I almost went to twitter with this first as a way of sparking interest in the film review. I tweeted last night that the most justifiable criticism of Cornelsen was that his play-calling became "too cute" against big talented defenses, especially when the simple stuff is working. I went into the film review expecting my column to be a complete hit piece.
There are some criticisms that are fair, particularly the lack of throwing the ball on first down even when Miami was completely disrespecting any threat from the Hokies running game by putting a safety down in the box. There were some quarterback draw calls where the film shows that Miami clearly was more concerned about the draw than the Hokies wide receivers ability to separate and Jackson's ability to find them before getting hit.
At the same time, some of the third down calls, when slowed down and looked at on film, were magnificent play calls that were horrendously executed or didn't have "a finisher" with the ball in their hands.
Offensive line play was a different story. The lack of athleticism and range at both offensive tackle spots was incredibly evident tonight. I would have traded Osterloh's experience for the athletic ability to more effectively handle speed and get a hat on hat. TJ Jackson should have been playing left tackle, and if he wasn't because his practice performance isn't up to snuff (I have read rumors on different sites that Plantin would be the next option at LT instead of Jackson) then shame on him, because he is the most athletically suited option at the position with Nijman out.
Miami's stunts also created a bunch of busts up front, which took a bad situation (one unblocked defender with the safety in the box) and turned it into two and three unblocked defenders. Even an elite running back would struggle in those situations. This offense isn't explosive enough to win consistently against good defenses on third and longs.
I wrote in the Duke review where I touched on Miami that I thought VT matched up well. Defensively, tackling was bad. Otherwise, Miami was able to win the matchup with their slot receivers against VT's LBs and safeties consistently (Berrios had a couple of catches, Herndon could have had an even bigger night if Miami's staff had more confidence in Rosier as a thrower.) Just like Syracuse, the defensive line seemed to run out of gas much quicker (Settle's worst game as a starter) and the free hitters didn't do the job tackling at all. And despite all of it, the Hokies had every chance to come back and win this game because of many of the same flaws Miami had last year.
This one is going to fester a bit. Even though I don't think this team is elite, the schedule set itself up well for a Coastal title, and I really thought that Miami was vulnerable. .
Comments
Pretty close to what I was noticing as well, at first glance.
Fitting the gap was missing a bit or, just a step or 2 out of position. Their RB wiggled really well and wouldn't allow the reach to be a tackle and was able to get out of the grasp many times.
That's what was frustrating, the number of times they slipped out of grasp.
Couple times there were blatant holding calls on ends, while the QB then found a hole in the middle. I'm sure the non-holding calls were there for us too but I homered and did not notice them.
Thanks as always French.
I need this in tweet form please. Plenty of Hokies out there calling for Corns Head.
Getting the players prepared to execute his play calls is also part of his job.
It was hit or miss. Miami stunted a ton. When they picked it up (which was more often than they will be given credit for) there were some really nice holes. The RBs don't have enough lead in their pencil to make the free hitter miss when everything else works (with McMillian having one run where he made the safety miss and that was about it.) There were a good number of 5 yard runs that should have been big plays. There is a huge talent gap on offense right now. Now, go back to spring practice and if I told you that VT would have to beat a team with a half dozen really good speed rushers with Parker Osterloh and Kyle Chung at OT, what would you have expected to happen?
If you want to argue that personnel wasn't properly utilized, maybe that is fair. If you want to argue that a coach has to do a better job of preparing freshmen and role players who do not have comparable talent to handle better talent, that is much more difficult to measure.
My criticism is that I wanted to see Cornelsen put them in better position to win. Fuente acknowledged that they knew Miami was going to be in cover 1 the whole game. Trust your WRs to work slants and crossing routes in space and win battles. They didn't early. When they were forced to, those WRs didn't hold on to the ball (Grimsley, Clark etc.)
I can't emphasize enough how devastating Farley's absence has been. And, if Isaiah Ford had stayed, my goodness what a different feel this offense would have. Next season, this receiving corps is going to look radically different. Hazelton, Turner, and Farley are going to be much more viable threats to take the top off the defense.
Still need a RB for next year.
Need to find ourselves a grad transfer.
The coaching staff seems very high on Hazleton, so I'm excited about him.
The Farley injury was a killer. I'm not even talking about this year. I'm talking long term because he would have gotten a lot of experience this year to build off of for next season. Now he will still be learning the position and getting reps. Will he even be ready for spring ball? That could make it even more difficult for him if he can't play until fall camp.
Saturday night was extremely frustrating, but Fuente said that the skill positions would be a concern this season. He has been absolutely right. Cam has been great and Savoy has been a pleasant surprise. The rest of the guys are just inconsistent. They'll get there, but it will take time.
Also, how much do we miss Rogers? Keene has talent, but he obviously is not ready as a freshman.
I mean how many reps catching the ball can a coach give a player and expect him to catch the ball? You can't put a dropped perfect pass on the coach.
Or a perfectly-executed tunnel screen that ends with the WR losing a fumble. I think that one opened the floodgates.
Would've put us within one score I believe.... with fresh Uncle Mo after a sweet INT
I think that turnover hurt the most... And I know he's a freshman and all, but 2 hands on the football is taught from pee wee all the way up. Sure, it was a beautiful form hit. But that ball should not have popped out like it grew legs and jumped.
As for the two 4th and short calls- there is more to meet the eye there.
And I don't want to blindly defend Cornelsen. To me, there should have been way more passing on first down to try and loosen up the safeties. But, some of those 3rd and 4th down calls that seemed confusing at full speed were damn good calls. The worst one was the QB draw on 3rd and 7 in the 1st Q. That was dead to rights.
French, that first half seemed to have a bunch of straight up designed non option qb draws. What was the reason for that considering JJ is nowhere near fast enough to pick up the yardage.
Long answer is in the review. Short answer, I suspect it is an RPO where the numbers in the box determines the initial read and the coverage on his initial read determines if he throws or runs.
In our two biggest games this year, the talent differential has been on major display. At first I was really pissed about the play calling, but maybe it was that because the coaching staff isn't confident in the offenses ability to make plays. My guess is that they went with a plan that would minimize risk and hoped they would pop loose for an occasional good gain. Not a football expert, just a guy trying to rationalize what happened last night...we better hope we get some more talent in quick cause Richt is bringing it in by the truckload.
The talent disparity is evident. At the same time, I think our personnel and playcalling handcuffs us. It seems to me that the main objective of this years offense is "do no wrong;" essentially, just don't turn the ball over. When you go up against athletically superior teams with more depth, just playing it safe is not enough to win you a ballgame. I'm shocked at the lack of aggression in our game plan with these big games. We don't have an elite running back or offensive line, and our receiver depth is minimal, but I can't help but think the better athlete at QB is sitting on the bench this year. I like Jackson a lot, but I'm not sold on him as the QB this offense needs moving forward. The lack of a running threat from that position has really hindered us this year, and we simply aren't finding a way to make up for that loss in production.
Recruiting needs to improve if we want to be where we want to be. But poor execution and game planning in these prime time games certainly isn't going to help improve our perception to those recruits we need so desperately.
I think you missed French's tease. The play calling isn't a huge issue, it's minor and has to do with skill players not being able to do what's asked of them. So yes maybe Corn should change up some play calls, but for the most part he is calling plays that should work against what the defense is doing. Again the first two drives for Tech were not three and outs they gained first downs.
If the players aren't capable of executing the plays, the play calling needs to adjust. We hadn't been able to run the ball effectively all game and on 3rd down, Miami was constantly bringing pressure. Instead of running a quick slant or screen on 3rd and 5, we were still running JJ up the middle on an option. This occurred well into the 3rd quarter and hadn't really been effective all game. Miami was playing one-on-one on the outside all night. Why not a quick pass outside to Cam or Savoy? Make a single man miss, and we're in business. Instead, we continued to run JJ or Travon on slow developing plays into a box stacked with 8 or 9 guys.
Ok, what are you supposed to call when the WR gets hit by the snap on a jet sweep?
How far do you need to reduce that down?
Some days the dog bites you.
Personally I'd call for him to duck.
This comment right here is why TKPing is a thing.
Trying to play it cool and not laugh as coworkers are walking by.
So you cherry pick one play :rollseyes:
How many times did we run straight into line with an 8 or 9 man box? More than I can count. Why not get the ball out wide where there is a little more room and there are one-on-one blocking assignments?
The coaches could have called a better game. It's completely fair to admit that.
There are times I whole heartedly agree with that sentiment. I have harped over our performances against DE and ODU ad nauseam. In this case the loss of Nijman basically meant passing plays weren't going to happen.
Agree with the lack of any aggression and not thinking outside the box on offense. Heck, Miami ran 2 trick plays in their first drive alone. The play calls by Corn/Fu seemed so vanilla in the first half (especially the 1st quarter) with almost no passing game. IMHO, the Hokies had zero chance to beat the Canes by simply running the ball, when Miami was loading the box.
I just don't understand why our O coordinator likes to start games in such a conservative mode. Almost every game has seen a slow start, partly due to early conservative plays. I really like this new staff, but that aspect puzzles me.
Disagree completely. Just watch Fuente speak this entire season. They aren't calling conservative plays to start games.
Most of us suspected that Travon McMillian isn't our main back because of his pass blocking. On that one particular play in the first half (can't pinpoint quite when it was), he completely whiffed on the blitzing linebacker, and JJ had to eat it. I definitely think it's because of his pass blocking now or lack thereof.
Didn't he miss a block during our comeback in the acccg last year too? Pretty sure it was him, and the rusher forced Evans into a bad throw/int
At a glance yes, but he was put in a position where he had to block Boulware AND Kendall Joseph, there was no situation where that play didn't end poorly. McMillian was the last line of defense against two blitzing backers, he was in a lose-lose situation.
I saw Keene whiff a few blocks and chips too, but he is a true freshman and I can understand that happening. I am encouraged by the youth at the skill positions, but we need some big uglys to get the championship job done on offense. We should have had way more points.
Bud is still Bud. The defense busted a few big plays, which was Miami's game all year. But if you were to tell me Miami would have 28 total points after the busts and turnovers we had, I would take it.
All in all, i think we are about where we are supposed to be at this point in the Fuente regime. Patience is a cruel mistress.
Keene had a brutal game. Again, freshman.
If that's the play I'm thinking of, then I thought it was supposed to be a middle screen. Miami was bringing six rushers and it looked like everyone was supposed to chip their man, then set up for the screen. The problem was either that we needed to hold our blocks a split second longer in order to give Jackson time to set his feet, or that Jackson should have anticipated the rush better and set his feet earlier. Or maybe it was just that Miami's rushers were just too quick for us to get the play off as designed. Probably a combination of all three.
I had very little to complain about in the play calling. You can't not call the play you think will work because of the chance of a bad snap or pitch. We just played like a team full of freshmen at the worst possible moments.
This will be the worst offensive season in the Fuente years and we will still be top half or better on every ACC category.
I think we are averaging less than 5 yards per play in ACC play. And thats with us dumping on UNC. I've honestly been a bit disappointed with it, I know they're young but that's poor.
Opponent adjusted per-play metrics are not kind to this offense. Only a tick above Loeffler's shit shows.
Been painting all day and saw some tweets that the VT forums were not only calling for Corn's head, but people wanted to get rid of JJ. Was hoping that TKP wasn't on that list. I haven't read the game thread (don't have time to read 1,000 comments), but glad to see that people are more level headed on TKP or at least in this thread.
I'm not a football guru, but one thing that seemed obvious to me was Miami with 8 in the box and the safety coming up on the snap, on 1st down and we ran into the teeth of it. The ABC crew provided some perfect looks of the presnap formation. It's hard to run the ball when you have 6 blockers trying to block 8 defenders. I'm baffled that we aren't throwing on these downs (obviously something quick like a slant). Teams have been doing that for years and our O still doesn't seem to adjust.
Idiots drunk-post nonsense after a loss, then sleep it off.
What happened to going up tempo? Standing at the line and running the play clock down every play just knocks you out of rhythm. Beamer and company used to do it too. I know the point is to get the perfect play based on the defensive alignment, but it always seems to backfire.
The guys weren't executing when they were taking their time and trying to get it right.
Speeding everything up would not improve that.
I too was thinking about this. When he arrived, Fuente touted running an up-tempo offense where the defense gets tired out. Seems like we haven't seen much of it this year.
He doesn't have the horses. Last year, the offense was better with a MUCH simpler game plan. Why? Because the offense had vertical threats to take the top off the defense, and that opened everything else up. While Evans was huge in the running game, I think this year's version of Josh Jackson with the 2016 offense puts up significantly more passing production.
Thanks French!
Anyone else get the feeling that our first play from scrimmage should've gone for a TD? Travon got shoe string tackled by the safety I think it was.
Gotta land Ford in 19 or hope that Graham kid we landed is a stud.
Running backs have to win versus the unblocked man. We have not had a RB do that consistently since David Wilson.
IIRC first play from LOS last game was almost housed as well and stopped on the same manner.
Do we have anyone targeted to be that kind of back? Beck will be decent or at least fill the spot, but is anyone a step above?
devyn ford
He is a MUST GET for this coaching staff. An absolute MUST.
Yes, please.
French, this is my first week on the site, so just smack down my uninformed gibberish if this doesn't even resemble the same level of expertise as you; but I started thinking about this last night while I was still hurting from the loss; as fans we see conservative play-calling, but what if Fu-Corn is doing what they do best, putting the players in a position to succeed with the limited knowledge of the offense that they have, and/or limited skillsets they possess at this time.
Like take JJ for instance, we know he isn't the burner when it comes to QB draws or RPO's, so it's not so much that he hasn't run that much this year to ensure JJ stays healthy, but more so because Fuente knows that isn't a advanced skillset that he possesses, versus what Evans was able to do last year.
I was reading somewhere that Miami was essentially playing cover 1 a majority of the game, and forcing us to challenge that look, knowing that we lack the vertical threats in our current WR corps, this is what I'm speaking of, because we lack a vertical threat, an no one has that skillset just yet that translates to the field, we do what we can to excel at the "short to intermediate range." Unfortunately Miami has the athletes to counter that approach. I think more sideline to sideline play-calling would've helped loosen things up a little, especially when it comes to the LB's being out of position, like they're accustom to, but they were keeping everything in front of them, credit to them for doing that.
I'm hoping getting guys like Turner, a "healthy" Farley, and another year under the belt for the current young corps of receivers will fix this limited "range of attack."
I said it in another thread, this game was a reflection of the reality that we aren't where we want to be just yet, and that's not just the players who need growth, but that the team as a whole does (including the coaching staff, I'm looking at you Fuente for those 2, 4th down attempts instead of closing the gap in the score line after Slye hit a 50 yarder earlier in the game). This game was a difficult pill to swallow, if just because it seemed like after all the upsets over the last few weeks, we were in a perfect position to chase our own destiny, but such is life.
I'm hearing good things about the Drew Harris kid. He's tied up in clearinghouse right now though...
Not hating...please don't take it that way.. But Beck is a more explosive Coleman Fox. That's what he is. He is not a 25 carry ACC back and never will be. Hell, he may play WR in this offense anyway. All due respect- French is correct there is not a "david wilson/lee suggs" on the roster or currently committed to VT, unfortunately and given his scheme, I'm not sure coach Fu cares about that too much.
IMO...Shai McKenzie could have been that back..
But that ship has sailed.
FTFY
I agree that we do not have a back that can make defenders miss consistently, but Travon has started to look better and run harder recently. He looks more like he did in those games last year against Miami, Duke and Clemson when he had some runs that made you wonder why he isn't averaging 100 ypg. Overall he definitely needed to make more people miss, but I thought his production with what the O line was giving him, which was next to nothing most of the time, was respectable and showed why he deserves 15+ carries a game. I will say that I'm also probably being lulled into thinking this because I haven't seen David Wilson in so long that getting arm tackled has become the norm in Blacksburg.
Thanks again, French. Basically reaffirmed we that we have good coaches, good team (not elite), and need to round out some talent gaps.
I'm really worried about GT. First, they're going to be ready to play after losing to UVA. I think bouncing back from the Miami game which was emotionally and physically draining will be much tougher. Coupled with travel issues and a 14 hour return trip is going to put our team in a tough spot. We can't afford to come out flat to GT.
This game is going to be a huge test.
True.
GT stunk on ice last week in the rain against UVa. They'll be a different team this week.
We are going to get our asses kicked on Saturday- get ready for it. Unless PJ is asleep and Bud has Mook do the "Kyle Fuller mesh point" thing, we are going to get smoked by GT's running QB/running game. Settle/Walker are going to get cut constantly and that leaves.... issues...
Thank you for the film review French. One question I have is at the linebacker position. I have a feeling that Motu is out of position a lot and either gets taken out of the play or is very slow to react. Do you think we'll be better at linebacker next year and have more production?
if they can get lined up right, i think the next guy will at least be comparable right off the bat. both LBs stunk last night. Settle wasn't good. And the free hitters had their worst game of the year.
Why has our OL sucked for 16 years? Can someone answer this? It ALWAYS gets exposed against any decent defense. And there is always some excuse.. "we got behind on recruiting" Newsomes famous "they shouldn't be playing until they are RS juniors" nonsense, "They are too skinny/they are too fat" "3 OL coaches in 3 years", etc etc etc etc. Meanwhile Wisconsin, Pitt, BC routinely trot out good/great OLs- and I'm not even mentioning the top teams - Bama, etc. I just don't get it. Our OL sucks against a good team and has for 16 years. They got DESTROYED Saturday night- destroyed/not competitive. It has to be coaching.
I'm just as frustrated as you with that situation and I know it's not what anyone wants to hear, but I really think it's everything you mentioned above rolled into one.
I hope they attack it in recruiting like they are WR right now- pure numbers. I think we need to sign 5 6'04 or taller kids EVERY year that play OL or DL in HS that know the basics of zone blocking and can add weight with Hilgart and go from there. With 20 OL on the roster, 8 of them are bound to be able to "play" well for us.. and that is really what you need 8 good ones.. not 15. We have been too thin to find 8 unfortunately.
I think its known as selection bias. Maybe confirmation bias?
By paying close attention to the Hokies, our flaws are well known and obvious to us. We can all see what we're missing from becoming an elite team in all aspects of the game.
Then, because we don't pay close attention to other teams we tend to see/hear about the best efforts people are making on a weekly basis, or simply hearing about the teams that are great during any particular year. What we don't see/hear about is how Pitt and BC don't really have OL's that are above average this year, and Wisconsin has played a cake schedule so there's no way to tell if their OL is actually great or just above average.
Penn State's o-line got punished against an elite front in Ohio State, very similar to what happened to us vs Clemson. Florida State's o-line has been terrible for some time now. Even the elite teams struggle to recruit and develop the position. It's a hard thing to do, and while we should strive to be great, we as fans need to acknowledge it's a bit of a crapshoot.
I'll preface this by saying I'm very happy with the coaching staff and Cornelson is going to do big things here. They're great, they know what they're doing, and I hope they stick around for years to come. If we ever get to the recruiting level that Clemson/Miami are at, watch out. That being said, I personally felt we should have thrown the ball more coming out of the gate (I'm not football savvy enough to identify which down that should be like French). We attempted 4 passes (including one sack) on 3 possessions in the first quarter. While the first two drives were not three and outs, they only gained one first down each IIRC and we definitely didn't get into Miami territory. I doubt another couple passes wins us the game, but in hindsight I wish we had tried.
Early on in the Clemson game I saw one of our players (I think maybe Keene) run full speed at a Clemson LB for a block and not only get no movement, he literally got thrown back a yard or so. I laughed out loud, shed a tear into my beer, and knew right there we were not winning that game. They were bigger, faster, stronger at pretty much every position. I don't feel like Miami looked head and shoulders above us across the board like that.
In short:
Against Clemson: just got beat
Against Miami: not even in position (and while we kept fighting, the players just looked frustrated)
The point is, we have a very young team that has a lot of learning to do. We also have some talent discrepancies, but I think if the starters on Saturday night were all Juniors or Seniors with years of experience under their belts, we execute better and the game looks A LOT different. The youth is what it is right now. If we finish this season strong with another 10 wins and the only losses against a couple good, talented teams that's still improvement from last year. The coastal and ACC are only going to get tougher which is a good thing.
I think the real value of our coaches will be in preaching the 1-0 mindset this week and not allowing that loss to effect our next match up. It's going to be a challenge and we need to be focused in practice and ready to execute! GO HOKIES!
This is pretty close to my initial impression.
1. Lots of freshmen in their first away, night game against a top-10 opponent in an NFL stadium. They wet the bed. I would have too when I was a freshman.
2. High-risk, high-reward defense did exactly what it's expected to do: gave up a bunch of big plays, but still held the score to something manageable.
3. The play calling did not look great, but I'm guessing there aren't many plays in our book that don't require either run blocking or pass protection from the O-line.
I said this exact same thing yesterday. These coaches will prove their mettle if they can get a team that just lost a chunk of its goals ready to finish this season on a high note. Having to face GT is probably the worst scenario we could ask for though - players really need to be focused in practice this week.
Did Miami show any of that read option, before this game. I felt like that caught us by surprise, and I really didn't peg Miami to play that way at all.