Athlon does this every year. For the most part positive notes for the Hokies.
"Maybe it's just me, but I think Justin Fuente did the best coaching job in our league last year. They won nine games without a consistent run game. And his teams are all about dictating tempo with that run game. They want to impose their will on you. If you're averaging less than four yards a carry, there's no way you should be winning nine games."
"QB Josh Jackson was really good last year as a freshman. Ran that offense really well. But he definitely wore down in November. That's a direct result from a lack of a running game and him carrying the ball so many times in those third and short situations when the running backs weren't getting it done. They have to find an answer there, because when Jackson is healthy and playing well, they're really hard to beat."
"I'd love to have Bud Foster as my defensive coordinator. And I'm sure about 80 percent of the coaches in FBS would say the same thing. They're going to do two things on defense: They're going to get after you to force quicker decisions, and they're going to challenge you on the outside. Bud puts those corners out there and tells them go make plays."
"They're just as dangerous in the kicking game under Justin as they were with Frank Beamer. A majority of that is coaching and attention to detail, and then there's the feel of when to do it. That can't be overlooked. Justin definitely has that. That fake punt in the ACC Championship Game two years ago was a thing of beauty."
Comments
Cool insight and (finally) some positive stuff!
80%?
Are 20% of college coaches idiots?
Bronco, Narduzzi, Johnson, Fedora....so yea.
I'd say Dabo is relatively content with Venables lol
that gets them to 3.8%. Still need 20 more coaches.
Hot take, Venables is fantastic, but any DC would be rocking shit with Clemson's DL talent of the last 4-5 years. It's been all NFL guys for years now. His DL has masked a lot of more serious issues with his pass defenses. Foster is much more impressive than Venables given what they work with.
Case in point, when teams neutralize Clemson's pass rush, they throw the ball all over their defense. A few examples. 2014 UNC, they avg'd 10+ ypa against #1 (technically through old metrics not advanced) defense. Only reason UNC lost is that they had literally the worst defense in P5 that year. 2014 Georgia ran absolute train through their defense on the ground. That 2014 Clemson defense was particularly propped up by a bad ACC year, they got torched by the two good offenses they played (UNC, Georgia).
2015 defense, got lit up a few times by less than stellar teams, including Brissett's NC State, DeShone Kizer threw for almost 400 yards in a monsoon against them (would have been 400 easy without uncontested drop) a horrible USCe team, and they made Jake Coker look like a Heisman candidate in the NCG.
2016 defense, got lit up by Louisville, let NC State go on a 6 minute drive into their redzone only to win because NC State kicker couldn't make an NFL extra point. Got absolutely WRECKED by Pitt through the air, just totally neutralized their pass rush.
2017 defense, went mostly untested through the air because not many teams in the ACC can a) throw the ball effectively and/or b) have an OL that can remotely contend with Clemson's DL. But Syracuse and Dungey cut them up like a hot knife through butter, and actually threw another TD against their defense that was wrongfully called back for OPI, of which it was nothing even close to OPI.
Now, obviously this is true for most teams, but I don't think people realize just how much Clemson's DL and blitzing just completely outclasses most teams into submission. Just about any top 20 DC would be putting similar numbers with that DL talent. I accept the argument that he is a great recruiter, but that whole staff is full of great recruiters and Clemson pretty much sells itself at this point.
This is not even remotely near a hot take. It's a pretty reasonable take, IM(ns)HO.
Yeah, what Bob said. I forgot to respond lol
I found PJ and Saltdog's comments:
Yep, we need that Buddy Comedy.
Those are probably both good comments.
Narduzzi is probably a LOT more tolerable if your team is inside the fantasy world that he's trying to protect with his ridiculously one-sided perspective.
Johnson has been clever enough to get some success out of his system, and he is no doubt an acquired taste. Like anchovies on pizza, something most people can just live without.
This reminds me of that movie "Loverboy". Such a funny flick.
So wanted to be that guy.
And Michael J Fox from Secret to my Success.
Checks out.
They must've interviewed recent ACC coaches as well.
I tried to guess who said each of these, and my guess is as follows:
1st quote - David Cutcliffe
2nd - Mark Richt
3rd - Salty Nardouche
4th - Dabo Sweeney
On UVA:
I kind of wish this was Fuente on UNC. Doubt it though since we have a terrible rushing offense.
The quote and us being terrible at running are not mutually exclusive. I feel/hope that Fuente can be aware of our problems while picking apart other teams problems.
I don't think we are going to terrible at running this year.
Could become a strength.
Im guessing Paul Johnson said that about UNC... just a guess.
While the positive things said about us are great, I think it's hilarious every comment on LOLuva is basically, "yeah, they're really bad but I don't just want to say they're really bad so I'll just say they're pretty bad."