The Hokie offensive line is leaner, meaner, and hopefully better in 2013. Photo credit www.twitter.com/coachgrimey
While the likely rotation came into focus last week, Coach Jeff Grimes made it official yesterday on his twitter account, announcing Jonathan McLaughlin, Caleb Farris, David Wang, Andrew Miller, and Laurence Gibson as the starting offensive line for the Alabama game. Most attention has been focused on McLaughlin, who will be the first true freshman under Frank Beamer to start at left tackle for the Hokies.
As I noted in my scrimmage analysis last week, this starting five was effective in pass protection after an early breakdown and effectively executed zone blocking with the proper footwork and head position when running inside and outside zone's late in the scrimmage. David Wang and Andrew Miller both looked quick and kept their feet chopping after initial contact. Caleb Farris was effective. Jonathan McLaughlin struggled a bit with a power bull rush early from JR Collins, but has proven to be an effective run blocker and had two nice pick ups on stunts. Laurence Gibson is an outstanding athlete who can seal the edge and proved to be the most effective tackle blocking James Gayle in the spring and fall camps.
Depth is a huge concern. Brent Benedict is a powerful option at either guard position, but continues to be somewhat limited with quickness. Matt Arkema struggled mightily as a backup center, but is the only other interior lineman with experience. Augie Conte was brutalized by Gayle off the edge in the public scrimmage, but worked his way into the starting group before suffering a minor injury. Parker Osterloh is huge, but is getting his first true offensive line work after playing tight end. Wyatt Teller is supremely talented, but is a neophyte in terms of learning all the tricks of the trade at tackle.
Grimes use of multiple lineups and moving players to different positions may have been a head scratcher initially, but he looks like a genius now. Despite a lack of depth, he has a clear contingency plan on the offensive line, which I believe will look like this:
- If Jonathan McLaughlin is injured, Laurence Gibson will move to left tackle and Augie Conte will play right tackle.
- If Caleb Farris is injured, Brent Benedict will play left guard.
- If David Wang is injured, Farris will move to center and Benedict will play left guard.
- If Andrew Miller is injured, Benedict will play right guard.
- If Laurence Gibson is hurt, Augie Conte will play right tackle.
Alabama will be a huge challenge for this inexperienced group. The Tide use variable fronts, exotic stunts and blitzes, and have more size, speed, and athleticism than any defensive front on the schedule. If the Hokies can effectively run the football, it limits the ability of the defense to dial up those blitzes and it is much easier to pass block with effective play action. David Wang will have the challenge of engaging and turning the Alabama nose tackles, and then passing them off to the backside guard and getting to the second level to block an elite talent like CJ Mosley. Meanwhile, those guards have to get push on the nose tackle to allow the center and tackle a clear path to the second level. Expect the Hokies to use some motion and bootleg to cause the defense to hesitate and give the offensive line group an extra split second to get proper head position and drive the Tide defenders laterally.
Comments
Good thing they'll always have a great defense to practice against. Grimes already seems to be applying a real coaching methodology to his line. Please, no more injuries!
Real glad to see little wang there at the center position. Kid is the whole package and has worked his butt off to overcome his injuries and earn the keystone spot
Probably the first time anyone was glad to see a little wang
It's.... it's not the size that counts....
That's NOT what she said.
Not at all....
Uh oh. I guess I'll have to hide behind the horse facade.
Is Farris wearing camo crocs? If so, that is awesome.
Farris used to work the drive-in window at the McDonalds in beautiful Fairfield, Va.
So, yeah, he's probably got camo crocs. That's how Rockbridge rolls.
"Lawrence Gibson is starting? That's a terrible idea." - Curt Newsome.
Not sure this line up does so good against our first opponent. No experience on the corners and light scrimmaging this fall? I would think the youngsters would need a lot of game like situations only found in a scrimmage. But secrecy is more important than optimal development for the 2 freshmen starting tackles?
Also not sold on the best 5 are on the field. Shouldn't experience be weighed heavily? I would want returning starters on the field. Sometimes the arrogance of "the old way" has no relevance to "the new way" distorts logical thinking.
I would not want to be either starting tackle. Looks to me like there is no way they have even closely been adequately prepared. Maybe they learn quick and become effective for ACC play.
While experience is important, they are being placed where they fit best. As we saw during the Spring and Fall, nearly every lineman played every position at some point as Grimes tried to find his top 5. Experience is thrown out the window as they learn new schemes, techniques, and plays. It's about what 5 players form the best wall to protect the QB and then push the DL back and make holes for our RBs. I have a hard time thinking that any combination of 5 players on our team would stop Bama's defense, but these guys are the top players capable of holding their own. I think we will be more than impressed by the new faces.
Can't replace game expericence. Due to light scrimmaging who really knows the most capable 5 in a gamelike situation? Is the basis how they look in drills? Some players look like #$&* in drills but are gamers. No knowing what we have yet really.
My opinion is that if you haven't showed it in 8 weeks of practice between Spring and Fall camp (not sure that's the exact number) then you don't deserve a starting spot. Gamer or not, practice hard, play hard.
It is all about how a player reacts to game speed and game pressure. Some can't handle it. Some thrive on it. The only way you can duplicate is through a scrimmage. Light scrmmages = limited insight into a player's performance in a game setting.
Some don't rachet it up on game day. Some do.
Have you been in a football practice before? Every practice is a scrimmage. The guys on our defense aren't walking through the motions against them. Every single day these guys line up and go against a live DL after the individual drills. Game experience will help with some nerves but after the first snap nerves are gone. This is a whole new system so experience playing from last year isn't the same as them being returning starters in the same system.
Grimes pushed these guys to find out who can hack it and who can't. He found the guys that fit his scheme the best and he knows better than anyone. Our lack of depth is concerning and how good these guys are is a different argument but I can't see how anyone of us could say he didn't take his best 5 and put them out there. The OL is a unit, not 5 individuals. Guy A might be a better blocker in drills but on the field with the other 4 guys, he might not work as well.
Where are you getting this whole "light scrimmaging" idea? Beamer himself said there had been more good-on-good scrimmaging this fall than he's ever done. We've had 2 open scrimmages and 2-3 closed scrimmages, not to mention however much team work they do during a normal practice. Jeff Grimes is a good coach. These kids will be ready to go (at least to a certain extent) and they'll continue to improve as the season goes on.
We had several guys starting on the line last year that had more "game experience." And yet....
So, who is the experienced player who is getting left out? The only guy who has played a snap is Benedict, and he doesn't have the wheels to play tackle. If you think he is better than Farris or Miller, then that is a debate to be had, but otherwise I am not sure where these experienced guys come from.
My point is this starting 5 has hardly a live snap together, some no snaps individually, especially competitvely, so I see the group being fluid. I believe there is a lot to learn yet about personnel. Practice is different than game day....A lot different.
Opening against 'Bama presents the maximum challenge. Not a team out there any better on Defense.
Benedict has 7 starts under his belt and played tackle in HS. Might be a better Tackle option, and definitely is going 3 deep. I thought he showed signs of being really good last year. I say his wheels are better than you give him credit.
Benedict had to drop weight because his feet were too slow to play Guard. How would he be quick enough to play Tackle against elite pass rushers? Benedict was one of our better interior linemen last year but it is a different scheme, we aren't man blocking anymore. The first step is so critical now and if he is slow with it then he will be ineffective.
O-line inexperience, depth, and "gelling" issues are rampant in college ball, but at least our guys have an edge when dealing with this while preparing for Bama...the D that they face daily in practice is pretty good in their own right. Not every team has that luxury.
If you read Grimes most recent comments in the Bitter Blog, he is saying the same thing I am, or at least somewhat. No telling how these 2 tackles are going to react to the pressure and the live game situation. I am paraphrasing, but it is the same point I've been trying to make. With an experienced lineman off the field, he becomes more and more attractive at Tackle or any line position as game time creeps forward. I say play Benedict at Tackle, you know have the best 5 lineman on the field then, and we know for sure he won't puke all over the field or himself.
One word no one has used in this forum yet will tell how well the Hokies play. INTIMIDATION. How will the Hokies respond to the 'Bama attempts to intimidate right from the beginning? I would want experienced players on the field that know what that is all about. Ever watch a 5000 dollar claimer run in an allowance race? It could be champion at that level and then puke all over itself. Why?
Intimidation!
No one knows how these guys would play in their first game you are correct. They are playing their first college game at OT. Benedict would be playing his first college game at OT. Your arguement is that because a guy has played in a game before, he should be on the field even if he isn't a better player. By your standard our DL should be playing OL since they have game experience. Game experience isn't as important as system experience. All of these guys have the same amount of system experience. It doesn't matter if Benedict played last year because its all new. It doesn't matter who is lined up on the other side of the line of scrimmage if a guy does what he has been taught. I want the guys who learned the system the best and performed the best in practice out there, not the guy who played more last year.
Benedict. Is. Too. Slow. To. Play. Tackle.
You don't think the starters have been put through "game like situations" in practices or the closed scrimmages? The number of people who have watched a guy play doesn't have much bearing on his ability as a player (outside of maybe dealing with crowd noise, which an open scrimmage or spring game isn't going to provide a worthwhile simulation anyway).
Also seeing how Grimes moved the lineman around to EVERY SINGLE POSITION, I don't see how you wouldn't think the best 5 are on the field- that was his exact goal with that exercise. Essentially what you're saying is, "I don't trust Grimes judgment," which seems crazy considering he's seen these guys practice and play much more than any of us have and he's an established professional offensive line coach.
There isn't exactly a highly experienced stock of lineman riding the pine behind the starting five. Farris, Wang, and Miller all have starting experience and it's not like All-ACC players have been benched in favor of those guys. As for tackles, what exactly are you even asking for? There aren't any tackles on the roster with significant experience, so it's absurd to criticize them. And what are you basing the "there is no way they have even closely been adequately prepared" statement on? A picture in a blog? I'm sorry, but I can't stand to read this type of post that is overly pessimistic and borderline insulting toward our guys when they busted their tales to earn starting jobs for this team. Of course we'd be thrilled to be stocked with all conference guys across the line and highly experienced backups filling out the 2 deep, but anyone who knows what's been going on with the OL this offseason knew that wasn't going to be the case. It's ridiculous to already start harping on these guys not being good enough, not having the experience, or not being prepared when everyone already knew we were facing a lot of challenges on the OL coming into this season.
I like that Grimes put them all over the line while he was trying to find the right guys to fit into the right spots. It's kind of like, "Guys, forget everything you ever thought you knew about playing on the line. We need to start over"
Let me put it this way.....McClauhlin is a freshman and Gibson a Junior, have not a snap between them from scrimmage, or have played much in even a srimmage, will be on the corners opening their college careers and protecting Logan from the "Bama pass rush. The 'Bama Dfense is arguably the best in the country and has the most physical players in the country. Oh...and Wang is at Center.
But Grimes has had everyone forget everything they have ever learned.....so we are Good.
Guess we will find out what they are made of come Saturday.
The way I think of it is that these same guys would probably be starting anyway in this same game but with a significantly inferior coach training them if changed hadn't been made.
A really big concern is the tackle position after the starters, who are completely unproven. Conte is not near ready.
There's a concern at nearly every position on the field. Can our OL do anything? Will the DL be the one from the beginning or end of the year? Will the 2 Fr. corners that are going to start be able to handle it? What are we going to do about the Whip? And so on and so on.
I say fuck it. Bama has questions too and everyone's answer is that "they have 5* to step up next". Well good for them, but that means nothing once they are on the field. You can spend your life worrying about everything or you can go out and just fucking do it.
Depth along the offensive line is a huge concern. I'd say Wyatt Teller isn't ready yet either considering he's been practicing at tackle for, what, a week now? So how are you criticizing the starting tackles when you yourself are saying the backups aren't near ready? What could Grimes have done, or what would have you done, so differently that would have this group prepared for Bama? It seems to me you're all doom and gloom bellyaching about something that has to do with the shortcoming of prior coaching and recruiting at the offensive line and nothing to do with Grimes and his preparation of the players he had to work with for this upcoming season.
Comment removed due to my lack of scrolling skillz. Sorry.
And you know this because you were in the closed scrimmages? Playing in the scrimmages doesn't give them experience. Practice gives them the experience. Go to a football camp before blurting out that they didn't play in scrimmages so they havent even seen live action basically.
We all know what we are up against with Bama but we believe that our guys will come out to play, not concede because they have us beat on paper.
The joke was actually that the previous staff hadn't taught them anything, so there was nothing to forget, and anything they had learned would have been something not worthy of remembrance anyway.
I make no secret of the fact that I know little to nothing about actual football. But I loooove poking at our former coaches.
Agreed. Having been taught nothing of value makes it easier for Grimes to wipe the slate clean and start over. That's the ONLY good thing about our previous OL coaching.
Horse, just be careful you don't use Wang to poke at our former coaches. He's sensitive.
Curt Newsome, you're drunk, go back to JMU
Clearly we would be in better shape if Newsome were a better coach and had done a better job of playing talent and potential over tenure on the line, then our raw and inexperienced backups wouldn't be so inexperienced... but... we know how that went. Sometimes being in coaching (or management) comes down to making the least bad decision with the tools and resources that are available.
Was it the resources thay had that were bad or were they implementing a really bad system? My opinion is their evaluation of talent was good but they didn't place their resources in a position to succeed.
I'm not sure there's a better alternative for VT short of sneaking Duane Brown and Blake DeChristopher onto the team and hoping no one notices.
"This is what offensive line coaches live with: the notion that for every five simple circles drawn on a board, there are a nearly infinite number of possible threats looming out in the theoretical white space."
Every Day But Saturday: The Business of Protection
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2013/8/29/4669874/the-business-o...
I have faith that Officer Miller will lay down the law on the right side of the line.
Jeff Grimes still looks like he could put on some pads tomorrow.
Seriously. For a second I was thinking "why are there six starting linemen?"
He is extremely impressive. if you forced me to pick the next VT coach from the current coaching staff, I'd pick Jeff Grimes. He just has this confidence about him.
FEAR THE BEARD.
Gibson is HUGE.