Recent Comments
Saying coleman is shit isn't what anyone is saying. If the fumble didn't happen he had a solid game while he definitely left yards on the field like any of the other RBs.
I highly doubt the film review will show Motu was aggressively blocked. I think it will show Motu over ran the plays and got himself blocked more often than anything.
If we win out through September and beat Pitt (who is without Conner).....I think we will pop into the 19-25 spot. Then when we get into the thick of conference play I have no idea, anything is possible at that point.
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10 years 10 months
# | Locker Room Wrap: Hokies' Defense Befuddled by OSU Blocking Schemes, Playmakers I was pretty disappointed in Stroman. He didn't seem to have any idea what he was supposed to be doing. Fuller, Facyson and Frye were constantly directing him to his assignment.
Against OSU we needed our five best DB's on the field, and Riley is that #5 not Stroman.
Man that hole that JC misses is huge. He would have been off to the races if he followed rogers. You can still see the WR trying to block on the bottom of the screen to if JC had gone that way. Trey missed a huge whole on the goal-line as well that I noticed while watching. It was like he was heading there and then cut back into the defense instead of staying on the path of least resistance for 6.
However, nice to see those holes open. As stated above when was the last time the running backs let the OL down by missing the interstates they opened up for them to move through. Excited for this year still.
OSU's defense also blanked Wisconsin's "man ball" offense last season. How many times have you seen comments from fans here begging to have an offense like Wisconsin's where we line up with the big uglies and run the ball down the defense's throat? That is the offensive wet-dream of Hokies everywhere. It hearkens back to the good 'ol days of ground and pound and play-action-pass that we used to do over a decade ago.
I stand by my comment. Our offense played better than our defense.
A lot of good stuff here. A lot.
This is why I'm supportive of a (System Offense Coach) as the next HC, keeping Foster. Then we have two legitimate systems, both of which don't need top 10 recruiting classes to survive. Paul Johnson is a great example, we don't want his offense, but his recruiting classes are never good because he is recruiting a different metric. That's essentially what TCU and Baylor are doing. They aren't rich, but they recruit to their system, they foster innovation in coaching and they are right there in the mix. We can do that. We can't do Bama or OSU.
Think we'll be in the high 20s to low 30s even without brewer. Our schedule is not intimidating and if the defense can perform we should be alright.
fuller looked a bit off all game to me as well and I think after that PI he pulled a hamstring. He was out the next series and then the following was the one where Thomas dusted him. Even when he tried to come out of his break after Thomas' move it looked like he came up grabbing his hamstring before he even turned.
@ socalbuck2014 - It's "fans" like you that give a fanbase a bad name. Asking for it? Socal - assume Southern Cal? Well take your fucking mouth back to Socal and keep it out of Ohio. We don't act that way here.
Yeah, those are two different things. UCLA is far from home. UCLA is not remote.
Where's our statistician? Based on gut I'm not sure there is causation related to money and recruiting. I'm sure there is correlation, but causation I'm not sure that's proven. And the posters on "location", where is the evidence of this? For mid-atlantic players tech isn't that bad of a choice.
Data aside I think this about 2 things
1) the recruiting operation and resources. The operation at top schools is technologically advanced. Its built on top of technology that scales. Google "Football recruiting Platform". Twitter, rivals, snap, etc are all avenues to scale coaches and reach more players. Once players are reached, how do you nurture the relationship, stay in touch, all can be managed by technology as a leverage point. This does require financial resources but not outside VT's budget. I think Whit understands this and is working on implementing.
2) head coach recruiting ability. The best example is Buzz. He's killing it right now. And he's doing it from literally nothing. He says he recruits 365 days a year. Think Dabo Swinney. And hell think about Urban Meyer pre-florida. His Utah teams, they dominated. Don't know the recruiting rankings but they were talented. What about Chip Kelly at Oregon? Yea they got money from Knight but Chip started recruiting people from USC. In Oregon, not LA. Again everything is obvious once it exists but it started somewhere and I don't see what's really holding us back.
If we all sudden became a top 15 recruiting school the conversation would go something like this.
Well they're 4 hours from DC, surrounded by recruiting hotbeds NC, TN, VA, DC. They have decent money and great facilities. The AD is a stud and they play in the ACC. And most importantly who wouldn't want to play for XX coach.
I have faith with the right operation and coach we could be a national power contending for a playoff spot every once in a while. I don't believe its out of reach.
just don't now too much about Durkin's accuracy but we know he has a ton of arm strength.
But isn't this what we've been thinking about Motley as well? The accepted consensus is pretty much "he has a cannon but needs to reign it in"? Just from the outside perspective, if each has a high THP with questionable/unknown THA (please come back NCAA football games) I would rather have the more experienced player that is a more known commodity.
Now, if it turns out they feel Durkin gives us a better chance to win games, I'll trust the coaching staff and fully support whoever they choose to trot out there. I really wouldn't be surprised if we see all 3 in some capacity during these 2 upcoming games.
Replacing Beamer with whomever and Bud Foster's defensive scheme are just excuses to make people feel like the problem is easily fixable.
VT will get a bump in recruiting when:
1) Blacksburg or VT moves to Richmond
2) The student population doubles (and thus athletics donations double)
3) A couple of VT grads that love VT sports invent a new widget and become billionaires
4) UVA is wiped off the map, so there is no in-state competition for resources - financial & political
#1 & #4 aren't likely. #2 isn't likely anytime in the next 20 years. #3 is always possible, but not likely.
I don't recall Saban or Meyer being hailed as great recruiters when they were at Mich St and Utah. But given the right location and resources, they somehow -- magically -- became recruiting whisperers. Even Oregon -- for all their recent success, hot offensive schemes, cool look, & virtually unlimited resources -- is still only ranked marginally better than VT in the recruiting rankings. Why is that?
Other than a temporary bump from getting a shiny, new toy, I don't see any new coach making a significant leap in recruiting for VT. Maybe VT moves from #20-#25 to #15-#20. Maybe (or just maybe it falls). But let's say VT moves from #22 to #16...even then, you're talking a difference of perhaps 1/10th of a star ranking on average. The biases in the star ranking system are greater than that -- and even if you think there are no biases, good/bad talent evaluation and good/bad coaching are certainly worth far more than a 1/10 of star rating.
It's far more important to "hit" on 1 or 2 more players in a class through talent evaluation or development than it is to recruit players who are ranked 0.1 stars higher. Clemson didn't get better in 2011-13 because there rankings were any better; they got better because they didn't whiff nearly as much. VT didn't get worse in '12-'14 because its recruiting ranking got worse; it got worse because they whiffed a lot more. Was it the law of averages or some other fundamental issue? Probably a little of both.
But hiring a recruiting whisperer or implementing a new scheme are not likely to have much positive impact (and could very well have a negative one - look at what happened at Nebraska, Tennessee, Michigan, etc., etc.)
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10 years 10 months
# | Locker Room Wrap: Hokies' Defense Befuddled by OSU Blocking Schemes, Playmakers Hope that is the mindset as well. We have the perfect two games coming up to gain some experience for the young guys and try to get some issues fixed.
So here's a question about depth and recruiting:
Boise State. Not great at recruiting. Good at developing under-the-radar talent. Has won multiple BCS bowls, and probably could have won an MNC somewhere in there.
So here's the question:
Would you rather have starters at all positions that were five-star awesome but a significant drop-off in talent (0*-2*) at every position when you look at the 2-deep?
OR
Would you rather have three lines deep of all average (2*-3*) college players?
'_'
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10 years 10 months
# | Locker Room Wrap: Hokies' Defense Befuddled by OSU Blocking Schemes, Playmakers the way I see it, we embarrassed their offense last year in Cbus and they returned the favor by embarrassing our defense in Bburg this year. I think that losing to us last year lit a fire under their tails and motivated them to elevate their game and take it to everyone left on their schedule. They knew that they had to make statements to even be considered for a playoff spot. I'm not saying that we deserve to be considered for a playoff spot if we win out, and I'm not saying that we're going to win out, but I will say that I'm not completely upset that they embarrassed our defense. I'm glad that they gave us a reason to push that much harder and strive for excellence. I expect Bud Foster to put his players through hell this week and I genuinely hope they take it out on Furman, and everyone else on the schedule. I'm hoping we can pull an Ohio State and use this loss as a tool to motivate the team to make a few statements on the way to an ACC CG appearance.
Potential, depth and experience are three entirely different things...
we never dominated the top 5. now we barely pull any of the top 10 and when we do they are usually in that 8-10 range.
I'd rank us in November.
Distance from home isn't nearly as much of a factor as it used to be (and in some ways is almost a plus), but remoteness is still a huge factor (and maybe bigger than ever).
What makes you think he cant throw the deep ball? That pick the other night must be the only deep throw youve seen him make. He's got the best arm on the team.
beach type environment
The U is back!
Our big problem right now is that for the last 6 years we have either missed on, injured out, or just didn't develop how we thought our LB corps. And those positions need to be rock solid to limit those explosive plays.
I agree with this
McMillan seems to have that one-cut burst you love to see in a back.