|
12 years 6 months
# | Bitter blog - 2013 in review: Developing o-line experienced its growing pains 
Recent Comments
|
12 years 6 months
# | Bitter blog - 2013 in review: Developing o-line experienced its growing pains 
As for him being bigger than DVD, it's not a bad thing. Fisher is NFL sized FS. DVD is an undersized LB (in the grand scheme of things - not necessarily for our chronically undersized defense) . I'm really hoping when DVD weighs in this spring he's added 15 lb of muscle.
In that situation I'd offer Gray our DC job. Why would he not take that
2 part Question....Best player you ever played with at E&H? Who wins in a fight Jamie Harless vs. Thor?
I hate the ramifications of weekend festivities. Most of which take place in the bathroom.
This frequently happens to me a lot as well. I usually just say "just watched my game" or "just hung out at the house" whatever lameness comes to mind lol
I like the Edmunds in space play.
Good point- he was the one guy who could muscle it up vs their inside guys. Why the heck WAS he out.
This team needs to play inside out to help the perimeter game, but with Raines in the doghouse and hardly playing, the inside options are limited. JVZ just has little in the post on O. Too bad as he's a beast on D. They need to develop Thompson as a low post option as he seems to have a nice touch and could be very good swapping high- low post with Barksdale.
Bottom line, I'm not sold on JJ as an X and O coach.
I would love to know. He dominated Cyrus Koundijo one on one in the Kickoff Classic. CK, for all the faults I find in his game, is going to get paid a ton of money in the NFL. Collins was good until Georgia Tech. If you have followed the Hokies and my column over the last couple of seasons, there are certain guys who just are not the same after Georgia Tech. Collins stopped getting off blocks and became almost a non-factor on the pass rush (he had four sacks going into GT, none after.) Then, he got suspended. I have no idea why. Against UVA and UCLA, he was much more active and disruptive, but most of the pressures that Bud Foster used got the linebackers in the face of Greyson Lambert at the expense of the DE's.
If the suspension wasn't there, I would think that he was physically beat up against GT and it took several games to get his legs back.
When other people ask what I did over the weekend and none of it is appropriate to talk about.
Either that or I did absolutely nothing at all and I get sad.
I''d like to see Caleb on defense, but that means they have wasted two years of development on the kid. If the running back situation had not been so dire, he should have stayed at receiver. Maybe he was slow to "get it," but a 6'3 guy who can run like a deer and go up and fight for a deep ball was the missing component that the offense needed. As I said before in the thread, if you are a good football player, they will find a way to get you on the field. The fact that he didn't tells me, he isn't a good football player yet. That happens sometimes with guys who are great athletes, and high school coaches just put them at quarterback, don't teach them anything, and let them run wherever they want. When they come to a precision offense, they struggle.
People ask the RVD question all the time, and while he is big enough to play the back position, I don't think people realize how good a cover guy he is. When JoeTKP and I went to the preseason public scrimmage before the 2012 season, Foster rotated JGW and RVD on defense. When JGW was in the game in passing situations, he always rushed the passer or dropped into a short zone, and the free safety would play man coverage to that side. When RVD was in the game, even against a true wide receiver in the slot, he lined up in press man coverage. We watched him closely, and he was only beaten once (on a post corner by Corey Fuller, who ended up being pretty damn good that season). The guy can cover, and yet give Foster another athletic, big body around the line of scrimmage. His problem in 2012 was that, once he got a chance to play, you could tell he was thinking too much about assignments and he wasn't fluid and natural. It looked like a completely different guy from practice. By all accounts, Foster said it was clicking for him this year before his injury. If he is great at whip, I could see the Hokies nickel corner replacing the backer or mike instead of always replacing the whip against spread teams.
The backer position has Clarke there, who has all the tools to be great. Williams played the backer some in 2012 and knows both positions. If DVD is ready to play and Clarke isn't, Williams can slide to backer. The staff has always hyped up Williams, but he has always been behind Tyler, Taylor, and Edwards. Now is his time to step up and be a leader.
As for Bonner, I grew frustrated with some of his poor play in run support last season. But I thought he was really solid playing as a deep safety behind Kendall Fuller and Facyson early in the season. His experience as a corner allowed Foster to move pieces around and play combination coverages that confused the defense. Sometimes you had Bonner and Facyson playing man, and Kendall would play robber in a short zone. Sometimes Bonner would take a deep route working to the middle of the field, and Facyson was free to be the robber and read the QB. It gave Foster a ton of flexibility while teams stayed away from Kyle Fuller on his boundary island. When Kyle and Exum were no longer options, Foster lost some of that flexibility, as Clark, Greene, and Frye were not as steady as deep help.
Keep in mind, the free safety and the rover also have to be communication guys and relay the signals to the corner. Foster likes experienced players at the position, especially free safety.
Well, as many others have pointed out, Logan Thomas was a special player and the focal point of the offense. Replacing him doesn't just mean replacing his ability to be a thrower and a runner, but you are replacing the guy who everyone looked at to make plays for the last two season. Mark Leal and the other QB candidates may throw as well or better. But, you just don't know if they have "the stuff" to make plays and lead a team. There is no amount of film that can show that quality, and until we see all of them in an apples to apples quarterback battle this spring, there will be uncertainty. Defenses keyed on Logan, and that opened up some things for other players. Now Logan isn't there. Who would you say right now would be the guy defenses would be focused on stopping? Edmunds is really the only guy, and he is coming back from a serious injury. That is enough to create concern.
Whoever the QB is, I think we can expect to see the tight ends heavily featured. Malleck was being utilized as a motion guy and Hback in all of the preseason until he got hurt, and Loeffler threw a ton of stick routes to Malleck as a slot receiver.
One of my off seasons pieces will be highlighting stick routes, and we will discuss why Malleck was so important on those routes (and why Cline was not utilized on them.)
Now I feel so dirty.
Damn accountant busy season, missed that thread. Thanks.
It just doesn't get old.
They're gonna go party and throw money around like no tomorrow. Unfortunately, Logan's target is going to drop every single bill.
Looking back on records over the past few years, 2009 is the last year in which a tie-breaker would have been required. In that year, VT and Clemson were both 6-2 (while FSU was 7-1).
Also, having more teams tied, as in 2008, would be when all top teams had mediocre records (like the Coastal this year besides Duke). In those instances, no teams have really "taken care of business", so it is fine that they be subjected to whatever criteria gets set up.
I also love the idea of us being able to play any team in the conference in the championship. Many more neat match-ups on a big stage. Imagine if Miami is eventually "back" in 2015 or 2016 and we got to play them in the ACC-CG with a spot in the playoffs awaiting the winner.
As it relates to our permanent rivals, I would say UVa, Miami, and two more. I could argue for a number of teams, but these two would be the teams that most make sense. And, I think no team in the league has more than four teams for which an established rivalry is in place.
Seriously though, good for him. He'll probably tear it up at the FCS level under a system better suited for his abilities.
Oh you....
Yep. That was me. You speak truth.
Hes grateful for his 3 years at Tech? I think he only played once at Tech and we beat him in OT
Getting rid of divisions is not the worst thing in the world. I know the knee-jerk reaction is to oppose it, but the reality is that FSU and Clemson were definitely the best two teams in the ACC this year and I would have much preferred to see them play the ACC championship in place of Duke. Set up 4 permanent rivals based on history and make the other four games rotating, resulting in us getting to play every team in the league over a three-year timeframe.
As for complex formulas, look no further than the mind-numbing scenarios we were entertaining two months ago to assess the Coastal division winner. This would likely be less confusing. First, take the best two conference records. If a tie, look at head-to-head matchups. If a tie among three or more, look at common opponents. And so forth and so on.
Another consideration is that having another quality win is good for getting a one loss ACC champion into the playoffs over an SEC team (who is not the conference champion) with one loss.
As for it helping VT to be in the weaker division and therefore having an easier path to the ACC-CG, is that really what we're all about? IMO, that is WEAK.
not really sure of the reason for the DV but I evened you out
Thats a real creepy look Manziel has on his face.
If he does leave early, I'll be happy to be the new O-Line and Run Game coordinator. My results on NCAA speak for themselves; controlling the clock for 75% of the game and averaging less than a sack/game!