Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer announced Monday quarterback Michael Brewer will start against Duke on Saturday. Brewer relieved a mistake prone Brenden Motley (14/23, 136 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs, 26 rushing yards and a fumble) at the end of third quarter against Miami.
"Well we'll go back and look at it," said Beamer after Tech's 20-30 loss to Miami. "I think Brewer's, probably where he is right now, he's earned that right (to be the starter)."
Brewer engineered a short 3 play 53 yard scoring drive to cut Miami's lead to three (20-23) in the fourth quarter, but his spark off the bench was not enough to seal a come from behind win.
Brewer broke his collarbone against Ohio State, which has since been repaired with 6 screws and a metal plate.
Motley guided Tech to a 3-3 record as its No. 1 QB, and thus far in 2015 he completed 92 of 162 passes for 1,155 yards, 11 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. He is also Tech's second leading rusher with 220 yards and 3 TDs on the ground.
Comments
DUCK FUKE!
Wait..so no QB carousel controversy? Aww shucks...
START LAWSON! /s
agreed, don't really care about going to some low tier bowl IF we get 6 wins.... Brewer is doneski after this season, burned the redshirt off Lawson already, might as well get him reps and experience
You're down playing the extra practice time and game experience a bowl provides.
The way this team is playing, maybe the extra coaching isn't such a good thing...
/s (sorta...but not as much as I would hope)
thats irrelevant if they dont put him in
No, it's not. How many young guys on the roster and returning starters outside of Lawson would benefit from additional practice and playing time? Phillips, McLaughlin, Teller, Gallo, Conte, Hodges, McMillian, Rogers, Ford, Ekanem, Motuapuaka, Facyson, Reynolds, Clark, Alexander, Terrell Edmunds just to name the starters with remaining eligibility.
And if I'm reading your list correctly, the majority of those guys have more than one year left.
Those guys have seen the field already.... I was merely talking about Lawson
right. I said we should play him for the rest of the season. Get him reps and experience for the 2nd half of the season. Bowls aren't guaranteed, so might as well start now.
Haven't we sung the same tune the last three seasons as we limp toward bowl eligibility? And yet the benefit of these extra practices never manifests. This year looks like last year looks like the year before looks like...so on and so forth.
I'm beginning to be highly skeptical of the value of extra practices within a system that breeds mediocrity. It seems all that making a bowl is benefiting is the employment status of the coaching staff.
You don't think Brewer looked better in the bowl game last year and the 1st half of the anOSU game?
Those may have been the only times since last year's OSU game that he was actually healthy.
Actually, from a stats standpoint, the bowl game was one of Brewer's worst of the season. 14 of 24 for 94 yards, 3.9 YPA, 1 TD, 1 INT, passer rating 96.65. After all that extra practice, if anything, he regressed from the UVA game: 15 of 33 for 235 yards, 7.1 YPA, 2 TDs, 1 INT, passer rating 119.22.
Against OSU? Yeah, worlds different. Because of spring camp. After three years of making a toilet bowl, though, I'm not convinced the bowl practices are worth hot spit.
I think Brewer's best game last year was against BC: He was 31/48 (64.6%) for 345 yards, 2 passing TDs, 1 rushing TD, and didn't turn the ball over. His 138.7 passer rating was his second best of the season behind the 162.3 against W&M, at 70.2 it was his third best Raw QBR behind the W&M and GT games and, his Adjusted QBR was 71.5 behind only the OSU game. About the only stat categories that weren't in his top 3 were completion percentage (5th, 2.1% from 3rd) and rushing yards
Agreed. It is a damn shame the defense couldn't make a stop in that game to give Brewer the W. He played his heart out against BC.
I don't think it's irrelevant. I think he'd gain more and he'd gain it more quickly if he were in. But I wouldn't go as far as to say irrelevant.
my point was to put him in. He's going to gain the same as a guy sitting on the bench the whole season vs. him redshirting. If we go to a bowl game, great... whether we do or don't, we should be getting him more reps
Not to mention exposure for the school, money for the school and the fact whether people like it or not the bowl streak matters.
Matters to who?
The coaches who keep pointing to that even though we keep regressing?
Going to garbage bowls doesn't matter a whole lot to the average fan. Which lets face it, is not really going to be anyone posting a lot on a Hokie blog.
And it certainly doesn't matter from a perception point of view. You think limping to another nothing bowl does anything to change our irrelevance right now?
Yes because no other school can say they have been to this many bowls in a row. When ESPN puts that graphic up who goes digging go see what bowl game Tech went to 11 years ago. Also some "lower tier bowls" are great places to go to a game, Nashville, Baltimore/Annapolis, Orlando, Jacksonville, NYC.
The bowl streak means a great deal to me.
err..uhh..thirded? is that a thing?
Nothing wrong with a three-way.
I put together a three-way this past weekend. There were a couple of no-shows, but I still had fun.
Beat me to it. Leg.
Weirdo. Usually it's a hand, not a leg.
Have you seen a male horse recently?
It matters to me. I have vacation time to use before the end of the year.
Think of it as a streak of not having a losing season. That, to me, is a pretty good streak to have.
Maybe back when there were fewer bowls and you needed 8 W's to get an invitation. Now you don't even have to have a winning record. People watch because it's the last hoorah for the season and they make great background noise for parties.
In fact I suspect the lesser P5 bowls will lose out to the AAC & C-USA bowls in the Bahamas and such. These days a bowl streak is an empty boast unless they're quality bowls.
Tell that to teams that don't have one. Those schools, fans and coaches would love double digit bowl streaks.
A lower tier bowl is certainly better than no bowl at all. But remember the days when we were wondering what top tier bowl we would go to? Now we are worried about getting into the Sun Bowl, the Military Bowl, or who knows whatever forgotten bowl is out there. My how the times have changed.
ESPN's Week 7 ACC Projections have us going to the Camping World Independence Bowl
http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/86944/acc-week-7-bowl-projections-...
that beard oozes confidence.
For some reason, this made me think of this:
Firefly
I won't go that far, but it's a start
Brewer is back to lead us to the promise land. Were winning out. 6-2 in conference gets us to Charlotte. Revenge on Clemson for 2011 by winning 38-0. There are no brakes on the hype train.
It was more fun joking around like that before the season got derailed.
This made me smile thank you (finishing the bourbon bottle)
Man, I miss the days when we were 0-0. The only problem was that no football was being played. Everything else was great though.
twitch
Not necessary, but 100% deserved.
Good ole Franky Nipples
ok. That was funny...but I think he's sagging a bit.
???
CHOO CHOO
We could go 6-2 and still finish 3rd
I like how that is the detail that makes you hesitant
As he should.
Motley's decision making against Miami made this an easy call.
Motley's decisions have been bad pretty much all season. It's just that the other team never capitalized on it before last week. Seriously, that TD vs anOSU was destined for interception. 2 out of the 3 TDs to Ford vs NCSU could have been picked. There's a fine line between making poor decisions and threading the needle.
all depends on who catches it.
He got away with at least one or two against Purdue as well.
8-4 regular season record confirmed.
10-4 end of season record confirmed.
If this happens I will literally smash a brick into pieces, eat all of those pieces (with Sriracha), mold those pieces into the brick like a puzzle with my intestines and drive to the hospital while I poop it out.
Well, if that isn't motivation, I don't know what is.
So is the new TKP competition based on Smiff vs. Fireman? Who declares for #TeamPissingRocks and who is for #TeamFieryAssBricks? It's like the worst "would you rather" ever.
God we need our team to be good again. #TeamBadVisuals
Ill fill the car with gas and give a wash for the trip...its happening.
THE HYPE TRAIN IS BACK ON THE RAILS
YOU CAN'T SKEWER THE BREWER
... Please win
Too bad. Imma miss those goal line turnovers.
We gotta keep the Coastal race interesting somehow
We might still see some, but at least they won't be non-contact fumbles.
I would also bet that Travon gets 20+ touches this week..
Someone is coaching/making decisions to save his job.. If we lose vs Duke we could also see more and more of Lawson
No, he'll get 17 through the first series of the 3rd quarter and then not get another touch the rest of the way
shocked at how he only got 11 carries and where the option play call went? Looked pretty comfortable for both motley and travon..
Eleven carries? cfbstats.com credits him with sixteen.
Also, we ditched the option pitch after the third time we tried it, when Miami crashed hard on Motley and blew it up.
16 wow.. just peaked and looks right. no idea where I got 11. Maybe he had 11 1st half carries?
He had 11 against Miami. Getting the weeks mixed up maybe?
he had 11 or so touches the 1st half.. there we go.. still 16 carries and 3 receptions is a good start..
I expect touches by RBs to go up with Brewer's return. The tailback and fullback positions will become the anchor of the rushing game again.
yup yup yup.. I'm expecting more I-formations and less full on spread looks. This past week in I formations we had Peoples as the fullback and Sam as an H back.. that with malleck and bucky sure looks like a lot of capable blockers. Saw that play 2-3 times early on vs Miami
You're expecting more I-formations and fewer spread looks with Brewer??
I expect the opposite. I do expect to see the TEs and RBs more involved in the passing game.
We have an over/under fan calls for Lawson between now and start of game?
I mean hell, we've already burned the shirt. I'm more than a little frustrated he's gotten this limited an experience this season. At this rate, we should have kept the redshirt on.
This. I wont be calling for him to start or even play significant minutes, but IMO one of the biggest coaching foul ups this year has been wasting a year of Lawson's eligibility to let him play 1 half against Furman and take a couple of meaningless snaps in other games. Is that really meaningful experience?? He sees better competition in practice than Furman, which is the only game he took a snap with the intention of doing something other than running up the middle or handing the ball off.
The fact that Lefty said he wasn't ready for more snaps (only practicing certain packages) is another indictment on the coaching staff in addition to ^^^ these comments.
No, in college ball the 3rd Q just doesn't get much work. Too many time constraints.
I never expected to see him get much quality snaps.
Where would you have put him in? The games have all been too close except Furman.
I think the argument is if you know he isn't ready to contribute or even play meaningful snaps, why burn the shirt? Let Click or Durkin go out there and finish off Furman.
Because it looks like Lawson is the target for starting QB next year.
At the second game of the year, they are hoping to get some time for him in the 4th Q in some upcoming games. At that time I'd have had that confidence too.
The point is to get him college football speed snaps.
It wasn't a poor decision based on the info available at the time. The info changed later.
To get him experience this year so he's at least seen the elephant.
Better to get him some snaps this year than have his first college snaps be learning at his first start next year.
He's been QB2 since week 1.
That's correct, meaning he did not get first team reps much at all during preseason practices so any snaps at game speed are very important.
A QB 2 with no snaps is nearly useless.
At least he's seen a little and it was supposed to be more by now.
It's ridiculous to keep arguing that pulling the Lawson's redshirt has had any value whatsoever. It's just another indictment on the ineptness of the coaching staff. If the plan was to pull his redshirt that decision was probably better made later in the season if/when it would have actually become necessary.
Now any argument is attempt to backtrack and make sense out of what has proven to be a poor decision. Correct, he has not seen many reps because all the game were close. I think it was painfully obvious to the vast majority of the fan base that once the "real season" started, we were without Brass Balls Brewer, and VT was facing quality or semi-quality opponents every game this season was going to be close. Furman was in the bag. Thus, with all due respect, I think at the time it was a poor decision to burn it. Presently, the decision has only wasted a year of his eligibility without an iota of benefit.
Any argument that he's not as ready as the coaching staff thought he might be is another indictment on them. I understand that stuff happens and Brewer going down wasn't at all the best case scenario for this team, and by all accounts the defense has woefully under performed this season. If he needs quality in-game snaps and experience then there's no better option than...actual in-game snaps. That said, the circular logic that pulling Lawson's redshirt so he could get snaps but not get snaps because the coaching staff didn't realize this team was going to struggle sounds to me like the same tired excuses we hear after every game.
Due to the 20/20 vision of hindsight, you are correct.
With the data available at the time they put him in, not so much.
The only thing that makes any sense to me is that they promised Lawson that he would not redshirt if he came here.. and tried to find a package for him to get some playing time..then even after getting 2nd string snaps for nearly a month he can't pick up enough of the playbook to spell Motley when he is hurt. All of which is frustrating as hell
Well, he just got here in August. D1 is a long way from H.S. Football. He doesn't have the size advantage, doesn't know the playbook, the rules are different and he hadn't played with these types of distractions - crowds, noise, TV.....
He has a lot to,learn and that's why a few snaps here and there will help prepare. The biggest learning curve is the first snap. The next biggest learning curve is the next 10 snaps.
Too bad he can't see more but if he was put in and we lost the same people would still be hunting Frank and Lefty's head, just with different words on their lips.
These theories just get progressively more annoying. He was a second string qb, you can't have someone with a redshirt if they're one injury or lost helmet away from playing in game-time situations. There are so many legitimate issues to complain about with this coaching staff, and yet we have people ignorantly harping on a pretty standard decision.
Actually, you can have them redshirting. Basically, you have them there as an emergency situation, but if you can get through the season without burning the redshirt, then you just bought an extra year.
Ford almost had his redshirt burned against UVA last year, if Brewer couldn't pop a shoulder back in.
My issues with burning Lawson's redshirt (which eventually had to be done anyway due to Motley's injuries or helmet) are with always calling the same play (hand off or run), and the team not getting ahead enough in the game to allow the backups to get some playing time.
There are about a thousand things less consequential with this team than whether Lawson's shirt got burned. It was going to be burned regardless of whether Brewer got injured or not.
There were pluses and minuses to doing it and not doing it; it wasn't a cut and dried case either way. This is just excuse number #107 to rationalize grief.
Why Lawson? I think Leal probably has more experience.
*Don't let this get your hopes up about the rest of the season just to get let down again...
*Don't let this get your hopes up about the rest of the season just to get let down again...
*Don't let this get your hopes up about the rest of the season just to get let down again annnnnnnnnd........
.....Too late
I have no idea where we'll finish on the year, but I feel comfortable saying with certainty that the offense will look completely different this week than it's looked the last six. Not necessarily better, not necessarily worse, but completely different. The offense Brewer was to run and the offense Motley has been running are very different animals.
Are they though? It seems like Loeffler made a half hearted attempt to plan around Motley and just sort of called plays like he had Brewer in, with the exception of all the QB draw plays.
I think the offense will be more efficient with Brewer, but I'm not sure its going to look all that different.
That's my point. Motley's been running the LT 2013 offense, where everything is predicated around making defenses respect the QB draw on all snaps. Notice how Motley always does the little shoulder wiggle after taking the snap? It freezes the safety, or at least is intended to. Also, while there's nothing I can really point to as solid evidence of this, I would bet you dollars to something worth significantly less than a dollar (dollars to donuts doesn't cut it, what with the recent inflation in the donut market) that the passing tree got simplified under Motley. Part of Ford's record-pace season is the effort Isiah put in, but another part is the fact that Motley doesn't make the same number of reads Brewer did/will.
Also, it will look very different because the running game will be anchored by the RBs, not the QB. We've seen our last game where the QB leads the team in carries.
So, yes, IMO, two very different offenses, both called from within the same scheme.
I agree with much of what you say, but IMO it's been kind of a hybrid. Not exactly the '13 offense, but not exactly what the '15 offense was likely going to be either. I suspect that was because the staff expected Brewer back at some point and didn't want to get too far away from what they worked on all spring and August.
It'll be interesting to see how well the offense adjusts back to the original plan. My guess is that it won't be perfect. I just think that the key losses/changes required this year have and will continue to prevent consistency -- not just between games, but within them as well. Unfortunately I think we're not gonna see what this team is capable of until the near the end of the season
IF this team makes a bowl and remains key injury-free, I suspect VT is gonna hammer a seemingly matched team on paper in a bowl.
Kudos to you, sir.
Yes, I agree, this isn't exactly the LT '13 offense. But I think the differences we're seeing are a direct result of the rest of the offense being on the same page with the scheme, finally. Motley could be asked to do more because all the skill positions knew their roles and the OL was finally blocking okayish. The '13 offense was limited by the fact that nobody around LT knew the scheme either
Agree.
Dont get your hopes up because this team is not executing on either side of the ball. We're aloof far too often to expect any noise for the rest of the year. We'll get the participation trophy bowl game and that's all, folks.
At UVA they call their participation trophy a transfer approval letter.
Nice to see an early decision . I was hoping for an early decision announcement about our special teams coach though...
I need something to get me over wondering why Brewer didn't start the game Saturday if he was healthy. He's clearly the best, he was cleared to play, they had no qualms with playing him since they did after Motley's blunders, and he's clearly earned the spot. Just...why...
I need the hype train to get me through this work week. Sko Brewer. 8-4 regular season.
My assumption is that he wasn't as healthy as they would have liked ("day to day" the week before the game) so he didn't start. But for Motley's unforced errors, Brewer probably doesn't play at all. When they got behind by 2 scores late, it was a case of "desperate times call for desperate measures".
It tells me the coaching staff felt they really had to win and were willing to put a "medically cleared" Brewer in, even if more healing time would be better.
There is no such thing as healing time with a bone, if it's healed it's healed. I can't speak to how coaches felt about him being prepared or having had lingering issues either muslce etc but the nine is healed as much as it's going to get.
If Brewer is healthy, and he can eliminate mistakes (he was careless with the ball himself last season), then it makes sense for him to play. Motley has a livelier arm, can make throws Brewer can't, can turn a negative into a positive with his feet, but there were way too many times he's looked like a deer in headlights. He almost looked overwhelmed by the offense (which says something about the complexity of the offense).
Also, what is the point of announcing this? Why would Tech want to tip its hand to Duke? It's easy enough to tell the team behind closed doors, and no media is at practice. My only theory is it's an attempt to inject some energy into Hokie Nation.
That's got to be it. I think they're scared that Lane will look like Miami's turd of a stadium in terms of attendance.
Honestly, all things considered, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if we play in front of a 2/3-3/4 full Lane for the remainder of the season. Might finally drive the point home that its time for Beamer to go.
Beamer has to make that decision. I'd rather see a full stadium just because those kids out there representing the school that we love deserve all the support we can give them.
This type of passive aggressive logic completely escapes me...
Maybe it's a trick! Maybe come Saturday Motley actually gets the start. Maybe Travon will go back to playing third fiddle and the veteran duo of Edmonds/Coleman will take back over. Maybe Stroman can make the move back to defense and take over at boundary corner!
...but seriously I never know what to expect anymore. I do however expect to see Motely out there some. After all, someone has to give Brewer a break so Lawson doesn't have to touch the field.
Opposing defensive coordinators don't care who starts for us at QB. They already key on all of our plays and are willing to play the odds that we don't ride TM to victory. Then they laugh hysterically in the locker room. We don't punch anybody in the mouth like the good OL' days.
That's way more valuable than making your opposition have to prepare for 2 QBs with completely different skill sets. Frank's been doing this for a long time and he's certainly better at this than me but was there nobody on his staff to say "Hey coach, why don't we just play this one close to the vest and give ourselves a little advantage against a team with a great defense" some of the decisions that come out of that football office lately are mind boggling!
Loeffler's pro-style system requires a lot of time investment in the #1 QB. Because of limited NCAA practice time the #2 QB, is going to rep a more limited package, just so they can be effective at /something/ when put into the game. After that #2 QB gets put into the #1 role , it's all about their ability as a QB.
Motley does not read defenses pre-snap all that well, and takes forever to make a read and throw the ball. He also doesn't sense pressure in the pocket until it's too late. As a result a lot of sacks and rushed throws. Toss in the tendency to lock in on a receiver he expects to break open and you have a recipe for a QB who will have limited success in the ACC. That's why Motley looks overwhelmed. He's just not a QB who is going to thrive in a pro-style system unless the OL is elite. All the QB draws and QB runs that people have been hating on have been Loeffler trying to play to Motley's running ability in order to open up the passing game.
On the flip side Brewer doesn't have the arm strength Motley does, nor does he have the YAC running ability, but he does diagnose coverage and go through his progressions at a much higher level. (Brewer's quick decision making can come back to bite him when he over-anticipates the defense doing something instead of waiting a beat for the defense to actually confirm his hunch) Both have limitations but when both are healthy Brewer is clearly the better QB of the two.
I can only imagine the coaches went ahead and announced Brewer as the starter because it's a Captain Obvious kind of statement. Cutcliffe is no idiot and after how well Brewer played in the 2nd half, Duke would've been prepping for him this week anyway. It also gives the players and fans a bit of a positive - our QB is officially back, no dancing around the subject, guessing and hoping.
I agree with everything you said. And while I do agree that Brewer arm strength < Motley arm strength, I just have to say, damn, but Brewer's passes look pretty this season. Just kind of effortless. The 33 yard TD that dropped right into Isiah's hands is a throw I would have said he didn't have the ability to make last season.
I saw that on a replay and it was clear he had no lingering shoulder issues.
Yup. I don't want to get too excited because of the limited # of reps he has had so far, but Brewer's arm does look a lot better this season than it did last year when he was so banged up.
Limited reps since the season started, but from all accounts Loeffler rode him like a government mule all offseason. I really think the only rust he'll have to knock off is if the plate makes his throwing motion feel any different.
The OL must give him that time...
We are starting Brewer under Center, but Motley will be lined up as RB to receive the ball. Trickeration on the first play.
Only one week too late.
Good luck Brewer. hopefully Motley keeps his nose to the grindstone because a surgically repaired left should is one or two dirty hits away from Motley back behind center...
Miami did their best to knock him back out of the game. Lowering helmets and targeting the shoulder.
It's Miami, did you expect anything less?
Yeah, that first roughing the passer was a blatant helmet to the injured collar bone.
I hope we keep subbing Motley in. I like Motley and hope he can improve and be the QB next year.
I believe CFB announced Brewer as the starter in an attempt to quell the restlessness in Hokie Nation, which by the way, is looking more and more like this:
Also, I think with Brewer as our QB, our running backs will get less yardage per run than they did when Motley was our QB. With Motley under center, there was always the chance that he would take-off for a run so opposing defenses had to dedicate at least one LB to keep an eye on him. With Brewer, opposing Ds know that he is less mobile and that more than likely not going to call more QB Draw plays because of his mending clavicle.
Then vanilla Vick stops by the end zone.
I don't doubt that Brewer still wants to run those types of plays, but with a collar bone that is still on the mend, you really think the coaches are going to call that kind of play?
Your bones are either fixed/healed or they are not, there is no "healing" when it comes to bones. As long as his arm movement is not effected by muscle issues, he is done "healing".
Even with a metal plate and six screws still in there?
Yes. Either the calcium is filled in or it is not.
I don't know, but I googled it and got this:
"How Do Broken Bones Heal? Your bones are natural healers. At the location of the fracture, your bones will produce lots of new cells and tiny blood vessels that rebuild the bone. These cells cover both ends of the broken part of the bone and close up the break until it's as good as new."
Since my point didn't come across, perhaps French's will:
As you can see, my point wasn't that I doubt Brewer's heart to run a QB Draw type of play. It is that any play where we try to fake a run by the QB to set-up the RB isn't going to work for the reason French just stated in his article.
THE MELANCHOLY OF INCONSISTENCY AND DESPERATION, A REVIEW OF THE HOKIES' 20-30 LOSS TO MIAMI
I mean, it worked just how they drew it up last time. I'm willing to make that gamble at this point.
good god look at that hole.
PHRASING, MOTHER.
McMillian takes that to the endzone this season.
Vanilla Vick! I had forgotten about that nickname that almost (not really) was!
HOP ON THE BREWER HYPE TRAIN WE BOUTA WIN IT ALL CHOO CHOO
Obviously this stands to come down some, but Brewer's QB rating in his limited playing time this season is second only to Baylor's Seth Russell. Most of that comes from OSU, who has the 6th-lowest opposing QB rating in the country and the rest comes from #57 Miami. Motley's middling rating comes against some Ohio State and then #'s 77 (Purdue), 78 (East Carolina), 11 (Pitt), 19 (NC State), and then 57 (Miami). Purdue and NC State are the only two of those in which his QBR exceeded their opponent's average.
I think Motley has been much better than expected filling in, but make no mistake that if healthy Brewer is the better QB.
Queue gif.
It's science.
Thanks for the assist.
No worries. I got you
I know this sounds crazy and I am probably being overly optimistic, but I think Brewer being named the starter will make a huge difference to the game preparation this week and for the rest of the season. I think he has the personality that will rally the troops and finally get this team going in the right direction.
I am confident in our QB overlord.
Replies like this make me confident we would be friends.
Then we should break bread, and sausage, and consume mass quantities.
Plot our next move.
And if this is what it takes to rally the troops, then we have a problem. This team should be fired up and ready to play every week, no matter what.
Finally I can make it to a game.