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10 years 10 months
# | Locker Room Wrap: Hokies' Defense Befuddled by OSU Blocking Schemes, Playmakers 
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10 years 10 months
# | Locker Room Wrap: Hokies' Defense Befuddled by OSU Blocking Schemes, Playmakers 
For 6 quarters, Brewer went toe-to-toe with the anOSU. I don't think he would have been the difference between a win and a lose, but it would have given the defense some breaks in that first game.
His job is to coordinate an offense with the pieces he has available, I'll look back at the end and see if he was able to do that.
Kendall Fuller was not "barely a 5-star recruit." Kendall Fuller was a consensus top-10 recruit and I don't know how many services he was top-5 in but it seems like he was there in most (if not all) major services. Don't know where the "barely a 5-star recruit" came from
College football is a top heavy sport unfortunately. All the top dogs in the sport get the big recruits because they WIN. The SEC has something like 140+ out of the top 300 ESPN rated recruits for 2016, the closest conference to them has around 50 I believe.
Kids want to go where they can win. Unfortunately for us, we havent won a National Championship and we aren't in the SEC. We cannot compare our recruiting to OSU, Bama, LSU, etc... We are not on their level. I wish we were, but we aren't.
I know, and I'll get over it. But we'll never get that game back, and it was a special night in Blacksburg
Our window was extended when we went from the Big East to the ACC, and it was further extended when we joined the Coastal and Miami went into a tailspin, leaving us as GT as the only historical football factories who have any momentum whatsoever.
As long as we win the Coastal, and get into the ACC title game, we'll be in that discussion. What we need our program to do is to decide whether or not it has the desire to be a regional or national power. I hope this game was a wake-up call to our administration in just how far we are from being where we are telling our fans on where we want to be. The good thing is, as you said, we have a AD in place who has been making all the right moves into positioning all of our programs to get to this point. I don't doubt football will be next once Frank retires.
It doesn't matter that the starting QB went down. That does not give Lefty a pass. His scheme is installed on offense, as the first 2.5 quarters against OSU demonstrated. It will not be run as efficiently with someone else as the starter, but Motley has been on the team since year one of Lefty, and Durkin has a year under his belt in the system as well. If neither of them have the skill set to run the offense (mainly passing) then you start Lawson and let him learn the offense live.
The one thing I won't do is judge Lefty based on the offensive dropoff that is bound to happen just because we lost our starter. The offense probably won't look as crisp with Motley/Durkin/Lawson as it did with Brewer, and that will not be a knock on Lefty. But if the offense turns into a repeat of the last two years, I won't be kind to Scot. He has players at all positions to understand the scheme now. Out of the three QBs, there has to be one that can at least function within it.
So I guess, long story short is, the only thing that Lefty doesn't shoulder the blame for would be QB mistakes, and we should see mistakes diminish as the season progresses and the new starter gets more first team practice reps and live snaps.
PUBLISHER
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10 years 10 months
# | Yosuah Nijman Sparks a Solid Offensive Line Performance Against Ohio State I think you and a lot of people. It's only one game, but he played admirably. I haven't been overly impressed with Searels, but he deserves credit along with Yosh. My concern is Loeffler won't adapt to what he has in front of him. We seemingly have a big offensive line that can run block, a stable of tight ends, and too many tailbacks to count. Will we pound the rock, or will the unproven quarterbacks sling it around to a thin group of WRs?
I don't think motley will be "benched" but IMO all 3 QBs should see significant PT over the next two weeks against extremely weak opponents. Motley looked lost out there and even on the TD play it took him getting rattled and outside of the pocket to get that pass off.
I'm with you on the window remaining open. So long as ESPN is going gaga over Sandman to a national audience, we will have the brand to get the attention of recruits.
Still should be enough talent on the team for him to show creative ways to get them involved even with a less than optimal QB situation. Also honestly if he can settle motley down or get Lawson involved and we have a threat of a vertical passing game it has the chance to open the offense up even more.
Malleck to me was the star of that game for us (along with rogers). Really starting to think he is going to be drafted this year with how good of a blocker he is and also as a possession type receiver.
Any QB controversy will be purely in the minds of a select group of fans
If we move Lawson or Durkin to starter in the coming weeks and are X-1 with when Brewer returns after X weeks, I think the controversy would be pretty real. I'd also be pretty happy to see us in that position.
Any bad losses before then, and Brewer has my nod.
Yes, all of those things. Sorry, as I read my original post it seems a bit confusing.
At the end of the day, the talent that those teams see each day in practice (even on the scout team) may be better than what VT has starting on Saturday's. That in itself is a huge advantage.
So far we have seen such a limited playbook for Mot on-field. He was used exclusively as a wildcat vs. uVA last year, and even in spots against aOSU (prior to the injury), the same. Even when they did allow him to throw, he flung one downfield into triple coverage and gift-wrapped a pick. Granted, yes, it was against an excellent D, but I would have like to have seen him get into a rhythm and feel of the D with quick hits and or screens before chucking one downfield. He very well may be a capable passer, but that has yet to be seen in a game situation. (Didn't see the late TD live, but from what I saw on the replay, it wasn't a great throw, but a good end result).
Let's see what Mot can do through the air vs. Furman. I don't think it's beyond expectations to see AT LEAST 200+ yds with 1-3 TDs and <2 ints.
If he isn't able to produce solid numbers and effectively move the ball vs. Furman, then how is he going to move the ball vs. the rest of the schedule??
I am all for giving him a shot to prove himself, I think he's earned it. But with that said, he doesn't deserve a long leash.
Nothing has been seen of Durkin outside practice and spring game, so I think he deserves QB2 unless DL2 overtakes him in practice this week.
DL2 is raw, I'm sure, but I'd be willing to guess the only reason he hasn't overtaken Mot is his grasp of the offense to a starting level. If the RS is definitely off the table, based on this post, then why not have a package for him this week to see what he's capable of when the lights come on?
I was just looking up the stats on Tyrod, and it's still heartening to see how he turned that corner once he became the full-time starter as a Junior. Went from 7 TD's and 10 INT's in those first two years to 37 and 10 the last two.
Not a prediction on Lawson at all. Just reminiscing. :)
The issue I take with this mindset is that there is nothing preventing us from taking that next step to become a national championship contender. It's a self-imposed sanction that our program is where it is. I've talked this point to death, but after the '99 run, a reporter asked Beamer if he was going to open up recruiting on a national level, and Beamer's response was, if anything, he planned on locking recruiting down. Beamer went all-in on the notion that we could field nationally competitive teams by owning Virginia recruiting. That gamble failed, as 1) Virginia does not produce enough elite talent to field a national championship caliber team, and 2) we failed to lock down the state anyway.
You are correct that we are not a national title contender, because when we were on the cusp of becoming one, we chose not to. Now, for the first time in my lifetime, we have an AD with the vision to turn us into one. The investments made to the program recently should have been made circa 2002.
We can be a national championship contender if we choose to become one, but that will take calculated risks. And unfortunately, Whit's predecessor was one of the most risk-averse ADs among P5 schools. Now the question is, have we missed our window? I don't believe that we have.
He used the juke stick. Played Madden for so many years and I was never able to figure that one out
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10 years 10 months
# | Locker Room Wrap: Hokies' Defense Befuddled by OSU Blocking Schemes, Playmakers I think you may be jumping the gun a tad bit. Our competition was the best team in the Nation. There was no way we were going to stop them from getting yards, I think CBF's plan was to try and contain them enough that the game did not become a blowout and to give us a chance to stay even with them. Worked in the first half for the most part. If the defense looks bad against Furman and Purdue then I will start worrying, but watching CFB over the years I have no doubt he will use Ohio game as a strong teaching point and have the D firing on all cylinders by the time conference play starts.
Thought he was saying just because a kid is buried on the depth chart at OSU/Alabama doesn't mean he's a "bust" like many on recruiting sites like to call them. Just means they are behind other high nfl draft picks and in actuality there is a chance they could be a starter for us or major contributor.
Yes, I see this at the high school level just a bit. The better things you see in practice the better you will be in the game. Again, I think this is just one result of less than stellar recruiting that can add to some of the things we see on the field.
Ya I didn't see a chip in that clip. It's possible that he is asked to chip, if needed, but since Gallo appeared under control he moved to his next assignment.
There is only one thing I am sure about when it comes to football, and that is that everything evens out at some point. Whether its something micro during a single game, or macro that balances out a season, it'll happen.
I think I followed your point, but let me ask anyway. You're saying that since the quality on the other side of the practice field is higher, the first team is getting better experience at said practices?
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10 years 10 months
# | Locker Room Wrap: Hokies' Defense Befuddled by OSU Blocking Schemes, Playmakers Clark played really well so I wouldn't say safeties plural struggled.
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10 years 10 months
# | Locker Room Wrap: Hokies' Defense Befuddled by OSU Blocking Schemes, Playmakers It was more about the lack of execution and poor tackling. I can definitely agree with the passing game they were going to make plays with us asking the DBs to play on islands all game, but we had some shots to stop them for short/no gains quite often and had guys whiffing on tackles or overrunning their gaps.
It was still a poor defensive performance even against the No.1 team. Everyone was hyping up how good our defense vs their offense matchup was and how their offense played to our defensive strengths. Truth is that our defense broke down, some due to pure talent from their end and some due to plain poor play on ours.
No one is saying the sky is falling but you can't chalk up a poor defensive performance to 'the other team has too much talent' considering we are to have one of the elite defenses in the country. There was some very poor tackling and coverage all through the night that needs to be addresses over the coming weeks.