had foot surgery today and is done for the year. confirmed sauces is him himself.
another hit to the little bit of depth we had at the position. hopefully hewitt is back this week. at this point we are going to have to move Yosuah Nijman to DT /s
Charlie wiles in the film room this week like....

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Awful attrition on the Dline this year!
We need a SERIOUS Batman level of contingency plans for shit like this. Fuck-dammit! Get better, Burke.
God-DAMN, the basketball offseason needs to end... Friday can't get here soon enough.
Ever since our "offseason attrition" crept over to the basketball team (Clarke and now Nolley) it has become clear that the "offseason" that it was tied to was the basketball offseason. I've convinced myself that it'll stop after Friday. Please don't take this from me.
Got it. I thought you just misread this whole post and thought Burke was on the basketball squad. As far as your offseason theory, I hope you are right...
This is probably a dumb question but is there a certain point when we will have to start forfeiting games because we don't have anymore defensive players?
Maryland was starting a linebacker at QB 5 years ago instead of forfeiting. I'm pretty sure we'll still be able to find 11 guys to run out there for the rest of the season.
Remember that time when Nick Sorensen was starting at QB?
And this is the point where you just have to give up and acknowledge that youth, attrition, and injuries are actually the reason we're going to be losing games, not just the lack of recruiting.
No, at DT it's still lack of recruiting. In the last several years alone I give you Cam Goode., Joe Kane, Jabril Glaze, Eric Whitehead, Harry Lewis
How should the VT program handled Cam Goode differently? That's the name that catches my eye in that list.
This is a forest vs trees problem. We have nothing in the wings at DT. Nothing but misses that is.
True, if you go back and look at who has contributed at even a 10 plays per game clip, our hit rate is maybe 25% on DT's the past 4-5 years.
Buzz has plenty of wings. Maybe we should ask (politely, mind you) to borrow a few.
I don't think anyone on the staff intended to bring Joe Kane on as a DT. His position was switched the day he got to campus.
Sure, but then that means staff knowingly recruited one DT while being fully aware of the depth chart issues.
The fault is still with the coaching staff for not recruiting a DT, but for our intents and purposes Joe Kane might as well have had an OG/C next to his name instead of a DT on 247.
Goode and Whitehead were high recruits, so it's not for lack of effort there. You could easily argue we mis-evaluated the talent but so did the recruiting services, along with the other P5 schools that offered them.
As a whole, the defense is dismantled from attrition and injuries. If Bama's defense had as many losses as we have had, they wouldn't be a top 20 defense.
Neither of those guys were high recruits. Whitehead had some pretty good offers but they were both mid to low 3* guys. People were just excited for them because they were stereotypical VT DT's. I wouldn't say it was they were missed evaluations from a playing standpoint since we never saw either play. Their issues were both regarding work ethic (one physical and one intellectual).
I thought for sure Whitehead was recruited highly before he greyshirted and that Goode was a high 3-star
Next man up?
He needs to bulk up a little, but the raw talent is there.
Aside from this guy, the next men up would be Fullwood, Jimmie Taylor, and Clay Dean.
Switch to a 30 base defense anyone?
Worked against Duke.
Honestly, with the lack of depth at DT and the (surprising) quality of linebacker play we are getting, I can think of worse things than lining up in a 3-4 with our current personnel.
Well, as long as he's already been rated...
Welp, he just got a Bama offer.
He gone.
At least he considered us.
We were sincere with our offer of early playing time.
..,and ESPN raised him to a 5-star
Why in the hell is this kid wearing a jersey from my timeshare exchange company?
"He's just young."
LMAO SHE'S COMING RIGHT AT US!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!
Hate to be brash but this just means more snaps for Porcher, which he needs.
Any word on Hewitt? Seems to be much more important issue.
I have not heard anything.
DeBose to DT early?
Given our apparent depth at linebacker it sounds like we ought to run the ol' 2-4-5.
Is there such a thing as 1-5-5 or a 0-6-5?
Time for Bud to invent the future.
No, no, no... VT doesn't do that anymore.
Oh FUCK! How have I not been blaming this season on the shitty new logo?! DAMN IT!!!!
No, no, no... VT doesn't do that anymore.
Thank you, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. THAT'S the reason we have sucked at football this year. Forget superstitions about orange jerseys, change the entire University tag line and bingo, we can't invent football victories.
Thanks to whomever pushed me over the 1000 turkey legs threshold! :>)
Side note that is an awesome lecture hall
If by "lecture hall" you mean "Smash Bros./HALO battle arena*" I agree.
*Not that I ever used school property for that sort of thing, of course.
Wait, are there rules against that?
To quote the senior cadet leading us when I asked "Are we allowed to do this?":
"If you keep asking questions, we'll never get this done."
Ask for forgiveness, never permission
Get a couple of the 4th string o-lineman, have them lineup on the DL and just fall forward on every play.
Gosh I miss Tim Settle. Hope we can get whatever we can out of Ricky Walker and I think we are down to Darius Fullwood.
Porcher and Vinny
Vinny says he feels better but he just looks incredibly uncomfortable at that size. I get necessity, but he doesn't seem able to contribute fully
I was thinking along the same lines. It wasn't that long ago where we were flipping DTs to play OL. While some have worked out (Teller, Nijman) I wonder how much that has affected current recruiting. I think it's at least affected our depth. Maybe a couple of those OL guys buried on the depth chart wouldn't mind mixing it up on the DL.
This is a February issue, not a November one. Like OL a few years back. You CANT sign 2-3 guys over a 4 year period a whistle past the graveyard. It comes to bite you in the ass- always. These are college kids, scouting and recruiting are an inexact science. Our recruiting at DT.. including Burke who was not even a DT recruit, is a disgrace for a P5 team... and now we are seeing it play out on the field.
Agree but at the same time, if you know the only takers are not going to be contributors, it is better to take a better athlete at another position.
You need NUMBERS period. A good P5 program like ours.. conference championships, great fans, etc etc. Those teams sign a QB every year, several OL every year, and Several DT/DE's every year- its a must - Fuente is paid over 3 mil per year to manage this roster. The moment Jabril Glaze shows up and is clearly not a P5 player, you need to get a JUCO to replace him or over recruit the next cycle- neither of which we did. We were banking on a 6'0 in heels overweight Cam Goode being able to play for Charlie Wiles as a true freshman- cmon man. That was a bogus plan with no plan B. That's why the defense sucks this year. No pass rush, no inside run contain, just double team Ricky Walker and rack up 500 yards on the D. Piss poor roster management- piss poor.
Careful, bud. This subthread can get ugly when you say things like that. ;^)