Recent Comments

I like the offensive tackle spot. Most of the pressure that Brewer faced late in the season came on breakdowns against stunts by the guards. Nijman looked FANTASTIC in spring drills before he was shut down due to minor injuries. McLaughlin is solid- I still think right tackle is the best fit for him. As I noted above, I want Osterloh to push Conte on the inside.

When Plantin was recruited, I raved about his feet and noted that if he added strength he would be a good OT. By all accounts, that has happened. Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to get a feel for him based on the limited film from the spring. Moore LOOKS huge, but I thought he was a little raw. We'll see about him. Note, I am also very excited about Tyrell Smith's potential on the inside. OL depth is probably a little better than most think.

Bucky will be flexed out all season. Diablo will get work because of his ability to block. I expect you will see McClease and McMillian flexed out in the slot a ton this year because Fuente likes using RBs for his jet sweep/IVR series.

I spent a ton of time re-watching both Mihota's performance against UVA and Tulsa and old film of VT's defenses in the mid 2000s. The Hokies top 5 defenses rarely featured DE's with burner speed. Guys like Burchette, Martin, Ellis, etc. were POCKET COLLAPSERS. They were also gap sound up front, meaning that they didn't fit their gap and then just run up field. They ripped off blocks and found the football (as Bud says often-fit your gap and then play football.) Far too often last season, Dadi Nicolas and Luther Maddy fit their gap and then let the defender carry them up the field. When Mihota was in the game, he cross faced back against blocks and caused all kinds of chaos at the point of attack- so much so that UVA ran more to their left as the game progressed to stay away from him. He tied up blockers, which allowed linebackers to make tackles unblocked in space.

From a pass rush perspective, he doesn't have the edge speed. But, he is a bull in a china shop and excels on X stunts- that is the DT drives outside and Mihota loops behind him to go through the B gap. Mihota drew a holding penalty and had several pressures (one forced an incompletion where Zaccheus had twisted Edmunds into the dirt and was wide open.)

If the plan is for Bud to use 40 fronts, or to play Mihota as a 3 tech in the bear, with the backer and Ekanem standing up, Mihota will be just fine.

I actually have a column pending some edits and film uploads on the defensive secondary scheme. In short, I think the four verticals concepts that so many spread teams use really exposes the leverage zones that Bud has used in the ACC era. I will be interested to see if Mitchell tries to get them into more traditional zones and less leverage coverage.

The trend now is for teams to recruit big up front and play soft zones, and then try to get red zone stops or let the offensive team make mistakes and stop themselves. This worked for UNC last year (and it helped that they had an O that could light up the scoreboard.) That trend runs the polar opposite to Bud's philosophy. I think Alex's conversation with Bud could be very enlightening on this topic.

Excellent questions- here are my thoughts

1) Provided everyone is healthy, Facyson is the boundary corner, Mook Reynolds is the nickel with Shegog replacing him against pro-sets. I think Shegog will have to get some work at backer behind Edmunds as well given depth issues.

That leaves rover-field corner. Terrell Edmunds is the safer guy at corner. He excelled in man to man coverage last year, essentially shutting down Mack Hollins on deep routes versus UNC and making numerous plays against Tulsa. At the same time, Edmunds was very tentative in zone coverage and doesn't have great closing speed on the football. He is a guy who won't get beat often, but also isn't going to be a guy you can robber/jump routes with and turn the ball over.

Alexander I believe has much more top end potential at corner. At the same time, the film that was released by VT and the spring game screamed that Alexander was getting beat deep frequently. He doesn't have a great knack for feeling when his cushioned is threatened and is wildly inconsistent with his technique. However, he has more length and much more closing speed than Edmunds.

The difference between the two is that Alexander has game experience at rover. Edmunds doesn't. I didn't see Edmunds doing anything in the spring game that would give me worries, but Alexander showed playmaking ability at that spot last season. Just like corner, Alexander has to improve the technique and alignment issues that plagued him. If given the choice (and a healthy Facyson), I would have Alexander at rover and Edmunds at FC.

For the OL, I would want to disagree a tad bit about the middle 3 being set. To me, Osterloh probably should have replaced Conte at right guard late last season. Conte was the most inconsistent run blocker among the starters and was really struggling with pass protection against stunts (particularly stunts where the DT would draw him outside and the DE would loop behind and crash through the B gap.) Without the benefit of knowing what is going on behind the scenes, my opening camp lineup would be Nijman-Teller-Gallo-????-McLaughlin, and Conte/Osterloh would be battling for that right guard spot.

Teller has a big bullseye on him this year. He is the most gifted OL at VT since Duane Brown. He is their best run blocker by far. He has to improve in pass protection and cut out the penalties that stem from poor technique. As for best fits for Fuente- I think Fuente can make the group work. He used mostly zone blocking at Memphis. I think he recognizes that this is a more mobile athletic group, and he will play to their strengths. If he gives the OL the freedom to adjust blocking schemes based on their recognition of alignment (provided they are capable), then that is the ideal circumstance. There can be multiple ways to block the same play if the OL is capable of making those adjustments on the fly.

I think Settle will be part of the DT rotation this season. I have said all along that he is a three technique, not a gap stuffer like the "change to a 3 man front and play Settle at nose" folks have been screaming. I'd look for him and Ricky Walker to push Nigel Williams. Nigel has a big microscope on him. He has been GREAT late the last two seasons, but has not been effective in fall camp and during non-conference play. He needs to come in and have a GREAT fall camp and non-conference season and carry it through the season. It is no coincidence that VT was better at stopping the run vs UVA and Tulsa when Williams, Baron, and Mihota were in the game. At points, it almost felt like Wiles put them in to stop the bleeding.

Maybe so... Kyshoen looked the part, even when undersized. Deon is so.... slight.

Well as a r-so he did play some at LB against PITT and GT I believe and those were his best games. I think the staff assumed he'd be able to put on and sustain the weight necessary to be an every down DE, but I don't know if his metabolism is just crazy or what but that never materialized. We also had almost no other options behind him.

Yes they currently are. But they'd have to drop a team to add both OKs and TCU to get to 16. I suppose the Big Ten could drop MD so they could add Kansases and IASt, meaning we could snag MD back and give up NCSt to the SEC. And drop Wake to midmajor while picking up ND and Navy.

Still not quite balanced but closer.

{Read in Jerry Seinfeld voice}

What's the deal with the Offensive Tackles?

Looks like as much talent as we have had at OT in .....I dunno....forever? McGlock has never really taken that final step (injuries?). Nijman is full of a lot of hope, what does he need to focus on? Osterloh has worked himself, literally, into the mix. What's his future look like? Thoughts on Plantin and Moore?

I hope so, too. As much as I loved Dadi, I didn't like that we were putting him at DE. For our team and our scheme, maybe it was the best place for him to land. But at his size I always thought there was zero percent chance he'd end up as an end in the league.

Given his athletic gifts, he was a multi-year starter for us at end but ended up getting drafted in the sixth round and projected as a LB, and Mark Dulgerian of NFL.com even said that he looks more like a safety.

The more we win and the more players we put in the league, I think the better our recruiting will get, and I think an actionable adjustment we can make is to specialize our talent to well-defined positions.

Because he was better than dadi who had been hurt all year and not playing well doesn't mean he is a natural DE. How good was the defense in the bowl game giving up 50 points and against a terrible uva team?

Here is the Tulsa box score again: http://espn.go.com/college-football/boxscore?gameId=400852719

Do you expect to see a change in philosophy of the defensive backfield? The CB technique of playing the WRs' eyes instead of the ball is lauded by football experts but bemoaned by fans. When done correctly it is devastating but last year our patchwork backfield couldn't live up to the DBU moniker. Based on what you've seen from them at other schools, do you think the new secondary coaches will bring a new philosophy to our group?