Illinois Hokie's Recent Comments
Got nothing bad to say about Marshall or their coach. Why couldn't we just make this the hatin' on ECU thread, since that's who I actually hate.
Couple this with the post game interview Fuente gave on the field and then try to tell me these guys "don't understand" how much the Commonwealth Cup means.
When burnt, 15 yard PI is always preferable to a long TD. I'm okay with these young CBs grabbing right now, provided they grow out of it.
For the first time even, this season I'm starting to think moving Zohn to RB coach might work.
Having one receiver who is lackadaisical about blocking != a position coach not teaching players to block. Haze seems to be the outlier here in the blocking game.
The sabre right now is more delicious than my dinner yesterday, fam.
Everything.
Miami lost a WR with significantly greater contribution than Savoy this season. I'm thinking this is just the new normal under the updated transfer rules.
I'm thankful for a lifestyle comfortable enough that my alma mater's football program struggling to make a bowl game is one of the significant contributors of stress in my life.
For the whole BuT fUeNtE iS sUpPoSeD tO bE a QuArTeRbAcK wHiSpErEr crowd, take note, this is a master class on what Fuente can do with a QB. Willis is basically Michael Brewer with a better arm, but Fuente has completely reined in his interceptions. It's been said comparing Willis's time at Kansas to his time at VT is not apples to apples, but if there's one thing I'm certain of, ACC defenses >> Big XII defenses.
Bourbon
Check again.
Selhini's criticism has been by far the most level headed and data driven of the more frequent critics on the board this season. By far a net positive to the discussion here at a time when a lot of people just want to straight up piss and moan.
He doesn't have to get hurt. If you consistently pressure/hit him, he'll fall apart. It's how Pittsburgh beat him. Regardless of how little faith Bud has in this defense, he must blitz Perkins like this was the 2006 defense. Even if Perkins manages to evade some blitzes and make plays early, we have to keep pressuring him. If we do that, he will make critical mistakes, and we'll have an opening to win.
Just to throw this out there, would a 3 win season be that much worse than a 4 win season?
Foster's young defense has to swarm mobile quarterback Bryce Perkins and force him to make bad throws. The Hokies will have to run the ball way more than anyone in Lane Stadium wants to see, and Ryan Willis will have to correctly read zone coverages and manage the pocket under pressure in passing situations.
Welp. See you guys next year.
With more young players developing under them.
Not what I was trying to say. I'm not saying it doesn't matter that our offense has failed to live up to expectations. I'm saying even if the offense had met expectations this year, it wouldn't matter. There's admittedly work to be done on offense. There is exponentially more work to be done on defense.
When I look at our offense, all the problems look fixable. We need a QB who can make the reads Fuente needs him to make, a dependable RB (preferably two), and for the improvement Vice has made on the OL to continue. Give us those three things, I think this offense is fixed.
On defense? Forget it. We're adrift. And yes, attrition and injury has contributed the lion's share to that, but that's also left us in a position where a quick fix isn't possible. Anyone who thinks the defense will return to form in 2019 is setting themselves up for massive disappointment. This defense is going to be bad for at least one more season, I'm betting two.
My favorite stanza of the Inferno.
Then we go down like the 300 Spartans. The streak has to end eventually, but we don't have to be resigned to our fate. Time to rage against the dying of the light.
People are having a really, really hard time processing how bad our defense is. It's way off script for most VT fans. Granted, this offense isn't good, but Hokie Nation has been conditioned to put more blame on the offense for our struggles.
Honestly, I don't know how much it matters what our offense does, this defense might be too much of an albatross around the program's neck. If we had the 2016 offense, our record world be 5-5 right now instead of 4-6. (Assuming we scored our season average in every game.)
I know the expectation was that the offense was going to have to carry the team this season, and there's no debate it has failed to do that. But given how bad the defense truly turned out to be, I don't think most Big XII offenses could have carried this team.
If something is broken, it's broken on defense, because that's where all the attrition has come from.
Man, he has gotta pick his words better. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't mean it like that, but yeah, you don't put anything out there as a head coach that might be interpreted as questioning your players' talent.
This is not an excuse for the coaches. After the reads and throws I watched Willis make against Miami, there is no reason why Hooker hasn't at least been given a chance. I'm in the minority in that I still don't take particular issue with the play calling, but there's no reason to still be living or dying by Willis's hand at this point. I don't care how bad Hooker might be, you do something when your starter is making this many mistakes, especially when your "starter" isn't really your starter.
By rule, that only applies when the ball carrier is defenseless.