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Correct, I live in Atlanta and have been to all the games. I have never seen VT this outnumbered
He wasn't bad...
He was terrible
It may have just been a coach celebrating a win in his specialty (special teams), but Shane did go over to the reporter on the sideline after the punt return for the TD and say something to her about how fitting it was to score a touchdown that way.
The biggest sign of where we are right now is that we hired a coach because he worked for Frank, and because he has ties to Frank and would continue the legacy...
And Frank was at the game wearing the sideline gear of our opponent and getting the game ball from our opponent.
I don't care that his son is the SC coach, it wouldn't be that hard to just wear a non-branded maroon jumper to represent both sides. VT is no longer the school of the Beamer family. They only want to see our failures.
From my seat, I thought Drones looked bad.
Agree on all points. I was hopeful with some better QB coaching and mentoring, Drones could flourish in Monty's system. But Drones is what he is, he hit his ceiling in 2023 and there's no more development left for him. Monty's system requires a QB who can accurately throw it 30+ times a game, and Drones has lost every game he has been required to throw that much. He's slow seeing the field and going through reads, low football IQ, and streaky accuracy at best. And likely due to pandering and keeping him happy and entrenched as QB1 due to the NIL we have paid him, we don't have any better options on the roster. I just don't see how we are going to have much offensive success in this scheme given Drones' limitations, to put it nicely.
I've slept on it and realized I feel the same today as I did yesterday, and the day before.
The moral victories no longer suffice.
I'm glad the defense had a pulse and kept us in the game, but I'm tired of those small victories never translating to wins. We can get stops all day, and it's all for nothing if our offense doesn't reward it with points. The object of the game is to uh, ya know, score more points than the other team. Drones looked, as politely as I can put it, like diarrhea dog shit. I would almost prefer it if he didn't occasionally hit accurate passes - it only makes it more frustrating when he misses layups (and oh my god, does he miss those layups).
Save the empty platitudes and moral victories. Win the fucking games.
Agree - the 25 jersey tribute thing should have stopped a while ago and definitely should end now. Sick of it.
Largely agree outside of Drones. For the most part as I watched the game I wanted to cognizant of how I felt throughout all phases of the game as a fan watching a college football game and not so much analyzing the play by play.
Drones: The first half felt like more of the first 3/4 games of last season. Play calling was way too many pass attempts. IMO, more RB and RPO run plays for Drones would be have been more effective and cater to his "Strengths". Would have rather us establish a run look offense first and pass less. Drones is not a passer.
Offense (again in a general observation): I felt the overall play calling was good. I felt the scheme throughout it was good. I felt the O is better than last year as a group. They have a workable foundation to improve upon but not with Drones.
O Line: The entire last season it was maddening watching how bad our line was. I didn't feel that way overall, one bit. I felt this unit was better and played okay and "okay" is a marked improvement vs last season.
Defense: Boy oh boy, did I enjoy watching this D play yesterday. This D resembled everything we heard about Siefkes style. This was the most aggressive D I've seen in a long time. Outside of a few plays and missed tackles, I am up on this unit.
Pry: Overall, the only item where I lost my shit was the illegal punt formation. I mean you've got to be fucking kidding me. Outside of that, I really didn't think he had other total buffoon clock management moments. Did he try to, maybe, but not utter WTF moments.
Coordinators: I left this game with a degree of confidence in both. These guys will bring the wins that we should win this season or at least they give me the illusion they will after yesterday's game.
Bottom line, we beat Vandy nect week, call me a believer. We lose, and oh boy this season is going to suck.
I never said that tackling isn't a teachable skill.
But in 1v1 situation, where the tackler (a) doesn't know where the offensive player is going (by definition) and (b) is undersized and/or slower, then of course the offensive player is going to win the match up more often than not.
How many times did Tuten make a man miss? How many times did Tyrod or Vick weasel their way out of tackles? It's not always because the defender was under-coached, sometimes the other guy is just better.
And in THIS match up, that was often the case
100% on Beamer. Look, we all loved coach and he built VT into a viable contender in the Vick years and through the early 2000s, but that's gone and becoming a memory.
His final years drove the nail through anything he had built. The empty national championship trophy case was a joke outside of Blacksburg.
Stop the #25 jersey tribute. No fans are going to jump ship if you do. It wasn't even mentioned during the broadcast, thankfully.
Beamer is and will always be a legendary figure in VT football history, but otherwise will be a footnote for never winning the big games.
I do not wish Shane or SCar success. It's infuriating that anyone would.
The Pry, aw shucks, we competed hard quotes are ringing hollow with each exacerbating loss. I really want him to succeed and get us over the hump.
Go Hokies!
I didnt have a problem with it myself. It would've been pretty easy to shoot yourself in the foot and be down more points coming out of the half. The problem was the offense didnt turn it on and the start fo the second half either, or really the entire game.
Tired of them limiting themselves to FG chances at best. Did that part at least work out? Yes but we went to halftime with timeouts on the ledger and only took one real shot at the end zone.
Am I the only one who thought the end of half sequence was ok? Sure, they could've been more aggressive, but we've seen many instances of much worse results.
Its been going on for years in how Shane recruits, especially in state. Never risen to the level of much press but there have been several stories about visits Shane has made to Virginia High Schools where word got out that he was using a straight bash Tech script rather than what SCAR offers. It didn't help that this was going on at the same time Fuente and crew decided to alienate Virginia High Schools feeding fuel to Shane's smoke.
My point is you can improve on it. It's not some static component of someone's game that can't be worked on because "well, he's just not that talented."
Lots of message board and insider rumors and rumblings over bitterness from Frank's departure, Beamers upset with Whit, and Shane going after VT a lot directly in recruiting recently.
I agree O line play was better than the past but dont agree that the pocket was stable much. The Left tackle got run by at least a half dozen times forcing Drones out or leading to rushed throws/Drones taking a hit as ball came out. SCAR picked up on it early and blitzed that side frequently. Will be interested to see how French grades that left side of the line.
Strength is not equal to athleticism but strength is absolutely a huge component to being athletic.
In terms of Pass Pro, it also didn't help that the Refs let Stewart consistently line up in the Neutral Zone...
Yeah...didn't see the sense of urgency at all that one would expect from a coach who should feel like he's coaching for his job this year.
"We're not as bad as expected" isn't going to cut it.
It just makes me angry that Shane has his little vendetta against VT/has to prove to the world he was too good for us.
I haven't seen any evidence of this anywhere. Did I miss something? (I don't follow a lot of offseason football news)
I had chalked this one up as a loss all offseason, but I had some hope in the back of my mind that finally we would exceed expectations. That finally Pry would get things together and show us something.
And other than the first drive and up until the collapse at the very end, the defense played admirably. Hats off to Siefkes - he put us in a position to win the game. DL looked dominant and had Sellers rattled for most of the game. I think what hurt the most is seeing that we easily could have won this one.
But here we go again...the offense was absolutely pathetic. I don't even think it was necessarily the scheme (was way more conservative/vanilla than I had hoped, little misdirection).
But I'm going to say it - there are two common denominators over the last several years with this team after a lot of new players coming in and switching up the staff, and that's Drones and Pry. Very inconsistent and mistake-prone QB play from Drones that we've come to know, and still horrendous overall clock and game management from Pry. We have completely failed to put a good QB on the field in the Pry era. The sad thing is, I think Drones is the best we've got and Monty is probably handcuffed in what he can do offensively. Why we haven't brought in true competition for Drones falls squarely on Pry - I wouldn't be surprised if we have basically assured him the starting job and no competition with his NIL. Infuriating, but it's what we have.
And on to the Beamers. I'm not going to bash, but I'm also not going to say "rooting for Shane, hope SCar wins out!" That's a pretty decent team, but they aren't the thirteenth best in the nation. It just makes me angry that Shane has his little vendetta against VT/has to prove to the world he was too good for us. Yet complacency and the Beamers being unwilling to move on or adapt in Frank's final years is a huge chunk of why the program is so far behind and in the state it is now. I'm just sick we lost to him, and the narrative now will be that VT was only good because of the Beamers. We will never escape that shadow and that just makes me bitter at this point.
As Alum put it yesterday, the Beamers have moved on from us, but VT just can't seem to move on from them. We've got a golly shucks smooth talker HC who's just happy to be here hanging out on the sidelines, and who has just tried to hit us with all the Beamer-era ways of doing things and nostalgia that don't work anymore. Yesterday watching us was like seeing your favorite band from years ago, and all the original members are gone and the name is the only thing that remains. Feels hollow now.
Unless we can correct the mistakes and find a way to get something going offensively, it's hard to see anything different for next weekend or any team with a pulse. This is what we've come to know in the Pry era.
You can coach until you're blue in the face but if the player(s) don't have the talent/athleticism/football iq to execute, that's not on the coaches. Except for maybe playing someone else or recruiting better.
Some guys shine in practice but shit the bed when the lights are on on game day. Others can't seem to get it together in practice but are stars when the pressure is on. Coaches do need to figure out who belongs in each of those columns
Throw lasers and low balls are when you forcing to be perfect. Esp noted at end of the game...you could see him lunge forward too much or throw off his back foot.
That is indicative of a QB who still hasn't had the game slow down mentally for him and is absolutely rushing every throw. Playing behind dog shit OLs for years doesn't help that, but far too often yesterday he had a clean pocket and bailed or got out on the edge and didn't set his feet before throwing. He's not talented enough to throw on the move and he did it all the damn time leading to throws wildly all over the place barely giving the receivers a chance.
If that is who is going to be this year, we are going to struggle to win more than 3 or 4 games.
I think you could also say this about Pry as well...