Justin Fuente understands Virginia Tech's offensive scheme doesn't need to be overly complex to be successful. It's one of his strengths as a head coach and offensive strategist. His play structure forces the defense to defend the entire field, and each formation threatens a defense in multiple ways. I previously highlighted how Fuente employs a diverse series of running plays and play-action off of one simple formation combined with repetitive pre-snap motion. Rather than adjusting week to week, the defense will key on the repetition, which makes it much easier to influence them out of position with counters and play-action.
I analyzed a series Memphis ran against Ole Miss towards the end of their win over the Rebels last season. Keep in mind that Ole Miss had elite defensive and offensive talent and was weeks removed from off an impressive win against Alabama. After watching Memphis film from both 2015 and 2014, I thought that the Tigers' talent level was actually down a bit last season. Fuente's scheme had to fool the Rebels some in order for Memphis to have a chance to win the game.
Memphis' offensive structure completely kept Ole Miss off balance. Perhaps this two-play series illustrates it best. As you watch, focus on the outside linebacker/safety to the double running back side.
To start, here is the play-action running back circle route I reviewed in my last column. The linebacker has been conditioned to widen out because the jet sweep has been effective most of the game. Here, the linebacker comes forward to stop the sweep and the tailback (who usually lead blocks on the sweep) slips inside of him and is wide open on the circle route.
On the next play, Memphis runs the inverted veer jet sweep. This time, the tight end blocks down and the edge player hesitates instead of widening out because he just got beat on the circle route. This allows H-Back Alan Cross (No. 40) to reach the edge player and drive him to the inside, which gives the jet sweep a clear path to the end zone.
Cross along with tailback Doroland Dorceus (No. 28) both deliver great blocks on the edge. Sam Craft (No. 11) comes around and walks in for the touchdown. If the Ole Miss edge player widens out immediately, there would be no room for the back to run on the boundary. The slight scheme change up completely took the edge player out of position
The Invention of the Inverted Veer and Mixing it Up
Perhaps Fuente's most talked about innovation — the inverted veer — came during his stint as TCU's co-offensive coordinator.
Virginia Tech's hire of Justin Fuente is excellent. Also, I am pretty sure he invented the Inverted Veer/Power Read: https://t.co/plcPTlYJpb— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) December 1, 2015
"They ran just one play that we hadn't seen on film – but it was a good one," then Clemson defensive coordinator Kevin Steele said in 2009.
Clemson's defense looked silly as Andy Dalton ripped off chunks of yardage on the ground time and again.
"They were spreading us out and forcing us to play one linebacker and forcing that one linebacker to play two gaps," Clemson linebacker Brandon Maye added. "All you can say is they did a good job scheming us up."
Present day, the inverted veer is a heavily studied well used staple of many spread offenses, yet Fuente still makes adjustments that succeed. The repetition of Fuente running the same plays again and again with tremendous effort and execution conditions defenses to look for specific keys to help stop those bread and butter plays. When Fuente determines that a defense is reading those keys, he engineers subtle changes to influence the defense out of position.
Here is an example of Fuente changing up the inverted veer. H-Back Daniel Montiel (No. 80) changes up his blocking rule. Instead of opening his hips and stepping to his right on a veer release outside, he steps inside with his left foot at the snap.
For a defensive end reading keys, an inside step by the H-Back means the DE needs to beat him to the inside gap. The end bites hard inside and the Montiel reverses and cuts the play-side outside linebacker. Also, you can see the impact of the tailback aligned on the right side. The tailback opens up and heads out to block the edge. The safety flies up and to the outside to make sure that he doesn't get reached. The outside linebacker also takes a wide angle in response to: 1) Reading the H-Back's false key, and 2) Seeing the back breaking his tail to reach the corner. That linebacker gets so wide that Montiel just has to put his body in between the linebacker and the center of the field. He executes the block, and the slot has a wide open path to the touchdown.
The inverted veer also puts tremendous pressure on the Bearcats' linebackers. The Cincinnati middle linebacker has to respect the quarterback dive while still getting to the outside to take the sweep. He freezes just enough so the pulling left guard can seal him. The play also is successful without a dominant block at the point of attack. The safety and the linebacker take themselves out of the play because of the tailback busting out to the edge. The guard just gets enough of the inside linebacker and the corner isn't supporting because he has man coverage responsibility. The backfield movement causes the Bearcats to open up the hole themselves. As I watched film of Fuente's offense, this is a common occurrence. The scheme overcame the need for dominance.
Beating the Best: Blocking J.J. Watt by Not Blocking Him
As savvy as the inverted veer innovation was, it wasn't the most impressive scheme adjustment I saw watching film of Fuente's offenses. That honor goes to Fuente's game plan against the man who is now widely recognized as the best defensive lineman in the NFL: J.J. Watt. TCU faced off against Watt and Wisconsin in the 2011 Rose Bowl. TCU was undefeated, but didn't feature top-end offensive line talent capable of controlling Watt. Prior to the game, Watt and the Wisconsin defense had only given up seven rushing touchdowns in 2010. TCU was a run-first offense with two future NFL players in quarterback Andy Dalton and receiver Jeremy Kerley. How would Fuente prevent Watt from ruining the Horned Frogs' perfect season?
Fuente's bold strategy was to avoid blocking Watt entirely on key running downs and instead option him. Fuente aligned twin receivers to the wide side of the field along with a tight end and an H-Back to the boundary where Watt was aligned. From this alignment, the offensive line would zone block hard to the wide side. The tight end and the H-Back veer released hard to the boundary side, with the tight end blocking outside and the H-Back hesitating and then sealing the outside edge linebacker after the tight end clears. The wide release by the tight end causes the linebacker to stay wide, which allowed the H-Back to seal him easily to the outside.
Here is a terrific example. The offensive line zone blocks to the left, while the tight end veer releases and the H-Back slips behind him to seal the outside linebacker to the outside.
Watt is unblocked and flies to the zone run fake. Dalton steps outside and has a beautiful alley to run up into for 10 yards and a first down.
Fuente continued to use a variety of change ups to confuse Watt, including some quarterback draws where the offensive line basically let Watt get up the field untouched. Time and time again Watt took himself out of the play. Finally when Fuente needed a critical third-and-short conversion in the red zone, he came back to the inside zone read with the two tight ends to Watt's side.
This time Wisconsin blitzes a linebacker on the boundary side. Watt now has outside contain, yet he still gets seduced by the run action and dive fake. Dalton pulls the ball and wins the race to the corner of the end zone against Watt. For X's and O's guys like me, this play design and execution is a thing of beauty.
Perhaps most impressive is the level of execution and discipline by Fuente's skill players. These are not highly recruited kids or All-American talents. However, they run every fake and execute every block with tremendous effort and desperation. The speed with which the skill position players carry out their fakes makes a defense commit to defending every option on a play. They don't give away which play is coming. The blockers may be out-talented, yet they stay engaged on their block and stick with it enough to allow the influence of the blocking scheme run the defense out of position. That doesn't happen unless the coach is able to sell his scheme and the players buy in. Recruiting will take time to turn around, yet I am confident Justin Fuente will improve the offensive production of the Virginia Tech program by leaps and bounds. In order to do it, he understands what kind of players he needs and will recruit more to those needs than to recruiting rankings. If the offensive players buy in this season, and he is able to get the level of quarterback play he produced with Lynch and Dalton from one of the current quarterbacks on the roster, we could see a really special season from the offensive unit.
Comments
Happy Birthday to me!
thank you French!!!
Happy bday dude
thank you kindly! :)
Hope the Birthday Pie is good!
My mind can't comprehend articles that depict effictive hokie offenses, let alone good, let alone offensive genius. So this is basically what i just read:
Hype, hype, hype, hype... we're winning the Championship baby!
Before the season starts, you might want to make sure your health insurance covers mental health professionals. Your mind is about to be blown for three straight months.
Well...to be fair, the article isn't about Hokie offenses.
I'm not sure how we will look this fall with the players picking up a new scheme, but I am really excited about the potential of this offense.
Any thoughts on how the offense will look this fall? Will the whole play book be used?
The good thing is that we have a lot of veterans.
It will take some time. These are new roles for Phillips, Hodges, and Ford. Evans/Motley are not the QB that Paxton Lynch is, and elements to the offense that we saw under Lynch (see back shoulder/deep outs) are not as likely with the current QB crop. HBack is a real wildcard- I don't see someone on this roster that can emulate Alan Cross (blocking and pass catching-more on him in the next column.)
However, schematically, this offense I think is much more difficult for a defender to key than Loeffler's. I think, minus the quarterback footwork and mesh points, it will be simpler for the offensive players to learn. Hopefully things gel before generational talents like Ford and Hodges are gone.
Interesting to hear your thoughts on the HBack position. I think a lot of people, including myself, assumed Sam Rogers was the natural fit there. But he seemed to be used pretty heavily as a running back during the spring, so I'm curious as to what your thoughts are there. I'm really hoping Chris Durkin can eventually assume that role for us. We know he has great size and doesn't shy away from contact, so if the catching and route running are there, he could evolve into a real weapon for us. I honestly don't know enough about Burke/Cunningham and what some of the other TEs bring to the table.
Cunningham is the most natural receiver of the bunch. Both Durkin and Rogers are similar physically to Alan Cross but neither are as good blocking-wise as Cross (that isn't a knock- Cross is really really good.) Burke is more of a traditional Y and I am not sure how he would function pulling across the formation to isolate on linebackers.
This article is timely during the lull. Thanks. I feel like I'm being prepared to play against Fuente's team. Now what do you base your analysis of Evans on versus Lynch? We've all seen Motley in action. Are you using the little that was allowed with snapchats and the spring game as a basis or does that also take into account his film from his two JUCO years. Are you saying he can never be as good as Lynch in Fuente's system? This is not a critique, I just don't know. He looks pretty darn good with his throws in his Hudl highlights - which is what they are, highlights. And from what I've seen of TCU/Memphis film, as good as Lynch and Dalton were running the ball, Evans will be better. And that leads me to ask, how do our top receivers rate against what Lynch had? If there is some talent differential on the upside overall, won't that be of benefit to whoever QB's? I could ask a bazillion more questions. I'd wager you've got a lot more than me super excited now.
Just from what I've seen of Evans' JUCO highlights, he's definitely a gifted runner. As French has mentioned, he really sells his fakes well in the option game and has a great deal of elusiveness/speed. As far as his throws, I think he typically makes quick reads, has a pretty quick release, and has some good velocity on his throws. The biggest issue, to me, is his accuracy - especially with longer throws. A lot of those big passes in the Hudl film show him underthrowing the receiver and making him adjust to the ball. Even the big TD pass in the Spring Game required Bradshaw to make a play on an underthrown ball. That's my biggest concern with Evans. I still think he will start just because Motley seems to still be somewhat tentative and hesitant with his reads. He waits too long to throw the ball, and that has caused him to throw picks in the past and will continue to do so.
I really think J-Mac's, and Nijman's skill sets will suit Fuente's scheme more the Loeffler's.
Also, I see Divine Deablo getting some burn this year. Fuente's scheme calls for the WRs to block, and Deablo does not mind a little contact at all.
Agreed. He was the best blocker of that second group of receivers. Hopefully he will be fully recovered from his injury in the spring game.
I wasn't necessarily counting on today being productive, it being the first day back after a long weekend and all, but now there's no hope. I'll be on the toilet watching film.
I'm doing exactly that right now. The toilet at work feels like my 1st class seat on the hype train. The more French gives us, the more confidence I have in Fuente's offensive aptitude, both schematically and in getting the most from each and every player. Thanks French, keep after those cobia.
"These are not highly recruited kids or All-American talents. However, they run every fake and execute every block with tremendous effort and desperation."
Man, is this music to my ears. You drill, and drill, and drill some more, until every unit, every cog in the machine, is humming along, and success is just about guaranteed. It is an age old concept, seen in everything from the military to fast food operations. Everybody is important, and everybody has to do their job. It is great for team morale to know that everyone has a huge role in the success.
I have often wondered if 3 star guys were more suited to "buy in", too. Good thing, haha, since we are stocked full of 'em. Seriously, though, I'm highly optimistic we are on to something big here with Fuente. Great article.
These kids (Alan Cross, Mose Frazier, Anthony Miller) run so hard after the catch and block their tails off. Fuente will play walk ons before he plays recruited guys who won't sell out to make the run game work.
Yep, my pulse sped up reading this. I can't freaking wait to see what Fuente has in store for us!!!!
Great article French as always. Love seeing the scheme to get success instead of just trying to out muscle out talent the other team.
Side note: did anyone else notice the late hit, unsportsmanlike hit in the first video right at the end from the Ole Miss player?
welp. you beat me to the punch. apparently I type too slow. I saw it.
is it just me or does CB#1 for Ole Miss get a cheap-shot hit in on WR#3 for Memphis at the end of the play in the first clip?
Looks like an unnecessary hit. They are obviously nowhere near the play when it happens and #3 isn't posing any sort of threat at the time. Maybe I'm just biased.
Depends on when the whistle was blown. One of my least favorite rival schools we played in high school were notorious for this. If they weren't near the ball but the whistle hasn't been blown, they would look for the closest guy to knock on the ground.
Not entirely sure what the rules are but in high school the response I got from the ref was, if the whistle hasn't been blown, then it's not a foul.
I don't disagree with that rule. I'm not saying the guy should be flagged for it. But it was unsportsmanlike IMO.
That ref was 100% incorrect. The whistle doesn't end the play, the play ends the play. It's a battle I have to fight just about every week during the season as coaches defend their kid's cheap shot. I appreciate the kids wanting to play to the whistle, but there's a big difference between finishing a play and taking out a kid who's already stopped playing. I'll throw that flag every single time.
And also, yes, if I'm the field judge in that Ole Miss clip, I'm flagging that. That's exactly the kind of hit we're trying to get rid of.
I think we can all agree we don't want any cheap shots. However, what happens if you are a blocker and you can't see the ball carrier? How do you know if he's down or not? Doesn't the whistle fix this dilemma? Everyone can hear it vs just the people that can see the ball carrier?
Just a thought.
It's more to do with how/if your opponent is playing. If two guys are going at it 15 yards away from the play that just went by them, all good, keep playing hard to the whistle. If one guy loads up and launches at a kid who's jogging along and clearly not interested in participating in the play anymore (see the clip above), that's a cheap shot.
Great info as always, French! Can't wait for real thing.
I am not a big X's and O's guy (though I always feel a little smarter after reading these) but watching Watt bite so hard on those option plays was a thing of beauty to me too. I giggled a little.
Yeah it was like "Watt" the f**ck!
Y'all I hope you enjoyed this, French spent a lot of time cooking it up and was chomping at the bit to get it published. If you liked the read, it would really help TKP if you shared it on Facebook via the button above. Facebook changed their algorithm, and user generated shares increase an article's visibility in the news feed. Thanks in advance, TKP!
SHARE IT OR I WILL BE FORCED TO THRASH YOU.
Can someone post a new reply here after 5 tonight so I will remember to share when I'm not at work?
reply
This is not French. The French I know would never answer anything with only one word. Leg up for the joke, though, and kudos galore for a great breakdown. Lotta meat in that sammy, French. Thanks.
This may be a stupid question, but how do we get a tiny URL so we can make it easier (less characters) to tweet out?
Beer and Pie.
Repeat.
Prost!
Coincidentally enough, at a website called tinyurl:
http://tinyurl.com/
Relevant:
With regard to the mouse over text, fairly recently heinz ketchup got screwed by this phenomenon. They took out a temporary domain name for a promotion and printed QR codes directing users to the domain on bottles in Europe (Germany maybe?). Then they let the lease on the domain expire and a porn site snatched it up. Was a fiasco when people would scan the code thinking they were going to a ketchup site (who does that?) and ended up at a porn site.
Facebook?....no thank you. Does anybody on here really use that crap?
That crap is actually quite popular.
Popular it certainly seems to be, but popular doesn't mean it isn't crap to many of us.
I swear these articles are like crack for me. Thanks for all the effort French.
I love the similarities to Paul Johnsons system.
I just threw up out both ends
If by similarities you mean the defense has no effing idea what play you'll run based on your formation, then I can get on board with this. If you mean, well, pretty much anything else, then you should just go away.
However, minus the ever present chop blocks that come with PJ and GT. It is a scheme based on repetition with subtle change ups that influence the defender to not be ready for an upcoming play.
There will be no Marcus Davis types on the field this year.
Great article French! Thank you! In your opinion, what aspect of our existing personnel puts us at the biggest disadvantage with Fuente's system?
Thank you
just going out on a limb here...I'd say QB. Too much is unknown at this point. We have known quantities at every other offensive position. QB is the wildcard. We don't know if Evans is going to be a superstar or not. We don't know if he's even going to convincingly take the starting job over Motley.
As has been posted by others, the key to Fu's offense is consistently making the routine plays. Being able to make all the throws is great but if the QB can make the easy throws, I think the O will be good to very good.
I remember one early video clip from spring ball where Fu was chastising a QB for missing on maybe a 10 yard crossing route. Basically said the QB should make that throw every time and that if he does, the receiver will run forever. I love it when the coach has those kinds of expectations.
I know which clip you're referring to. I get that Fuente tries to drill the "make the routine plays on a consistent basis" angle and I like that approach.
My point, however, is that right now the QB is the biggest question mark so I think it could be argued that the biggest disadvantage offensively is the QB spot. It's easy for us to say that all the QB has to do is make the routine plays on a consistent basis but the QBs job isn't that simple. There are lots of reads in the running game and the QB has to not only make the right read but must also execute hand-offs and ball fakes at a high level in order for this offense to work. The QB must be able to pair good footwork with quick reads and decision making in order to be successful in the running game. Hokies know all too well how bad an offense looks when it becomes one dimensional. If our QB can't execute in the running game it won't matter how good they are at passing. If they can't pass, it won't matter how good they are in the run game. Right now we really don't know what we have in Evans. His JUCO highlights don't show us the whole picture. Motley had some highlights too. If you ignore all of Motley's lowlights and focus on what he did well in limited time you'd think he would be a Heisman candidate. I'm optimistic that Evans will turn out to be a serviceable QB in Fuente's offense but I'm not expecting him to be some superstar. We just don't know. If he's a dud we could be in a world of hurt. If he's a stud we could be putting other teams in a world of hurt. It's a critical position and right now we really don't know what we have there.
I agree 100 percent, the O will be only as good as the QB play.
Evans, in every way, is better at the quarterback fundamentals that Fuente incorporates, than Motley, at least from what I observed. His reads, ball fakes, and mesh points are quicker and sharper, and the ball comes out faster.
However, for this offense to get to the next level, Evans has to be capable of exploiting the huge match up advantage that the Hokies have with Ford and Hodges on the outside (and Cam Phillips is also very good.) Can he? That is the big mystery. The spring game just didn't provide enough data since Ford didn't play and Hodges wasn't targeted on any kind of normalized intermediate or deep route.
Two big concerns with Evans at this point:
1. Arm strength. Seemed to lack zip in the snapchats and spring game. Not Brewer type of concerns, more like Randall type of concern.
2. Injury history. A guy with a significant knee injury on his resume being asked to run this much is a concern. Need to keep Motley around, he could end up starting games this season.
I would take Randall type concerns in a heartbeat
Yep, Randall made it work later in his career (thinking of that lollypop pass he threw to Hyman to beat UVA). But early in his career, it was tough on Randall to make a lot of throws.
Evans has thrown the ball a lot in his career, he should know the tricks to make it work with his arm strength. But as French mentioned, he's not Pax Lynch so there are some back-shoulder throws outside the #'s that we can't lean on as much as Fuente did the last two years.
Yep, early on, Randall either had to roll into the field or throw to the boundary.
Or, if memory serves, just run with it. He had a ton of 15+ carry games those first two years starting.
Agree about Randall's arm, but the man knew how to engineer a win.
I think his arm strength is actually pretty good. If you watch his JUCO tape, especially from his first year, he's definitely got pretty good zip on the ball for short to intermediate passes. The longer throws are my concern. Is it an accuracy issue, or an arm strength issue? He tends to underthrow the deep balls sometimes. The accuracy issues also pop up now and again on routine short passes (high, behind the receiver). I think it's more of an accuracy issue from mechanics, which I hope can be corrected. I'm sure Fuente/Cornelsen are working with him. We may need Motley because of durability concerns in a QB run-heavy offense, but from what I've seen, Evans has better all-around skills suited to this offense than Motley.
If Motley is to be used to spell or backup Evans, he really has to be able to execute the same plays (to an extent) , or we're right back to telegraphing plays.
I definitely think we won't have a "Motley package" by any means. Both will be prepared in the full playbook. From what little we have seen, I just think Evans can and will execute at a higher level given his skill set. We will see how it plays out in camp.
Yeah, accuracy concerns are maybe more concerning than arm strength.
But we really haven't seen much of Evans yet. Both issues may be non-issues in this offense.
acknowledging these are highlights and the passes are quite Kilmer-esque, but count the number of times Evans throws into double coverage.
there doesn't seem to be much that Evans is being asked to do in this film in terms of complex reads and patterns and I doubt it will be much more complex than that with Fu this year.
I rewatched that clip, and he really doesn't throw into double coverage much at all. There are maybe 2-3 where he got lucky, but for the most part, he does a good job finding the open guy with single coverage. Granted, these are highlights and JUCO film, but just going off of what I'm seeing here.
I agree that the reads are simple, and I think Fu's offense will definitely involve more simple reads in the passing game. That allows the QB to make faster decisions and push the tempo offensively. I'm really excited to see more of what we have in Evans; his running ability and proficiency running this kind of a fast paced option run attack is pretty exciting.
I agree the JUCO film gives us a lot to be optimistic about. With more reps with our guys, the timing will get there and he's going to show us a lot more than what we saw in the spring. I think his ceiling is high with Fuente and would be curious to hear what Bud has to say; is he Brett Hundley like or not? Sure he will play against an overall faster level, but he's still going to earn more than one defensive backs respect with either his arm or his legs or both.
Did they try any Run-Pass Option in the Spring Game?
Not that I can recall, but it isn't fresh in my head and we don't have tape.
It wasn't in any of the few highlights and I wasn't there. We have seen glimpses in the pre-spring snippets but they never show more than maybe 4 guys in a frame.
I have a feeling the first we'll see very much of it is at Bristol.
double post...or is that a pass pattern?
I agree on the QB play being imperative. Timing with WR will also be critical. I can't help but feel that the defense NOT knowing for sure where the ball is going will get us a significant bump in O production. I am cautiously optimistic. Just curious how French sees it after the QB position maybe?
Other than QB, the pieces are in place for a great offense. My biggest concerns:
1) Player buy-in. Guys are going to be asked to do more grunt work, and perhaps get less touches. They have to be all in. I am not going to lie- McMillian SEEMINGLY being in the dog house this spring concerns me.
2) HBack- as you will learn in my next column, HBack has a HUGE role in Fuente's offense. Hodges will not be used there- he will be out wide. So, between Rogers, Peoples, Durkin, Cunningham, and Burke Fuente has to find a mobile blocking force who has the athleticism to be a threat in the short passing game.
3) Pass protection- the Hokies starting OL is as talented as they have had in some time. Pass protection though has not been good, and Memphis wasn't great with pass protection either. Ideally, Nijman and McLaughlin can both be on the field, Teller takes the next step, and Osterloh and Conte can have a serious competition at the right guard spot.
We seem to be loading up on TE/HB types in recruiting, as if the coaching staff has taken stock of the young talent and seen that what we have doesn't match up with their requirements.
Yep- Durkin is very similar physically to Cross, but he has never been asked to block, and he spent most of his career not only as a quarterback but also as a primary ball carrier. It is a big adjustment to change into a true HBack who may only get 25-30 touches a season.
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Those were the gritty details I was hungry to hear. The TN thing has a weird feel to it. I am hoping we don't throw the baby out with the dork magic in terms of running what we are good at executing.
i think the new offensive philosophies will find success here in a short time, but it depends on how soon our veteran players "get it". The defense isn't going to respect the multitude of plays unless we're actually able to run them successfully.
The feeling this article gives me,Fuente:
I feel the need to point out that Moses never made it to the promised land... perhaps we should rethink our comparison.
How about Moses represents Frank. He took a program that really wasn't that special and led them out into prominence and out from the heel of our enemies where we were able to turn around and thrash those who could once oppress us. After leading for a very long time we unfortunately went though a little bit of a dry spell (the desert/wilderness) and we were never quite able to able to make it into the promised land. We even approached it one time but were't quite able to enter. However when Frank retired he passed the torch on to Fuente (Joshua) who will ultimately take the program that Frank built and lead it into the promised land by crushing the college football giants that stand in our way.
I mean I know we're supposed to stay from religion but I figured this one could slide.
If we get the Walls of CFP Trophy to fall down...
Isn't Memphis TN named after Memphis, Egypt, the early capital of the country, and possibly where the Israelites were captive before going to the promised land?
Sure, just don't google it, let the warm bliss of ignorance linger just for a little while.
Just trying to convey positive feeling about the article and feel like I'm getting picked to death.
Don't take it personally, who else is there to pick on other than each other? It is, after all, the off season, and this site is rife with smart/smart alecky folks looking to riff on anything they can catch with their teeth.
HokieJeep, I'm no biblical scholar, but didn't the people eventually make it to the promised land, even though Moses didn't ?
Nope, they're still wondering around in the desert - Drunk History
Ha, it was just an early morning joke, but I believe it was because he disobeyed God's orders too many times. The people were allowed to enter, while Moses was not.
Thanks for the write up French. Did you watch any film of Memphis' losses? I'm interested to get your take on why their O was limited by Temple and others.
What I noticed in Memphis losses was that the opponents had offenses string together long methodical drives which kept Memphis's offense on the sidelines
That's going to be an interesting point to watch here. We all know Foster's defenses are much more "break but don't bend" in philosophy. In recent years, we have been susceptible to big plays, but historically, we typically don't allow offenses to sustain slow, methodical drives (lots of TFL, sacks, turnovers, etc.) If our offense gels together quickly, it could almost be a pick your poison scenario. Allow our defense to torment you all game as you try to eat clock, or try for fast scores but risk getting into a shootout.
I think you mean "bend but don't break".
bend but dont break = play less risky, allowing slower more methodical drives, but dont give up the home run.
break but dont bend = more blitzing, more susceptible to the home run, but less sustained drives.
We are definitely the latter.
point conceded
Temple and Navy
-both games Memphis was missing some key skill position guys
-Navy and Temple had terrific disciplined linebacker play so guys were not out of position on misdirection, and without those skill guys, Memphis couldn't win those one on one battles. Matekevich (sp?) was the best linebacker I saw on film all year
vs Houston
Memphis D couldn't stop Houston in the second half
Other negatives for Memphis- when they struggled, it was because they took an inordinate amount of penalties and got in bad down and distance situations. Their OL did not protect the QB well, so 7 step long developing pass plays often did not go well unless Lynch kept the play alive on his own.
Since less talented teams like East Carolina have found a way to "mitigate" the talent differential with us lately it will be nice to return the favor to a few other more talented teams and to less talented teams, also. I guess I want to see us take advantage of the talent deficit and beat teams like ECU and Wake Forest when we play them again in 2019.
I'm watching TCU on ESPnU now playing against Oregon in the Alamo bowl. How much of Fuente's offense remains at TCU?
I am not sure. I didn't see TCU play last year. It seemed like the offense was more traditional in terms of how the QB runs the read option when they upset Baylor in 2014, but that is a very offhand reference and comes from the hip with two years worth of rust on it.
was fuente ever the sole-OC at TCU? I thought it was always a dual-OC while he was there.
Yes, he was co-OC with the offensive line coach Jarrett Anderson. By all accounts, Fuente was the person responsible for the design and play calling. Anderson went back to being the OL coach when Cumbie was brought in as a play caller.
With all the talent we're NOT getting this recruiting cycle (so far), I think fuente will have a lot of opportunities to showcase how he "mitigates talent differential"
Getting talent in this class wouldn't help this season.
True, but we've seen what mediocre recruiting classes perform down the line.
We've seen what mediocre recruiting classes do when combing with even worse coaching.
Hey Coach:
Over the years we've criticized everything from QB development, to the run game, to overall game plan. Yet Danny Coale was always open and Wyllie Byrn always delivered. How do you explain that? Intangibles? A particular coaching style? The QB?
Honestly, I didn't think Willie Byrn was that good. Decent underneath guy that got more looks because the WR talent was so abysmal before Ford and Phillips joined the team.
Coale was a good football player, and got open in large part due to the VT commitment of the running game. The scheme was never particularly impressive, but defenses had to devote so much energy to stopping the Ryan Williams, Darren Evans, and David Wilson's of the world that it opened a bunch of stuff up. When you watch the 2010 ACC title game, so much of Coale being open was due to FSU's safeties being drawn out of position by the VT run game and Taylor's ability to extend plays.
Coale's speed was also much better than many accounted for. He was an excellent ACC WR.
Thanks. Rewatching a few games from 2010 is actually what put the question in my head, and thinking back, our identity has been a mobile QB and one or two (or three) dangerous RBs all those years we had a "clutch" WR.
I have been watching the 2006 defensive film. Things look... different.
Virginia Tech Total Defense: Yards/Game (Pts/Game)
2006 1st (1st)
2010 52nd (26th)
Not just results. LOTS more run blitzes. Cover 4 with linebackers playing under 3 zones. Leverage zones. More zone blitzes. Granted, nobody was running the spread where you could get away with not accounting for the QB in the run game.
Do you think the change is a personnel thing, having to change because it became too predictable, or a response to changes in the game?
Writing more about it for a future post. Part is, you can't run zone when kids are not playing the right technique. And you can't play with 6 in the box when your DL isn't winning physical battles.