Today, the Hokies have their first pads practice of the spring. We should start to hear about a little movement on the depth chart after the pads start popping today.
It will be really interesting to see where Brenden Motley ends up. I have been arguing that people shouldn't be shocked if he ends up winning the starting job, even though most had written him off when Evans signed. I wouldn't be stunned to see Motley taking the first team repetitions in the spring game this year. If he doesn't, it means Evans or Lawson took a big step up, and that would be good for everyone.
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As my old high school football coach used to say on the morning of the first practice with pads: "You better strap a toilet to your ass 'cause the shit's gonna fly!"
Isn't that why diapers were invented? So we didn't have to lug around 50 lb porcelain toilets?
"strap a diaper to your ass, so you can walk around in your shit" just doesn't get me pumped for football. Then again, I don't know shit.
Diapers surely could've helped this guy:
Full story of Gator RB crapping his pants.
Athletic trainer coming in clutch with the towel.
I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Motley win out. He has all the physical tools. If he had been tabbed earlier as the QB and coached up a little more on making quicker decisions, given a little help with adjustments by the staff to help him succeed (see Pitt game) he would have been more successful. Not that he was completely unsuccessful far from it.
Don't all our QBs have incredible physical tools? I'd say Motley is behind Lawson and Evans strictly physically. Maybe a longer deep ball than the other two, I haven't seen Evans throw it deep, but both of them look like more fluid runners with bigger bodies
From the limited tape of Evans, I don't think he is bigger, or faster, or has a stronger arm than Motley. Lawson is bigger but needs a lot of work on his throwing mechanics.
I think Evans and Motley are about the same height, but Evans is built like a linebacker. He's probably got 15 pounds or so on Motley, who has a bit more of a lanky build I think. For Evans' build, he is incredibly quick and agile from what I've seen. I think all three have really good arm strength, but from a few throws I've seen from limited clips of Evans, he can absolutely rifle it with pretty good accuracy too.
I think all of the QBs are incredibly talented. Whoever can learn and run the offense best, demonstrate the most leadership, and earn Fuente and Cornelsen's trust will probably win the job. Would not be upset with any of them winning it.
Evans literally weighed in bigger than Motley. That isn't opinion.
He also has more lateral agility.
anyone else feel a little sorry for Joshua Jackson? Guy commits to Tech when a close family friend is the OC. He decides to stay on even after said family friend is canned. Then he ends up in a crowded battle for starting QB. He's almost guaranteed to redshirt (short of a Maryland-esque slew of QB injuries) and even then probably won't see a chance at starting until he's, what, a redshirt junior?
Don't feel sorry for him at all. Motley is a Sr, Evans only has 2 seasons and we wasted Lawson's RS (unless we do use it one of these next seasons). If he puts in the work he could still be a starter at some point if he's good enough. From all the rumors out there on DLaw who knows if he will even be here next year if he's not playing this season.
That's called competition, quite frankly I wouldn't want a QB who doesn't want to compete for the job. I think Josh knew what he was looking at when he signed.
He knew the situation with the QBs before he signed. Bringing in Evans doesn't do much to him as he was likely to redshirt anyways. Lawson was already here so he knew about the competition.
Not at all. He knew Lawson was here and that VT is going to recruit a QB every single year, as will any other school trying to compete at a high level.
One of the truly great things about enrolling early is if you go thru spring and think you are buried forever, you can transfer, redshirt, and still have 4 years of eligibility.
Personally, I think he is a very good prospect and could easily be a 2-3 year starter.
"There you go 12...I see you!!!" - Coach 'Bridges' Fuente
I think he's doing just fine...
I think he's got a real chance to be the next starter after Evans.
We are going to sign Ricky "Juke" McCannonGuns next year, and he will start immediately!
Assuming Evans ever starts. Sheesh
I'm going to make a killing with this outside the stadium on April 23rd.
Honestly if Motley is named the starter for the Spring game I will be sad.
Then what's the point of hiring a new coach if fans don't trust that new coach to make decisions like this?
Perhaps his sadness doesn't come from trusting the coach but from his opinion that if Motley is the best option we have, he thinks that is the reason to be sad. Just a little devil's advocate. Motley could be greatly improved, but if he isn't, his inconsistency in the short and intermediate passing game could be a concern with Fuente's offense.
Personally, I'm not too worried about any option.
dunno makes perfect sense to me. When you have all this change going on (new offensive minded coach, new OC, a bevy of quaterbacks we've never seen play meaningful downs), it's going to be a little bit of a let down to find out the best option is someone who is a known entity. That said, I hope the guy blows us away come fall. Whether the guy is Motley, Evans, or Joe-Bob that Bud runs into in the Walmart...
Personally, I don't expect to be blown away. Just hoping we see a consistent level of play from that position. I'd be fine with average qb play and hopeful that our running game is a strong point again.
I will back the CJF decision, but IMO it would be a gutsy call to choose Motley.
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Start Evans and lose a game:
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Start Motley and lose a game:
I think we need to rotate in a different QB for every play through the "preseason" to make sure we know which QB plays best with no rhythm before we get into ACC play. And make sure we go Wild Turkey with Bucky or Durkin if we do get some rhythm going. /s
Unless he makes some serious improvement, I 'd rather not see Motley as the starter. The INTs against Pitt still give me nightmares.
If Fuente and Cornelsen think Motley is the best QB option out there then that's good enough for me.
To be fair, that was the mentality we had with Beamer for probably a little too long.
But obviously we have to trust our new coaches this early in the process.
You must have forgotten that we had no offensive linemen on the field for that entire game
More please!
Kenjamin dominated him.
I don't expect to see Motley as our first quarterback, but I, like most of us, trust the coaches to do what's right in their selection. While Motley did take a turn last year, and therefore has more D1 experience than anyone else we have, it's not like Evans wasn't playing ball last year, nor was he in high school. Fuente went after him for a reason, and I expect we'll see why by the end of Spring ball. I probably trust French's opinion on the matter more than anyone not being paid to coach VT football, but I would be very surprised if Evans isn't our starter, at least by Fall.
I just think back to the fact Fuente benched a returning senior starter at QB for redshirt freshman Paxon Lynch. Feel like if he feels the potential to be better exists he will pick someone other than Motley.
Think leader in the clubhouse has to be Jerod Evans based on that Fuente and Cornelson have been following him for quite a while. Cornelson has a close connection to Evan's JUCO OC as I believe Cornelson coached the OC before.
I do have feeling as Lawson probably has the highest ceiling of the group.
I do like that it that we have 3 good options with some level of experience above high school ball.
Yea I hear you, and if I had to pick anyone to be the frontrunner right now I think Mot and Evans would be pretty good choices, but I'm not so sure that most of the reasons you mention will factor into the decision.
I know Fuente went with the redshirt freshman over the senior but not only is this just one example, but I also think that Fuente saw the true gem that he had in Lynch and as a result felt he was truly the best option.
As far as the investment that he coaches had in Evans out of JUCO, I think that shows that the coaches certainly recognize his potential, but at the end of the day I don't think that will have any influence whatsoever on their decision for a starter. I have full faith that they will make an objective, unbiased evaluation and put what they know to be the best man for the job on the field based on their evaluation of the QB's in the Spring and Fall.
Either way I can honestly say that I'm much less confident in making a prediction of a starter than most seem to be (especially 2 practices into the Spring). I'm just beyond stoked for the competition and I will be more than happy with whoever wins the job.
I wouldn't be shocked to see Motley be named #1 coming out of spring but I don't believe he will stay healthy. One of the other 2 have to be ready to play. I don't think the starter of the TN game plays every snap of that game.
Sooo, you expect TN to knock our quarterback out of the game? Or what? Just curious as to the basis for your prognostication.
No not knock him out necessarily. I think there will be more of a change of pace/ breather for the starter combined with the fact the coaches may still be looking for the true starter in Bristol. This could be the closest QB competition we have had for the starting position in a decade. JMO.
Yeah, I was thinking that was what you were alluding to. I guess it wouldn't surprise me to think that real time game experience will perhaps be the final arbiter of whose up first, but I do expect Evans to be the man by then. We'll see. Definitely an interesting few months coming up. Thanks for the post.
Evans has never played a down of D1 football so it's hopeful that he will play well but I don't know how you can say that you expect him to be the starter. Especially when you have a guy with several years experience who has won games in the past.
Definitely not knocking Motley at all, but his best two performances starting were against Furman and Purdue (and I'm not too sure Furman couldn't beat Purdue). Admirable effort in a road loss against ECU and solid game against NCST, but completely unraveled against Pitt and Miami (will acknowledge that he shouldn't take the full blame for the Pitt loss). So yes, he has starting experience, but very limited and with mixed results. Obviously, more D1 starts than Lawson and Evans, but I think we still have a lot to learn about Motley this spring and offseason. I think the competition will bring out the best in everyone, and if Motley can rise up and win the starting job, I'm totally onboard with that.
For me its because Fuente has watched Evans for a while and knows how his tools will go with what Fuente wants to do. He inherited Motley. That may work or not, but I don't think the experience thing matters as much as you think. Personally I don't think Motley has the consistency.
College football frequently has greener QBs excel over upper classmen. Whichever Fuente chooses I'm sure will do great, I just doubt it'll be Motley
"'don't know how you can say that you expect him to be the starter." Well, I do, and for the reasons myself and others have already mentioned. I suspect the crowd that also thinks so is pretty large, but it's all conjecture at this point, isn't it?
Definitely an interesting few months ahead. As Hokie Fans, this should be good. Hope you have had a great Easter!
Speaking for myself, I had a great Easter, despite the weather putting the kibosh on my fishing trip in the morning. The ham came out really good, the chocolate pie was awesome, then the 'hoos lose...damn fine day!
Watching the video of Cornelson coaching up Evans (edit: about riding the mesh point) something stood out to me. I saw Motley, on the very next rep, do exactly what Cornelson coached Evans not to do. Not only does Cornelson not correct Motley, but gives him an "atta' boy."
Now I'm not reading much into Cornelson's intent or attention span there. Nor am I going to extrapolate out anything about Motley because he didn't perform a practice rep perfectly. But the kind of coaching Cornelson was giving Evans is the kind of coaching Motley is going to have to seek out and take if he wants so much as a whiff at the starting job.
Those were different clips and could likely be different plays. Motley may have executed it correctly for all we know as we were not there.
It was continuous video. They weren't different clips.
But you're right about not knowing the full context of the drill or the individual reps for that matter.
Interesting interview by Bitter with Coach Vice:
Coach mentioned how he liked zone blocking because it allowed younger lineman to get in earlier which helped depth, and it allowed the offense to push the pace because you're not waiting so much for the defense to set to determine your assignment. (Edit: run on sentence, anyone?)
Click for link
Coach Vice sounds like he has more at Tackle than he thought which is encouraging.
French I know you have a lot on your plate, but could you breakdown that interview? Any surprises for you? Anything that stands out good or bad?
Thought it was a good interview by Bitter.. This VV quote stood out to me...
"And the thing that's most exciting about Blacksburg right now, because coach [Justin] Fuente and I have been together for a while, and we've always looked for this place. You know, the community, the level of football, the no ceiling on this program. There's not one. And what a great place to raise your family. We think like we've hit it out of the park with everything we've always looked for in a program is here. Now let's go draw a line in the sand. Let's take that next step. And that's what's exciting about every day."
Like that the message of this be THE location for Fuente keeps coming up... fingers crossed we can 'take that next step'!!!
That's a fantastic article. Vice speaks his mind, very clear, no coach speak.
I read all of vice's answers in a Kenny Power voice.
I wouldn't be shocked either if Motley got the nod (particularly after seeing a brief clip of Evans). It's not as though physically Motley doesn't fit into what Fuente might want to do.
However after hearing Fuente comment about wanting a guy who consistently makes the expected plays (I'm paraphrasing), I'm not sure that's Motley's strength. However as a 5th yr Sr with PT under his belt, he might end up being the lesser of evils on that front.
I'm going to be nervous if Motley wins the job. I think that Evans will win it.
Other than irrational exhuberance and some clips and gaudy stats against 13th graders, what do you know about Evans that won't make you nervous either?
I have no dog in the fight...I don't care who wins the job. But I do know that Evans - like his competition - will have strengths and flaws. What I don't know - and what nearly everybody pontificating on this site doesn't know either at this stage of the game - is how many and how impactful they might be.
Motley didn't come in and lead us to and undefeated rest of the season last year so now it's time to latch on to the shiny new toy. Surely he will do it? /s
Sadly many of these people were the ones chanting for T-Moble at the end of the LSU whooping in 2007. It's not about making objective and logical evaluations, it's about latching on to the newest thing in hopes that it will somehow result in some sort of crazy, out of left field turn around in the program. Unfortunately this is just the typical mob mentality.
Honestly I'm just surprised at just how confident some people are in their predictions. I feel pretty confident that it will be between Evans, Mot, and Lawson but so far we have such little to go on that there is no way I could make any sort of real prediction between those.
I agree with everything you said except the Tyrod part. The only time we could move the ball in that LSU game was when he came in.
True but that was only after the game was out of hand and LSU had their backups in. Our O-Line was so bad and LSU's pass rush was so good that Glennon didn't stand a chance. Heck the only thing Tyrod could do was scramble like a mad man (which he
wasis really good at). Glennon, while the better QB at the time, had the mobility of a newborn deer.My point though was that everyone was down on Glennon and thought the shiny new toy that was T-Mobile could fix everything. In reality though Glennon was't near as bad as everyone was making him out to be (as the rest of the season showed) and Tyrod wasn't as good as the average fan was making him out to be..... yet.
Did he become that good though because he had an opportunity to play earlier? Tyrod is a pretty bad example of fans wanting a backup to play just because they think he has to be better than the starter.
Would he have become just as good if he had started a year later and played through the 2011 season? Yes. Maybe even better with the supporting cast he would have had in 2011. Either way that has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not people wanted the backup to play just because they thought he was better than the starter. In the most objective sense imaginable that is still exactly what happened which makes Tyrod the perfect example.
No way to know if he'd have become just as good from redshirting. You can't answer that as a definitive "yes".
Wanting the backup to play doesn't necessarily mean you think he is better than the starter. Everyone has off games and sometimes you need to just switch things up when things clearly aren't working. Tyrod, again, was a horrible example because he justified the call for bringing him in.
If you want a good example bring up one where people called to bench a starter and the backup came in and did terribly. Maybe Logan Thomas getting pulled for Mark Leal or something along those lines.
Yes but this was certainly the case here. The mob wanted Tyrod because they felt he was intrinsically better than Glennon. If you remember during that season people didn't just want Tyrod to close out the LSU game but they wanted him to go ahead and take the reigns as the starter. I very distinctly remember arguing with a ton of fans at games throughout the season who would boo/complain when Glennon would enter the game. I even remember him getting trashed on social media all season by some of the fanbase.
Sure but you're acting like Glennon "wasn't working" the rest of the year. The issue isn't bringing in the backup to finish up a game that is a lost cause. The issue is jumping to the conclusion that the backup was automatically better in every way the rest of the season than the starter based some things that happened in one game that were far from just the starter's fault.
This is the exact same mentality that lead people to argue that Lawson should have been named the starter over Mot half way through the Pitt game last year.
I still get a little agitated when Glennon enters the game when I see old clips from this season. Mostly because I know what Tyrod did later... not because there's a rational thought behind it.
Lol true story. My biggest issue was that I wasn't a fan of the 2 QB system. Either way I just
withwish we could still whine and argue over small details while coasting into another 10 win season and ACC Championship.I laughed harder at this than I probably should have. +1
You are taking thinks to the extreme and I don't think the average fan, or many for that matter, think that way. Most of the calls for a benching are a knee-jerk reaction not because they think the backup is better in every aspect than the starter.
Maybe but I guess we can agree to disagree.
All I was doing was doing was making a loose comparison to the Evans vs. Motley situation. I just see a lot of fans automatically jumping on the hot new recruit bandwagon (just like so many did with Tyrod his first year) without really trying to evaluate the situation objectively or logically.
The Glennon vs Tyrod is a still a polarizing issue for fans. If I remember right, Glennon was recruited heavily by the coaches. The problem being he was a stereotypical pocket passer trying to work behind one of the worst offensive lines in the country.
I remember many game over the two years they were both here when Glennon didn't even have 1.5 seconds from snap before sack. That meant the DLine was coming through the Oline as the ball was snapped. That said, Glennon still had a better arm then Tyrod did for most of his career. But a lack of a good pocket presence and bad O line limited what he could have done.
Yea this always makes we wonder what Glennon could have done with an average O-line. Even with no mobility and as a result no time to throw he still put up better passing stats than Tyrod in 2007, even though Tyrod had the ability to buy himself more time.
Which I've always found weird, since Duane Brown was the starting left tackle in 2007.
If you are getting pressured that quickly it is more often then not up the middle, so we're talking more OC and OGs getting beat cleanly off the snap.
yeah I don't get everyone's infatuation with Evans. He has measurables and is apparently talented. Same can be said of Lawson and Motley. Motley has more live reps against D1 competition. I think that puts him slightly ahead but it's really anybody's job to win.
I don't know much about Lefty's offense or how it compares to Cornelson's. The sense that I'm getting, though, is that Lefty's offense was really complex and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the complexity of the offense contributed to some of the mental mistakes Motley made when he was playing. He looked like a player who was thinking too much and not actually playing the game. I hope that Cornelson is able to simplify the job of the QB to take some of the thinking out of the equation. That should lend itself to more consistent and cohesive play from that position regardless of who wins the job. That is what I'm hoping for and looking forward to.
I don't really care who wins the starting job. I don't know if it'll be Lawson, Motley, Evans, Click, or Jackson and I'm not going to profess that any of those guys is clearly head and shoulders above the rest. All I care about is that the offensive staff is able to develop the position and get a guy out on the field who can make consistent plays and achieve expected outcomes. Just like Fuente has said. The goal isn't to have superman playing QB. The goal is to get the QB playing at a consistent level within his capabilities. As far as I'm concerned, any one of those 5 guys could do that. I won't be nervous if (insert name here) is our starting QB on day 1. I trust this coaching staff to put the best possible combination of players together to achieve the goals of the offense.
I will speak only for myself, but I am not enamored of Evans, nor disenchanted with Motley or any of the others. Not pulling for Evans at all, not professing him clearly head and shoulders above the rest, either. I am no different than anyone else who trusts the coaches to make the right call, and won't be disappointed in the least in whomever they choose. Let's just say my best guess, though, is that Evans will be the starting qb come fall.
The thing that would make me less nervous about Evans than Motley is that, from what I have seen of Evans (admittedly from "some clips"), he has better pocket awareness. That is my biggest knock on Motley, in the sense that he has none. Blind side pressure destroyed him last season. I don't doubt that Motley is better suited to Fuente's offense than he was to Lefty's, as Motley will never be a pro-style drop back passer. But Fuente does like to toss the ball around, and I'd rather have a QB that can feel the pressure coming and escape. For all Motley's mobility, it was wasted on passing plays because he was sacked before he could even try to escape.
Woot Woot!! Day 1, why haven't they listed a STARTER!!! /s
I don't think I'll be surprised if Evans, Motely or Lawson get the starting job. It's hard to gleem any sense of what's going on and who they like by 2 min snapchat videos of an entire practice. Until someone starts getting "first team" reps I'm not making any assumptions.
I don't think anyone will be surprised. Those are the top three guys, so I'd say it's expected.
I really don't want to smell anything associated with the first day of pads practice.
Hahaha! Reminds me of HS, and only doing laundry at the end of the week.
Your practice undershirt could stand up by itself. You had to kind of "break it" to put it on.
You can thank our generation for super staph, I guess.
Yes sir lol
I carried a extra large bottle of frebreeze in my trunk. One day there were three of us riding and our pads broke the bottle spilling 64 oz of frebreeze all over all my football stuff. I smelled like a spring meadow for two weeks.
What nick did that earn you? Enquiring minds need to know.
I bet it is a word that can proceed the word "canoe".
It was my senior year at Benedictine, we all had nicknames our first week there. Hazing makes a class out of a group of strangers fast.
It was my senior year at Benedictine, we all had nicknames our first week there. Hazing makes a class out of a group of strangers fast.
So your nickname was "Echo"?
Sixteen year old son just had that happen in his gym bag with some tropical scented stuff. I've nicknamed him Fruity (not where anyone else can hear) whenever I pick him up after practice. Knocks you over when he gets in the car.
I bet a coach came up with something, first time you walked by...
Guys, we're so close to actual football things. It's tantalizing. Koma and Joe and everyone else have been putting out amazing content, but that's still just a bunch of words from players and coaches. The pads are on, the snow is gone (don't be a dick, Blacksburg), and the days are counting down until we see French, Mason and the TKP community going over schemes and personnel, debating the depth chart and football philosophies - hopefully with some film to back it up.
We're so. damn. close.
And then comes the long break to summer/fall practice where we dread hearing about the hokies in the news.
Errr, then there's Deon Newsome. Interesting story on Roanoke Times website about him today.
from october, so not too impactful
Case in point...
http://www.roanoke.com/news/crime/montgomery_county/virginia-tech-footba...
As Sharkbait mentioned, that's from October. They actually dropped it from a DUI to reckless driving. So, funny timing with respect to my post, but largely inconsequential.
Yeah, man, I read the article, was just going for a laugh, given the timing of your post. Like too many of my attempts, though, it just fell flat. But not to worry, I'll try again.
unless it's about future Hokies announcing their intentions to bring their talents to the burg
From yesterday's practice it looked like Lawson was comfortable running the inverted veer. Additionally, Evans looked good on a designed run. Motley showed some poor pocket presence in his short clip making a throw. Cam makes a nice catch in the EZ, looked very comfortable. It's always fun watching the one on ones, but keep in mind that db's are at an extreme disadvantage in those one on one's, so don't freak out too much if they are getting beat.
Obviously, these were all short clips of video. Can't draw too much from them, but I thoroughly enjoy getting an inside look at practice like this.