Tech Tidbits: Tech's Bumbling, Battered Defense Readies for Miami's Inept, Unstable Offense

For the first time in a long time, a disturbing thought crept into my head: I can't wait for Virginia Tech football season to be over.

I can only remember feeling that way about one or two seasons in my time following Hokies football — 2012, aka the season where Logan Thomas came crashing back to earth, springs to mind. Beyond those, however, even the team's frustrating seasons have had glimmers of things to hope for.

There was the promise of young talent on the way, or something meaningful like Frank Beamer's final bowl game to take pride in. This season has offered precious little to look forward to its waning days, for me, at least.

There is certainly plenty of youth on defense, and that is perhaps the one thing Hokies fans can point to, and reason that better days are ahead. It's sorely dispiriting to watch team after team slice through a typically formidable Bud Foster defense with little resistance, but at least we were well prepared for problems on defense to arise, given the way this offseason went.

But even then, as French has documented extensively in his film reviews, veterans have been just as culpable for big-play busts as any youngsters. That makes it a bit hard to blame everything on the new guys.

And perhaps more disturbingly still, the offense has consistently regressed, and left some huge questions about the future, particularly at quarterback.

Ryan Willis has been an able enough substitute for Josh Jackson, but has clearly shown his limitations time and again. Even still, it's fair to compare his numbers to Jackson's from a year ago and wonder if he'd be faring substantially better right now.

Yet instead of showing any willingness to try something new, however, the coaches have offered up Quincy Patterson for a handful of running plays these last few games, coming perilously close to using up his eligibility in service of...what goal, exactly?

If Justin Fuente and company had executed a full move to giving some burn to as many young guys as possible, bowl streak be damned, that'd be one thing. It might be hard to watch, but it would be understandable.

Instead this program feels trapped in limbo, determined to win two more games (even if it takes some scheduling wizardry in early December to make it happen) but forced into playing so many young guys elsewhere that those wins may be impossible to secure.

It all adds up to a season that I, and many other Hokies fans, are ready to forget as soon as possible.

But with two games left, there is still a lot to learn about 2019, and beyond, I suppose. Let's buckle in.

A Quincy Quandry?

I alluded to some of my frustration with the QP situation above, but it bears diving a bit more into given how OC Brad Cornelsen addressed the matter Tuesday.

A popular assumption about Patterson in the Hokie Twitterverse is that the most likely reason he wasn't seeing more extended playing time (if not starting outright) is because he's only working with a fraction of the playbook right now.

Well, to the assembled media's credit, Cornelsen had to address that assumption head on yesterday.

#Hokies OC Brad Cornelsen on QB Quincy Patterson: "There's not six plays he runs and only six plays." But Tech does tailor play calls when he's in the game to what he's best at.— Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) November 13, 2018

Cornelsen said freshman QB Quincy Patterson is running the same plays in practice Ryan Willis is running. Idea in practice is to push quarterbacks out of their comfort zone to test them. #Hokies— Norm Wood (@normwood) November 13, 2018

About what you'd expect a coach to say when pressed on the matter, regardless of just how true it is, but let's take Cornelsen at his word on this.

Certainly, Patterson would be far from the first freshman quarterback to excel first on running plays before mastering the nuances of the passing game — but the sheer predictability of this sort of development makes the way the coaches have used him all the more puzzling.

Plainly, the freshman is still gaining confidence when it comes to throwing the ball; perhaps that explains why the coaches haven't simply given him substantial time under center just yet to see what they have in him.

But if that is indeed the case — that Patterson is practicing all the same plays as Willis but is only really "best at" the run-heavy plays we've seen him on so far — then what is the purpose of using him on early downs and setting up potentially difficult third down conversions for Willis?

If the coaches want to take advantage of Patterson's talent while easing him into the college game, there are plenty of successful models to follow. Using him on the goal line made some sense, then, particularly since the staff did give him a chance to throw on one of those downs.

But the strategy of throwing him in suddenly once the team reached the red zone, which Fuente and Cornelsen did twice against Pitt, makes little sense to me.

If Patterson is right alongside Willis, learning in the passing game, then let's see what he can do while throwing the ball. If he's not ready to do so, surely there have to be situations where the team can maximize his strength running the ball — the presence of a big, run-heavy quarterback can telegraph your intentions, but that doesn't matter so much in short-yardage situations vs. early in a new set of downs.

It wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit if Fuente came out and said tomorrow that the team was going to Patterson (or Hendon Hooker, who, yes, is still on the roster) to prepare for the future, and see if another quarterback might have more success. But this middle ground strategy has puzzled me, and makes even less upon hearing these explanations from Cornelsen.

Next Man Up, And Then The Man After Him, And The Man After Him...

The loss of DE Houshun Gaines to an ACL tear (truly more awful news for him in what has proven to be a difficult year) will further complicate Tech's depth issues for the remainder of this season.

Just let Norm Wood of the Daily Press lay out the state of things on defense, and shudder.

With Gaines out, Tech listed redshirt freshman Zion Debose on Monday as a first-team defensive end along with redshirt sophomore Emmanuel Belmar, who sat out the Pitt game with an undisclosed injury.

Against Miami, which has lost four consecutive games, Tech will replace Gaines with its 20th different starting defensive player this season. On Tech's two-deep this week, there are four redshirt freshmen — Debose, second-team ends TyJuan Garbutt and Nathan Proctor and second-team defensive tackle Robert Porcher — among eight possible defensive line spots.

Consider all that...and then throw in the fact that it's no sure thing that Belmar, himself a replacement for Trevon Hill, plays against Miami.

#Hokies d-line coach Charley Wiles said Tyjuan Garbutt and Nate Proctor played well at Pitt. Said DE Emmanuel Belmar is day-to-day, hopes to have him Saturday vs Miami.— Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) November 13, 2018

Fuente said Monday that he also hopes to have Jarrod Hewitt back against the Canes, noting that defensive line is a position where the Hokies "still have some depth." But he admitted that "the key to that is getting Emmanuel and Hewitt back."

It is good, at least, that Wiles had nice things to say about Garbutt and Proctor. They've long stood out as highly rated recruits who will be key to revitalizing this defense next season, and their progress will be interesting to watch in the remaining weeks.

In fact, all the young guys on defense are just the sort of players who might benefit the most from additional bowl practices, as French so often highlights.

The great irony, of course, is that unless they step up in these next two (or perhaps three) games, they'll miss out on that chance.

A Stoppable Offense Meets A Moveable Defense

Perhaps the one saving grace for the Hokies is that they're facing the only other team in the ACC reeling as badly as they are this week.

Despite sky-high expectations to start the year, Miami has had its own season to forget. The offense, in particular, has struggled horrendously in recent weeks.

Virginia Tech's defense has been the cure for the common offense in recent weeks, but the Hurricanes could well prove to be a remedy in their own right for Foster's bunch.

Take starting QB N'Kosi Perry, for instance.

Mark Richt has gone back to the redshirt freshman after yanking him for Malik Rozier earlier in the season, and he has not exactly lit the world on fire since then. He was passable against Georgia Tech, going 14 of 23 for 165 yards, but he was abysmal against Duke.

Perry only managed to complete 5 of his 16 passes in that game, throwing for a total of 35 yards and helping the Canes score a total of 12 points. Willis, for the record, managed 332 yards and 31 points against the Blue Devils in what now (sadly) looks like the best win on Tech's schedule this year.

It's all enough to raise new questions about Richt's role managing the offense; Richt has installed his son, Jon, at QB coach and still calls the plays himself. It's all enough that SB Nation's Bill Connelly suggested that Richt is at risk of "Bowdening himself."

If he doesn't feel coordinator Thomas Brown is ready for play-calling duties, or if Brown's philosophy is identical to Richt's, then Richt needs to replace himself with someone else as play-caller. And that change should probably expand to include the QBs coach.

With this defense, The U will remain close to a breakthrough. But with this offense, it's not far from further collapse.

Suffice it to say, there could well be some room for this beat-up, young defense to have a moment against a Canes squad currently ranked 85th in the country in yards per game.

We close today with Charles Wiles making the understatement of the century.

Wiles on experience of enduring what has thus far been a losing season: "It's not fun not getting off the field, and it's not fun not stopping people, but it's a challenge. ...We've been fortunate to stay healthy. This is probably the most injuries I've seen in my 23 yrs" #Hokies— Norm Wood (@normwood) November 13, 2018