I have some thoughts I'd like to share from the game Saturday that would just get buried in the postgame threads of 300 some comments...
So here they are:
1. The DBs were awesome, not just in coverage but in tackling too. There was one particular play that stood out to me. Caleb Farley had containment on a stretch run (or maybe it was a toss, I don't really remember). Farley lunged to make the tackle with confidence, wrapped the guy up, and pulled him down. That is not a tackle he makes last year. I didn't really notice Waller a whole lot tackling wise which is a good thing. I wasn't really paying attention to him, so the fact that I didn't notice him means he didn't make any glaring mistakes. Chamarri Conner is the future, plain and simple. I didn't notice Deablo and Floyd a whole lot. Deablo did have one nice hit, though, and didn't come up hurt from it, so that's good.
2. The defensive line was disruptive and swarmed the ball. Rather than just assuming their teammate had made the tackle and finished the play, everyone swarmed to the ball till the play was blown dead. Jaylen Griffin had Granger dead to rights on one play. I thought surely he was making the sack and looked away from the tv. Well he missed the sack, but when I looked up again, Kendricks had Granger, and about three other guys also had a shot. Good defenses swarm to the ball. That's how you stop a mobile quarterback.
3. The defense played with a swagger and passion that we haven't seen in a long, long time. When someone made a big play, everyone was there to congratulate him. They were genuinely happy to watch their teammate succeed. Making a big play and then having a bunch of guys smacking you in the helmet and congratulating you only reinforces that play. Also, Bud had a lot of energy yesterday. Anytime the defense has a rough stretch, I notice people saying "Bud has already checked out" or something like that. That's not true. He's giving this everything he has in his last season.
4. We had a running game. Yes, I know it was against Furman, but you have to start somewhere. That should build confidence for a young offensive line. Hopefully another back aside from Keshawn King steps up, though. There's no way given his current size that he can handle that kind of work load against bigger opponents. Steward was given one carry yesterday and gained three or four yards after falling forward. I'd like to see a little more of him if we get the chance against Duke.
5. Oscar Bradburn. As long as our offense is struggling, at least we have a good punter who can help us win the field position battle. When our offense was so hideously bad from 2006-2008, we still managed to ride a good defense and the field position game. If the defense can continue to improve, Bradburn's punting will be critical to our success.
Obviously there were some negatives to the game. The offense is still turning the ball over, the defense got undisciplined on two plays leading to long runs (I believe it was Eli Adams and Khalil Ladler losing containment), and Brian Johnson still can't make kicks from beyond 45+. The second half offense and the defense on the whole was very good on Saturday, though. If we eliminate the stupid turnovers and put together two halves offensively, we win that game by 40. Plenty of things to figure out during the bye week, but that's what it's for. Let's enjoy not wanting to throw shit through our tv this Saturday!
Comments
Hendon Hooker also played exceptionally well too! I was pleased with his performance.
Wait, this is sarcasm right? He played what, 5-6 snaps? He didn't throw a pass or register a carry. There was precisely nothing exceptional about his performance -- and that's not an indictment on Hooker. It's just that he didn't really do anything of note, good or bad.
I thought he handed the ball off exceptionally well. Given how run heavy we were in the second half (only throwing the ball 6 times) I felt like Hooker could have handled the entire load. Plus, he played 5-6 snaps and we put up 7 points. Had he played - oh, I don't know - 35 snaps, that translates to 35ish points. #math
1 snap. The correct answer is Hooker played 1 snap.
And we scored. That has to be a sign, right?
/s
We came out strong and scored in the third quarter. This was a struggle last year. Good to see the team come out ready in the 2nd half.
We upset the Paladins, I am stoked for the W! /s
On a serious note maybe we found a feature running back?
Maybe next year after a year of being built up in the weight room. He's too small to last the entire year as a feature back.
If King is a feature back (in the classic sense) at any point in the future (not just this year) that means 1) RB depth is terrible and 2) he'll not be there where the games matter. He should be touching the ball 10-15 times a game at the most.
Think Alvin Kamara, not Zeke Elliott. Folks pining for the 90s need to move on.
I'm excited to watch Farley progress and grow. He's going to be a monster his senior year. Given his backstory, he's a really easy kid to root for.
King is averaging 6.8 ypc. McClease is averaging less than 4 on only 2 fewer carries. We've definitely found who our feature back *needs to be*.
On another note, lost in the Chamarri Conner craze is the question of what happened to Khalil Ladler. He was my favorite DB last year, and even if he's not as good as Conner, I feel like we should get him on the field somewhere. Maybe one of the experts on here could explain further.
I really like the talent I have seen from these young kids. I think some of our offensive problems are due to the fact we may not have the WB personnel to run the system Fu and Corny want to run. I really wish they would adapt to the weapons they have. It seemed to work pretty well when Evans was QB. We have the receivers, the OL, and a great new RB in King that should make this offensive click in the next few years. I really hope HH or Jesus Tyrod step up to become the QB the system needs.
We should have never been trailing at halftime, but I thought the second half game plan was calm and deliberate, and the team kept its composure.
I would like to hire Furman's kicker to give onside kick lessons.
I'm 10000% impressed with what he did there. But it's time we put him in the Terry Williams category of guys we don't want to play again. It's time to learn his name.
His name is Grayson Atkins
👑 KEYSHAWN KING 👑
WE HAVE A RUNNING BACK NOW!!!
Srsly, you can't teach those skills that he naturally exhibited. Keshawn had broke through more tackles in that one run that I haven't seen in what feels like a very long time!
Speaking of Keyshawn King, any update on his health? He came out a couple of times and didn't come back in after the last one. I hope that he can stand up to getting hit by P5 players.
I heard postgame he told Fuente he could have gone back in but they held him out to be safe. X rays came back negative during the game.
I think that is the concern with King is he is a true freshman with a true freshman body who has been through a P5 off season conditioning program yet. His durability concerns me and I hope we use him appropriately.
Exactly. He's a 5'11 true freshman that weighs 182#. Put that in contrast with David Wilson who was 2" shorter but weighed 20# more or Saquon Barkley (not that I'm comparing King to Barkley) who is only 1" taller and 52# heavier. As much as I want to see King run the ball because it's awesome to watch, the coaching staff needs to be careful with him until he can put on some more weight.
I specifically remember one play too where he ran into the back of the OL and then instead of falling to the ground like any of our other RBs of the last 8 years, he spun to the outside for a huge gain. Gotta love having an RB with some vision
It would have been very easy for this team to fold in the second half. I really do think that the culture issues from last year are gone. Does it mean that all this team's problems are solved. No. Does that mean this team will magically win the coastal? Unlikely. However, I do think it means that we have the ability to improve, and that it is finally possible to start moving in the right direction.
The Hokies are going to win the Coastal.
We do still control our own destiny. There's only one team that looks decent, and we've had their number in the past decade and a half.
I feel a little better about that game after watching them against Florida State. FSU is a bad team, and they took UVA to the wire in Charlottesville. Bryce Perkins isn't taking care of the ball as well as he should, and I still think all the running he's doing will affect him by the time Black Friday rolls around. This is probably their best shot to beat us in awhile, but we still have the mental edge.
Disclaimer: I think the ACC is pretty much total trash outside of Clemson and maybe UVA. However, for the sake of Coastal discussion:
I think UNC looks decent. I think Sam Howell is the 2nd most talented (not 2nd best, yet) QB in the conference. They have a problem with consistency right now, but once they settled in on both sides of the ball the largely shut down Wake's offense and their offense went into another gear with Howell making some throws that truly blew me away. Plus that kid has proven he can be clutch in back to back weeks to start the season against SCar and Miami.
Pitt is an incredibly tough read. They like like complete bozos sometimes, but almost managed to hold Penn State's offense in check. I think PSU has some offensive issues to work through, so it's hard to tell how much that mix was on PSU being poor offensively and Pitt being much better than they showed against UVA.
Miami is still more talented than us, and they have had our number 4 of the last 5 years. I think they have big time issues, but so do we.
Duke is always going to be extremely well coached. Despite an ultimately lopsided score, they actually impressed me against Duke. They played tons of zone shells and took away Bama's big plays and forced Tua to take what the defense was giving him. He succeeded, but he is also the best QB in the country, so I certainly don't have the same confidence in Willis to make those plays against zone given his past struggles and our offense's weird inclination towards running the wrong plays into the wrong coverages. Duke is on my list as a very winnable game, but our mistake-laden start is not what you want when going against a team that is highly disciplined.
GT is trash. That game is a must-win, unacceptable loss, whatever you want to call it.
I love what we saw in King. He could be a good one for us. I just hope we can find a good backup option, because I get the feeling we'll have to resort to leaning heavily on him to create offense the rest of the way this year.
Off the top of my head,
(1) Keshawn King has the best burst of speed that I've seen out of any VT back since David Wilson. Really hopeful that he'll hold up well during ACC play and have a big career here.
(2) As mentioned above, I loved seeing the defense play. They looked liked they LOVED being out there again, something I didn't see all last year.
(3) I really like to see Devon Hunter getting some reps and he looks really physical out there. Chamarri Connor looks great too. I think the DBs are progressing faster than maybe any other unit on the team.
(4) I really, really like the end around plays with Tayvion Robinson and Tre Turner and hope that we use those more in ACC play. Anything to jumpstart the run game!
(5) Third quarter VT looked so much better than first half VT. Always love to see that.
I can't believe I'm this relieved to have a bye week this early in the season, but boy do we need to hit the reset button on certain things. Great timing for us. Agree though, there are definitely some positives that came out of this. Level of competition aside, we came out and hit the gas in the 3rd quarter and didn't fold. No matter the opponent, overcoming adversity and banding together to come back from double-digits is an under-appreciated positive takeaway for me regarding the attitudes of the players on this years' team.
Trailing at halftime might actually be a net positive for this team. After the embarrassing ODU loss last year, you know at half time that team was doubting themselves a little and contemplating another embarrassing defeat at the hands of Furman.
Case in point: UVA losing to #16 then trailing this year to another #16.... coming out in the second half and winning then eventually "winning" the Championship (even though they should have lost 3 games in that tournament and technically lost one on a blown double dribble....)
Regardless of level of talent, our players know they can go out and make plays when they need to know, I think we gained some mental maturity in this one.
- Loved seeing the players supporting each other, especially the defensive side. The camaraderie is there and was great to see after the fumble recovery. You could feel the stadium wake up after those back-to-back TDs.
- Ashby & Conner played awesome.
- The D-line seemed much better at getting penetration and either TFL or limiting yards after contact.
- Watching King run was great. Just hope he can last the season once ACC play starts.
- The BBQ nachos sold in Section 5 are frickin amazing.
Love Your Avatar! I miss those two...
Enjoying these positive take threads. Go Hokies!
I just watched the post game presser (and read same comments in Daily Press article) and Willis was asked about boos when he went onto the field once and applause when he was injured. He acknowledged hearing both. I didn't like the question since I'm certain any applause was due to fans wanting to see Hooker, not happiness that Willis was injured (which is another topic that I'll not discuss now.) I thought the question might spook and negatively affect Willis. Much to my surprise, he took a tough question and answered it like a man, imo, commending our fan base rather than condemning them. I've not been the biggest fan of Willis, but he's earned a little respect from me with that answer.
Yep. Bitch move by those "fans".
You never applaud any injury, opposing team or our team, especially our QB. They are still young men who are prone to making mistakes. I can assure you no one loathes thrown INT's more than the guy who throws them. He is out there playing his nuts off, put his body in harms way to win and people have the balls to cheer. Sorry, this pisses me off.
I did like to see the half back pitch. The defensive ends have been teeing off on the mesh point behind center and this was a good counter.
I presume the jet sweep motion is supposed to slow that defensive end from crashing down as they have a containment responsibility but it clearly has not been effective.
Thanks to this Bye week I don't have to suffer for 3.5 hours of Corny's baloney offense
The first half was terrible, no question.
The second half we outscored them 21 - 3 and out produced them 223 yards to 129.
If you take out their 3 scoring drives they only were able to get 88 yards...total.
Averaging 9 yards per drive is what we expected from our defense and the best they have looked since the FSU game regardless of the competition, 3-4 mistakes on 3 drives and they went from 88 total yards to 241 yards, its a lot of yards for mistakes but hopefully those are fixable mistakes.
Preach. Now are we going to start meme-ing him with the Roseanne Conners or the Terminator Conners. I know which one I'm rooting for
Comments on King and giving OL boost of confidence may be misplaced. I went back and watched his long 54 yard run, and it was not well blocked. King just basically outran several defenders, and the first defender took a bad angle was slower. That play was all King!
To me the 2nd half comeback show the team is a team again. Fuente has a number of these in his time at VT. The players took to the adjustments and we took care of business in a game that gets short due to the opponents offensive game plan.
You bring up a good point. I always felt that we hired the right guy right after we came from way down on Arkansas in the Belk Bowl. He showed me then he had the potential to adjust and inspire.
The ND game too, we were down by 10 in the 4th.
4. We averaged 5.3 YPC- not bad, but included a 21 yard run by Robinson on one jet sweep and 68 yards of jet sweep runs by Turner. King averaged 9 ypc because one of his runs was 54 yards. It is progress, yes but there is work to be done. Tre Turner was our second leading rusher against Furman. I think this is the first order of business for Coach Kill to help with.
Believe it or not, the coaching staff was
one steptwo days ahead of you.