Recent Comments
Followed by a neutral site game with ECPI
I think you're underselling the defensive line, while there is obvious concern behind Mihota and Eckanhem, at DT we should be fine 2 deep
Sounds like if it's taken a couple of years for him to even go to trial, that's exactly what part of this lawsuit is about.
Well, I cant comment on the chancellor, honestly most people at UT would love him gone anyway. I can say that I know for a fact, as far as the football program and Butch, they jump on these things and discipline when there's even the slightest accusation.
... and it's important to respect the source by not blurting out in a public forum something that was said in a private setting (whatever that setting may have been). Much more important than scoring "I told you so" points.
Rogers, a 38-year veteran of the university, authored a memo detailing his concerns about pressure from athletics department administrators on how athletes should be disciplined for misconduct ranging from minor infractions to sexual assaults. The document said the athletics department's "undue influence" into allegations of student-athlete misconduct had been "enabled by way of the Chancellor's directives and interference." Cheek at the time refuted those allegations.
Long time employee at UT disagrees.
A little unrelated, but does anyone have a Hokie Stone mini helmet they would be willing to sell? My father in law collects them and has over 125 so far, a good slew of them being VT helmets. We never got a chance to track down the Hokie Stone ones and they are way out of production at this point. I'd be happy to pay for one if anyone is willing to let it go.
We've been reasonably expecting 8 or 9 win seasons for 3 years now. Yes we have talent on offense, but they are playing in a different system.
The OL, which is the life-blood of any offense, is playing under their 3rd coach in 4 years (this can't be overlooked...OL is the keystone piece and if it's not working nothing else works).
We have a pretty big question mark at QB where the fan-favorite contenders have basically no experience at the P5 level.
We have 1 stud at WR and 1 capable and experienced WR. Everyone else has basically no experience against P5 teams.
Running back is, barring injury, the strength of our offense. My concern is that if the OL gets reshuffled again the running game will struggle to produce until the OL starts to gel. There's really no telling if/when that will happen.
The DL has one returning starter at DE and one at DT. There are going to be depth issues. Wiles likes to have 8 bodies full prepared and playing at about the same level. I don't know if we'll have that. I think having even 6 bodies on the DL ready for D1 football is optimistic.
The Linebacker corps is still young and inexperienced. I would love to see Moto take the next step. We sorely need him to. If he doesn't improve we're going to be in for a long and miserable ride at the backer position.
DBs, talent wise, may be the strength of our defense. What I don't know is how they'll adjust to having a new position coach. I'm not sure what the new coach will bring to the table in terms of technique and coaching style or what his preferred rotations will be throughout a game. Being as he's going to be a new face you have to expect there to be some hiccups along the way.
Bud's MO is to coach up the defense and make it better by the end of the season than it was at the beginning of the season. He has done that consistently as long as I can remember. But I think he's going to be starting at a lower benchmark than we're used to around here. There are a lot of concerns on the defense IMO and I wouldn't be surprised to see the defense struggle a lot early in the year.
I'm not exactly sure what to expect from the offense but I do know that it will take time to get moving. Even though we have a lot of returning talent the OL is starting all over again with a new OL coach (which seems to have become the norm around here for the last half decade). Offenses live and die by the productivity up front. It won't matter how good our skill players are if they OL doesn't give them time to operate.
With the desire to run 85-90 offensive plays per game the coaches have stressed that they need to get the young WRs up to speed and game ready. That is going to be a monumental challenge. I expect them to develop over the course of the season but they're not likely to be significant contributors in the early going.
We have talent and experience at RB. They'll be running within a different system and may have different assignments or rules to learn. It could take time for them to adjust. As I pointed out earlier, though, it won't matter how good they are if they OL doesn't open up running lanes for them.
It's rare for a QB to come in and be able to start right away with no experience in the system. The most successful cases of brand new starting QBs that I can think of had an important component that the VT offense is lacking. They were surrounded by talented and experienced players in their system. Right now, this offense is new to everybody so I don't expect them to be able to help the QB in the same way that other QBs have benefited from in the past.
Coach Fuente has preached patience to the fan base. I don't think he's sand-bagging. I think he knows much more about the challenges and the timetable to overcome those challenges than any of us fans will ever know. If he's saying that his offense isn't going to come out and light up defenses right away I'm inclined to believe him. I hesitate to bring up Memphis because of the stark contrast in talent but at the same time you have to realize that they were going up against similarly talented teams. They struggled for the first two years under Fuente. He did ultimately build a great offense there but it took 2 full seasons of rough performances before the offense started looking dangerous in his third year.
I don't think that's quite right. I don't believe it's the coach who restricts the destination of an undergrad transfer. I believe it's an NCAA rule that you have to sit out a year, and a conference rule that says you have to sit out 2 years if transferring within conference.
Graduate transfers don't have to sit out a year, and I'm not sure exactly what mechanism the coaches use to block graduate transfers. I think it has something to do with releasing them from their scholarship obligations, which may be a moot point for a guy who's been here for 4 years and has graduated. If I'm not mistaken, athletic scholarships are either one-year renewable deals, or 4-year deals. It may be possible that no blessing from VT or the ACC is required for the hypothetical I laid out above, if Motley has graduated and has been on scholarship for 4 years. I honestly have no clue, which is why I posed the question.
Nah, Joey Crawford never played to a crowd in his life.
Go Royals! I miss Disputanta
It's a dumb lawsuit, the case even goes into complaining that we play rap music in the stadium. One thing Butch has been strict on is sexual assault. Any player accused of it has been suspended indefinitely until it was handled by police. It cause us to lose our best linebacker for a season a couple years ago, and if he's innocent (hasn't gone to trial yet) cost him an NFL career.
Can anyone give me a scouting report on Ahmed Hill? Last year I couldn't catch a whole lot of games, but from what I've heard he will be a big asset when he is back on the court.
Is this a good time to link this?
this, but its a little more involved. The D1 limits for scholarships are listed here, both mens and womens:
http://www.scholarshipstats.com/ncaalimits.html
Youll see that it is typically skewed towards more women's scholarships than mens, but there is football to make up for. Also not the Head-count vs partial scholarship sports.
Also, the NCAA evaluates "emerging sport status". Though not directly linked to title IX, emerging sport status is closely related to scholarship opportunity. Since women's wrestling is not big enough, there are no scholarships for females wrestlers counting towards title IX limits.
Bennett isn't going anywhere, but you are right about the rest. If they lose Perrantes, they will be in trouble at least for a year. Good looking recruiting class they have coming in, but even with Perrantes, you wonder where the big shot will come from.
I would not be surprised to be looking down at them in the standings next season.
Do you know if they have released the designs of the renovations? I'd love to see what it would look like.
I heard the players will lose the following priveledges:
free copies of NCAA 2016
access to the University's Betamax video collection
unicorn rides
participation in the ACC championship game
Lawyers for the school are appealing these sanctions, calling them an over reaction by the NCAA that unfairly punishes the student athletes.
Are they part of the DOJ probe that UVA is?
I absolutely agree, especially since our women's team is becoming a powerhouse. Thompson Field looks like a DII field in comparison to some other soccer/lacrosse facilities across the ACC.
He who shall not be named, was not named. I posted the Wanted Poster, of he who shall not be named. Someone is trying to say those other coaches are he who shall not be named, but there is only one.
I'm a bit more optimistic on the offensive side of the ball. We have a ton of talent returning, and IMO, we are finding one QB away from having a really good offense next season. Of course we will have to see how the spring QB battle plays out, but I think the competition will be intense. Evans looks legit, Lawson has loads of potential, and Motley a ton of experience. I think the offense might be the strength of this team. Loeffler isn't leaving the cupboard bare, and I think the guys are fundamentally sound enough to transition from the old to the new scheme. Better conditioning and a more refined offensive identity will probably help us play smarter and faster.
D still concerns me. I need to see the LB spots improve this spring significantly. A lot of young talent returning in the secondary, but also question marks along the DL. I'm really excited about seeing Settle at DT. We need to establish some depth at DE as well with Nicolas leaving and Dooley injured from the spring. Time for the freshmen to step up.
I think we end up winning one of the two big OOC games against UT and ND. I think we win one we shouldn't, and we lose one we shouldn't. I also think we may lose 1-2 out of Pitt, Miami, and UNC. I think some payback is due against Miami and Pitt after their recent victories, so I'm hoping we can win at least one of those and knock off UNC. 8-4 seems reasonable, but 9-3 possible if the cards fall right. Would love to see us challenge for and win the division this season.
Of course, this will be reevaluated after the spring. But I definitely think the potential is there if we can answer a few questions this offseason. We have some talent to work with.
I mean, on eBay, when there are 7 days left, do you place your bid and let it get run up above your price range or do you wait until there's less than an hour left and hope you can sneak one last bid in before it ends to grab it as cheap as possible? All the action will occur in the final days.
NCAA 2016....now I has a sad.