Again, our looks at practice are limited to Snapchat. The Hokies had an evening practice indoors.
There appeared to be a change in the first team offensive line. During team work, there were some first group repetitions with Yosh Nijman at left tackle and Jon McLaughlin at right tackle. Parker Osterloh appeared to be working with the second group left guard.
Yes, I am an offensive line mark, because I lead with that. The bigger story is that Jerod Evans was taking most first team repetitions in team work and all the snapchats with 1s vs 1s. Brendan Motley was working with the two group with the exception of a few snaps. Motley through a touchdown with the twos late in the film.
2 OL now appears to be Moore-Osterloh-Smith-Mitchell-Plantin.
Samuel Denmark had two really nice routes, a fake out and in against Duwayne Johnson and a beautiful stick/curl route against Shawn Payne. Deablo had a nice block earlier in drill work on the edge. He slipped a bit on the one route where you could make him out (against experienced walk on Curtis Williams) but was able to regain his footing and still make the catch.
It was hard to make much rhyme or reason defensively. It certainly looks like the Hokies are explosive on the edge, and Woody Baron made one of the young guards look bad with a great leverage move in drills. I really like how Gaines and Hill get off the football and their edge speed. I need to see that second move and their ability to fit or set the edge properly to get a better read. Given the depth at defensive tackle and bigger guys like Mihota, Ekanem, and Baron that could play a five technique if needed, I could certainly see both Hill and Gaines playing important situational downs as edge players in a Bear front. Both look quicker off the ball than Edmunds and have similar bodies types. They could cause some problems being aligned wide like that.
Comments
Noticed Jackson got some reps in team work, but no Lawson team reps were shown. Seemed to be mostly Evans and Motley.
Watched team work again. Nijman looked a little lost. He is excellent in drill work. Now he needs to catch up to the speed of the game and being where he needs to be in this offense.
We also got a VERY brief glimpse of a staple of Fuente's offense. When he zone reads one way, the backside offensive lineman or tight end will often veer release away from the play. This sets up a situation where the QB is actually optioning a guy closer to the center of the formation. If the option man commits on the run, the QB breaks contain pretty easily with that veer release blocker in tow. If they waggle off of the zone read action, the player coming up to challenge the veer release can be beaten deep. If they play soft, the QB can get to the edge and run.
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I'm going to now assume that French looks like Jeff Goldblum.
#Sauces verify your assumptions
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in a very saucy way
I miss my stunt double days.
Jeff Goldblum was your stunt double? Noice.
This needs to be photoshopped onto a bench for "French on the Bench." Someone get on that.
Think this (SPOILER ALERT)
The OL zones to the RB run. The back side OT veer releases away from the Zone run. The DE crashes on the zone run. If he comes inside, the QB keeps. If the DE stays soft or contains back side, the QB hands off on an inside zone. I believe Fuente uses this scheme more when he sees that the DE likes to crash and he believes that the QB can do some damage. Other times, he will just zone it and scoop through the C gap with that tackle.
I hope to see a lot more of this
Yeah...
You will see a bunch more of it than we did last year. Quick screens are a big part of their running game structure. The difference is that Fuente will rotate fresh guys who WILL block on the screens... and if they don't, he will find someone who does. I can X and O Memphis to death, but besides scheme, the biggest thing that stood out was how well his skill position guys blocked.
Can't wait to be in the stands with all the "coaches" the first time a screen pass fails.
I envision this...
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But in the stands
But..... But..... He needs his car rental confirmation to get a different car later. Doesn't he realize this? He's a fool!
Just you wait, the first play of the year will be a screen to mess with everybody. Troll level: expert
to bad the first screen will go for a TD.. that should pipe them down a bit.
Like this:
McGlock was the real MVP on that one.
I don't think fans were upset with the screens as much as they were the design of Lefty's screens (not even gonna go there with Stiney). When called at the right time and executed correctly, a quick screen can be lethal. Lefty's screens were usually very slow developing, the perimeter blocking was more often than not bad, and for some reason he liked to utilize Bucky on the screens, who isn't anyone's first choice for that play. He could usually fall forward and pick up a few yards because of his size, but a smaller, shiftier player could easily break a long run after the catch there.
Plus you need a strong arm and quick release, neither of which specifically fit Brewer, especially when running to the wide side of the field with a long throw
What used to make me scratch my head (in the Stiney days) was when a Kick/punt returner would return a kick/punt, stay on the field (looking winded) and get the bubble/slip screen or reverse on the first offensive play of the series. Really??
I have met those "coaches."
True, I just hope we use them in the right scenario...run up the middle 1 yard, run up the middle 1/2 yard, quick screen repeat.
Heavy /s
Sounds like we need more Josh Morgan's. That man blocked his tail off.
and more Marcus Davis's....
Alright, now I'm curious as to what you think about this:
I honestly haven't seen enough film on Fuente's offense from Memphis, but watch the opening drive from TCU in the 2011 Rose Bowl. Fuente utilizes this "Diamond Formation" (basically a fullhouse backfield out of the pistol, with two receivers split wide.) Do you think this wrinkle may appear for us at all? I think it's an excellent way to utlize our backfield depth, and the option possibilities are endless. Keeps the defense honest by spreading the field.
he used it in 2014 at memphis
Somebody get Mike O'Cain on the horn. WE NEED MORE WR SCREENS FOR MINIMAL GAINS!!!
So a zone-read option, except the backside OT doesn't go to the LB when he releases the DE - in fact he comes around kind of like a power formation as a pulling lineman?
So what happens to the LB in question that the OT would nominally be blocking? Does the blocking scheme change and a guard take him instead? Essentially counter / down-blocking with a zone-option read?
Nope, normally if the end crashed inside, he would drive the end inside (and the linebacker would become the option man. In this case, they invite the end to crash unblocked, and then the linebacker has to take on the veer release OT on the back side. As we saw with Motu last year, 1 blocker + a good running QB vs 1 LB is a losing battle for the D.
I cover more of it in the film series Joe will run after spring practice. Fuente made JJ Watt look SILLY with this little scheme twist in the Rose Bowl when he was at TCU.
Any specific skill you need for your OT's to make this happen? Any of our 4 (or is it 5?) OT's best suited for this?
Hm ok. Still having issues visualizing this, so looking fwd to the analysis.
I believe that the core idea is the offense has the QB and the RB as options. The o-line makes it so that rather than a linebacker covering the QB/RB, a d-lineman has to do it instead.
Right i'm with you there. So it sounds like a standard zone option read to me (as opposed to a inverted veer option read). I got a bit confused with OT description that was added, but maybe I was just making it more complicated than it is.
That is all it is. They zone read. The only difference is that the weakside tackle (or the last man on the LOS in 2 tight sets) doesn't zone block like everyone else. He goes the opposite direction and veer releases to the second level. That leaves the DE unblocked to option.
Ok cool - we did that some with Tyrod a bunch too I think. Same with Logan when we had Wilson in the backfield, but after he graduated we went with the inverted veer option as opposed to the standard option.
And to your point, I was too impatient and went ahead and saw the Wisky vs TCU game (OneHourFootball channel, y'all), and saw exactly what you're talking about - basically took JJ out of the run game entirely!
My brain when i don't know what anything means
I actually understood all of this. I feel smart, but it's only because I've been reading your stuff for 2 years now.
Sure...we all know you don't know how to read. Not sure why I am even posting this.
Best way I can describe it- see below:
What happens to the field DE if he breaks contain inside towards the QB? Hope the QB can run fast enough to get away?
He is the read man. If he crashes hard on the zone, the QB keeps and runs outside. If he stays outside, the QB gives the ball.
In my big column on this topic (second in my series), Andy Dalton was fast enough to run away from JJ Watt using this scheme. I like the odds for a guy like Evans, Motley, or Lawson to have success.
I'm guessing we will see a lot of variations of the zone read as well. For whatever reason this whole discussion reminded of of TCU and Dalton beating Clemson on 2009. I just remembered all of my Clemson friends lamenting over Dalton running for almost 100 on them. After digging back into the game Clemson's OC at the time actually cited Dalton's running success to a variation of the read option that TCU unveiled for that specific game. I actually found a decent article on it along with a video of Dalton making Clemson's DE's look silly...
TCU's Inverted Veer Option
yep, that was the origin of the inverted veer at the DI level. I refer to Chris Brown's article on the topic in my piece, although I don't focus on it outside of how it is used to disguise other plays.
Here is the Chris Brown article as reading prep: http://smartfootball.com/defending-spread/tcus-inverted-veer-option
Worth noting both those ends were 5-star recruits: Ricky Sapp #7 and Daquan Bowers #93
Never did like the DE's running around the QB hopefully they can contain the outside this year.
Unlike past years Fuente is keeping a close lid on the practices with the media, even the Tech film crews. He allows a total of 1 non-coaching camera on field and even then they review (and edit) what is allowed to be posted.
Unlike his time at Memphis or unlike what we are used to for VT? Everything seems like it's been pretty tightly kept under wraps for the last few years for us anyways.
yep, in the past we only got limited highlights on Youtube.
BUT- there were always 2-3 open to the public scrimmages. There is none of that this year. Bud debuted the Nickel Bear front look that he used vs Ohio State in the scrimmage before the spring game in 2014. I wrote about the use of a pressure front, but the revelation was minimal because being there in person makes it very tough to confirm alignment pre-snap (especially with a sideline view.) That is why I think the lack of public scrimmages is a bit silly. I can defend the spring game not being televised much more because they don't want the O being on film AND they want a full Lane for a big recruiting weekend.
French, I think they are just trying to keep you from breaking down our schemes with your expert analysis, thereby providing fodder for the opponent at a depth not all opposing coaches are capable of. Just kidding...sorta.
I'm convinced Urban Meyer's counter to the Bear front in '15 came after reading French's breakdown and analysis.
I need a damn telestrator.
There's an Ipad app
Yea because we will all understand you better when we see this
This is child's-play... Let VTMO break it down for you:
The CB at the bottom of the screen runs straight back while the WR runs around him in the textbook serpentine route.
The defensive line and linebacker run straight into the offensive line except for one that goes backwards and drawls a line in grass.
The O-lineman on the left side runs out for a screen pass, but then sees the linebacker drawing the line and immediately runs over to cover it up.
The tailback runs towards the sideline and then up the field for 5 yards where he stops on a dime and twirls around like a mad man.
The WR at the top just runs to the locker room to find his cell phone.
One safety runs in a zig zag pattern up to the offensive line, this causes confusion and enables the other safety to run to the other side of the field where he then scores a touchdown.
Meanwhile, the QB runs around the offensive line and into the invisible end zone, scoring 4 points.
Man, you football good...
"Well, when you're playing good football, it's good football and if you don't have good football, then you're not really playing good football." - John Madden.
those upvotes are stacking up like cordwood
Just look for the ones that say "waggle" and mash the A button.