Day 5! First scrimmage later tonight. And #Statement17 is in the house!! #HardSmartTough pic.twitter.com/j18ev2OVXv— Justin Fuente (@CoachFuente) March 31, 2016
We will be checking out snapchat to see if we get some insight into the depth chart. Offensive line sounds pretty settled at this point. All eyes will be on the cornerback and linebacker position.
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
Just a question, but are they running an open scrimmage by any chance?
every indication is that there won't be an open scrimmage before the spring game. Since the Spring Game won't be televised, I am going to be there in person to take notes as best I can on the offensive approach.
I'm in Blacksburg right now and was curious. Thanks for the reply!
Not televised? Not even via Internet?
That is correct.
Shoot I've gotta pull back at my tailgate if I'm going to remember this game. I used to just pull up the replay on ESPN3 the next day.
Same. We should organize to get someone to tape the game so we can all watch it later.
I just asked @HokieVision on twitter if they are going to stream it. We'll see if they answer.
I asked the athletic department already and was told no.
Well
I'll accept some angst and sadness now for the element of surprise in September.
Not sure why your response is a delicious-looking, smiling pile of chocolate soft-serve ice cream. This is BAD news.
...
FORWARD SLASH SARCASM
This is where your ice cream comes from...
Liar!
sadness. living over 2K miles away means no ability to catch a glimpse of the team. really enjoyed the feed in the past.
Daaaamn Fuente, back at it again with the killer gifs.
His twitter game is too strong
Now make it into a club remix.
Cant wait for the spring game. 23 days away!
First time poster here, heard from #sources that Devin Wilson will be playing football this year as a wideout, has anybody else heard this? He apparently has a locker already and everything
So Buzz is leaving?
/s
*ducks*
I'd love it. Dell Curry pitched for the baseball team, football players have played basketball, and basketball players have played football before, damn my memory, I can see the guy on the jump ball TD, just can't call up the name.
unrelated- will be in Newport News on the 18th. Let me know if you would like to ride down with me!
Yeah, French, I'm in. Email me the wheres and whens and let's set it up. After reading your correspondence re this cobia matter, I'm looking forward to seeing a few sparks fly. Thanks for the invite.
Back in my day there was John Rivers, a forward for the basketball team, he played football also, mostly in goal line situations to toss him a jump ball.. not sure if that is who you are thinking of
Rivers it was. I blame old age, but my memory has often been suspect on the details when enough years go by. Thanks for the assist.
Edit: Thanks and a leg to you also, davelnop
Rivers?
247 just confirmed this. Will try his hand at football starting tonight.
First day of practice and it's a scrimmage, that's gotta be rough..I feel like he's gonna have information overload. Although I didn't realize he was a 3 star WR coming out of high school. Makes this switch much less crazy than I originally thought.
That was my initial thought. But at the same time, line him up, tell him what to do, and see if he can play.
Read on 247 that if he does end up sticking with football, by rule his scholarship must count against football, freeing up a basketball scholly assuming he would still play that too. Would need validation on this rule.
that seems like an exploitable loophole. Why wouldn't Kansas or Kentucky double their basketball scholarships by having 13 basketball players on the football team?
Kansas already had a team full of guys that don't look like football is their best sport.
When Miami was trying to reload in the late 90s, they would "redshirt" football players by stashing them on a track scholarship for a year. Can't do it any more.
Actually, it was to get around FB scholly reductions imposed by the NCAA as punishment for violations, but da U is the source of the priority order rule for schollys.
Yeah. I could have been more clear but that was my "reload" reference.
I follow Eric Kumah on snapchat and he uploaded a video of Devin dancing in the locker room after practice. He looks so small on the basketball court but he actually has some height. I think it would be a lot of fun to see him do well and contribute somehow to this team.
Give him a football scholarship. We could use the basketball scholarship! :-)
IIRC, There's a required priority order of schollys (basically, the Butch Davis rule, from when da U lost FB schollys, so Butch got some WR's track schollys, so they sanctions wouldn't impact the team as much). So if he joins the FB team and is on an athletic scholly, it has to be a FB scholly. Does the team have an extra scholly available?
So- some quick observations. Some base offensive runs (inside zones with H-back leads) were being featured along with some more QB counters, inverted veer, speed option, and some counter action.
Yosh Nijman had a massive win- terrific extension in a pass protection drill against Houshun Gaines. Nijman popped him with great extension and almost knocked Gaines down with his pop. His competition at left tackle, big Jonathan McLaughlin, won a tough battle with Ken Ekanem. Ekanem popped a leverage move (hand slap) and gained an advantage but big Jon recovered for a win. McLaughlin later got a knockdown block on Trevon Hill after Hill tried an inside move. DeAndre Plantin got a win at right tackle against Dee Fullwood.
Offense looking good against the defense was an ongoing theme. Ricky Walker beat Billy Ray Mitchell and touched Lawson (who looked like he was working with the twos.) Walker was grouped with Gaines and Fullwood.
When the one offense was out there, it looked like they were moving the ball well. Coleman Fox seemed to be getting some work with the top offensive group and he broke a touchdown against the number one defense on what appeared to be a pin and pull outside zone or power sweep. It didn't impact the play, but it looked like Carson Lydon was in at mike with the ones when Fox scored. McClease had a nasty run with the two OL where he got to the second level and when he cut to the sideline, a receiver (I think) de-cleated a secondary guy.
This is the first scrimmage of the spring, but I bet Bud Foster, Galen Scott, and Brian Mitchell talk a bunch about tackling. It seemed like the alley play was a bit sloppy.
The question that seems to be on everyone's mind is quarterback. I didn't see Dwayne Lawson get a repetition with the top group (and the playcalling when he is in sure seems to be run-oriented with him as the runner.) Motley had several snaps with the top group. Evans I believe got one rep on tape with the ones. That may not mean much because Josh Jackson also got a rep with the ones and Jack Click got reps with the ones earlier in the week.
French it's always hard to tell but was tackling really that bad who were the guys going only 75%? Because tackling looked like hot garbage.
It looked like hot garbage. Walker wasn't going 75% when he got his sack. Pads were popping, so they needed to get those backs on the ground.
McClease looked so fluid and low to the ground on his run
I'm beginning to get the feeling that the guy with the snapchat phone has been reading TKP's over-analyzing and speculation of the qb controversy and is now deliberately trying to throw everyone off by showing equal amounts of footage on each qb.
I know I have definitely seen less and less of motley and evans the past couple days. And those were the two I was expecting to see the most as they would be pulling ahead in the race.
McClease was also fielding some punts.
It's somewhat humorous and cool for the fans to see McClease returning punts, but one has to assume that's Settle's job to lose.
I regret that I have but one leg to give for my contry....because that made me literally laugh out loud. Seriously, would you tackle Tim Settle if he had a head of steam??
Would you want to tackle a running refrigerator? No? Me neither
You can almost see those fast little DB's that are the gunners on the punt teams slow down and think "You want me to tackle THAT??!!"
I can hear Deion Sanders saying, "business decision."
I'm rather conflicted by how excited I am to see a bunch of shirtless guys in tight pants dancing.
As long as you don't start gathering $1.00 bills.
In regards to Devin Wilson playing wide receiver: I wonder if he was specifically sought out by Fuente or Wiggins after observing his athleticism in basketball and hearing about his wide receiver days in high school. It's no secret that wide receiver depth is going to be hard to come by this fall, and if the coaches plan on redshirting any true freshmen, we are going to need more capable bodies.
This also brings back memories to Jeff King playing football and basketball back in the 2004-05 season. I will never forget the Duke game when we upset them 67-65. He dove for a ball that set up a Carlos Dixon 3 and he had that beautiful post move that sent Sheldon Williams in a circle and finished the hook shot.
Jeff King attended Boys State at Liberty the same year as me. I had the pleasure of guarding him during the basketball tournament they set up between all the cities. He was nice enough to take it easy on me. He was already huge going into his senior year of high school. I didn't know him, but the scuttlebutt was he had committed to Tech to play football. Naturally, he was selected as the sherif for his city. Good old Boys State, one of the longest weeks of my life!
At Old L.U. ...RAH!
I was in the band at Boys State. Almost forgot about it, '96 I think; the candidates for Va. Governor made speeches.
I was at Boys State in '94. I took me forever to get that damn song out of my head.
Pretty sure I never wore those white shorts ever again.
-04' Boys Stater
White shorts? '07 had to have navy shorts with white shirts. That shirt became a yard work shirt.
That's what I had. I was MD '07 though.
Confirmed; white shorts, white shirt, white crew socks.
Cause it's the boys state of VA that you see and if your a member let me shake your hand... Sorry Nam flashback
In case you didn't hear, "The block is hot!"
:)
Is it me or is the OL looking good in drills? It isn't just young guys...Ekanem and Barron were participating and the OL seems to hold their own.
Where can we expect C. Fox to play this year and will he get much PT? I remember reading after he committed that he was a heck of a player (reminded me of when Rogers joined the team), but how does he get on the field with McMillian, Shai, McClease at RB and Rogers and Peoples at FB/HB.
Obviously, he would add some depth.
I would agree. The offensive line has looked strong. McLaughlin and Nijman have both stood out in pass protection. I also was interested that we see Teller and Gallo out pulling on a bunch of the plays we have watched. Outside of the counter trey and the inverted veer, Memphis zoned stuff much more than they pulled. That means Fuente is playing to the strength of the personnel he has available, and to me that is a very positive sign.
I agree with your post above about Nijman when he first made contact (you called it extension). There was a lot of force in that and I thought "damn..."
I think Fuente would probably put it like this:
It wasn't even just the extension- this time his weight wasn't so forward on his toes. He delivered that pop while under control and balanced. It was good stuff.
As someone who grew up watching Jerry Kramer, the sight of a pulling guard warms my heart.
I'm glad to hear McLaughlin is stepping up. He has a have a great offseason.
The guy I'm most concerned about, though, is Conte. In pass protection highlights, he was always the guy who got beat and gave up the sack. Or so it seemed to me.
Man, you know we had a tough year on offense when our pass protection "highlights" were of sacks!