Afternoon TKP, I'm headed up I-81 N with what seems like the rest of Hokie Nation and hope this thread will pass some time.
What's one positive and one negative you'll take away from Virginia Tech's performance in the Battle at Bristol?
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Positive: We put up 400 yards of offense while also fumbling 5 times
Negative: We fumbled 5 times.
Poaitive - D is rolling. Looking pretty good the past 2 games. Offensive scheme shows glipses of something explosive layer.
Negatives- ball security...but I think everyone is gonna say that. Figuring out defined starters on the Oline...oh and ball security, did I say that?
My overall take on the game and this team: we have loads of talent but lack focus. So there's the pro and con.
I saw elements of a very effective offense. Tennessee has a good defense, and we moved the ball at will for stretches. We only had a couple of really, truly bad sequences, and most of those happened because we were behind the sticks on penalties.
If the guys can work out the composure/focus issues like hanging on to the ball, we will be excellent. There are few opportunities to work out the kinks, so a lot of learning better happen before BC comes to town. They should have another pretty good defense.
Positive - we officially have an offense. There, I said it. We moved the ball at will throughout the game and really we slowed ourselves down with the careless turnovers. Against the ACC we could put up huge numbers this year.
Negative - discipline was awful. Between penalties and turnovers we are our own worst enemy.
Pro: I thought the offense showed some real potential and I loved some of the play calling. The pass down to Rogers down the middle was awesome, and so was the blocking on the long TD run.
Con: Turnovers. It has to be. 5 turnovers is absolutely terrible and the wheels completely fell off at the end. I was still optimistic when the defense got the stop, we forced a punt, and then lose the ball on the punt return. There was about 10 mins left in the game and were moving the ball well.
Positive: I got to enjoy this game while being on TKP, the best damn Hokie Site out there. I saw more positive offensive output than I have since maybe the OSU game.
Negative: personal changes/groupings and turnovers.
Pro: we saw a flash of what our offense will be when all is said and done
Con: we have a long way to go to reach our potential, including holding on to the damn ball
Positive lots of talent and youth on D
Negative this team does not seem much different than the last 4 years thus far...
I was telling this to my family. There are two ways to get blown out in a football game. The first is to be ineffective on offense and defense. To just be thoroughly outplayed by the other team with little positive signs for the future.
The second is to play well, but to be undisciplined and make mental mistakes that take yourself out of the game.
We lost doing the latter. That's how Is rather see us lose. The future is bright, the offense looked good, I like Evans a lot. Shai has me real excited. He looked awesome. Travon looked like his old self as well. Splitting the carries between them two is the way to proceed I think.
Negative: discipline.
Offensive play was something else while things were going well.
Negative was giving up some big plays.
Positive: Fuente is the coach we need. The future looks bright. We are back on track. But...
Negative: It won't be soon. We will have growing pains and it's game #2 of the Fuente era. Offensive line and punting/special teams. Ugh.
Without having seen a replay of the game sober, the
Negatives: Jittery behavior leading to fumbles and penalties
Positives: Everything look correctable and not systematic
Pro: The team showed a lot of potential and, when they didn't fumble, an effective offense. The defense was good.
Con: Basic ball security was awful. After the second fumble, there was a major attitude problem. The team seemed like it gave up and wasn't able to get focused for the rest of the game.
Positive: Plenty of positive offensive plays and sound scheming
Negative: Another big stage loss in an pretty winnable matchup
Pro - I love the playcalling and offense moved the ball at will when it stayed out of its own way
Cons - ugh...ive never felt like we gave a game to an opponent more than this one and yes I watched the chickfila bowl against georgia
Everyone's saying the same things, and everyone is right. The Positive is that we can be very good for periods of time, the Negative is that we are also making very bad mistakes the rest of the time.
Positive- the running game put up a ton of yards without dominating up front. Nigel Williams and Vinny Mihota were outstanding. Mook Reynolds was great with a handful of exceptions. Corners held up except for the 2 50/50 balls at Stroman where he played it as well as anyone could. Dobbs made perfect throws and then physics (those WR's were Bucky minus an inch or two) took over.
Negative- after the first fumble, and as the game progressed with more mistakes (and no touches to Hodges and limited touches for Ford) you could see the "buy-in" on the offensive system waning. Body language, eyes- just didn't look good. Tennessee was physically superior, but VT was beating the superiors with scheme, until turnovers and penalties creeped in. Linebacker and ally play in the 2nd and 3rd Q's were abysmal.
Glad to hear the Stroman comment. Seemed like he was in good position on both of those.
And to me, on the second one. The WR pushed off but, I'll watch the replay here in about an hour.
Just watched it and I'm correct here. The WR had his arms all around Stroman in a hug and there was no way Stroman could jump.
I saw it live from the opposite and angle and I can attest, his other arm was on him at about shoulder level.
I watched those two plays while on the phone with my dad. He (himself a former college defensive back) said that Stroman couldn't have done much more than he did and that the WRs just made great catches.
Yeah, we lost our confidence in offense when punched in the mouth. I was watching Evans closely to see how he would react and lead his unit. His eyes started darting around, his body language said " Awwww man!"
But his comments after the game showed good leadership. We need to get better, no doubt about that, and he has to lead us on offense. I'm not sure Evans has "it" per se, but he's our best option and can be more than adequate. He looks like he has young Marquise Williams skills to me. Looking forward to seeing him progress. Starts this week. Get better.
In the movie, The Replacements, Keano Reves QB carrier responds that the thing that scares him is "Quicksand."
That was an example of what he meant.
The "buy in" comment is interesting. Coach Beamer always preached to never let the highs get too high, and the lows get too low.
I think our Hokies could have done well to remember that last night at the end of the 1st qtr.
I was laying in bed last night and managed to get over the loss fairly quickly.
Pro: like everyone has said, a capable offense. I feel good knowing the ability is there.
Con: Not the fumbles, but how we responded (which led to the fumbles). I don't know that I buy a systemic fumbling problem with Fuente's teams but I do buy that we have a mentality and focus issue that can lead to mistakes like fumbles and penalties.
I'm very anxious to see how this team responds to this. There were reports from players that VT didn't have a good week of practice. This reminds me of 2010 after the lost to JMU when seniors recognized there was an issue and they took it on themselves to address the issue. I'd love to see this kind of response, or any kind of positive response. The response to this week will show us more about the team than last night did.
Not just getting more focused in practice, but I'm concerned that after two games with similar problems the loss of faith (amongst the team) from qtr 2 at Bristol might extend into qtr 1 and beyond of the next game.
Hopefully on film review they (he team) can see what we are seeing, how good they were when they were working together and following the plan, and how much cleaning up a few things can help.
Also concerned they don't internalize the lineup/substitutional decisions and develop a negative response.
I am probably reading way too much into this, but I see a disturbing trend here: between the supposed bad week of practice, the whole OL situation, and the amount of undisciplined play on the field, it's starting to feel like there's a portion of the team that hasn't bought in to Fuente yet. I hope I'm just being a typical overanalyzing fan, but if that shit doesn't get sorted out quickly I think we may have a rough road ahead.
First of all, don't think I'm saying you're wrong at all, as it very well could be the case....
But if there are players who aren't buying into the system after seeing what it can do against a team poised to challenge for the playoffs this year when we aren't legitimately stopping ourselves with penalties and careless turnovers, then those players might not be the best fits for this team anymore. You can't have a division like that in a locker room when a coaching staff is trying to rebuild the offensive culture, and actually showing legitimate signs of having something that works. Which is a heck of a lot more than we've had in about 25 years.
Tenn will be no where to be found come playoff discussion time. They aren't any better then they were last year. Would expect another 9ish win season and probably winning the east, but even that is in question now.
Agreed. At this point I have to say I was 100% wrong about them being a legit top-10 team. Right now I think best case they go 1-1 against UF and UGA. Of course that might be good enough to make it to the SECG, but then they'll just get to lose to 'bama for the second time.
Gotta agree. This is not a loss to a top 10 team, this an ugly loss to an SEC also-ran. We out gained them. We moved the ball at will against their defense. I mean, they forced 4 punts the entire game!
I believe our play will give teams like Florida and UGa the perfect blue print for embarrassing UT later in the season. Any team that can hold on to the ball and do what we did on offense will give them a run for their money. Any team that can do that and hold fairly well on defense will expose Tenn as the over-hyped mid-tier team that they are.
I'm pissed about this loss because we threw it away. LOLUVa could have won this game with how we gift-wrapped it for them. There's a lot of promise, but we will not look back on this game as a loss to a future national champion or even playoff contender. If they make the SEC CG, it will be because the SEC east is once again a steaming pile, not because Tennessee is "back."
That was my point, you just said it more clearly than I did. If this is what's happening, then we're going to have to wait for Fuente to get "his" guys into the system. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that the recovery is going to take longer than some of us had hoped.
But hopefully I'm wrong and just overanalyzing a small sample of anecdotes. Let's see how they respond against BC.
I don't think it's a buy in issue. It's more likely an issue with learning a new offensive system. It's just like a college classroom, some people learn at different paces. Unfortunately in football everyone shares results. You might be right, but I think everyone on this website is over analyzing things.
Our defenses have succeeded in the past not only from having great athletes, but by having solid schemes and predictable assignments.
I'm no expert on our offense, but too much of the lore of our success seems rooted in the heroics of relying on an improvisational Tyrod or a 3rd & Logan.
I'm not sure that anybody is doubting the scheme that Cornelson is installing. I just think it's going to take time to trust that 2nd and 4 is good enough, and not worth losing the ball to try and get us the 2nd and 2.
You think maybe they're trying "too" hard out there?
Maybe they are trying too hard, I just think some mistakes and lapses are byproducts of a new system. But I agree with you're paragraph about 2nd and 4. Like I said above, it's a mentality thing. We need to get over the mindset that we're a bad football team and get some swagger back.
Pro: Once the offense sorts out its timing, turnover, and penalty problems we're going to be in good shape.
Con: See pro.
The first Q showed our potential but a look at the detail showed the weak point.....
Being snaps. VT needs to hire somebody to teach our coaches how to teach snapping the ball.
From Thomas' problems with constant high snaps to 4thdown QB, famously saving a safety. Fix this and the offense gets lots better.
Positive - we have a potentially potent offense that can move the ball and score
Negative
This has to win the Internet for the day. First, I have never seen this before and it made me laugh. Second, I like the punching ourselves in the eye better than shooting ourselves in the foot now that I have seen this GIF.
I can't help but think we are on the cusp of having the most complete Hokie team we've had in a long time.
We've got a heck of an uppercut, but the aim needs some work
Just like Joey Slyes leg
Positive: Mook Reynolds continues to impress.
Negative: The punting is inconsistent at best and awful at times.
You nailed my two. Punting is a problem that won't likely be fixed this year.
We've been blessed with great punting talent for a long time. Unfortunately, the Law of Averages appears to have taken over this year.
Positive - I loved the early play calling keeping UT on their heels. That sweet jump pass to the Hulk was a thing of beauty while we were in rhythm. I look forward to the team being able to get their rhythm back after losing it.
Negative - hold on to the damn ball. We handed UT the game and momentum over and over. If that doesn't stop this year we won't win many more games.
Positive: We clearly have talented players across the board
Negative: Some of our most talented players are also the most undisciplined.
Positive: 1rst Quarter
Negative: Rest of Game
Solution: Score 50 in 1rst Q so rest of game won't matter.
This makes the best/most sense.
This solution is why I love football, when we are down big in the first half I always get in the train of thought that what ever they did in the first half, as long as our defense plays lights out, we can do in the second half. Man I love football
Positive: Dominated the line of scrimmage.
Negative: After the fumble score, it seemed like the offense went into a shell for a quarter and a half, reminiscent of the last 4 years. This team did not look like it had the maturity and/or guts to handle adversity.
Agree with all the positives. Best thing being that this looks like an actual offense and not just a side of the ball that gives the defense a rest for a couple plays.
Biggest con is the enthusiasm or lack-there of After the first fumble you could see the team deflate. There didn't seem to be any leader to get the team together and back on track. They seemed to play without real emotion the rest of the night and it just went down hill from there. Hopefully seniors grab that leadership role back this week and ensure a good week of practice. We saw Sam and others mention that they had a bad week of practice.
What is hard to fathom and not sure if silver lining: even deflated, we continued to advance the football. Continued to confuse the UT defense. If you shut your eyes and plug your ears right before the flag comes out, or right before the ball comes loose, all you see is 400 yards of offense and a running game that has somewhat of a pulse.
Positive: We have an offensive identity/scheme that can compete against 5 star talent. The future is the brightest it's been since 2007/8.
Negative: We have a long way to go. While I know that there would be growing pains, it's clear that there will be a lot of ups and downs over the next 1.5-2 seasons.
BONUS
Positive: I think my 8 win prediction was spot on
Negative: I just realized that our losses this season are going to be painful, probably much like this one.
Pro - I drank a lot of beer yesterday.
Con - I'm now out of beer.
I'm proud to get this comment to green.
Pro tip: hit up the next college gameday with a venmo sign--dude had like over 200 donations
http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/17512627/college-gameday...
last report was over 2700 donations
Positive: Evans gets 20+ more starts and looks like he could be really good. McMillian was used as the featured back. Slye is incredible on kickoffs. Loved the commitment to getting Bucky the ball. Nijman looks impressive. Hill looks like a future force at end. Ekanem and Williams looked good on The d line.Team shows great emotion and was not overwhelmed by the atmosphere. This was the best defense we will play this season and we moved the ball. No more 100 total yard games on offense.
Negatives: The punting game is going to be bad all year, it appears. The best o lineman was planted on the bench and his replacement struggled mightily. Personnel is not where it needs to be to win against an opponent like the Vols. That should not surprise any of us.
Hill definitely had his share of growing pains. When he came in for Mihota, the first play was inverted veer and he sold out on the back instead of the QB and the end result was a huge gain by Dobbs.
Sure. But it was his second game and he looks like a player.
Looked to me like he bit again the second time but they didn't go after him.
BC's D is right there with UTs I think. Then Pitt.
Everyone else might have a tough time keeping us from 35.
BC's D is really good but they don't have two five stars and 2 4 stars on their line. Shy Tuttle and Khalil Mckenzie are probably gonna be better than any D linemen we face all year.
Bc's DL is what impressed me (and their LBs who don't miss tackles). I don't think they can blanket 1+5+7 like UT was able to on the back end. If we can run it and protect Evans, we will be ok.
Last year I would agree with you, but they lost their D-coordinator and haven't really been tested yet this year. I guess we'll see this Saturday.
Price at Pitt is a beast. One of best sack leaders in nation last year. 1 st team all ACC This year 2.5 - 22 yds SACKS 6 QBH 2 Forced fumbles all ready. The big 330lb DT has been good too.
everything I could've said has already been stated. These turnovers, man.
I'm tired of these annual prime time drubbings.
Amen. It's getting old. Aside from non-neutral anOSU, what was the last big game we won? Losing home games is getting old too after being dominant. Winning all home games this year would be nice, but Hokie Nation needs a big stage win, not a Tulsa toilet bowl, either.
So, I started going backwards on the Hokiesports schedules. Obviously, anything from the last four years is out. In 2011, we lost the big games against Clemson.
Maybe, 2010 ACCCG vs FSU? Or possibly 2006 vs #10 Clemson on Thursday night?
But for big time heavy hyped matchups in primetime, it's probably 2003 Miami.
VT is pretty terrible when it comes to big time games and big time opponents.
Sugar Bowl vs Michigan
I was thinking more of Orange Bowl vs Stanford
These wins seem so few and so far between. Anytime, anywhere is losing it's luster. Hopefully we can sneak into ACCCG sooner than later and beat FSU/Clemson to regain some luster to the program.
But for now, #BeatBC
Positive: The first quarter is what our team can be when we play disciplined football (i.e. No fumbles and no personal fouls). The fumbles and personal fouls can be coached out of players.
Negatives: We played undisciplined football last night and gave away a game on the biggest stage ever. I hate undisciplined football.
Positives; Never been so happy with a teams direction in a loss.
Negative: Never have been so frustrated for losing a game when we were the better team since Barry Bonds could not throw Sid Bream in the 92 NLCS...
I gave you a leg, but I thought for a few moments and will respectfully disagree with your statement that "we were the better team". In reflection, I don't think we were. Now I do believe we could have won that game, but not only did we not win, but we fell apart not winning it. That is clearly not the mark of a better team. It always pisses me off when fans of a team we beat tell me that we didn't win, they lost it, or gave it away or whatever. If you win by more than a fluke or something, you are the better team, at least in that game. They whupped us, we helped them, for sure, but they whupped us.
Yup, they whupped us, after we bent over, dropped our pants, and handed them the belt.
I know, and it chafes.
The positive is the offensive scheme is well designed and functional.
The negative is just getting our players to simmer down and secure the ball. That's really my only concern that's not excusable based on how new Fuente's system is.
Positive: offense and defense look to be improved. With fewer mistakes, we can win some games this year.
Negative: 5 fumbles and too many penalties. These are correctable to a degree, fumbles happen but shouldn't happen at that frequency. Penalties will happen but can also be reduced.
Pro: I'm surprised how excited/optimistic I am today after last night. Also, Kyle Fuller is Mook Reynold's spirit animal.
Con: the last 3 quarters of last night happened and it made me sad.
I'll keep it simple...
Positive: Offensive Identity
Negative: Special Teams
Con: No more Fullers :o(
Pro: Mook and the Edmunds brothers are doing their damn best to make me forget the con.
Gonna try to stay away from the obvious here with all the fumbles...
Positive: Jerod Evans. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a QB who can make plays at ease without forcing it or making terrible decisions throwing the ball. I was very impressed with #4 last night. Dobbs might have gotten the postgame TV interview, but everyone who watched that game knows who the best QB on the field was.
Negative: What the hell is up with Wyatt Teller? Terrible leadership from an upperclassmen by drawing two chop blocks and a personal foul. That has to be fixed because like all of you, I believe he is hands down our best OL but he can't be on the field performing like that. Don't blame Fuente at all for throwing him in the doghouse.
If we are going to put him in the doghouse we have to have a better option than colt petit. He did nothing but get blown up and look lost the whole game. Would think they would try to get Osterloh or Pfaff some reps there if LG is going to be an issue with getting Wyatt's head straight.
If you watch both the blocks that Teller made they were not truly chop blocks both were at hip level and very questionable calls. Fuente needs to stop messing with the line and put the best players out there and let them play. If you noticed we scored when Teller was in because his guy didnt get to the QB unlike when Petit is in the game looking confused.
They weren't "chop" blocks period as teller's man wasn't engaged with someone else when he cut him. They were illegal cut blocks (below the waste).
pro: i really like the blueprint.
con: lack of focus on the field. emotion is such a huge component of college football, but those who can feed on the emotion without losing focus on the basics usually prevail.
Pro: offensive play calling.
Con: Tackling. Seemed like everyone but Mook and Chuck needed three friends to tackle the Tenn players.
Pro - Foster is still reliable to prepare his team for big games and make in game adjustments. Offensive playbook is exciting and we didn't seem to have many negative plays (when we didn't have penalties).
Con - poor preparation by the coaches for offense and special teams. Turnovers and penalties shows a lack of preparedness and discipline - that rests squarely on the coaches - in addition that he team didn't seem ready to handle the typical ups and downs of a competitive game and got caught up in the emotion / momentum.
Pro: DL, DBs
Con: LBs....did Edmunds even make a tackle? Moto missed his usual share but at least he had multiple tackles.
Moto lead the team in tackles, I think. He certainly had his share of opportunities.
I said it before I will say it again...
Negative: We lost a game, to a ranked team, on a big stage.
Positive: Last time we won on a big stage we had a disappointing season (see OSU) maybe this will have a reverse effect and we win the rest of our games out including upsets over UNC, Miami, and Notre Dame (all ranked teams).
The defense is encouraging, We still leave a field goal or 2 on the field every game, and several fumbles if we can clean those 2 things up things will be great. Slye can kick 60 yarders in practice we just need it to translate on the field and one of these days he will make a crazy long one. Guys are getting experience, it is Fuentes first season, eventually luck will go our way. We lost by 21 last night, they scored 3 touchdowns off of our fumbles we can play with that UT team and are capable of beating them.
Win the rest of the non-conference games, win the ACC Coastal, Go to the ACCCG, Go to a good bowl game! It's early in the season, no need for bashing players and coaches like people did last night, it's punishment enough making mistakes like that in front of a crowd that big and everyone watching on tv. GO HOKIES!!!
Positive: Ekanem looks back to 2014 form.
Negative: They basically took last year's undisciplined penalties and lack of attention to detail and grafted a lack of ball security onto the team.
Pro: Evans looked good. On a huge stage against a good defense, he didn't seem to make many bad decisions. He didn't try to force passes, he did reasonably well avoiding pressure, and is pretty tough. He took some hits put kept pushing through them.
Con: Its hard to say beyond the fumbles and penalties. The defense played as well as could be expected, I'd say and the offense looked other than the above mentioned. Stroman got beat when he was in great position and the linebackers missed tackles, but that will happen. Dobbs makes guys miss, that's sort of his whole deal. I think without the fumbles, the offense would have looked really good. I think it will look really good by the end of the season.
A lot of last night's negativity seems to have dissipated in the light of day, but I think its still worth pointing out, this was the second game of the Fuente era. This game was never going to be perfect. I know its easy to buy into our own hype, but this was never a great matchup for us. I know how frustrating it was after the 1st quarter, but it could have been a lot worse. We were competitive with a good team into the 4th quarter despite some very bad mistakes. I'm willing to accept that this early into Fuente's tenure at Virginia Tech.
I'm gonna go opposite of the format of the thread. Start with the negative and conclude with the positive.
Negative: after one mistake (1st fumble/TO) the snowballing avalanche quicksand effect immediately came into play. I felt that only a handful of the team really maintained determination and will not only to fight, but win. Cannot let one mistake turn into a sinkhole. You have fight, persevere through and ultimately overcome it.
Positive: a faster, quicker offense with more plays. I believe we will get better. I believe we will BE better.
The mistakes and mentality MUST be eradicated. Fortunately, for this Sat, Foster is more than familiar scheming against ol' Lefty.
Pros: Team will be pretty good if we solve our Butterfingers problem.
Cons: After how UT fans acted I now have a reason to root for Alabama (if only for one game).
Or just like me and a few others, religiously follow UT schedule and pull for every team they play. Man I dread going in to work tomorrow.
Positive - defense looked good (mostly). Not sure how often you'll hold a team to less than 400 yards and give up 45 points.
Positive 2 - scheme and play calling. I think it's actually fairly impressive that our offense committed 4 or 5 turnovers and still produced 24 points against a (at worst) decent defense. Especially in only their second game.
Negative - the obvious answer is penalties and turnovers. In a word, discipline.
Negative 2 - this team did not handle adversity very well. At the first sign of trouble the offense completely unraveled and looked out of sorts most of the rest of the game. I do want to use this point to re-emphasize Positive 2. Our offense produced 400 yards of offense despite the players looking rattled. Imagine what they'll do when they can maintain confidence through adversity. I think the future is bright.
We knew damn well that we wouldn't win this game. We are fully prepared to go, at best, 9 and 3. We are exactly where we should be. The sky is not falling. I'm interested to see how they respond against BC.
Go Hokies!
Going out on a different tangent...
Pro: Did anyone else but me catch the look on CJF's face late in the game? It struck me as " I will remember this, and I WILL get even". I know he has a calm demeanor on the sideline that I actually like, but there is a fire simmering there.
Con: Our young men need to grow up. Some of the penalties were exacerbated because of our lack of composure. How do you let a loudmouth freshman backup QB on the bench get in your head?
Will be interested to read French's review and hear about this week's practices. Also, anyone have an injury report?
On Fuente - he let that fire loose after one of the penalties... the man looks like he's keeping a lid on a furnace.
Pro and con
Arnold Palmer said " golf is a game of inches with the most important 6" between your ears"
I think the offense showed it can dominate but it's mentally fragile.
If it toughens up quickly we'll be OK
The defense overall did well I cannot hold them responsible for the short field scores
Positive: great play calling and a glimpse of what we could be offensively. We are also playing well defensively.
Negative: our punting situation is very bad and will continue to put us in bad situations. This is the one area I am most concerned about as it is the one place where it is not correctable with our current option.
Did our walk-on (that didn't) make the field at Tennessee?
Pro- Ken Ekanem owning the lack of leadership after the game that led to the debacle on the field even after having one of the best performances of any Hokie
Con- More penalty yards than passing yards given up, five punts average less than 35 ypp, five fumbles providing opponent more than the difference in final score, their fourth string QB had more impact on the game without playing than several of our top players who played the whole game
Positive:
Negatives:
ball security.
Holy America!
Pro - Hokies played "Hard" and several individuals outplayed their UT counterparts. Rogers, Bucky, Ford, Ekanem, ...
Neg - Hokies again did not play "Smart" or "Tough", clearly with the dumb penalties and soft handle on the ball.
The good thing for the future is that the Negatives can be fixed. It doesn't appear structural or scheme related. It really is up to the players to step up.
Pro - this team has a high ceiling. Higher than we've seen in 4 seasons.
Con - The team is emotionally immature. Including veteran guys that should be more grown up. They need to learn resolve, coolheaded-ness, how to fight thru adversity (like repeated bad calls), composure, and how to maintain a killer instinct without over amping. I'm convinced the fumbles were due to lack of emotional self control. It's okay to be fired up, but you need to keep your wits about you and not forget basics (ball security, focusing on your assignment ) I'm sure have been drilled into them since peewee league.
They were impatient and sacrificed good fundamentals as a result. I love the energy they came out with. Now they need to develop patience and resolve.
If they learn to keep high emotionally while also having composure and mental toughness, we're a contender for the Coastal.
Positive: the bones of a really good offense exist at the moment. If the execution ever sorts itself out and we lose the emotional b.s. that plagued us in a big game situation, that comboed with the LPD could get us maybe 8 or more wins.
Negative: I live 45 minutes from Bristol, outside of Kingsport. I'm right over the state line. The eventual encounters with Vol fans in public is something I regularly dread. Imagine the horror this week.
I envy my NoVA brethren.I envy those who don't have to encounter Vols fans on a daily basis.Words that should never be used together: "I envy my NoVA brethren"
I was referencing Hokie fans in the more northeast part of the state where there isn't any massive crossover of UT fans like the part of the state I live in, but OK. I'll just chalk it up to a mistake and poor wording on that last sentence. From the tip end of the state, everything above Lynchburg feels like "northern VA" to us down here.
Where are you from HokieG? To me, Roanoke feels like the border, heh.
I thought I was from VA until I went to VT. Then I discovered NoVA, VABeach and Richmond felt VA was not specific enough to properly define their heritage. Apparently I grew up in the mountains. We were closer to WV that TN, which was worse at the time. Never thought to split south mountains from north.
Wise Hokie, I'm between Nickelsville and Gate City, not too awful far from your neck of the woods. I always say Roanoke (and most everyone that lives around here), figured I'd go ahead and give SWVA a wider berth in case some more geography zealots jump up in here lol
Pros: We showed some real flashes that we can compete with real, talented teams nationally as long as we play a mostly clean game.
Cons: We, as a fanbase, cannot handle any uncertainty with a new coach. The number of fans ready to jump off the edge after losing to a team we were predicted to lose to is absurd.
Positive - Evans has yet to throw an interception
Negative - Evans has contributed to 1/3 of the fumbles lost this year.
Both snaps last night were not on him.
Not sure you can blame him for not being 7' 5" like Bucky on that second snap
I'm a little ignorant on the mechanics of how the snap is initiated. Does Evans initiate the snap, as in, does he tell the center when to snap? That's what I thought happened, which would put blame on Evans because the timing was way off. Seemed to be snapped late, like right when Carroll was in front of Evans.
For that I think it's 50% Chung, 45% Carrol and 5% Evans. It looks like Evans signaled for it but I'm guessing with the 3 of them doing this for the first time together didn't get timing right. But Carroll has to slow down if he sees that, and Chung has to snap at right time.
another issue that Mike Vick pointed out was Evans was standing too close to the LOS that between him receiving the snap and Carrol running by him he had no chance of getting him the ball.
It looked like a T-Rex (with short-arms) trying to get the ball and hand it off all in 1 fell swoop.
Pro: The VT crowd was so much louder than the much larger UT fanbase until the game got out of hand. Those guys don't yell on 1st and 2nd down, I guess? Also, that 'VT' by the Marching Virginians might be the best one they've ever done.
Con: Chevy commercials being piped over our band's sound and no Enter Sandman was disappointing.
Anything I could think of football related has been said by others. There are many reasons to be optimistic, but the team needs one of those meetings where they decide to take ownership of their game. We'll get there.
I'm positive we need to cut down on fumbles and negative yardage from penalties.
Positive: Our offense moved the ball effectively all game long.
Negative: Our offense moved the ball effectively all game long for UT.
Positive -
We may have been the better team. We have an offense that looks legit when we hold onto the ball and don't have stupid penalties. It definitely feels like we're heading in a good direction.
Negative -
Apparently the team had their worst practices so far on Tuesday and Wednesday. The leadership isn't there yet with this being a young team. Coach Fuente mentioned how as soon as we had that first fumble the team started to panic and press.
The penalties, from Mook to Clark to Motu to Ekanem (I still can't find how Teller's first block was illegal after reading the rule over and over. It was inside the tackle box) bothered me more than the fumbles.
Biggest Negative -
Behavior of the Hokie fans around me. The guys behind us were embarrassing and made me not want to cheer. You don't have to scream obscenities the entire game...at the other Hokies around you. And kudos to the BMS staff for immediately removing the moron who chucked a full beer bottle down the stands.
Quick disclaimer, my seats were so bad I could barely see the jumbotron so maybe my takeaways are flawed (quick sidebar, whoever was working the cameras used on the screens must have been drunker than me. It seems like it was all over the place).
Some general thoughts first: The 1st quarter showed what we can have when the team is firing on all cylinders, we came out on fire. The next 3 showed what happens if we lose focus, we're not good enough to overcome a few key mistakes and we're screwed when we make lots of them (like almost everyone else). I'd also like to say that this spectacle actually lived up to the hype. The crowd was fantastic and I had some great experiences tailgating. They screwed up the enter sandman routine with the entrance but the national anthem was insane. There was a moment where the anthem was being sung, there was a flyover, there were fireworks, there were flags in the stands, flags on the football field, which was in a NASCAR stadium, with race cars on the track, and a cannon being fired. It was the most over-the-top 'Merican thing I've ever seen. And it was awesome. I heard about a few scary moments at gates 8/9 getting into the stadium but other than that BMS seemed to pull this thing off smoothly.
Pros: Noting new to add here. Our offense seems to have a legit identity that will work with commitment from the team and I think the Bud/Fuente marriage has proven it can work.
Cons: I'm worried about the lack of leadership on the team. We kept making dumb penalties and it appeared we straight up quit in the 4th quarter. The fumbles hurt, but that is a lack of concentration. The penalties seemed more of a lack of discipline, which I think is worse. It also doesn't seem like we have any kind of downfield passing game that makes a defense think twice about stacking the box. If that doesn't' change I'm concerned about our ability to keep moving the football over the course of the season.
I noticed the camera thing as well. I figured it was because a lot of the cameras were really far away and using large lenses. Your normal image stabilization algorithms/physical devices can't function the same way at large distances. For a still shot, it's hard to tell the difference because your lens can more or less make up for it. But for motion, any slight shift gets magnified like crazy through a zoom lens.
Thanks for the response, certainly seems like a plausible reason. You've at least confirmed there was a real issue and it wasn't caused by my BAC.
Positive-> 1st Quarter and then the last drive of the game.
Negative-> ball security and body language on offense 2nd and 3rd quarter.
Probably repeating what someone else already said, but:
Positive: We have an offensive identity. My biggest complaint about our lost decade (and a half) was that we didn't know who we were on offense. We tried a little of this and a little of that and none of it worked. Now we know who we are and what we want to do, we just need to focus on doing it better and more consistently. That will take time, and likely a couple of recruiting classes, but you can SEE it now, unlike the clown show we witnessed ever since that fateful day in December, 2001.
Negative: We are an undisciplined football team. We took stupid penalties on offense and defense. We missed a FG and our punt game stinks. Our best OL has been benched repeatedly for actions on and off the field. We've made more jokes about lost fumbles and loluva's spring game than the number of fans at loluva's last three spring games combined. "We had a bad week of practice." The team couldn't recover momentum after the first big turnover. I don't know what the answer to all these issues is, it might just be time, but I hope Fuente figures it out quickly.
At the end of the day if we can address the turnover issues and stabilize the OL, this is a team that will make some noise in the ACC-C this year. I'm optimistic that our O will put up points on everyone and the D looks very good, erratic LB play aside. What we can't do is lose to Tennessee twice like we did boyzee. I think we bounce back this week, then redeem ourselves against ECU and head into the meat of the conference schedule with some momentum. If we can go 2-2 against Pitt/UNCheat/Miami/ND, I think this team might just hit the over and go 9-3, but 8-4 still feels right. And for Fuente's first year, that's not bad at all.
Pro - It's the preseason.
Con - Not having more than one pro to shout out Mook, our DTackles, Chuck Clark, Shai, Travon, and Ken Ekanem.
Pro - Turnovers cost us the game and those can be fixed.
Cons - We lost on "the big stage" to an SEC team that we could have beat.
Pro: continues to be a trend of improved tackling.
Negative: B1G refs? Punting? Alternate Jersey/Neutral Site/National Audience game script followed?
I didn't see the improved tackling. Hard to judge against UTjr with monsters at qb and rb though.
Can I have more than one of each? Whatever I do what I want.
Bad:
3. Penalties. In person through my Franzia haze and not being able to see the field well enough to distinguish, it felt like some were BS homer calls. But ultimately this is due to being undisciplined, sloppy, and unfocused. We have got to clean it up mentally.
2. Fumbles, duh. Again this is indicative of being undisciplined, which is inexcusable, and perhaps some fumble-itis. Cam does not have a history as a fumble machine. Both are fixable, and I expect this to change because really, we have no other option.
1. Lack of discipline. If you listen to Fuente speak, this isn't entirely surprising - he mentions accountability and execution a lot, and it seems he's always been aware that some of our strings are loose. Again, this must be fixed and it's entirely on him and our senior leaders to demand better. The players spoke of sloppy practices and I hope they enjoy the goddang stadium stairs they better be running this week and again until morale improves. Lunch as been cancelled due to lack of hustle. Deal with it.
Good:
3. Presentation. If this was Master Chef, Gordon Ramsey would be praising our just beautiful pot pie that is freaking raw on the inside. The uniforms, team, program, band, university looked great and were high energy. I hope we keep that up.
2. Accountability. In postgame, players and coaches alike stood up to take responsibility for the multiple and varied failures of the night. I hope these boys take ownership as individuals, units, and a team to pick 1-2 things and improve to perfection every day, every practice, every week. This is the key to creating a disciplined football team, which must be our top priority right now.
1. OUR OFFENSE HAS OFFENSE, YOU GUYS. We had four hundred (400) yards of offense. Is that good? Did we break it? I don't even know because I cannot remember having an offense that produced. Get everything else high and tight, and our offense is a force to be reckoned with.
I am very, very disappointed in our performance on Saturday but very, very excited about the direction in which we are heading. Even my brother who has very begrudgingly tried to make himself support us for over a decade texted me "You guys won me over. This venue and the uniforms and the new exciting offense is all just fantastic. Your team is no longer boring as fuck." He's right; we have left our anemic offenses in the past and are no longer boring as fuck. So let's clean it up and let's fucking go.
Positive: We looked like a complete football team for the first quarter and despite the fumbles had flashes of a complete team throughout the game.
Negative: Defense gave up too many yards after contact to Hurd. I know he's a stud but we are in for long games if we tackle Hood and Conner like that. Interior line shuffling is boneheaded, regardless of who has better practices. Didn't give the ball to the best player on the field, Isaiah Ford, every drive multiple times. Absolutely mind boggling how underutilized he was when trying to make a comeback.
Negative: Not having this around in practice:
Positive: The energy, excitement, dedication, and passion of #HokieNation was incredibly palpable through social media and the TV coverage. The offense flashed signs of pure brilliance and ended up with 400 yards of offense (CRAZY!) and that was beautiful to see. These things put together created an amazing atmosphere for the Manhattan Hokies game watch we hosted with over 150 in the house. Even with the things we need to fix (ball security, focus, discipline) it's positive to see more people excited and 'showing up' again after a frustrating couple of years.
positives.......we moved the ball very well ...very well, can see offense developing into something really good!
negatives......Other than the obvious, Penalties!!!!
Pros: Defense looks capable of carrying the load of a sluggish offense, conversely, offense looks anything but sluggish. Less the turnovers, you get a feeling that this team could be really solid nearing seasons end, barring substantial injuries. They do have a lot of talent on either side of the ball, you just can't win without ball security.
Cons: Turnovers, and moreso, embarrassing themselves in primetime via turnovers. That ain't good for crootin'. Even my local high school's team, which passes less than 10 times a game never coughs it up more than 2 or 3 time a game. We have a hit a season's worth of fumbles in 2 damn games, one of which to an FCS defense. That was a demoralizing loss since we handed UT an easy win. I could have salvaged some self-worth out of a defeat, but not one like that.
Also Punting, that was pathetic. Anywhere in 4th and short past the 50 yard line, we might as well go for it. I suppose I never read into the '5th year for AJ Hughes' campaign/jokes as well as I should have. Ludwig is miserable, so I can't imagine how bad the other guys who competed must have been.
OT, I wonder what the site traffic looks like before, during, after a loss like this. Do the site admins look at this at all? Anything they'd publish?
Speaking for myself, I had a tough time navigating to TKP come Sunday, onward. I was pained by every friend and neighbors friendly inquiry like "Hey hokiesamsquanch, how'd your Hokies do last night", as I try to make a lighthearted joke about the #chokies, escape additional questions, run back to my home and commence sobbing. Frankly, I only came today only to do the bitching summed up in my 'Cons' and will then return into a ~2 day hiatus until I bring myself to get excited enough for BC and ACC play.
I've seen several people mention punting and while it's not up to the standard the AJ set over the last few years, it's no where near as bad as it was when Danny Coale had to take over the job a couple years ago. If you take out one rugby style punt that bounced backwards off of a Tenn player, Ludwig averaged 39.75 yards per punt, and only one of his punts was returnable:
38 yards, fair catch at Tenn 10
13 yards, rugby style punt hit Tenn player and bounced backwards, recovered by Tenn
43 Yards, 14 yard return to Tenn 42
37 yards, fair catch at Tenn 33 (15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty on Peoples)
41 yards, downed at Tenn 33
Just to mention a few that I haven't seen mentioned before:
- I'm really excited about both the offensive and defensive lines. Overall, much better play on the OL than we've seen in the past and the DL looks vintage VT to me. I love how they collapse the pocket. Great DT depth. I'm suprer excited about the defense.
- McM and McK looked good in the backfield, and more than Liberty, I liked how Foo got in a good rhythm with the tailbacks. Rogers was used less but more effectively as well. Very happy about that.
Finally, the one big con:
- Another Charlie Brown kicking the football at VT reclaiming relevance. That's all we are playing for here. Become relevant again. In the past few years, you've seen TCU reclaim it out of nowhere, MSU and Clemson push into the top tier, UNC reinvent themselves, Iowa (!) become something that someone cares about. VT can do it too, but Saturday night was some collateral damage to our brand. We need to go away for two weeks in games people won't watch against BC and ECU and get better. Then go surprise UNC in a game that is in the middle of their toughest stretch of the season. Then take out Miami at home on that Thursday night. If we do our work, we can be relevant again by October.
I was psyched about our OTs but the interior got worked in pass pro.
Yeah, we need to find the three guys on the inside we are going to roll with.
I'm not upset to see Chung in there, Gallo has never been a world-beater. At least we have enough bodies for a competition.
I agree with your comment on VT's relevance to a degree...
The next 4 games were going to be important for us regardless of the result against UT for this season, and ultimately in my mind national relevance. If we win our next 4, we head into nationally televised showdown with Miami at 5-1 (3-0) and in the drivers seat to win the division, giving us another chance to show people we can actually play.
My point is if we had won in Bristol and go 2-2 or even 3-1 in the following month, we're back where we were after OSU in 2014 (a nice win but not going to have an impact nationally). All those teams you listed as now being relevant have won their conference or at the very least won their division (and i think most people are waiting Iowa and UNC to repeat before giving them respect/relevance).
That being said
is very true and can't be emphasized enough
I agree with what you posted, but I believe it will only regain us relevance in the ACC.
To become nationally relevant, we would have to win ACCCG and/or play in a top 25 bowl game, and then repeat that in some form or fashion.
Positive: Evans looks like he belongs at quarterback.
Negative: This might make Lawson consider transferring.
Going to make mine off the field since they would just echo what everyone else has said.
Positive: Made some awesome new Hokie friends tailgating.
Negative: The blatant UT homerism of everyone running the show at the game.
One really good PRO:
the KR after they scored their 31st point.
Some gif experts please post....the best pancake by Timmy....it was the best thing I saw all night....
Thanks to whoever can post that....It is around 2:09:30 on the hokietape on youtube....
I dont think anyones mentioned this yet:
Positives:
Some things to work on:
I appreciate Loeffler and his work ethic while he was here, but personally, I hope we embarrass him Saturday so badly they start questioning how long his tenure at BC will last.........
Maybe it's just me that I look at your negatives, compare to the positives, and wonder just how good we will be when we are consistent.
No need for long posts here. Cut out the stupid penalties, turnovers and focus for 60 minutes instead of standing up on benches after you go up by 14 points and start celebrating and waving towels like you have already won the game.