Week 5: Virginia Tech @ Cincinnati (in Landover, MD) (Sept. 29, 2012)

[VTfoozball]

LT is not the best offensive player this year. He is making way too many mistakes. We'll never see Leal though because it's too progressive and aggressive for Beamer. He doesn't like change

 

[VTfoozball]

VT has the personnel for the spread

 

[ACC_HOKIES]

LT is not the best offensive player this year. He is making way too many mistakes. We'll never see Leal though because it's too progressive and aggressive for Beamer. He doesn't like change

Logan Thomas holds the school record for total offense in a season. That's the very definition of best offensive player. He's on track to do it again, as he's really the only offense we have right now. He's made mistakes yes, but he's still the best offensive player on the team. Honestly I don't think another player is even close.

I will agree that Beamer doesn't like change.

 

[757Hokie83]

what part of that made you think he was trying to scare you? :confused2:

thats what i'm wondering as well...i was just saying if he is going to start to distance himself from all things VT after 2 losses, he might as well go buy himself a 'Bama hat, cause Hokie Nation doesnt want or need fair weatherers.

 

[robV703]

Just so everyone knows where I stand on this issue, this is the type of offense I believe we should be running.

Auburn: A Primer on the Gus Malzahn Offense - Shakin The Southland

I believe this not because I like this kind of offense (I prefer to run it down peoples throats just like Frank) but because it suits our personell, both current and who we are able to recruit. We have LT now, and Bucky and Carlis Parker in the pipeline. A offense needs to be built around the QB, and these types of QBs can excell in the spread style attack. Our lack of a dominating OL also makes this offense more feasible than a Wisconsin style attack.

Our offensive coaches aren't stupid. They know it suits our personell. We HAVE incorporated many elements of this offense, although more of it showed last year than this year. The problem in my view however is that Stiney isn't qualified to properly implement this type of offense and O'Cain isn't qualified to call the plays. There's a reason the article calls it the "Gus Malzahn" offense. That's because he's worked for a long time to develop and perfect it. Stiney isn't at that level. It takes a lot of time and practice to learn the ins and outs of an offense. Although Bud's defense does allow for a great deal of flexibility we don't see him shifting philosophies between series. Without a commitment to a specific offensive scheme and the coaches to teach it properly we aren't going to get the most out of our players.

 

[BeachNHokie]

I like the Todd Washington idea and think that since he has ties to the program it would be a possibility. That would likely be an upgrade at that position, but we would still have to come up with some jack to beat out the Ravens for his services. I like the other two as well (Helfrich and Bloomgren) but think that is highly unlikely. I am not sure that we could lure someone like that away from the gigs they have..as a lateral move. Not sure we could pay them that much more than Oregon or Stanford.

I don't see the lateral moves being a hindrance at all. Money talks and I will continue to use Texas as the example. Manny Diaz left a DC job at an SEC school to be the new DC at Texas and Stacy Searels left the OL job at an SEC school to be the new OL coach at Texas.

Helfrich is set to make $367,583 in 2013 and I would imagine a 200k bump would be enough to get him to consider to make the move. All this would require our athletic department to be fully behind it and Frank would need to be on board which makes this a pipe dream, but I can hope that Frank actually wants a trophy for the empty case and will make the necessary moves to get us there.

 

[sparko]

I don't mind different offensive looks but I'll agree that a spread-type offense suits our personnel the best overall. To add, if we incorporate different styles, the type of blocking should be the same across all styles. To ask offensive lineman to learn how to block WELL 3 different ways is too much. If your line zone blocks, incorporate different offensive styles to zone block. We have strong talent (typically) in the offensive skill positions and typically have undersized, more athletic lineman. That equates to more of a spread-style offense than a power-running game. The reason that Wisky, LSU, Stanford, and Bama can employ power running games is because they're able to recruit and develop the lineman to support that. Virginia Tech can not. Not saying that we can't be successful doing it SOME .. but not all the time and certainly not against a grade A defensive line.

 

[awaz]

i gotta be honest, i'm far more disappointed in the defense than the offense.. i expected the offense to struggle outside of logan thomas, so 1 player not living up to expectations isn't bad

i expected our defensive line to be one of, if not the, best in the country, considering it went 8 deep w/ guys who could start at most AQ schools.. i expected the linebackers to be fantastic as well.. returned the whole crew (right?), plus got bruce taylor back who was our best prior to his injury last year.. and in the secondary i just assumed 'DB U' would churn out more quality players.. as far as i'm concerned, only the last one is excusable because every starter is playing a new position and it's greedy to assume that skill level

i expected a sub-par offense, but i also expected a top 10 defense.. and IMO, bud should shoulder some of the blame.. i love the guy, but to not make adjustment and just hope exum could get better on saturday was just awful to me

 

[robV703]

i gotta be honest, i'm far more disappointed in the defense than the offense.. i expected the offense to struggle outside of logan thomas, so 1 player not living up to expectations isn't bad

i expected our defensive line to be one of, if not the, best in the country, considering it went 8 deep w/ guys who could start at most AQ schools.. i expected the linebackers to be fantastic as well.. returned the whole crew (right?), plus got bruce taylor back who was our best prior to his injury last year.. and in the secondary i just assumed 'DB U' would churn out more quality players.. as far as i'm concerned, only the last one is excusable because every starter is playing a new position and it's greedy to assume that skill level

i expected a sub-par offense, but i also expected a top 10 defense.. and IMO, bud should shoulder some of the blame.. i love the guy, but to not make adjustment and just hope exum could get better on saturday was just awful to me

We all expect Bud to make the necessary adjustments. We doubt Stiney will.

Here are some problems with the defense that I think will be "fixed" soon:

• Bruce is playing out of position -> We should have Tariq back soon. If he can play to the level he did last year I think this will have a huge impact on our defensive performance.
• Kyle is still hurting. Since he messed up his shoulder his performance has dropped significantly. Hopefully he can get healthy and play to the level we know he's capable.

Here are some problems that might not get "fixed":

• Antone is struggling. If neither Manning nor Bonner can play one of the corner positions then we're going to have to hope he can improve.
• Our front 4 isn't dominating like we expected. I thought our deficiencies in the secondary would be masked by a dominating D line, but obviously that's not happening. I have no idea what's going on.

 

[hunzworth]

[*]Antone is struggling. If neither Manning nor Bonner can play one of the corner positions then we're going to have to hope he can improve.

Exum isnt the only one struggling, has been bad also. I just cant understand why they arent flip flopped with some help for bonner at corner.

 

[Chrish1023]

I closed it because it got out of hand. TAE isn't here anymore, so it could be OK. He CAN start a thread though. Anyone can.

The problem was Rocky... But thankfully he has gone also.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

Meh, I can't keep them all straight. LOL.

 

[m477hokie]

My season prediction: 10-4 (with Bowl game win or 1/2 with FSU), only losses to FSU and/or Chick-Fil-A opponent.

 

[hunzworth]

Someone on TTL just asked Jim Weaver if he as a former OL and OL coach had any advice to help VT avoid these slow starts.

 

[wildturkey]

Someone on TTL just asked Jim Weaver if he as a former OL and OL coach had any advice to help VT avoid these slow starts.

You can't post that without providing his answer. That's just a tease!

 

[hunzworth]

You can't post that without providing his answer. That's just a tease!

He said something along the lines of: "i've been out of coaching for so long that im not in a position to make critiques during the season, however frank and i talk in the off-season about possible changes and certain situations".

Basically what equates to nobody gets fired unless frank says so...

TTL was pretty interesting tonight, Roth actually asked some of the 'hard' questions from the fans.

-beamer acknowledged the slow starts and said we need to get some things corrected and get that fixed.

-Beamer also said that we are going to cut back the playbook "some" and thinks we are trying to do to much. Said he wants to cut back and do some things great.

- Beamer also said he'd like to cut down on some of the personnel grouping on offense.

- Roth said UNC is treating this as their bowl game. New uni's etc etc.

- Lil Beams said that he would like for 1-2 rb's to separate but he just isnt seeing it right now.

maybe this should go in another thread>

-

 

[robV703]

Exum isnt the only one struggling, has been bad also. I just cant understand why they arent flip flopped with some help for bonner at corner.

The _____ is Bonner right? It looks to me like Bonner is our nickel corner now with Cole at safety. Anyone who has a better football mind know if that's true?

 

[robV703]

The _____ is Bonner right? It looks to me like Bonner is our nickel corner now with Cole at safety. Anyone who has a better football mind know if that's true?

According to AB Cole is at nickelback in our nickel.

Agitated Foster backs his defense, says execution of a few plays to blame in loss | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com

As much as I dislike Exum's "antics" he seems to have the mentality of a CB.

 

[hunzworth]

The _____ is Bonner right? It looks to me like Bonner is our nickel corner now with Cole at safety. Anyone who has a better football mind know if that's true?

Technically the nickel has 3 safeties and the nickel plays mid-field, so yeah i guess cole would be the nickel. But the way we play it is almost like bonner becomes a 3rd corner. FWIW the way we play it i would still consider cole a safety.

 

[robV703]

Got a chance to watch Billdozer's cut up tape. The main thing that sticks out to me is our TEs and FBs are nearly useless. They aren't blocking well, and Malleck had a couple big drops. Dunn probably could have caught the one ball, but it's hard to blame him for that. LT needs to put that on target.

On defense... Bruce had a monster game, and Tyler played well too. I still think we're better off with a healthy Tariq, but maybe we can wait until he's 100%. All our corners struggled, but Exum didn't look so bad the second time around. He really needs to learn to play the ball better.

I stand by everything I've posted about our coaching, but I think we're going to get better. We still have a lot of talent.