Mason, Alex and Will were in attendance at Virginia Tech's second spring football scrimmage today, and their reports will be posted soon. Until then, enjoy these highlights from HokieSports.
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Highlights of the Hokies' Second Spring Football Scrimmage of the 2015 Season
Virginia Tech football happened in Blacksburg today.
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So much offense. Brewer had a stretch of 3 straight touchdown passes
I feel better than I did last week. Looks like the O-line is actually capable of giving Brewer enough time to throw, and Motley is looking good as well. Should be a nice battle between those two. Run defense looks stout.
I know people will point to the injuries on defense and that the offense was going against the 2nd team Defense a good chunk of the time (which are certainly valid points), but I can't remember the last time the offense took a dump this big on the defense regardless of what team defense it was going against in a scrimmage.
Neither can Bud.
Those young guys on D better watch out... Bud Foster, he'll get after ya
Tyrod's last year was a pretty big dump.
Holy hell backups or not that's GOOD! remember two years ago when Logan and the first string offense laid an egg in the spring game against backups?
Yeah it was mostly against the second team, and the first team has a lot of guys out, so a lot of those guys are third string. But this means that Loeffler is a genius, Brewer is gonna win the Heisman, and that Bud is now on the hot seat, right?
Not at all what I'm saying, I'm just saying its refreshing to here that the offense executed against a lesser opponent and performed as expected. That's something that hasn't happened in years. They were expected to beat the backups and they did soundly.
I was mostly being sarcastic, and it seems like Brewer picked on some of the young DBs today. It is definitely promising that we were connecting on long passes though, because a few more long TDs would have gone a long way last season.
I'm just happy because we could hit a damn deep ball, we really struggled with the go routes all season, and I always just thought it was due to Brewer not having the arm strength. Glad it was just a timing thing
My thoughts (from the video, I wasn't there):
Brewer looked sharp. Those were some perfectly placed deep passes he was delivering. Looked decisive, as well. It really didn't seem like he had been hurt and missed practice at all.
That throw Motely had on the run was impressive, rolling away and able to get plenty on the ball and put it in a very tight spot.
Nice to see Motuapuaka make a nice, low tackle on a RB in the hole, especially after the article this week about him need to arrive in the hole with bad intentions and not give up extra yards. Seems like he did that.
First team O improves. QBs have better protection. I cant wait when first team D finally shows up on next scrimmage after D-coordinators are done reviewing the tape.
Does anyone have stats (even if they're ballpark numbers) on Bucky? Seemed like he was tearing it up out there today.
Instagram says he had 3 tds.
spring ball is always so difficult for me. Each highlight I can't help thinking "is the offense actually doing well or is our defense just making them look good" or vice versa.
Feel exactly the same, we can't possibly be this good or bad.
Feels like a good showing from Brewer, defense looks solid.
Holy shit Brewer looks good.
That wasn't just a product of it being a highlight film either. He threw 2 bad balls today, one short (shown with JC getting wrecked by Moss) and one long (underthrew Bucky pretty badly on a deep ball). Other than that, he was on point all day long.
Was he throwing anything over the middle? My one gripe would be all the highlights seem to be between the hash and the sideline just like down the stretch last year.
Predictably, Foster's defense was running a lot of press man on the outside. A lot easier and more dangerous to throw down the field towards the sidelines in those scenarios.
What Mason said. That's probably part of the reason Loeffler doesn't like releasing stats. Like Lefty said, they were working on specific looks and concepts. Last scrimmage was run-based with a lot of the new backs. This scrimmage featured more passing, beating tight man coverage to the outside, and a focus on finding the #3 back, mostly with power runs. Next scrimmage might focus on beating zone coverage and more inside/outside zone runs, with the spring game being closer to an actual game (everything's fair game).
Was it that much focused on the passing game? Preliminary stats for Brewer were either 10 of 14 or 10 of 15. That is not a huge number of throws.
Keep in mind that the #1 offense was not always on the field, and Motley had 8 series, as well, with the 1's (Brewer was also in for 8). Four QBs splitting reps (Brewer, Motley, Durkin, Ford) keeps the total number of plays for each somewhat low.
Not to mention the 11 sacks, although almost all of those were on the 2s.
Look at this performance as a good sign. Our offense has shown how effective they can be, no question there. IMO it worries me more when they are as ineffective in scoring a single touchdown in these games then scoring a lot. We have faith in Bud, no doubt about that, but our offense needs the confidence that they can get the job done. Can't see the highlights but glad to hear our offense is doing well and both Brewer and Motley had great days. I love to see that come September!
Some things I noticed from the stands today:
Brewer looked great today. Seems like he picked right up where he left off the last couple games (minus, y'know, the injuries and whatnot). Motley looked outstanding when running the read option package and had some great throws off of that as well. Still, he struggled with making reads in more complex throwing situations (missed a wide open Malleck to try a deep ball into double coverage at one point), and still looks like he's just a step behind Brewer in terms of command of the offense. Even so, we should see him quite a bit this year, and he's gonna churn out some yards and points this season.
Seth Dooley is a bad man. I don't know what clicked for him this spring, but he's a completely different player now than he was 4 months ago. Really hoping he continues to develop and get more consistent, because we're gonna need him. On a similar note, Vinny Mihota will be one to keep an eye on in the coming years. He's extremely quick off the ball and has a knack for getting into the backfield well before anyone expects him to. I've seen it from him all spring. Something's definitely starting to click for him too.
Travon looked awesome. He, Trey and JC all looked like starting-caliber backs today, with a bit of a dropoff behind them in Reid and Peoples (although Peoples had an outstanding run for a TD today that was about 60 yards). I think redshirting Williams and McKenzie (if he's on the team) would be best, with the three mentioned above getting all of the carries.
The secondary has some work to do. Not surprising, given the guys out and the shuffling that's going on, but there were a couple busts, as well as a couple guys that just got physically dominated to give up a big play. Torrian and Bud will get it figured out (not to mention the trainers), but right now things are a little mixed up back there. Bud seems to agree.
The 1st team OL was on top of things and pushed around every defensive line they saw, including the 1.5-team DL. It was very encouraging. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a VT OL take over a scrimmage like that (or give the QB such a consistently clean pocket to throw from). I know we're missing most of the 1st team DL, but if they can even hold their own when those guys get back, we're gonna be in really good shape this year. The 2nd team OL... yikes. I honestly felt bad for Ford and Durkin. Loeffler wanted them to get hit, and well... they got hit. A lot. Ford handled the pressure well, for the most part, but yeesh, that was rough.
Isaiah Ford and Cam Phillips are good. So is Bucky. The guys behind them are doing alright (Assante was having a good scrimmage until he messed up an alignment and then dropped the last pass of the scrimmage), but we definitely need to see some guys stepping up in the next couple weeks and in fall camp if we have any hope of getting the starting 2 off the field this year.
We blocked a punt.... but we also had a punt blocked. Lydon is the personal protector, so I'm not sure if that block was a result of poor communication (they were getting close all day, too) or just an outstanding rush. Maybe both.
Overall, today was fun. There was good football, bad football, and a fight (CJ Reavis and Tyrell Smith, I think. Some old guy in front of me wanted them to "stop acting like ruffians" or some such nonsense. I wanted them to keep going. Been a while since we've had that scrappy attitude in Blacksburg). I'm definitely feeling much better about the offense than I was at this point last year. Loeffler wasn't kidding when he said he's seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, because I've been seeing it too all spring. If things keep progressing and the injury bug can mind its own damn business for once in its life, this might just be a pretty solid year for the Hokies.
Great synopsis, thanks!
You'd have to think our 1.5 DL is better than the majority of the DLs we'll face this season.
So that top one isn't really a video and I should stop clicking on it?
Anyone else notice Dadi knocking the ref's hat off?
Talk about a near-death experience. A few inches lower and he would have taken the ref's head off.
I'd bet everything I own he'd prefer a Fuller high-five now!
It's very nice to hear that the offense looked good today. Did there happen to be any Teller pancakes?
I love me some teller pancakes
Teller played, so yes.
With the placement of some of those passes by Brewer and Motley, I am not sure it would have mattered if the 1st team D was out there. They looked spot on, putting the ball where only their reciever could make a play. Glad to see the offense clicking. I won't worry about the defense as they are still experimenting, this should let Bud and Torian know which combinations need to be wiped from the plan.
At the 0:59 mark, Dooley murdered Durkin. Good thing he's a big kid cause that looked rough.