Recent Comments
the difference in the front 7 from the depth chart of last year would be a gain of 47 pounds.
Interesting that Eddie Whitley is 8 pounds lighter from last year but the switching of Davon Morgan to Exum would gives us a 12 pound increase in our defensive backfield.
For the starter at whip seems like there is a legitimate competition between 4 players in Dew, Patterson, JGW, and Tweedy. Feel like with a new position coach and possible changes in scheme that the experience factor for JGW and Tweedy doesn't matter as much.
If the position is going to be closer to the line and more physical Patterson has 30 pounds on everyone else and 40 pounds heavier than Tweedy. For coverage I would imagine that Nick Dew might have the advantage there. From experience of being on the field its JGW. From pure athleticism you go with Tweedy, who is also a proven good open field tackler on special teams.
If Patterson won this could be the biggest VT defense in a long while. Lets say DTs at 300, DEs at 250, LBs around 245(assuming Rivers + Taylor), OLB at 220, FS at 190, Rover at 220, CBs at 185 and 170. That's an SEC size D right there.
Got gobbled up in blocks mid-season and didn't seem to play 100% to me. The other two losses should hopefully only affect special teams play, allowing more spots for new guys to fill in. Fuller was on the back end of a deep class of receivers and wouldn't have seen any real playing time until next year.
Looks like we will indeed have a whip, which I still think is GW's position to lose. He's been in beast-mode this off-season according to the numbers on Beamer Ball, but I still find it hard to get past his performance in big games. Would love to see Chase Williams step up into that backer role since Bruce is still listed at MLB for the spring.
Side note: was reading one of the draft magazines which re-ignited my anger-induced vomiting when I read that Ryan Williams only had 4 carries in the Orange Bowl. I definitely do NOT remember him being that ineffective, but come on it wasn't like we were blowing them up via the pass. Just remember him whiffing on pass protection. Wish he had stayed on.
I'm withholding my opinion on Boyce until all the facts come out, but if what they say happened, happened then they both deserve everything that's coming.
As far as the SI report goes, I think it's 90% bullshit, bad reporting and twisted statistics, but that doesn't mean that the casual fan or rival won't take it as gospel and use it to formulate a negative opinion on Tech. They include juvenile records, past crimes and hold that against the players too. I believe I read somewhere that an average college student was only 2% less likely to commit a crime than a college football player.
Lyndell Gibson, Austin Fuller and Jacob Sykes are transferring. The staff must really like what they have behind Gibson.
According to the updated roster Nick Dew has moved to OLB which can only mean the coaches want him involved in the competition at Whip.
To see stuff like this happen. I'm sure it will be dealt with appropriately. For now I withold my judgment since I don't know the facts.
I checked out the SI report. I does not look good to be in that mix. I think the report has some flaws in the way they presented the information. It makes Tech look worse than we are. I think most of the problems at Tech are relatively minor, drugs or alcohol type events, and the administration is consistent on how they deal with it. The report states they checked police records in 17 states. What about the rest of the states? What information was left out? While the report discusses some pretty bad stuff, those things did not happen at Tech. I hate the guilt by association implications of the article, especially since it it apparently based on limited information. They only checked the players on their top 25 teams. That list did not include Auburn, current FBS champs.
What percent of all students have some sort of criminal record?
How come Kris Harley aint gettin any love for this spring? I think him and the Hopkins bros along with James Gayle on the D Line will be hard to stop, I think our d is gettin back to the old days and thats a good thing for us. We are going back to the worlds stingiest D, the glory days! Now if we could get some hog mollies up front we would be unstoppable.
That's approximately 1,142 bottles of bourbon for each coach. They probably lay up in some sick hotel eating nothing but truffel infused, foie gras wrapped, caviar.
I'd just buy a new car with every bowl game.
You have to hand it to him for taking care of his guys though.
This is awesome:
"...and he is allotted $40,000 each year to entertain his staff for making a bowl game."
The question is how do the coaches manage to stay out of trouble during bowl season with that kinda partying??
The article is here:
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/03/vt-football-frank-beamers-contract-expla...
so props to you Joe for not ranking them like a pre-season poll (aka Florida State- I heard they're back this year and in contention for a National Title).
I'm curious though, and I really have no idea how we compare nationally on such a subjective measure...but don't we have the coolest assistants? We've got the Godfather Foster and the Frat Pack in Grey, Beamer, and Brown.
188K in Blacksburg is a buttload of money, but I still don't see how Torrian doesn't make more than some of his counterparts including a 1st year assistant.
1 - Torrian, based on results/$
2 - Bud, only 2nd because I beleive Torrian is underpaid
3 - Wiles, never really heard anything negative about him, not the greatest recruiter but always seems to pull gems from florida
4 - Stiney, I thought he had a solid stretch in 2010, and until anyone else proves otherwise, he is our closer and that is worth the $$$ by itself
5 - Shane, if he recruits anything like he did at South Carolina he will rocket up the list, plus how hard is it to coach DW? run, David, run - done
6 - Sherman, always seems to pull a few solid recruits and our wide receivers only really underperformed one year and they were all freshman
7 - Newsome - his lines have sucked, but I like him better than O'Cain
8 - O'Cain - I'm just not a fan
9/NA - Cornell - I thoroughly expect him to be much higher on the list this time next year, but there is no data to judge him on
This just gets me even more excited for April 23rd. I'm ready for spring football, good read here Joe.
I work at a family homeless shelter. This stuff is awful.
Elsewhere on offense, the Hokies have decided to move Laurence Gibson from tackle to guard, a switch that allows Vinston Painter to move outside to tackle. The 6-foot-6, 298-pound Painter recently hoisted 465 pounds in the bench press.
I love this move, the kid's a beast and hopefully it gets him more reps.
King covers the rest of the position changes that we already mentioned above here: http://www.roanoke.com/sports/vtfootball/wb/280998
Joe, it stuck for me personally so I say let's go with it.
Thanks for the kind words guys. Really enjoyed writing on the site this year and I look forward to what's ahead!
Yeah we can all pretty much agree that Kevin killed it this season, great analysis and perspective.
Also, big ups to Davila for toughing that game out with a bummed wing.
I'm actually really looking forward to next season. As much as I'd like to have MD23, Allen and TB back I think new blood is going to be a really good thing. Sometimes success hits the ceiling and turnover is the only way to fix staleness. It will be a talented squad, motivated by missing The Dance and having their opportunity to shine.
All of the previews and wrap-ups were great this year. Thanks for everything.
mad, mad work done this year on the previews.
here's to chaney and raines being healthy and playing next year and robert brown/dorian finney-smith being the next wing stars for the hokies.
bastantes, crezco cansado de su baile sexualmente sugestivo. traigame la perparacion del rancho de la manguera.
(note the spanish is intentionally poor, this is possibly the greatest inside joke ever though)
who the hell is mark carter? and why is he so fast?
My gut tells me its a safety/injury thing with the crazy weights the beasts would put up otherwise on the back...I'd love to hear the official Gentry reason though.
Wasn't Wang called Godzilla or something by his teamates? There's the whole Chinese-Japanese confusion thing going there, but a derivative would be cool if we could get past that. But the play on words with Lil' Wang isn't bad....
the jeopardy episode with watson was filmed at the tj watson research laboratory in yorktown heights, ny.
How does he do all that?
bruce! nice selection, joe. i'll be back next season with more photochops.