Some press conference notes:
http://blogs.roanoke.com/andybittervirginiatechfootball/2013/09/03/hokie...
Forums:
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Some press conference notes:
http://blogs.roanoke.com/andybittervirginiatechfootball/2013/09/03/hokie...
Comments
When the receivers start catching passes on a regular basis, our offense will be fine. WCU needs to be a confidence-builder for the team, as a whole. Hopefully, the 2nd String gets some meaningful reps Saturday.
Interesting to see Manning end up at Marshall when it seemed a lot of his problems were about being away from home. He is a good kid and hope to see him do well.
Also loved Collins' take on asking to be on special teams.
I think the Special Teams owes us (and themselves) a few big plays this weekend.
"I like to warm up with some stretches, getting on the bike, and knocking the shit out of people on kick-off duty."
-J.R. Collins
I'm excited to see this.
This is awesome. Put these hard-nosed playmakers on the field and tell them their only job is to find the guy with the ball and hit him. Hard. Let's go, Beamerball.
Good now we can just destroy the return man instead of giving up a big play!
Inspiration:
Greatest. Gif. Ever.
Dadi and Kyle as gunners would be awesome on punt team.
If only they were on special teams on Saturday..that's right, we couldn't move the football anyway :)
I fully expect Dadi Nicolas to destroy someone if they put him in one of the gunner spots.
Thought process of opposing team's punt returner: "Just a linemen running at me, I have time to catch the ball and make a move before he gets to me" *catches ball-boom-muffed punt recovered by Hokies*
Kyle Fuller as gunner is another good fit, because he can tackle in the open-field like no joke. However, I'm not really going to harp on the coaches stocking the ST up with young players. We did lose A LOT of the roster since January.
Im just going to go out here and do my own job, Thomas said today, acknowledging that some passes could have been placed better. If [the receivers] are not where theyre supposed to be, Im going to just keep moving forward, keep doing my own thing.
While I am a Logan Thomas fan, I'm not a fan of his quote above.
Yeah, I've never been in love with his quotability. I am most in love, however, with his competitiveness.
I wonder if he's just not quite articulating what's going on in his mind. There are things he can control about himself - decisions, timing, accuracy, footwork, all of that. He can't make the WRs be in the right spot or catch the ball. He can be a leader and try to get guys going (and I saw an effort to do that on the field against Bama), but he also has to realize that it's the job of the coaching staff to fix the WRs' fundamentals, not his.
Doctor...I concur.
That. I think also there is a combination of inexperience and a completely new play book. The receivers ran incorrect routes, dropped passes and in general, underperformed. Combine that with the possibility that Logan may have called a few incorrect plays because of the new offense and things can get frustrating. Each game it should get better--receivers catching more, the offense gets in gear...etc. No way logan gets worse than 5/26 for 59 yards and 1 int.
Yeah, the thought crossed my mind that the WR issues may have been a partial result of the fast installation of most of the offense in fall practice. A lot of material in a short amount of time. That kind of thing has a way of tying player's feet up by thinking too much. Even so, when the ball hits you in the hands, you should catch it.
For sure. It just occurred to me we didn't see Logan overthrow any one. That one pass that was about 20 yards and a bit too high for stanford can't really be considered overthrown since if it was lower it would have been picked...but last year I was so used to logan overthrowing all the short routes. He didn't really do that this game.
The only one I can recall was the one where Knowles was burning someone deep and Logan beat him by a step or two. I saw someone else say that if you are going to miss Knowles on a route like that, try to miss him deep. He'll be past the DB and with his speed there's a decent chance you won't overthrow him anyway.
I counted a couple more overthrows:
Pass # -- Timestamp in Dozer's video -- player targeted -- description of play
9 --7:04-7:05 -- 80 - Knowles -- Play you mentioned
11 --8:20-8:25 --18 Coles --Overthrown on 3rd and 1 roll out (could also be considered a throw away though)
21 --17:17-17:26 -- 80 - Knowles -- Throw into end zone, Defender actually had a step on Knowles.
22 --17:31-17:36 --5 Stanford --Pass too high because of LB in passing lane
I also thought at least two balls were under thrown to Knowles, the one that hit him in the facemask (Pass #17,on the video you can see that he had a step on the defender, but has to slow down) and a corner route into the endzone where Knowles does a good job of turning into a DB to prevent an INT (Pass #13). Overall I had 6.5 incompletions attributed to bad throws, 2 attributed to throwaways, 1 under thrown check down as Logan was nearly sacked and was falling that could be considered a throwaway,
I was serious, it still should have been caught but if you watch the video, Knowles has a step on the closest defender at Tech's 42, but 10 yards later at Bama's 47, Knowles has his weight back as he is slowing down and the defender has caught up with him. Here are the screen caps that I took for when I was making the same assertion in another post.
Knowles with a step on the defender:
Knowles slowing down so the ball can catch up to him:
As i said, Knowles should have made the catch, but didn't have good body position, because he had to slow down and wait for the ball. My thought is that he would have been better off turning around and trying to meet the ball at its highest point, instead of trying to catch it like it was out in front of him on a deep route. I had this incompletion as 50/50 between Logan and Knowles.
Call me crazy but wasnt that what Beamer was getting on Moorehead about during the Tech Football show?
You're crazy, man.
But...you're also correct. I remember that as well. Beamer was getting on Moorehead to tell the receivers to go up and get the ball at the highest point. Verbatim.
Surely Moorehead is telling his players this anyway, and Beamer was just being nit-picky old boss guy. (I hope.)
Moorehead's response was also, "I need quarterbacks," to which Frank replied, "I know." I think the exchange indicates that there was so much work going on for the QB's with drills and mechanics and such that there was little time spent developing on-field chemistry. I think that's also a product of Loeffler having to rebuild our QB's, starting with Logan. Hopefully with some of the mechanics down, these guys can get some reps with one another rather than just machines pitching balls.
I meant it like, you didn't see any 5 yard passes go about 20 feet too high. But yeah, he did have some other overthrows.
I agree whole heartedly. In fact, I love the work ethic that Logan has, and think that he's on top of everything.
Just think he might benefit from kevin Costner coaching him up on some cliches for the interviews.
Did someone say practice?
For as much flack AI gets about this rant, thats exactly what he was going for. Every teammate has a job to do and it is up to them and the coaches to make sure they get it right. LT3 is a QB, not a WR, so all he can do is put the ball in a spot for his receivers to catch the ball. It's up to the WRs to put in the work/receive coaching/etc that will help them do their job.
Logan Thomas is not a selfish quarterback. A selfish quarterback rips into his receivers on the field after they drop the ball like ours did the other night. I think a commentator made a note of this. Specifically, he didn't get on Coles after the INT like I saw McCarron do to his offensive line a few times.
I agree
So are we going to see more triple option? I was hoping we would play more power run...Just confused with the Beamer qoute at the bottom...time will tell
I'm not sure if a college team can handle as much multiplicity within an offense, but the Redskins mixed in some triple option the past season without making it much of a feature. I think the Cincinnati game saw it used the most, I guess based on how they thought the could attack the defense. So I could see it turning up occasionally for the Hokies, especially if Loeffler thinks it can spring Edmunds for more 77 yarders. If we can successfully implement power runs, option football, backfield shenanigans, and have receivers hold onto the ball, this offense could get scary in a hurry.
I agree. I think we'll see the option used much as it was Saturday. A couple plays early (and maybe one or two more later) to loosen up the defense, get guys reading fake keys, and setting things up for a power run right up the middle.
I think this was the first loss that I can't blame Logan for offensive woes. Steps in the right direction
Special teams is now special again! The top d folks will wear the acc out!