Brenden Motley started at quarterback and Michael Brewer came on in relief, but ultimately neither Hokies' signal-caller could overcome four turnovers that led to a 30-20 loss to Coastal division rival Miami.
"We can sit here and say 'Michael Brewer this, Motley this,'" said offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler. "The fact of the matter is we lost the football game because we turned the football over. Plain and simple."
Much was made of the burgeoning quarterback controversy in Blacksburg with Michael Brewer remaining sidelined despite being available, and Motley's three turnover performance did little to quell that discussion. But Loeffler remained adamant that if he had to make the decision over again, he wouldn't change a thing.
"You can sit here all day long, alright. You've got a guy that just broke his collarbone that could be broke like that," said Loeffler. "So now you've got a guy who's played for three weeks and a guy that can go in the football game (and) we don't know what's gonna happen. The fact of the matter is we made the right decision with that. I will stand by that."
But after two head-scratching interceptions and a lost fumble for Motley, it seems that Brewer may return to his starting role when Duke comes to town next Saturday. Head coach Frank Beamer wasn't quite ready to appoint Brewer the starter, but he certainly seemed to be leaning in that direction.
"Well we'll go back and look at it," said Beamer. "I think Brewer's, probably where he is right now, he's earned that right (to be the starter)."
Redshirt freshman running back Travon McMillian turned in his second stellar performance in as many weeks, further cementing himself as the Hokies' number one tailback.
"The game slows down a lot," said McMillian of seeing increased carries. "...When I'm running the ball, I can just see the defenders and their body language and just do what I do."
Miami quarterback Brad Kaaya picked apart the Hokies' secondary to the tune of 296 yards and two touchdowns, and his clutch 3rd down conversion to David Njoku late in the fourth quarter seemed to be the nail in the Hokies' coffin.
"In the end, they made a play that last drive," said defensive coordinator Bud Foster. "We got to 23-20, I was proud of our kids. We had a big goal line stand down there. But then they came back and Kaaya made a big-time play on 3rd down right there at the end that kind of created that last score for them."
Beamer made a few questionable tactical decisions, none more devastating than opting to stop the clock with timeouts late in the first half instead of allowing Miami to run out the clock. After rushes on first and second down, Luther Maddy jumped offsides on 3rd down which gave Kaaya a free play, and Kaaya took advantage by completing a 45 yard bomb to Herb Waters. The Canes went on to score on the drive and inexplicably went into the half up 20-13.
Postgame, Beamer correctly pointed out that there are valid arguments for both sides of the decision, and he seemed unsure if he would change his decision in hindsight while he essentially thought out loud.
"If I had a do-over, I'd play before half different," said Beamer. "But at the time, I was wanting to make him punt and try to get something off of him, maybe a possible blocked kick. They've had trouble a little bit this year...They're a team that throw(s) the ball. If they just throw the ball one down, then it could have worked out if it was incomplete. You second guess that, but I'd do it again. You wanna attack. They got the whole field to go. Generally we don't think about giving up whatever it was...The other side, I'm thinking back and forth. We got some young guys back there in the secondary. You're putting pressure on those guys, too."
Disaster struck early in the first quarter for the Hokies when the football slipped out of Motley's hand before he could deliver the ball to a wide open Travon McMillian.
"Really misfortunate first turnover," lamented Loeffler. "Second play of the game ball was on the left hash coming out. Call a rail route to him (McMillian). They bust the coverage. He's scot-free, number one read. The ball just falls out of Motley's hand and we're down seven."
As Loeffler alluded to, the Canes cashed in on the very next play with a 3-yard touchdown run from Joe Yearby that gave them a 7-0 lead before many fans even reached their seats.
The Hokies answered on the next drive with two chunk plays from Travon McMillian and Bucky Hodges, but the offense stalled out in the red zone and settled for a 30-yard field goal from Joey Slye.
The Miami offense cruised through the Hokies' back end on the subsequent drive and Kaaya nearly threw his ninth touchdown pass of the season, but an offensive pass interference negated the score. Foster's unit stood tall following the penalty and forced a 24-yard field goal from Michael Badgley that put Miami up 10-3.
With the Hokies trailing 10-3 on the road, Motley manufactured a desperately needed 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive capped off by a speed option to Travon McMillian that actually went down as a 9-yard touchdown catch due to the pitch technically being a forward pass.
Miami methodically moved down the field on their next drive, but Florida natives Dadi Nicolas and Luther Maddy corralled Miami running back Mark Walton on a 3rd and 8 rush to force a long field goal attempt. A 49-yard kick was apparently well within range for Miami kicker Michael Badgley as he converted and put the Canes up 13-10.
Following a Virginia Tech punt and a failed fourth down attempt by Miami, the Hokies evened the game up at 13 with a 38-yard field goal from Joey Slye with just 58 seconds left in the half.
Those 58 seconds couldn't have gone worse for the Hokies as Miami stole seven points to take a 20-13 halftime lead.
McMillian kicked off the second half with a trio of first downs, but an ill-advised interception from Brenden Motley gave the ball right back to Miami. Kaaya found a wide open Joe Yearby for a 23-yard gain on the very next play, but Foster's unit ceded nothing further and forced a Miami punt.
The Hokies' ensuing drive saw a second peculiar decision from Beamer, one that didn't turn out any better for Tech. On 4th and 9 from the 31 yard line, Joey Slye was on for a 51-yard field goal attempt. Before the ball could be snapped, the Canes committed an illegal substitution penalty that gave the Hokies five free yards. Rather than keep Slye on the field, Beamer sent his offense back on the field for a fourth down attempt. His gamble failed to pay off as Motley's fourth down pass attempt to Sam Rogers fell incomplete.
The Hokies defense answered by forcing another quick punt as Luther Maddy recorded his first sack of the day, but Brenden Motley tossed his second interception to give the ball right back to Miami.
The Canes took their great field position and pushed the ball all the way to the one yard line, but the Hokies' defense came through with an important goal line stand, albeit aided by a fumbled snap on 3rd down. Forced to settle for three, Michael Badgley sent his third field goal of the day sailing through the uprights to give the Canes a 23-13 lead.
Brewer replaced the struggling Motley on the next drive, but the offense was forced to punt once again after failing to convert a 3rd and 1 from their own 42.
Foster's unit proceeded to force a three and out, and Brewer remained in the game for a second drive. Brewer immediately connected with Ryan Malleck for a 22-yard gain that put the ball on the Miami 31. After Motley lost two yards on a quarterback keeper, Michael Brewer found Isaiah Ford in one-on-one coverage on the Hokies' sideline and heaved up a deep ball as he was flattened by a Hurricane defender. Miraculously, Ford came down with the ball and managed to sneak a toe in the corner of the end zone to cut the Miami lead to three.
Fans were likely worried about the health of Brewer after taking such a brutal hit, but the tough senior quarterback says his collarbone made it through the game just fine.
"Took a couple (big hits) out there, but still standing here, so I guess we're good on that front," said Brewer.
Down just three thanks to the heroics of Brewer and Ford, the Hokies were one stop away from having a chance at a game-winning drive.
But that one stop proved unattainable.
It looked as if the Hokies would force a field goal, but a scrambling Brad Kaaya amazingly found David Njoku for a 22-yard 3rd down conversion that led to a game-sealing touchdown for the Canes.
Facing nearly insurmountable odds, Brewer was picked off by Artie Burns on the first play of the ensuing drive to end any hope of a Hokie comeback.
In an intriguing Coastal Division without a clear dominant team, the Hokies' hopes of competing for a title haven't evaporated completely. But if things don't turn around, simply reaching a bowl might become the program's disappointingly low ceiling once again.
"It's frustrating," said a disappointed Brewer. "We feel like we're a heck of a lot better team than what we've been playing like. It's just a play here or there. You hear our coaches talk about it all the time. A play here or there that would change the whole outcome of the game. We spotted a team 14 points on the road and then turned the ball over. It's hard to win or come back from things like that."
Comments
I don't give a fuck anymore.
So?
And no Brewer you are not.
That loss has nothing to do with the coaches . Beamer , Foster , Loeffler can still coach. The players turned the ball over too many times. It's about time to let Motley watch the game from the sideline as back-up.
I respect your opinion, but sorry Foster's defense gives up to many big plays. Don't get me wrong he is a great coach, but gives up huge plays of 20+ yards on critical downs. Any run or pass can go 80 yards for a score at anytime. UM converted to many 3rd and longs that went form their own end to our end. Loeffler called at least 2 sideways throws to tight ends on second and third down and more than 10 yards to go and expects them to gain yards after catch instead of attacking the middle of the field. First down is a bust running between the tackles for maybe a yard. Frank is Frank, but the coordinators are calling out those plays. Junior Beamer sends in Edmonds instead of McMillan on Third and short? Auburn got rid of Loeffler quick for a reason. All due respect to him knowing Tom Brady. If they wanted to play Brewer they should have played him from the jump or at least after the first or second Motley turnover. Texas Tech left him go for a reason also like Auburn did with Loeffler. Need a complete reboot, but it may be to late now with all the coaching vacancies coming this year to land a great hire.
You mean he was a great coach, several years past tense...
When you keep putting the defense in bad field positions by turning the ball over at least 4 times against a decent Miami team playing at home, you cant expect to win. The D did a good enough job to win the game. I count 28 points left on the field. The coaches did their job on this one. GO HOKIES!
I don't understand the argument that Michael Brewer must be so bad because Texas Tech was so eager to let him go. He had earned the starting job there, had a serious back injury, and by the time he was healthy, the team had moved on and found, in their minds, a more than adequate replacement. Brewer and TT knew he wasn't going to win the job back, so he got his degree and transferred. Not exactly TT just ushering him out the door.
I didn't read as an independent criticism of Brewer, so much as that of the team. I believe Brewer says something to the effect that VT is better than their record and I read the post as a response to that statement.
Good point. Leg for you!
Your brewer argument holds no water and shows your complete lack of football knowledge. Ridiculous to categorize him like that.
Did you complain about our defense giving up big plays last year too? Because we had the same problem but fielded a top 5 defense. That's Fosters defense
I know a lot of people are unhappy with the defense this year and I'll say that "DBU" has been a massive disappointment, and the pass rush has been pretty absent. However, this game isn't one that I'm angry about from a defensive perspective so much (aside from the bonehead penalties... those are real bad). Kayaa has shredded lots of teams, including FSU, worse than us. I have to feel like the defense probably would have done enough to win that game had we not turned the ball over 3 times, once on the 3 yard line.
I had my doubts earlier this year buy Kayaa is a very good QB based on his play vs FSU and VT.
This loss has everything to do with the coaches. They have underperformed for about 4 years now
Both you (the loss has nothing to do with the coaches) and the other side (the loss has everything to do with the coachers) are right -- but neither knows why.
You are right as far as you go. They didn't protect the ball and that caused the loss. The kids did not make plays needed to win -- but frankly, they're not talented enough to expect it (with a few exceptions)..
The other side is right, as far as they go. The loss is on the coaches, but not because of stupid decisions. In D1 sports, recruiting is the single greatest predictor of success, and ours sucks.
" Recruiting is the single greatest predictor of success ". Absolutely correct. How can you lose in Febuary and expect to win in September? Recruiting needs to be the greatest emphasis for these coaches. The results lately have been unsatisfactory.
We're not better than our record. Period. I wish people would stop saying that.
ECU- Out coached
Pitt- Outplayed
Miami- Outplayed.
Miami had less mistakes than us and made bigger plays than us because they were the better team. Our defense is average at best and our offense is lethargic. Same story.
I've noticed as every loss goes on my post game comments are shorter and shorter, because everything that should be said has already been said. No point wasting my time going into detail about what's wrong with the program when it's pretty obvious by this point.
All I could think of while Miami was on offense was, "what I wouldn't give to have two receivers like that play for VT at the same time." They've got a talented core there. Seems like forever since we've had a pair that could even claim to be that solid.
Ford really isn't the top wideout that we all want him to be. He's a hard worker, though, so not faulting him.
Miami usually has better DBs than the rest of our schedule.... last year that really hurt us against WForest and Miami
... a team with stud DBs is going to present problems for us throwing the ball. PERIOD
we should always have a burner on the team... i don't even know if we do this year or not... a track kid who stretches the field
when you get behind if you can use a burner to create space maybe get a #1 or #2 DB to track that guy it may open something up elsewhere
We've got Demetri Knowles, who should be filling this role, but unfortunately, he doesn't appear to be D-1 caliber at catching the ball. Having high-end track star speed is only half the battle.
I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I'm just wondering if there is a way that we could lose at this point that you wouldn't consider as being out coached or out played. I mean one way of looking at it is that the team with more points at the final whistle is the better team. Others may hypothesize about how many games out of 10 a team would win.
The truth is, I don't see a whole lot different about this team than the team that was winning 10 games a season. But, that small difference I do see has taken us from barely winning to barely losing. If we can fix up the defense, get some good qb play, and continue improving on the offensive line, we can win a lot of games again. It's hard for me to judge though how far away we are from getting back to that point.
You say "barely losing"....and ten go on to mention that we just need improvement in literally the 3 most important parts of the game.
This team stinks. Can the homers still not figure it out
Well that's kind of my point. It wouldn't take much improvement in those three important phases to make a drastic difference. As for being a homer, well he'll yes I am. I'm not sure why anybody would spend so much time on here if they weren't. I prefer to think of how this particular team can improve than just saying we stink and throwing in the towel.
I think vtcivengr is right about VT going from barely winning to barely losing.
Still, the difference between consistent wins and consistent loses is a pretty big distance.
Football is a game of inches, and all that matters at the end is whether you get the inches or the other team does. That is where controlling the game matters.
Things that SHOULD be under control, but aren't are the most frustrating. Penalties and turnovers will get after ya.
"...the difference between consistent wins and consistent loses is..." one good recruiting year. To make it last -- lots of good recruiting years.
It takes more than that.
no
Miami has good recruiting years almost every year.
Logical fallacies can be so difficult spot
Memphis, Michigan, Florida, Temple, etc. etc. What do they have in common? Well coached teams. Michigan had pretty much no offensive weapons but managed to out execute and almost beat MSU. Florida is giving LSU all they can handle in Baton Rouge. Memphis beat a talented Ole Miss team. Temple is beating everybody. VT used to be a well coached team.
But here's the thing, VT isn't a destination job. If Beamer had retired in 2012 or 2013 with the Sugar Bowl still fresh in everyone's minds, VT might have been able to get a more long-term oriented coach. Who would be able to install his system with VT players, recruit and be challenging for conference titles in 2-3 years. But with the state of this program it's going to need a complete overhaul. There are some exceptional players at certain positions, but overall the program is in disarray. It would take 3-5 years to get back to respectable. The next coach at VT would have to be a young up and comer AND would have to be lucky a So Cal, Miami, Oregon, Nebraska didn't come calling that could write a blank check with better history/prestige/location. VT has already lost several promising position coaches to programs with more money/prestige.
Change is needed in Blacksburg, but it's going to be a long time before reliving the glory years of the late 90's to 2010's.... if ever.
Depressing, but I agree with much....hail mary to Whit... why he gets paid the big bucks
I still think Bud is similar to the new Pitt HC type ... give him some support and love and maybe it works out better than it has for Pitt
I'm not even sure he wants a HC job to be honest
I do think the right hire in this environment could be wildly successful.
We've lost two (not counting all the ones that left during the house cleaning of 2012-2013, but then again, they weren't exactly promising). Grimes had extenuating family circumstances. I'll give you Moorehead, but he was at the bottom of the pay scale anyway at VT, and it wasn't worth it to get in a bidding war with a Texas school.
I also think we upgraded over AMo with Burden. I like what I'm seeing in receiver play this season.
PS - We WANT to be a program that other program want to steal position coaches from. It means our position coaches are good.
Really? I was just about to complain about that. Our (lack of) WR rotation this year is the silent killer. We even said it was our goal to not play Ford and Phillips so much this year. They are wearing down as the game goes on.
You could argue that Ford and Phillips are still living the coaching of AMo and Burden has utterly failed to prepare any of the other 7 choices to be competent enough to see the field.
Maybe if there weren't so much of a dropoff from Ford/Phillips to the next two up... (and Knowles, Asante, and Caleb have established themselves as pretty much our floor for WRs since I've been a fan)
or, maybe if the coaches would draw up some non-jet-sweep plays for Stroman...
... or, maybe if we would finally see why everyone's high on Charley Meyer in the preseason just to see him on special teams every week...
We have too many smallish WRs who lack elite speed.
Can't expect much, imo.
Ford's improvement last year to this has been exceptional. Phillips is playing essentially the same game he played last year. And then after that, we have a bunch of players who don't have it at this level. I can't blame Burden for not accomplishing in eight months what his predecessors could not accomplish in three years.
Ford's improvement as the primary target and Cam's development as a blocker while maintaining his level of play indicate to me that Burden is doing his job well. It's not Zohn's fault recruiting failures and attrition left him without a viable third option at receiver.
I'm anxious to see what Burden can do with our incoming young talent, assuming he's still our WR coach come next season.
I actually see more improvement with Phillips than just as a blocker. Last season every time he was targeted near the 1st down it seemed he was constantly just in front of it . This year it seems like he has a better time knowing where the first down marker is and either runs beyond it or stretches the play to make the first down. I think that shows growth and is wicked important because he seems to run a lot of those routes where he is supposed to be just at the 1st down marker.
Welcome to the discussion Jnine. I legged you after looking at your picture and reading your post, and I think you're an 80 year old woman named Phyllis from Boston.
Also, you make a good point about Cam. I think he's improved as well.
The selection of "cake" was the giveaway.
I don't think it is asking to much to find one decent Slot receiver out of seven guys. Catch balls, run routes, block. It's not brain surgery. Look at all these non p5 teams with 6-7 wrs contributing. That's talent worse than Vt.
I thin AMo is a huge loss. Probably the best offensive position coach at VT since Rogers.
I think the question is still out on whether or not AMO or Burden is better. I think AMO did exceptional with true freshman and I think Burden has made great strides at improving their play. But I think that both coaches agreed that there is no answer in the remaining options for depth. AMO was clear that he wanted to play true receivers only and Burden seems to reiterate that he is only willing to play players that can be truly be a positive on the field. So maybe it's not coaching, maybe it's just that the players behind Ford and Phillips are just not dependable, and in discussion with Ford and Phillips they decided with Burden that they would field as much of the plays as possible.
I don't think the situation is telling of either coach though.
I don't think we are very far away at all. Our talent level is good, IMO. Just look at the parity in college football. Teams who stunk last year who are good this year like Houston, Iowa, northwestern, Michigan, Pitt, Florida, Utah, Stanford. Not all coaching changes, some are just new year, better execution. Our coaching is just stale and/or ineffective. Need to turn it over this offseason, but my expectations for next year is to be ACC contenders.
Well...three of them had Lefty on their staff and got better after he left...
Edit: early drinking reduces reading comprehension
Agree that Motley's turnovers and the D-line mental mistakes cost us. But, let me clarify a little bit about the game recap.
1. On our drive that "stalled" resulting in 3pts, Ford was clearly interfered with in the end-zone on the play where Miami almost intercepted Motley. Should have been 1st and goal on the 2 instead of 2nd & goal from the 10. Of course Lefty would have had the smarts to run McMillian or a QB sneak to score.
2. On the 4th & 4 play, Rogers was clearly interfered the same way the Fayscon was called for PI earlier. So, it was a good gamble, we were just screwed. That said, Lefty would probably kept Travon on the bench.
As I've said on other threads, the bottom line is that the new young talent is good, energized and exciting, but, we are not using them. CFB is too loyal to seniors and this group has not earned it. Time for the youth movement for the rest of this season. They might just surprise everyone.
I'm not sure why you think we aren't using young talent. Who should be playing that isn't?
4th and 1 with Edmonds.......
That is Trey's role at this point. If he cant do that put him at linebacker as soon as possible because he is a waste in the offensive backfield.
It may be his role, but he sure sucks at it. Look how many times this season he has been stood up or pushed further back on short yardage situations. He stands up before getting to the line or tries to bounce it outside which he is not capable of doing.
I'm not one to complain about calls, especially after today, but Dadi clearly got held on like the 2nd or 3rd play of that final touchdown drive by Miami where he was laying on the ground with an OL sitting on top of him like a squished bug after Kaaya threw it. Just about the most obvious hold in the world. And let's also not forget the Alexander hit after the play where the Miami OL man both committed a late hit and chop block after the play.
Again, not here to say that calls were the reason we lost, but the refs certainly seemed more than willing to hold their whistle a lot today for the guys in green and orange.
We got away with our fair share. They were equally horrible for both sides. We lot this game fair and square because we were outplayed and out coached.
So i avoid hearing about the game all day.... Turned off alerts on my sports apps. Texted 11 people telling them not to text me anything so i can watch the dvr-ed game when i finally get off work. Dodge updates on the radio. Literally tell fellow fans to shut their mouths (with quick follow up apologies). Imagine my dissapointment when my grandma tells me the results of the game...NOW, IMAGINE MY DISSAPOINTMENT AND HORROR AS I SLOWLY DISCOVER VIRGINIA TECH DID NOT IN FACT WIN 30 TO 20 OVER MIAMI!!!!!
You deserve more than just a leg for that. I had a similar situation without spoilers. But the only thing worse than a spoiler is a false spoiler.
Reminds me of a similar situation from 2007. During the 2007 Thursday Night game that shall not be named my friends and I had a concert to attend and I was only able to watch the 1st half. After the concert I had my idiot friend who is not a sports fan check his cpu to see if we won and he said yea Tech won 14-10..... an hour later I wanted to strangle him when I finally went to espn.com to see highlights.
Lmao, was she senile or fucking with you? My grandma is 83 and still messes with me but also has her senior moments which is why I ask.
I haven't talked to her yet...
We have a Michigan fan in our circle, he turned the channel with 2 minutes left and pranced singing the Michigan fight song. We let him ride it for an hour before flipping on the TV.
I reveled.
We're just four or five coaches away from winning a game.
Why do I think of this every time I read the coaches interviews after a loss:
The way Tech played today they couldn't even beat Wake Forest. Oh wait been there done that!!!!
Recently, my life as a VT Football fan has been making me ask this simple question:
Unrelated to the game....but this episode always reminds me of this:
"The more we can put the ball in his hands, the better off we're going to be," Loeffler said. "I thought he did a really nice job today."
Carries today:
Dalvin Cook - 22
Derek Henry - 32
Leonard Fournette - 31
Travon McMillian - 16
Agree, I think we went too much pass too early. We were having great success with McMillian and was curious to see why we weren't running more. If running is working then why stop? He did have a good day but would have liked to see him get more carries.
Seriously. WTF happened? MacMillan was running all over Miami late in the 2nd quarter. Then suddenly we call two passing plays and the drive stalls. I was screaming at the TV. All I could think about was:
IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!
Why the holy hell did we stop running the ball?
Loeffler has made his bed and he'll have to lie in it.
He knew all spring and all summer that he didn't have a slot receiver. He knew all spring and all summer that he had an abundance of tight ends and full backs. He knew all spring and all summer that his offensive line was below average at best in pass protection. Loeffler still decided to install an offensive game plan designed to move the ball with a west coast passing attack.
Loeffler can point to a play here or a play there that his player's could have executed better (subtly shifting the blame to his players), but at the end of the day he is responsible for the offense's production. Loeffler has failed to adjust based on his roster's personnel strengths, Loeffler has failed to establish any identity, and Loeffler has failed to improve overall execution.
He wasted an incredible opportunity to come into Blacksburg and do what everyone wanted him to do... Establish a fundamental rushing concept on which an offensive identity could be built. He clearly isn't interested in doing so, and it reflects poorly on Frank Beamer that he allowed a member of his staff to flounder for three years without a sense of direction.
I completely agree. A lot of people have suggested that Frank has meddled with the offense, but I'm pretty sure it is the direct result of Loeffler trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It is a ball control offense (like Beamer prefers) but as you mention, a west coast short-passing attack. Loeffler has shown that he does not want to commit to the run, even when it is clearly working well. He really is showing his inexperience/incompetence as an OC and playcaller. He's too pass happy. Motley was on pace to throw ~30 times yesterday, and that shouldn't happen when McMillian is averaging 7 YPC and rushing that well. Just when something starts to work, Loeffler abandons it. He's outsmarting himself.
We just don't have the personnel to run a pro-style drop back passing game. And with QB like Motley whose strong suit is in the running game, we don't need to be throwing the ball all day. It's incredibly frustrating. Lefty was brought here to establish a strong running game, and even though it's working, we're still finding ways to throw games away. Incredibly annoying. I have no faith in him as an OC and personnel manager. A great QB coach/recruiter, likely yes. A great OC, not at all.
Meh. I've never bought the "identity" issue - I dont have swaths of data so please just hear me out. While my eyeball test says that the offense isn't perfect...we have a balanced attack that can score in short order and we can move the chains to help with the field position battle when all else fails. I expect no more than that from the VT O at this point. This unit was a DUMPSTER FIRE when Scot Loeffler got here. A full-on, raging dumpster fire. Our Oline recruiting has been solid but we are still a work in progress. Our WR class in '16 looks promising. Dwayne Lawson is probably going to be great. There has never been more reason to feel optimistic about a continual but gradual improvement from that group. We all probably wanted and expected too much - that doesn't mean I think the O is without blame for today. It's that I believe the issue with this team is on a grander scale.
There is no edge to this team and the focus isn't always there. We're missing passion. We don't come out pissed off. We don't come out with a fire and we don't keep it throughout the game. We misfire on critical plays when our focus should be as sharp as ever. This team today could have beat the pants off of Miami. Instead, it seemed like we stood waiting to see how things went. When the team eventually regrouped and in some cases, had the Canes where we wanted them, we shot ourselves in the foot. Over and over again. (It doesn't matter that Miami did the same thing).
Turnovers are going to happen. Bad calls are going to happen. You never now when they'll happen, and there is no accounting for that - there is no coach who can eliminate these two variables. Today, we had one of those days that happens to many teams every single saturday - We didn't bring our best game to the field. I can accept that. To expect any team to have a good game every single game is unrealistic. So, what must a coach do?
In my opinion, any team can get ahead of that curve in a lot of games by being mentally sharp, giving maximum effort, never quitting - having the will to win and want it more than the other team.
Today I think the team put forth great effort and I didn't see any quit. We were mentally soft at seemingly the WORST moments of the game though and that is squarely on Frank's shoulders. Something is not translating to the field. Guys aren't stepping up. The nasty is gone.....
I think Frank knows talent when he sees it. I think in general he's a pretty good orchestrator, but I don't see a team on a mission every week. Even in the late 2000's this team, while not always the most gifted, didn't seem to oscillate between a variety of.....culture and execution issues. We cannot go on this way and expect better results. I love Frank Beamer and everything he has done but someone needs to come into this program and re-set the tone.
If I might add, we have NEVER fielded a team with more all-around talent than the Miami Hurricanes in any year, ever. We were simply able play gritty disciplined football in years gone by. Today the Hurricanes were the same type of executing team they've been for the last decade. Unfortunately, we matched their inconsistency 1:1 and we didn't have the talent to overcome it. That is a head coach problem.
I remember those days. Everyone feared playing the Hokies (especially at Blacksburg) and they all knew they were in for a fight no matter how talented they were.
Sikes: Virginia Tech is a tough breed. They're all of the step kids. Most of them are the kids nobody wanted. They didn't get to go to the big high school, they didn't get to go to the big college. So you put them all together...
http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/miami-hurricanes-pursuit...
Yep, watch any competent OC walk in with this OL, McMillian, Motley/Lawson, Rogers and Ford next year and develop a run first offense that is in the top 4 in the ACC.
Micro, we lost that game because Motley didn't protect the ball. Macro, we lost that game for building an offense that asks Motley to do all the wrong things.
This is beautiful:
But, as I say below, at least we saw a few option pitches.
Well put.
I agree with a lot of this.
When Brewer went down, I think we should have shifted our offensive approach to one that Motley's crew could execute at a very high level, and I think we did do a bit of adjustment toward that direction. The option pitches I saw yesterday appeared to be effective, and they're exactly what Motley could do very, very well if the offense utilized them more. This is definitely on Loeffler, and I think it's taken him took long to make this adjustment since Motley became the starter. Now that Brewer is back, the possibility of running options is less likely to be a successful strategy.
But we don't utilize them more. Motley's first turnover looked bad, but was just one of those things that happen in sports. The two picks, I don't think were nearly as excusable. His attempt to force a pass into the corner of the end zone, which looked like a pick to me, but was ruled incomplete, was just as inexcusable. Turnovers actually factually killed us today, and those were on the QBs, particularly Motley.
But let's not hang our heads in too much shame about it. We have two true freshmen in the secondary and Kaaya looked sharp all game long. He's the best quarterback we're going to see all year, and they protected him well enough for him to do his thing. We held them to less than 100 yards rushing, too.
We've lost four - one to OSU by 18, where our QB got hurt. The other three were by 7, 4, and now 10 points. Two losses by one possession and this one, which, I think, looked a lot like a one possession game, isn't a sky-is-falling scenario in my book.
I agree regarding the severity of this loss. A lot of people worry bout running QBs, but a passing QB who is protected and doesn't turn it over is almost impossible to beat. We did a great job stopping their running game. Edmunds and Alexander were a little exposed in the secondary, but not terribly. Motley made some mistakes but I'm encouraged by the running game. I hope we continue to play both QBs. I actually prefer motley if we run him more knowing that brewer is available.
I think we beat Duke at home next week in a slugfest, beat the offense-less BC on Halloween and shutdown GT in Atlanta. UNC will be a tough game, but I think we can and will win out.
This is a much better team than last year.
I'm pretty sure I've said that each of the last three years.
2013 was going to be better than 2012 because we had new coaches. (And we did have an extra win.)
2014 was going to be better than 2013 because we had new players. (But we dropped to 6-6.)
2015 will be better than 2014 because the players and coaches know the system and we won't have the injuries that we had last year. (But we're 3-4 with 5 games left.)
I want to believe.
It's not believing, just observing. What units were stronger last year? LB and DB? Motu is playing well now, lb is pretty even. Edmunds is a drop off from fuller, but nobody is missing bonner trying to tackle in the alley.
better at RB, ol, qb, wr. Dl has underplayed so far
Not to be argumentative, but you are what your record says you are. We are below .500 through 7 games. Not great, Bob!
I get your argument that the talent level may be improved over last season. But that means nothing if it doesn't translate to wins on the field. We'll see if they can pull it together to finish 7-5 or 8-4. But, my sense is we could easily end up 5-7.
By observation, we were 4-3 at this point last year, which also included an amazing win at Ohio State.
For that matter, through 7 games, we were 4-3 in 2012, and 6-1 in 2013.
This criticism just doesn't hold up to me.
We're using Bucky as a traditional receiver more than as a tight end, and Bucky and Malleck are on the field at the same time most plays. Sam Rogers has become a focal point of the offense, on the field pretty much every single down, and has been utilized as a blocker, a runner and a passer. This offense couldn't rely much more on TEs and FBs to make it go.
You completely lost me here. If you have good hands TEs, RBs who can catch, but are a little short on deep threat WRs or lack a QB with a rocket arm, the intermediate passing game of the West Coast offense is probably to your advantage. Unless you're just insinuating we're passing it more than we should be. If that's the case, we've run it 287 times and passed it 193. A 1.5:1 run to pass ratio does not strike me as a pass happy offense.
I just think it's more an issue that he didn't install the rushing concept you wanted him to. Rushing production increased from Lefty's first year to his second in terms of YPC, and is so far on track to improve again this season. The rushing identity of this team is pretty clear in year three of the Loeffler era: use pre-snap motion and misdirection to create advantageous matchups. So far, that strategy is working to see a statistical improvement in the running game.
If there's one knock on Loeffler, it's that he gives his QBs too much responsibility to run a very complex offense, and when you have a QB like Motley who has all the physical tools but lacks some of the intangibles (an internal clock after the snap, for example) then it is too easy for things to fall apart. It also doesn't help that our RB rotation was a disaster until the last two games. Had we had some contribution from that position against Pitt, we might have been able to get the extra five points we needed on the board. The Miami loss, though, at least as far as the offense is concerned, falls on Motley exhibiting by far the worst decision making of his career as a starter thus far. Now you can certainly blame Loeffler for that, and rightfully so. But that would be more of a QB coach issue than an OC issue. The plays were there and Motley didn't make them. It was an issue of player, not scheme. But again, you can fault the position coach for the failures of the player.
I think you're right. This was just an off-game for Motley, at a time he couldn't afford it. Maybe he was feeling some pressure with Brewer breathing down his neck.
I'm not sure the play-calling was all that bad. The penalties and turnovers were killer, though, and show a lack of discipline.
This.
Now as for players bring undisciplined, that IS a coaching problem. But to me it seemed like the defense was far more guilty of this than the offense against Miami.
The offensive issues were all Motley. I won't fault him for the openining series fumble. That was whatever. Crazy shit happens in football. But his two picks were both terrible decisions, he damn near had a third on a terrible decision, and it was like he forgot at time that pash rush is a thing. Bad game for the kid. Which, again, you could hang on his QB coach, this being his sixth start. But the specific criticisms of Loeffler's scheme above just don't seem to hold water. They came across more like venting to me.
"Was a run-first quarterback who has had multiple games to prove he isn't capable of playing mistake free football in the throw game put in the best position to succeed" is the question I'm asking. Shrugging off that question by saying "yeah well Motley did play poorly" is missing the forest for the trees.
Even if Motley didn't throw those interceptions my criticism of Loeffler would have been the same, and my criticism of his tactical choices has remained consistent for quite a while now.
Exactly.
I know. I just disagree with you, for reasons stated above and below.
Play calling was fine. A lot more north-south running the ball. Speed option was effective.
To me, there are three layers: play calling, game planning, playbook.
Play calling is the sequence of plays with the game to execute the game plan. Need to be flexible, respond to the defense, build momentum. In this game, we were fine.
Game planning is determining from your toolbox established by your playbook how to effectively attack a team. Again, fine. We even added the speed option to attack miamis error prone LBs.
Playbook is Loefflers problem. That's developing your identity, realizing the talent you have on hand, and creating specific themes, sequences and tools to execute that vision. Not much to do about that now.
If you think there is only one possible thing to criticize Loeffler for, we're probably not going to see eye to eye here. Let's talk about your points though, debate is fun.
My argument is that Loeffler installed the wrong offensive system when he arrived in Blacksburg and he to make matters worse he has struggled to get the offense to execute at a high level. If he had focused on building around a strong run game and utilizing the play-action game, he wouldn't have been caught with his pants down when his undersized QB got broken while playing behind a poor pass blocking offensive line. He had to bring a quarterback in to play in a system which highlighted all of his weaknesses and almost none of his strenghts, then Loeffler doubled down and continued to throw the ball out of spread formations rather frequently.
Yes, Loeffler came into Blacksburg and took over for one of the least competent offensive coordinators in the countries. Yes, he saw some marginal improvements over that time period. Yes, he has improved recruiting. But he should be doing better after three years and a lot of the reason he hasn't is because he has been more focused on short term answers rather than building an offensive brand. IMO, Loeffler made the wrong choices when installing his system.
Absolutely not true. I've written on the absurdly huge variety of rushing concepts he has used in three years, my criticism has nothing to do with him picking the wrong concept. It has to do with him picking 30 concepts.
This is something that every competent offensive coordinator in the country does. Hell, Paul Johnson uses pre-snap motion and misdirection to run the ball. I'm criticizing him for the lack of a coherent vision for what he wants his team to do post-snap. "We're going to rely on pre snap motion" isn't an answer for the question "what blocking schemes do we want to focus our time teaching our offensive line how to execute".
Technically true, but I feel you are being quite generous in your praise here. He has improved rushing yards per carry a total of one yard in three years... and it has improved less than half a yard from where it was the season before Loeffler arrived. Let's not forget that Loeffler was at the helm while the worst running back rotation I've ever seen was instituted in Blacksburg. His hands aren't clean. He takes blame for that. Those rushing numbers should be better even with his hodgepodge rushing attack, but he failed to demand his running back rotation make sense (and in fact is more responsible for the rotation that given credit for, considering much of the rotation was "package" driven and the OC decides on the play packages pre-game).
Agreed. However, Loeffler is getting less out of that position than he should. Tech should be relying on the tight ends and fullbacks to complement Travon McMillian's rushing attack, instead it's the other way around right now.
I think you make a damn good argument down the board here. BUT, I also think everything you are saying here does actually fall into my "one knock on Loeffler", i.e., he puts too much pressure on his QBs. As goes the QB play, so goes the offense. Now, yes, of course this will be generally true of football in general. But it's exacerbated by how much Lefty requires his QBs to be a field general.
I yield on the idea that you wanted a specific rushing philosophy. I'm probably lumping you in with the general "line up and run the ball down their throats!" crowd. But to say we have no running philosophy, I disagree. Misdirection/fakes/counters/reads is a running philosophy. It's a philosophy that puts the brunt of the responsibility for the running game on the shoulders of the QB. So, again, something consistent with my "one knock on Loeffler."
I'll say this. The fact that we have seen an improvement of a half a yard a carry given the state of our running backs situation is a goddam miracle. That's one area of the offense that has been a cluster since David Wilson left. Now that we've settled on a McMillian/Rogers tandem with Trey on short yardage, we've instantly seen improvement in the running game numbers. It just sucks that in that same week, Motley gave by far his worst performance as a starter.
Ultimately, after 2.5 years of Loeffler as OC, we know one thing with absolute certainty about his scheme: first year starters struggle in it. Do they get better? Who the hell knows, we've never seen a second year starter! Brewer certainly looks comfortable in it, and we'll certainly see down the stretch.
I'm not trying to be an apologist here. I'm not saying Lefty's a good OC. I'm saying I don't think the specific criticisms you were leveling toward him were accurate. It might sound like I'm saying there's "only one knock" on Loeffler, but if that one knock is that his scheme is too complex for a QB to be able to run it, that's kind of all that matters, isn't it?
Through our four losses, offensive deficiencies contributed to three of them. I'm not going to gnash my teeth over Ohio State. We were moving and scoring with Brewer. Him going down to a major injury sucked the breath out of everyone including the coaching staff. The one similarity between Pitt and Miami was bad QB play. The running game didn't support Motley at all against Pitt, but was working well against Miami. So the one consistent theme across all our losses is QB play. The scheme might just be too damn hard for a college QB to run. But I'd feel a lot stronger in making that accusation if I could ever see a QB run it for two years in a row.
Ok so...are we waiting for a "Loeffler prized recruit" to come in here and run this complex offense? We already have a couple on the roster and one already left. Even though those two on the roster are FNG's, Motely isn't super tough. If he plays to "his" style, he'll get hurt eventually.
Just don't know what to think. I'm trying visualize what will happen in the next two years. How do we become a crisp, efficient, and (talented depth) deep team?
I'm unconvinced it will ever happen, though I am hedging my bets until I see how Brewer finishes out the year. One thing I do firmly believe, this offense will ebb and flow with its quarterback turnover. This is the type of offense that could be like what we saw at ECU with Carden as a super-senior. We get the right guy at the position who has 2-3 years starting experience and I think this offence could be all kinds of lethal. The question is, is there a "right guy" out there, or is the entire scheme simply too complex?
First year starters are going to struggle with what Lefty is doing schematically. LT struggled, then Brewer, then Motley. Though maybe it's worth noting, Motley's struggles looked better statistically than LT's and Brewer's. A byproduct of the rest of the offense finally "getting" the scheme? Perhaps. Also, Motley's getting pulled after starting half a season. For all we know, he could be on the verge of tanking as opposing defenses finally have his number.
Either way, where I'm at right now on Lefty is, the guy's a football genius, and he's poured all that genius into a scheme that I believe might simply be too complex for the college game. I'm now waiting for games 8-12 to see if Brewer can prove me wrong.
You're right, the offense does seem super complex. I'm sure our Head Coach or at least other coaches would maybe see that too. Maybe it's not complex to other coaches.
But still, I think if things aren't clicking, then things may need to be simplified.
This deserves more legs than it's gotten so far.
So, here's the thing, if I may philosophize for a moment. I used to get REAL upset after Hokie losses. As in, the rest of my day was basically screwed already and my wife just avoided me. I mellowed out over the last couple of years and got better at taking things in stride, calmly. But now, I almost don't care. It sort of bothered me, but I walked away after Miami covered that 3rd down just before their last TD and...whatever.
So, I may just be disengaging because I'm older, have kids, sure. But I'm getting the sense that this level of apathy is starting to become more common. The worrisome thing is that a senior at VT this year had never known the level of success we got used to from 95-11. Why the hell are they going to make the effort to support a program that has been average for their whole student career? Financially and/or vocally/attendance-wise?
I don't have any answers. I love Frank, it's hard to imagine Tech football without him. But I hope he recognizes what's going on and he can come to some sort of agreement with Whit that allows him to make the right decision for himself and the long term success of the program.
You're not disengaging due to age or family responsibilities, it's the program. I'm married, younger children, mid-40's. My wife has dreaded the last four seasons. Last year I destroyed my VT garden gnome before the end of the GT game. (My coworkers still ask me about garden gnomes).
I went to VT after the service knowing nothing about college football and learned to love it there. Druckenmiller was our QB back then. It was a hard-nosed program that didn't know when they were beat. A lot has changed since then.
I liked Beamer and loved Foster, but that's changed too. I'm grateful for what Beamer built, but I'd like to see a change. If we're playing at this level, I'd like to see a staff that fears for their jobs as opposed to one that benefits from unconditional love.
I used to be concerned about losing Bud, but the D has lost a lot of games for us the last couple of seasons. I'm sure he could go to the SEC or PAC 12 and have a great career implementing his schemes with better talent, but that's just not going to happen often in the ACC.
Our program just isn't of high caliber. It's so obvious when I change the channel and see Bama/UGA run a few snaps, UM/MSU drives, or catch a snippet of USC, LSU, or many others. We just can't compare to that level of execution or intensity. I used to feel like we could be scary underdogs against these conferences and programs. We celebrate a 0-0 end of regulation at Wake.
It's not you, it's the program because I feel the same way.
You are 100% correct. I am the same way, used to plan my whole weekend around the game even after I gave up season tickets (not because of the schedule or the teams slide). Yesterday, didn't even watch. Turned the radio on a couple times to check the score thats it. Same for Pitt. Don't think I am the exception. CFB will have to be forced out and he should be ashamed of himself for putting that decision on Sands and Whit when he could have gracefully exited and remained a legend forever. Too stubborn and too much power to give up and it's a shame. His whole deal the last 4-5 years has been to hang on long enough to get Shane the job which is a shame. On a positive note, you can bet Whit will make a good hire and I personally can't wait.
Beamer gets to hang around after retiring to as part of his contact. Just really hope that doesn't influence who the next coaching staff is
And that decision by the athletic department may really come back to haunt VT. I'm not going to lie, the parallels between what FSU went through with Bowden and what VT is currently going through with Beamer is so similar that it is driving me insane. I hope CFB will gracefully exit the program, but deep down in my gut, I get the feeling that there will be many a gnashing of teeth and pulling of hairs before CFB leaves the program.
The fact that CFB thinks the program is his personal property that he can give to his son also bothers me at a fundamental level.
I've been thinking about this since Shane joined the staff. I'm not sure if it is a fact or not, but it has crossed my mind. If it does turn out to be true, and Frank tries to hand the program over to Shane, I'll be the first to criticize it at the top of my lungs. But I think Whit would but the kibosh on that. He isn't Weaver. The ol' boy network that used to rule Hokietown is largely dismantled with the hiring of outsiders for high level positions (notably Sands and Whit), and I think it showed more than ever when they brought in an outsider to run the basketball program. My guess is that if Frank tries to hand it to Shane, Whit will stand in the way.
I hope and pray Whit will stand in the way if that were to happen. Shane may be a good head coach at some point in his career, but I don't want to be the first school that gives him the keys to the car.
.
During the off season ESPN had an article about CFB's successor. When asked who he, CFB, would like to see replace him as Head Coach when he retired, CFB's response was either Bud Foster or his son Shane Beamer.
Here is the link to the article:
ESPN
I see the article and read it.
*clears throat*
CRITICIZE CRITICIZE CRITICIZE
Shane should NOT be our next head coach.
If Shane gets the keys, I'll die of alcohol poisoning that day.
I'm right there with you. A couple weeks ago I vented, and another poster correctly pointed out that my emotional investment in the team should only be at a level that I'm willing to deal with. Right now, I can't afford to have a game ruin my day - the family (wife, 1 kid, another ~1 month away) depend on me too much to allow a game to interfere with my emotional stability. I've had to force myself into this mentality against my desire to be passionate for this program. Its painful to say I don't care, because deep down I do, but I can't let week after week of disappointment and emotional let-down interfere. Right now, the losses are more gas on the flame, and wins are more relief than joy. And that was kind of the turning point for me a couple weeks ago - I was relieved that we won on the road at Purdue. That was probably the moment this season that I realized it was time to disengage...
With regards to Frank - we peaked 15 years ago and couldn't capitalize on the NC run. We had a key coach leave (Bustle) that fit Frank's mentality, and we never found an appropriate replacement. Combine that with the most horrible decision ever made on any coaching staff (the hiring of Curt Newsome), and you can start to understand the devolution of the offense to where it is today:
[side note: the last great season from a record standpoint was 2011. We averaged 186.9 ypg on the ground, good for 28th nationally. We fell to 81st nationally with 145.8 ypg the next year, and haven't sniffed a ground game since... any correlation between our record from 2012-present and the ground game? probably...]
If you can't protect the line and you don't have an offensive mentality to counter that weakness, you get the results just listed above. It's hard to imagine life without Frank, but it needs to happen. We need someone with some fire and someone that can make tough decisions.
This team has a lot of warts on both sides of the ball. Let's keep supporting the kids. They are working at it but what we may be seeing is just the ceiling with this team including the coaches. McMillan and Hodges should have touched the ball 15 times in the 4th. Miami took away Ford which is what a competent D does.
I blame twitter, that useless piece of garbage worse than a discarded Notre Dame or UVa quarterback. All problems trace directly to Frank Beamer's inability to police his players overuse of it.
Simple then, it must be a conspiracy, Mr. Spock. You might be on to something with those pointy-ear helmets though.
I would love to know why McMiilan had 16 carries for 6.2 ypc....then never touched the ball again!
At first I thought he may have vpbeen hurt, then he returned 2 kick offs.
Honestly, I knew/had a feels that this "team" (or whatever you wish to label it) wasn't or may not be quite ready to take care of biz against da U. The games that bother, or would bother me most are: ECU, LOLUVA, UNC, GagTech. The rest (at this point) I'm like whatever. I'll say this though, da U may not be back, but we certainly are. Back to subpar .500.
Good morning fellow VT enthusiasts. My name is Chris and I've been a long time reader of tkp but finally had to register and voice my concern after reading the most recent comments in this article. I too find myself not caring about Tech games much anymore. In fact, I've turned more towards pro ball because of it. I used to get so irritated when the Hokies lost. Yesterday, I turned on call of duty midway through the 3rd because I know this team and their tendencies. I've been watching this team since 2003 and I'm sad to say this but I didn't actually care if Tech lost yesterday because I expected it. Does that make me less of a Hokie?
It makes you more of a guy (maybe gal) who decided he has other things he (maybe she) would rather do.
Yes. Next question...
At this point, what are we playing for? A toilet bowl? Why not get Lawson in there a little and let him get some valuable experience, and create some chemistry with the receivers. If he shows some potential then it could perhaps save CFB's job....on second thought, maybe this isn't a good idea.
Because coaches coaching for their jobs aren't normally willing to throw in their third string freshman quarterback.
Coaches coaching for their jobs also shouldn't get away from stuff that works...
Not sure how throwing the freshman in there for one play a game is different than throwing him in there for one or two series....."at this point, what difference does it make anyway?"
Coaches who are coaching for their jobs shouldn't be coaches anymore because they put themselves in that position in the first place.
This quote from Brewer made my heart sink:
If the players have adopted this kind of excuse-making attitude, seemingly caught from the staff... It feels like they're accepting mediocrity. Not angry, not driven, excusing their lack of focus.
I am sure the kids are disappointed - but I wish there was more passion and fire for trying to play up to expectations. I really thought 2015 would be a special year; it is looking more and more like '15 will be the year where the wheels finally came off the bus, totally, completely and without qualification.
I don't get how this is making excuses. I really don't. The whole mantra of being a couple of plays away really gets a bit old because it sounds like coachspeak, but I don't see it as excuses. I take it as, "damn we were close." Now, if we want to argue that the coaches are failing to make improvements, I can see that. If the players are only a couple plays away from winning, why aren't they? Are the coaches making wrong decisions? Teaching something wrong?
It's not terribly productive to play the what-if game, but imagine if Motley doesn't fumble to spot them 7. Imagine if we don't go offsides on 3rd and 20 for a free play. Imagine if Deon Clarke doesn't get lost during the final TD drive and actually gets off his knees, looks around, and makes a play on Kaaya. It's a lot of what-if, but I don't call that making excuses.
And therein lies the problem. It is neither coachspeak nor an excuse to say we were a handful of plays away from winning. It's the truth.
The frustration lies in the fact that we have been hearing about those handful of plays for God knows how long now. We heard it about our 3-4 loses a year during our ACC championships run, and now we're hearing it about our 5-6 losses a year during our decline.
We never actually address what it will take to fix those handful of plays.
Perhaps excuse-making is the wrong description. But the would'a-should'a-could'a from the staff sounds so much worse coming from the players, to me at least. It sounds like resignation. I'd rather see and hear about how they're going to learn and get better versus be retrospective and aww-shucks it. We get more than enough of that from the staff.
Looking at it another way, would those words have EVER come out or Corey Moore's mouth?
Why is it that the "handful of plays" always seems to go against VT? How come we never win by a handful of plays? Something is not right
The issue I take with that mantra is there is never a deeper dive on why the plays that needed to be made weren't made. Fumbled snaps, missing blocks, etc are eradicated with sound fundamentals. Some of that is going to happen but it is happening too much for a team that wants to compete for championships.
I get what you are saying and on the surface you are exactly right. But to many of us, it is indicative of the mentality that the team just expects these things happen; "Gee that sucks, but these things happen. Oh well."
When I was a very young and very dumb smart person I had a really bad habbit. I got to work late. It was never my fault you understand. Car accidents happen and everyone knows both the 101 and 280 suck balls with traffic jams. (I lived in California at the time.) Anyways, one day my boss calls me in and lays down the law. "Yes car accidents happen, but guess what, you should factor that into your plan. WTF do you think the rest of us do to get here on time?!? If you're late again, then find a job closer to home, because life is unfair, deal with it!" Guess what, my punctuality improved greatly because I would suck at being a homeless person.
Every time I hear the coaches say that dumb mantra, I see a ten year old boy crying and complaining that life is unfair. Guess what, deal with it because life is unfair to EVERYONE!
Next Year Every Year...sick of it. Cut bait and move on...
"I think we're really going to be a good football team next year, and that's kind of where we are," Beamer said after the Hokies were trampled by the Hurricanes 6-30 in October 2014.
A play here or there.....
If it's true, its call a mistake. And kids (and adults) make them all the time. It happens, and it sucks. Even the greatest of football victories have a couple.
My thought is its NOT a play here or there. Its not making the other plays good enough to ALLOW any mistakes. A 2 yard carry instead of a 5 yard carry. A 15 yard pass instead of a 25. Its not about the few mistakes, its the WHOLE GAME. If you play the game right, then a mistake or 2 won't cost you the game (maybe just cost the point spread).
What sloppy embarrassing loss. We seem the have a way of finding how to lose. Each week it is something different. Our guys are getting outplayed. It is happening every week. The best teams execute well, and even when the execution is not perfect, they have playmakers who overcome. We have no playmakers. We have no passion. No desire to win. The other teams want it more. They compete harder. They make the plays that we do not. And this continues week after week. That is why everyone says "we are better than this." I don't think that is the case. You can just feel the determination on the field for Miami to win. Va Tech had none of that.
The coaching sucks. That's all there is to it for me.
If Motley somehow still starts next week...
I think my biggest frustration is just with Lefty's playcalling. I think we all knew Kaaya would have a good day through the air but we could handle the run game, which is what happened. What I just can't wrap my head around is why Lefty got away from the run. Motley is not a pocket passer, no matter how hard we try to force his square peg into that round hole.
Motley can throw a deep ball, but has trouble staying in the pocket long enough to do so. If the protection wasn't perfect, he stood there waiting for his receiver to get open and got sacked. He also showed the poor decision making that made him Brewer's back up.
But Motley does have strengths. He can run and he can make play action passes. I basically jumped for joy when we ran a speed option. MacMillan can run and Motley can run, so a play that has them both running seems like a good one to me. MacMillan was great all day, but we just didn't feed him the rock.
This team has strengths, we just refuse to play to them.
On the play where Maddy jumped offside, why did he just stand there watching the Canes' free play unfold? It was bad enough that he jumped. To then take himself out of the play was just painful to watch. If he'd gotten some pressure on Kayaa, maybe at least he could have forced an incomplete pass and made them settle for the five yard penalty.
I wondered about this too. My guess is that he expected the refs to whistle the play dead. I'm not sure why he would think that and continue to not do anything when it clearly wasn't going to happen though.
Yeah there was even a moment where he looked around, noticed everyone was still playing, started to take a step toward Kayaa, then stopped as if saying, "Nah, I wanna see how this unfolds..."
Been thinking about this some more and there are some things that are sticking out in my mind. 1 recent, 2 overall general problems.
RECENT: How did we not come in this game riding the positive vibes leftover from the State win? Head coach problem.
IN GENERAL: This team has had a problem with slow offensive and defensive starts going on two years now. Why is this not changing?
IN GENERAL: Frank just doesn't seem the same anymore. He sounds totally out of it. He is not the same man he once was and no one his age probably is. His speech is somewhat slurred, his sentences are often incomplete. I can't imagine that his coaches or the locker room are able to buy in to his words. I will shed a tear (probably a few) when he leaves his position, but it is his time. It is time for Frank to let another person take the foundation that he built and expand upon it. The Frank Beamer Era is over and thankfully for all of us, his Era brought successes that the generations before us could have only dreamed of.