what in terms of personnel. Is Shane deciding on personnel, or is the "rotation" dictated by what Loeffler is calling in the booth in terms of play design? It was frustrating to me to see a new RB seemingly every play early in the year, but as with some of our substitution penalties early on, it seemed like something very complicated was going on with all personnel groupings and it was just too much. That sounds more like a Loeffler/package design thing. I'm still guessing here. Maybe one of our credentialed guys (either from TKP or Andy) can ask Loeffler or Shane how decisions are made? Maybe that's not something they'll offer publicly, but any insight into sideline/booth communication, especially as it relates to personnel in terms of groupings, substitutions, etc. would be very nice to read about for those of us who are uneducated in the ways of what the heck is going on in those headsets.
Fair point, but I still stand by mine.
He's simply not ready to be the Head Coach of this program. Nor will he be in the next few years when Frank (presumably) retires.
If he'd gone to Troy or somewhere else and had success/gotten some experience, I'd say we could consider it in a few years but you just don't promote your RBs coach to the HC position, no matter what his last name is.
I don't disagree with that. I just think the rotation criticism rings a little hollow when we don't know the details of who's doing what. RB coach is probably one of the easiest; even Billy Hite said there was barely anything to do ("you can't teach fast") and basically the guys were athletic enough that he just had to put them through the drills. So definitely RB -> HC is not a great idea, though Shane has coached other units at other FBS schools. He'll take an FCS or low FBS HC gig somewhere, I think, and maybe one day return to VT.
No on Shane being a head coach for us. Let him cut his teeth elsewhere but there were a few times during the game where his inexperience showed. Namely, at the end of the first half, a timeout should have been called on that first down pickup with 40 seconds to go. We wasted way too much time and the way we were driving, it probably cost us a legitimate chance at scoring a TD. Just the little things like that need to be learned with experience, and experience that needs to be gained elsewhere. Our next guy needs to be a proven guy in this level of play.
That was terrible.
Not sure who was making those calls (I mean, Frank had to have been doing something right?) but as good as it was to get a FG there, we could have had another ~60 seconds and may have been able to get a TD on the drive.
Silver lining: Shane did a better job with the Timeouts than TimeCop.
That's not saying much...
Yes, we could have used the timeout there, but we lost about 4 seconds there.
I thought a 60 second play clock seemed a little long
Typo on my part, but had we started taking timeouts on defense we could have save more than 4 seconds.
It would seem like little things like calling a timeout or not would be ingrained in all these guys on the sideline but apparently it does take time to be able to prioritize the thinking while so many other things are going on. I think Shane will make a jump to a lower level HC before jumping to a coordinator position. I will give him credit though, he didn't have deer in the headlight looks during the game. I think he will make a HC someday but the stars would have to align perfectly for him to come back home to VT in the future.