I don't think we could have asked much more from tonight. But there were a ton of players I did not know who they were, more than any other year. Not saying good or bad but just an observation.
There's some issues, but couldn't be happier.
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I recognized most of the names from conversations on this board.
Agreed I just didnt know the numbers very well. Gotta study that depth chart
True. Plus, I've never see so many double numbers before. If you didn't pay attention to names, you'd almost thing we had guys playing both sides of the ball all night.
When the D was on the field, we were playing on both sides of the ball.
Wait, that wasn't what you meant. . .
It's A Farley Jersey I Swear
I guess I meant as the play was happening. I didn't recognize a lot of the players or their numbers.
Oh yeah, I couldn't tell until after the fact either. But when I saw the name, I knew I had seen it before.
100% this. Thank you, TKPers, for keeping me knowledgable of our rising stars!! Also, TKP let me know who chose fsu over VT. FAM all around!!
I've never been so happy to be an ignorant Hokie in all my life, fam!
I am looking forward to this review. Even the long Akers run was a perfectly orchestrated defensive call with Hill spilling to Farley. Farley just missed the tackle. Foster was playing chess, and Taggart was playing Connect 4.
That's why I wasn't too upset about that run, sometimes you just come up a little short. Most of the time the run D was able to get to ball carrier and make the tackle.
Speed at CB is a nice thing to have. Watts was clutch there.
And Akers is probably the best back we will see all year. I was scared he was gonna be the problem going into this one.
I know it's only one game and who knows what FSU has, but I feel this defense is full of guys who will be huge names around here.
AJ Dillon might have something to say about that
He'll probably have a much better OL to run behind too.
BINGO!
I didn't expect this outcome, but mostly because of the talent disparity. Taggart might be able to recruit (IDK), he might be a motivator (IDK), but its obvious that his simplicity is just that...
Yeah, FSU's talent clearly wasn't up to VT standards.
So you're saying that simplicity isn't as good as,for example, an offense that's complicated and tries to mirror what the pros use? We should find an offensive coordinator that runs that kind of offense! Sounds like something BC would also be interested in.
Your tag line has never been more appropriate.
Other than that one play, that was a rush defense football clinic. Tech also put on a red zone clinic. Make them snap the ball one more time. Everyone who was confused with the ladler start should now understand why. It will be tough to get him off the field after last night's performance
I thought the same thing. Played it well, just missed the tackle.
Farley obviously didn't read the preview that said you can't tackle Akers high or he will make you pay. A quick film session should help him see the error of his ways.
I really thought Bud could have shifted Floyd to the middle on that long run to give a second layer in case of the missed tackle but that's not how Bud works. Bud expects every tackle to be made. Watts made a hell of a play to save 7.
With only 3 checkers.
Also impressed that -just like with the Pitt game last year-our defense didn't give up on the play after the busted tackle let the play go long-they chased the runner down, prevented him from scoring and then the entire defense STOPPED them cold with ZERO points resulting from it! This is a defensive mindset that can overcome mistakes in execution and bodes well for the future of Hokie Defense!
Who the heck was #9 on FSU? That dude got murdered several times and kept getting back up. Tough mofo!
Agreed. But when I started to see the names we've been talking about here on the board, I was impressed with virtually all of them
Remember when we talked about ball skills and why Farley should be at WR. Go back and watch his first INT. The safety cleared and Farley was in outside leverage. That was 100% the correct throw by Francois vs that coverage. Farley outran the WR to the spot, and when the throw sailed just a tiny bit, Farley picked it off. The second INT we have seen a ton- QB sees man. It is actually a leverage zone. One DB robbers when he sees the QB locked on and slides under the route. That one was design. The first INT was doing something special that few corners can do.
Is it bad that I was really excited watching the VA kids playing for FSU get beaten so thoroughly by VT?
no my man that is what we call "good"
I was LOVING seeing Levonta Taylor get abused by Tech's receivers.
This new crop of receivers was going all in on the downfield blocking!
Hezekiah Grimsely knocking that dudes helmet off on Kumah's TD reception was just amazing.
Hezekiah Grimsley shoving that FSU player after the play was over was not amazing.
Yeah, that one killed a drive.
Laborn is still a stud..Put him on this year's team with the way our defense and O line is playing, and we're in the playoff..no doubt.
Sidenote: we may been in the playoff anyway, but we left some of the runs by Mcclease and Peoples are TDs with Laborn...he's a tough dude to bring down...
He also got decked by Hunter on a punt return? kick return? It was towards the end of the game. I cant remember but Hunter stuck him good and had a little something extra to say about it, I could see him jawing in his face. I think there may have been some animosity - Grimsley had a little something extra to say after he decleated Taylor too.
Get on Board or get ran over - Bud Foster, probably.
Laborn looked pretty good in his one touch:
I checked to see if Laborn had any rushing yards -- no. But look at the stats for Akers:
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How often do you see a long of 85 and a total of 82?
I think this performance is going to look much more impressive as the year goes on.
Florida States offense will not be stifled like that - in fact, I would wager they will have a pretty proficient offense towards the end of the season.
I think their defense might be pretty good too? I'll leave that for others who have better understanding though..
or a long of 85 and 0 touchdowns!
Anyone know if Hunter got any snaps?
He and Dax got a few there at the end after our last TD. Bud said postgame he hoped to get them in sooner but the D sort of got in a rhythm and he didn't want to break that. Said he will get them in more moving forward.
Makes sense. Defense was in the zone clearly. I did see Dax at the end there, but those snaps were fairly meaningless. Definitely hope we can get some playtime for them over the next three games.
Be prepared to ask that over the next 3 games against W&M , ECU, and ODU (which is ok). With how poorly the latter two played in week 1, I'd expect to see a TON of rotating players in and out to get game experience and rest up any light injuries that pop up. Hopefully it'll let Vinny take some time getting up to speed as well.
I'm going to use this spot to say I really miss the TV/shoulder numbers on the old uniforms. I didn't realize how much I relied on them while watching games until they were gone.
One of my favorite things I saw last night out of the defense. They did a hell of a job blowing up bubble screens. I remember a couple of times Ladler in particular shot of a cannon into the backfield past a sorry ass attempt at a block by their receivers to blow it up.
On that note, we made a lot of good open field, 1 on 1, tackles. Something we didn't do very well at times last year. I also thought our D wrapped up really well when taking them to the ground.
That's what she said.
Agreed. Save Farley's bad miss(it happens on a wet field), open field tackling was excellent. First guy seemed to always do a good job of at least wrapping and holding him until help arrived if he couldn't get him to the ground.