Disclaimer- I dont know much about the intricacies of blocking/play calling beyond what Madden/French have taught me.
What I have been thinking about is that when Fuente's offense was working (at Memphis and early VT) was towards the beginning of the RPO being widespread in college football. I remember over the course of that first season or 2 getting called for a lot of illegal linemen downfield when the Oline was aggressively run blocking and the qb decided to pass. It really felt like we were taking advantage of a rule that got called intermittently. However as the RPO became more pravalent and refs knew what to look for it forced the Oline to block more passively to avoid getting called downfield.
Is it possible that Fuentes offense exploited a gray area of the rulebook that no longer exists and we will struggle until the scheme adapts?
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Seems legit. Also he is in a big boy conference with real D's that don't fall for the gimmicky stuff as much to my similarly football unsophisticated eyes...
I think it is mostly this^^^
Yes. It's all about the linebackers. In P5 conferences linebackers are big, fast and smart. In the G5 you can pick two of the three.
Lacking size: Backs and receivers run through defenders. Blockers can't be shed.
Lacking speed: Can't correct from being out of place.
Lacking Smarts: Can't be in the right place due to getting fooled.
I watched a few plays from VT vs. Clemson in 2017 in slow motion. I pretty much became doubtful of our scheme at that time. The reason was two-fold: not enough of the players bit on the deception and the ones that did were athletic enough to get into position to make a play. I realized Clemson was an extreme example given their defense so for other opponents I did not watch in slow motion but you can generally see that in most cases the defense is all over us either has a numbers advantage or doesn't need one.
They beat an Ole Miss team by multiple scores in 2015. Ole Miss would go on to finish 10-3, second in the SEC West and top ten in both polls. It's not *just* the level of competition here.
There have been fluke victories throughout the history of college football.
JMU beat us in 2010 and we went on to an ACC championship and an 11-3 record. That doesn't mean JMU's system was destined to do well against ACC teams.
Also, this isn't exactly the same coaching staff per se. Darrell Dickey was the OC and he is now at Texas A&M.
if RPO's were gimmicky you wouldn't get tired of hearing Cris Collinsworth show effectively the same replay with telestrator circling the run blockers and underlining the pass blockers fifteen to twenty times per game on sunday night football
the solution: is clearly more short yardage runs out of Shotgun Formation!
Ask AP or Jalen Hurd about running out of shotgun. It sucks.
Not only from the shotgun, but with Olinemen blocking from the backfield
I think he has a mediocre QB and running backs more so than the rules.
Agreed. This is a jimmies and joes discussion vs x's and o's.
College football today requires a very good to elite QB to be successful. We don't have that currently. I do believe that Braxton has potential and Knox Kadum was a way underrated recruit who is an advanced passer that pared with a good play calling/development system could be very good. Today though - it doesn't exist unfortunately.
Welp there it is - first comment regarding the future of qb at vt that didn't even mention hooker or qp. Wow....if those two guys can't be developed into starters what does that say?
It says that they are not P5 starting QBs.
I didn't say that. I said right now for - aka for the 2019 season. It's too early to be critical of QP development. This has been said time and time again. He is a R-FR. and has only been on campus 13 months and was always considered a 2-3 year starter if developed over time with a redshirt.
Right now on the roster you don't have a QB that can constantly perform at the level needed. That's not to say there are not other issues. QB play is always the most critical.
I agree with you - I was responding to the question "What does that say?"
There are people hung up on the fact that "our QB situation sucks but we have 2 4 star recruits. How can we not have a Heisman level starter?" (Hyperbole mine.)
It says more than that. It says that either Fuente did a poor job identifying them as future P5 QB's that could lead a successful VT program, or that Fuente was unable to coach them to their half potential. Neither is good. And I'm guessing it is the latter, because both QP and HH were highly rated. It is still possible that Fuente has not given them their full opportunity yet because he has had is blinders on for Willis.
You can possibly make that comment about HH, but QP is still extremely young and by all accounts was a very raw QB talent that needed a lot of development. He is only r-Fr.
Either that, or a number of other things (scheme/personnel don't complement skillset (lack of run game means Defense can queue up to stop the pass), QB development isn't as advertised, etc...)
Trying to pin the offensive struggles on one thing is an effort in futility. There are so many negative variables having an impact on what we see week and week out on that side of the ball.
One question worth pondering - what is holding back our offense more - Fuente/Cornelson or the person playing quarterback? That's an honest question not meant to pick on specific individuals but is worth a thought. Given the amount of turnovers I'd probably say the Qb is hurting us more at this point. Thoughts?
One question worth pondering - what is holding back our offense more - Fuente/Cornelson or the person playing quarterback? That's an honest question not meant to pick on specific individuals but is worth a thought. Given the amount of turnovers I'd probably say the Qb is hurting us more at this point. Thoughts?
My thought is that attitude reflects leadership. The QB must feel like his coach is confident in him, and trusts him whether he does right or wrong. You must feel like your coach or leader has your back, and that he will help you when times are tough. Fuente doesn't seem to like the tough times- he blames on others when things go wrong.
Willis has faults, but he can throw a nice pass. He needs his line to make some damn blocks, his backs to hit some holes, his receivers to make some tough catches, and he needs his coaches to evaluate themselves and how they are leading this team. If he can't run the read option, give him something he can do! The other quarterbacks are clearly not ready, and the staff is only sticking with what they know. Learn something new! Do something different! the shit we are seeing now is not working.
My guess: an anemic run game. We've become exactly what Coach Foster wants to make opponent's offenses become - one-dimensional. And we don't have a young Tyrod Taylor that can come in to replace the starter and make something out of nothing (3rd and 31) without a supporting cast.
While this might be a tiny portion of why the offense isn't producing 50 points a game, it is no way the reason why the team looks like this:
If the gray area could be exploited, another gray area could as well...meaning he should have adapted to a new whatever by now. And that has not happened.
Much of Fuente's offense is based on forcing a defender to make a choice which leaves him vulnerable to being out of position. The offense then exploits the numbers or position advantage resulting from that choice. However, if in fact there is no read in the zone read, no option in the RPO, and/or the number of players faking exceeds the number of players being faked in play action, then this approach is pointless if not counterproductive. Down field blocking may be part of it, but I think it is only a small part.
Alternative opinion: Galen Scott was Fuente's Tenzig Norgay.
Also seems like wiggins is doing pretty well at Bama.
Without those guys to recruit for him and temper his personality, seems like the bottom has finally fallen out.
First time comment here...just a quick thought. Fuente and Cornelson have plenty of issues, but the primary concern is that neither of them seem capable of changing their "system" to meet our QB talent or offensive roster. Of course they had success with Jerod, he was built for the misdirection offense...limited arm talent, big body, RPO, limited turnovers, etc.
News flash, Ryan Willis is not that guy. I don't particularly like Willis, but the one and only thing he CAN do is spin it down the field. It seems like whenever we are actually moving the ball it is because they let him throw it down the middle of the field more than once per drive. Why can't we run the chuck 'n duck with Willis and the 4-5 receivers? That should open up the defense to setup our stupid sideways plays and molasses-slow run game.
Preaching ball-control and limiting mistakes while running Ryan Willis out there every weekend makes Fuente look like an idiot...save that shit for QP. Yes, Willis is going to turn the ball over every now and then and will probably try to squeeze it into coverage more than Josh Jackson would, but the only way to win with him is to make it rain. We have Damon, Hez, Tre, Kaleb, Phil, Tavyion, Mitchell, and Keene. Why are we running such a controlled offense?
FTFY, but point taken.
You're giving the receiving corp more credit and less criticism that it deserves. It may be a strength, but it's extremely relative. They aren't running crisp patterns or reading defenses, have been dropping passes and the edge blocking has been...well, not good.
As someone wrote above, the problem isn't really X's and O's as much as it's Johnny's and Joe's.
No, he hasn't developed anything else off it, and running game being stuck in reverse doesn't help.