April 1st Spring Practice Highlights

Credit to HokieSports here:

http://www.hokiesports.com/videos/?sport=football

Be warned: takes forever to buffer.

Play 1

Leal at QB, Duane Perez Means at Hback, Jake Goins at RT, Michael Holmes at RB.

Playaction zone stretch to the left side, Perez-Means crosses the action to the right and looks like he might seal the backside defensive end. Perez-Means continues into the flat and Leal delivers him a good pass for ~10 yarrds. One of the WRs was out in space fighting to get a block in.

Play 2

Leal at QB, Jake Goins at RT, Tyrel Wilson at playside DE,

Zone stretch to the left side, Holmes immediately plants his foot and cuts to the back side. Tyrel Wilson was sucked too far inside by the stretch action and is out of position. Davion Tookes come up from the CB, but Michael Holmes jukes his face off. Holmes looked extremely athletic on this play - - looks like he's changed his body in a good way. Do not count him out of the RB rotation yet, as I can see him thriving in this North-South running game we're implementing.

Play 3

Logan at QB, Schuman at RT, Gibson at LT, Andrew Miller at Center, Caleb Farris at LG, Trey Edmunds at TB, Dewayne Alford and Seth Dooley at DE.

Pass play. Alford tries to take the edge, but Schuman rides him out of the play. Dooley lines up against Gibson. Watch Gibson at the 00:27 mark of the video. Dooley tried to bullrush Gibson, and Gibson responded by absolutely whipping Dooley to the ground. Looked pretty beast mode. Might be a hold. Anyway, Logan looked off to the left side of the field, and came back to the middle. It still looked like the stared down the receiver. Stanford catches what appeared to be a ball high and behind. Hard to tell. Can't see the route.

Play 4

Chris Mangus zone run to the left side. I'm not sure what happens with the action on the offensive line here. I'm pretty sure Conte pulls from the RG position and goes on to block someone in the second level. Can't tell. Conte pulling at somebody is a scary thought. Nice little burst and balance by Mangus, as he breaks two arm tackles. Pretty sure he fumbles at the end though.

Play 5

Arkeme at center, Conte at RG, Jake Goins at RT, Harley at DT

Looks like the protection on the right side of the line slid left, but Conte slid right from the guard position. Harley walked into the backfield. Harley ran into Frank Beamer. Derrick Hopkins hip bumped Harley. The world shook off it's axis. It snowed in Blacksburg a few days later

Play 6

Derrick Hopkins blows up a zone run to the left. Andrew Miller gets pushed back 5 yards. Derrick Hopkins had an extremely explosive first step.

DISCLAIMER: Blog posts may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.

Comments

I've been saying from Holmes' first snap, Holmes has enough talent to be successful in the ACC. He just needs some help.

Holmes had the same YPC as JC Coleman, if you take away JC's two longest runs. Both of which came against Duke, the worst YPC team Tech face all year. Holmes only got 2 carries against that team, JC got 13. That's why the stats look as one sided as they do.

Holmes is a perfect fit for the zone running that Grimes/Loeffler want to implement. Edmunds may prove too talented to not start, I don't know, haven't seen enough of him yet. I do know that Holmes will get the job done if given half a chance by the Oline though.

Derrick Hopkins man-handled Andrew Miller on the last play good lord

UVA: Jefferson's biggest mistake

@pbowman6

I'm still confused if I should feel good about that. I love Hopkins leaving carnage out on the field like that, but he's an established commodity. I would have loved to seen the o-line dominating more up front.

I'm currently telling myself that Miller is still getting a feel for the game back, not to mention Hopkins is one of the better d-tackles in the league.

UVA: Jefferson's biggest mistake

@pbowman6

Wasn't paying too much attention, but I also noticed Parker either wasn't at practice or wasn't at QB anymore. After watching some of the practices, I noticed his mechanics were pretty poor at QB. I'm thinking they moved him, but I'm not 100% sure. Thoughts?

"I don't know what a Hokie is, but God is one of them. So I'm going with God. I'm going with Virginia Tech." -Lee Corso

He was just in cassell running routes, so it looks like wr might be what they want from him.

yeah, he's got a long ways to go at QB. He basically was moved to 2nd string at QB his senior year in HS.

I have to remind myself that this is just an assortment of highlights and probably not a good reflection of the entire tone and results of the practice. Miller may have faired much better overall and that could have been a fluke play, incorrect protection or even an isolated drill.

“I hope that they’re not going to have big eyes and pee down their legs so to speak,” -- Bud Foster