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He'd probably appreciate a nice bag of apples.
Well, Miami runs a 3-4, which has similar weak points to a 4-4. It should work if executed properly. I trust the OL much more in run blocking than I do in drop back situations or slow developing runs against an athletic front.
It is the skill position guys that have to block successfully to spring those inside and outside zone plays. Every one that Loeffler has called over the last two games has been away from Cline/Redman. He doesn't have much faith for either as a blocker. The wide receivers are hit and miss. One play, Byrn is spectacular. The next, he doesn't get a finger on anyone. Knowles and Stanford are decent, but they are not KOing folks.
Hasn't Kyle been out/just special teams last two games? That problem has a negative effect on the FAINTs, thus Logan is doing worse, thus we haven't been able to win.
2 Fullers > 1 Fuller.
Been silent since the BC game, because there wasn't anything substantial to comment on. However, Mason, I found what you said accurate and fair. Thanks
So prior to this weekend, you felt like Brady has had the worst season of a QB in NE history and has completely lost his ability to QB a team?
People who think stats mean something without context are useless. Context is all that matters. If I'm looking to explain VT's poor performance here is my ordered list:
Beamer, Newsome, Loeffler (2 much running, 2 many hits, no stretch threat on the veer), WRs, OL, Thomas
Your list:
Thomas.
Its a simplified world you live in I'll give you that. Your methodology to predict where he gets drafted would put alot of scouts out of business and all the football teams would be playing little sisters of the poor ever weekend.
Do you mean Ron Cherry, head official from the Duke game?
I feel like on the whole Cherry has been a friend to VT but it certainly seemed like he was giving us the business in the Duke game. The girl next to me wondered aloud if Bud Foster had fucked his wife or something. The running joke that created for the rest of the game ended up being the highlight of the day.
Haha yeah those are the best ever. Love your column every week.
Into a weapons-grade Hokie!
I don't know about EINTs, but we ARE tracking FAINTs (Fuller Adjusted Interceptions). Logan is currently at 3 for the season.
Here's my one thing, while I agree with the notion that we all knew this was going to be a re-building or re-structuring year...I don't know, maybe it's just me, but you don't "Expect" a R-Sr 3rd year starting QB to turn the ball over 8 times in two games. Not in a Frank Beamer offense, it's like the Cardinal Sin. That's what's so frustrating, we're losing these games primarily because our one strength on offense is doing the one thing he's not supposed to do. Not only that he leads the entire nation in it over the last two years, and we're 13-11 as a result.
I expected the offense to be a work in progress, I didn't expect our QB to continute to turn the ball over this much. Certainly not after it looked like he got that under control for GT-UNC-Pitt.
I love how you never break character. Can we get this guy an Emmy, Oscar...something? I don't know which one is which, ...I don't really follow that kind of stuff.
This, ...I was watching a TAMU game a few weeks ago and Manziel's protection broke down, he scrambled for a bit...and then made the MOST ILL ADVISED PASS THAT I'VE EVER SEEN. Just chucked it up towards the middle of the field, ..for no reason, ...only somehow TAMU's receiver (pretty sure it was Evans) ...went up and got it.
Yeah but all of those are from before August, I think we are in great shape here, just worried about mizzou. But he could play right away here, with all these young DB's.
Enshallah, well then Alhamdulillah. Turkey leg for you.
Welcome and have a turkey leg on me.
So for all the stat junkies out there, what are the most prevalent methods of measuring a WAR (Wins Over Replacement) value in football? And after reading this post and others concerning LT3, I figure we need an EINT (Earned Interceptions) to indicate when the QB *seems* to be primarily responsible. I know that football doesn't translate as well to statistical analysis as baseball, but it seems like these have been the primary concerns of the fanbase the last two weeks.
For the record, I am pro-Logan. This year was always going to be a rebuilding/restructuring year and the last few weeks, while painful, are not wholly unexpected. Enshallah, we will beat the piss out of Miami and LOLUVA.
Excellently stated opinion and well written.
It seems like Logan Thomas presents the ultimate of Catch-22s. He's the player who "gives us the best chance to win." At literally the exact same time, he's the player who gives us the best chance to lose with his turnovers. It's the #1 rule of a defense-oriented, ball-control football team: don't turn the ball over, whatever you do, don't turn the ball over! So, he's the guy most likely to make the play, but he's also the very same guy who is most likely to turn the ball over - in all of D1, in fact.
Given that, why aren't we playing ball like BC is? I understand that fundamentally we are a different kind of team than they are offensively with our blocking and run schemes, but it was clear what they were doing to us: run, run, run. Throw if you have to, but they were limiting they punishment their QB was taking from us, they were max protecting and moving the pocket, and they were limiting the chances that he could throw the ball to us. Why arent we doing that with Logan? Why does it feel like we are doing the exact opposite? It seems like we are putting him in positions that increase his chances of turning the ball over by making him throw it so often and carry it so much. Why don't we relieve some of that burden and hopefully minimize the turnovers in the process?
Only Scot Loeffler and Frank Beamer know the answer to that question. The cynic in me can't help but wonder if there was a concious or sub-concious desire to put Logan on display to increase his draft stock after last year, and it just ended up completely blowing up in their face. Maybe they honestly and truly think this is the best course of action for the offense, but if that's the case then I start to get concerned about the coaching staff and their decision making/game planning. Either way, there is no longer anything to lose and everything to gain by gameplanning to get the turnover problem under control. The first step has to be limiting the chances LT has to turn the ball over. Stop making "Logan the Offense" we suit up 11 guys on every offensive down, let some of those guys be the offense too.
Come on, let Bud Foster mold you!!!
Amen to all of this.
i would poke holes in what some of you have said --- but everyone else seems to be doing a better job. i think that french's point was if you're gonna bench Logan, bench the whole damned offense .. starting with 80% of our offensive line. that pick 6 was bad bad bad ... but in real-time, you could see that he had 2-3 defenders on his ass inside of 2 seconds ... the blocking wasn't even something you could call pathetic -- it was NON-EXISTENT. that doesn't change the fact that it was bad. Logan is a better QB than Leal. Argue that all you point. If Leal were "obviously" better than Logan, he would be playing. Just like Ryan Williams basically took 50% of Darren Evans's carries, the season AFTER Evans blew up. The coaches aren't stupid.
What no one has really discussed .. and deny it all you want --- are the political implications of benching Logan. Someone said it earlier in the thread:
"No coach in all of NCAA football would pull their starting 5th year QB to just find out if another QB can perform better. ... Just look at Tom o'Brien's decision on Russell Wilson. Where did that lead him? Sitting bitch to the TimeCop." -- Pretty much.
If I had to guess, a conversation with Beamer, Logan, and Loeffler took place before LT decided to stick around and they probably gave him their word that they would stick with him ... and I'm good with that. If Leal had been the starter from day 1, considering the rest of our offense, no way we have 6 wins right now.
And what about recruiting? You bench a rs-Senior halfway through his pay-dirt season for an unproven kid on a whim when we still have goals ahead of us (even making the ACCCG)?? Do you think that we'll EVER be able to recruit another decent QB again?
Outstanding work. My brain now hurts. A Good hurt though. Like waking up with a hangover, next to a supermodel.
Exactly! It can also be thought of as a replacement for the phrase "the rest of you." Interestingly enough when combined with expletives, at least here in SC, "F$&k You!" is always directed at an individual, and "F$&k all y'all" is used for plurals regardless of size. "F$&k y'all" isn't considered proper improper grammar.
All 247 predictors are going with Louisville. They have been wrong before though.
Hoping for a surprise!
Again, 2 of the 4 turnovers had little or nothing to do with Logan. The third (the final fumble) was a fluke play and the 4th, well let's just say that there are some very highly regarded Hokie QB's that made similar poor plays.
He was awful against Duke. Against BC, I noted four plays where I dropped a "what the hell." For a college kid, that isn't terrible. Not elite, but not terrible.