After all the talk about how we were hoping for our first 1,000 yard receiver, I haven't Seen any main board activity about Isaiah Ford. He finished the season with 75 receptions for, a Hokie record, 1,164 yards and 11 touchdowns. May I remind you all that he is a true sophomore and will be back next year with the En Fuente offense...good luck adversaries....
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FUENTE EN FUEGO! [coming soon to Lane Stadium near YOU]
Isaiah Ford is really something else. That kid is unbelievable. Can't wait to see what he does under CJF.
He's pretty incredible! And he seems like an all around good person and leader too. I can't wait to see all of the bad things he does to Tennessee next September!
We're pulling in some talented WR this recruiting class. I can't wait to see how they develop with the new offensive staff and Ford as the unit's leader. If the new guys can come anywhere close to the offseason effort that Ford puts in, look out for the VT offense in the near future.
And 3 of those talented receivers are early enrollees, so even more time for Fuente to mold them into studs!
Not only that but they also get an extra semester with Ford to see how a great WR practices, prepares, and handles themselves on and off the field. Ford seems to do everything the right way and I'm hoping his ways trickle down to the younger WRs looking up to him.
If he has another season like this, does he go down as the best in VT history? If so, will they retire his jersey? What is the protocol for retiring jersey's/numbers? (I was thinking about requirements for jersey retirement the other day so this is the perfect segue way.)
Unanimous or close to it All American Honors.
To get his jersey retired, he'll need to win a national award. Won't happen purely base on Ford's stats.
Thank you!
Seems like you have to have 9+ wins to have a player considered for a National Award now. Still kind of shocking that Erick Green won ACC POTY when VT was at the very bottom of the ACC that year.
I think he deserved it. He was the best player in the ACC, accounting for around a third of our teams points. I remember games where he'd shoot 50%, and the rest of the team was shooting 15%. Can't fault him for the way our team developed.
I'm not, I'm just saying I'm glad the ACC and writers etc recognized true talent instead of the top player on the top team.
I like this policy. But I think Whit should place an edited asterisk.
Officially retiring Frank's #25 would be a final stamp on Frank's endured legacy. His jersey is already hanging, but for all he's done as a player, coach, and ambassador for VPI. If anybody deserves a retired football number at Virginia Tech, he's sure as hell one of them.
IMO.
Thank you Charlie Strong for heading off to Texas. Louisville's loss is the Hokies gain. Already the greatest receiver in VT history!
Going purely on stats, yes. But remember that we have historically used a run heavy offense, and we have had receivers like Antonio Freeman (who became a certified NFL stud with the Packers), Bryan Still, Eddie Royal and Ernest Wilford, so to say that Ford is the best of that group would be a difficult proposition. Having said that, I would definitely put him top 5. Depending on what he does next year, he could definitely be considered the best.
Very real chance of 100 receptions, which sound ridiculous, but I wouldn't bet against him right now after seeing that.
I sure hope not, if no other WR steps up after Ford and Philips, we are in trouble.
Of course, but Ford is clearly the #1 and should be a target hog next season. Not sure how often he was targeted this season, not sure if NCAA keeps those type of statistics.
not to say depth isn't a concern, but this was the same sentiment before this season. I suppose they proved they are the exception to the rule.
I've played basketball with Isaiah Ford at Mccomas a number of times and all I can say is he is arguably the nicest guy I've ever met in my life. Ford is the most grounded and humble athlete I've met while at VT. He simply gets what it means to be a Hokie. It makes the successes even sweeter.
The fact that a former high school basketball star plays at McComas is exactly why I always played at War.
And after what happened to Exum, please don't guard Ford too close. Give him plenty of room on rebounds too
I remember watching Deron Washington "play" basketball at McComas.
Literally stood at the top of the three point line, waited for a jump shot, flushed the rebound. Again and again and again. Was ridiculous.
Isiah, please stay away from Basketball. We need you badly on the football field, I don't want to see an injury.
Mostly, what I like about Ford is both his route running and Yards after the catch. He uses the same techniques to make space for himself to get open and when he has the ball he looks for open field running lanes to maximize his YAC. Great receiver, I wish the US national soccer team had guys like this.
I would actually argue that Ford needs to improve his YAC. Until the second half of this season, Ford almost never gained YAC: He was almost exclusively a possession receiver. The last six games, however, VT has run a lot of quick hitches that allowed Ford to run after the catch. Even so, in his two years, his YAC activity has not been impressive to me. I don't have any stats handy to back up this claim, but I can see look back on all of his touchdowns in the past two years. I believe the screen in this bowl game was the only TD he did not catch already in the end zone.
A lot of that has to do with route patterns. And not just the OC, but the QB Impacts that. In our case Brewer's (lack of) arm strength eliminated some options.
Additionally, the way he floated the ball and/or under threw Ford constantly allowed defenders to be on top of him as soon as he made the catch. It hurt Bucky too
I absolutely agree, there were so many deep balls the past years that Ford could have caught in stride for touchdowns if they were not thrown so poorly. Most of it isn't Fords fault, I was just pointing out that the person I replied to was wrong and misleading other readers.
Agree. As he's gotten better after the catch defenders have been more aggressive closing the space, allowing him to double move them and get open downfield despite not having elite athleticism. If he adds a consistent back-shoulder fade to his bag of tricks he'll be an absolute nightmare to cover.
How were his numbers under Motley? Because Brewer ain't here no more.
I love Motley and wish him nothing but the best, but he will not be QB1 next year.
I'm not ruling anyone out until I see spring scrimmages, but I definitely think Evans is the front runner.
That being said, Motley has a lot of physical tools and Fuente is more than capable of building around a run first QB. Funny things happen sometimes when good athletes realize "it's now or never".
Isaiah Ford 2015 Totals: 75 receptions, 1164 yards, 15.5 ypc, 89.5 ypg, 11 TDs
Games Brewer Started: 46 receptions, 728 yards, 15.8 ypc, 104.0 ypg, 5 TDs
Games Motley Started: 29 receptions, 436 yards, 15.0 ypc, 72.7 ypg, 6 TDs
Totals are divided by who the starter of the game was (Brewer gets credit for Ohio State, Motley for Miami), because that's way easier than trying to figure out which QB actually threw each of Ford's receptions.
Factor out Isaiah going straight HAM in the Independence Bowl, and over the course of the regular season he actually had a better ypc under Motley, and his ypg under Brewer 83.5. His career day against Tulsa really skews the numbers, but Isaiah is just that good regardless of who the QB was.
But like fernley said, Motley will not be QB1 next season.
I'm too lazy to look at the stats but it looked like Motley really leaned on Isaiah when he was starting. Brewer seemed to spread it around a little more but more specifically he seemed to look to his TE's much more often than Motley.
I just have to imagine that Phillips is going to have a breakout year next season. I predict a lot of teams to key on Ford which I hope will open things up for Phillips.
Let's not forget about McMillian. He still managed to finish with 1043 rushing yards in spite of the RB-by-committee approach.
I'm so excited for this offense.
I think that catch he made on the 1 when he was getting tackled during the bowl game showed a flash of what he could do. He should be a best next year.
He's the best we've ever had. I hope he makes a quick transition to Fuente's scheme, because he's gonzo after next season.
The thing is, that's what Ford did with really only one/two (Bucky) receiver threats, I know theres Sam Rogers and Malleck running a lot of underneath routes.
But there were only two other receivers who caught balls the entire year. Demetri Knowles and Kevin Asante, each hauled in just one pass.
Where does Cam figure in here?
Cam was the one to Bucky's two. Both had around 40 catches to Ford's 75.
Malleck - 21, Rogers - 16, McMillian - 12.
Also, can we talk about how well Wyatt Teller played? For once I'm not dreading the future of our offense. I'm looking forward to next year. Is it April 23rd yet?
The whole O line played well, no sacks and above 5 yards per carry average.
Stacy Searels has really done a great job in two years of righting the ship on the OL. The table is set pretty nicely for Vance Vice. I hope Searels gets a top quality P5 job, he deserves it.
He definitely made improvements but we were porous in pass pro most of the year, and this offense couldn't afford the sacks we were giving up.
Yes, but, look at the trajectory. In 2015, we gave up the bulk of our sacks (18 of 34) in the month of October, mostly coming when Motley started struggling as we hit the meat of our conference schedule. Motley lacks pocket awareness and took a lot of sacks he shouldn't have. Once Brewer returned, we rebounded nicely and gave up 9 sacks total in our last five games. Compare that to 19 sacks allowed over the last five games of 2014.
I hope all our out-going coaches do. They're all good people who did the best they could given a really difficult situation. The more I think about it, the more I appreciate them being able to string a winning record with the talent we have and the recruiting shackles that were prevalent.
I think all of our departing assistants will find good landing spots. None are getting fired (at least, not technically, just not retained), we still ended the year with a winning record, and they'll have Frank working the phones to endorse them for prospective jobs. There were a lot of circumstances that worked against VT football over the last few years, some self-inflicted and some beyond our control. I think anyone looking to hire any of our guys will recognize that.
Lefty certainly got no benefit of the doubt from this fact when he came here from Auburn.
Great year, Isiah. Now can you convince Bucky to learn how to run routes like you?
If Bucky had Isiah's route running abilities and overall attitude, he could be a Heisman candidate.
Nuff said
I'm just glad we actually utilize his talent. I always felt like we left much to be desired from ER4.
Cannot wait to see him play next year - it will be special!
That entire 2004 freshman class (+Clowney) was special, and I think may have been one of our best corps (as a group). If they'd have had multiple years with Mike Vick, BR3, Tyrod or even Brewer...
A Nole pointed out that VT has more bowl wins in the last 3 days than the last two Miami coaches, combined.
His body language on routes is so fluid (and deceptive to defenders) and allows him to get separation to make those big plays downfield. I would say it's particularly evident on his deep routes. The subtle moves he makes at the beginning of those routes allow him to create space to make a play. This is what separates a great downfield receiver from the average receiver. You don't necessarily have to be a burner, not that Ford doesn't have speed. For me, he's extra fun to watch.
Ok. Interesting description.
I think when it's all said and done, he goes down as the best WR in VT history and our first WR to be drafted in the first round. Especially after Fuente gets his hands on him.
He makes everything look so effortless and it's amazing to watch. When Isaiah's the target of a pass, I'm never worried.
This comment is going around a LOT right now. We need to hold our horses.
Justin Fuente never had a 1,000 yard receiver at Memphis. Not even close. The top receiver performance while Fuente was at Memphis was this past season when Mose Frazier had 66 grabs for 750 yards. That's in a season where Memphis was averaging over 510 yards per game and threw for 955 more yards over the course of the season than we did.
As co-OC at TCU, Fuente had one receiver flirt with 1,000 yards, when Josh Boyce finished the 2011 season with 998. Outside of that season, Fuente's top receivers at TCU finished in the 550-650 yard range.
Fuente has never had a receiver who put up anything close to the numbers Isaiah just posted. And Fuente's offense seems to be way more about spreading the ball around than Lefty's did. One hallmark of Fuente's offense: typically speaking, his third-best receiver finished the season within 100 receiving yards of his top receiver.
I think Ford is the best receiver we've ever had, but he also benefited greatly by being the clear number one receiver with little competition. We're getting three well-regarded WR recruits who will be coming to Tech basically on the first day of the Fuente era, which means competition for receptions just went way up for Ford. That, plus the nature of Fuente's scheme, leads me to believe that Isaiah's numbers might well go down in 2016, and it won't be any knock on Ford whatsoever.
(EDIT: PS, 757Hokey, not trying to shit all over your post. I'm replying more to the general idea that's been common on TKP lately that Fuente will improve Ford's performance. I'm replying more to that general notion than your specific post.)
you make great points on the surface but I wonder if circumstances are different at VT than they were at TCU and Memphis.
I'll start with Memphis. Fuente may not have had a single receiver who was as talented as Ford. He might have had 3 Kevin Asante's and he had to spread the ball around to them to make the offense go. I don't know if that is the case but it's possible that having 3 equally talented(or maybe not quite so talented?) receivers played into that.
TCU may be a different case. They were probably able to bring in more talent than Ford. IF they did, though, they probably at least had 2 or 3 receivers of equal talent in each class so they could develop them together and bring them along in the system simultaneously.
right now, Ford is the creme of the crop. Phillips is right there on his heels but he isn't targeted as often as Ford and there must be a reason for that. Outside of those two, though, we're going to have true freshman receivers who might be as talented as Ford. I think Ford being a Junior and being as talented as he is will force the coaches to lean on him. He really doesn't have an equal like the receivers may have had at TCU and Memphis. I think it's entirely possible that the passing game still runs through Ford in Fuente's offense. The true freshmen may be very talented but they're still freshmen and I don't think they'll be ready for the workload that Ford is capable of handling. In 2 or 3 years, though, I think we'll have a more balanced receiving corps and you'll start to see trends like Memphis and TCU where 3 receivers are within 150 yards of each other at the end of the season.
I definitely don't think it's the case that TCU was routinely bringing in better talent than Isaiah. Remember, TCU was in the Mountain West for all but Fuente's last season there. TCU was basically the Memphis of its day during Fuente's tenure there.
I agree, though, it might be a situation where there were more options, so the ball got spread around more. Still, I don't think Ford gets 75 receptions next season. I think low to mid 60s is a safe bet. Whether he gets another 1,000 yard season will depend on what he does with the targets he gets.
If Ford surpasses Antonio Freeman's TD record (needs 6), Boykin's receptions (needs 54), and Boykin's yardage (needs 1012), then I'll say that he will be our GOAT. I believe he will get the TDs & receptions but that's a lot of yardage for one year if Fuente's offense cuts his numbers down. If he stays for 2017 then there's no doubt.
Yeah I am interested to see how he projects in the draft after next season. He doesn't have the size/speed necessarily that land guys in the 1st or 2nd round. That said, he does run great routes, has great body control, and just has that it factor. If he gets a fair shot at the NFL, I believe he is the kind of guy who sticks around for a long time.
edit: I could be misjudging his speed, sometimes guys run differently and speed is deceptive. And 6'2 with a little more muscle would give him a more NFL frame. Right now, he is identical in height and weight to me haha.
Great article on Ford from the Roanoke Times (I don't believe it's been posted already)
Ford wins Roanoke Times player of the year
This guy just gets it. With this kind of attitude, I believe he's going to have a long and successful NFL career. For all of the WR prima donnas there are in world today, he's just as effective and does it with class. I'm so happy he's a Hokie and that we have him for at least one more year.
I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to squeeze him in but he has to be in my top 10 favorite Hokies of all time.