TSL's David Cunningham reported out the following pseudo-depth chart from practice this AM.
Offensive ones: OL - Xavier Chaplin, Braelin Moore, Kaden Moore, Jesse Hanson and Parket Clements; QB - Grant Wells; RB - Bhayshul Tuten; TE - Nick Gallo— David Cunningham (@therealdcunna) March 21, 2023
Other players that rotated in on defense (1/2):- DL: Keyshawn Burgos, Wilfried Pene, Josh Fuga and Jorden McDonald; Malachi Madison, Lemar Law and Gunner Givens- LB: J.R. Walker (S), Matt Johnson (M), Jaden Keller (W)— David Cunningham (@therealdcunna) March 21, 2023
Part 2/2:- CB: Derrick Canteen, Antonio Cotman Jr. - S: Jaylen Jones, Mose Phillips— David Cunningham (@therealdcunna) March 21, 2023
Some immediate reactions:
1) Corner depth is scary. Cotman and Phillips are getting early looks in the secondary because of injuries and departures from the program. It is a little frustrating that Dante Lovett (in my opinion, the highest upside DB recruit in this class) Cam Fleming, and Braylon Johnson didn't enroll early. They would have a very good opportunity to showcase themselves with more reps than most freshmen would get in their first spring camp. I think Cotman ultimately grows out of the position, so right now, the Hokies have three true corners.
2) This is a big spring for Burgos and Moyston. It feels like the coaches hold Burgos in higher regard, but I think Moyston has the most upside. While he had some real ugly reps, every now and then he would make a play that would cause you to stand up. He has to figure out how to be more consistent, but if there is a guy I could see becoming an all ACC guy in the DE group, it is Moyston. But, he better have a good spring because Payne and Jeannette will factor in when fall comes around.
3) Who is stepping up as that fourth defensive tackle? I was underwhelmed with Madison's reps late in the year. I saw Givens in person in high school, and until I see otherwise, if he has a P5 future, it will be on offensive line. Law is a complete mystery. Pene was the fourth DT last season, and despite adding size got pushed around. He seems like he lost a lot of explosiveness when he bulked up.
4) Shew... do they need offensive tackles and centers.
Other thoughts? Comment below.
Comments
LET'S GO......
HOKIES!!
No way Wells is QB1 come fall, expect OL play to be bad again and by virtue the run game, there is an insane amount of projects in that defensive room,
Is Drones here yet?
Yes.
Your scaring me. There are several areas where we have what is described as poor starters and depth issues. Seems sketchy at best in terms of progress from last year.
We overhauled the WR room, the RB room, and the QB room. We have (coaching and player) talent in the secondary, just battling injuries and youth. Similarly, I'm confident in the mid/long-term growth of the LB room.
The lines are going to be rough - we knew this coming into the year. It's going take time to flip the roster.
bro depth everywhere is scary. look at the 2020 and 2021 recruiting classes, they should be starters or pushing for a starting spot this year -- instead they either (a) arent P5-level players or (b) transferred out or (c) weren't P5 level players and then transferred out. don't be frustrated that dante lovett didnt enroll early, be frustrated that fuente bungled it so badly
nah we're supposed to just move on and support the guys. We're going to feel fuente's crater for awhile
but if there's frustration, it shouldn't be due to this incoming class *checks notes* enrolling on time like you would normally expect? that's a curious one to me
maybe it's just unnecessarily parsing french's word choice
Oh I'm agreeing with your general statement. I'm not frustrated there was no early enrollment but its more of the norm these days to enroll early and get on spring ball especially if you were likely the gem of the HS class, but still can't really get upset with the kid for likely just wanting to finish HS
If anyone gets there hand on video footage, post here. Haven't seen much from the team accounts that we can actually sink our teeth into, but I have been slammed with work so I haven't been as diligent either.
Good to see Parker's brother Parket get some time with the ones at Tackle
Just saw on a paid article about practice over on TSL that former Army OC Brent Davis is on staff in some capacity. Seems to be a good sign that we brought in someone with OC experience, right? I know they ran the triple option but maybe he was brought into analyze our running game
We had three offensive coaches last year with OC experience and it was record setting bad. Wouldn't say OC experience is a plus for this system.
Meh. Service academy OC is practically a RB coach, right? I mean, I imagine Pry having a coaches meeting:
"Any ideas for offensive identity?"
Davis raises his hand
"Anyone with experience in an offense that acknowledges the existence of a forward pass?"
Davis slowly lowers hand...
FWIW it seems he's working to help the QBs and RBs with the read option
Seems like a perfect fit.
He seems hopeful. Now that I have had the sunshine, time to go over to TSL for the sky falling report.
I don't know whether to be concerned or excited that Pene is rotating in the same group as Fuga. The LB and secondary group feels young, but has potential. You could see some athleticism, but their head wasn't caught up to their feet. The offensive and defensive lines I have no clue about, nothing really jumped out last year. Hopefully another off-season may help us fans start to see the potential there once game reps begin.
I don't think you can read much into it. At this point in the season, coaches are rotating players, trying to give younger players opportunities, trying motivate older players, etc. Coaches are busy creating a culture, competition, and push (the right) buttons. One way to do that is messing with the practice groups
Lines will be brutal this year again. It just takes time... Never seen a fast OL rebuild. Hopefully the talent in other areas will allow us to scheme/take some pressure off the lines.
Same as the spring game, is one side of the ball really good or is the other side really bad? We won't know until the season starts.
Yea, I feel like every spring game since I've become a fan (2008) has been like this.
oLine2's≠Olek Usyk's or footwork elites...
...here is hoping they do not draw any speed-rushing or kinetic dLines.
'cause 80% of this oLine 2-deep is very very undercooked, or
just plum Experience Curve left-tail new to their given position.
Health and conditioning are '22 starters paramount here.
Tho' -all in the same breath- they could be playing 2o25 or so right away...
i.e., it prolly has only one way to go.
💯
b.street
Thank you, BStreet. This is why I didn't continue my HC donation this year. Wish the Hokies well, but damn looking to 2025 to saving shit at this point is laughable. Don't have time for this continual pump and dump anymore.
Understood.
And beyond the next MV3 lightning-n-the-bottle capture?
This is a slooooow-build men. Years...
...plural.
HTH's
b.street
What's the difference between a 'pump and dump' and slow but steady rebuild?
I don't think CFB allows for rebuilds more resurrections at this point since it'll take a miracle. Pry gets like 4-5 years to show substantial progress or we're on to the next i.e "pump and dump"
I disagree. FSU and Baylor were two 3+ year rebuilds. UCLA signed up for a 5 year tear down and rebuild. Nebraska - by hiring Matt Rhule - is agreeing to a 3+ year rebuild. Illinois took 3 years to get competitive under Burt. Florida is in year 1 of a multi year rebuild too. That's one team from every P5 conference.
Everyone looks at what Lincoln Riley did in year 1 and thinks that should be the norm, but it's not. It's hard to land transfers and keep the guys on your roster engaged while establishing a new culture all in less than 3 seasons (much less one season). Dykes, Riley, and Elko (for what it's worth, I'm skeptical of the long term viability of Elko/Duke) are the exceptions to the rule.
FSU didn't have much choice after wasting so much money on Taggert, Baylor I'll give, UCLA does not and will not care about their football success, Nebraska signed up for the same with Frost and shit canned him 6 weeks early and costed them millions. Majority of UF fans are bemoaning Billy already and his runway is short to begin with. No one is expecting Year 1 playoff hopes but you really only get 4-5 years anywhere that actually cares about football.
I apologize - I misread your previous post - I agree that 4-5 years is ample time to show progress. I guess, I'm just confused by VTJ12's comment - we're 1.25 years into a 4 year tenure. Not sure why we'd start talking about 'dumping' Pry this early. IMO it's way too early to know if this works out or not.
In 4-5 yrs, the college football landscape may be very different and might pass VT by. VT is playing with fire going the "rebuild" route, IMO.
Ok, I'll bite. What's the alternative?
Not sure we have a choice, but it's a really, really crappy time to be rebuilding from scratch.
And just to be fair, I'm not down on Pry. I like him a lot as a defensive mind and think he's a fantastic cultural fit for Tech. But it's going to be tough to check expectations every year for the next several seasons knowing it's a long hold for this rebuild. I just feel like with adding a new QB or a few new exciting transfer prospects each year, it's going to be easy to get carried away with expectations that we will have a breakout season. Off-season hype tends to get going pretty easily.
So do your best to be one of the level headed ones pumping the brakes on the hype train around here
Yeah, we should have just stayed good the whole time. What were we thinking?
I mean, one could make the argument that Pry should have brought in an experienced OC that ran something more similar to Fuente's system in order to flatten the learning curve and get some 'quick wins'.
Oh, I'm talking about from the mid-2000's. Should've just kept winning games instead of losing them. It's so obvious!
I know, right? Like why does the OC keep calling plays that aren't touchdowns? He should call the Touchdown Play. What a bum.
15 seconds vs 15 minutes
{Coach} "I, agry." {/Warhol}
It's going to take years, but every year there's a pump that "spring practice is going better than ever before" "everyone is buying in like never before" "new QB X is really impressing." We've heard the same things for nearly a decade now. We're just not a good football program and it's going to take years if ever at this point. But every year powers that be keep pumping that this year is going to be different only for everyone to be totally let down and pissed off by the season.
What "powers that be" have pushed this narrative? Pry spent the first 8 months after he was hired telling everyone how much of a gut job he was undertaking
Media around the program from things that are allowed to leak out from inside. I mean I get it, it's a business and you've gotta sell tickets and keep people interested if you're the program. But man every year it's becoming like a broken record with some of the stuff that comes out of the off-season. Just find it funny that every year has these talking points, but then we always hear we are a few years away when reality sets in during the season.
lol this is the case for every team in cfb
Exactly. How motivating it would be to the team if they didn't talk things up? Can you imagine how bad we'd be if VT media was dumping on the team or just absent?
Also, preseason optimism is part of being a fan of any sport at any level.
You seem to be in mid-season form already.
This is his year!
Brad Glenn might have been a little over zealous with his praise of Grant Wells.
The only thing Hokie Club pays for is student scholarships. As fans we didn't even give enough to cover the full bill until 2016.
What's a scholarship anymore? Go get an NIL deal or something.
More than the previous year as tuition keeps rising every year.
So with the ho hum news about practice , I guess the coaches still have one eye on the field, and one eye on the portal. Maybe a option based offense is the way to go. It can't be any worse.
oh contraire....it could be a lot worse without the skills sets in th o-line. I mean a lot worse!!!!!!!
perhaps a run-pass option offense?
How about an offense that runs AND passes? One that passes when the defense thinks we're going to run, and that runs when the defense thinks we're going to pass. But yet can still run when the defense thinks we're going to run, and can still pass when the defense thinks we're going to pass.
Bingo- we have been too predictable and terrible in the red zone for 15 years. even with "offensive" minded HC fuente. Poor on 3rd down, because our passing offense and protection has just not been good. No identity. Need to be able to move the chains - to your point run and pass.
I remember reading too many stories about people in the stands calling the next play before the team broke the huddle. I just want that to be NOT part of our identity.
Since most fans only know the two plays, run and/or pass, half will guess right 100% of the time.
Well, it's still better than the Dooley Daze. You know, three yards and a cloud of dust was the best we could seem to do. Point is well taken that if fans know the plays then the opposing DC definitely knows what's coming.
Dooley Daze is right. He produced wins and recruited some all time stars. But his corrupt system left us in a huge hole. I'd love to have seen what a website like this would have done with all the Dooley turmoil. All we had was unsympathetic Bill Brill and the Sunday morning highlight show on WDBJ(?).
,
Or be able to know what play is coming but also know that the defense can't stop that play. I do want that in our identity. Being able to exploit a weakness until it is stopped or the defense breaks.
I meannnn we've been running the ball on 3rd & long for years at this point so we're already halfway there! lol
We def need more, and better OT's and Centers, but I'm a believer in the potential of Xavier Chaplin. Absolutely blew my mind when I came up for a game last year how he looked relative to the other OL on the sidelines. He was taller, longer, broader than everyone around him. He looks like an NFL OL.
I like our best five in the secondary: Delane, Strong, Canteen, Stroman, and Peoples. Solid group. The freshmen always talk about wanting to play right away... well there's a bunch of snaps to be had this year and open spots in the two deeps for the many DB newcomers we have.
He (little-x) was one of two who bent our eye standing there last year.
He is a little raw-- might need a year of S&C... tho' he has metrics
and testables and is a headroom kinda guy.
Don't die of shock if he goes up to 3rd-string All-A.c.c. before he is done.
b.street
You talking this year? Because that's a pretty mild ceiling if you're talking about his career at Tech.
No Sir.
Before he is V.P.I. through-- eventually.
(thus consider: ...that makes him Top-5'ish outta 30 or so odd guys... not ½ bad, really).
HTH's
b.street
Under-promise and (hope) to over-deliver. That's what I'm getting from the news coming out of the first week. This just needs to be a warning for the BoV and President - when Whit says the HFC is done, you need to listen - he's the expert in this field, not you. That one (or two) additional year that Fuente got resulted in 2 years of additional rebuild activity. Do the math on what a sub-par year does in terms of revenue generation compared to a proper year of attendance and revenue generation, and tell me you can't afford to terminate a coach when Whit says to pull the trigger. Go on, I'll wait.
I would tweak your message to say "For every year of bad recruiting, you have an additional year of rebuilding with the new guy."
Fuente had 3 years of recruiting outside the top 30. Probably 1 year to turn around the extended org, then 3 years to replace 3 years of subpar recruiting. So 4 years to get back to a 2016/2017 level (10 wins). Ideally you trim a year off that with the transfer portal.
In general, I very much agree. But COVID was a weird time. There were a lot of unknowns. Assuming the rumors are true (that Whit got the money, and Sands nixed it to avoid bad optics), it was a terrible decision (given the benefit of hindsight). I could understand Sands's concerns, but SCar fired Will Muschamp and got zero blowback sooo maybe we could've followed suit.
if true, basically the decision was made out of fear. No decision made out of fear is a good decision.
It's not fear, it's weighing pro's and con's. That said, once we saw Muschamp get fired, and SCar got no PR blowback, we should've axed the guy.
I realize this is all based on conjecture. But assuming he really didn't want to fire Fuente because of "bad optics" I think it is equally fair to assume he was afraid that a) there would be bad optics with firing him and b) the bad optics would result in something bad for VT.
If the decision truly was because of fear of how it would look (aka bad optics) then it is clearly a fear based decision. And it was a bad one.
Before you tell me that I have the benefit of hindsight (knowing that scar got away with firing muschamp) I will tell you that I was saying we should Fuente at the time in 2020 and that the "optics" fear was overblown.
I guess I take issue with the words 'afraid' and 'fear' - I know this is nitpicking, but these words insinuate that the decision maker is acting irrationally. A decision maker can look at the range of potential outcomes, and believe that the negative outcome is more likely to happen. To me, it's a miscalculation, not a 'decision made out of fear'.
Regardless, it's in the past now. And honestly, when 2025 comes around, I think we'll be in the same place, regardless of if we fired Fuente in 2020 or 2021.
I guess we'll just agree to disagree then.
I'm not saying that fear-based decisions are irrational, fwiw. But making a decision in efforts to mitigate a perceived risk is in alignment with the losing mentality
this might be true. I thought he should have been fired after 2018. 2020 would have been too late (and 2021 was definitely too late)
How long did it take for the optics at USC to become apparent? May have been after a point where it's counter-productive to make a change.
November 15th 2020. The cringiest press conference in Whit's career was in, December 2020.
But bad optics with who? Every fan (I'm generalizing) wanted Fuente gone regardless of the pandemic, so all Sands did was piss-off the fans even more and give them another person to be mad at.
So at this point, I'm speculating about why someone made a decision in a rumored decision that might've never happened. BUT this is the internet, this is what we do here, so I will commence...
Anyways, I could see Sands getting pressure from state politicians (who control tax dollars to the school) and/or Sands not wanting to hurt camaraderie with employees (which I would get, even if I disagreed with the decision).
I get it. But that averts that with those groups, but alienates the fans (to a degree) and donors. We want to seems problems fixed and not fester.
Okay, I'm showing my age, but who wouldn't want a problem to Fester?
I dunno... he looks like he can play OL, and based on how this discussion thread started then I say we sign him and get him on the field to see what he can do.
Pair him up with Lurch. Man that would be a scary group for the defensive line to go up against.
That's what I'd call a Monster Mash
The bad optics that Sands wanted to avoid had a lot to do with VT having just announced school-wide pay cuts due to COVID losses at the time. It would be hard to cut everyones pay and then say we can easily afford a multi-million dollar payout without significant blowback.
Hot take incoming:
We're going to be good. I can feel it in my plums.
Blueish Hue?
Ready to take em to the market
It's shaneful these videos don't feature one of these.
What is Ford's role with the team? Just a guest? GA? Interesting involvement.
My question as well. Perhaps just a guest, but would a guest get involved like that? It would be nice to see that it is a paid position with the team. Shows a continued commitment to the football alumni that Pry had been trying to reestablish. And if it's an entry-level position, and/or if Ford's qualified, why not?
Just in town this week offering some advice. Mines reached out on social media and connected after he was hired. Wants former guys involved in the program if possible.
Awesome to see that..I think many of us have been clamoring for this sort of thing for years from the coaching staff.
Mines has been absolutely stellar so far, the only legitimate gripe I can make about him is a very poor choice in undergraduate education.
Also, great to have practice updates and see you on the board Andy. Always appreciated and all the best going forward.
Interesting, guest coaches can be involved in drills? I figured there be some NCAA gotcha about that. Congrats on landing on your feet btw.
Crap, why do I get the feeling there will be a letter from the NCAA any minute now
A bit odd in it seemed Walker had found an increased role since Pry came to town.
And wonder what the deal with Tisdale is now..its been a bizarre 2 years for him. The word "unavailable" doesn't give off great vibes.
I'm just waiting to hear he put $10 into a bracket pool this year.
Walker was a good prospect coming in but not sure he was meant for football. There are worse spots we could lose to attrition
File JR Walker in with Joel Caleb, Devon Hunter, and Nick Dew as players I thought were going to be superstars for us and just fizzled out.
I know they probably do those drills all the time but the video highlighting them makes me think they have no confidence in the offence scoring so the D is going to have to.
well, firstly, can you really blame anyone for not having any confidence in our offense? What has our offense done in the last 20 years to make you believe there is reason to have any amount of confidence in them? Heck, just look at last year - the worst offense VT has had in almost 30 years (which is really saying something because there have been a lot of bad offenses in that time). Even with significant improvements on offense it could still be a pretty bad unit in 2023. It was baaad, bad in 2022. We could be twice as good as we were last year and still be pretty piss poor.
Secondly, I don't think the video was intentionally cut to make it seem that the defense doesn't have confidence in the offense. I think it was cut that way because VT, historically, has been a team that scores points defensively and that is what the fans want.
Last 20 years includes an 8 year stretch of 10 win seasons and 3 ACC POYs. Lets not just start lumping in those pre 2012 teams in here for no reason.
Also twice as good as last year would be 38.5 pts, 406 passing yards, and 222 rushing yards per game. I'll take that. However it is sad that those are our offensive numbers from last year doubled.
Let's not pretend that those teams won due to an elite offense. We had elite talent in offensive positions. Even then, the offenses generally left a lot to be desired. Those teams won by playing elite defense in a weak conference. We routinely had a top 10 defense in those years. Topping out in the top 3 a few times. Our offense has never been that good.
I still maintain that if David Wilson was on that 2011 Bama team he would have broken Barry's record. And he's not on my top 5 VT RBs
Never said they were elite, but let's also not act like the last few years of offense is in the same ball park as our offenses during that 10 win stretch.
The offense during that 10 year stretch also ran power football, and helped our defense to come on the field fresh and have the ability to play a more aggressive defense. If only we could possess the ball Nd control the game like we used to.
the point of my post, really, is to point out that our offense, with the coaches we have on staff RIGHT NOW, was absolutely horrendous last year and to expect it to be anywhere near competent in 2023 is, IMO, an unfair expectation.
Is it unfair to lump the offenses of 2008-2011 with the offenses we've had since then(with the notable exception of 2016)? Perhaps. But that's not really my point. VT has never been known for offense. Our calling card has been defense and special teams. Offense was sometimes serviceable (and on one or two occasions competent) but has mostly played second (third?) fiddle in Blacksburg. I don't think anyone has ever looked at VT's offense and thought "We should go do a camp with them and see what they're doing over there". We're not Oregon. We're not TCU. We're not Texas Tech. We're not Clemson. We're not Tennessee. We never have been. We've had some spectacular athletes put the offense on their shoulders and carry us to reasonable performances but we've never had the type of offense that teams lose sleep over.
In a way, you're kind of helping to make my point. You're right that the offense of the last few years hasn't been in the same ballpark as our best offenses. And our best offenses weren't even really that good. Nothing to write home about, anyway. Which just makes the last few offensive performances seem that much worse. Which is my point.
I mean, the offense from 2009-2011 was pretty good, and IMO matched the talent we had on the roster. It wasn't creative, but 2009 and 2010 offenses were some of the most efficient in VT history.
Edit: just saw your related post, which I wholeheartedly agree with.
For the stars don't matter crowd, 2009 and 2010 we had a 5 star QB.
In his junior and senior seasons, no less
I mean a lot of times stars don't matter, it's rare for it to be true for the QB position.
Does this crowd still exist?
I don't think there has ever been much of an anti-5 star crowd
There is however at least one person (me) that is skeptical of the accuracy of at least partially (if not substantially) subjective ratings of less developed players to the ten thousandth decimal
Here's Vtscoop on JR Walker
https://247sports.com/college/virginia-tech/Article/JR-Walker-leaving-Vi...
Haven't been following the team closely since the season ended, but from everything I've gathered, there is a very real chance that Grant Wells is our day 1 starter, no? I had kind of assumed Kyron was going to come in and be "the guy."
Have seen that Drones' accuracy is a question mark, and that he and Wells are neck and neck right now. Kinda scares me, but maybe Wells has taken a huge step forward.
It has been barely a week into spring practice. Things can and do change over the summer and during fall camps. Spring is about breaking things down and rebuilding. It is really hard to take much out of this yet.
Def seems like some priming from the TSL cabal for the fanbase to expect it, but it's a lot of the obvious things you'd point to: familiarity with the coaching staff and ostensibly the playbook, and serious experience as a starting college QB. Remember Drones two weeks into spring practice means Drones is just two weeks in.
The expectation I've seen is that Wells will remain QB1 for the rest of spring camp, and Drones will win the job in the fall. Part of this is to keep competition going, but part of it is also just that Drones needs time to learn the playbook/scheme. Sounds like it's obvious already that Drones has a higher ceiling.
It's still very early but I'd say Wells is for sure the odds on favorite to win the job (even if he doesn't improve his accuracy). Drones has barely had more career snaps than Tajh Bullock. He's very inexperienced and unproven as far as passing and knowing the offense.
Devin Farrell could factor in as well. Apparently right now it's Wells vs Drones, but Farrell established himself as the clear #3 as a true freshman last year. Drones being nicked up could give Farrell the opportunity to get some reps at #2
Know I'm in a minority here, maybe even a small minority, but I was hoping to see if Wells could step up and show some serious improvement over last year with a full season at VT under his belt. Don't get me wrong, if we have a clear upgrade, I definitely want that upgrade playing. But it has been so long since we have had a QB actually play in consecutive years and show any improvement, that I was hoping Wells would get a chance with some additional seasoning and maturity.
Of course, it would help a lot if he got better blocking, a better run game and some better receivers. A young Dan Marino would have struggled last year at VT. A real mobile QB able to handle busted plays probably is better, but I still hope he improves enough in practice to get the chance for a few games.
Agreed. I know some people will be lining up with pitchforks if Wells isn't on the bench day 1, but I'd like to see what he can do with halfway decent OL and WR play. Not to mention any kind of run game and coherent game plan to take some pressure off.
I won't be mad if our coaches think Wells is the best option in the fall. The coaches want to be successful just as much as we want them to be. Maybe even more since it is, you know, their livelihood and junk.
My issues with Wells go far beyond the OL's inability to protect him; although that is a significant piece of the puzzle. He has zero touch on the football. Other than dropping a dime deep he is terribly inaccurate at just about every level. He doesn't see the field well. he locks in on his primary WR on a fairly regular basis... I would be disappointed if (a) he doesn't take MASSIVE improvements and/or (b) no one else is able to take his job - which might be a bigger red flag on the staff tbh.
I was a believer in him at Marshall and was super stoked when we got him. He has a great deep ball and a ton of expereince. And the offensive line completely wrecked any chance of him having a good season.
However those can all be true AND we have enough evidence to say he won't work out. To me sailing short and intermediate throws is a pretty good indicator. That accuracy is tough to learn and there's plenty of examples of big arm guys who never got the accuracy to be an effective starter. Another indicator is the interceptions and other mistakes. It was a while ago but I can't get him throwing the INT straight to the ODU guy out of my head. Also French had broken down several examples of misreads and bad throws, some of which he was very lucky not to be picked off. It would be different if he was a true freshman, but would be his 4th year as a starter. Count me out on Wells
I agree with most of this. Wells will need to have made significant progress for me to feel good about him starting and I just think that is highly unlikely. I'm not going to lose my mind if he's the day 1 starter but it will be concerning.
I'm willing to give him a game or two to prove himself but I'd honestly be surprised if he's still starting in October.
The question is: will I be pleasantly surprised because he has proven to be much better than last year, or will I be unpleasantly surprised that the coaches still feel he's our best option?
No updates? What number practice are we on? 8/15? B Street got any updates?
Portal targets? A high quality OL and DE might actually get me excited for the season (the Varner decommit is going to hurt imo)
Given the lack of coverage over the weekend, I'm guessing the team had the weekend off? Not much from any of the beat writers.
I don't think the portal reopens until may 1? I expect to see more players in the portal after spring practice wraps. Most other teams are still in spring practice too.
Don't get excited. There's some talk that Clements and Moore are advancing quickly, but everyone seems to believe that the lines are a slow rebuild.
They were part of The Big Event on campus this weekend. A first for the team.
https://www.wdbj7.com/2023/04/01/virginia-tech-football-team-volunteers-first-time-with-student-body-big-event/
Awesome, thanks for sharing!
Kinda wild to me this is the first time the football team has done the big event
maybe the first time it's been an official (mandatory?) team thing, but I definitely had football players cleaning up my yard back in 2012 when we were living off price's fork
I can see Pry encouraging that. Glad the players stepped up.
well congratulations on finding a way to piss me all the way off with this reminder lmao
Definitely way early to draw any conclusions, but I am getting slightly concerned that we are going to have to trot Wells back out there as QB1 this fall. I'm sure he's performing well with some additional skill talent, but I've seen a lot of comments and from some Marshall fans that he looks phenomenal in practice and it doesn't always translate to gameday. He looked legit in the spring game last year and I think he had a couple turnovers in game 1 and lost confidence and it just snowballed on him the rest of the season. Led to him not seeing the field/trusting his eyes IMO.
Long way to go but will be interesting to watch this into the fall. We have to elevate the floor at the QB position.
Drones has had the playbook for 2 weeks. He's barely met anyone on the team, so it's not surprising that he hasn't won the job yet. Additionally, Pry has to keep the competition alive for two major reasons:
Yes, yes it is.
Edit:
Also, assuming everyone not listed here is 'second team', that means that Drones is throwing to Jennings, Lane, and Felton. The fact that Jennings (who has supposedly been lighting up spring practices) is 'second team' should tell you everything you need to know (which is that first and second team aren't an indicator of our starting teams come fall).
Yeah I agree there's definitely some other things at play with the mixing and matching of personnel and need to keep competition into the fall. Reports of Wells looking extremely sharp so far aren't surprising given Drones' need to get up to speed, but we will need to see major upside from Drones this spring and bridging the gap in fall camp in order to win the job. I appreciate Wells working to improve and being a competitor, but I feel we are going to need major improvement at QB in order to increase the win total this year.
Definitely agree on wanting Wells to stick around and being a very, very good backup in the event Drones takes the starting spot. I would feel very good about the QB room with that dynamic, plus reports that Watson has looked very good in camp and Ferrell and Bullock hopefully making strides and having a few years in the program.
The previous guard is practicing together and the new guys are all "second team" and gelling with each other. Likely to get used to each other and see what the new tools can do together. Kind of like a control and experiment setup. At least I am putting that spin on it...
Nothing shocking about this to me. Every single person on that list was here last season. These guys came into the spring with these starting spots, or in pole position for these spots.
QB: You leave incumbent start Wells #1 this early and let them compete. This likely goes into the Fall for both competitive and strategic reasons.
RB: I expect Tuten and Thomas to be a duo, so who is taking technical first reps is irrelevant.
WR: Happy to see Moss and Holloway showing out, as some of our more promising youngsters. I expect Ali Jennings to be one of the starting WR's when the season starts, and I wouldn't be surprised if Felton and Lane were the other two.
TE: Incumbent starter. I hope Wright sees more targets this year.
OL: All guys who were on the team last year. Not an issue here for me and I am very high on Chaplin. If someone takes any of these jobs, good for them.
Loving what I am seeing and hearing from him so far.
Video has been removed by the uploader? :-(
Weird, I re-embeded.
It looks like they cut about 10 sec off of it. Must've been a super secret play they didn't want the competition to see.
Just so long as it's not QB draw on 3rd and long.
It's not that we are running the QB draw on 3rd and long that is a secret, its that we are not telegraphing it with jet sweep motion.
Well he definitely enunciates better than his dad ever did when coaching. You ever try to learn or take coaching from a guy that just screams unintelligible gibberish at you? Maybe Stu figured it out after being coached by his dad.
I think you are confusing "Holt" with Lou Holtz
No, his dad coached at my high school for a short stint. He's the 6th winningest high school football coach in North Carolina but when he came to Bristol he stunk it up. His coaching and leadership style didn't mesh well with the established culture at the school. He leadership style was yelling unintelligibly. I didn't play for him but had a lot of friends that did. He rode the younger players to the edge of being abusive but still managed to the unite them against a common enemy. Their own marching band.
leg for ...
Wells looked a lot better at Marshall than last year. That version of him is in there somewhere.
Its almost like comparing 2022 Will Levis to 2021 Will Levis. 2022 Will Levis was getting rag dolled like Shane Falco in The Replacements. Can you evaluate QB play when the OL, RB, and WR's can't do anything?
Question: Will the Spring Game be televised again this year?
Yes, the spring game is on ACC Network Extra.
The first of many 🥴
Better than RSN.
Here's another. Looks they edited the super secret Philly Special QB jet sweep out for this one.
Not sure if this is the correct thread for this, so I can start a new one if preferred...
Anyways, VTScoop published a Spring Game Offensive Preview. The theme is pretty much "here's what to watch for, but at the same time, don't overreact to anything." Nothing that ground breaking, but I do think the part on the offensive line is really good: