Very informative blog post on a FREE sister site of TSL.
http://bourbonstreet.sportswar.com/tech-thoughts-a-great-scot-and-whit-t...
My main takeaways
- Michael Brewer is our QB (Loeffler spoke Very Highly of him)
- Shai's probably going to be back
- Loeffler hates the O'CainSpring/ Newsome era as much if not more than we do...
- Starting O-line could be special
- Whit neither confirming or denying talking to Rich-Rod at some point (Probably nothing to worry about, but since it has been talked about recently I figured I'd at that).
- Beamer is a tough son of a gun!
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Comments
Wow the writing in that article is horrendous.
Good info in it though. I am excited for this season.
Yeah I usually don't like reading his posts because I speak English and I don't know what he's writing most of the time, but like you said the info is top-notch.
oh the irony...
Wow- that was difficult to read but, assuming my translation of it is correct, I like it!
Some great insight there.
Appreciate the info
Pretty sure he used siri instead of actually typing this.
EDIT:
This guy used the word 'NC2A' instead of 'NCAA'. IT'S THE SAME AMOUNT OF CHARACTERS AND IT'S NOT FUNNY OR WITTY. Now all I want to do is kick this guy in the balls.
Yes, his numerous numerations were numerically numerous.
If someone could translate this into english that would be great! liked how the OP posted his takeaways because without that I would have been lost.
This article this tough to follow. There is no flow to it at all
It's a little on the "trendy" side but not that hard to decipher. Basically our first string is awesome, our 2nd string is suspect. Brewer is running things if we keep him upright. The offense is super complicated so you need an upperclassman to run it. Scott sleeps in his office dreaming up new formations. (I'm surprised if he doesn't go pro where this sort of thing is highly valued (Belicheck)). And Searels is awesome, which if you saw the Oline progress even with injuries last year and taking Hansen from D3 DL into D1 OL is obvious.
Nothing trendy about it, dude's been writing like that for at least ten years.
Plus:
Whit likes his bball gyms old, loud and hot.
And maybe B-Street likes his women old, loud and hot.
Seriously I didn't find it all that hard to read...it's just his posting style
I know we had figured this out but it's good to have it confirmed.
So, One: ESPN basically is confirming the Virginia Tech fans are the best in the nation and will watch their team any time of day.
And Two: Fcuk E$PN.
Someone is trying to start a hokie interweb war posting that here... ;)
I'm surprised no one has brought up this comment:
What's he gonna say? No, we're definitely redshirting Lawson, before he even gets to campus? Lawson will be given his fair shot at the position in the fall, most likely realize firsthand how much he had to learn, and accept his redshirt without feeling like he was strongarmed into it.
It's coach speak. Yes, he has a chance,and he should prepare like the starter, cause otherwise you end up in the Sun Bowl throwing pick sixes. Unless he comes in and blows the top off the offense, picks everything up in 3 weeks and just smokes Brewer and Motley, he's gonna join the likes of Luck, Winston, RG3, Manziel, Mariota, etc. and take a redshirt year.
Hint: he's gonna take a redshirt year.
Yep.
Brewer, with a college degree in 3 years (and with a lighter graduate student course load), after 3 years practice and film room in a college system, got here in May -- and still struggled at times with the system and getting in sync with the receivers.
Now imagine Lawson, talented as he might be, but still skinny as a rail, arriving on campus in August, with little exposure to the playbook, no exposure to the VT receivers, never seen a D1 defense, gets (at best) 3rd team reps after week 1, AND has to take college courses for the first time come September.
I'd say the odds of him seeing the field (barring a catastrophic injury situation) are somewhere between zero and none.
Bingo. And we're likely talking comically catastrophic injuries. Like, Maryland in 2012 comically catastrophic.
So much more to transitioning from high school to the ACC than people realize. You can't just do what you did in high school and be successful. There's the playbook, college life/classes, the significant uptick in the speed of the game, etc. Your comparison to Brewer is spot on. That was a guy who had seen college defenses and had gotten through college academic life. Playing QB at a high level is hard. Let the kid learn, and then let's see what he can do once he's got his feet under him.
I remember reading an article that went back and researched the careers of highly-touted QB prospects. By far and away those that played/started as true freshmen had much worse careers in college and in the pros than those who redshirted.
Correct. For the most part, true frosh starting QBs have limited success and stagnate or regress. Of the half dozen or so that didn't stagnate or regress, they were elite recruits (5* or high 4*) whose names everyone recognizes (RG3, Matt Barkley, Teddy Bridgewater, Braxton Miller, Tyrelle Pryor). The Jacory Harris's and Chase Rettig's are far more common than the RG3's.
The list of r-Fr QBs who were successful their r-Fr year and beyond is much bigger and accomplished.
Yup. Starting as a freshman QB can get you broken early.
And often.
And please forgive me this trespass -- but even though it was UVA bringing the pain, this was the zombie kill of the week:
Did Jacory Harris ever lift? Seriously, I vividly remember watching da U play when he was there and whoever the color guy was during the game literally asked the exact same question. He and Kevin Durant must have the same personal trainer.
I honestly can't believe Will and Chris keep featuring his articles with that writing style. Back when I frequented TSL, posters were saying the exact same things about it that are being said here. And that was three years ago. Go read any article by Alex and compare it to this just to get a sense of the difference.
yup. and sometimes he just makes stuff up.
I used to love it when fans of opposing teams would shred his game or team previews because of the litany of mistakes.
...and yet his posts get the most pageviews and generate the most discussion.
Something that people fail to grasp is that controversy sells. If you post a safe, middle of the road opinion you probably won't generate a lot of discussion. B-street takes a polar position because he knows it will generate fervored discussion. And his posting syntax style feeds into all that.
Surprised nobody has made a 'just the tip' joke, considering the subject of this thread...
INTERVIEWER:
"Some people say they can't understand your writing, even after they read it two or three times. What approach would you suggest for them?"
WILLIAM FAULKNER:
"Read it four times."
I can't believe folks get so worked up about a quirky writing style... I find his writing style challenging at times, but I also find myself quite amused at some of his references and metaphors. And the content and the analysis (which is all that matters in the end) is generally better than most (and frequently much better).
The problem is, it would work great as a podcast but translates poorly to the written word.
It's not the references/metaphors; it's the grammer/spelling. Unless he's writing this with a brick phone using T9, I'm not sure why he'd write this way.
It's just ridiculous. He's obviously trying to create a style that sets him apart, but it makes no sense. I read some of his other posts, and the style seems entrenched.
It's like he's some Yank trying to establish his good ol' boy cred, and figures Southerners drop consonants all the time. Even the silent ones.
No, for me, it's not unreadable, and he does have some interesting stuff to say.
But good Lord - why type "wrong" like this: 'rong.
It's HARDER to type that. It implies no difference in diction. It's the literary equivalent of fingernails on the chalkboard, and it just makes you embarrassed for him that he thinks it's going to have any sort of mass appeal.
Worse: I actually fear it could have mass appeal.
If someone came to me to publish an article on my website with that paragraph in there, I would slap them.
Literally don't know what this means, which is a shame because it sounds like an actual tidbit of information. Is Loeffler saying that he wants the game to go by quick so he doesn't have to show off to many formations or does he want the ball snapped quickly to get as much evaluation in as possible?
I think it's a mixture of that as well as getting out of the spring without any more injuries.
This really isn't that hard to read. I actually like it a lot, puts a lot of information out with very little in the way of filler language, trusts that the reader can use context and parse it out.
Lots of data, comma delimeted, puts burden on the reader. Engnr-esque, in a way, re: organization of thoughts. Considering, at least, a drunk engnr is still an engnr!
People cracking on BourbonStreet's writing style is nothing new. Before TKP we had him and Tailgatefever.com bringing levity to each football season. I have always appreciated it.
Once you follow him for a while you'll start to get the joke of the way he writes. He's having fun with it. Sort of a cajun Lee Corso/Dick Vitale.
the writing style gets on my nerves but i can see the appeal to some.
i stopped reading it because he doesn't differentiate between fact, opinion, and dream...and all 3 can appear in his articles.
...in the same sentence.
I don't blame Lefty for hating the previous regime, considering they made his job so difficult and led to so many people hating him and thinking he sucks at his job.
I'm not saying Lefty's been perfect, but to offer a counter example, I'm sure Lane Kiffin's predecessors have made his job much easier than Loeffler's.
Considering where we were and where we are now... Lefty was the right man for the job.
Bingo. Will we win a bunch of games and have a top-30 offense? Who knows. Would anyone in their right mind take the offense we saw bumbling around on the field during the spring of 2012 over the one we've seen this spring? Noooope.
How so?
Lefty's biggest fan
That would be so sad for me. And Scot.
This is true. Just busting your balls a little. In reality I think you have valid points in your dislike of Lefty. I hope that you are wrong since that's the best scenario for VT, but I get it.
I have a tough time having "faith" in Lefty because nothing in his resume screams "I got this!" He's got an Emperor with No Clothes resume.
But, hey, maybe that Emperor has a rocking body that even dude's can appreciate.
Lefty's got the pieces this year, improvement is expected by all.
I hope like hell that he does have a rocking bod under there and that he uses it to go streaking across the
quadACC and to thegymNational Championship playoff. I hope he brings his green hat too.While I do agree. If Lefty sticks to what he says then we are in good shape. He tended to get away from what was working at bad times last year and that was frustrating.
From the information I have, Searles is the OL coach with the perfect fit for VT and I think his work will be the biggest influence this season but that of course goes hand in hand with Lefty.
He has faith in his players, and I like that.
Really, if Brewer is putting the ball on the money like he is showing this Spring (and showed at times last year, namely before he got hurt) we should be dialing up passing plays to spread the defense out, to help us run the ball more efficiently. We have a ton of talent at receiver, and we shouldn't be afraid to use it.
I agree 100%. Last year our passing game was struggling at times and we would come out in the 2nd half and go 2 TEs and pound the ball and it would work, we would get down the field and throw the ball and attempt a long FG or punt. We got away from what was working too soon IMO but I am excited for Leoffler to have the same core of guys for more than 1 season finally.
Upvote for you, but I think Lefty has a lot to prove this year.
Last year was a little too conservative (and painful) at times. He got a free pass after the OSU win, but last year's spring game of awful offense, false starts and OLine breakdowns was a tell-tale sign that a 10-win season wasn't in the cards. Of course the future is bright and inconsistency the issue when your talent is freshman or not on campus.
I'll give Lefty props if the first team has its way with the 2nd team Def in the spring game. There's some players on that 2-deep defense and if the offense can block, run and score on them with 1 turnover or less, then we can guzzle the kool-aid like last Labor Day.
It's ones vs ones in the spring game this year.
Yeah, I hadn't seen that until after I wrote the above.
So, more TDs than TO's would be a good showing, but the 1st team offense definitely has a good excuse if they don't put up 35 pts.
I've been a fan of Lefty since they announced the hire, but some fans have been after him with pitchforks and torches for a few years now. I can't believe the haters have all gone quiet after Brewer goes 10-15 with a few TDs in one practice.
I am really, really anxious to see how the first string OL holds up against what should honestly be as good as any DL they will face this coming season, even accepting the injuries. If Brewer rains TD passes, there will be a lot of talk about how Kendall and Facyson were out. But if the line can hold a clean pocket and open holes for the tailbacks, that will bode well the coming season.
Keep in mind that it's going to be very vanilla on both sides. So we won't see much about how the Line/QB have advanced with blitz pickup and such. However, we're gonna see if we can man up and win individual matchups. If the offense wins more than the defense, we might just have a heck of a year.
There aren't a lot of 1's on the defense this spring. Dadi, Moto, Clarke, Clark, Reavis? And whoever starts at Whip or Nickel.
Missing Marshall, Maddy, Ekanem, Fuller, Facyson.
Still the best we've got available. Still probably gonna be better than most of the teams we play.
I think that guy had a little too much bourbon before writing this article. I speak English, not drunk (at least not at this moment).
I think a largely overlooked aspect of this article is Whit stating he wants to renovate Cassell. I was really hoping we'd see a new arena in the future that could accommodate hockey, concerts, etc. Cassell is too small to do a lot much with.
I kinda like Cassell as is. I would upgrade the area outside the stadium (where the vendors are) and update the lighting, but I like the small, intimate feel.
Lighting just got updated, but with the way marketing was playing with stuff at the end of the season, it may not be done. The concession area seems to be the focal point of most of the reno for Cassell. Also, there will be courtside seating this upcoming season.
I just want them to find a way to get the students on one side of the court and not behind the basket.
Did I overlook the part where he talked about the previous regime? Where did he say he didn't like them?