Recent Comments
I blame Miami for our recent struggles, and feel we need to hold them accountable Saturday.
scrapp, I admire your candor and that you are very intrepid in the expression of your views. This site is great for expressing opinions; differing opinions, sparking debates, are welcome. Though I don't necessarily agree with you on all of your points I respect you for standing up for what you believe in and working to support your arguments. I would only point out that some of the phrases you use are aggressive (or, in this case, somewhat passive-aggressive) and I get the sense that those aggressive comments are met with aggressive opposition, lending to your feeling of being in a minority.
When you come out and blatantly attack one of the columnists on this blog site you're not going to get a great reaction from the community. I don't want you to be discouraged from expressing your opinion, but you may want to give some consideration to how that opinion is delivered.
For the record, I don't think LT should be benched. I wrote in another thread (last week sometime following the Duke loss) that when LT is good he gives us the best chance to win. We don't know if/when bad LT will show up and I think the coaches game plan for LT to play well and hope that bad LT doesn't rear his ugly head. Sometimes you gamble and win, other times you gamble and lose. We gambled and lost twice. I think we'll gamble again a third time but hopefully Loeffler will try to protect LT given his last two outings. I don't know if miami has as many exotic blitzing packages as BC (french? mason? can either of you back me up on that?) so hopefully the O-line will give LT a little more time to work so he can avoid some of those costly turnovers.
I have been disappointed with LT's turnovers the past couple of weeks, granted some of them, particularly against BC, weren't necessarily his fault but I think the coaching staff truly believes he's still the best option and I'm not going to question them.
I am, however, very much looking forward to next year when we have a different QB, hopefully a beefier O-line and a running game that doesn't revolve around the veer and inverted veer.
Regardless of what I want to happen, or might be looking forward to in years to come, I'm going to try to remain as positive as I can and root as hard as I can for my Hokies. Win or lose (Loose if you're from FSU) I love Virginia Tech Hokies and I always will. Unconditionally.
Go Hokies!!!
bottom 5 all time worst acc team, as bad as the wake team from a couple years back, prolly worse.
There's a part of me that's optimistic that, with Green gone, they'll play better as a team instead of conceding to him as the star and forcing everything to him, which obviously didn't work sometimes.
Then there's the other part of me that sees the same awful team from last year minus the top scorer in college basketball.
I really really hope that this team does well but I think that it's going to be tough.
French, I have a question for you. I've never played football, and if I've read correctly on here, you were on offensive lineman, so I think you'll have first-hand experience:
Regarding the first fumble, when the pocket broke down and Logan tried to move out of it, he was stripped from behind. If an OL loses his block and the guy is clearly about to pummel the quarterback, is there any verbal warning they use to make the quarterback aware that he's about to get hit from outside his peripheral vision? Or is it on the QB to know when the pocket should be breaking down? Thanks
Personally, I respect the hell out of Logan Thomas for always being a team player. He didn't want to be a QB, he didn't have to stay here when we made him a QB, and he's always worked hard to do what was asked of him and has been a team player through and through. He's put up with a lot of shit the last two years that not a lot of people could.
But I think his time is up. If Leal is really going to be handed the reigns next year (I don't really want him to, I'd rather see Ford or Hodges, but the consensus seems to be we will get a year of Leal), there is no reason right now to not hand the ball to him and at least get him the experience for the last few games. Logan has single-handedly lost us two games in a row now, really about as close to single-handedly as you can get, and taken us from ranked to ACC afterthought in record time. I feel horrible for him but I just don't understand how you can roll him out there again after games like we've seen the last two weeks when you have another QB you are expecting to start, or at least compete to start, next season sitting on the bench. No, Leal is not as talented as Logan, and yes, Logan may give us a better chance to win when his head is on straight, but it rarely is, and I really don't see how Leal can possibly be worse than the QB we have seen versus Duke and BC. If Leal was not going to play next year I'd say keep Logan and let him finish out his senior season, but right now I just think Leal needs to play right now if he has a future here.
Okay seriously, half your posts are just insulting other members. Calm down, be nice.
I'm sorry but I completely missed the point of this post at first because of all of the "ur" instead of "your."
I get what you are saying that he needs to be held accountable but I'll tell you that the person who is the most mad about those 8 INTs is Logan Thomas. I can guarantee you that he is doing everything he can to learn from those mistakes but we all have to remember one thing: Logan is human. I still feel that he is the way that we win. We have little running game other than a 6'6" 254 lb tank who seems to have little trouble running over people. With our current O-line we need a guy that can take 20+ hits a game and still be able to get up and take the next snap. Logan is that guy. These mistakes might just be from exhaustion from having the entire team on his back.
I don't think this year can possibly be as bad as everyone is saying. Holding out hope that maybe the Ewing effect will take place and the guys will be forced to be better since they lost Green.
Scrapp:
Marry me
Duke is one hell of a player, but Dallas Crawford is a small, fast tailback in a similar mold, but he plays big. He was the workhorse against UNC and essentially won the game for the U. Expect the Hurricanes to line up in big boy football formations and pound the rock unless they get behind. Unless he gets hurt, Crawford will get over 25 carries.
Wow. Just amazing analysis again. Kudos to you French. Just shows how we as fans feel we have the right to complain- but many of us (some like me who have football coaches as fathers and think we know something) have no clue. I'm a Logan supporter and thought this play was defenseless. The throw was- but it is amazing how other pieces made the play fall apart as well.
Thanks for all your hard work.
How significant of loss do you think Duke Johnson is for Miami impacting our game?
I don't think you 2 actually disagree that much. Support the team. Check. Yet be honest and say when someone didn't play well. Check. There are many factors to the lack of offensive production. Check. Questioning the read plays. Check. To quote Joe, let's hug here. Drinks are on me.
Drunk
TO THE TAILGATE!!....
I work in the VT library. We often hear from alumni wanting remote access to our databases - besides the licensing fees being outrageous, the requirements are really stiff. JStor is piloting a free to read online program - http://about.jstor.org/news/free-read
We have several databases free to alumni - Project Muse, Sage Journals, Sage Knowledge and Sage Research Methods -
http://www.lib.vt.edu/alumniportal/databases/alumni-databases.html
Sorry - it's the reference librarian in me! But this is one of the best sites on the web - can't tell you how much I have learned!
Yes, but break down why he made a mistake. So, since you didn't, let me walk you through the play and demonstrate how this was a breakdown by more than the quarterback.
00:16:22–00:16:33
Let's take a look at the pre-snap alignment. Boston College lines up in a balanced front. Three defenders are aligned to the right of the center, three to the left. There are six blockers to account for six defenders: five offensive linemen and the tailback Trey Edmunds.
The tailback is aligned to the left, so the center must call the protection to the right. That means the center must block to the gap to the right, leaving a linebacker on the left edge to the running back. Instead, Wang calls the protection to the left, leaving Edmunds to have to cross the entire formation to pick up the blitz.
Oh, but it gets worse. Andrew Miller recognizes the bust in the protection and realizes that he needs to take the 3 technique linebacker (Edmunds is closer to the 1 technique.) But, when he steps outside, Laurence Gibson has busted the call and takes the 3 technique, ignoring the outside rush. Now, Edmunds has a poor angle to take one blitzer, and Miller can't move around Gibson to pick up the wide blitz.
Because this is a blitz, every pass route has a hot route built in to deal with BC's pressure fronts. The Hokies have Demertri Knowles coming off a Meyer rub route on a quick inside drag route. Logan gets the snap and quickly identifies the bust up front, and looks at Knowles for the hot read, BUT KNOWLES ISN'T LOOKING AT THE QB. In fact, Knowles runs his drag and doesn't look at the QB until he runs himself into the two linebackers playing the left side of the middle zone. If Knowles is ready to catch the ball when he makes his cut, Logan makes an easy throw and Knowles is a yard short of the sticks, it should be an easy conversion.
Now, if you want to go after Logan after all that, he has to understand the situation and throw the ball away or eat the sack without going backwards. He is a competitive guy and he tried to make a play. It was a bad decision. Peyton Manning made just as bad a decision against the Ravens last year. Brett Favre was death, taxes, and throwing the ball across his body back to the middle of the field. It wasn't a smart play. He has to get better. But how the in the blue hell does Frank Beamer calling him out improve the situation?
That takes place in the film room. In the locker room. On the practice field. And maybe he improves. Perhaps he doesn't. Maybe the staff decide that Leal gives them a better chance to win. They won't, but keep thinkig it. But after the physical pounding that kid has take for your Chicago Maroon and Orange, he doesn't owe you a damn thing.
Thank you for the forum.
We are mediocre.
Benching LT isn't going to change that. LT at QB still gives us the best chance to win games against ACC teams. That's what Frank believes, that's what the coaches believe, that's what his teammates believe.
If you don't want to be mediocre, go back in time between 2010 and 2012 and tell the coaches to bring in more and better offensive position players. The cupboard is empty from this neglect. The players (Logan) are playing their hearts out and it's the only reason we are still in the ACC championship game conversation.
There once was an ACC title game with a top 5 team and a team that barely squeeked by to make it to the game. It involved both FSU and VT; how did that work out?
Point is. Make it to the game and anything can happen,
French, question for you regarding the BC game. Do you think Tariq is hurt at linebacker? Usually he's very dependable and think we missed him a lot last year, but on Saturday thought he was struggling to make tackles and take on blockers and that isn't normal from him.
Love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
I got a feeling that the D is going to come out and play on a different level on Saturday. I'm a feeling a Hokie win.