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This--I have been thinking that one of the concerns I have for the first game is mental errors. Seems like we have been prone to offsides, etc. penalties in our early games for several seasons now. We cannot afford that versus Ohio State. I hope that I am wrong, but it does seem as though we have needed at least one game under our belt to get our "sea legs."
To expand a bit on what French noted, in Mack Brown's last year or two here, offensive line play was cited as one of the big problems with the Longhorn offense. Not only the lack of production from 4 and 5 star RB's such as Gray, but also during Searels tenure Texas produced the fewest NFL OL draftees they had had in years. This despite having 4 and 5 star talent on the OL. In fairness though, Brown and the offensive coaches were tinkering with the spread offense during that time and trying to adapt the offense to the mobile QB's they were recruiting so the lack of a solid offensive identity probably affected OL play as well.
I wouldn't bet on the game. I like our chances, but Urban Meyer will have his team ready to take revenge. Their offensive line will be a lot different from the one we faced last year. Hopefully, our entire offense will be improved. I'm excited!
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10 years 11 months
# | Over $10,000 Contributed: TELL-a-thon 3.0, The Key Play Requests Your Financial Support Just hit you with some cash. That made me feel almost as good as when I give to public television. Thanks for the great site, it is a masterpiece!
It was easier to pick out guys who struggled than who played well, as the #1 defense was excellent today. Ekanem quietly had several sacks, the secondary was really, really good. The line and linebackers were getting pressure consistently and stuffing the run game. Overall it was a good performance. Most of the highlight plays today for the 1's came from Frye, Riley, Ekanem, Dadi (in very limited time), and some of Marshall and RVD.
As for Motuapuaka, here's essentially what I said in the other thread: Motuapuaka continues to get lost when he's forced to read and react, but is quite good when he has a definite assignment (blitz or coverage, had a half sack with RVD and another TFL I believe and was pretty smooth in coverage). I think he'll struggle against read option teams, but will be good the rest of the year. He and Stroman are the closest thing to a liability on this defense right now, but that's relative.
Honestly I think Hosley, Williams, and Wang are off 53 man rosters and Gibson, Painter, J. Morgan and Becton are all borderline/practice squad.
The losing Braxton Miller 2 weeks before the game spiel is such a weak excuse. He was injured in the Orange Bowl and held out of spring practice so JT Barrett took the 1st team reps throughout the spring. Miller was also held out of the start of camp, including scrimmages and practices, giving JT more time with the 1st team. So OSU literally had the entire spring and much of fall camp with Barrett working under center with the starters. Meanwhile, Brewer hadn't even enrolled at VT until the summer and only had fall camp to learn the VT offense and prepare for the season- not to mention the starting WRs were true freshmen enrolled in the fall. Call it a perfect storm of you want, but there were plenty of reasons why nearly everyone expected OSU to roll the Hokies before kickoff, yet in the aftermath it's been a deluge of excuses and backtracking.
Based on what I saw this week, I could definitely see this happening. Stroman is the relative weak link of the defense right now (not that he's really playing poorly necessarily) while it looks like someone had a sit down with Riley- he almost looked like a different player. Would get more experience on the field for sure and wouldn't be outside the realm of what Bud is comfortable with...
I think Boykin has pretty much solidified his spot though. Not just tonight, but the past few days at camp he's been a consistent receiver. With Kelvin Benjamin being out, Boykin is going to have a decent number of targets this year I think. I'm excited about that, at least.
I mean more in terms of media being allowed into practices than aggregate volume. Seems like every time I look there's a new practice report on Ohio State regarding what the media saw. More like what VT used to do. Not nearly as open day-to-day for VT the past two years.
He now has 6 catches. Looking at who is getting snaps in preseason does not have me hopeful that every Hokie will make a 53 man roster.
ESPNU is replaying the VT-Ohio State game again tonight from midnight until 2 am. They won't reshow it again until 4 am on Labor Day. I find it very interesting that it is not being shown except in the wee hours. You would almost wonder what someone is afraid of....
French, while you seem to be pretty independent in your analysis, are you calling out Searels? I mean, I usually defer to our coaches, but I have never been able to find fault with your takes. Damn, boy, ya got me worryin'.
I second that question. In the Spring, we heard Reavis all the time - watched the film and the guy is all over the place making plays - who is that guy now? I've read all the message boards and no mention of AM from today - I'm concerned.
Once again, you've done some amazing work sir. Thank you so much!
I don't recall seeing Caleb at all. I do recall seeing one very nice catch out on the far flat (possibly a screen) and having to look up the player's number on my roster to find it was Bradshaw. so they did throw to him at least once.
Boykin has 3 catches and should have had a touchdown (wide open but bad overthrow by Derek Anderson). He's the best receiver playing for Carolina tonight.
Amazing job, thank you!
Overall, how did Andrew Motuapuaka play today? LBs in general?
Very detailed report.
A little disappointed, I haven't heard much talk about Joel Caleb & Jaylen Bradshaw .
My observations:
All of this has probably been covered, but what the heck. Here's my 2 cents anyway.
1. I did not see Isaiah Ford or Cam Phillips out there. Asante seemed to get quite a few targets, but didn't seem to do much with them. Charley Meyer and CJ Carroll had a few nice catches too, including a WIDE open TD with no defender within 15 yards of him. Danny Coale would've been impressed.
2. Motley looked good scrambling to me, but not really crisp passing the ball. The yellow jersey really did him a disservice. I think he would've had several very nice gains if not for the yellow.
3. Brewer looked good for the most part. Threw a few ill-advised balls into double coverage (I hope that this just a case of seeing what the recievers could do with it since it was just a scrimmage, and that he knows better than to attempt those throws in a game), but looked sharp otherwise.
4. Lawson looks like a beast running the ball, but had a bad case of fumblitis. I remember 4 fumbles, 2 of which were low snaps from the backup center, another looked like a bad handoff, and the last was fighting for extra yardage on a scramble up the middle. He handles contact and moves the pile quite well for a QB.
5. Wade Hansen was still in a boot and Dadi was on the sideline all day. I couldn't spot him, but the guy behind me said he was still sporting the cast.
6. Travon MacMillan looked very impressive. He had a great TD down the left side for about 70 yards and nobody could catch him.
7. J.C. Coleman looked pretty good early but I don't remember seeing him after the first couple drives. I don't know if they took him off the field to get reps for the other backs, or he just wasn't impressive.
8. Shai looks like that knee is back to full strength. He didn't look terribly fast today, but I don't remember any instances of a single defender taking him down. He's a real load to bring to the turf.
9. Trey also looked very strong. I don't remember any huge gains from him, but he was also very hard to tackle.
10. Scobczak (sp?) had an impressive day. He was pretty consistently getting into the backfield to disrupt plays. I think the light is coming on for this kid.
11. Santamaria missed one short FG and made another. The miss looked like he had no follow-through. I'm not sure what's up with that. Perhaps he was just trying to get extra height on the ball to avoid a block, but it just looked awkward.
12. Slye attempted a couple 50+ yarders. He made one from 52ish that would've been good from 55 or so. The other was on line, but a few yards short.
13. I have no idea what a Jack Click is, but he lined up at QB for a couple possessions, mostly to hand off.
14. Chuck Clark looked really good at FS. He seems to have a real knack for jumping routes. I see a breakout year on the horizon for this young man.
15. I only remember seeing Stroman on the field on offense once. He was in a jet sweep motion (I think...I'm not really an x's and o's guru) on the play where Meyer caught the wide open TD.
16. AJ Hughes looked very good punting the ball. Much like last year, I wasn't overly impressed with his distance, but he's getting tremendous hang time. I don't think we'll see too many punt returns this year from our opponents.
17. CJ Carroll (I think) got into a bit of a scuffle with one of the LBs. Deon Clarke, I think? I like the kid's moxie, but someone needs to have the "Discretion is the better part of valor" talk wit him.
18. I've been worried about Frank's health for a while now. Unlike most commenters around here, I thought he looked pretty bad on ESPN recently. Today, he looked as spry and energetic as I've seen him in a few years. I could hear him barking out instructions loud and clear from across the field and 2/3 of the way up the West Stands.
I'm sure I missed/forgot a lot, but that's what stuck out in my mind.
Edit: One more thing I forgot to mention. We still need to work on the pre-snap offensive penalties. I was really hoping we'd have have that problem solved by now, but that does not appear to be the case.
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10 years 11 months
# | Urban Meyer: Ohio State now devoting over 50% of their camp practices to Virginia Tech Thanks. Intelligent dialogue here on TKP. And helmet sticker to you.
Hilton beat Fuller on a long throw and then Fuller got a questionable flag thrown for unsportsmanlike.
A quick thought- I am going to make a prediction. I know everyone is listing Stroman and Reynolds at nickel. But, with Riley playing so well (he looked terrific on the Torrian Gray Mic'ed Up), and Ronny Vandyke having the ability to be an every down guy and not be a liability in coverage, I suspect that on of Bud's surprises may be a different type of lineup come Ohio State.
Run with me on this. Vandyke is your run down nickel/whip (which, if you have paid attention to Bud, has the same responsibilities in the base defense.) When they go full blown nickel, I think Riley plays the boundary, Kendall plays the slot, and Facyson plays the field corner. Or, Riley can play the nickel, but will play a short zone and Clark will pick up any routes breaking deep, much like Bonner did for Facyson in 2013. That puts the five most experienced guys on the field, and by all accounts the same five guys have been the five best in camp.
Alexander then has an opportunity at rover if the Buckeyes play a receiver as a boundary slot guy and Frye struggles in coverage.
Again, total speculation on my part, but it sure makes sense. Especially if Bud doesn't plan to shadow Michael Thomas with Fuller.
They are kind of the National Champs so yea they get tons of coverage... just sayin
"Motuapuaka continues to get lost when he's forced to read and react, but is quite good when he has a definite assignment (blitz or coverage). I think he'll struggle against read option teams,..."
That spells disaster versus Ga Tech.