I'm sorry, it's creepy and disturbing to me. And it looks like the syracuse orange slipping in on the back right. And what's that on the back left? A corn-on-the-cob or something?
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Low key a huge win. Traveled across the country and took care of business after the Miami heartbreak. Started fast and never looked back. Credit to Pry and the boys!
Also— the worst gameday atmosphere I can remember. Very poor showing from the Stanford fans. A shame because I feel like the groves around the stadium have serious tailgating potential. #goacc I guess...?
Shoutout to all the Hokies fans who showed up and stayed the entire time, it was hot af out there today.
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Yeah saw multiple random source that there were more VT fans there so I guess we had like 60 fans to their 40 cause there were almost less fans there than a UVA spring game.
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I talked about this with Nerf earlier today. We both felt like this team made a leap in the second half during the Rutgers game. They started to play with a different mindset regardless of any coaching mistakes, and it has continued through this game.
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Has anybody watched that or any of the other Vandy games? They beat Bama and took #7 Missouri to 2 OTs. They don't seem as crappy as they have in the past. It will be interesting to see how they play the rest of the season.
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That was a classic Virginia Tech Football win. Boring. Physical. Run-heavy.
We ran the ball almost at will. We played a very solid and consistent bend-don't-break style of defense, giving up consistent small gains but never allowing the explosive play (their longest plays of the day were a 20-yard run and a 19-yard pass). We were the more physical team for all 4 quarters. Even when they gained yards they got hit. We gang tackled and finished plays with a few exceptions.
That was basically exactly what I wanted to see after last week. Run the ball and keep swarming on defense. Win a sleepy road game against an inferior opponent comfortably. Play a full game with the same energy we had at Miami.
I'm proud of the way this team bounced back. Celebrating with a Buffalo Trace and a CAO Flathead 660 on the porch. Fam!
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Spent the day getting home from a funeral and could not watch ACCnetwork on the plane, but excitedly watched the score on the ticker. Sitting down to watch the game now. Betting we win pretty comfortably! FAM!!!!
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It was hot as a MFer out there. Californians aren't used to this amount of heat either, so I think VT probably had a slight advantage from playing in so many 100-degree games this year.
Elijah Klock had the largest amount of personal fans there today. His family and the current players from his high school were all there. I didn't realize he was from the Bay area. How did VT end up with a walk-on from California?
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Damn- before that I could say I was at the hottest kickoff ever for VT (Vandy this year at 88) AND the lowest (26 for UVA game 6-8 year back). Ah well.
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Anyone know the temp at kickoff of the ECU-VT game in Charlotte maybe 10 years ago? I was there and it was the hottest game I remember being at. Think it was a nooner. Thought the temps were near 100. They ran out of water at multiple locations. Whole game was a disaster.
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The other things I remember from that game were the purple smoke from ECU's entrance pyrotechnics floating directly up into the stands being a nuisance, and the band director at the time Dave McKee saying after the game "Boy, you guys don't like to lose, do ya? Well, you still have to play the fight song"
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All the older MVs kept saying how wild it was Dave let us take off our top layers. Since it was our very first game I didn't think anything of it. The very next game I expected to be allowed to do the same thing, but it never happened again lol
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I was on campus today for a job outreach thing and realized I'm legitimately twice the age of the students. Also, Blue Ridge Barbeque has closed down in Hokie Grill which is an outrage.
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I had no doubt Pry would have the boys ready to fight, as he normally does.
I have mixed emotions... as awesome as it was to see us get the Dub today it leaves me wondering where this team was early in the season. Just like last year, I guess? In any event, just keep winning.
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I just love how anytime we do something good offensively it has to be someone other than the offensive coordinator who made it happen. Only blame, never any credit.
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I mean, that IS his job, he is the coordinator. He coordinates with all disciplines to make sure everyone moves in the same direction. He makes sure all the positions talk and so forth. If he did everything himself we would just call him the offensive guru or something.
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My point is that when the offense is bad, it's the OC's fault, but when it's good it is despite him. Some other unsung hero on the staff has stepped in for the incompetent coordinator and saved the day. All the blame, none of the credit.
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Seconding VTCC's comment above, AND adding - so what if Bowen has 'some help'? That's the whole point of having a dynamic support staff!
Now, IF you choose to assume that Davis or others are driving the offense, I don't think that's a problem, but I question why they weren't contributing to the same degree for the first 4 weeks of the season?
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That is, his quarterback was actually able to hit some guys in stride yesterday to keep the chains moving in situations that he was badly struggling with in weeks prior.
I don't think we were necessarily doing anything different yesterday, Drones just actually was able to execute the plays that were called. When he isn't badly missing his spots on easy throws, we tend to move the ball.
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Drones hasn't been great this year, but he definitely looks a whole lot better when he has time to throw. If our coaches still want to be working here in a few years they need to figure out how to put a decent offensive line on the field.
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That's a key improvement. I also think Davis and Bowen are better at exploiting defenses with multiple weeks of film. And I think that Bowen isn't as concerned about making all his WRs happy by sharing the load evenly, but instead is just focusing on getting the most out of each piece his offense.
I sat right behind the team yesterday and watched the WR rotation pretty closely. Jennings was not in on many pass plays, mostly used as a decoy and run blocker. (I think his health is still an issue.) And with emergence of Green, Bowen isn't forcing offensive plays for Jennings, but instead putting each of the WRs into position to provide the most benefit.
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One million percent this. Drones single handedly cost us the game against Rutgers. Sorry, but he did. I know others made their mistakes too, but he was abysmal. You could make the same argument for Vanderbilt. He was really really bad to start the year.
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Drones was responsible for easily 21 points vs Rutgers. The piss poor pass behind the receiver which resulted in an INT and ultimately led to 7 points for Rutgers and then 14 missed points on 2 passes to wide open receivers downfield, which ultimately resulted in empty drives.
I would agree with Wasena here.
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Drones looked foolish on the play, but I wouldn't place full blame on him since his lineman got manhandled and pushed back so easily and Drones tripped on him. Even if he had an open receiver streaking over the middle.
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Drones didn't trip on him, the lineman backed up and stepped on Drones' ankle. They showed a pretty clear replay of it (clear from a different angle since it wasn't clear from the normal angle).
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"singlehandedly" is almost always wrong in a team sport. We kicked the game tying field goal and the defense gives up a 63 yard play to our 12 yard line on the first play. Then we had the ball with 2 minutes and 2 timeouts and called three straight passes with Tuten averaging 8 YPC....
Was Drones good? No, by no means, absolutely not. Did he singlehandedly lose the game? also no. Go to the Rutgers game thread, go to the Rutgers vent thread. Drones takes plenty of heat but so does the OL (hiya Parker Clements!), so does Bowen for "curious" playcalling, so does Pry for the team coming out flat to start the game, and so forth.
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Then we had the ball with 2 minutes and 2 timeouts and called three straight passes with Tuten averaging 8 YPC....
This has been our 2 minute offense for 2 of our one score losses this year, I'm wondering if this was the case in any of the other 8 one score losses. I understand the need to move the ball in the air with a short clock but the play calls haven't been high percentage completions or throws that Drones makes in any other situation, seems like a whole new playbook completely out of system for 2 minute offense instead of capitalizing on bread and butter ball movement and hurry up and clock management.
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Throwing the ball with 2 minutes left is fine- if you complete the passes for subsequent first downs- which we NEVER do. I applauded Beamer for throwing it for a first down in the Boise game. You actually convert that pass- like good teams do, like Mahomes does, like Brady does, like good offenses do, the game is over. The issue at VT with throwing the ball in the 2 minute drill is that we don't fucking protect or complete the passes. THAT is the problem. Our coaches should know we are horrid at it.
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Guys have been open a lot this year, until this past weekend, Drones has been struggling badly to hit them. Its the inability to keep the chains moving due to the inaccuracy at QB that has had our offense spinning tires for vast stretches this year. We saw it against Stanford, when those simple passes connect to the open guys, our offense suddenly looks relatively potent. Even in the Miami game, we absolutely left points on the field because Drones struggled to hit an open guy. He does that, we don't even need the Hail Mary at the end, and there is no controversy.
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Right, at this point we know what Drones is. Last year Bowen and Pry overestimated the OL's ability to protect the passer- which is why Wells was the starter to open the year. Drones is never going to be an accurate passer. So move him around, let him take a couple deep shots, run the RPO. That is how he can be effective.
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I still believe Pry is our guy. He definitely needs some help and support around him, but he's the guy IMO. I hope we can find the resources to get him who/what he needs to continue to build this program.
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I don't disagree... It's just weird how we're progressing.
It's like we're trying to build this house, the foundation seems set and stable, but the studs keep falling over. We knew this was a tear down job, and a new foundation was necessary, but I didn't think the studs would be just falling over every evening after the builders went home for the day.
Maybe the foundation isn't set yet, and I'm stupid for wanting to see studs and walls up. But it seems like the foundation is good enough to build on?
edit: correcting autocorrect
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It seems like it takes our coordinators a quarter to half of a season to really figure out what they have and how to use it. That's the problem. We seem to be hitting our stride now, but that shouldn't happen 4-6 games into the season.
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It seems like it takes our coordinators a quarter to half of a season to really figure out what they have and how to use it.
That's one problem, but that doesn't bother me as much because it's easily fixable... just hire new coordinator(s).
My bigger concern is head coach issues... two players with the same number on the field, poor clock management, etc. That's head coach stuff. I think this program needs stability and I think Pry is fixing the right things (recruiting, donor relationships, etc), so I really want him to work out as a head coach. But gameday coaching has to improve. That's a harder nut to crack imo
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Unfortunately, Pry has worked under James Franklin for a long time, who is also known as a notoriously poor game management coach. Pry might benefit from an analyst/advisor role on staff to help him with those type of game and clock management responsibilities.
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Franklin beats the teams he should beat- he's uncanny at that. What he doesn't do is beat OSU, Michigan, etc regularly. I think he is a very good coach, I don't see alot of Franklin in Pry though. Franklin's teams execute much cleaner most of the time. Pry didn't learn the smooth "operation" stuff from Franklin, clearly.
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I agree, He's good at recruiting and keeping the team.
I have confidence he will learn more about his strengths and weaknesses as a head coach vs coordinator. Some are simple fixes. Get an asst coach that is good at clock management, an asst assigned to making sure uniform #'s, etc.
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Had my fam in town (San Francisco) today, FAM! Had come back from wine country, did not make the game.
Push-ups: 7+14+21+28+31 = 101
Saw and briefly chatted with a couple of Hokies in San Francisco after the game at the Restoration Hardware drinks + rooftop (yes, there's this giant restoration hardware that has a restaurant in it and drinks to walk around and then hang out on their nice rooftop haha). If that was any of you, nice to meet you!
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I didn't bet on it but I certainly hoped it would happen. I was happy enough with them embarrassing themselves in Ireland. Now they're 1-5 halfway through the year with a legitimate chance to only win 1 more game (Charleston Southern). It's everything I could have asked for and more.
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I would love to hear the grievances that caused each one of those schools to make the list. Some are self explanatory, but such a wide ranging list must have some good stories.
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1. There were basically 15 Stanford fans there. 2. Their lot 8/9 for tailgating is tremendous- spread out all you want, you are under huge trees in like a park setting, and short walk to their stadium- which is nice enough- video boards are way too small. I really enjoyed it though- wish it would have been 20 degrees cooler- fans would have been more into it. Great time- primarily because we won. Stanford is not good playing their 3rd QB- they really couldn't do anything on offense. VT still needs to "clean" some things up. Met and hung with some great hokies of course.
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Cool that you were able to be there. I will add, for those who haven't seen them, the chance to see mature redwood trees is something nobody should skip. Magnificence in such an old way, putting our lives in perspective with their size and longevity, if left to thrive, is just rare in this world. A tree that gets big enough to have a road through it and still survive deserves some serious respect. But their band mascot is about as stupid as it gets.
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I loved Stanford. Was very impressed. There is a high speed train adjacent to the athletic facilities- and there are trees built around it so it's not an "eyesore". Not to mention the function of it- you can hop to San Fran Oakland Santa Clara and SF from campus rather easily. It was an awesome time. Met some great hokies !
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Throughout the game my daughter and I were both laughing at (1) how few fans were there and (2) how pitifully bad their "mascot" tree was. Seriously, it looked like some prop from a middle school play. I'm pretty sure her high school art class could design and build one that was at least that good.
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Decent number of people standing in the concourse and thus out of the heat- zero shade inside that stadium. But yeah on a perfect day it would have been 1/4th full. VT doesn't move the needle for Stanford fans- they want to see Pac 12 teams/traditional rivals and understandably so. The tree is lame- Mike Leach said it best "The tree is the weakest of the mascots- someone would just cut it down". lol
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I've got some bad news for their fans if they are holding on to that nostalgia. They'll get it once every other year when Cal visits, I think, unless the scheduling adjusts again or there's another shift in the conferences once again.
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Comments
FAM. Their offense tried to wear us down but our D hung in there and closed it out. Nice complete team W.
Would you say our D looked really big hanging in there?
Hal-le-FAM-a-lu-juh
What was that 5 scores in 7 possessions(not counting end of half)
Tree don't lie! FAM
Feels good to finally avenge the 2011 Orange bowl FAM
I love that this is a thing, cracks me up every time
I'm sorry, it's creepy and disturbing to me. And it looks like the syracuse orange slipping in on the back right. And what's that on the back left? A corn-on-the-cob or something?
No one's perfect 🤷♂️
FAMMALAMMADINGDONG
comprehensive victory fam
went into their brick oven hot house and beat their ass, fam. good day.
FAMford
EAD ya fuckin trees!
Man, that felt good.
Gobbling on their tree stump!
Love it
3-3 is better than 2-4 at the mid point...keep doing good football things and finish strong. FAM
FAM! Good solid win on the road against a team we needed to beat. Held on when it started getting a little closer and then put them away. Feels good.
FAM! Hokies dominate and I managed to shoot 85 on the course earlier today.
Really felt like we controlled tonight....best win of the year. Felt like we did what the team was good at tonight and it showed.. FAMMMMMMM
FAM! I LOVE EVERYBODY IN THIS ROOM!
My body doesn't know what to do with a stress free win, Fam
I only had 3 beers. This feels weird fam.
FAM! Hokies get a low stress win and I get to sling beers at my parents' brewery!
MAKING FIREWOOD FAM!
I loved the video where she got the sword.
Nice pull, FAM!
FAMtastic win today! Won comfortably, a stress free enjoyable game to watch. It has been a long time! LET'S GO!!
Wedding present from the Hokies Fam ☺️ (got married yesterday, not today!)
Congrats Fam!
Thank you Fam!
Congrats! May they win the rest of the season for you.
Hear hear! (And thank you!)
Congrats!
Thanks Joe!!
you're just gonna have to get married every weekend in the fall....every year...
I mean I wouldn't be against it. That was the best week/weekend of my life
You wear it well.
Congrats.
Thank you!!
Weekly renewal of wedding vows!
Spencer was a difference maker
Light went on for him last week. I likey.
FAM we looked good out there today!!
I knew there was a reason I was in the woods cutting standing deads today
FAM!!
WEEK 6 QUALITY WIN!
WEEK 1 QUALITY LOSS
FAM
We whupped the most prestigious school in the ACC!
That's right, suck it Duke!
Low key a huge win. Traveled across the country and took care of business after the Miami heartbreak. Started fast and never looked back. Credit to Pry and the boys!
Also— the worst gameday atmosphere I can remember. Very poor showing from the Stanford fans. A shame because I feel like the groves around the stadium have serious tailgating potential. #goacc I guess...?
Shoutout to all the Hokies fans who showed up and stayed the entire time, it was hot af out there today.
Yeah saw multiple random source that there were more VT fans there so I guess we had like 60 fans to their 40 cause there were almost less fans there than a UVA spring game.
A ton of folks hung out in the concourse. Sun was brooootal.
Even accounting for that it was the worst turnout I've ever seen
So when Stanford plays LOLUVA, if no one sees it, is it really a game?
If UVA loses, then yes
I will say this I could clearly hear the let's go Hokies Chant on the TV.
It was an embarrassing turnout for a uva spring game.
I talked about this with Nerf earlier today. We both felt like this team made a leap in the second half during the Rutgers game. They started to play with a different mindset regardless of any coaching mistakes, and it has continued through this game.
FAM !!
Can't believe I didn't think of this earlier
FAM!!
And Vandy beat Bama. Bring the chaos!
Q U A L I T Y L O S S
Has anybody watched that or any of the other Vandy games? They beat Bama and took #7 Missouri to 2 OTs. They don't seem as crappy as they have in the past. It will be interesting to see how they play the rest of the season.
FAM! Not sure if our o-line actually has gotten better or if their d-line is just bad, but it was really nice watching Drones have time to strike.
That was a classic Virginia Tech Football win. Boring. Physical. Run-heavy.
We ran the ball almost at will. We played a very solid and consistent bend-don't-break style of defense, giving up consistent small gains but never allowing the explosive play (their longest plays of the day were a 20-yard run and a 19-yard pass). We were the more physical team for all 4 quarters. Even when they gained yards they got hit. We gang tackled and finished plays with a few exceptions.
That was basically exactly what I wanted to see after last week. Run the ball and keep swarming on defense. Win a sleepy road game against an inferior opponent comfortably. Play a full game with the same energy we had at Miami.
I'm proud of the way this team bounced back. Celebrating with a Buffalo Trace and a CAO Flathead 660 on the porch. Fam!
That was an easy breezy win. Which, is impressive given what Stanford had done so far this year.
Drones had some good throws today, too
Spent the day getting home from a funeral and could not watch ACCnetwork on the plane, but excitedly watched the score on the ticker. Sitting down to watch the game now. Betting we win pretty comfortably! FAM!!!!
FAM all. I may have to record the games and watch the replays all the time. Was nice zipping through all the commercials.
We played backups FAM!!
We played deep guys very early in the game.
Play Calling FAM!!!
Skibidi FAM
It was hot as a MFer out there. Californians aren't used to this amount of heat either, so I think VT probably had a slight advantage from playing in so many 100-degree games this year.
Elijah Klock had the largest amount of personal fans there today. His family and the current players from his high school were all there. I didn't realize he was from the Bay area. How did VT end up with a walk-on from California?
IIRC Bitter retweeted it was the hottest kickoff ever for VT Football.
Damn- before that I could say I was at the hottest kickoff ever for VT (Vandy this year at 88) AND the lowest (26 for UVA game 6-8 year back). Ah well.
Anyone know the temp at kickoff of the ECU-VT game in Charlotte maybe 10 years ago? I was there and it was the hottest game I remember being at. Think it was a nooner. Thought the temps were near 100. They ran out of water at multiple locations. Whole game was a disaster.
It was 2008, my freshman year, so 16 years ago.
That game was hot enough they let us in the Marching Virginians take off the jackets, the only time I remember being allowed to do that.
Obviously longer ago than I remember. No surprise there. It was HOT. Had to have been worse in your MV unis than my shirt and shorts.
The other things I remember from that game were the purple smoke from ECU's entrance pyrotechnics floating directly up into the stands being a nuisance, and the band director at the time Dave McKee saying after the game "Boy, you guys don't like to lose, do ya? Well, you still have to play the fight song"
Hey hey class of 2012 represent!
*sobs*
All the older MVs kept saying how wild it was Dave let us take off our top layers. Since it was our very first game I didn't think anything of it. The very next game I expected to be allowed to do the same thing, but it never happened again lol
I was on campus today for a job outreach thing and realized I'm legitimately twice the age of the students. Also, Blue Ridge Barbeque has closed down in Hokie Grill which is an outrage.
My buddy (who smoked a lot of weed) would get the turkey sandwich from there and replace the turkey with tenders from Chick-Fil-A lol
Try being THREE times the average age of students!
It was ungodly hot, and more humid than it should ever be at that temperature. Every time someone clapped. Sweat sprayed everywhere.
The traffic sucked. The loss sucked. The heat sucked.
All 1000% true.
That was my first tech game ever. I definitely got indoctrinated into all things hokie Fandom all at once in that game
Great win today, FAM!
I had no doubt Pry would have the boys ready to fight, as he normally does.
I have mixed emotions... as awesome as it was to see us get the Dub today it leaves me wondering where this team was early in the season. Just like last year, I guess? In any event, just keep winning.
I have a feeling that Bowen is getting some help again
I just love how anytime we do something good offensively it has to be someone other than the offensive coordinator who made it happen. Only blame, never any credit.
I mean, that IS his job, he is the coordinator. He coordinates with all disciplines to make sure everyone moves in the same direction. He makes sure all the positions talk and so forth. If he did everything himself we would just call him the offensive guru or something.
My point is that when the offense is bad, it's the OC's fault, but when it's good it is despite him. Some other unsung hero on the staff has stepped in for the incompetent coordinator and saved the day. All the blame, none of the credit.
Meh- Bowen was fine to good Saturday. He spread the field a bit, he actually used some hot reads, and we had a nice mix of plays. He's doing fine.
Seconding VTCC's comment above, AND adding - so what if Bowen has 'some help'? That's the whole point of having a dynamic support staff!
Now, IF you choose to assume that Davis or others are driving the offense, I don't think that's a problem, but I question why they weren't contributing to the same degree for the first 4 weeks of the season?
Yeah he definitely is getting help.
That is, his quarterback was actually able to hit some guys in stride yesterday to keep the chains moving in situations that he was badly struggling with in weeks prior.
I don't think we were necessarily doing anything different yesterday, Drones just actually was able to execute the plays that were called. When he isn't badly missing his spots on easy throws, we tend to move the ball.
He actually had a pocket most of the game too.
Drones hasn't been great this year, but he definitely looks a whole lot better when he has time to throw. If our coaches still want to be working here in a few years they need to figure out how to put a decent offensive line on the field.
That's a key improvement. I also think Davis and Bowen are better at exploiting defenses with multiple weeks of film. And I think that Bowen isn't as concerned about making all his WRs happy by sharing the load evenly, but instead is just focusing on getting the most out of each piece his offense.
I sat right behind the team yesterday and watched the WR rotation pretty closely. Jennings was not in on many pass plays, mostly used as a decoy and run blocker. (I think his health is still an issue.) And with emergence of Green, Bowen isn't forcing offensive plays for Jennings, but instead putting each of the WRs into position to provide the most benefit.
One million percent this. Drones single handedly cost us the game against Rutgers. Sorry, but he did. I know others made their mistakes too, but he was abysmal. You could make the same argument for Vanderbilt. He was really really bad to start the year.
"singlehandedly" is strong (and wrong!)
Strong, but "accurate".
Drones was responsible for easily 21 points vs Rutgers. The piss poor pass behind the receiver which resulted in an INT and ultimately led to 7 points for Rutgers and then 14 missed points on 2 passes to wide open receivers downfield, which ultimately resulted in empty drives.
I would agree with Wasena here.
Didn't Rutgers also get a safety? I didn't see it but was that on Drones too?
Drones looked foolish on the play, but I wouldn't place full blame on him since his lineman got manhandled and pushed back so easily and Drones tripped on him. Even if he had an open receiver streaking over the middle.
Drones didn't trip on him, the lineman backed up and stepped on Drones' ankle. They showed a pretty clear replay of it (clear from a different angle since it wasn't clear from the normal angle).
Drones made no effort to move out the of the way either...
it was not on Drones, OL stepped directly on his ankle
"singlehandedly" is almost always wrong in a team sport. We kicked the game tying field goal and the defense gives up a 63 yard play to our 12 yard line on the first play. Then we had the ball with 2 minutes and 2 timeouts and called three straight passes with Tuten averaging 8 YPC....
Was Drones good? No, by no means, absolutely not. Did he singlehandedly lose the game? also no. Go to the Rutgers game thread, go to the Rutgers vent thread. Drones takes plenty of heat but so does the OL (hiya Parker Clements!), so does Bowen for "curious" playcalling, so does Pry for the team coming out flat to start the game, and so forth.
This has been our 2 minute offense for 2 of our one score losses this year, I'm wondering if this was the case in any of the other 8 one score losses. I understand the need to move the ball in the air with a short clock but the play calls haven't been high percentage completions or throws that Drones makes in any other situation, seems like a whole new playbook completely out of system for 2 minute offense instead of capitalizing on bread and butter ball movement and hurry up and clock management.
Throwing the ball with 2 minutes left is fine- if you complete the passes for subsequent first downs- which we NEVER do. I applauded Beamer for throwing it for a first down in the Boise game. You actually convert that pass- like good teams do, like Mahomes does, like Brady does, like good offenses do, the game is over. The issue at VT with throwing the ball in the 2 minute drill is that we don't fucking protect or complete the passes. THAT is the problem. Our coaches should know we are horrid at it.
That's more or less what I was getting at. We suddenly pretend we're a pocket passing team, except we have no pocket and a wildcard passer.
I mean its harsh, but more true than not.
Guys have been open a lot this year, until this past weekend, Drones has been struggling badly to hit them. Its the inability to keep the chains moving due to the inaccuracy at QB that has had our offense spinning tires for vast stretches this year. We saw it against Stanford, when those simple passes connect to the open guys, our offense suddenly looks relatively potent. Even in the Miami game, we absolutely left points on the field because Drones struggled to hit an open guy. He does that, we don't even need the Hail Mary at the end, and there is no controversy.
Right, at this point we know what Drones is. Last year Bowen and Pry overestimated the OL's ability to protect the passer- which is why Wells was the starter to open the year. Drones is never going to be an accurate passer. So move him around, let him take a couple deep shots, run the RPO. That is how he can be effective.
You get this feeling that Pry can rebuild the program, but that might still result in underachieving.
I just don't know how to reconcile those two things.
I still believe Pry is our guy. He definitely needs some help and support around him, but he's the guy IMO. I hope we can find the resources to get him who/what he needs to continue to build this program.
I don't disagree... It's just weird how we're progressing.
It's like we're trying to build this house, the foundation seems set and stable, but the studs keep falling over. We knew this was a tear down job, and a new foundation was necessary, but I didn't think the studs would be just falling over every evening after the builders went home for the day.
Maybe the foundation isn't set yet, and I'm stupid for wanting to see studs and walls up. But it seems like the foundation is good enough to build on?
edit: correcting autocorrect
It seems like it takes our coordinators a quarter to half of a season to really figure out what they have and how to use it. That's the problem. We seem to be hitting our stride now, but that shouldn't happen 4-6 games into the season.
Makes me wonder what they do all offseason...besides recruit, I guess
That's one problem, but that doesn't bother me as much because it's easily fixable... just hire new coordinator(s).
My bigger concern is head coach issues... two players with the same number on the field, poor clock management, etc. That's head coach stuff. I think this program needs stability and I think Pry is fixing the right things (recruiting, donor relationships, etc), so I really want him to work out as a head coach. But gameday coaching has to improve. That's a harder nut to crack imo
Unfortunately, Pry has worked under James Franklin for a long time, who is also known as a notoriously poor game management coach. Pry might benefit from an analyst/advisor role on staff to help him with those type of game and clock management responsibilities.
This Absolutely occurred to me
Franklin beats the teams he should beat- he's uncanny at that. What he doesn't do is beat OSU, Michigan, etc regularly. I think he is a very good coach, I don't see alot of Franklin in Pry though. Franklin's teams execute much cleaner most of the time. Pry didn't learn the smooth "operation" stuff from Franklin, clearly.
I agree, He's good at recruiting and keeping the team.
I have confidence he will learn more about his strengths and weaknesses as a head coach vs coordinator. Some are simple fixes. Get an asst coach that is good at clock management, an asst assigned to making sure uniform #'s, etc.
Had my fam in town (San Francisco) today, FAM! Had come back from wine country, did not make the game.
Push-ups: 7+14+21+28+31 = 101
Saw and briefly chatted with a couple of Hokies in San Francisco after the game at the Restoration Hardware drinks + rooftop (yes, there's this giant restoration hardware that has a restaurant in it and drinks to walk around and then hang out on their nice rooftop haha). If that was any of you, nice to meet you!
FAM!
If you're going to travel that far, it's good to come out with a win!
VT is now 3-3, and 0-0 starting this week.
And Vandy beating Alabama after Nick Saban said they don't belong in the SEC makes it just a little sweeter.
The Hokies also have a better record than FSU going into November.
I'm pretty sure nobody saw that coming.
Pretty sure FSU is dead last in the ACC. Nobody had that coming.
I didn't bet on it but I certainly hoped it would happen. I was happy enough with them embarrassing themselves in Ireland. Now they're 1-5 halfway through the year with a legitimate chance to only win 1 more game (Charleston Southern). It's everything I could have asked for and more.
But they are too good for the ACC,
They're going to be upset they insisted on performance-based revenue sharing.
Based on their performance their share needs to get smaller to pay the other teams more.
That game was so boring I slept through the second half. Nice to have a stress-free game.
Waking up thus morning, blue skies, nice crisp temperatures outside. Alabama lost, USC lost, Michigan lost, Tennessee lost, Missouri lost, FSU lost, JMU lost, and most importantly, Virginia Tech won!
What a great morning.
that's quite the list
I would love to hear the grievances that caused each one of those schools to make the list. Some are self explanatory, but such a wide ranging list must have some good stories.
I mean, I feel like the only one that's not self-explanatory is Mizzou honestly
Mizzou just because they were highly ranked and if VT isn't good enough to be ranked then I'm #TeamChaos.
Ooohh a lovely festivus activity!
Comfortable win amidst all the chaos. Love it.
Almost got it.
Fam.
edit: nvrmind checked the box score. he did not
FAM!
Does anyone have any GIFTORY requests?
Reminder I need the quarter, description and approximate clock time to expedite.
Felton TD and dance please and thanks 13:15 3rd quarter
1. There were basically 15 Stanford fans there. 2. Their lot 8/9 for tailgating is tremendous- spread out all you want, you are under huge trees in like a park setting, and short walk to their stadium- which is nice enough- video boards are way too small. I really enjoyed it though- wish it would have been 20 degrees cooler- fans would have been more into it. Great time- primarily because we won. Stanford is not good playing their 3rd QB- they really couldn't do anything on offense. VT still needs to "clean" some things up. Met and hung with some great hokies of course.
Cool that you were able to be there. I will add, for those who haven't seen them, the chance to see mature redwood trees is something nobody should skip. Magnificence in such an old way, putting our lives in perspective with their size and longevity, if left to thrive, is just rare in this world. A tree that gets big enough to have a road through it and still survive deserves some serious respect. But their band mascot is about as stupid as it gets.
I loved Stanford. Was very impressed. There is a high speed train adjacent to the athletic facilities- and there are trees built around it so it's not an "eyesore". Not to mention the function of it- you can hop to San Fran Oakland Santa Clara and SF from campus rather easily. It was an awesome time. Met some great hokies !
Stanford is the most gorgeous college campus I've visited.
University Ave in Palo Alto is an awesome downtown, college town or not.
Beautiful for sure, but my god that campus is huge. It felt at least as big as Ohio State and it has like 1/4th the student body.
Throughout the game my daughter and I were both laughing at (1) how few fans were there and (2) how pitifully bad their "mascot" tree was. Seriously, it looked like some prop from a middle school play. I'm pretty sure her high school art class could design and build one that was at least that good.
Decent number of people standing in the concourse and thus out of the heat- zero shade inside that stadium. But yeah on a perfect day it would have been 1/4th full. VT doesn't move the needle for Stanford fans- they want to see Pac 12 teams/traditional rivals and understandably so. The tree is lame- Mike Leach said it best "The tree is the weakest of the mascots- someone would just cut it down". lol
I've got some bad news for their fans if they are holding on to that nostalgia. They'll get it once every other year when Cal visits, I think, unless the scheduling adjusts again or there's another shift in the conferences once again.
It sure sounded like the majority of the crowd were Hokies. Way to represent, bud!
Game sticks all around, boys! Beaucoup sticks!