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12 years 5 months
# | Bitter blog - Sunday links: Barnett, Babcock and a bad proposed rule change Okay, I agree with you, except for the not-recognizable part. Fast paced offenses weren't always the norm... and yet we recognize football as an offensive, fast paced game (especially in college) now. I think we'll still recognize it even if the rules swing back towards helping defenses.
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12 years 5 months
# | Bitter blog - Sunday links: Barnett, Babcock and a bad proposed rule change This is going to:
1. Make the game itself more boring (This would cause lower scoring games)
2. Ruin (or be detrimental to) the careers of coaches who utilize fast paced offenses
3. Unfortunatly make Nick Saban happy
I am all for increasing safety amongst players, but you cannot change the game to the point it is not recognizable, especially when there is no hard evidence to support doing so.
Just means we'll have more pick sixes and less sacks.
Oh well.
The yellow dotted line surrounding the two practice fields shows a 100 yd field which makes me think it will be configured where they can either be using the one 100 yd field, or the two shorter fields.
1) Bud Foster: He's the heart and soul of this defense.
2) Torrian Gray: D-Block, need I say more? His secondaries have been elite more times than not
3) Aaron Moorehead: Has anyone had more of an immediate and profound impact on recruiting then him?
4) Charley Wiles: those D lineman, they'll get after ya
5) Scott Loeffler: I think we all saw the improvement in the offensive schemes this year
6) Bryan Stinespring: The TEs definitely turned out better than expected after losing Malleck, but the recruiting coordinator is what got him to this spot
7) Shane Beamer: Sure, the running back rotation frustrated us all, but zero fumbles? That's big.
8) Cornell Brown: **EDIT** Okay, so Brown has been fairly quiet, but again, no complaints, really.
9) Stacy Searels: Can't say much until we see the product on the field, but gets some points for reaching out to the OL commits to keep them around.
The biggest thing I've noticed with this exercise? I had a darn hard time ordering them. I think they're all pretty darn good at their jobs, and I don't really have a major complaint with any of them.
Ah - good point. I'll edit to reflect that
Cody Grimm graduated before Cornell was on the staff and Bud coaches the Mikes and Backers, Cornell coaches Whips and assists with the D-Line.
1. Cake
2. Bud Foster
3. Torrian Gray
4. Aaron Morehead
5. Shane Beamer
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99. Pie
I'm too lazy to rank all of them, but I do believe this forum is a good spot for a shout out to Coach Grimes for what he accomplished this year. I know he's gone, but just looking back at last year's body of work, no coach had a bigger dumpster fire to put out than Grimes did. He pieced together a serviceable offensive line with players he didn't know anything about, much less recruit. I also consider the fact that this offensive line group had no real standout stud who was a no brainer to start. I think Grimes was brilliant at evaluating his talent, and teaching the position in such a short time.
I also agree with the stuff I've read here about Moorehead, along these same lines. Moorehead, I think, did well getting the players to buy into what he was selling, and he fixed what was broken with his group, which was the blocking.
1. Bud - I tried my best to come up with an argument against him (playing a little Devil's advocate) and couldn't do it. From PJ to Saban, Bud gives offensive coordinators and QBs nightmares.
2. Moorehead - Exactly what French said above: no one on staff has done more with less this year.
3. Gray - You don't put guys in the league every. single. year (except last year cause no one declared) unless you know what you're doing. Plus, 2 freshman All-Americans (and an All-ACC freshman to boot). Hard to argue against him.
4. Lefty - This one was tough, but I'll give the edge to our new OC for a couple of reasons. First, it's abundantly clear he knows what he's doing. Is every OC in the country gonna have calls he wants back? Of course. But even so, he puts together solid-to-great gameplans that play to the strengths of his players (and let's face it, those strengths were limited especially early on). Add in the fact that there is some legit QB talent coming to Blacksburg solely because of him, and he edges out Wiles by a nose.
5. Charley Wiles - So help you if you're an offensive lineman playing his guys. They're tough, persistent and they are very, very well-coached. The man knows what he's doing and has a knack for passing on his knowledge. Not every DLine coach can take a 2-star guy from Florida, recognize the talent and make him a very good DT. Also, MANBEARPIG.
6. Stiney - Say what you want about him as an OC (and honestly, before Newsome got there, he wasn't half bad), but he's a quality TE coach and a very good recruiter. His efforts revamping recruiting, in addition to some of the new blood in the program, has been instrumental in what was a noticeable uptick in recruiting, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
7. Shane Beamer - There's only so much you can teach a running back (the elite ones usually just have a knack for finding and hitting holes at the right time. See Williams, Ryan MF), but the fact that we had no fumbles this year is a testament to his teaching skills. Add on that he's a top-35 kind of recruiter nationally, according to 247, and there's no question he's a solid part of this staff.
8. Searels - yes, he hasn't even set foot on the practice field, but he was a big reason our OLine recruiting class stayed together. Plus, after Newsome, anyone not named Newsome is automatically one of my favorite coaches. He comes very highly-regarded and recommended from Mack Brown, who, despite his recent struggles at Texas, still knows a thing or two about football.
9. Brown - I have to put someone down here, and it turns out that someone is Brown. He only coaches one position (which by the start of the season had a grand total of 0 players who had a scholarship in the spring), and even that position wasn't on the field most of the season! That said, he did a very good job, all things considered, of getting Trimble and Dinardo prepared and ready to play (Trimble had a more-than-respectable performance against Bama). On the recruiting trail, he's been fairly quiet, but has still landed one or two solid guys. I'm hoping to see more from him as a coach this recruiting cycle and with RVD back on the field.
I think this team is terrible. Period. It's just a bad team. 64% Free throws? Really?
However, I do believe this is not all on Coach JJ. He deserves another year. The team is young, and you can see his teaching the game to these guys.
I remember another Hokie coach who had back to back dismal seasons his first two years. His name was Frank Beamer, and AD Dave Braine stayed the course. Things turned out pretty good.
We had a great defensive line that helped them as well. I hope the loss of guys like James Gayle doesn't hurt the performance of out secondary next year. Pass rush and pass defense compliment one another.
Finney-Smith has still been a bit of a disappointment compared to his expectations out of high school. Would've been nice to get Harrell, but once Pitino was after him it's hard to say we would have held onto him regardless of the coaching situation. Garland is a volume scorer with a low FG% and 3P%, so honestly I don't feel he would be a good fit for the style of offense we run (his presence would be more valuable just as another PG in my opinion). I would like to have Manny Atkins on the team, as our FG% shows that we could use a good shooter and he would provide a little more consistency. Allan Chaney's career has now been ended due his heart condition and personally I have no problem with the medical staff not feeling comfortable clearing him to play for Virginia Tech.
I wasn't able to watch the Miami game, but I did read about our win. I did watch the Pitt game where we were competitive and should have pulled that game out. Injuries have plagued this team and even without those injuries we were never very deep. It seems like our players are really giving their all. If we can stay competitive in the last of the ACC stretch and maybe pull out an ACC tourney win I'd like to see JJ given another year.
Pretty close to what I would say, though I think I'd flip Shane and C Brown. Also I'd like to say that I feel bad ranking any coach low because I really like our current staff.
Another great review of a new Hokie. Comparisons to TT seem to be legit. As was the case when TT's RS's were burned in his Fr & So seasons, I'd wager that OL play might be the major determinant in who starts at QB in 2014. I like our OL better that in TT's 1st two years and I expect continued improvement, but their play will be a major factor.
To your point, All of the money that went into creating that awesome locker room, with the lounge that you could walk out onto the deck and look at Lake Stadium will not be looking directly into a large metal and/or hokie stone facility with no view of the stadium. When I got to tour the locker room, that outdoor deck was one of the coolest features of the whole thing. Well, I mean the pool tables and 60" tv's were pretty sweet too....
Good looking highlights. I'm also interested to see how the QB battle plays out.
My one comment would be that on many passing highlights it seemed like the d-line didn't apply much pressure, probably for fear of Travon breaking the pocket and running for a big gain. Travon showed excellent patience in going through his reads and waiting for a receiver to get open, but I would expect him defenders to come after him rather than sit back at the college level.
Shortening the outdoor practice fields for an indoor facility is stupid. You're just creating more problems with the one you are solving, something you never do in master planning. I really wish VT could act like it was the top Arch school in the nation and go after world famous architects for new works. They should have had proper designers come up with solutions to this and propose how to accomplish the need for proximity with the current campus plan that wouldn't create new problems, instead of having administrators propose sites that are "feasible" only in their eyes. The good ol' boys routine strikes VT football once again.
Personally, I would have put the new facility on the south parking lot on the other side of Lane. They are worried you lose parking but you can easily design a facility that could compensate for parking and have the indoor facility together. I really hope that the actual design of the building makes up for this dumbassery.
It's nice to hear those last two sentences. I agree with you that I'm very happy/excited about our assistant coaches right now. Thinking back to 2 years ago - no one would've said that about the entire staff.
is this only for last year or overall? I agree with Moorehead killing it last season but if you took into account the overall years of each assistant would you still have him at No 1 or 2?
I think Gray wins that simply because (while he may have had more talented players, or at least better ranked players), his true freshman corners played like All-American seniors from the get-go.
It took the WRs (understandably so) a little longer to find their grove. But both coaches did an incredible job last year.
"Tweedy - IT'S WHIP!"
- Cornell Brown