Illinois Hokie's Recent Comments
I know. I just disagree with you, for reasons stated above and below.
I think you make a damn good argument down the board here. BUT, I also think everything you are saying here does actually fall into my "one knock on Loeffler", i.e., he puts too much pressure on his QBs. As goes the QB play, so goes the offense. Now, yes, of course this will be generally true of football in general. But it's exacerbated by how much Lefty requires his QBs to be a field general.
I yield on the idea that you wanted a specific rushing philosophy. I'm probably lumping you in with the general "line up and run the ball down their throats!" crowd. But to say we have no running philosophy, I disagree. Misdirection/fakes/counters/reads is a running philosophy. It's a philosophy that puts the brunt of the responsibility for the running game on the shoulders of the QB. So, again, something consistent with my "one knock on Loeffler."
I'll say this. The fact that we have seen an improvement of a half a yard a carry given the state of our running backs situation is a goddam miracle. That's one area of the offense that has been a cluster since David Wilson left. Now that we've settled on a McMillian/Rogers tandem with Trey on short yardage, we've instantly seen improvement in the running game numbers. It just sucks that in that same week, Motley gave by far his worst performance as a starter.
Ultimately, after 2.5 years of Loeffler as OC, we know one thing with absolute certainty about his scheme: first year starters struggle in it. Do they get better? Who the hell knows, we've never seen a second year starter! Brewer certainly looks comfortable in it, and we'll certainly see down the stretch.
I'm not trying to be an apologist here. I'm not saying Lefty's a good OC. I'm saying I don't think the specific criticisms you were leveling toward him were accurate. It might sound like I'm saying there's "only one knock" on Loeffler, but if that one knock is that his scheme is too complex for a QB to be able to run it, that's kind of all that matters, isn't it?
Through our four losses, offensive deficiencies contributed to three of them. I'm not going to gnash my teeth over Ohio State. We were moving and scoring with Brewer. Him going down to a major injury sucked the breath out of everyone including the coaching staff. The one similarity between Pitt and Miami was bad QB play. The running game didn't support Motley at all against Pitt, but was working well against Miami. So the one consistent theme across all our losses is QB play. The scheme might just be too damn hard for a college QB to run. But I'd feel a lot stronger in making that accusation if I could ever see a QB run it for two years in a row.
I do like that Lefty reverted to the 2013 LT offense for Motley. That's way more his strong suit than what Brewer was going to be doing this season. But Lefty couldn't completely revamp the scheme on the fly.
By the by, you notice as soon as we get out off the RB rotation carousel of doom and have one feature back we can rely on, we see the option pitch make an appearance? I don't think that's coincidence. I think Lefty knows he finally has ONE tailback he can game plan around.
I'm down with this. I really am. But you gotta remember, Motley was recruited by the previous regime because he looked like he might have that spark of mobility and improvisation that O'Cainspring leaned heavily on to mask their own incompetence. I don't think he's cut from the cloth of a pro-style QB. Honestly, I think Lefty has done one hell of a job developing him to the point that he has. He has threaded the damn needle on occasion and has no shortage of fight in his character. I just think we've seen Motley hit his ceiling. He can run the progressions of Lefty's passing triangles, but not while he's also sensing pressure from within the pocket. He can make all the throws, but not without staring down his receivers.
I'm not trying to flay Motley alive. I love this guy. He's a good QB. He just has some obvious limitations, and I think good ACC defenses will know how to exploit them.
This.
Now as for players bring undisciplined, that IS a coaching problem. But to me it seemed like the defense was far more guilty of this than the offense against Miami.
The offensive issues were all Motley. I won't fault him for the openining series fumble. That was whatever. Crazy shit happens in football. But his two picks were both terrible decisions, he damn near had a third on a terrible decision, and it was like he forgot at time that pash rush is a thing. Bad game for the kid. Which, again, you could hang on his QB coach, this being his sixth start. But the specific criticisms of Loeffler's scheme above just don't seem to hold water. They came across more like venting to me.
And therein lies the problem. It is neither coachspeak nor an excuse to say we were a handful of plays away from winning. It's the truth.
The frustration lies in the fact that we have been hearing about those handful of plays for God knows how long now. We heard it about our 3-4 loses a year during our ACC championships run, and now we're hearing it about our 5-6 losses a year during our decline.
We never actually address what it will take to fix those handful of plays.
This criticism just doesn't hold up to me.
He knew all spring and all summer that he didn't have a slot receiver. He knew all spring and all summer that he had an abundance of tight ends and full backs.
We're using Bucky as a traditional receiver more than as a tight end, and Bucky and Malleck are on the field at the same time most plays. Sam Rogers has become a focal point of the offense, on the field pretty much every single down, and has been utilized as a blocker, a runner and a passer. This offense couldn't rely much more on TEs and FBs to make it go.
Loeffler still decided to install an offensive game plan designed to move the ball with a west coast passing attack.
You completely lost me here. If you have good hands TEs, RBs who can catch, but are a little short on deep threat WRs or lack a QB with a rocket arm, the intermediate passing game of the West Coast offense is probably to your advantage. Unless you're just insinuating we're passing it more than we should be. If that's the case, we've run it 287 times and passed it 193. A 1.5:1 run to pass ratio does not strike me as a pass happy offense.
He wasted an incredible opportunity to come into Blacksburg and do what everyone wanted him to do... Establish a fundamental rushing concept on which an offensive identity could be built. He clearly isn't interested in doing so
I just think it's more an issue that he didn't install the rushing concept you wanted him to. Rushing production increased from Lefty's first year to his second in terms of YPC, and is so far on track to improve again this season. The rushing identity of this team is pretty clear in year three of the Loeffler era: use pre-snap motion and misdirection to create advantageous matchups. So far, that strategy is working to see a statistical improvement in the running game.
If there's one knock on Loeffler, it's that he gives his QBs too much responsibility to run a very complex offense, and when you have a QB like Motley who has all the physical tools but lacks some of the intangibles (an internal clock after the snap, for example) then it is too easy for things to fall apart. It also doesn't help that our RB rotation was a disaster until the last two games. Had we had some contribution from that position against Pitt, we might have been able to get the extra five points we needed on the board. The Miami loss, though, at least as far as the offense is concerned, falls on Motley exhibiting by far the worst decision making of his career as a starter thus far. Now you can certainly blame Loeffler for that, and rightfully so. But that would be more of a QB coach issue than an OC issue. The plays were there and Motley didn't make them. It was an issue of player, not scheme. But again, you can fault the position coach for the failures of the player.
Well, through seven games last year, Cam had 25 receptions for 308 yards and 2 TDs. This season through seven, he's got 25 receptions for 300 yards and 1 TD. Receptions are a push, he's regressed 2.6% in receiving yardage and found the end zone one fewer time. Basically Cam is exactly the same player he was last year. I honestly think it's more an issue of Ford having improved so much that a nearly identical performance by Cam looks worse in comparison.
I thought we ran it a third time and the Miami D blew up Motley before he could pitch.
I wrote this almost verbatim above, the edited it out when I realized I'd skimmed over this part:
The average offense from 2008 scored 26.92 points per game. In 2015 that number is 30.33, a little more than a field goal increase. From 2005-2009, the Virginia Tech defense gave up 14.46 points per game. Since that, they have allowed 20.48. Our PPG allowed increased by double the national PPG scored increased. Not good.
Yardage might be another topic worth discussing. He starts tracking in 2005. That season, there were three teams that averaged over 500 yards per game. Last season, there were eight. Yardage has gone up big, possibly by a larger percentage than scoring. It would stand to reason that as offenses get more aggressive, they gain a lot more yards but don't score proportionally as many more points because increased aggression leads to an uptick in turnovers.
Cam has sprung Travon on some runs around end. He has really embraced Burden's emphasis on blocking and contributing on plays on which he is not targeted.
Also, the numbers on Cam:
2014: 3.1 receptions per game, 12.5 ypc, 38.3 ypg
2015: 3.6 receptions per game, 12.0 yoc, 42.9 ypg
Phillips has essentially maintained his level of production, while being a BIG improvement in the blocking game. Phillips is basically THE reason we have a functional WR screen now.
As for Asante, Knowles, Newsome, Caleb, etc., I just think they're a known commodity at this point. AMo couldn't develop them in his two seasons, Zohn hasn't done anything to improve them in his eight months. But if they are better at blocking when they're on the field, they are contributing. Not sure if they are or not, I haven't paid any attention to their blocking.
I also think we upgraded over AMo with Burden. I like what I'm seeing in receiver play this season.
PS - We WANT to be a program that other program want to steal position coaches from. It means our position coaches are good.
Wiles has always put an emphasis on twitch when evaluating his linemen, but it seems like he's reached a point where that's all that matters to him now. It doesn't matter how fast off the snap your DL is of they lack the size and power to fight off blocks.
I've never thought Wiles was an elite DL coach. I understand Bud's one gap system isn't the easiest to recruit for in the front seven, but Wiles' knee jerk reaction is to take any player with prototypical size for their position and move them up a position. Maybe that worked in the late Nineties and early to mid Aughts. But it is failing now. How many times did we send seven on a blitz against Miami that resulted in no pressure because our front four weren't getting enough penetration to need a double team? Out DL is getting blocked into our blitzers because they aren't strong enough to tie up an O lineman.
I think it's time for a frank appraisal of all positions coaches, and I think some of our D coaches are failing to a larger extent than our O coaches. I like what Searels is doing on the line and love what Burden has accomplished in a few months with out receivers (we have a WR screen that works, guys!!!), but it seems like a lot of our D positions coaches aren't answering the bell.
Searels has definitely improved the size of the OL over what it was for our predecessors. I believe at one point french referred to it as the "Hans-and-Frans-ification" of the line.
Also, I assume Nijman is pulling down our average weight at LT.
This is a beautifully written piece. Simply perfect presentation.
Edit: Never mind. I missed the paragraph addressing the improvement in offenses overall on my first read.
Let's be honest. Motley has indeed played his ass off, but he contributed more than his fair share to the loss today. And his lack of pocket awareness contributed heavily to that. And it isn't improving. The kid can't sense pressure or a collapsing pocket. He zones in to what's happening downfield - often a single receiver - and takes too many sacks because of it.
It's not a question of effort, it's a question of ability, and I think Motley lacks the ability to be a P5 QB, specifically because of his lack of pocket awareness. That's exactly what OP was saying, though he was venting in the process. But it wasn't like he was trying to crucify Mot. He was bemoaning the kid's lack of awareness. After six starts, that a very valid criticism to make.
I have no issue with the timeouts. That is not a bad call.
I have HUGE issues with the offside and rushing the passer penalties. That donstrates a lack of discipline, and that's on the coaches.
So timeouts are fine. It's the penalties that are the indictment on this coaching staff.
O line was fine in pass pro. Motley held on way, way too long. Lacks a bit of pocket awareness.
Defense completely fucked us over on that drive.
Looks like Osterloh is up.
HOLY SHIT WHAT A DRIVE!
Settle down Big Lu.
Motley dropped a pass on the money to Hodges against this good defense. He's made one bad decision and had a ball slip out of his hand. Let's not overstate the case against him.
Biggest knock on Motley is his pocket awareness.
I wish I could give this all the legs. (You effort and presentation, not what the graph indicates.)