Saturday's scrimmage may have been the last opportunity for the public to see Frank Beamer's squad before No. 1 Ohio State rolls into town. It was a beautiful day and lots of beautiful football plays were made. However, I can't help but be a little nervous about the upcoming season because of the few roster questions that have yet to be answered. The margin of error for this team will be pretty thin once again, and the fate of the season will be determined by how the coaching staff solves their remaining roster riddles.
Positional Breakdowns
As much as losing C.J. Reavis hurts, I believe that Desmond Frye is going to be a very solid player for Bud Foster. Frye never looked lost making calls and he didn't hesitate to react to his reads and fly forward to help in a tackle. He seems like a player that Foster can trust to make the sound play, although I didn't see him matched up against anyone offensively that required him to make a spectacular play. Frye got a round of applause from me on one third-down by tracking his man from one side of the field to the next on a shallow crossing route, cutting through the traffic in the middle to get to his man right after the ball and bring him down before he could gain any extra yards. I haven't seen him get challenged down the field in single coverage against an elite athlete yet, which is a scenario bound to happen in Foster's high-pressure scheme. How Frye responds to those scenarios will determine how good this secondary can really be.
I'm a huge Brandon Facyson fan and I thought he looked great again on Saturday. He has an insane closing burst and the length to compete for any jump ball. Facyson is getting smarter and more technically sound to go with his impressive athleticism; that spells doom for opposing receivers. On one play in the redzone, Facyson's coverage responsibility went in motion before the snap and ended up on the opposite side of the formation. Facyson instantly recognized the threat of a pick play and used his speed to get in a position to avoid any picks and blanket his man. It was a route combination specifically designed to beat man coverage and Facyson single handedly blew up the scheme.
Donovan Riley and Chuck Clark are both playing really well right now. Riley is someone to look out for this year. He has made a lot of plays in both scrimmages and has experience taking snaps at a lot of different positions in the secondary. He would be starting just about anywhere in the country but will play a vital role for the team at some point this year. Chuck Clark is poised for a big season as well. In my opinion, he has always been at his best with his eyes facing the quarterback so I was ecstatic when he was moved to free safety. He diagnoses run plays very quickly and will spend a lot of time as the run support free safety, especially when Foster uses his Bear package. If he does get matched up in man coverage, Clark does just fine. He is going to be a playmaker in 2015 even if he's bound to make some mistakes in his first year at a new position.
Michael Brewer has been about as consistent as you can be ever since the 2014 season ended. He has been smart with the football, choosing to throw the safe routes to the outside as well as throwing the ball away if no one is open. I think he has been really sharp on his bootleg throws. He found Bucky Hodges down the field on a crossing route Saturday, making a beautiful read and throw right as Hodges got separation. Brewer still hasn't been completing many deep throws, but I'm not sure how much you can lay that at his feet. There are going to be lots of offenses that can't challenge this secondary down the field and Brewer didn't have Ford or Phillips available Saturday. Brewer did spot Bucky on a streak route and made a good throw but it fell incomplete because of some great coverage. Brewer will never have the arm strength of Logan Thomas or Tyrod Taylor's elusiveness, but he will be as good as the playmakers around him. If his teammates uphold their end of the bargain he is good enough to beat anyone on the schedule.
Motley and Lawson were the other two quarterbacks of note Saturday. Motley gave his standard performance, ripping off a few long runs and showing off his impressive arm strength. If pressed into service, Motley is explosive enough to win a game or two. The one area that he needs to work on is the speed with which he works through his progressions. He was late on a couple of throws Saturday. His long touchdown toss to Meyer was more adventurous than it needed to be because Meyer almost ran out of room before the ball arrived. On another occasion, Kevin Asante ran past Riley and was 30+ yards down the field before Motley saw. Brenden's arm allowed him to get the ball to him (it was a heck of a display) but the delay gave Riley just enough time to recover and disrupt the pass.
Dwayne Lawson was live on Saturday and certainly flashed some potential. Lawson looks like a pocket passer who can run more than a running back who can throw. Don't get me wrong, Lawson can run in between the tackles on power plays and has the speed to get the edge on a defense. He CAN run a spread rushing attack offense. I think his ceiling is much higher than that though. We know he has great arm strength and throws a pretty ball, but the calmness he has in the pocket has actually surprised me. His height allows him to stand in the pocket and throw across the middle to beat blitzes and he doesn't panic if the center of the offensive line gets pushed back into his space. Remember when Loeffler said that if he had Logan Thomas for four years, Logan Thomas would have been a first round pick? Well if Loeffler sticks around for the next four years, we'll see if that was true, because there is no doubt that Lawson has the physical traits scouts are looking for.
Trey Edmunds, Shai McKenzie, and Travon McMillian all had good days Saturday. Travon had a long run for a touchdown on one drive and Edmunds did the same thing on the next one. Trey still looks a little rusty, he's not hitting the holes quite as decisively as he was right before he got injured in 2013, but he has the goods to be very productive if given the shot. Shai got some work and was effective, especially in between the tackles. He is a patient runner who manages to snake his way forward and get extra yardage after contact. Shai did appear to get tired after one hurry up session though and had to get subbed off. I seriously doubt that Shai redshirts this year, Tech will almost certainly need him at some point this year because of injury. Even if no one does get hurt, Shai could be the most talented back on the roster anyways. He'll play.
Receiver Play
After Brewer quickly reaffirmed himself as the Alpha QB during the spring practices, the biggest concern offensively was the lack of depth at wide receiver. Everyone wanted to know who was going to pick up where Willie Byrn left off as the third receiver. The fact that we are two weeks away from the season opener and we STILL don't know who that third receiver is going to be is starting to concern me. Not just concern me, but confuse me.
How could the race possibly be this wide open? On saturday, every time I looked up it seemed as though a different receiver was getting reps with the first string. C.J. Carroll is a crowd favorite not just because of his short stature but because he gets open on those quick-hitting routes slot receivers are known for. Carroll also catches the ball and shows an ability to pick up yards after the catch. He probably can help the offense this year in specific situations, but like I said last week, his size will be an issue on Loeffler's run/screen plays he loves to run in hurry up situations. Carroll isn't big enough to win those one on one blocks on the edge and I'm not convinced he's a threat to do a lot of damage as the recipient of a screen pass.
Deon Newsome was my favorite to win the third receiver spot. He is an impressive enough athlete to win blocking or rushing battles in the screen game, but he hasn't secured the position yet. With his success running the jet sweep, I assumed he would have the quickness to win in the short and intermediate pass game. Apparently the offensive staff hasn't seen enough out of him to agree.
For me, the real head scratcher is the Demitri Knowles situation. He was a very productive member of the receiving corp for Logan Thomas under Loeffler in 2013, but hasn't done much since. Knowles didn't make much of an impact on saturday's scrimmage either, despite running with the first unit most of the day. With three years in the system, I doubt that playbook issues have been holding him back. Knowles has never been a huge threat on vertical routes but when he has been most successful it has been on the type of routes you'd expect to see from a slot receiver. Crossing routes, out routes, stick routes... go back and rewatch Knowles game against UVA in 2013. If Loeffler can keep Knowles on the inside and use his speed in the middle of the field, I think Knowles could finish his career at Virginia Tech with a solid senior season.
Offensive Line Questions
I am genuinely confused about what is going on with the offensive line depth chart nowadays. I'm not going to presume to challenge Searels' handling of his position group, he deals with those young men every day and knows the situation much better than I do. He also gets paid a lot of money to know a lot more about offensive line play than I ever will. I don't doubt that Searels has a reasoning behind the recent fluidity of the first string offensive line, I do wonder if he knows who his starting five is going to be against Ohio State.
In case you haven't heard, on saturday the first unit offensive line had several different groupings. Eric Gallo and Augie Conte both played with the first group the entire scrimmage and Jon McLaughlin was with the first group for most of the scrimmage. Wyatt Teller, Josh Nijman, and Parker Osterloh rotated out frequently for the remaining two spots on the line. For what it's worth, Nijman and Osterloh started out the day with the ones and Teller finished the day with the ones.
Nijman and Osterloh both played well. Early in the scrimmage J.C. Coleman ran through a huge hole in the left side of the line right where Parker Osterloh was sealing his man inside and Josh Nijman was moving his defender towards the sideline. These two young men looked like they belonged all day. They didn't play perfect and they weren't racking up pancakes left and right, but they weren't getting abused either. I feel a lot more comfortable about the depth of the offensive line now than I did before the first scrimmage. Wyatt Teller played well himself, although he also fell short of dominance.
I don't know what the reason behind the mixing and matching of the first string offensive line is. It is a little concerning though, if only because this was a unit that was supposedly to be set in stone. Again, I'm not saying Searels is doing a bad job of coaching by trying new things out. I will say this though. I don't buy the idea that nothing has changed Searels is only "building depth" by getting second stringers (Nijman and Osterloh) reps with the first string. That just doesn't make sense for several reasons. For one, if Searels wanted to get his second stringers some reps with the first... why wait until two weeks before the season opener to do it? Why not do it during the spring or earlier in summer camp? Secondly, if he did want to build depth... wouldn't he want to rotate in a second string center so the backup can practice communicating with the first string? That never happened though, Gallo and Conte were in the entire scrimmage. The other four players (Nijman, Osterloh, McLaughlin, Teller) were the only ones rotating. I'm not convinced that Searels doesn't know who his five best players are right now, which is concerning if only because all signs pointed to him knowing just a couple of weeks ago.
Comments
Excellent article, thanks for the insight!
I too am confused as to what went on / is going on with Knowles. Anxious to see what role he plays this year.
Nice article. Not sure why TKP staff is so concerned about the OL strategy; we will have an injury at some point and we need some guys to step up and get some experience in game-like conditions.
I think one of the reasons for concern is that the OL, more than any other position, requires a very high level of trust and confidence in the people starting next to you. If you do exactly what you need to do, but your neighbour doesn't, you fail. If you want to be an effective line, everyone needs to do what they are supposed to. If you want to be an outstanding line, you need to know where your teammate is weak and strong and what you might need to do to help him out on any given play, as well as how he is likely to help you. If you have enough practice time with the same group, these tendencies become second nature. I think that is the concern on the TKP staff. If they don't practice together, they can't really know all of that about each other.
I think one of the reasons for concern is that the OL, more than any other position, requires a very high level of trust and confidence in the people
startingplaying next to you.As a personal anecdote from my limited experience: once in spring scrimmage, coach put me in. Rick Razzano, yeah him, looked at me like who the fork are you? I can't remember if it was him or somebody else though who said, "we're counting on you." That said, it is my strong opinion, even though I can't say what Searles is doing, anybody who thinks subs shouldn't work with the first team is not seeing that it is an opportunity. (And if Beamer was upset with his 2nd string quarterback in El Paso he had only himself to blame. The guy probably never had reps with the first team.) I applaud Searles if that is what is going on.
Yea, me too.
I don't think it's a bad thing, and there is plenty of camp left.
"Not sure why TKP staff is so concerned about the OL strategy..."
You've got to be kidding.
No I'm not kidding Leonard. I've seen 3 different people from TKP questioning Searles and the movement of Teller.
To me it makes perfect sense A) Don't let Teller become complacent because he is by far our best OL so keep him motivated B) and more importantly, get reps to guy #6 and #7 off the bench to get them game ready as possible.
It's all good, dude. I just thought that "concern about the OL strategy" was a property of Hokie DNA.
Not mad boss. We're all Hokies just thought their was a little too much analysis / worry over the Teller thing.
It's all good, dude. I just thought that "concern about the OL strategy" was a property of Hokie DNA.
With good reason.
I understand some people's concerns over the way Searels is handling the OL, but the way I see it, it makes perfect sense. Imagine he has a checklist of two main objectives: building a cohesive and core first unit, then building depth.
He spent the spring developing the first group and they bonded together. The beginning of summer practices he confirmed his suspicions that they are, in fact, ready to roll as one singular unit. First group: check.
The next part of the summer he has been mixing and matching to build confidence in possible replacements guards & tackles. Before this move did any of us believe Nijman or Osterloh were good enough to be 1's? No, and now that they have worked in with the starters they are confident and ready to go in event of injury.
I believe the rest of closed practices will getting the attitude and cohesion of the first group ready for AN Ohio State University all the while having improved depth for the rest of the season.
Just my $0.02
I would have to agree, I think the starting 5 are cemented and Searels is developing that depth we need.
I am pleasantly surprised at the level Nijiman and Osterloh are playing at - gives me hope for a solid OL rotation this year. This appears to be the best OL we have had in several years, but game time will tell.
I'm fairly confident Searels knows who his starting 5 are and I'm somewhat confident that any work from others with the 1st unit could indicate 2 good things...1) he feels good enough about the starting 5 that he doesn't have a problem giving some other guys 1st team reps and 2) he feels good enough about some other guys that giving them 1st team reps isn't a waste of valuable time.
In any event, the chances of one of the OL starters missing a game before even the mid-point of the season is probably pretty close to 100%, so it's better to be prepared than not.
I just really want to know how we should feel about the Mike position; I know there was an article analyzing it not too long ago, but looking for a break down of the position and how well AM performed during the scrimmage.
Moto reminds me of a QB who has happy feet in the pocket, which results in wasted motion and hurts his reaction time. He needs to clean up his decisiveness and getting move north and south quicker than he did last year. I think he can improve these things as he mentally develops his understanding of the defense / gap fits. He also needs to not get trucked by Trey Edmunds or Ezekiel Elliott in the hole when he gets there. We'll see.
Agreed - but you're saying he played tentatively this past scrimmage? Honestly, how quickly can he change that mentality if so? I'm more scared about his play than I am about our entire offense! if I was UM, I would exploit that shiz to NO end, especially seeing how BC and Pitt did just that.
This is really all I've cared about since fall practice started. If Chase was there this year, nothing would stop our defense from being the best in the nation.
Last year, AM had shown flashes but he'd also show plenty of times of being in the wrong hole, being a few steps late, or bad tackling technique . The experience last year and this spring must have helped him improve but how much?
How huge was signing Nijman? And then getting him to play OL? Kid has the potential / frame / feet to be a first rounder. I'll be rooting for him, and am looking forward to watching him protecting the blind side.
I see the Teller thing as nothing but a positive. If Osterloh is playing well, that means we have 7 guys who we know have a chance to compete, which is better than most years. I think Wyatt will be just fine.
Seems like Motley is improved? Saw some reports that he is the most natural looking veer QB, which makes sense since he has the ball skills from running a triple option in high school. Sounds like his passing has improved, and he has always had a pretty strong arm.
I agree about the OL. We are concerned about the strategy but at the end of the day, we have 7 guys who are ready to play on the OL which is a far better position than we were at in the spring and fall of 2014. While 2 weeks out from the start of the season seems like a bad time to do that shuffling, it is still before we are doing any game planning for OSU or any other team. The starting 5 will get their time to work on the calls against the defense we will see over 2 weeks. I don't mind the shuffling at all at this point because it was critical to get a couple swing guys in there. We had options for RT but LT was a big position of concern for depth and that seems to be solidified now.
I'm no expert, but I don't see anything wrong with what Searels is doing with the OL, In fact I think it's a good sign. I think it's a sign that he's moved past getting the starting 5 used to playing together and is now in building the plug n' play mode. It's been so long since we've seen it that we don't know what it looks like. We should be more prepared to handle the injuries when they happen.
Lawson has a ton of potential and I think we'll probably see him some this year ... if he becomes more reliable handling the ball.
Not to be that guy but....
Is not a double negative a positive?
I think we all know what you meant Mason, and really appreciate your reporting. Thanks for being the eyes and ears for those of us who can't even sniff the Appalachian air anymore. Go Hokies!
Slightly OT, but coming from the part of VA bordering eastern KY, folks back there are not flummoxed by the double negative. Particularly, in eastern KY, they have perfected the use of the triple negative. ex: No, I'm not gonna get you none.
So, is the double negative a positive? I don't never know nuthin' about that.
Darn, i don't think I never had no English teacher like you neither who could explain nothin' no better n that. Got to love the Americana we can find here
Brewer's footwork on rollouts and bootlegs is noticeably better this year. It was a liability at times last year.
Still not convinced that Newsome has the hands to be a reliable #3 option- he's the quintessential "body catcher". It's easy enough to fix, but I haven't seen any evidence that he has done so. I think we'll see mixing and matching of Asante, Knowles, Carroll, and Newsome when it's absolutely necessary to have another guy in there.
Chung hasn't been healthy enough to get him a bunch of reps with the 1's, plus Gallo hasn't started at all himself. I still think this is an exercise in building depth, especially from the most recent interview with Searles.
I wonder if less emphasis was put on finding a third WR because Lefty's working with three TEs and four RBs that can catch? How often will we need a third WR when we can run three TEs, or two TEs, a FB, and a TB?
Depth reasons.
I can only hope Searels confusion is coming from the second stringers improving so much this fall, they are vying for the first string spots.
Coach Searels has been doing this for a long time, he knows what he's doing. Building depth for a long season is as important as naming the starting 5 OLinemen. I don't expect him to explain every detail of his strategy to opposing fans looking for weaknesses to exploit.
The oline situation is clearly testing depth. I've never understood why teams get a guard or tackle hurt, and they plug the second string guy from that position into his hole...wouldn't it make more sense to plug the guard/tackle combo from the second string in for that game? They're the ones with experience with each other. The next week, you've obviously had the second string guy in with first string guy, so then they ought to be meshed well...my worry is not switching out the right guard during practice, to me, that either says the first string guy needs more reps, or we don't believe in the second string guy yet.
It depends on how close the back-up that is replacing the healthy starter is. I'd say no it absolutely doesn't make sense unless there is almost no drop-off between the two. There is a reason that the one player was a starter over the other. I don't get what SS is doing, but hopefully it works. Honestly with how seldom we go with 1s vs 1s I don't mind wyatt being on the 2nd team because he is probably getting a better look at what he will see during the season playing against the 1s.
I understand your point, but you wouldn't (for example) yank a 1st team all american LT out for the 2nd string LT because the 1st team LG got hurt.
I think Hansen's ankle/foot/leg injury may have something to do with Nijman being used so frequently. Perhaps it's one of those lingering injuries that make coaches pull their hair out. The need to get Nijman up to speed is paramount, so I think that might be what's going on there. Teller/Osterloh, I have no idea.
All I know it, we definitely have 5 starting o-lineman. Better than we've been the past couple years. Regardless we have swing tackles and guards. I'm sure he's giving Gallo every rep he can.
I never could understand why last year the only position on the OL that we had to replace was Andrew Miller at RG the rest of the OL had played together all of 2013, yet when Searles came in he switched every single starting
O lineman to a new position. Toward the end of 2013 they were playing pretty well together, it made no sense to me at all.
If you step into a game of poker, would you rather have someone else's hand given to you or would you rather be dealt in and get a new hand? While experienced, the line wasn't consistent so Searels had the task of finding where he can get consistency and that meant moving people around to find what would work best. I understand that one of those players on that line was your son, but each coach has to learn about the players himself and make his own judgement and decision on their abilities rather than rely on their predecessor's opinion.
I respectfully disagree on 2013. Other than Miami, it was average play at best. UCLA and UVA were not very inspirational games too me from an OL standpoint. The fact we had ZERO fire after LT was knocked out made me angry as Hell and I think Caleb was about the only one that looked angry.
Glad to see you here, by the way!
days....
I agree with most above, the OL rotation doesn't concern me at all, it actually gives me a lot of confidence in Osterloh and especially Nijman. I believed Osterloh was close but Nijman too? Awesome.
I also think the 3rd receiver notion is overblown. Ford, Phillips, and Hodges are our top 3 and please don't forget about Cline! Malleck is also a known commodity albeit a traditional TE. We need a third wideout to step up, but it's not that big of a deal when you have Hodges/others that can play that h-back and slot role as we heard from Loeffler today.
My biggest concern on offense is just getting the RB rotation right. We can afford to let a 3rd receiver emerge through gameplay.
cline has made no noise this offseason and seems to be a concern.
Really? Which coach or scrimmage/practice review has said anything remotely indicating a concern w/ Cline's ability to play?
I must have missed that.
I'm a little late to this discussion, but thought I'd add my 2. I think the shuffling at the tackle spots is pretty obviously related to Hansen being a little dinged up. As for why SS waited until this late to work Osterloh in, it could be as simple a reason as him having a bit of a breakthrough mid camp that established him as the likely 6th/7th lineman. Possibly SS decided that since the tackles would be changing around a bit all week, it was best tine to go ahead and work on mixing and matching to build depth across the line.
I watched the Mic'd up with Loeffler.
There is a lot of complexity there.
I realized while listening to it that I would have problems understanding him as he talked.
There is a lot of information there that's coded and I would have problems decoding fast enough to actually get coached.
anybody would the first time they heard it. That's whats great about Brewer, Motley, Malleck, Hodges, Ford, Phillips, JCC, Trey, etc being veterans. They can speak Loefflerese