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Remove batteries, insert ziploc bag of urine. Yeah, that bad.
why is it necessary to bash caps fans...not all of us are terrible
At this point, I'm so ready to see some competition, I pretended two old people in the grocery store were racing each other down an isle. I even did some commentary in my head. 101 days....
He probably started Frazier for the same reason we started Glennon in '07 (or Tyrod in '08, for that matter). Sometimes you just don't have a whole lot to work with.
Down 3 games to the Bruins, time for the Rangers to decide who they are as a team.
RIP cinnabon its a dunkndonuts now...nowhere near as good me and my friend used to gorge on those things on a daily basis my freshman year :'(
No, we said we wouldn't play them again. We played them while we were in the ACC but after enough fans throwing batteries at our fans, players, and band, Weaver and Beamer said enough is enough.
Don't get me wrong, I would just as soon never see us wear an orange uniform ever again. I love the #allmaroon. I love your idea of standing out by not trying to stand out. That's what Bama does, that's what LSU does. Those two defenses scare the piss out of their opponents week in and week out. As much as I hate to say it our brand of football just doesn't carry the same weight with recruits that theirs does. If it takes us letting Nike come up with some bad to the bone ProCombat unis to help convince top players that VT is the place to be, so be it. Honestly, I don't care what we wear if we can win championships.
That being said, I will throw up if I see this crap again:
When we jetted to ACC, WVU got pissed and decided to not play us anymore. Best part is we kept the black diamond trophy.
Enjoyed the read. What really stuck out to me was what you said about the cinnamon rolls. Really, every Christmas? So how hard is it not to burn cinnamon rolls? Personally, id just go to cinnabon. There is still one across from the VT library, right?
you nailed it there. Frazier was recruited to run Malzahn's system a la Cam Newton which is nowhere near the more pro-style that Loeffler runs
Awesome read, thanks Mason! I'm excited to see what Loeffler can do this season, especially after seeing this. I feel like we have been on the flip side of the coin for years; we've had the talent but the play calling hasn't been there (outside of "let Tyrod scramble and make something happen"...) to take advantage of it.
Being a glass half full kind of guy, I'm pumped to see what happens when all of the pieces fall into place. I hope it happens this year with Logan under center, but being a Hokie has taught me to be patient (see empty trophy case), and I'm willing to wait for the 'next guy' if need be.
I'm pretty sure that Tech won't be playing WVU in football again as long as Beamer's coach. Some serious issues with the safety of coach's and player's families while attending games.
Can someone explain to me why we never play WVU anymore? I think we should play them every couple of years because of history/geography/etc
Originally, I actually thought that the switch to the spread read/option would benefit Thomas greatly. He ran a similar style in high school (read option, biggest guy keeps and runs over people). Those thoughts ended when I saw how they tried to incorporate the pistol into the spread. The footwork, which Thomas clearly struggled with (especially on the spin hand-off) messed him up from day 1, and he didn't recover.
Is Logan quick enough (big difference between fast and quick) to effectively run bootlegs? Can he read the defense well enough to sit back in a pro style pocket, especially with a shakey defensive line? If he is, that will cover up a bunch of flaws.
RECRUIT GUARDS RECRUIT GUARDS RECRUIT GUARDS
i hate gt, ever since the 2009 game. the 2010 game was one of the most memorable lane stadium games ive ever witnessed....plus you gotta hate paul johnson and his man boobs
I think the only reason people don't care for them is because of the loss. I wish I got one when I had the chance
I feel like the last time they were considered elite was when Larry Fitzgerald was there doin his thing
Agree. The offensive braintrust really put Thomas in a position to fail last year, and it seems his confidence has suffered from it.
It's possible I'm reading into this, but I feel like LT3 cares way too much about what the fans think too. As the team struggled last season there were a few times when he brought up the fans and our opinions. Then there were the spring game post-presser. And this is the reading into part, it seemed like our opinions mattered to him / we were in his head. If that's true, I hope he can avoid both the praise and criticism, and just play his game.
There were many unfair expectations the fan base had for him last season, and I want nothing more than to see him bounce back.
great article im glad youre part of the staff
I agree that if Thomas has a repeat of last season, the blame will fall on him instead of Loeffler.
The schematic transition for Tech will be much easier then the transition was at Auburn. Tech has a long history of operating under center and in I-formation... Auburn had almost no-one on scholarship who was recruited for that game plan. Logan has had success (see, 2011) as a pro-style quarterback.
IMO Thomas's struggles stemmed from a lack of confidence/momentum/swagger due to being put in bad positions by his offensive staff. The offense had little chance to succeed last year. Stiney and Co made a VERY poor decision to implement a large number of pistol concepts which they didn't fully commit to. They wanted to run Pistol plays as well as keep almost the entire playbook from before. It made about as much sense as Stiney deciding he wanted to run some Paul Johnson flexbone... 12 times a game. You either commit to it or you don't, because as a staff you only have so many hours a week with your players. It's better to be great at four things then average at 20.
I think the major difference between Frazier and Thomas is simple. Thomas has shown he can make those throws, and Frazier hasn't.
You can teach a dog new tricks, but you can't teach him to speak English. Loeffler had the impossible task of trying to fit an athlete into a pro-style offense. The only qualms I have with his job at Auburn was why did he bother to start Frazier? Loeffler had to have known that Frazier didn't have the goods to deliver the throws he was asked to, was there nobody else on the roster he could have turned too? I hope internal politics played a roll in this decision.
To answer your second question, I do think that Tech's offensive talent this season will be better then Auburn's was last year. Auburn had a very good TE, but he wasn't a game breaker. None of Auburn's running backs stood out to me as exceptional, and Edmunds could easily be better then any on Auburn's roster. WR's are a wash for now (although I was underwhelmed by Auburn's WR's, considering how ineffective they were against undermanned secondaries), but Tech's young crew could be very good. It wasn't too long ago that Tech started 3 freshmen vs Maryland in a game midway through the season. At that point, no Tech WR had caught a TD pass. Those WR's? Danny Coale, Jarret Boykin, and Dyrell Roberts. I expect big things from Knowles, Stanford, and Caleb moving forward.
Quarterback is the most important position in sports. If you have the better QB, you have a chance to win. If you don't, you'd better be stacked everywhere else. I'm extremely bullish on Logan Thomas's upcoming season, I wouldn't be surprised if he was the first overall choice in the draft. His skill set is that special.
It's going to be up to Loeffler and Logan to tap into that potential. If they do, I expect great things from this squad next year.
The Virginia Tech-Georgia Tech rivalry is a great one, IMO, because the winner of the two have gone on to represent the Coastal division in the ACCCG. Last season was an aberration and I keep pointing this out to this GT troll on Bitter's blog, but he's as stubborn as that crybaby, Paul Johnson, but I digress. If UNC or even Miami were not on a postseason ban, they would have been facing FSU in Charlotte, and that would have been heckuva rating bonanza for ESPN instead of a #goacc laughingstock.
UVa have the feel of beating up the little brother than a true rivalry to me. Nothing gets me more amped up for a game than the GT/VT rivalry. It's Paul Johnson's fault for starting it in the first place by whining to the media how the ref unfairly called two unneccessary roughness on that DE that is now in the NFL (I think), and the media immediately jumped on it. I think the GT/VT was more of a media creation than anything.
Miami, well, is a team that everybody either love or hate with a passion, and that dates way back when than just between VT/Miami. It's kinda like Duke in basketball, only with football. I just can't stand any team from the state of Florida because fans down there seem to be downright arrogant and smug.
Boston College is no longer a rival to Virginia Tech since Matt Ryan and coach Jag were gone from the program. Beating BC is like beating your cousin.
Now, Pitt, that is a program that is almost a mirror of Virginia Tech in the blue-collar, ground-n-pound mentality. Heck, they made VT look bad on the national stage last September. I have already tabbed Pitt as a dark horse contender for next fall if they can get things together.
I think one rivalry that needs to be fanned is Clemson, alas, we don't play them enough.
I appreciate this column by the new member. I know some fans got sour on Loeffler in a hurry when they heard/read Loeffler's number at Auburn.
As French so eloquently noted, Auburn was a clustertruck from the start, and it's squarely on Chizik's shoulder. One dazzling year with Cam and two All-Americans linemen on offense (correct me if I am wrong), with Michael Dyer, Chizik could not continue the train going after Cam left. I remember Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports saying that he always thought Chizik was the worse coach Auburn hired, ate his words when Auburn won it all, and then basically had a "I told you so" column.
Based on what I have observed attending the scrimmages and the spring game, Thomas looks far more improved than with O'Cain. Yet, I have to agree that Thomas is a project. Now, the question is, if Beamer had hired Loeffler when Thomas first arrived, would Thomas be a bit more polished? I don't think we can discuss or speculate because O'Cain was hired to coach Tyrod and correct the "hitch" in Tyrod's motion.
I feel more comfortable with Loeffler than I did with Stinespring because Loeffler is not interested in throwing the book at the players. Loeffler is interested in getting the fundamentals down pat, and it is clear that Grimes, Moorehead, and Shane Beamer are fully on-board with it. I think that was the biggest mistake Stinespring/O'Cain did that doomed the offense last season.
Rather than to build on the successful 2011 season, Stinespring royally fucked it up by installing the Pistol and adding some more spread elements and it completely destroyed the offensive' identity. O'Cain was not a stellar playcaller either, but I don't know if it is because of the awkward arrangement of having Stiney up in the booth with O'Cain. Look, I was a big proponent of the Pistol because I felt with Tyrod and Ryan Williams/Darren Evans/David Wilson backfield would have been devatasting, but with Thomas, it is different. Thomas is not as quick as Tyrod. Thomas is more of a diesel engine that needs time to warm up, but when he is hot, boy does he truck folks right and left.
With Loeffler's track as a quarterback coach, I feel more confident that Thomas will at least be worthy of an NFL look in the next Draft. It is clear to me from reading Thomas' comments to the media he have fully embraced Loeffler and is very, very comfortable with his style of coaching. To me, that is the most important ingredient to the well-oiled offense.
I have the feeling that Grimes is going to surprise the hell out of us this fall. I know we are all a bit concerned with the fluidity of the offensive line, but with Ryan Pugh as the GA and his experience in running the offense, I think the offense line are eventually going to chew and spit out the opposing team defenses around October-November.
I say they should go for it. Tyrod is one of if not the most beloved Hokie in Virginia Tech history and stayed all 4 year he had eligibility. It would be nice to see that #5 Taylor flag blowing in the wind atop Lane.