Illinois Hokie's Recent Comments
I hope you cleaned Shuffle off.
Over/Under: 2.5 yards per carry for Sam Rogers
Sam's been held under 2.5 YPC in one game: UNC, when he got stuffed for a one yard gain on his only carry.
Take the over.
Probably not in a Justin Fuente offense, no. The QB is a fundamental part of his running. Fuente rotates running backs, but has the same QB in for all downs. It would be hard for one running back to get significantly more carries than Evans in this system.
I hope so. Otherwise we'll be waiting until after the ACCCG to get this review.
When is this "next bye week"? We've got a game every week from here on out.
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9 years 8 months
# | From a Lack of Energy to Too Much Outside Noise, Hokies Search for Answers on Syracuse Letdown The values are adjusted for strength of schedule and down-weighted for "garbage time" (based on win probability).
Enough for me to give two shits about this metric.
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9 years 8 months
# | From a Lack of Energy to Too Much Outside Noise, Hokies Search for Answers on Syracuse Letdown Our offense is better than the Noles' this season.
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9 years 8 months
# | From a Lack of Energy to Too Much Outside Noise, Hokies Search for Answers on Syracuse Letdown And then went undefeated in conference play. So what's the point in focusing on the negative?
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9 years 8 months
# | From a Lack of Energy to Too Much Outside Noise, Hokies Search for Answers on Syracuse Letdown I will never, ever understand this mindset, prevalent among Hokies for as long as I've been one, and I assume prevalent among other fanbases as well, to discredit prior wins and prop up a bad loss as "the state of the program."
I have seen more than one comment questioning if we will win a other game this season. That's not venting, it's a full blown death spiral.
As much as ESPN wants to package college football as NFL Jr., it isn't. That's what gets me about the outcry like this after loses, saying there's "no way" we should ever lose to a team like Syracuse. We have no idea where everyone's heads were at kickoff. Who was up until 3 AM Thursday night finishing an assignment? Who broke up with their girlfriend, or is worried because she's late starting her period? Who's thinking about changing majors? Whose car died this week? Who couldn't sleep at the hotel?
Stuff that has nothing to do with football can make shit go sideways. And even then, if there isn't any ancillary reasons, players can just come out flat. Something's just off, and you can't find your rhythm.
Great teams can overcome that. We aren't a great team. I'm hopeful Fuente can make us a great team.
How?
You have five wide at the snap, meaning you have to have at least five DBs in coverage. And that's if you're willing to play man to man across the board. If you want any help at all, that's a minimum of six defenders committed to coverage. That leaves your four DL, plus a linebacker. So you can either have the linebacker spy, in which case the QB will have at least two favorable one-on-one matchups in coverage, or you drop the linebacker into coverage in the short or intermediate zone. If you drop the LB into coverage, that leaves your four man rush, and if any lane opens whatsoever, you're looking at a minimum of ten yards before the linebacker can meet the QB.
It's one thing to say there should have been an adjustment, but Dungey was finding holes in zone coverage when we spied, and finding the crease when we dropped seven into coverage. It was the perfect storm to handcuff Bud. And yet they still didn't run away with this game until the 4th quarter.
I took little exception to the play calling. There were maybe a couple of calls I questioned in the moment, but by and large it felt like the issues were executional rather than schematic.
Mark Richt got tired of dealing with rude, obnoxious, entitled fans with unreasonable expectations, who always thought they were better than they really were...so he took the job at Miami.
With the exception of Jerod Evans and the true freshmen on the team, all of our players have spent their careers only knowing this uneven, up and down culture in the program. Case in point, Conte's comment of never having had the experience of defending a ranking. We have new staff who preach consistency, excellence and attention to detail, but if you thought culture change was going to be like flipping a switch, you've probably never experienced culture change firsthand. This is what these players have known, and I'm certain for at least a few of them, this is what they expect.
We have seen firsthand that our problem at least the last couple of years has not been a talent deficiency. We have elite skill position talent. Fuente has already shown to what effect they can be utilized. So that part of it has been instant. Good system, smart game planning, effective play calling, and we outscore opponents 135-20. My faith in the system is already secure.
However, our biggest hurdle wasn't a change in offensive system. It's changing the tone and approach of the program. Giving 100% effort at all times isn't the way Beamer ran this program for the last several years. So we probably have a few more of these head-scratching losses ahead of us as Fuente makes this is program.
We lost a game we should have won. That's nothing new. But people are apoplectic or despondent over it like it's something we haven't seen before. That tells me fan buy-in has been nearly absolute.
Ultimately, you either trust Fuente to fix the inconsistency issue ingrained in our program, or you don't. If you don't, why are you still taking it so hard when it's something you've pretty much accepted as a given? If you do, then why are you so bent out of shape over something we've been living with for years, if you really believe we've got the guy who will eventually fix it?
Yeah, I'm not even thinking about the Coastal. I'm thinking of 3+ hours of football this Thursday night. I wanna get back to how we looked in games 3-5 and go 1-0 this week.
Also nobody seems to want to mention that we already beat a team this season that we weren't supposed to. Never as good as you feel after a win, never as bad as you feel after a loss.
I'm not attacking you. I'm telling you, to your (virtual) face, you are coming across as a dick in your last half dozen or so comments. I don't think you're a dick IRL, but right now you're well past the point of furthering the conversation with your comments. I get being frustrated, but you've been in a spiral of snark since the game thread yesterday. This isn't attacking you, it's saying it's pretty clear that this loss has hit you hard, and venting isn't helping. (If it was going to, it would have helped by now.)
Your shit is usually funny and topical. Since the end of Q4 yesterday, it's been a pretty continuous rant, and you are coming across as a dick. I know that's not really you, so I'm asking, please stop.
Dude, stop being a dick, please.
The speed of their offense countered our aggressiveness of defense. And I don't mean time between snaps. That ball was out of Dungy's hand so damn fast, we could never get a pass rush going. Couple that with Bud giving a 5-10 yard cushion in coverage to keep the deep throws in front of the secondary and Syracuse was able to dink and dunk their way up the field, then break one off when they found someone I'm man coverage because we were spying. It was the best attack on this defense so far this season, and we knew going in that might be the case.
We control our own destiny, but the margin for error just evaporated. Losing one more conference game will pretty much do us in. That's a bad position to be in with five conference games left.
Thus Spracht Leonardthustra.
It's not about hugging it out. It's about professional use of branded social media. What Joe did yesterday hurt his brand. TKP now has to deal with being "that site that turned on former players after the Syracuse loss." It doesn't matter if it's true or not, that's the optics. And I guarantee you currently players are aware of it. So how does that play out the next time Ryan or Alex go into a press conference or interview?
If you're not down with the jet sweet, you're in for some disappointment in the Fuente era. It's one of his bread and butter plays, and it sets up a lot of other plays we run.
A pivotal game 5 of the NLCS will be much stiffer competition tonight.