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My wife looked over to me after that one and said, "What was the penalty? Do these rule-makers just hate fun, or what?"
Taunting - flag it. Minor celebration during a bowl game - let the guys play.
These unsportsmans-like calls are getting a little silly. I get it if you call someone for acting like ThugU, but I have no problem with a little Superman.
Yep, been looking to this one for a while. Nice run there by Tajh to open the scoring. Could be a back-and-forth kind of game.
I, too, think it unlikely that Sobczak would cause Nnadi to not commit. As I recall, he's got FSU and VT as his top two (with others in the mix), but FSU already has 6 DTs committed for 2014. We have 2. I'd say odds are better at getting to showcase himself here at VT (though I'm slightly biased).
But most people's complaints are about how we make it to big games (for example BCS games) and lose. Most people point to the recent Orange bowl and Sugar Bowl losses as examples of how CFB can't win the big game.
So I don't think you can say you want to be like Baylor and that Baylor did great and then criticize CFB for doing achieving the same results.
YOU!
As I recall, somebody on this site (what was his name? Devilishly handsome. Smart as a whip. Pie aficionado) said that he was a perfect fit for a Bud Foster defense and that he would likely surprise some folks. Man, I hope that dude is right.
Even by signing the financial aid paperwork, Brown isn't locked into UVA until he shows up for classes to start the spring. There are several big recruits that have signed the financial paperwork to all of their top five schools to keep their options open. All the papers do is allow the coaching staff to actually discuss the recruit.
This also begs the question who in their right mind wants to fill these guys positions at UVA. It would only be someone who went to the school or someone with no other opportunities with another BCS team
leg!
He's unhappy mainly because "the Hill" imposes stringent restrictions on student athletes that are above and beyond the NCAA's academic standards. For instance, they make no exceptions for student athletes to allow them to wave the Calculus requirement. Thus, they are at a recruiting disadvantage. And with Paul Johnson's system, they basically can't recruit anyone without straight up lying to them now (see Vader Lee).
lol REAL dick move haha He coulda signed with the good guys
Naturally this comes right after Andrew Brown signed his financial aid papers and was made official to UVA. Good looking out, Coach Time-Cop.
Ah. I did not know that was there. Thanks Joe!
This season was about building a foundation. Coach Grimes likely used simplified game plans and focused on the proper fundamentals. Everyone getting off on the snap count. Utilizing the correct technique on every snap. Keeping a hat on hat until the whistle blows. None of those things were happening in 2012. This season, with the exception of the ECU and Pitt games, they were getting it done. If you watch every snap of the UCLA game and check the running plays, I challenge you to find five missed assignments by the offensive line at the point of attack. Tackles came from skill position players missing blocks, not getting a back side scoop on a linebacker (which 4/5th of all D1 OL will struggle to do) or the 8th man in the box made the tackle. In the 8th man scenario, that is where you have to have a special running back to win that one on one battle. The lack of a top back is amplified on the goal line.
There are two areas for improvement besides upgrading personnel:
1) Dominance is getting 4-5 yard push and dumping the interior defensive line into the laps of the linebackers, or on the stretch plays, getting off double teams quicker and getting to the next level.
2) Communication- In the cases where there were busts, most appeared to be in blitz pick up. In a couple of critical situations (especially the final sack against Boston College), there was confusion with the pass protection calls. With all five guys as starters at new positions in a brand new system, I am sure that their line calls (if there are any in a pure zone blocking system) were simplified. Now, in year 2 with four starters returning (five counting Benedict) and now guys like Conte, Smith, Teller, Arkema, Shuman and Osterloh with a full year worth of snaps under their belt, the communication should be even better.
I will be very interested in how Grimes replaces Miller. Andy Bitter discussed how Wyatt Teller has the most promise of the linemen who didn't play a role this year, but Teller spent the entire season at tackle. I can't envision him being moved inside with Smith, Benedict, and Shuman all having experience there. At the same time, after a season of learning, will he just flat be better? Could he challenge Gibson and Benedict at right tackle?
The second issue hinges on the quarterback battle. Andrew Ford is a lefty. If he wins the spring quarterback battle, that means that the RIGHT tackle will be protecting the blind side. I know some guys can switch back and forth, but I found it much easier to "post" (gain leverage by making strong initial contact with the pass rushers inside shoulder and force them to take an outside pass rush angle) on the left side. Will McLaughlin be switched, and if so, will be comfortable?
It's really not THAT naive. Let's look at Leal when he was recruited and compare that to Ford and Durkin (just for simplicity we'll use the rankings from 247 and Rivals, not the best sources I'll grant you but anyway). Leal was the 28th QB-DT in his recruiting year and was just barely in Florida's top 100 players coming in at 97.
Andrew Ford is ranked as the 40th QB-PP by 247 and the 26th player in Pennsylvania (please note that he won the Gatorade Player of the Year for the state, though). Rivals likes him a little more, listing him as the 27th pro-style qb and the 16th overall best player in PA. He also went to the Elite 11 final camp as one of 14 QBs invited but didn't earn one of the 11 spots once there.
Chris Durkin is rated the 17th best pro-style QB by 247 and the 15th by Rivals while both have his as the 20th best player out of Ohio this year.
So, if we took all 3 of them straight out of high school and went straight by the numbers it would be Durkin > Ford > Leal.
The argument for Leal is that he's been the backup for a couple years now and has more in-game experience. While that is true, you can't evade the fact that Leal will only have had one more season of good coaching at the collegiate level than either of our incoming QBs (we can just write off whatever the heck O'Cain was supposed to be teaching him) and in practice he was only taking back-up reps because he was the back up. Before the UCLA game he was 3/4 for 25 yards only seeing playing time against Western Carolina. In 2012 he was 4/6 for 26 yards against Austin Peay. Back in 2011 he was 9/13 for 153 yards and 2 TDs against App State. So in his career he's 28/48 for 334, 2 TDs and 2 INTs.
Yes, he's been the back up for 3 years now. But, I say again, he's only had one year of good solid coaching and even then he was only receiving back-up snaps, not the same as for LT3 and in his one real in game experience he showed NOTHING to say the he's got the job locked down. Ultimately, though, anything can happen over the course of spring practice and fall camp and I think we've got a great QB competition ahead of us.
So, ultimately what I've taken a really long time to try to say is that it's not "naive" to think that someone else could come in and win the job when the guys we've got currently haven't done a thing to prove that they're capable of taking the reigns.
According to his FUMA teammate and fellow VT signee Cequan Jefferson, Holland Fisher has been accepted to VT.— Chris Coleman (@ChrisColemanTSL) January 4, 2014
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by 'some time' do you mean 'ten years'?
LOLUVA the writing is on the wall and has been for some time.
Someone suggested today that another good update for the site would be a good search button. There is a thread buried somewhere in the forum on html embedding 101. Or just google it. Pics, gifs, Etc. aren't too hard to figure out.
QBs are coming out of HS a lot more game ready now than they were even 5 years ago. Leal wasn't recruited by Loeffler, but Ford and Durkin were. I would not be surprised if Loeffler designed the offense around the strengths of Ford and Durkin. If Leal has the SAME strengths as Ford and Durkin, then he could more easily be an effective QB in the offense. If Leal does NOT have the same strengths he may struggle to run the offense effectively and could lose the starting job. Motley has spent exactly the same amount of time learning from Loeffler as Leal. From the outside looking in the ONLY advantage that Leal would have over Motley is that he's been around longer. If you think about it, that might actually be a disadvantage since he has to UNLEARN everything that O'cain "taught" him. At least Motley wasn't guided down the wrong path for 3 years before being told everything he's been doing for that time span is dead wrong and he needs to forget everything and move on.
When you take ALLLL of that into consideration, it's not at all unthinkable that Leal might not be the starter. I'm not saying that Leal DEFINITELY WON'T start...I'm saying that it's naive to say Leal "DEFINITELY WILL start and if he doesn't that means VT is in BIG trouble".
Look at everything in front of you. Erase everything in the offense pre-Loeffler. Leal and Motley have exactly the same amount of time in the system. Motley was automatically not going to be the immediate back-up regardless of talent level because he was redshirting. I don't KNOW whether Motley is more talented or not, but it's unreasonable to rule it out.
So, like I said before, don't forget about Motley.
Now, as for the younger guys...They may or may not be game ready. That's for the coaches to determine. But based on what I saw from Leal he's not as talented at the QB position as either of the younger guys. IF (and that's a big if..I'm no ball coach) Loeffler decides to design an offense around the skillset of one of the younger guys that will put Leal in a tough spot to be competitive. Why would Loeffler do that you ask? Well, he designed an offense around the skills of LT, so it's not unreasonable to think that's what he'll do again. But does he really want to do that 3 years in a row? I hope not. It's going to be tough to run a competitive offense every year if you have to redesign it for different style athletes every year. I imagine he would rather design it for the future, around the younger guys, and then continue recruiting similar players so 3, 5, 10 years from now he can just plug players into the system. To me, that makes a lot more sense than changing the system to fit the random athletes that you have on your roster every year.
Regardless of athletics, that's fantastic! Can't wait to see him in practice.
i agree with you but they don't take kindly to 'throat slash' gestures...I can't really say i blame them..if they allowed those types of gestures it could escalate to something more serious and offensive...who knows