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I don't agree with that. Play calling is much more important than you're letting on. Obviously a coach would tell his players he wants them to execute on every play, but if you really believed that, you could give me $250,000 to call plays for VT and have the exact same level of success. The fact that coordinators are highly paid professionals means either a lot of people are wasting a lot of money, or play calling is important. I think it's fair to say that play calling and talent are both necessary conditions for being an elite team but neither one alone is a sufficient condition.
Our offensive line coach in college used to tell us on the line "if we call a 56 draw (counter trey) on 3rd and 25 and you execute, you will get the first down." The great teams are the ones that line up, and everyone in the stadium knows what is coming, and they still succeed. A great example is the Virginia Tech short yardage running game against Tennessee in the ChikFilA Bowl. They enforced their will on a Tennessee line that had two top 50 NFL picks and jammed the ball down their throat. When someone complains to me about the red zone playcalling in the Sugar Bowl, I point to that film.
Now, that being said, there are two teams on the field. If the opposite offense executes as well as the defense, it becomes a question of physics. Bigger, stronger, faster, disciplined, and well coached beats big, strong, fast, disciplned, and well coached. See Stanford (where the defense was outstanding in the first half), Auburn, Alabama, and Georgia. The Hokies are getting better, but getting that elite talent to compliment the scheme in the front seven is the biggest key to breaking through to the true college football elite.
DBU!
When French disappears, we'll know he's said too much, but he ain't going down easy.
Knowing what's coming and stopping it are two separate matters.
If it was that easy, teams would be decimating the Hokie D (or I would be a highly paid consultant to Jim Grobe.) For 120K a year or so, I'd be happy to offer my services, but I think they would be about as useful as a poo-poo flavored lollipop to a good coaching staff.
This series is a very basic look at what the Hokies do on defense, designed to give the average fan a window into the plan behind the controlled chaos on the film. While there are basic fundamentals that the Hokies use in every run defense and blitz package, there are a huge variety of formations and stunts that are used. A good defensive coordinator has to have a knack for feeling the game, and calling the correct defensive play at the right time. The best football teams can execute regardless if the other team knows what it is coming. Using the occasional counter to your normal tendencies serves as just enough of a distraction to make things happen.
The Hokies must have buy-in from every defender in order for this defense to work. That is why you see talented players who never get on the field, and that is why Foster recruits to an archetype rather than seeking the most talented guy on the board. This defense uses psychology perhaps more that any defense I have watched on tape. It is designed to make the offensive player make a quick decision under false pretenses, be it selecting a hole where a blitzing linebacker will be ready attack and fill, or a quarterback seeing a blitz and throwing to a spot that should be open against the coverage they normally see with that blitz, to find the "robber" in the area ready to intercept the pass. Football is ultimately a game of muscle memory, and this defense takes advantage of the muscle memory that teams develop playing a full season against more standard looks.
First thoughts on Fuller. Outstanding closing speed and baits throws. In the first highlight on this reel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHuWiuTDhd0 he retreats like cover three. The QB reads cover three and throws the short curl route. The difference, Fuller continues his backpeddle until the QB starts to raise up to throw, not on the snap. He still explodes on the ball, looking at the QB the whole way. He also doesn’t run through the receiver to make the play (a common mistake resulting in a pass interference) and he attacks the ball with his hands.
On the 4th play, he is playing a deep third (similar to the Hokies robber or 4-4 G) where it looks like man, but he is watching the QB. When the QB throws to the seam, Fuller comes off his guy to make the play. That shows good familiarity with the strength of the Hokies coverage system.
He has excellent awareness on screens, and looks like a willing hitter and good fundamental tackler. He needs work on taking on blocks. He is slow to utilize violent hand motion to get off blocks and waits on the blocker to come to him.
He looks very athletic on offense. Great running stride with a little juke (he looks more like a star running back on the end around and punt return than Michael Holmes whole film.) He also made some great leaping catches. Two way candidate? Hmmmm.
Other positives: He practiced against Stefon Diggs everyday, so we know he went against top caliber talent. He looks like a bigger stronger version of Jayron, although there was more O than D on the film to look at.
Great analysis.
You ever think you give too much analysis and thereby give too much away to potentially other teams?
WHAT'S A HOKIE? 🦃
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13 years 11 months
# | Blue-Chip Cornerback Kendall Fuller Commits to Virginia Tech I don't feel like, even if he had chosen Clemson, he would pull that shit, since it would be a *huge* diss to his brothers (even if they did know his decision in advance)
I will touch on pass coverage more next week, but consider this perhaps a preview. With Clemson and Duke being notable exceptions, Hokie opponents went out of their way to attack the Hokie safeties in pass coverage last season. If you rewatch the Michigan game, there was not a single pass completed against Hokie cornerback coverage.
I believe that Foster feels like run support from the safety position will not be as critical this year, and he wants his safeties to essentially play like corners, with the ability to play man to man coverage against quality slot receivers. The 4-4G coverage, which I will discuss in detail more next week, essentially requires both safeties to cover any receiver on the field that comes into their quadrant man to man, without the benefit of a bump at the line of scrimmage. That is no easy task. With a Jarrett, Bonner, Exum, Fuller group, the Hokies essentially will have 4 corners on the field to play man, which is a major change from the time that a rover was essentially a hybird outside linebacker who generally struggled in coverage.
The trade off is that I doubt you will see guys like Bonner and Jarrett, who do not have experience blitzing, coming up the middle like we saw from Exum last year. Instead, I expect the DB's to play coverage, with the occasional blitz from Fuller when he plays the nickel, or a boundary corner blitz by Exum when other teams go trips to the field side, or when he has safety help. But, if the front four is what we expect it to be, and with two outstanding blitzers in Jack Tyler and Bruce Taylor, I doubt those guys go as much as we have seen in the past.
Thanks for the instruction. Do you think if the secondary gels in the first half of the season, we might see more secondary blitzes later in the year?
Really glad @KENyoufeelmee is finally a #HOKIE and look forward to the chance to play with him for a year— Kyle Fuller (@kbfuller17) July 30, 2012
Boom.
So I tune into ESPN 3 on the Google TV and it is halftime. Tweets rolling in that Kendall committed to Hokies. Did not see anything on the broadcast. Trying to get the toddler to nap and the volume on the broadcast is super low so I jack it up. Commercials come on and it is deafening. Halftime over and still nothing. Then they say Kendall's decision is up next. As you can see from the photo at the top I saw that orange shirt underneath and thought he was gonna pull that off ans do a Corso on us. Thank you Kendall for coming to Blacksburg!
"As I was driving home from the visit to Clemson, I started thinking about where I was going to develop most as a player," Fuller said. "I just got that feeling that I knew I wanted to go to Virginia Tech. Their defense is so complex that you never know what they are going to be doing. Coach (Bud) Foster and Coach (Torrian) Gray are amazing coaches. They have a track record of great defensive backs that Coach Gray has produced. Just sitting in the room watching film and seeing some of the different techniques, I just felt that the only way I could fail was if I did not work hard."
Entire article is here: http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/ncfrecruiting/on-the-trail/post?id=17216.
Thats what I thought would happen. I know Kyle has been saying he wanted to play with his younger brother at VT, I can't imagine he would change his mind now that it's a very distinct possibility. The one thing I was wondering about is how does Kendall figure into our scheme with true freshman Donaldven Manning looking likely to start opposite Kyle for this upcoming season? Will he be okay starting Field or Boundary for one year then taking a back seat for the next? Or would Bud switch to more nickel looks to get them all incorporated? Also very possible to have Kyle play whip, I guess, but I feel like that is underutilizing him to a very high degree.
As it seems VT is always the loser when it comes down to 2-3 schools and the blue-chip is to announce in a national audience. It also looks good, as Kendall will probably become a big recruiter for the last few recruits in 2013 and, more importantly, in 2014. Doubt VT gets Green or Teller, but maybe Kendall can influence them VT's way.
Also couple of guys committing elsewhere like Jennings and Wilkens
But Cam Newton comes to mind.
AMEN!!!!
Kendall said he wants to play across from Kyle. Now that we have Kendall on board, I would be shocked if Kyle leaves a year early (even if he's a projected 1st rounder).
Kyle as whip or nickel back, Kendall as boundary or field corner!
At his chalk talk Foster said he believed Kendall would commit to Tech and Kyle would stay the extra year to play with his brother. It's a long time away, and a lot of things can happen but it is worth mentioning.
I think Edmunds projects extremely well on D but think jury is out on offense a bit because of competition he faced in lower division. I know it seems as if I questioned him on offense because of competition then it would be a criticism on D but when looking at it displays great instincts/reads and not just physical killing but on offense seems to me most of his success was just by being physically better.
For position battles-
1) Definitely want to see RVD challenge. He's future of position and would love for it to be a at least a question brought to the coaches to show that we have depth.
2) Agree w/ French on Malleck. For all the TE recruit jokes from a year ago sucks that we don't have a clear do it all TE settled but hopefully Malleck could be it. Also Dunn was listed as 244 in spring and would be great if he got a bit tougher stronger over the summer before his last year. If Dunn improves his blocking would be a great weapon at TE and even still should do well as a HB.
3) Amazing to have questions on DL regarding who deserves to play because there are a lot of qualified bodies. Backup rotation will be interesting and hoping for a lot of substitutes. Will be interesting how some shakeup from some backups like Marshall/McCray end up between playing inside/outside from reading Hokie Annual seems as if Wiles would like McCray to gain weight and play more on the inside.
4) I think people are sleeping on JC Coleman. I think he has more of an impact than most think and I think the spring struggles with seeing how much faster the college game is will help a lot. I'll go out on a limb and say he shows the biggest improvement from spring to fall practice.