Icon Sports Consulting LLC announced via its Twitter and Facebook Zohn Burden would remain on Justin Fuente's Virginia Tech coaching staff as running backs coach. Burden appears to be a client of the sports management firm. CoachingSearch.com also reported Burden will be retained as running backs coach. Burden is in his first season coaching wide receivers for the Hokies.
A Virginia Tech spokesman was unable to confirm the news at this juncture.
Previously, Virginia Tech officially announced Vance Vice (OL), Holmon Wiggins (WRs), and James Shibest (TEs, ST) as offensive coaches that will be part of Fuente's staff in 2016. Memphis co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brad Cornelsen is reportedly the Hokies' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and will join Tech's staff after Tigers' bowl game.
Comments
Running backs coach eh? Hope he has a boxing glove on a stick sitting around.
Seriously though, I'm glad we're keeping Zohn in any capacity. He's a recruiting asset, and has done a good job developing our WRs in his first year on the job.
(Not directed at you VT_Fencer)
What is the joke on the boxing glove? Many RB coaches use a boxing glove during ball security drills. IIRC Shane stole the pole part from Texas or A&M... Some Texas team.
A lot of that came from his relative inexperience as a RB coach.
"He hasn't really coached the position much..."
"Yeah, but he's got a boxing glove on a stick!"
You know we all laugh about the glove on a stick but I've noticed(maybe wrongly because I haven't looked at the stats) that since Shane became running backs coach and started using the stick the fumbles by our RBs has dropped off considerably. I would be curious what they were before and then after. Seems to me it's been very few fumbles by RBs in recent years.
Here are the stats for our RBs for the 5 years under Shane and the last 5 years under Hite. Our fumble rate is a little higher under Shane than it was under Hite.
Season -- RB Carries -- RB Fumbles -- Fumble Rate
Shane
2015 -- 337 -- 3 -- 0.89%
2014 -- 366 -- 8 -- 2.19%
2013 -- 296 -- 0 -- 0.00%
2012 -- 296 -- 7 -- 2.36%
2011 -- 412 -- 9 -- 2.18%
Hite
2010 -- 403 -- 7 -- 1.74%
2009 -- 430 -- 7 -- 1.63%
2008 -- 482 -- 3 -- 0.62%
2007 -- 362 -- 7 -- 1.93%
2006 -- 366 -- 3 -- 0.82%
Totals:
2011-2015 -- 1707 -- 27 -- 1.58%
2006-2010 -- 2043 -- 27 -- 1.32%
All statistics courtesy of Hokiesports.com
leg for tallying that up for us
99.9% sure 2014 looks so bad because of the 3rd quarter against Miami.
I guess it was that "5 worst plays" thing again.
Fumbles will get after ya.
And the second half vs Pitt.
And UVA just lost arguably their best 757 recruiter, Chris Beatty, to Syracuse. I like this move a lot.
What?? Beatty literally hasn't done a thing recruiting in the 757 for UVA or any other team for that matter. Not only did he arrive in the spring, but none of this targets this year are 757 either.
Chip West is the 757 monster that needs to be gone.
http://247sports.com/Coach/Chip-West-135/AllTimeRecruits
+
=
Sexy.
The 757 is ours for the taking, y'all.
I doubt it, Maryland has a killer recruiting staff. I expect we lose out on many recruits the next 2-3 years to them before recruits get tired of losing. I do think scott and wiggins are going to kill it
Maryland has their own problems securing their backyard from Larry Johnson and Ohio State/Randy Franklin and Penn State
Maryland has Locksley and Aazaar Abdul-Rahim both of whom are widely considered fantastic recruiters, and it's not like London and Durkin are slouches either. Maryland will have some relatively good signing classes
There are rumors that Locksley's time with Maryland will end sooner or later. Before Maryland hired Durkin, Locksley made a statement that he would quite if he didn't get the head coaching job.
Durkin said on the radio earlier in the week that Locksley wasn't done, I think some of the Maryland players said on twitter he is staying too FWIW
Locksley has reportedly been going on recruiting visits with Durkin, so it sure seems like he's staying put.
NUTS.
From TimeCop to TimeKiller?
I was speaking more towards Locksley and Rahim
Why any coach or AD would want Mike Locksley on their team is beyond me.
Because he is a hell of a recruiter, he got a lot of kids from the DC area to come out and play at Illinois as well as turning the offense around.
Great he also was suspended for punching another coach in a fight during practice, battled sexual harassment lawsuit and let a recruit use his car. If the most important thing to you is winning irregardless of other factors then I have nothing more to say.
Get used to it, like most English words it's been used long enough that is it accepted now.
no, no it's not
ir- prefix meaning without
less - suffix meaning without
regard-less: without regard
ir-regard-less: should mean without without regard or with regard. These words should be antonyms, not synonyms.
From Merriam Webster:
(emphasis added)
So yes, technically, you can use this word. Let's not settle for technically right when you can be actually right. Technically, LOLUVa has a power 5 level football program, but we all know better.
[gets off soap box]
in all honesty, and to take the topic way further than it needed to go, irregardless is nonsensical considering the correct antonym for regardless should be (and is) regardful
This is probably one of my favorite posts ever.
I've made almost an identical argument before. Have all the legs.
It wasn't sexual harassment and the suit was dropped anyway, the recruit wasn't a recruit at all but his sons friend. To my knowledge he hasn't had any problems at Maryland. And to be clear I'm not arguing we should hire him, just pointing out he is a very good recruiter and offensive minded coach
http://espn.go.com/college-football/news/story?id=4217083
Three words.
Presumption of innocence.
It's not a criminal case.
because they care about results not doing things the right way.
no coincidence that he hasn't worked for any good programs
So I posted this on the "Fuente Staff" thread but now it's a little more appropriate here...
Ok so here's my theory.
CJF arrives and he is either unsure of Burden at first or he just plans to wait to announce Burden for whatever reason. There's one problem. We have a huge class of WR's committed with more that we're still going after and we have no WR's coach in place. To address the issue CJF goes ahead and names Wiggins the WR's coach for recruiting purposes even if that's not where he was going to stay.
Now this may be a long shot but I'm predicting that here in the near future Wiggins and Burden flip roles as to better suit their collective experience (unless Burden has RB experience I don't know about).
Disclaimer: I'm probably just a complete crackpot but if I'm right then I claim #sauce status (as we learned with the coaching search anyone can be a #sauce no matter what they claim).
I think it's more likely that Fuente is really pleased with how Wiggins has done as WR coach the past few years and wanted to keep him in that role. Meanwhile he liked what Burden brought to the table enough to find a role for him in the coaching staff after evaluating his options.
I think it's a good thing for Burden too - he has a solid resume as a WR coach, and building one as an RB coach too will help him land an OC or co-OC position in the future.
I think that's certainly more plausible than what I proposed but are we saying that Burden's recruiting connections are the only real catalyst to him being retained? Along these lines does Burden have any formal experience with RB's or is the thought process simply that he should know the position well enough given his current experience?
Possibly a combination of both. Burden actually suited up a played offense in college. If you look at how RBs and WRs are used in today's offenses they have to have a lot of the same skills. Blocking, catching, ball security. The major difference is WRs don't usually run up the middle. If you think about it though, on jet sweeps they have to make read and a cut. At that point it may be a matter of how fast they can make the read, but speed in reads is not really coachable.
Yea I just saw on Facebook AB mentioned in a comment that he had had a "back and forth" with Zohn and that "football is football" and that it's "not a big adjustment."
That's probably true within reason. Maybe it's more or a matter of coaching is coaching? I think Shane will be a good HC. Some people are good people managers and other people are good manager managers.
I unfriend you
**waves hands**
I think it was more that we didnt know what was going on with Dickey.
hmm, you could be right. Fuente's Plan A was probably to bring his entire offensive staff with him.
Holmon Wiggins was a RB as a player and now coaches WRs.
Zohn Burden was a WR as a player and now coaches RBs.
In Fuente's offense, the RB's become WR's and the WR's become RB's. We're probably still adjusting to what we're used to: QB's becoming TE's annd TE's becoming QB's....
Or how, at GT, QBs and FBs both become TBs? (The same guy coaches both positions.)
So in GT's eyes, TE's = QB's = FB's = TB's = WR's = TE's?
They're engineers, ya know? They've figured it out.
Because at GT you can do that!!
Good for recruiting with his 757 ties. Confusing role reversal with the assistants though.
I'm guessing this means Shane is out?
There is still an open defensive coaching slot.
Like I said in the other thread, it's Galen Scott and he will be taking LB's as a whole. Nothing official yet but that is what is being discussed. Source: 247sports
I hope he can learn Foster's system quickly and also quickly learn how to teach it effectively.
Now that is the interesting question. I have to believe he would come in Itching to learn from Foster.
Unofficial word is that Galen Scott will be joining.
Edit:
Of a coaching position at Tech, yes. I heard, #sauces, that he was offered a position in admin if needed.
But in all honesty, I hope he gets a G5 job, I think he could really be the next Dabo. Hire some good coordinators and just be in charge of ST and the big decisions.
This is a burden that we're willing to bear!
...I'll see myself out after that one.
It's Justin time for the big recruiting weekend too!
Hopefully the recruits get some great adVice...
Ok, our staff is complete. Who is recruiting coordiinator?
Staff is not compete as far as I know.
Yep, still need one more (likely defensive) assistant. And then a couple more support staff as well.
I was basing on Cornelson, Scott and Burden completing the nine needed.
Officially announced:
1.) Bud Foster (defensive coordinator)
2.) Torrian Gray (defense secondary)
3.) Charley Wiles (DL)
4.) Holman Wiggins (WR)
5.) James Shibest (TE/ST)
6.) Vance Vice (OL)
Unofficially announced:
7.) Brad Cornelson (OC/QB)
8.) Zohn Burden (RB)
There's still one assistance spot vacant. Based on positions, it's currently the one being filled by Cornell Brown. I haven't seen any reports about Galen Scott that are above the rumored level.
Zohn Burden has been officially announced
Yes, that did occur in the meantime after that post was made.
So, I guess now in a more typical VT approach, the Running Backs have become the new Beasts of Burden...
via GIPHY
Leg for the galaxy quest gif...good that it's not just another guy...
crewman #6!
Wow I forgot Sam Rockwell was even in Galaxy Quest.
Looks like we're about to be throwing to the RBs quite a bit
RBs caught 28 passes under Fuente this year and 20 last year.
We had 28 this year and 36 last year.
At least we ran 500 jet sweeps that work just as well as screen passes. /s
I like keeping Burden on staff. Looks like Fuente is focusing on the 757.
I bet he wanted to keep Wiggins at WR because it requires a more sophisticated understanding of the offense than being the RB coach.
Yeah, yeah, that's great and all but what's his stance on running backs by committee?
I know you're joking....but...how many WRs did we see this year? Not much rotation there at all. I don't think we'll see much of a rotation from Burden.
Don't have the exact quote in front of me, but didn't Burden say he wanted to have 10 receivers ready to go?
The lack of rotation was probably due to the lack of options behind the top two established receivers.
Expect to keep seeing it. Fuente has historically used a running back rotation of 2-3 backs plus designed QB runs. There's a TSL article with specifics that went up earlier today.
That's not just the coolest. That's not just the best. It is JUSTIN CREDIBLE.
No, no. Stop that right now.
Kill it with fire.
Do not say that again.
I think what Egbert is saying is that he hopes he put the brakes on the joke...Justin time
agreed. all these bad puns are justin sufferable
Fuente.
And justin regardless.
This is outstanding news. I was really hoping we retained Burden. I'm so damn excited about our program I can't stand it
Great Scott these puns are fantasic
I'm glad we kept Burden on the coaching staff, but RB? Shane Beamer was new to the position and look at how that worked out for us. I don't want to see another RB by committee...
As for the open defensive coaching position that is still currently open, we need another coach that can recruit. UVa and UMd have also upgraded their coaching staffs as well.
One would hope that Burden was paying attention when he saw firsthand what happened when we settled on one premier RB
TCU and Memphis both ran multiple backs. Now they may not have rotated every snap, but we'll see multiple backs rotated in.
Right. Multiple backs isn't the issue. It's the implementation part we couldn't get right.
Since we didn't have a guy like Billy Hite who knew how to rotate, it was better for us to just pick one and stick with it. (Travon was a good pick)
Rotating backs isn't a problem when the backs are playing well. When one back is running hard and the other two backs appear to be running in mud the rotation doesn't make a lot of sense.
Keeping Zhorn Burden, Gray, Foster, Wiles are outstanding decisions. Fuente is doing great in his evaluation.
Glad he was retained crootin. Nervous and unsure about capacity and experience with TBs. Hoping for the best.
According to the ridiculous section of the fan base Shane Beamer didn't do anything anyways
no he did coach but he was pretty poor at deciding who should play and instead gave every rb that was capable of carries a "participation award" up until he basically got called out multiple weeks in a row.
The "participation trophy" mantra is just as ridiculous as the "he didn't do anything" mantra.
not when you look at the stats and how we were using the 4-5 backs in the same way.. this was a huge discussion months ago and it seemed pretty clear that the past 2 years shane has split carries among 4-5 backs with mediocre results.
hey at least McMillian could possibly get 1000 yards while only starting 7 games.
His decision to use running backs by rotation was definitely the wrong decision but then rationalizing it by "he just wanted to give them all participation trophies" is stupid.
Then how do you explain Shane telling media reporters that he apologized to JC Coleman for only getting him 7 snaps in a game?
Shane apologizing to JC does not equate to participation trophy. That equates to respect dude. JCC took us over the line late last year. Ended up being the hero. I'm sure he was hoping for more carries this year. Shane may have made the wrong decision to divvy out the carries too broadly but telling last year's hero that he is sorry he can't get more carries is all about giving a man his due. JCC earned that level of respect last year, and every time he got passed up by a younger better RB and didn't complain.
I don't know. I appreciate your perspective but respectfully disagree with you. It's basically bygones now so my passion to debate it is not what it once was, but I really felt, based on that quote and others that we had 5 RBs getting equal carries because we had younger guys who were better than the older guys and they were trying to balance seniority and history with who gave us the best chance to win at the time.
understandable. but to me, it seems that this point of view conflates Shane making the mistake of using too many RBs with that quote to create a false context. I don't believe he would be going around kowtowing to JCC and the others, or any player. I believe it was a show of respect that was poorly worded to the media.
I think Shane genuinely felt that he was playing the backs according to situation and he did a very poor job at that.
The more I think on this, the more it seems likely there is some false context along with reading too much into the situation and quotes. I think we as a fan base were frustrated with what we were seeing and Shane didn't help with the things he said publicly.
Leg for you and Fireman below for pointing out the Furman game. Could be said that Furman was a good chance to have a live try out to set the depth chart in a post Ohio State, Brewerless season.
Point of fact only the Furman game had 5 RB/FB's get close to the same amount of carries.
I have a feeling the installation phase of Fuente's offense might be difficult for you.
Check out the distribution of carries at Memphis this season. (PS, that's a clickable link.)
CJF really likes to spread the ball around in the running game. Their leading rusher in carries only had 144 through 12 games. Compare that to Travon McMillian getting 184 carries, after it taking half the season to settle on him as the feature back. I think your hope of settling on two anchor running backs is now out the window in the Fuente era.
I'm fine with that, so long as the rotation is logical. If he trots out a different RB between every single play on a single set of downs I will lose my mind. If he does that, and it's wildly successful, then I'll owe Shane a huge apology for ridiculing his tactics.
Edit: Also, I'm willing to bet Memphis threw the ball more than VT did.
Yes, both in total and percentage. Memphis attempted 429 passes out of 961 total plays, meaning they passed roughly 45% of the time. VT, by comparison, had 356 pass attempts and 858 total plays, passing 41% of the time.
However, both offenses are balanced in run:pass ratio, with a tendency to prefer the run to the pass.
I will be curious to see how the RB rotation is handled this year. My biggest gripe with it this past season wasn't about how many RBs were touching the ball so much as how often the backs were being swapped out. I'm expecting Fuente to lean heavily on the running game so I'm sure plenty of backs will get carries. What I'm curious to see is if multiple backs get carries in a 4 play sequence or if he rides one back for a series before swapping them out.
That's gonna be a question for Mason and French to answer. I watched about 2.5 quarters of Memphis football this past season, so I have no idea what Fuente's tendencies in terms of personnel are. I just know whatever he does worked at Memphis.
My issue with the Lefty/Shane tailback rotation was exactly the same as yours. I'm fine with four and five tailbacks getting touches in a game. But when you're spinning the Wheel of Destiny on the sideline between plays to see which back goes in next, you're doing it wrong.
you and I are in agreement then. It didn't make any sense to me to have a different tailback in the game every other play and our running game struggled early in the year (if memory serves) so it is easy for fans to draw that correlation regardless of whether it's accurate or not. I've spent a ton of time and posted numerous comments bemoaning the way our RBs were used early on and I'm going to have to eat a whole lot of crow if Fuente employs a similar RB rotation; especially if it turns out to be successful. It will be interesting to watch.
Actually, the running game did well at the beginning of the year. I think there was a point where JCC and Trey were both averaging over 4.0 ypc, with Travon far outpacing them but on fewer carries. I know for the first few games, the YPC by running backs was over 5.0. It wasn't until we get into the middle of our schedule that JCC and Trey sort of hit the wall, and whoever was in charge of our rotation was slow to adjust to it.
It wasn't so much that the rotation sucked out of the gate as it was that we tried to give it too long to recover after it hit a slump.
I'm also curious as to the talent breakdown among the RB's at Memphis. This is complete conjecture but I would guess that they didn't have as clear cut of a #1 like we had with Travon this year (at least the second half of the year).
And you do have a point. In 2013 and 2014, Brandon Hayes was averaging over 16 touches per game. But even in that period, there were other rushers averaging over 10 touches per game. So while I think McMillian will be the back that Fuente anchors the running game with, but I don't expect him to get much more than 1/3 of the total carries over the course of a full season.
their second leading rusher has 87 carries then 3rd was at 77 carries... key thing is all of those backs showed production with the carries given. If Fuente can come in and find a way to use McMillian, McClease, Shai, Juice and Trey while getting good production out of them I would be thrilled.
Last 3 games.. minus SMU because everyone got a carry in that game 63-0 BRO
i agree with what you're saying. Also...
I heart your spreadsheets.
It should be pointed out, those 26 carries against Houston were the second most touches Dorceus had in a game. He carried 32 times against Tulsa, and outside of that, never saw the ball more than 16 times in a game.
While McMillian had games of 33, 29, 24, 21, 18, 16 .. that DUDE took a beating all year.
Which is kind of what we want to avoid...IF we can find a rotation that's effective. I think shooting for McMillian to average around 15 carries a game over the course of the season is the sweet spot. Enough opportunity to be dangerous, but he's still got his legs come November. I really think if that had been Travon's workload from the start, he'd have been gassed down the stretch.
The question is, will we have viable second, third and fourth options who can contribute?
Yes this times 100000... I have a good feeling Fuente and staff will be able to work it all out.
Big Unknown is how healthy are Shai and Marshawn.. DJ Reid, McClease, and Fox ready to go? Can Trey be used properly and not 3rd and 1?
I really think Shai is in danger of being permanently eclipsed. Travon showed every bit of promise this season that Shai showed in '14, without the concern of back to back season-ending ACL surgeries. Everything I have heard about McClease has been optimistic. I think Marshawn returns to be the bruiser back, Trey gets the scraps, and that leaves very little room for Shai.
Alright at 15 carries a game McMillian will only need 10 YPC to reach his 1800 yard goal in the regular season. If you assume a Natty (because why not) then he will only need 8 YPC with the postseason included. I would say he's got this.
While I would love to see him get 1800 yards, in reality, I think it is a bit of a stretch. We're going to have a lot of weapons to spread the wealth on offense.
Of course it's a stretch! That's why only 1 or 2 backs in the whole country come close to 1800 yards in a season. We can still hope though. It's not an unrealistic goal, just an unlikely one.
Yeah, Kevin!
I kinda figure that a good coach is a good coach. Not to say that you want someone to coach blind, but talent is talent and you want your best talent in the game. It's like the best athlete on the team in high school plays quarterback, you want the best coach coaching. Truly good coaches can learn the nuances of the position, it's the ability to coach that is important. IMHO, of course.
Leg for Jeri Ryan.
oops, wrong jeri
My gosh she was so freakin hot in that series. i think she was the only reason I watched that series. Yeah. Her and the theme song.
Needed to get a waiver for one more recruiter going into the final weekend.
So, in summation the Burden has been lifted. This can now quit Wiggin(s) me out. I can begin to Foster a vision of a championship Wiles enjoying my favorite Vice. A nice Gray(cliff) and a the (shi)Best bottle of bourbon I can find! I get the feeling we're back.
Glad we retained Burden. He's got his work cut out for him, the 757 is stacked for next recruiting cycle.
State Rankings:
1. Laborn, RB, Ocean Lakes
2. Hunter, QB, Indian River
3. Crosby, DT, Ocean Lakes
4. Gaddy, DT, Bishop Sullivan Catholic, VB
5. Ewell, DT, Lake Taylor
11. Capehart, WR, Ocean Lakes
14. Conliffe, DE, Hampton
17. Mitchell, QB, Oscar Smith
Also a lot of good players in the Fredericksburg area, interested to see who we put there.
If you flip through that list, it's shocking to see how well Duke and FSU are doing in Virginia.
Historically, Bud has been working the Fredericksburg area with his NoVA responsibilities.
Hunter is not going to be a QB at the next level! DB all the way. Laborn has already said he is glad that VT kept Burden on as a coach!
Ugh. No linebackers?
Do LB recruits not want to play at VT due to Bud's system???? Since the scheme doesn't translate to football on Sundays?
This got blown out of proportion a bit in the last few years. Talented linebackers go to the NFL because they are talented regardless of system. If we had gotten Stephone Anthony, he would still have been a 1st round pick. HOWEVER, our system does place a tremendous burden on the Mike and the Backer to consistently make plays, particularly in the running game where their mistakes can be the difference in holding a team under 100 yards rushing and a team going over 300 (Miami 2014). Potential for a lot more scrutiny than other systems. That said, if a linebacker plays well in our system, scraping and filling effectively without getting blocked out of position very often, that looks great to an NFL team.
Excellent point. If you get an elite recruit at Mike or Backer in Bud's system, and he learns the system well, he's in a perfect position to be in consideration for the Nagurski Award.
Lets hope we can get some elite LBs. Who was the last highly touted LB we signed?
Bruce Taylor is the last one that come to my mind.
Raymon Minor in 2014
247 composite 4-star
over a dozen P5 offers including VT, Miami, Clemson, UNC, Wisconsin, Iowa, and OSU
Many (I would say most) of those offers were to play wide receiver.
No linebackers out of the 757 are listed in 247's top recruits in VA for 2017.
That is rough. Let's hope the new offensive coaches can find some linebackers in their old recruiting footprints.
Dylan Rivers
There are four linebackers on the list.
#16 (****) Dylan Rivers, Sherando HS, committed to Penn State (no other offers listed?)
#21 (****) Ellis Brooks, Benedictine, 14 offers including VT, apparently leaning Duke?
#28 (***) Marquis Hall, Potomac HS, offers from VT, UVa, Penn State (not leaning?)
#31 (***) Rayshard Ashby, LC Bird, offers from VT, ECU, JMU, leaning VT
The Benedictine kids are leaning Duke heavy for most of them. I went to school there and talk to some of my classmates who have parents or other connections there, they are not sure why but several of the kids really like Duke over any other school.
I can understand favoring Duke the last couple of years, but the tide is turning..... Winning will cure this problem.