I live and love Virginia Tech Football but surely will tell you, I don't know or understand the X and Os of football and like a sponge, enjoy reading and soaking up posts here from French and others that do know the game of football.
I have been a fan for over 40+ years and remember setting in Lane stadium freezing my butt off watching my Hokies lose to VMI. It felt like it was about -9 degrees that day.....LOL.
The one thing I do know, no matter how great your skilled players are, if you don't have an offensive line and your QB doesn't have time to throw the ball, the RBs don't have holes to run through, and the receivers don't have time to run their routes and get open, your offense doesn't have much of a chance.
So I have seen the projected starting 5 this year, but for those of you like French and others that do know, who do you think will be our solid back ups for the 2016 season in your knowledgeable opinion and does our new OL coach, what the 4 or 5th one in the last few years have the ability to turn the OL into a solid, mean, physical line that can finally and consistently revive our front five into the days of Jim Pyne, Jake Grove, etc.
Would love to know your thoughts because to me, that will be the key to a successful offense this year and the seasons to follow and has always been that way. IMHO, our offensive line began to go south when Newsome took over and the fallout and poor coaching is still affecting us today! Although I did begn to see it turn around under Grimes. Looking forward to your comments and teaching this fan what you know and believe about the 2016 OL and the future players in the pipeline. Go Hokies.
Comments
At the end of that game we were among about 4500 , die hard fans and the wind chill was below -10 degrees. Don't know who will be the second team o line , but hope there is competition and last years starters are pushed for playing time. Would like to see Clark compete for a starting spot and Moore play to his potential. It will be an interesting and exciting spring.
I don't see us having a solid 2 deep across all positions. Hoping we have 2-3 guys that can at least contribute. Guys like Billy Ray Mitchell and Colt Petit need to come along.
IF our lineup L-R is McGlock, Teller, Gallo, Conte, Nijman, I would think our 2nd string would look like:
Osterloh, Clark,T. Smith, Moore, and Pettit (no order)
3rd String: Plantin, Pfaff, Chung, Mitchell, Kearns (no order)
4th String: Jackson, Hopple, Hoyt, Dzansi, A. Smith/or Walk-on (no order)
Don't forget about Moore
Clark at guard and Osterloh at tackle you think, or is this not in any particular order?
either or. Moore could also play a factor, but we'll see about development of current players vs new additions.
Braxton Pffaf at OG?
Moore or (Nijman) one will be first string LT, Osterloh (Improved a lot last year) Chung (Second best center we have) Braxton Pfaff (highly ranked out of high school should be ready to turn some heads) Clark (4 star in class of 2014)
LT-RT Nijman, Teller, Gallo, Conte, McLaughlin for first string. Moore, Osterloh, Chung, Pfaff, Clark for second string. I will go on a limb and say Mitchell, Plantin, Hoyt, T. Smith, Pettit for third string.
I think Moore is likely to win the LT job, and if he does I'd really like to see Nijman redshirt. He did well last year, but he's ~30 pounds underweight and hasn't even been playing the position for a full calendar year yet.
Either way we are in good hands I believe, good depth, plenty of guys with time in the system and have redshirted and our new coach should do better with higher rated recruits. I am excited about the coming up season!
Ideally a redshirt would be nice but i think it would be hard for them to do. Nijman has the most upside of any of our OL IMO and I think he will add some good weight this offseason. I wouldn't be surprised to see some rotation on the OL especially if we are moving with tempo often.
LT: Nijman (SO) / Osterloh (r-JR)
LG: Teller (r-JR) / Clark (r-FR)
C: Gallo (JR) / Chung (r-JR)
RG: Conte (r-SR) / Pfaff (r-SO)
RT: McLaughlin (SR) / Moore (JR)
Others:
A. Smith (r-SR),
Mitchell (r-SO), Pettit (r-SO),
T. Smith (r-FR), Plantin (r-FR),
Hoyt (FR), Kearns (FR), Jackson (FR), Hopple (FR)
I am both excited and scared by all the freshmen and sophomores in our two deep. Good things to come in the future but also nervous we are going to need them this year.
Daniel Bailey is a name that I think will show up in the OL rotation at some point this coming year. He has apparently been making a good impression this past year.
Who is Daniel Bailey? Never heard of him as far as OL recruit.
He is a walk on freshman from Abingdon; he came in last year. Here is a link to his senior highlight video.
http://www.ncsasports.org/football-recruiting/va/abingdon/abingdon-high-school2/daniel-bailey4
I don't know him, but yep- I believe he is a cousin of one of my HS teammates.
Does anybody know what happened to Alston Smith? When he first moved from defense to offense, the coaches couldn't shut up about how natural he was. Did he just never progress at all? I'd really love to cheer for him!
He was introduced on senior day so he may be gone.
Me as well. He just seem to disappear.
Yeah, I think he graduated and is done. Too bad he didn't turn into a contributor, but at least it was good to have Bruce on the sidelines.
I think the first day of camp, the starting offensive line looks like:
Nijman-Teller-Gallo-Conte-McLaughlin. Big Jon I believe with be on the right side.
If they had to play a game that day, Osterloh and Moore would be the first options at tackle. Kyle Chung and Osterloh would be the first two options at guard.
My sleeper guys are DeAndre Plantin and Tyrell Smith. Both were sleeper recruits that were blessed with terrific feet. Of all the skills on the offensive line, you can't teach light quick feet. Everything else can be improved with hard work. With the feet, you can improve, but there is a limited threshold. I really like how Smith was competitive in spring practice. Sometimes he was physically outmatched as a true freshman, but in those spring reps he was fighting tooth and nail. Plantin I heard had a terrific fall on scout team. Both kids need a good lower body off season weight training program and learn to play with good bend. Both I think can be 2-3 season contributors.
If you put me on the spot for the depth chart opening day of spring camp, I would guess (and this is purely a guess based on my eyes and ears. I have no "inside information."
Nijman-Teller-Gallo-Conte-McLaughlin
Plantin- Pfaff/Smith -Chung-Osterloh-Moore
Pettit-WALK ON-Smith-Mitchell-Clark
The Walk On OL kids were Daniel Bailey, the Kish twins, and there is one other kid I think that finished the season.
french, how do you feel overall about our OL?
I'd like to see how they function with Osterloh getting some work at right guard. Nijman needs to get more leg drive to take advantage on Teller running G-blocked power runs in short yardage. Pass protection in general needs to be improved, especially against stunts.
Thank you French for the insight. I always enjoy your posts and learn a lot about things I don't know. Thank you for educating me. Haven't heard of any twins that are walk on. What do you think about this kid from Salem HS in Salem Va? I believe he gray shirted. Can't remember his name.
Zach Hoyt. He will get a look at center and guard. I know folks talk about offensive tackle depth, but with Teller and Conte possibly leaving next year, the Hokies need to develop interior depth. Fuente's running game (besides option) is quick hitting and down hill focused. You have to get movement with the guards.
Thank you French. Wasn't even sure he was still in the pipeline.
I have not heard definitely if he enrolled or not. I will ask around.
I think the kid out of Salem HS in Salem Va. Last name is Hoyt. They always have good physical and fundamentally sound OL coaching there. I think he grayshirted and I wondering how far away is this kid from contributing? I believe he had an offer from Pitt and they usually have some pretty tough OL play. So again just curious from those in the know?
My biggest concern is this: 4th OL coach in 5 years.
Hope that schematically there isn't a huge difference between Searels & Vice.
Yes that has crossed my mind as well beacaue some of these guys have had 3 to 4 different OL coaches. I just hope this new coach is the real deal. His resume looks good so I guess we will see. I just want to see our OL get back to playing With a physical, tough, and nasty attitude and start doing the pushing around instead of getting pushed around.
French what is your feelings about the kid out of Rockbridge that is no longer with the team. I see you didn't have him listed very high to contribute this year and maybe you knew something we didn't.