Recent Comments

As HC or DC?? I think Grantham would be a good, legitimate HC hire ... and i'd have to think that he'd be interested. A lot of people are talking as if Shane Beamer is destined to be the next head coach. In my opinion, he doesn't have the experience to carry a program like VT ... yet

I agree with cds7c....Until i know for sure in Jan that he isn't going i will not put too much stock in words. I am really hoping though that he sticks around. It makes next season's outlook way better. It would be a very scary scenario for Leal to have to face the Crimson Tide defense his first start.

Good thing I don't put money on this stuff!!

this is encouraging given the murmurs i've heard the last few weeks about him declaring as a TE.

...because Tommy Reamon told him it was a perquisite to signing MV2.

Most have assumed Stiney would end up a HC at D1-AA soon, if not by now. The JMU job in particular is well suited for him.

"right now."

Vick had a similar statement in 2000 this time of year. I remember HokieCentrals celebratory thread. Different situation obviously, LT won't be the #1 pick no matter what. But, disclaimers like "right now" often preceded sending in your paper work to the NFL to gauge your value. Until then, all statements are moot.

Schools talk to verbally committed athletes all of the time, including offering them scholarships. Some kids jump on the first D1 scholly that they get offered, then after a great season or camp circuit, they explode on the recruiting scene and get a bunch of blue chip offers. This leads to a decommitment and the choice of a new "dream school" by the athlete. While it is considered bad form to actively try and steal a committed athlete, it goes on all the time and some recruiters are like sharks, constantly sniffing the waters of dissatisfaction to find those athletes who are having second thoughts about their current verbal commitment.

Once a high school senior signs his commitment letter at the end of January to play at his chosen university, he has a binding contract and if he later decommits, he can be forced to sit out a year by NCAA rules before being allowed to play at a different U. That is my understanding, feel free to correct my anyone if I am mistaken.

PS: I flew H-3 Sea Pigs back in the day, how bout you Helo guy?

Bottom line: 76-81 defeat to Ohio.

First impression, looked a little bit like last year in terms of having a halftime lead, but blowing it near the end. When they are up they are up and when they are down they can't do anything right. JJ constantly stayed on Wood for lack of hustle, Christian Beyer, as a walk on, constantly replaced him and showed a great hustle and even a bit of shooting touch. Rankin was hurt so Green played primary point for the majority and Marcus Patrick played a little there as well. Looks like the lineup will be a traditional set with Green at point, Brown at the 2, Eddie at the 3, Barksdale/Wood at the 4 and Raines down low. Look for a lot of 3 guard 2 forward set at times though as well as the depth (if you can call it that) is up top.
JVZ, if he can prove that he is tough every play and not every other play should get some decent time spelling Raines down low.

Should be an interesting year, don't set the expectations too high, but don't be shocked if you see them make a little noise.

(heavy sigh)

I have another question about problem 1: Is it theoretically possible (perfect world scenario where players are evenly matched on both sides of the ball) to have a base play that can win (gain 3 to 5+ yards) against any defensive setup (defensive alignment/personal/ etc...)so that you can create that base to work off of offensively?

and a follow up question to problem 2: Who or What determines the blocking scheme? (does running the pistol mean only reach/zone blocking and running the I only mean rule blocking) If not does Curt Newsome/ Mike O'cain/ Bryan Steinspring/ Beamer have responsibility for picking the mix mash of blocking schemes we have? (I know all do in some way but is Curt forced to coach multiple schemes? Is it because of the play calling? or Game planning? or because Beamer wants different blocking schemes? I guess I feel if there are changes and different coaches come in are we going to have the same problems because the root cause is not being addressed.)

Finally a different question for you. I know you want a power run offense (at least I think I have seen posts where you call for it), how would it be different from the offense we see now?

week was better on paper than on field ...

all alabama ... jmichons at 5-1
all colorado ... HokieinJax at 1-5

overall
HokieV 67% with a 3 game lead over ...
RiVAHokie 61%

In college, where you are playing with 18-22 year old kids with limitations on practice and film time, I would always lean towards having a simplified playbook where you have a limited number of plays, but each play has several counters built off of the same action. Those plays should be things you can run from multiple formations. If you are a veer team, you must have an inside veer, an outside veer, and a double dive. All three should look almost identical, but the execution is slightly different. A wing-T must build from trap, to buck sweep, to inside reverse, to bootleg. Each play has the same backfield action, except different people get the ball. I formation, you have your lead, counter lead, counter trey, fullback dive/trap, with toss sweep strong and the speed option weak as your wide plays.

Let's say the Hokies go full time spread. They need to run veer dive, the zone read with the QB as the dive, speed option weak, and the jet sweep read option strong. If you incorporate pistol, you use several of the same plays, and add the straight dive and the off tackle plays. The Hokies have all of them and have used them this year.

There are two problems with what they do though:
1) Each base play must be established in order to make the plays that have the smaller chance of success get you big play yardage. Stinespring and O'Cain tend to use those east-west plays before they establish the interior running game. When the Hokies run 15+ times between the tackles, almost without exception they have won the game this season. It opens up those jet sweeps, stretch plays, etc. that we have see tackled for a loss so many times this year. If the defense is not constricted on the dive, they ignore the interior and can fly unblocked on wide runs. See Demetri Knowles awful reverse against Clemson, where the Tiger defenders completely ignored the dive fake, and the Hokies can't get blockers out to lead for him.

2) Up front, they use different blocking philosophies out of the same formation. They will bounce back and forth from trying to reach block everybody on a pistol play, to using rule blocking (blocking down to the strong side and kicking out the lead guard) on the next play from the I. YOU CAN'T DO THAT. The end result is that OL will block rule blocking plays with zone technique, and vice versa. It is a muscle memory and speed of the game issue that would be corrected if they adopted one blocking philosophy. Alabama runs plays from a huge variety of formation, but those formations are eye candy. Their OL blocks the same rules every play, and then the talent, size, and strength take over.