I have now watched the game twice (can't sleep.) I can't recall a game in the Fuente era where the QB had less than 3 QB keepers on inverted veer with jetsweep action, even when Willis was the QB. Well, tonight the Hokies only ran one true inverted veer, and Turner got it on the jet sweep. I can't recall a single QB keeper on the inverted veer... a first Burmeister didn't have to take those extra shots (although he did get carries on QB scrambles, zone reads, and one midline for a touchdown.
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I liked how we flipped the ball to turner on his end around early in the game, it's safer than trying to exchange a handoff because if Turner drops it, it is an incomplete pass. It's how Pat White put up huge passing yards at WVU
we did this early on when Fuente first got here but Jerod had trouble executing it so they went away from it.
That IS a fun fact.
Though the suspicious piece of me thinks we might just not be playing our hand yet
I agree that offense played close to the vest but it's early and probably only ran what they can run well..........only saw maybe ten plays.... maybe some left or right, but but same play. It'll get better hopefully. Imperfect game but very gutsy and excellent beginning to most important season of FuMans career.
I figured BB would have kept more reads especially in the 2nd half. Hard to tell in live time if he made the right reads.
He missed a read in the 2nd half on a triple option look.
We need BB to stay healthy all year. It'll be wise to keep doing this. He'll get his runs on scrambles, we need him to feed the playmakers and stay upright.
In the post game interview he said he took some shots but he's good. Hopefully we can have a few games where we're up early to get the other QB's some burn.
Came here thinking it was because sarcasm because we won a game.
Fun fact!
Well it is Fuente's first win against a top 10 team...
Better late than never but it might just be too little too late
We'll see. If this turns out to be another fsu 2018 and we stink it up for the rest of the season you might be right. If he builds on this and wins 9+ he saves his job. I still think cornelson is holding this offense back. With a better oc and better recruiting I think we could be really good
Fuente couldn't answer the ESPN guy without choking up when the fans stormed the field. The hate he's gotten the past 2 years, coupled with last year's losing season under COVID, all he could respond with was "It's pretty cool".
He knows the importance of this season, and it showed.
Yea. I'm going to just have to respectfully hard disagree with you there. If there is a glaring deficiency with this coaching staff, particularly Fuente and Corny, it is the inability to acquire and retain high level talent - that's it. Yea we can nitpick this or that call, but overall plays have been there. Guys were wide open last night, not because they were that much faster - rather, because they were schemed open.
I have to say I haven't always been a fan of the play-calling but Corny called a tremendous game - I mean tremendous.
The casual fan may say ummm but we scored 17 points. Well, we fumbled inside the 10, missed 3 downfield busts by Carolina where any one of them was a long TD pass (u could blame unc but our OC called the play and it worked - ex Turner wide open and B2 didn't step up in pocket), missed a potential huge play on a screen to RB where we had them fooled and another play in the flat on a mini-wheel.
All of those plays are at least partially a result of our coaches getting us into a play with a chance to succeed against a talented team. It's hard to argue with our play calling on offense last night.
But that's also part of the problem...when those bug plays don't hit....we don't score.
Corny's offense is much too reliant on big plays to produce points, but when we get inside the 30, we consistently fail to capitalize.
The almost TD is a good example..we call a Fade that barely ends up out of bounds and come back with exactly the same play...it fools no one and the ball sails aimlessly OB. No creativity at all and (not coincidentally) no points.
We controlled the entire first half and you think we are over reliant on big plays? No, we methodically took it to them last night.
We gained 93 yds in the 2nd Half...that is not methodical...its inept.
The last 10 minutes of the game should have been a celebration, not a nail biter.
We can't count on our thin DL to hold us up and then say we'll if this or that or that would have happened we might have scored. "If" touchdowns are worth zero points.
Again, this will bite us before the year is over.
The second half drop in production had nothing to do with being reliant on big plays though. If something bites us, it is going to be relying on methodical long drives and not having enough big play potential.
Yeah I don't agree at all. This offense is opposite in my view - run plays are 3 to 1 and when that's the case the offense isn't a big play dependent offense. He called a great game and in college the difference is almost always who executes better.
I'll put it like this - every play can be a big play and coaches don't usually call for a "big play" but call a play that gives the team a chance to execute and have success based on what is needed at that point in the game with the context of the game plan.
If we miss wide open plays I don't know how that's the coaches calling bad plays or being dependent on them. That's good play calling and poor execution.
He is the QB coach and responsible for developing the skills of his quarterbacks so they don't miss reads. Cornelson has had like 6 quarterbacks play in game now and none of them looked skilled at going through reads. That execution is on him. That is in his scope of responsibility. If he can't do that somebody else needs to
Every good offense is reliant on big plays - it's why explosiveness (aka 20+ yard plays) is one of the 5 key measures in the SP+. The problem isn't that Corny's offense is too reliant on big plays; the problem is that we don't hit them frequent enough. To Mickelmarcus's point - I don't think last night's problem was scheme related; I think it's execution related. Which means it's either a problem getting the proper talent on the team, or teaching them how to execute.
That said, I do feel a little uncomfortable being so critical of the coaches after what I feel was a good (not flawless) performance. I'm looking forward to watching this team the rest of the season. I hope they can continue to play last like last night and continue to improve.
Tech is like 8-50 all time versus top 10 teams so definitely just a Fuente problem right? Glad we made it less than 24 hours without a sarcastic Fuente comment after he won a game a lot of guys on here gave him no chance to win and thought we'd get killed.
A f'ing men. If Fuente was some kind of dbag coach I could buy in to the hate - on the contrary he's a hell of a stand up dude and great representative for the school. He just needs to keep winning and shut up the aholes
BB's quickness was apparent and he made great decisions for the most part. We need him to not get dinged up such that he loses that acceleration. Ryan Willis was fast, but he didn't have BB's quickness. BB has great quickness AND speed, and the healthier he stays the more he can keep it up.
From my casual fan perspective, BB has it except for reading progressions for throws. I feel like he predetermines where it's going and not reading what is given to him. I feel like he can work on that and get better. But coaching has to help get him there.
I also feel like it was play calling after the planned plays for the first quarter, Corn showed his lackluster ability to read the room and call plays that help keep the flow of the game in your favor. I 100% thought it was going to be like our bowl game against Kentucky where they just ignore the energy in the room and play not to loose.
Agreed I thought the offense was great in the first half outside of King's fumble...the second we went into "playing not to lose" mode which is maddening.
^^^This. To me the unforgivable malaise started with 1:30 left in the first half.
He's short and doesn't see the field well. But his is quite quick and shifty and bailed us out several times with his legs. He's also the best we got.
Don't know why we started throwing when the many different types of runs were working so well. Corny gonna corny I guess
Cause our receivers were open, BB3 wasn't cashing in.
I mean...
12-19. Let's review the incompletions:
(In no particular order aside from how fast my addled brain recalls them)
1. Tre drops a perfect throw on a slant. Would have been a touchdown (and BB made a great play to escape and hit Mitchell for the TD to pick Tre up)
2. Beautiful fade TD dime to Tay, negated by his feet being too damn big LOLZ
3. A throw to Tre on the very next play that was well-defensed by a future NFL corner in Grimes
4 & 5. Two admittedly terrible overthrows on touch passes in the flat that would have resulted in big gains. Not forgivable, but certainly fixable.
6. The awful, AWFUL pick that should have never even been thrown. Not much to be said about that.
7. _____. (I can't recall the last one off the top of my head.)
By my count, that's 3 bad misses. Don't get me wrong - they were BAAAAD misses. But he started 7-7 or something? Against one of the top 3 defenses we'll face this year. He also ran for 40-some yards and a touchdown.
I want more from BB - and I think we'll get it as he settles in over the season. We can't ask him to be something he's not - but we can ask him to be the best version of himself. The open misses will get cleaned up IMO. I thought overall he passed a huge test last night.
BB3 left me with confidence but wanting more.
Love that he can run, but when he scrambles he keeps his eyes downfield, drawing local defenders to him and opening up a receiver right behind them. Can throw a dime.
Didn't like the int, also didn't like seeing ESPN show how he, on at least two occasions, had a home run wide open and didn't see it/throw it/? Would have liked to have seen some of those.
Due to high school football commitments I haven't watched the 2nd half. There seems to be consensus that Tech left 1st downs and points on the field. French i would like your insight on why.
It was very similar to the Miami game from 2020 with a different ending.
By different ending he means the defense balled out.
I think the defense was good enough to win in both games. The offense failed them in both games.
Did Hunter play last night?
I need to rewatch, but I thought he started. He definitely didn't play much or at all in the second half. Noticed Daley and Peoples in a lot then
He played, but People's played more and I think Daley maybe even moved over when they went to nickel packages
I may be wrong on the above as Fu said People's got the start.
That is in fact a fun fact.
A Fu fact, even.
A Fun Fu fact if you will.
Off subject but do you think Tenuta (The Defense coach/analyst) played a part in the defense looking better than it has in years? I don't doubt Hamilton, Tyler, Smith, Price, and Teerlink and their knowledge/abilities and I also know we have a lot of returning experienced and talented players, but I remember Cincinnati looking exceptional against Auburn last year and I wonder what Tenuta brought to the table because this defense was bringing the heat last night.
As did an entire off-season off conditioning, strength, and reinstalling a brand new defense.
I am a tenuta fan, and think he is a great defensive coach. Happy to see him on the staff. He should be a big influence on Hamilton, just ad bud is
Let's see how this plays out over the next month, but last night was a BIG win for the player development narrative at VT.
Hokies looked faster, stronger and more athletic across the field. It especially stood out up front on both sides of the ball and our secondary owned their hyped up receiving core in my view.
^^This^^
The physicality and discipline displayed last night, particularly on the defensive side, were tremendous points of growth if they do in fact continue to be a theme this season.
I think we only had one legit penalty? Last I saw we had 2 and one was that terrible pass interference call.
Minimal penalties = happy camper
IMHO anything we say negative is on the side of nit picking. To say we begin to play not to loose with 1:30 to go in the first half is certainly nit picking. I made the same comment to my wife in that moment. But rethinking the moment it may have been the right decision. Make a mistake and turn the ball over at that point could have been monumental momentum switch especially knowing UNC gets the ball first in the second half. Also, they placed a lot of emphases on using the clock and may not have spent enough time practicing hurry up offense to be comfortable??? I am waiting for French's write up to decide.
Yeah, I'm always mad in the moment when they don't pass with 1:30 left in the half, but I think Fuente makes the right decision. If the run play pops for 10 or 15 yards, he may hit the gas a little bit and try to sneak a field goal but he doesn't want to make a huge mistake.
Fuente talked about the Nebraska-Illinois game, which was basically a battle for who could make less mistakes. Then you look at Clemson, who lost the game on the pick six. You can win games conservatively if you are the more physical team.
Burmiester threw over the middle. some of it successfully. That improvement will keep defenses more honest than the past.
Cornerbacks stifled their WR.