Article I found on Alabama. Good opportunity to learn about the enemy and their supposed strengths and weaknesses:
http://heismanpundit.com/2013/07/23/two-deep-and-recruiting-class-evalua...
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+1 for the Art of War reference
My takeaways:
1. Right Tackle is their weak spot on the line. We need to exploit this.
2. We need to disrupt the hell out of their passing game. McCarron is solid, and he's got plenty to work with.
3. Direct more of our plays towards Dickson's side rather than Hubbard's.
4. If we're gonna throw deep ( I hope we don't have to), we need to throw at Geno Smith's side, especially if that's the same side of the field as Sunseri.
Agreed. Additionally, get DJ Coles matched up against Xzavier Dixon or Trey DePriest.
RT will be going against Gayle most of the day
Sounds like a bad evening for that offensive lineman. Especially since Gayle is feeling super motivated right now.
Just had a premonition:
Hokies get three turnovers - one for a touchdown and one sets up a touchdown.
Additionally the Hokie offense scores two FGs and another touchdown. That's 27 points.
But it still ends up a tight game.
honestly think were gonna need more than 27 to win. bama has a high caliber offense
I'm gonna disagree. This is gonna be a low scoring, grind it out affair, not a barnburner. I'd be surprised if either team scores more than 20.
i just dont see bama scoring less than 4 tds. so so much talent on that offense
possible, but think about last year, offense AND defense were not playing well at all. At the end of the year only offensive coaches were replaced. If there is one coach who takes something more personal than Bud, let me know...that guy, as far as I can tell, is pissed and ready to show it. Like french's article, the switch to the 4-4 and 4-6 in the FSU game was evident, so look for a much improved defense this year. With that defense, I think we can hold alabama to under 20-24 points. The big question is exum and his potential replacement. This game is going to come down to our offense's ability to score points (duh), the defense will do it's job i think.
And I would love nothing more than that. We will have a top 5 or 10 defense in the country that's for damn sure. I think we have another bud in coach grimes. That man is foster like scary
Everyone talks about Bama's weakness being their O-Line. What about their great strength? They are returning all of their skill position players minus a running back. Our DB corpe needs to be perfect. AJ is throwing to a veterin WR team. I don't see Bama only getting 1 or 2 TDs. However, if we can force the run outside and cover their WR well enough to keep the ball in the QB's hands for a good amount of time I can see us getting a few sacks and taking advantage of that so called weakness (we have new o-line men too). My point, our offense is going to have to put points on the board. I'm not seeing this being a below 20 point game for Bama. Thats not saying our D aint good enough, just saying that its going to take more than Defense to win this game.
agree with you %110. nothing against our d, more about how good bamas offense will be
Agreed...a sack by Gayle and the ball pops out...Kyle Fuller picks it up and takes it to the house.
Seriously, if we can get pressure on Mccarron, anything can happen. We do have alot of talent on defense.
I worry about Amari Cooper getting deep...I also worry about us turning it over. If Logan can play a flawless game, then we have a fighting chance.
There is one and only one real area of concern for me. As much as I really don't like to single out individual guys (they're 18-22 year olds, let's be real here), Caleb Farris just hasn't been performing well. In the bowl game and in the spring, he wasn't getting beat to a hole by smaller, quicker players and he wasn't getting bowled over by monstrously large guys. He was getting bowled over by smaller, quicker players. I lost track of the number of times I saw him on his back against Rutgers and the number of times the commentators said "pressure up the middle." If we can get the middle of our offensive line patched up, we'll have a heck of a shot on August 31. Farris is going against a big, strong, tough NG in Ivory. He'd better be ready.
In VT's offensive scheme, the center, be it Farris or someone else, will engage the nose, but more often than not, the guard on the backside of the play will be the most engaged blocker with the nose tackle. The center will cut off penetration with his initial step, attempt to turn the center's pads for the guard, and then head to the second level to attack the linebacker.
In passing situations, especially when Virginia Tech goes to a shotgun 3 or 4 wide receiver look, Alabama will shift to a four man defensive front, with the jack linebacker moving to defensive end. If Farris is the starter, he will be charged with identifying the defensive front and calling out the appropriate protections.
As far as his spring performance, I would suggest looking back on the French on the Bench film review focused on the offensive line in the Spring Game. Farris had a few moments where he struggled, but he was sharp for the most part. Against a four man front, the center blocks the down lineman to the playside. The linebackers were coming in behind the center's block on the down lineman, which should be the gap responsibility of the guard on the back side. Most of the tackles for loss by the young inside linebackers came on runs to the left, which means the right guard was not quick enough to cut off the gap penetration.
Rule of thumb for all Hokie base running: Four man front, center will block the defensive tackle to the play side. He will get help from the play side guard if the down lineman is playing a 3 technique.
Three man front: The center will chip the nose and hand him off to the backside guard, and the center will go on to the linebackers.
I'd hope for a quick hitting run plays in the A gap against Bama in the 3-4. If Farris is quick enough to take on and reach the nose tackle (which is supposedly a lot less talented than Jesse Wiliams or Terrance cody) by himself then that opens up a lot to the offense. Then the playside guard could possible help double team the DE before peeling off to the playside ILB and the non-playside guard would cut off the scraping backer giving a good hole for the RB.
Here's kind of what I'm thinking with the zone blocking scheme against 3-4 with the center staying on the Nose
http://www.rockytoptalk.com/2009/3/31/815874/zone-blocking-tutorial-insi...
I am going to write more about that as we get closer to kickoff, but you are exactly right.
1) Move the tailback closer to the line.
2) Run inside zone. The runs will cut off the center's (or backside guard if the follow the normal blocking pattern) butt. Quick quick quick and be happy with getting 3.5-4.0 yards. A 3 yard gain is ok. A 1 yard gain is big trouble.
3) Establish the bootleg as a threat. This cuts down on the pursuit of the linebackers
4) Instead of using the stretch play to compliment the inside zone, use the bend back counter. Pitt and Boston College both ate VT up with it. Everyone blocks with the same look as the inside zone, but the end man on the line of scrimmage on the back side of where the inside zone would go seals the outside linebacker or defensive end to the inside.
00:26:25–00:26:33
Looking forward to your write up. Think Nico Johnson and Jesse Williams will prove to be missed more for the interior defense of Alabama than currently expected. I think Moseley will have a hard time being an everyday ILB with a guard coming at him with bad intentions.
You should take a look at the 1st half of the Alabama A-Game which featured 1s on 1s for the most part. It's still available on WatchESPN online.
http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/868391/size/condensed/
Edit: iPhone mishap leads to double post.
Bama will be the first team to see the revamped offense. They can only prepare based on what they guess we will run and with tape of similar offenses. They will no doubt have people scouting us in B'burg. Will they be prepared or can we surprise them early? Will we be able to make adjustments and find success? I hope we punch 'em in the mouth and let them know they are in for a fight.
Agreed....an early score by the Hokies...a BIG play early would do wonders to change the way the game goes. Maybe JC getting loose on a pass out of the backfield...or Knowles getting in the seam....an early fumble by Yeldon. (he has been known to drop the ball)
Or Gayle hitting McCarron so hard his mom has snot bubbles?
I'd wager on Jack Tyler over Gayle. But I'd be happy either way.
Stanford up the seam, first play of the game. TD. I'm calling it.
There is no way the first play isn't a run.
Watch, after all this hype about our new coaches, new schemes, and establishing the running game, the first play will be a reverse.
And no, Eddie Royal won't be running it.
As long as its not a wide receiver screen, I'll be happy.
If only MD7 had one more year of eligibility and we could bust out a double pass.
Okay you're right. Second play. My point is, when Stanford gets matched 1v1 with Geno Smith, they will throw it deep.
man i just watched the macho harris hl last night. i hope our secondary plays like ball hawks and playmakers. we have been hurting in defensive td's as of late