Virginia Tech football associate head coach and running backs coach Shane Beamer spoke with Laken Litman of USA TODAY Sports about how the Hokies knocked off the Buckeyes last September. For a Virginia Tech fan, especially one that reads TKP, it isn't a particularly insightful read. We examined the Ohio State win corner to corner, but Litman's article helps to answer the, ZOMG, HOW DID A 7-6 TEAM THAT LOST TO WAKE FOREST BEAT OSU?, question for the average fan that didn't watch the game.
Without a doubt, Virginia Tech was the better team that night in the 'Shoe. That's Beamer's stance too. He follows up that point with the (valid, but tired) Virginia Tech injury narrative and cites close losses (three games by less than three points) to explain why Tech finished 7-6.
The somewhat interesting part to me was the early 2015, mini-preview of the improved Buckeyes.
"I certainly think the [Ohio State] offensive line has come along and has improved," he said. "We played them that night, then I saw them on video against Cincinnati because we played Cincinnati in a bowl game, and then the next time I watched Ohio State was when they played Alabama.
"I really hadn't paid much attention to them until the Alabama game, but their receivers are certainly improved and making a lot of plays, their offensive line has improved, which you would certainly expect because they had four new starters heading into their first game. And they had some young guys on defense that we saw that have just continued to get better. They're big and can run on defense and have just gotten more experienced."
According to Ohio State's latest depth chart, only one member of the Buckeyes stout o-line that pushed around Alabama, right tackle Darryl Baldwin, is a senior. The only other senior starters on offense are TE Jeff Heuerman (17 catches, 207 yards, 2 TDs) and WR Evan Spencer (15 catches, 149 yards, 3 TDs). Even though he's not listed as a starter, senior Devin Smith (32 catches, 886 yards, 12 TDs) is Ohio State's big play receiver.
The Buckeyes must replace 4 senior starters on defense, including likely first- or second-round draft pick defensive tackle Michael Bennett. However, Ohio State's top 4 tacklers per game all have another year of eligibility, and so does sack machine Joey Bosa (14.5).
Virginia Tech will have its hands full on Labor Day night. Ohio State returns mosts of its goods, recruited at an elite level (top 10 or better classes since 2011 according to the 247Sports Composite) and has its pick of quarterback among two Heisman vote-getters (B. Miller, M. Barrett) and Cardale Jones (who lead the Buckeyes to a Big Ten Championship and playoff win).
It's not all doom and gloom for the Hokies though. Phil Steele projects Virginia Tech to return 16 starters in 2015. That ranks the Hokies T-18th nationally and T-2nd in the ACC.
| RK | TEAM | CONF | TOTAL | OFF | QB | RB/FB | REC/TE | OL | DEF | DL | LB | DB's | K | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | North Carolina | ACC | 17 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 18 | Virginia Tech | ACC | 16 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 | Wake Forest | ACC | 16 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 30 | Pittsburgh | ACC | 15 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 30 | Florida St | ACC | 15 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| 41 | NC State | ACC | 14 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 60 | Georgia Tech | ACC | 13 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 80 | Virginia | ACC | 12 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 80 | Duke | ACC | 12 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| 102 | Syracuse | ACC | 11 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 102 | Louisville | ACC | 11 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 102 | Clemson | ACC | 11 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 119 | Miami, Fl | ACC | 10 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 119 | Boston College | ACC | 10 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Prospects have until January 15th to declare for the NFL Draft, but since Virginia Tech is not expected to have an early departures, that can only help Tech's rank.
Virginia Tech will have an early opportunity to prove doubters wrong—last year's Ohio State game wasn't a fluke—and validate injuries were a main cause of 2014's woes.
Comments
Needless to say, we need every Hokie going to that game to go absolutely nuts and show the Buckeyes Lane at its best and loudest. A healthy VT with this roster can play with and beat just about any team in the nation. I predict Brewer to be improved, and do expect him to be the starter short of some sort of calamity.
Also, looks like loluva won't be in very good shape, short of an absolute miracle in coaching by CML between now and November. They're losing some real pieces on both sides of the ball, but particularly defense.
It's looking like we won't need to really worry about UVA again for awhile.
So true but especially since there are no more Thoroughbreds (hopefully) in the 757. We now need to make sure we make our presence in Hampton Roads (where I live) a priority with Penn State and ODU running that camp in June.
Lane will probably see a record attendance that day, can't wait to be apart of it.
I'm having strange feelings that I cannot explain.
I am ready for some football?
Yup. That's what it is. Exactly.
Self: "Is... is she doing something naughty?!"
Checks pants.
"Ohh yeahhh."
The one time I visit the set it goes "viral".
Aside from just posting this gif for any reason (thank you, and God bless Giada) still trying to figure out how it pertains to the post above it.
French was expressing the level of his excitement for the game.
As in:
Giada can use his parts as a rolling pin, is how excited he is for the game.
That is the kind of ace analysis that you can only find here!
Ah I see. I couldn't get that thought past the one of Giada using that rolling pin like my parts.
Common problem. Don't sweat it.
I wish my fucking company didn't block videos/gifs/etc
To mobile!
ooohhhh, how to make a pie gif!!!!!
BOOM
The answer to young French's question: "where do pies come from?"
So you're saying Giada exemplifies the "pin and pull" technique?
BOOM
Wow, just wow. Stick it in stick it in.
That letter spacing, it'll get after ya.
I know how he feels. I won't bet here, either.
My submission for the Shane Beamer caption contest:
Step 1: Cut a hole in the box...
EDIT: I made it!
Can't create a proper image since I'm on my phone but step 3, "Make Her Open the Box is smack dab in Jameis Winston territory.
Is OSU expected to lose any early entrants to the NFL draft? I believe Bosa is only a true Soph this year.
The speculation is that Adolphus Washington (DT) may leave early. That would leave Bosa as the only returning player of note on their DL. We'll probably have to wait until after the national championship to know.
Adolphus, or "Diesel", as he is affectionately known up here, has come out and said this weekend that he is 100% set on returning for his senior season.
Yeah, I saw that. Thanks for the info!
I have a feeling that Lane will not have any trouble a rocking come September...
Does a bear pee in the woods?
Not if it's a polar bear
Where does a polar bear pee?
Wherever it wants.
I was gonna say on the pole...it probably owns the shit out of that pole
Both teams will be undefeated
Anybody know how many tickets will be available to say the Hokie Club? Do I need to improve from number 9971 out of 9984 to get tickets to this game?
The best part is that the "17 returning starters" is misleading. While it's true we will have around 5 new starters at separate positions (safeties, O-line, MLB), our bench boasts a solid NINE PLAYERS who have started games before. Of course some of this depends on the status of Shai and Marshawn, but otherwise:
Bucky Hodges (Malleck starts)
Kalvin Cline
Trey Edmunds (if JC starts)
Shai McKenzie
Marshawn Williams
Demitri Knowles
Ronny Vandyke
Chuck Clark (with Facyson back)
Nigel Williams (Maddy back)
And technically Jerome Wright has starting experience from 2013's Sun Bowl. So yeah we basically have like 24 starters returning.
Yeah, but that's true for every team.
The most relevant ones for us are Chuck Clark (FS/Rov), Donovan Riley (if he starts at CB with Fuller at Nickel), Andrew Moutuapuaka (3 starts?) and Augie Conte (who will likely start somewhere on the OL). I don't even consider the Whip a starter anymore, they were probably used 20% of the time this year, but RVD certainly has experience in DiNardo's place.
We don't have many holes to fill. Our unknowns are Reavis (who most feel really good about), Gallo and whoever starts at RG/RT next to Conte. That's a pretty small amount of unknowns.
Josh Trimble started at whip in 2013 as well and saw significant time there. We'll have to see who the safeties are, how much Moutuapuaka improves, and what the depth is like, but we could certainly have the best defense in the ACC next year.
Also Sam Rogers
Understatement.
or "a lot", which was the case
Not directed at you NavyEMC. Just a convenient part of this thread to post.
Our QB was also just starting his second game and their OC was trying to exploit that as well.
but our receivers, except one were also just starting their second game and our RBs were just starting their second game. One of our 2 TEs was just starting his second game ever at TE.
Or veterans for the offense last year at this time were Byrn, Wang, Mclaughlin, Stanford, AJ Hughes. That's it as far as impact players. (Of course AJ is the punter but I wanted to include him for impact.) Our FG kicker is a true Fr.
We had how many hundreds of yards in procedural penalties because our guys were so new we couldn't even get the right ones out that and lined up. (And we have guys here complaining about not running enough no huddle.)
These are our starters at that point. We replaced them as they started dropping like flies with other guys that had never seen a snap in college, and continued to rack up procedure penalties until they learned how to get on the field and lined up for a snap.
Whereas OSU had veterans in those other skill positions.
And we strung together enough offensive plays through luck and individual athleticism while our defense played lights out.
I am sorry, their QB being new is not an excuse as to why we beat them. Almost all our guys were just as new as him, on offense. I'm tired of the whining about "Butt, he was a new QB." Tough titties, almost all our guys were new. We identified their weak points and exploited them, just as they tried with ours.
We were better that day. Our casualties really started adding up after this and we regressed. They stayed relatively healthy or had more depth and was able to sustain the rest of the season.
3 days later, after spending some time studying the rolling pin gif, I decided to look at the chart of Teams' returning starters.
They have FSU with 15 returning starters: 10 on defense (damn!) and 5 on offense.
But they count their QB (Winston, duh) as one of the returning starters, and they have only 1 returning starter on O-line.
Yeah, this chart was way premature. FSU cornerbacks Ronald Darby and PJ Williams as well as Mario Edwards and Winston have all declared for the draft and Eddie Goldman may leave as well, leaving them with only 10-11 returning starters.
In addition, Louisville's entire(!) secondary is going into the draft, leaving them with only 9 returning starters. Louisville and Clemson return as many starters on defense COMBINED as VT does.
People really under-appreciated just how friggen young our team is. We're going to be returning a bunch of starters over the next few years, and that's not a bad thing at all.
I am looking forward to it. I hope OSU buys into the hype. Be nice to get 2 top 5 wins off of them in 2 years.