http://virginiatech.247sports.com/Article/Inside-Look-Bud-Fosters-Plan-39018001
"We're going to do a couple things different, but we're going to match up with them and make sure everyone is accounted for. We've got good corners that played very well against their receivers last year, with the exception of a couple plays, but we matched up very well on the perimeter. It allows you to load the box, and they want to run the ball. "
"I don't care what coverage we're playing, very rarely will we have opponents free running through zones. I think that's where we're a little bit different than who Ohio State played down the stretch. I have a lot of respect for Oregon, Alabama and Wisconsin, but I think our defensive front is more aggressive and twitchier than those teams. Our defensive front can cause a lot of problems."
Seems very confident.
Do you Hokies think this means he will try and attack Ohio State the same way as last year?
As a Buckeye fan, this reminds me of Pat Narduzzi and Mark Dantonio's comments before last years game. However the Hokies have much better corners than 2014 MSU.
Comments
Most of those defenses play bend don't break. We play break don't bend. We'll have the lowest completion rate in the country and a very high sack rate, but give up a ton of 20+ yard passes. Our defense is apples and oranges with Bama, MSU, PSU.
agreed. Plus compare our size compared to those other schools. If we aren't "twitchier" we have a problem.
I guess I'm confused as to what twitcher means. Quicker?
Yes. Faster off the line and able to get into the back field to blow up plays. The drawback is they can get manhandled if the oline square up for a power blocking scheme
Foster and Wiles always talk about "twitch" in terms of initial reaction - quick first step, identify what they're supposed to do. Some might call that quickness (as opposed to speed), but that's why you'll often see us with a "light" D-line: those guys are strong and twitchy, e.g. they disrupt and get to the ball very quickly. I believe Wiles also likes to say that our line will have their foot in the neutral zone the instant the ball is snapped.
Am I the only one who has always assumed when Wiles talks about twitch, he's referring to fast twitch muscle fiber?
Slow Twitch vs Fast Twitch Muscle
The thought may have crossed my mind.
Of course, but he uses it in a more generic sense
Okay, thanks to both you guys above. I was really feeling like odd man out there for a second because nobody was talking about fast twitch muscle in explaining it, and those are always the first words out of my mouth when someone asks what twitch means. I was worried I had been misunderstanding Wiles this whole time.
Yes, it is a wrestling term from way back. The muscle reacts quicker to the brain impulse. It was very apparent in wrestling.
Not quite. I read it as a combination of quicker, more reactive, more fluid, jumpier.
You know. Twitchier.
It's quite key in our 1-gap system. Blow through the area of responsibility instead of waiting / reacting ina 2-gap system
Some guys are fast. they have good top speed (no bearing on how long it takes them to get going)
Some guys have great acceleration. They get to their top speed fast.
Our guys have twitch. I like to think of this in terms of jerk. They reach their peak acceleration faster, resulting in blowing by the O-line off the snap.
IMO,for example, this is why Nijman and, to a lesser extent, Teller were moved to OL (and correctly, IMO). From a twitch standpoint both were much better suited to OL.
Size is a component as well. Not many guys the size of Dadi Nicholas at DE for those teams or Corey Marshall at DT. We will look to make more penetration.
But, if you get on us like Miami, Pitt and BC did last year, we're in trouble.
I like to think of our defense as controlled chaos, much like the Philadelphia Eagles were under Jim Johnson. You know there will be pressure, you just don't know where its coming from. Get complacent and get your face smacked in. Take a chance and pay for it. Its an aggressive defense that is schemed to completely take advantages of the opportunities that the pass rush will provide.
But yeah... bend but don't break definitely isn't us. We don't give up many yards, and we don't allow teams to move at will. We play a field position game where our defense puts us in good enough field position to score.
I mean, if you were Bud Foster, wouldn't you be a bit confident? Remember that he's returning the entire "twiychty" DL from last year. While we we had problems last year, the DL was not one of them.
This will sound trolly, please don't take it that way.
I know statistically that you guys had a great year last year defensively. But I don't see too much that set you apart from the other great defenses of 2014.
Specifically the ECU, Georgia Tech, Miami, Boston College and Cincy (included because of 500 yards) games.
Were there a lot of injuries on defense in those games? Or was the offense just putting the d. in bad spots?
While I respect Bud, who is probably the best in the business, I guess I'm trying to understand what makes the Hokies so much better than every body else (is what seems to be the theme from you guys).
ECU did all their damage in the 1st quarter and attacked (wisely on their part) an injured Facyson (who didn't play the rest of the year). I'd have to look at the numbers on GT but Bud usually holds them to their season low in rushing when we play them. Brewer threw some AWFUL picks, including a pick-6 that set them up for the win. Against Miami we had a new Mike in and they just manhandled us. BC was probably the worst defensive performance of the season. As for Cinci, we gave up yards but not points which I think Bud is perfectly fine with.
The biggest weakness of Bud's system is when we play big OLs (which is typically Pitt, Miami, and BC). If you can get a push on the smaller DL then you can usually have a good day against Bud.
thanks for the info!
I figured the offense had to play a big part in some of the games.
And I think a lot of the issues with the offense (outside of the fact the OL went through an unprecedented amount of injuries... I mean, we were starting a guy who was playing DIII football a year earlier) is that Bosa knocked Brewer into the 2016 season at the end of the game, and he never really recovered over the remainder of the year.
The other part of the equation is that in some ways Bud is the only thing that has keep Tech competitive for a number of years. Without a Bud Foster D I cringe to think what we would be today. You'll find a lot of differing opinions throughout the fanbase on a number of things but Bud is the closest thing there is to a unified thought in Hokie Nation.
Not sure why you included GT. We shut them down as much as a team can shut down the triple option
Nothing really set us apart on paper from the other great defenses. We had some pretty rough games in there for sure. It is watching the defense play which shows how we are different. Just like we are a match up nightmare for certain offenses (OSU last year), some offenses are a match up nightmare for us to go against. They are usually the power running teams who line up the beef and come right at us. ECU was the outlier because of a really poor first quarter.
I'd like to think that Ohio State had turned into that by the end of last season. With Elliott and a huge o-line I hope you are correct!
While OSU has the beef and ran downhill a lot, they still spread the field to do it. If you look at the teams we really struggle with, it was teams with 1-2 TEs and an I formation or 2 TEs and a single back. Stanford, Pitt, Miami, BC.
Bud compared what OSU tries to do with the run game to that of GT, which we contain as well as anyone. Both teams test the middle and look to get outside with read plays. Bud's system has accountability for each gap so that our guys aren't making reads on defense as much as they are attacking their area when we play these sorts of teams. It nullifies the reads to some extent. The one position that has us all nervous is our MLB which often has to read the bubble and attack it which AM struggled with last year. The different gameplans we use for option teams may take that out though. French can probably clarify that better though.
ECU picked on our secondary with a 5th year senior QB who was shifty and got the ball out and a pretty dynamic deep threat in Cam Worthy. Of their 502 yards, Cam had 227 receiving (most in 1st quarter before an injured Faycson was pulled after 21 points). Part of that was he was picking on a gimped DB, and part of it was that they won their share of the one on one battles we put them in. Other than Cam, the next highest receiver had 77 yards, and they only had 75 rushing yards on the day.
Last year, Georgia Tech averaged over 476 yards/game (142 passing, 342 rushing). We held them to 375 yards (125 passing, 250 rushing). As has been said earlier, we did everything we could to keep them in the game and found a way to lose. Keep in mind that GT won 11 games last year and ended up ranked #8, mostly in part to a very dynamic offense.
Boston College and Miami both ran it down our throats playing power football. Duke Johnson was a monster for Miami and the rest of the team picked that game to play to their potential against a 1st time starting mike backer. Boston College played power football and had good o-line play to pull out the win.
Cincy had a good offense all year, with Gunner Kiel picking apart a lot of defenses. They had 489 yards on us, put were only able to put up 17 points (I'll take that every day). For comparison, they put up 422 yards on OSU, but were able to put up 28 points.
In a nutshell, Bud Foster tries to beat you with scheme and quickness, keeping teams off guard and forcing them to make fast decisions. The weak areas are power running teams (think I formation and big lineman) and teams that can get the ball out fast and beat one on one coverage. I think we match up good against some very good offenses (see stats vs. OSU and GT against season averages), but poorly against others. Bud is pretty good at scheming and identifying weaknesses, and if we can play to our strengths and have an offense that is at least average, I feel good. If not, could be a long day. If OSU can establish the run and get something going off of play action or QB scrambles, the wheels could come off. Bud is going to try to shut down the run first and foremost, particularly with the suspensions at WR. Will it work? We'll find out in a week!
A big, if not the biggest, Achilles Heel for Foster's defenses have been tight ends that can stretch the center of the field...particularly when combined with a strong armed QB a la Andrew Luck or Matthew Stafford.
ECU was throwing "50/50" balls all day, and just coming down with them what felt like every time. I think the plan was correct, our secondary just didn't make plays on the balls they needed to.
I actually think our defense played pretty well against GT (which is fairly similar conceptually to the OSU offense, so the X & O people tell me). We held them to 250 yards rushing, but we gave up a 10 point lead in the final 8 minutes.
As others have pointed out, Miami/BC/Pitt pushed our DL around and kept us out of the backfield. If OSU can do this, you will likely win.
Cincy had a pass happy offense, we gave up some big plays but we forced turnovers.
Fayscon being hurt had a lot to do with why ECU kept hitting those deeps balls. They picked on him that entire 1st quarter and marched right down the field 3 times in the opening 3 drives before the coaches pulled him out of the game, and our defense got back on track.
Considering the way we eventually tied it up, shutting them down after those first few drives (before a gassed D eventually gave out) leads me to believe we probably would have won if the coaches didn't play Fayscon that game. Frustrating, but what can ya do.
Our offense crapped itself against GT. Really, we had them beat, and the offense just flat lost it. By the time we got around to the Miami/BC/Pitt portion of the schedule, the injury plagued offense was sputtering, keeping the defense on the field way too long, and it caught up. Defense just didn't have anything left in the tank, and its impressive they were able to rally to make a bowl with the way things went.
Don't forget that other than the last "drive" by ECU, they essentially did nothing offensively in the last 36 minutes of that game.
We had 9 tfl against both BC and Pitt. The issue was giving up too many big plays and that we were having to try to shoot gaps rather than just holding their ground and letting the free hitter make the play- not a lack of penetration.
I think the different blocking style of OSU, the presence of a healthy Maddy, and the development of a true 1-tech in Sobczak limits the issues there.
So you're saying Ohio State will be an easier matchup than Pitt or BC? \_()_/
Just playing.
As far as a matchup? Yes, although BC will have a slightly different offense this year with a new QB.
As far as defense and overall talent? There's no comparison, OSU is a much better team overall. Either way, Pitt and OSU are two of the three losses I currently have penciled in.
Bud's not saying VT has a better defense than those other teams. He saying that we do some things better (and some things worse, I'm sure he'd admit, at least privately) and we play differently, meaning you shouldn't directly compare how Alabama played against OSU to how VT will.
It's not one dimensional, better or worse. It's about how players and teams match up with each other. You don't have to be "better" than Team A, to perform better than them against Team B. You just have to match up better and do certain things differently.
With all due respect, that's not a valid comparison. VT will bring a schematically distinct defense to the field compared to what you saw vs Michigan State. While the formations might appear similar, assignment and scheme will be completely different, as french can illustrate way better than I ever could.
There's a reason why our defense was the only one able to stop your offense last season, and it isn't entirely inexperience at QB and OL on your part.
Not comparing the defense's. Just the hubris if you will.
Bud comes across a lot less arrogant as Narduzzi but the week before- both basically said, this is us, we're better than everybody, we aren't scared.
Grasping at straws really, just looking for some good football talk.
Right, I get that. My point was, go back and watch tape on how Bud schemed against you guys vs how Narduzzi schemed you guys. Formations were somewhat similar (not really that similar) and that was about it. Our defensive assignments were very different from what Narduzzi assigned his defenders.
Narduzzi, for whatever reason, did not sell out to stop the run. Maybe he didn't trust his secondary, maybe he expected trickeration. I don't know. But Michigan State played you guys significantly differently than Bud played you. In fact, NOBODY tried to do what Bud did against you. They would come out in the Bear front, but they wouldn't play gap fill defense and leave their corners on an island.
Not a lot of Hokie fans will admit this, but you guys clearly played about as poorly as possible against us. What did we have, 7 sacks? That young OL was overwhelmed by the end of that game. JTB threw two truly awful interceptions, he didn't do much of that the rest of the year. Your quality WR's (which aren't there in this game) just didn't get off clean from the line. And Zeke Elliott....you know....ran 7 times. It wasn't a great day for your playcaller or execution across the board.
Bud Foster gets a lot of credit for that, but at least 33% of that equation was you guys played awful on offense. If Wisconsin got that effort, they wouldn't have given up 59. If we got the effort you put on Wisky, we give up 35+.
Hopefully, first game, you may not be sharp again on offense (and the receiving corps situation). Because even Bud Foster can't stop this offense if it's as sharp as it was the end of last season.
Some of those 7 sacks were on the OL but a lot of them were just a numbers game. We sent more defenders than they had blockers. If the WR isn't open immediately, which they rarely are if we are playing inside leverage, then the QB is kind of screwed.
Which is why, in my mind, the most important match up that isn't being discussed very much is our offense against their defense. It is absolutely critical that our offense takes a step forward against OSU. If our offense can't put more than 28 points on the board then we're in for a long night. Everyone keeps saying this game is going to be a low scoring affair. I think OSU is going to score lots of points regardless. IF VT wants to win this game they better be able to light up the scoreboard. Best case scenario for the Hokies IMO is that we score on 80% of our possessions at a minimum. I could see the total score of this game topping 70 easily
Agree, VT won't win this game without at least 28 points, something we failed to do against ECU, GT, Pitt, Miami, Duke, Wake and UVA last year.
I too agree that we need 28+. Relying on the offense to generate all 28+ will be asking a lot I think. If the offense can control the ball and field position while getting a few scores. I think 21 or 24 could win it due to fewer possessions for both teams. If we can get a STs score or defensive score, I like our chances a whole lot more with the offense needing to put fewer points on the board and just be able to control the ball. A couple of 14 play drives would do wonders for us.
I don't know about scoring 80% of the time, but I agree that at least tOSU will be scoring. I expect tOSU to convert a few more of those long passes than they did last year. To me, that 28 points is indeed the minimum VT will need to score to win. It'll mean that either the offense is actually working, and therefore giving the defense time to rest and less opportunity for tOSU to be on the field, or VT is actually connecting on explosive plays, which will mean that tOSU will have to back off and respect the VT offense.
If you were to tell me that the VT offense will score 28 points, I'd bet that VT would win that game.
I think if you go back and look at the 2013 Sparty defense, that unit was one of the nastiest groups I've ever seen. They attacked you everywhere, and dared you to attack them. They had the DB's to do what they did. Their LB's were exceptional, and their DL was big, but could pass rush. The 2014 version had issues at LB and DB - and weren't near as scary.
VT was similar to the 2013 Sparty D in last year's game. The exact details of the defense were a little different, but the basic concepts are the same.
Assuming the defense is successful in gumming up the read option and power/counter RB/QB runs, the QB and receivers have to make the defense pay a heavy price for that with slants and taking the top off. That defense is willing to give you a couple of those shots, but they can't give you 6 successful ones.
So the game within the game is whether the OSU line and EZE is good enough to run on that defense anyway, and if so, then good for our guys. If not, the game becomes whether the OSU offense can make the defense pay the price for it. Last year they couldn't. We'll see here in a week how both sides have evolved in a year.
I have felt that BF would play very differently this year because the offense he played against last year did not have one proven threat on it. Now there are those kinds of threats at every skill position (although with the suspensions and injuries it's less than it would have been), so instead of pressure on every play, I think there will be threats of pressure on every play, but disguises to allow him to protect the flanks and rear of the defense when he chooses. It's possible that he feels the Bear/Cover 0 (or whatever you want to call it) has him thinking "this is who we are and we are going to do it no matter what", but if Ohio State hurts them on that, plan B has to be the selective pressure/disguise/cover the flanks and rear option.
Do you think this means he will try and attack Ohio State the same way as last year? Maybe , not in the exact same way , but rest assured we will be aggressively coming . Ohio State will see blitzes from angles and positions , probably not seen in a while. This defense is going to be nasty.
Of course we're going to attack that Ohio State offense. We're a defense that is built to be aggressive and force mistakes. Attack the QB and force him to make decisions. If those decisions are at all wrong, we have the best secondary in the nation to capitalize on it. Being aggressive is the easiest way to neutralize their talent advantage, as it doesn't give them the time on a play by play basis to overwhelm us.
We sit back, we lose this game. That said, we aren't going to attack with the bear look this year. That hand was played. In 7 days, we get to see what's behind Door #2.
Oh it might look like the bear in formation, but I imagine we are going to be doing crazy things with misdirection.
Uh
Phrasing
Phrasing. ~~~~~~~~ uh ~~~~~~~ CONTEXT
Context , the part of a written statement that proceed a specific word usually influencing it's meaning.
I doubt Bud does the exact scheme as last year. Although, with the OSU losing all their starting WR's (I know I know, they have 845 4* receivers to replace them), I think OSU will focus more on the run and/or spread option, in which Bud would likely bring that Bear defensive scheme into this game.
Yup. I really would be a lot more confident if we could have one of the guys out of Marshall, Wilson, Brown, Smith back.
Just one please.
Reading on your guys defense, I guess the good thing for Buckeye fans is that Michael Thomas will be left 1 on 1 in Bud's scheme. While I am not expecting an all world night, I do thing he maybe able to take a slant and go to the house like last season. Just got to make the first guy miss...
I am sure Bud will be playing an inside leverage to prevent that. Last year he beat Facyson across his face which I am sure Bud will be preaching to these kids that it cannot happen. Not saying that Thomas can't and won't do it, just saying there won't be many opportunities.
Plus it was revealed after that Facyson was playing with an injury on his leg all game. He is 100% now, so hopefully that won't be an issue.
Should be a good battle. Michael Thomas was a human highlight reel last year.
Was told that you guys don't use a typical field and boundary. Will be interesting to see who is on Thomas most of the night.
We do use a field and boundary typically. There have been occasions where we have our best CB follow a WR the whole night but that is a rarer exception.
not sure who told you that but we do use field and boundary so don't expect someone to shadow Thomas. Thomas seems to be getting a ton of hype, but doesn't seem to have the stats to back it up (yet).
it was somebody on here, I forget where.
And Thomas has good numbers, but those aren't what jump out at you. The plays he made last year were absolutely insane. Plus he's 6'4, strong and a burner. Those are the reasons he's the number 1 WR prospect according to Todd Mcshay.
Yeah I saw that Thomas was his number 1 and all I could think was that this must be a weak class compared to recent years. I'm sure Thomas is great, but the guys in the last few years have been incredible.
can't think of many r-jr #1 WRs who haven't gone over 1000 yards before, but maybe he'll start a trend.
walter camp has him at #5 so still a potential late first/early 2nd type pick.
http://walterfootball.com/draft2016WR.php
I think Ohio State is not going to have a many +1000 plus yard wide receivers under Urban. So many guys to spread the ball around to. Every time he needed to make a play, he did.
And he only started one year. His freshmen year he had a great spring and Urban buttoned up the offense to Braxton and Hyde and he hardly saw any action. The next year he redshirted. Last year he exploded onto the scene.
The good thing for us this year for our CBs is that both would start for any team in the nation. Our third CB / Nickel was moved to FS because he's so versatile, and the CB that did the pick-6 against you guys last year is a back up CB!
Our secondary and DL are our strengths this year. If you wanted a weakness, you'd have to exploit our MLB due to lack of experience, but apparently he's coming along quite well too.
I fully expect Michael Thomas to get his. I think Bud Foster can live with that as long as he doesn't go for 150+ and 2 touchdowns or something.
We run a typical field and boundary corner the vast majority of the time. We don't play as much safety help behind the boundary corner as some other teams though. Might mix it up and have Fuller follow Thomas but I doubt it.
Yea, whenever I think of this game coming up in a week, I have flashes of that slant bursting up in my mind... I am concerned it will happen again. I am sure it will, because we like to give up big plays, lets just hope (for our sake not yours) that we keep the amount of it happening to a minimum!
The outside option was actually the kryptonite to the Bear front last year. Urban just didn't run it enough throughout the whole game.
agreed. From the practice/scrimmage highlights it looks like they will be running a lot of that week 1. Especially with Braxton Miller.
Based on that and the injuries, I feel Barrett maybe the best fit week 1. Though, I still believe Jones can get us to higher levels the rest of the season.
Braxton Miller might not be getting the ball much if his hamstring is still sore. Meyer is supposedly going to give a status update today if you want to let me know what he says that would be awesome.
sure will. Looks like the best ohio state site- elevenwarriors has been down all morning. I need my fix dadgummit.
Hire real IT peps.
That site is down a lot, it also crashes and reloads an awful lot also. Happy to have my home here at TKP.
Sounds like he is good to go.
The starter at quarterback will be announced when the first guy takes the snap. Both guys are close. Braxton Miller has had two great days of practice recently.
The pecking order at wide receiver: "Former Big Ten Player of the Year is doing well out there. He's all over the place. Braxton has looked good." Michael Thomas is a go-to guy. They expect big things from him. Curtis Samuel is also heavily involved. The redshirt freshmen will all have roles in this game and early in the season. "We're trying to work through that."
Early on there were growing pains for Braxton Miller at receiver. A move like this usually takes a year and a half to do correctly. "As of the last three days, he's...I don't want to say he's exceeded my expectations, but he's darn near ready to go.
Fortunately, the hamstring being sore is due to him having to run the distances a WR does, rather than what a QB typically runs in practice. Meyer said today he looks good to go.
I might be alone in thinking this, but I'm not scared of Braxton Miller as an H-back at all. Idk if others watched him run routes against Joey Galloway...? But he was running routes against a 50 year old man and for some reason that was supposed to impress us. Just because the guy was a tremendous athlete at QB, doesn't mean he can run effective routes, beat press-man coverages, and actually catch the football while going across the middle with the possibility of getting rocked. Just look at Terrelle Pryor. A great athlete at QB that is trying to become a WR for the Browns yet he can't do it even on that terrible roster. The only possible thing that scares me about Braxton at WR is trick play possibilities. That's it.
This early in the season is when he will be the least effective. His route running skills will be rough for sure. I would expect to see him get the ball in more tosses, hand offs, and pitches than down the field throws. He is a baller so he is always going to be dangerous with the ball in his hands its just that right now it might be hard to get it to him in a lot of ways.
All reports are that Pryor has looked great in camp when healthy. Even some Calvin Johnson comparisons.
Will he be that player? no. But I do think he'll make the team.
One advantage Pryor has is he was also an exceptional basketball player in HS so he has some ball handling skills as well.
My fear isn't that he will run an exceptional hook route to get open or run a crafty little inside/outside move. My fear is on a misdirection, jet sweep, screen, etc. that he'll get a crease and house it. As others have noted I expect that this early in the season he'll be getting much safer touches, probably be the pitch man on speed options after motioning in the backfield and other things like that.
If we can get a good hard hit on him in the option game early, it could rattle him on later pitches and cause some fumbles.
@Nick - I'd be surprised if you can rattle this guy. He's a baller. But as stated above, I don't think you're going to see him running a lot of traditional WR routes.
Maybe not rattled, but everyone starts coughing it up once they get hit enough. Whether he gets hit 25+ times (I doubt it) is another question, but there is a concern there for a guy and a team with somewhat of a history of fumbling problems.
A guy coming off of a severe sholder injury with a history of fumbling, you bet your ass he can get rattled. Not saying that that is guaranteed to happen, but I would bet if he gets cracked on a bubble screen, that he will be on edge afterwards.
Agree. I'd also be worried about a well-timed trick play early on. Yeah it's a little risky, but OSU has the offensive firepower to be able to afford a few risks. If I'm UM I am looking for a way to land a big punch early, and Miller's skill set means there are a variety of ways to do it. Run a couple jet sweeps and watch how the secondary reacts, then maybe let him throw one if you get the right look...
Urban also barely ran the ball with the talented backs he had... Which I expect to change this year (which I am concerned about), but we will see.
Ive always been a little skeptical about Motu, but after reading Bud's comments, I feel a little more confident.
He seems like an athletic guy and a go-getter. Has a lot of energy. I haven't seen anything though that makes me think that he is that much improved over last year.
I hope I'm wrong.
I'm guessing OSU didn't keep trying to run the ball because they assumed that they should statistically win some of the 1 on 1 battles in the passing game and it might force Foster to add a second DB and that would open up the run game.
That's what ECU ultimately did, and it worked.
ECU also runs the air raid, so running the ball was never an option
Here is a good place to start: What Adjustments Did Ohio State Make Down the Stretch?
Also this: Beating the Buckeyes: Virginia Tech Corner Brandon Facyson and Inside Leverage on "The Island"
Twitchy, eh?
As only a FEW have mentioned - an enormous part of our win versus OSU was SCORING EARLY and converting on key 3rd downs. Consider this - How often were we behind in the game? never.
That put them in somewhat "crisis" mode (who are these guys leading us????!!) and they were pressured to throw - not just because the Bear, but also because they were behind -
The Offensive effort/production will be more important than the D - if the d is even close to its usual self - then that will be a winning effort. If the O is close to usual - we are DOOMED - if they play lights out like last year - we can do this.
If we jump on them early, and allow the Lane crowd to start flexing its muscles, Ohio State is in for a world of trouble on Monday night
It seemed like we converted every single third and long we had against them last year. I'm not expecting a repeat of that.
Hopefully because we won't have many third and longs.
I'm waiting for the article that says the O is twitchier and likes pancakes. Something inside says i'll have to wait until September 8th to see that one.
Ohio st averages 6'4 305 on the line, thats good size but I'm pretty sure bc, pitt, Miami are just as big if not bigger. Speed kills
Good point. Miami averages 315+, Pitt 307 (with a center at 335+ who can move). OSU has a lot of big guys, but no one over 315 and they mask their smallish center (Boren) with a lot of double teams on the interior.
Last time tech played bama they had a huge o-line, i think everyone of those guys are in the nfl now, tech owned bamas offense that night, they did very little. Techs special teams blew up that night, that killed tech. My point is size doesnt allways bode well for teams vs tech and with techs d-line depth i dont see it happening this yr, last yr tech was young and depth was more of an issue.
Last year Bud threw Urban a curve with the bear. Why wouldn't Urban throw Bud a curve and play a little more pro style and use his wealth of stockpiled athletic talent to grind us down?
Our defense will be tough but I will be surprised if we actually dominate anything in this game. Our offense has to carry more of the load.
Yeah, I've been waiting for someone to say this. If I were UM, I would look at the Pitt, BC, Stanford, etc games and say, "You know what? That's what we are going to do." And it isn't like they just can't reach into their limitless talent pool and find guys to replicate that success.
My hope is that we can unleash some offensive firepower as our big surprise this year. Maybe, just maybe, Brewer is going to take it to another level and click big time with a year of reps with the boys. As has been said, a lead will get OSU away from that ground and pound game that I am really fearing right now.
One week away. Go Hokies!
I feel you on that ground and pound. I still get sick to my stomach remembering Saban pounding us in 2009 when we were winning in the 4th! We need big plays early on both sides of the ball. And for the love of all that is holy in Lane, let tech have a consistent running game.
I can't see that happening. I don't think they will change their philosophy and start using a lot of leads/isos. That is just too much to throw at an offensive unit that really wasn't designed and recruited to play that style. If they are able to move our DTs and create traffic for our LBs and/or block our DEs with their TEs they will be able to run the ball but I don't think it will in any way resemble a pro-style attack.
Speaking from experience, crowd noise can be a major advantage for the DL. In fact, I believe it is really the only tangible difference maker in having home field advantage. If we can give our guys a 1/2 step advantage up front by forcing a silent count, with the way our guys up front get off the ball, there will be a lot of chaos consistently in the OSU backfield.
They had great success doing just that late in both playoff games last season. I agree with you.
How about a 2 TE set? Try to grind you down.
That has worked for other teams in the past. Given our questions at mike backer it would play to one of our perceived weaknesses. With spread teams, we try to outnumber the blockers and leave a free hitter at the point of attack. This leaves our DB's on an island, but we counter that with good technique and pressure. If the blockers outnumber our defenders at the point of attack, it takes that advantage away. See Stanford game a few years ago.
Tech can go 3 deep at tackle, pretty sure foster trusts dooley and mihota to at de, i just dont see osu wearing tech down even if um goes that route, and aside from that maddy and marshall are beasts im pretty sure they can take a pounding. Like i said before, osu has good size up front but tech sees alot bigger in the acc.
This forum is full of great insight by both sides of this soon to be battle. Clicking on it only makes the days seem longer til gameday, but I can't stay away. It's been fun reading, good luck week 2 VT! This has been the most insightful and pleasant home&home opponent I've seen between fanbases. Sorry I couldn't add to the schematics of the game, the other comments covered more than I could fathom. Exit Light..Go Bucks!
Glad your here. I just spent some time on 11 W and some of those folks are delusional homers. I know we have them too but...it is extremely tough.
It's been great to have OSU fans on the site and actually have it be an interesting and civil discussion related to match ups and challenges on both sides. We are all looking forward to the game and threads like this are a rare thing in sports when opposing sides can actually show respect.