Recent Comments
Yeah, the consistency isn't there yet, but you can see the improvements in Logan's mechanics just from these few clips. When you have someone with his physical abilities, and intangibles you can do things that the average QB can't.
That being said, the receivers need some soft hands stat, and the line needs to keep developing.
Me thinks you should be in the locker room giving the same speech at half time!
Nice post!
To hell with the doubters to hell with being "realistic" we will #BEATBAMA. What's the point in being negative. Not being disappointed. Guess what being disappointed is part of being a fan. At one point or another its going to happen. So why not just got all out full blown fanatic its fun to be crazy it's part of the story. And if u get let down then so be it. Go crazy embrace the underdog role and show this the that we believe #BEATBAMA IS GOING TO HAPPEN
we've been hearing about how Bamas o-line is talented but inexperienced. How successful do you think Gayle/front 7 will be against them, French?
James Gayle is an absolute monster. If he plays with this motor this whole season he's gonna play himself into the first round
I personally loved it and think that it got the point across. Sometimes that's what's needed to light a fire under someone's ass.
Hey! It's my old roommate!!
And because I am nothing if not fair, Wyatt Teller did get beat by a Seth Dooley speed rush. As noted earlier, this is the play where Wyatt seemed very hesitant to extend and aggressively make contact against a speed rusher. That is a critical mistake. He will learn.
00:00:45–00:00:50
Hokies ran very few inside zone plays, but here was a nice one against the #2 defensive line
00:01:17–00:01:22
The entire offensive line takes an intial step to the left side gap. Farris makes just enough contact with Woody Baron to allow David Wang to cross his face and drive him to the play side. Andrew Miller steps through the center-right guard gap and drives Chase Williams past his gap fit. Laurence Gibson finds Nigel Williams in the gap to his left and drives him inside. Seeing a lane cutting off Gibson's block, Mangus hits the seam created by Gibson's zone block, Miller's cut block on Williams, and a terrific scoop block cutting off Tyrell Wilson by Darius Redman (who had a good day.)
For this offensive system to work, the Hokies must be able to run variations of this play along with the zone stretch at least 20 times per game. This is a nice example of execution coupled with the correct running back read.
Fuller gets beaten by Stanford for a touchdown.
00:01:07–00:01:16
This looks like a similar play action, with the back going right in the protection and the offensive line blocking as if it is zone left. Logan fakes away from the running back, so the fake shouldn't have been effective.
Not seen here is a devestating block from Trey Edmunds on Donovan Riley, who was blitzing from the boundary. That hit got me out of my seat before Logan threw the ball. Also not seen was the coverage. I am not sure if Bonner should have had deep help for Fuller, or if Fuller was in a cover three and should have been deeper than the deepest man, but he was beaten cleanly by several steps. A very nice throw by Thomas on this play (his best was on a curl to Stanford where he just cleared DiNardo in an underneath zone.)
Knowles beats Fuller after motioning inside and running a short crossing route underneath the coverage. I am not sure if Fuller was supposed to get help from Edwards or if he just played the route a bit conservatively.
00:01:00–00:01:06
Here is another near INT for Fayscon. Logan throws a laser, and Knowles and Fayscon both had their hands on it. Offense got the ball on dual possession, but again, when you see how quickly Fayscon is getting into the passing lane, it really blows your mind.
00:00:50–00:00:59
Here is the Fayscon interception. By the time the camera gets to Stanford and Fayscon, Fayscon has already blown by him. In person, you got a much better feel for how Fayscon recovered to make the play. Note Torrian Gray's reaction.
00:00:28–00:00:39
Here is an example of how dominant Gayle was early in the scrimmage. Here he starts out in a wide stance.
00:00:03–00:00:09
*VIDEOS COURTESY OF HOKIESPORTS.COM
At the snap, Conte has already opened up because of Gayle's speed. Gayle uses a leverage technique to slap Conte's hands down while keeping his forward momentum. Because Conte is not able to slow Gayle down with contact, there is no way he can go backwards as fast as Gayle is moving forwards. Gayle gets to Leal almost immediately as Leal goes from his primary to his secondary read, with Collins coming from the other side.
Gayle and Collins also played some from a two point stance. For pass rushing technique, I am not a fan of the two point stace, as I think it is more difficult to get the edge against a decent pass blocker. While you are in better position for a swim move, you don't have the same explosion and leverage for other techniques as you would coming out of a three point stance. As those of you with track experience know, you are much quicker starting from down in a 3 or 4 point stance than standing upright.
The second highlight is Fayscon's first near pick.
00:00:10–00:00:19
I am a little unsure of the offensive concept here. The offensive line takes a hard zone step left, as if they are running an inside zone to the strong/left side. The running back appears to have been called a protection where he picks up a blitz off the right side (this may have been Joel Caleb's nice block) so he is going opposite of the direction of the offensive line. Logan gives sort of a half hearted play fake. That has to improve.
Despite all of this, Willie Byrn (who at the time I thought was Charlie Meyer) has beaten Fayscon on a deep dig route. Watching the play live, Fayscon again was two steps plus beaten on the play, but explodes through Byrn's path and beats him to the football. You can not teach that kind of recovery. The interception had me roaring, but this one had me clapping my hands. Great football play.
A little CJ Reavis action going on today.
I thought all three played well today. It admitedly is very difficult to watch play at live speed without the benefit of film and see who is dominating every play. You will start on one focus player, but your eyes tend to gravitate towards the ball. I didn't see any errors from Farris, Wang, or Benedict during scrimmage play, so I can not be critical of any of the three.
I assume they're just trying to keep DJ healthy, but you would think even a senior would want to get a few snaps in to see a little live action. If DJ's knee ends up not being healthy enough for a full, productive season, someone in this young receiving corps is really going to have to step up and be the #1 receiver that Logan sorely missed last year.
Not only does the secondary have great athleticism, but their positioning and adherence to playing assignment football was outstanding, especially for a group of corners that have collectively played a handful of D-I snaps.
French, what's your take on why Wang and Farris are starting over Benedict?
I don't know much about the state of the line, but to me it seems that Farris should be at center where he was originally, and Benedict should start at left guard. Then everyone's favorite Wang could back up guard and/or center. Evidently Grimey feels better with Wang and Farris starting where they are. Thoughts?
I have heard Torrian and Foster lose it, but NEVER anything that loud. He rattled the hokiestones.
I posted this picture to a different thread a while back, but after reading this write-up I feel like it is appropriate once again:
it always comes back to "it's why you play the game" that said, how many guys at tech would start for bama, (don't think about it, don't.) to win, bama is going to have come out flat and make mistakes, let's not kid ourselves. that said VT or Kent State or the sisters of the poor can't roll over for anyone. make them earn it and if they don't, "shock the world" or some cliche.