Movement at WR Parker to 2nd team. Mangus will begin work at receiver this evening.— Beamer Ball (@Beamer_Ball) August 9, 2013
This is an interesting development. Mangus is a speedster, and a lot of folks thought he'd move from tailback to WR upon enrolling at Tech. However, I was at Cav's recruiting night a couple of years back, and if my memory serves me, he chuckled at that notion. Looks like the Hokies are tapping every resource to fill out the depth chart at WR.
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Parker?
Carlis Parker, started summer camp at 4th string. High school QB, I believe.
Beams compared his agility and quickness to Mike Vick's
I'm glad to see the coaches shifting guys around. Hopefully they'll find the best players for each position by doing so. I guess experimenting with positions is probably fairly common early in camp, yes?
I'd like to hear updates on Newsome (Deon, not Curt!) and David Prince at WR. I could see one of those two playing. The first 3 (Knowles, Stanford, Meyer) feel good at WR with Coles playing some hybrid role. But depth after that.....wow..... Lots of bodies, somebody has to step up. Irick, Smiling, Parker, Mangus, Byrn, Newsome, Prince....somebody has to step up.
Ahhhh. Of course. I guess I have never seen his last name used without his first name! Duh.
That's a good sign, I think. I hear he is a playmaker with the ball in his hands! I hope he can pick up the position quickly.
#ALLTHEPOSITIONCHANGES
This is from HokieSports.com, "It was a bit surprising to see Deon Newsome getting a lot of reps at receiver, but the Hokies lack depth after moving Caleb to tailback. Then, on Thursday, Charley Meyer tweaked a hamstring and sat out much of the latter half of practice, so guys like Deon Newsome and freshman Carlis Parker, who enrolled last January, saw more reps than usual."
Just a guess, but Parker might have done the best job filling in for Meyer.
I went and watched Newsome's film last night after reading this. The dude has some SERIOUS ball skills. Keep in mind this is against some of the best talent VA has to offer:
Consider me very concerned about the WR position this year. Some very young, unproven guys (some making recent position changes) are going to have to step up.
I am concerned as well but then i remember that we usually end up bringing in receivers all in the same year, young and inexperienced. Royal, Harper, Hyman, Morgan all played as freshman, with clowney being the old man. then Roberts, Coale, and Boykin all came in together. granted a lot of them were more highly touted than this bunch but i have hope
remember 2008 (Coale's rFR year and Boykins true FR year)? Our aerial attack was not good. While they were studs by the time they were seniors, they had some frustrating games as freshmen
Odds we see substantially more Double Tight packages because Mccray and Malleck with Perez-Means seem to be a bit of a strength when compared to the inexperienced wideouts?
I love all the shuffling. We have a new offensive staff (which is where most of the shuffling has been) and they are still evaluating what they feel each of these player's skill sets are. Personally I trust Lefty's eye over O'Cainspring's. One of my biggest complaints with the old regime was that they never seemed to think creatively about using players (a la Florida) and line them up to create mismatches. I feel like we've recruited a lot of skill "athletes" recently and need to figure out how to get them on the field.
More than likely, these "athletes" don't really fit ...and the coaches are searching for some sort of improvisation. Believing that they are creating even more weapons, is wishful thinking IMO
There is always a fit for the athletes. Our coaching staff before would think, this guy looks like a WR and stick him there even if he wasn't a good fit there. The coaches now are moving guys around to see where they fit the offense better. Caleb, instead of being buried at WR because thats what they thought he would be, turns out he is a better RB than WR. By next season, he could be 6'2", 225 and a beast in the backfield. They aren't creating weapons, they have already been here, they just aren't taking the fuse from them and storing them on the shelf like before.
Think all the shuffling helps us versus Bama because 1) it makes our depth players more hungry/less complacent, and 2) gives Bama coaches less to key on leading up to the game.
True on point 2 except if they are going off of last year their only "key" would be LT3.
Yeah, I would trade all that for some stability and reps together.
I've downgraded our chance to beat Bama by about a TD or more seeing all the uncertainty on the offensive side this August. Maybe it will stabilize next week, but its been a chinese fire drill so far and that's not conducive to good offensive football.
Still more conducive to offensive football than this:
LOL, true, that.
Anyone know if Stiney is going to be in the booth, on the field, or at the hotel during games?
My guess would be on the field. I was shocked out how every time Logan was on the bench, he was by himself with the headset on. I think Stiney or even O'Cain should've been there reassuring and correcting his mistakes face-to-face on the sidelines.
Loeffler - booth
Grimes - field
Stinespring - ?
S. Beamer - ?
Moorehead - ?
SBeams and Moorehead will both be on the field. No doubt. Question mark will be Stiney. I could see SBeams up there if only to learn what he should be doing as a future OC. Otherwise he lives for the field.
With the inexperience at RB & WR, I can certainly see Beamer & Moorehead on the sideline to correct mistakes. Stinespring has the luxury of some experienced guys at TE and other coaches who can speak to the two elements of TE play (blocking - Grimes and recieving - Moorehead).
The downside to that is that Stinespring is a great motivator on the sidelines, but with Grimes & Beamer I think we might have that covered.
I expect them all to be on the field except Loeffler
There's always 2 coaches from each side of the ball in the booth.
Every time I see this picture, this is what comes to mind:
I remember when Mangus committed and after watching his video I thought to myself, man he would be awesome in the slot. He's got Percy Harvin-type moves. And we need more guys who can take it the distance after a catch. He could be that for us. I think it's a great move.
As for Caleb, I'm excited to see what he can do at tailback. Who knows, he could be an animal back there. I think it's exciting. He wasn't getting much hype at wide receiver so my expectations for him there were moderate. Now it's almost like we just got new RB recruit who's had a full year in the Tech weight room. Props to the coaches for being flexible to get playmakers on the field.
The thing that gets me about Virginia Tech football is we have never found ways to involve all of our weapons effectively. So many talented athletes have come to Virginia Tech and played their 4 (or 5) years without ever being used the way they should. If Loeffler is able to find ways to use our weapons on offense, we have a chance to beat Bama. For example, I think our tight ends can do massive damage against the Tide defense. We have 3 TEs who have shown they can catch the football consistently and 2 of them (Mccray and Perez-Means) have exceptional athletic ability for the position. I have watched a lot of film on Alabama and have seen that TEs can hurt them. Notre Dame did not use Eiffert the correct way, they lined him up outside when he should have been lined up on the line against a LB. I'm not saying our TEs will gain 20 yards a catch, but short consistent chunks of yardage, which will then in turn open up more holes in the running game. Also, we have to find a way to get JC Coleman the ball in space. He has the speed and can make people miss on the perimeter. He doesn't have to be Tavon Austin, but at least be a threat on the field.
Love the handle... +1
Well put. I love watching teams use their TEs well, especially in the red zone. Every year i wish we incorporated them more.
What's going on with Mark Irick? I was really excited when we signed him, he's big and athletic. Not to mention related to former Gamecock Alshon Jeffery.