https://t.co/XA4bqf3HdO— HokieSports (@hokiesports) February 28, 2019
1) Lots of injuries, including guys who really needed a good spring. Robert Porcher, who has an opportunity to earn a starting job almost by default, will be no contact, as will be two contenders at the corner position in Nadir Thompson and Ny'quee Hawkins. I also wish Walker Culver was healthy. VT could use some offensive tackle depth. Right now, Tyrell Smith is probably the first option on both sides as a backup. TJ Jackson was mentioned as a potential tackle, but until he translates his athleticism to the application of physical run blocking, he isn't seeing the field beyon field goal, extra points, and Shibest's weird OL wall punt formation that killed the Hokies late in the season.
MEDICAL UPDATE We'll have live coverage of Coach Fuente coming up at 11 am ET as he previews spring football. Here is a medical update for the #Hokies 🦃 pic.twitter.com/rWEu58UaT1— Virginia Tech Football (@VT_Football) February 28, 2019
2) Bud Foster indicated that Devon Hunter would practice at rover, where Reggie Floyd is entrenched as the starter. Floyd struggled badly last year, so this is a position to watch.
3) Khalil Ladler is out for the spring, and Hunter has been moved to rover. That makes me wonder who is going to be getting first team repetitions at the whip spot. Foster said Brion Murray (whose film I really liked as a true corner) and Chamarri Conner will get a look there. I prefer Murray outside (and think he could be a starter.) If four star recruit JR Walker has a window to play early, it may be at whip.
4) Ashby (mike) and Dax (backer) will be the starting linebackers going into fall camp. There is nothing shocking there. With Barno not enrolling until summer, this is a huge spring for one of the other backers to grab that spot and force Foster to make a decision between Ashby and Dax at the mike spot.
With a truncated spring, hopefully there will be more news about how players are progressing. There are opportunities to win jobs in the 2 deep at DT, LB, DB, OL, and RB. I hope some kids are ready to grab that brass ring.
Comments
Explain to me (like I'm a five year old) why Foster wouldn't stick with the Ashby/Dax combo at linebacker. Is there something fundamental about their strengths/weaknesses that wouldn't be good paring for us moving forward?
Dax isn't that great in coverage, better as a downhill player than running sideline to sideline.
and I didn't even touch on coverage- although not enough teams challenged Dax to get a feel yet.
FWIW Dax is well aware of his limitations and is determined to make it work at backer. Apparently has like 15-20 pounds in an effort to be more agile
He posted a picture of his dinner on his instagram story the other night. Grilled chicken breast, brown rice, and green beans.
As I said in several reviews- Dax had a habit of guessing last year to compensate for his lack of speed to get to the edge and set it (for either a force or spill.) When the DE has a spill call, the backer has to get wide of the DE and then spill the running back to the outside. It requires a unique combination of a heavy shoulder and quickness to get to the spot.
Bud has compensated when he hasn't had a quick player in that spot. He often lined Bruce Taylor and Vegas Robinson out on the edge instead of in a base alignment. However, you lose some of the element of confusing the defense (it basically tells the offense where the gap fits and the alley will be if the offensive line and back are smart.) Bud talked in the presser about how Dax was getting quicker.
Now, to the inside, the mike is more of a free hitter. Although there are times where he needs to fill the A gap, the mike generally stays clean and finds an open bubble and charges it. Ashby is terrific when he stays clean. He isn't great at shedding blocks. I think Dax's upside on the physical attributes playing the mike is higher than Ashby. However, I haven't seen both play the mike spot in the same conditions, so at this point who would win a position battle would be conjecture. I do know though, if Bud had a Tremaine Edmunds on the roster, Dax would be at mike. Heck, he may even be at mike if Bud had a Tariq Edwards on the roster. Backer is a really unique position to play and there have been a bunch of talented guys (remember Jake Johnson- who had some talent, struggling mightily at the backer spot) who struggle to put together the ability to execute the backers job and still have the football instinct to be a playmaker.
I'm really hoping someone steps up at the backer spot so that Dax can slide into that mike spot. The run defense would be immensely better IMO.
And that isn't taking away from what Ashby has done.
I gotta think someone between the 2 of Tisdale and Rivers can beat out Ashby as the 2nd most valuable LB and allow Dax to move inside.
My memory of Jake Johnson is that he went 0 to 60 like a Ferrari, but turned like a city bus.
my memory of jake Johnson was dude has some pythons for arms and wore a neck roll like bryan Bosworth lol. he ended up being 1st team all sunbelt, led the sunbelt in tackles for loss, and was 10th in the nation in tackles his sr year at south Alabama. Owns a power lifting gym in Alabama now and if you though he was swole then you should see him now.
Their skillsets both match up better with what Bud values in a Mike linebacker. However, we haven't had anyone else who is better at Backer, so Dax is playing slightly out of position.
As an analogy... not sure if you play the EA Sports games, but in case you do, imagine you have an 82-rated MLB and an 80-rated MLB, and your best OLBs are an 80 and a 72. If you shift the 80 MLB over he probably becomes something like a 77 OLB, so it's an improvement over the rest of the options at the position, but not his position of greatest potential.
I appreciate the video game explanation.
French, you've probably gone over it, and I'm probably not remembering something here, so can you refresh my memory? (Perhaps I've blocked the bad things that happened last year from my memory?) Why was the punt formation causing us problems last year? Was it different than previous year's formations? Honestly don't remember there being a major issue on this.
Shibest uses big guys (I believe Austin Cannon, Jackson, and Ricky Walker were the wall last year) as personal protectors. When the punter has a great directional punt, it can be covered well. When the punter kicks a returnable kick, VT only has 7 guys who have the athleticism who can put a punt returner on the ground in space. There were some big punt returns that hurt VT down the stretch last year (Jeff Thomas's long return against VT for Miami immediately comes to mind.)
Coleman fox not listed on the roster anymore. I guess we can finally put the get fox on the field talk to rest and fill that void with beck im sure although he is not participating in spring. He will be focusing on track for the spring and will return to the team when its done.
Believe he walked on Senior day
yeah he did. I didn't realize it until now. correct me if im wrong though. a player with remaining eligibility can walk on sr day and still play the following season? much like hunter renfrow did 7 years in a row after graduating.
Little did you know, Hunter Renfrow never existed and is a figment of our imagination.
^^^^What a great gif. I'm sorry Hokie07ME, I only have one leg to give you.
I feel like we constantly struggle with injuries and guys getting healthy. Is our medical staff underfunded or something?
Damn support staff.
I've always wondered if any team(s) have avoided injury to a statistically significant degree. I have a few potential hypothesis:
What about Artis at Mike? Loved him as a recruit. Smart, tough and good instincts. I will be interested if Ashby gets pushed by someone other than Dax by the backer default. Any insight?
If Hunter is rover then what about floyd at whip?
I think laddler is much more suited for whip. the whip has to be able to cover a slot WR occasionally, or atleast in theory that's what bud would his whip to be able to do. Floyd struggles mightly in coverage and the safety position he plays currently allows him to play close to the line in run support and cover less anyways. I suspect this is more of a move for the future than this year unless a light comes on for hunter and Floyd struggles quite a bit.
Given how disastrous Floyd's tackling was from the back, few things would disturb me more than seeing him moved to whip
Foster said 2-3 DL coming in as freshmen have a shot at playing. There size and ability is great with all the training and weight programs they get in high school. It will just depend on if they can pick up assignments and reads.
Does anyone have a better source that the Virginia Tech Athletics YouTube channel for watching full press conferences? Looks like the only posted a short highlight from yesterday and not the full presser.
Kinda frustrating that even when there is a window opened into the program, it still has a screen on it.
Should still be on Facebook.
Couldn't find it on Facebook, but finally found it on the @hokiesports Twitter page.
Just seems like they make it a little more difficult that it needs to be to find it. Between the multiple social media accounts, across multiple platforms, it's all segmented in some seemingly haphazard way. I don't understand why it can't be more organized and user friendly.
I'm really hoping Devin can take over the rover because Floyd had a lot of bad moments last year . I've seen here on the board that he's been working his tail off so I hope he can make an impression this spring to get the nod.
Was reading Bitter's presser notes and this stood out:
"Foster said he's happy about Justin Hamilton as the new safeties coach. Called him a "rising star." Thought he could have been a good fit a year ago too. "
Could be nothing, but that sure does not sound like an endorement for Nix. Let's hope Hamilton gets the safeties back on the same page with Bud and vice versa.
no bitching allowed?
Are we doing this again?
Nut based allergies?