Recent Comments
Good analysis but disagree on Edmunds. To me he looks likes a bulldozing RB that has good speed as well. I think he has a chance to be as good as some of the stud RBs Tech has had in the past.
Mark May just said that Bama's O-line was awful. Gave no credit to Tech's D-line.
Nobody will deny that the WR's were abysmal last night. In fact, I don't think nasty enough adjectives have been invented yet to describe their performance. D.J. Coles is Marcus Davis. Knowles has not done a damn thing since beating GiT.
With that said, LT's mechanics still looked terrible. The o-line played better than anyone could have imagined, and yet the result of all that time in the pocket was typically a 50-yard heave off his back foot. He also didn't seem to have much command or presence on the field. There was the one costly delay of game, and some wasted time outs. I would expect a senior QB to have the authority and ability to make adjustments at the line to avoid these mistakes.
It's pretty bad when you get texts from friends saying "it's painful to watch Logan Thomas." Yes it is friend who suffered through years of watching Tino Sunseri, yes it is.
Man I thought that too.
I turned to my wife and said 'It's time to hire a special teams coach.'
To quote Frank Beamer-'I'm not saying the other coach(es) were bad coaches, but sometimes change is good.'
Big props to Darius Redman coming across left to right to get a huge block.
And of course to the O-line. Andrew Miller charged straight into the second level to get a huge block as well.
Great play.
Haha yeah I will admit I am being a little over optimistic when I say that this team can go 11-1 but if this offense can improve with a favorable schedule then it could be a really good year.
French will get to the in depth game review, and like you said OL played great. But I can't emphasize it enough, when the WR's don't catch the passes that are on-poin the Offensive Coordinator and the QB can quickly become hesitant about throwing...combine that with a defense that was literally giving no separation to receivers (and having our receivers make no effort to gain separation), what more could Logan do? Logan has long been criticized for his short yard throws and I saw him throw more on target last night than in a three game stretch last season. A couple were low because of pressure, or because he put it there and others were bad because receivers didn't run the right route. LT didn't look great, but terrible, awful etc. are not the right words to be using. Does he have room for improvement, sure, but we can't forget that Alabama is a team that makes a good player look bad on a weekly basis.
Agreed 100%.
I keep saying it but I'll say it again...not only did the produce lanes for Edmunds they did it against Alabama! Give credit where credit is due...Alabama really is one of the best teams and we had more rushing yards than they did. It only gets easier from here, for running, just don't get complacent.
WR's probably were told they are jogging back to blacksburg.
I have a feeling, the last time he was be shopped as a HC, Beamer and Weaver sat down and told him he was the heir-apparent, and to just wait. Foster has the personnel he wants on the team and he knows he couldn't go somewhere else and create a top-5 defense out of know where. He has what he wants here, and within, I'd say, about 5 years will have a shot at being our HC.
This, so much....haha. DJ is a senior and should be a heckuva lot more disciplined than he was...procedure penalties, drops, timid play and a bad route that led to a pick-6 (though you could argue Logan shouldn't have thrown it, though if DJ ran the route, it wouldn't matter either way). When DJ had his illegal receiver down field penalty I about yelled at the TV to bench him. My guess is that the other receivers aren't big enough for run blocking just yet..
In any case, just put the pitchforks and torches away for a few weeks...This offense is brand new to every offensive player, the WR's are the most inexperienced we have had in recent memory, but the OL and running game looked great against 2012's #1 defense. Every game they will improve, and remember...we were spoiled with Coale and Boykin--VT doesn't usually rely on WR performance. They like to have a power run game, which with Edmunds, Caleb, and Coleman, we will have.
I don't want to talk much about the recruits we can look forward to seeing since we have only played 1 season, but this team will improve greatly with each game. Alabama was the best team to show us how we need to improve. These coaches are great, the team will improve.
You should read my post in another topic about what can be taken away from this game. LT was 5-26, with about 10-15 of those passes being dropped or the receiver was running the wrong route. Coles was afraid of being hit and Knowles just couldn't bring a pass down. Loeffler, I thought, had a great game plan as far as I could tell, but the receivers couldn't catch anything and you could tell Loeffler was having to run the ball more than he would like. Several times Alabama would stack the box and they almost always had to run it because DJ and Demitri are a bunch of pansies. Logan had about 5 throws that I can remember not being good, but if the receivers could have caught 80% of what was thrown at them, Alabama would have had to respect the pass and Logan would have been even better.
My worst case prediction was we would lose by 25, which we did. My best case was holding alabama to 14 points, but I wasn't predicting a W or L at that point--just that if we held alabama to 14 points, it would give us a chance to win. Well I am very happy to say that the defense did just that, they held alabama to 14 points.
Alabama is the kind of team that when you make a mistake, they will make you pay for it: case and point, 2 bad return coverages and a lazy route/not so great decision pick-6. It's very important to remember that when a team is 'average' at something, Alabama will make them look like a dysfunctional high school team--we saw that in the special teams. I can't walk away feeling completely angry at special teams since I know it consists of a lot of young players and alabama will exploit that.
Finally, I suspect DJ Coles and Demitri Knowles were in the game as much for their run blocking as the potential at receiving. They both have great potential, but the sad fact is Stanford was the one who made a tough catch, took the hit, and held on. DJ and Demitri played scared and timid. I don't think you will see them playing like that against WCU, but remember--Moorehead probably has them working out right now out of sheer frustration (probably not...but I wouldn't put it past him). If the younger players can develop and become good run blockers, I would imagine you can start to see some of them playing more often.
Regarding LT and the OL. This unit is MUCH improved from last season. With the exception of the 3rd quarter and a few other instances Logan had the time to make the right decision and the right throw, although often is was dropped or the receiver ran the wrong route. Logan was at one point, I think, 5-25 and i would estimate that about 15 of those were drops or bad routes. Last year the Hokies couldn't pass because of pressure on LT and couldn't run because the OL was not producing a push against the DL. Against Alabama, the nation's best defense, the OL and the run game looked great.
I heard a statistic that last year VT's defense was ranked 19 and Oregon's was ranked 2. The point difference between us and Oregon was less than the point difference from Oregon to #1 Alabama. Given that statistic and the fact that we were a few key drops, bad routes from scoring more than 10 points, I give this team a lot of credit. They are very young and it showed but they essentially held their own against the #1 team. Considering the OL is new, the RB is new, the WR's are young and/or inexperienced, and a new offensive system was installed with NO preseason games to work with....this was a downright phenomenal performance by the Hokies. It's certainly frustrating to see how we were 3 mistakes away from having a closer game, but there is a lot to take away.
Logan was 5 of 26 for 59 yards in this game. Sure he had some dropped passes, but he had a lot of seriously BAD throws too. He seemed to be throwing off of his back foot all night, even when he wasn't being pressured. I just didn't see a whole lot to be positive about with respect to his game. Total bummer.
0:23 - 0:25 :)
We should also consider the fact that Alabama isn't as good this year. Jonney is going to run circles around the defense we saw tonight. Yes, the Hokie defense looked great but bama was very vanilla on offense. Not to be all negative..the blocking on offense was improved and who knows what happens if we don't give away 3 freebies. .
We played very well (for the most part) against an elite team. I think a little optimism is warranted. Granted, 11-1 might be overdoing it a tad, but I think this team still has all the pieces to be great. Just have to hold on the the ball and someone needs to channel their inner Tweedy and start stepping up on special teams.
Haha yup. He came in when Jarrett was cramping up. IIRC, Frye also got burned against FSU for a TD. That said, Kam got burned for a few scores and is now making millions in the NFL as a safety. Hopefully Frye can learn from this and get himself in a better position next time.
I kind of hate how much positivity is coming out of how we played today. 11-1 is crazy talk at this point.
What a fan. I respect your assortment of turkey legs.
Should have known you would have the answer. I've been asking all night.
Frye
Also, I will admit that part of the reason why I want tosee more playing time for Nicolas is so that I can get a little more use out of my "Who's your Dadi?! cheer.
A new special teams coach would not have tackled better on the kickoff return. Two guys had Jones wrapped up and he wiggled free. And what coach do you get rid of to bring in a special teams coordinator? It's easy to say bring in a new one but NCAA rules do limit the number of coaches.