I am starting this thread to remove the special teams jinx rom our AnOSU game. It is my strong belief that if we avoid stupid special teams mistakes (Boise) and incompetence (Bama 2013) we will be able to to compete with Bucknuts. However, if we choose to play all of our walk ons as Shane stated we did in 2013 against Bama. Nuts of Buck will curb stomp us with speed.
Pile on boys and tear this jinx a new ass! CFB will not play a bunch of walk on punt and kick coverages! We will not give up scores or red zone opportunities to punt and kick off returns.
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
Goddamn it, you realize this is how you jinx something, right? Great, now are going to give up like 5 return TDs opening night.
Not true Hokie Brethren. The only way to beat that which haunts our football dreams is to confront, engage and talk it to death in TKP thread. While painful, it is the only way.
Can I add the FSU national title game to the list?
I still, to this day, have only been able to watch it once.
Yes you can. I never thought they would shove Beamerball up our ass that night.
I was at that game, and while our STs had their problems, we were playing a talented team that night. What lost the game for us, in my opinion, was the fourth quarter Winky and Pete show. They just went out and did us in after we'd gone into the fourth with the lead.
We'll always have the 3rd quarter.
And the Alamo.
I think you can add MOST halFaSsU match ups to the list. Speshul teems.
Special teams pls
Is verra bad to steal Jobu's rum.
Is verra bad.
This should have more upvotes... I would if I could.
Consider it removed:
I forgot about Roberts return for TD.
One of the best neutral site games I attended next to 2004 usc. If we had Darren Evans for BaMa I still think we could saved our defense and wore them down more. RW was good but young.
Are you kidding me!? RMFW ran over their effin arses.
No Grub I am not kidding. That was his first game as r for and did extremely well. The fumbled punt return was a fluke back breaker. He didn't get the touches that DE would have gotten (Hite) and therefore wasn't afforded the opportunity imo to properly torch the Bama D. If we had TT, DE and RW in the back field as a rotation or 1-2 punch whatever you want to call it, I believe the outcome is different. Imeho.
Phantom PI call! (USC)
Phantom holding call! (Bama)
Don't forget BS roughing the passer call against USC.
and the BS late hit against Bama
Watching those videos is good for the soul.
Yes, those are the memories I want to renew.
*Insanity Wolf Meme*
What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger
Awesome memories, thanks! Can we at least start camp now. Can't wait to see us play the Bucknuts!
Could watch that block all day long.
It looked good from the stands that night!
Yes it did!
Was at all but the Pitt game.
#PunterSwag
The way to break the Special Teams Jinx is to hire a special teams coach.
As much as I like Beamer, this is one job he should no longer have. He should have fired himself by now.
There is a limit to the total number of coaches on a team,if that number is currently there who gets fired to hire the ST coach?
Other teams have special teams "coordinators" who double duty with other roles, so lets not get hung up on semantics, OK?
I'll admit, I'm just frustrated over the decline in VT special teams performance as of late. It's not a jinx, it's putting a good product out there in terms of special teams.
It's taking advantage of other team's screw ups, without adding screw ups of our own.
Quality control staff are not coaches. You said hire a new coach, so within that argument you need to figure out how to move duties around or hire someone else. FWIW, several of our coaches handle various ST duties; it's not just Frank. Shane and Wiles do some, as does Cornell, IIRC.
Good point. A little bit better kicking would go a long way.
I remember some good runbacks as well, but it seems as if they were sometimes negated by penalties.
VT 2014 ranks, per stats from cfbstats.com:
Long punt returns, ranked #11 in the nation (5 of 20+, 4 of 30+), overall punt returns #78 (not very good).
Kickoff returns ranked #101 (take a knee in the endzone, guys)
Opponent kickoff returns, ranked #53
Opponent punt returns, ranked #8
Opponent long punt returns, tied for #1 in the nation (none of 20+)
Opponent long kickoff returns, tied for #15 (3 of 30+)
Our own return game needs a lot of work, though punt returns were good. Our ability to cover kicks was outstanding last year, overall.
I'd like to see VT in the top 10 or 15 special teams. After all, that's the original VT brand. We need Beamerball back.
Thanks for posting those stats. Return improvement would be nice but I want the Buckeys to earn very yard on long fields against our D. To me, that's the only way we keep this close. Give them short fields and we will not fare well.
The Buckeys? No way, man, we got the only Bucky in the game.
LOL nice catch ( pun intended) you sir are right!
http://www.annarbor.com/sports/um-football/how-many-college-football-coa...
It's not semantics it's the NCAA rules.
What coach currently on the roster takes on ST duties or gets fired to bring in a new ST coach.
What about Stinespring?
The problem isn't finding someone else to do it. Beamer LIKES to do it, and it's his call.
Taking on the ST duties or firing him? If you say fire him I'm done talking.
Taking on the duties. Stinespring is plenty capable.
Position coach, plus recruiting coordinator, plus ST duties? Asking too much of one guy.
The only other option I can think of is Shane.
Honestly, the smartest thing to do(if Frank gave up special teams) would be to move Shane to special teams, and then fire/not renew Cornell Brown(nothing against him or what he's done but it's a dying position and I'd rather have someone double duty that job than special teams) and hire an experienced RB coach.
Man, a lot of wonderful memories with those clips. Who was that masked man who took out two with that block on Jarrett's punt return? Laid them out!
That was RVD, the whole damn show.
As with most of our issues the last few years, Special Teams have also suffered from the recruiting slump. Beamer started the idea of playing starters on ST. But at the time we had better depth. Without that depth, the idea of starters getting hurt and/or worn out and tired became a real issue. With some depth, the starters get some rest on some non-ST plays. Without it, the starters have to stay on the field more. The second 'Bama game was the perfect example of how this hurt us. One of the Beamers even admitted that they knew their starters could hang with Bama, but they were wary of them getting worn down as the game went on, so you saw back-ups and walk-ons on ST instead of a lot of starters. Unfortunately, when the recruiting falls off, the quality and experience of those back-ups falls with it. Fortunately, as the recruiting has picked up, the special teams will pick-up with it. We saw that last year with guys like Reavis and Stroman having huge impacts on returns, blocks, and coverage.
Christian Wilson killed us. We kicked to him every time it seemed.
I am so hoping he finally gets to contribute like we have been hoping the last 3 years.
Play the starters on special teams. We do that, and we'll be fine.
Stroman needs to be more careful with the ball on returns. I know everyone is excited about this guy with the ball in his hands but there and at least a dozen plays I could show you from last year where we would have been better off with a knee in the endzone or a fair catch (rewatch Duke game, that was the one that really jumped out at me.)
I'm not one for arguing, but I'm pretty sure Stroman is not the guy that should be criticized for not downing kickoffs n the endzone. I'm pumped about his punt return potential, so I take interest in posts about that.
Here is what a quick search turned up for me on Stroman's return stats:
2014 Virginia Tech Hokies
Greg Stroman #3
Freshman CB
6-0 164 Bristow, VA
through 01/12/2015
2014
Punt Returns
G Ret. Yards Avg. TD Ret./G Yards/G
13 36 249 6.92 0 2.8 19.2
Kickoff Returns
G Ret. Yards Avg. TD Ret./G Yards/G
13 1 18 18.00 0 0.1 1.4
Looks like he only had one KO return for 18 yards. Not sterling, but not the issue, given one try, IMO.
Yeah, the issue was on KO returns, which was mainly Knowles and someone else.
Our problem with punt returns is that they always fell out of bounds at the 5 yard line.
Either the coaches or Knowles himself have mentioned that his legs weren't 100% all year and that it had contributed to his drop in production compared to his R-SO year. It just hit me that he was still back there returning kicks even though he wasn't at full speed. I don't know why the coaches would keep him back there with that being the case. I don't think the experience factor would be a big enough factor for a position where catching the ball securely and straight line speed are the most important skills to have.
All the more reason for him to take a knee in the endzone.
I was looking over the stats I have pulled of kickoff returns (the ones I mentioned in another thread), and actually, it looks like Newsome was the worse offender about running out of the end zone but not getting 25, or even 20. I gotta check some more, since I only have 7 games.
EDIT: I checked some more, and pulled the stats from all 13 games. I made a blog post about it, so I would bog down the forum here with the numbers.
But short version, we had 16 returns from out of the end zone. Only 3 gained more than 25 yards. We gained 305 yards on those 16 returns, vs. the 400 we could have gotten from touchbacks. If I take out Newsome's 58 yard return against Miami, it's 247 vs. 375 yards.
It seems obvious to me that we don't take that knee often enough. It's easily proven, statistically, that we have not done well with that. When, then, will we ever learn?