Sorry for the blatant positivity, but I guess that I don't share all of the doom and gloom that is being represented by some.
Sure, I share in the disappointment, but I expected some issues this year.
(Expectations)
So...onto the positive:
Stanford, as noted in another post, had an unbelievable day yesterday-made the ESPN ticker with his 171 receiving yards.
Knowles is getting better, and we get Byrn and Myers back. But wait! There's more: Bradshaw, Phillips, Holland, Harrison are on their way. There will be some fierce competition at the WR position.
Malleck will be back, and with Cline's experience this year and a year in the weight room, we will have some legitimate TE threats.
We get 4/5 starting lineman back, an add Wyatt Teller after a redshirt year, and others at Tech spending this entire year being COACHED by Grimes, and the Fab-5 chomping at the bit to get to Blacksburg.
The Hokies will have an honest competition at QB next year-may the best QB win the starting position. But there will also be a #2, and #3!..... When has that happened at Tech?
Sure, Defense will have it's losses-can't ignore those, but......Bud Foster. Need I say more?
We seemed stocked on the D-line with more coming...(Tip of the hat to Walker and Nnadi, please?)
Our Defensive ends will be deep.
We just may have to invent a new position to keep Dadi on the field-I like 'Assassin' myself.
Our secondary.....It's 'DBU' right? 2-star, 5-star....it don't matter. Come to VT and you will be an 'All-Star.'
I'm waiting to see which LB's decide to join our defense, but we've got some waiting in the wings as well.
AJ Hughes is a sophomore......soon to be joined by the SS. Santamaria......
And all of these Hokies will get coached up by our new offensive staff, which, given time, I am confident will get the results that most Hokie fans will appreciate.
Not to be too Pollyanna, but disappointed?-yeah, but throwing in the towel?-Hell no.
We've got a season to finish, and try and finish strong.
A bowl game to go to. (so sorry uva.)
P.S. If you don't think our future recruits don't read all this stuff, you are crazy.
Get back to supporting our current and future Hokies, and have some fun doing it.
I know I'm already looking forward to surprising Miami next week.
Go Hokies!
Comments
I agree. It's like being promised a PS4 next year when you got socks for Christmas this year.
I'm all for it though.
THANK YOU FOR THIS POST. SPOT ON AND TIMELY.
Yes, and Sam Rogers is a Freshman. Boom Shaka laka!
Sam Rogers doesn't do push ups. He does Earth downs.
Good stuff Shoog! I agree that alot of thee positions are just going to get stronger, great point. The only big unknown is QB, and that's just the unknown of who's going to be the starter mind you. cough...Ford....cough
Nicely done, Shoog. I'm a bit worried about the defensive depth, especially at LB, but I hope getting RVD back helps.
Ahhh, the voice of reason and hope. Thanks for being our Harvey Dent, Shoog.
It's the post we needed, but not the post we deserved
I feel much better reading this. Thanks, bro. I think we have some bigger running backs coming in, too.
Fuck yes! Let's go!!
Hokies!
things get a little silly around here after a loss, i'm glad someone shares my simultaneous dissapointment and optimism.
hope springs eternal in the hearts of men, right?
Good post Shoog. We have a lot of things to be excited about, a lot of young guys performing extremely well and hopefully more on the way.
Add to this list Marshawn Williams at RB. He runs with purpose, power, and vision, and gets an A on the eye test. I also think that Edmunds will still do well. Remember, he is the age of most true freshmen since he skipped a year in school.
In summary, the cupboard isnt bare. A better analogy is that its more like Mom just got home with a car-load full of groceries, and the plump, yet in their own mind starving kids havent been fed in a few days and cant smell/taste what will soon be on the dinner table.
Have you seen Javon Harrison literally throwing people when blocking? I'm excited to have a player coming in who is both a talented receiver, and puts in the effort on plays where he is not getting the ball.
He is elite, and we would be lucky to have him on either side of the ball. He is an almost guaranteed non-RS as a freshman if he lines up as a WR.
I am just hoping we can stave off U of Florida, who is still recruiting him hard. At least their season is going similar to ours.
What??
A really good positive post about the future of Tech football??
No demands to bench players, fire coaches, and/or burn empty trophy cases??
Dang!! Do more of these!
Preach on, brother. Preach on.
We do need some calm and reason here after a loss, so I'm glad we have posts like this, but in a way all the stuff that goes on after a loss also just helps remind me how much we all care about Hokie football.
Finally.
Thanks Shoog. And I gotta say couldn't agree more. Losing sucks no matter to who and which year, and circumstances, it is in. However, we are bowl eligible and still control our own destiny. This is far better than almost anyone thought we would be this season.
Rebuilding takes longer than a half a season, and usually longer than a season.
But I want to add to this with a few predictions for the year AFTER next....
2016 Predictions for the...
The Players
Offense
Defense
uh.. like Shoog said. Bud Foster. Done
The Season
Coaches
Good call on looking not one but two years ahead. 2016 will be one.of our best shots at a Natty in quite a while.
On the coaching changes:
Most coordinators continue to coach a position and it isn't completely unheard of for a head coach to coach a position though its usually QBs. Bud coaches LBs as our D-Coordinator, so if Gray becomes D-Coordinator, I would think that he continues coaching DBs as well.
I think Shane to Special teams Coordinator would be good
We would only have one coaching spot come open assuming that no one else leaves when CFB retires. I think Shane would be more helpful on the defensive side than he currently is on offense, most of his pre-VT position coach experience was working with DBs and LBs afterall. But if we can bring in a better coach on the D-Side than the O-side, I wouldn't be too upset with leaving him as the RB coach.
As it happens I was just going over this post right here: Expectations and Reality
I think your points then and now are still true. This season was always going to be a potential non-indicator for the future. Given the turnover on the staff and the lack of personnel for the new scheme this was going to be a rough year. I think for this particular season there is a sense of disappointment over the past few games (obviously) because the first seven games actually went better than expected. We were showing signs of improvement week to week which is all you can really hope for and the massive steps backward have been hard to swallow (I vote for no more bye weeks ever, we suck something fierce off the bye). But aside from style points this season has almost no bearing on what the future will look like at Tech on the offensive side of the ball. Provided Bud Foster can Bud Foster to fill the gaps on Defense, I still think 2015 could be a really special year. Think of all the Freshmen that are making significant contributions now and how much better they will (hopefully, knock wood) be when they are juniors. Senior AJ Hughes, expanded receiver corps, a QB with a few years of consistent coaching.
The rest of this year is likely going to suck ass, we should accept that. It's still better than last year. And this too shall pass.
Since I can't upvote the thread, here you Sir. It's on me!!
Looking good for the future. Beamer will be in Bristol and that just might be his finest year. I think he knows it too.
I agree that our WR's are improving, but what I'm excited about is that they will have 4-5 guys coming in next year with better talent to push them. No matter what happens at WR next year, whether it is all the guys we have now continuing to get PT or #AllTheFreshmanWR's or a mix of both, it will be better than this year...
But....at QB...... hey, hopefully Ford will be improving every week!