11 pages worth of hand written diagrams and notes is prolly a three-part Eye in the Sky just begging to happen.
However, as we have this little thing called scrimmage#2 ~72 hours away, let’s just dive right on in and get this party started.
In the surprise surprise category I’ll take Scott Demler in Frank Beamer is an upperclassman-o-phile for a thousand Alex. Guess who has won the starting Punter job? The oldest punter on the roster of them all? Yup, pretty much, though here is the book on Mr. Demler: biggest leg of the punting cadre and he does give you some measure of versatility as the travel-squad goes as he can place-kick if need be in a pinch. Best hang-time as well which I observed first hand on Saturday afternoon. Only thing is, that #29 might just as well crush one for 55 yards in the air as he could shank a 20-yarder right on outta bounds. Shanks do nasty work in prisons –on the football field they do equally painful work as the unsung tenet of Beamerball otherwise know as field-position goes. That said, the one thing I can tell you is that twenty-nine’s release is close to a full second faster and about 2 feet further behind the line-of-scrimmage than Flanker Danny Coale’s three-step drop is. If nothing else that makes #29 the safer choice as blocked punts goes, albeit it with a mutually higher ceiling and lower floor in terms of his best and worst kicks.
Jayron Hosely is officially the smallest Boundary-Cb this side of forever. How small is he? Barely 5`10“ tall and a buck-seventy (171 lbs.) soaking wet; and yet #20 has it all. Does twenty possess: speed, fluency in man-to-man, and zone coverage’s, to go along with epic instincts, vision, anticipation and a riverboat gamblers risk-reward mentality? Check, check, check, check, check and check. Twenty has it all, he has everything except what I can only describe as high school size. That said, the second or third biggest hit of scrimmage#1 was delivered on a finishing blow that may have been just a shade out of bounds along the pressbox sideline by none other than 171 lb. Mr. Hosely. That tells me that this kid has that extra D.N.A. chromosome that is encoded for bonus fast-twitch bio-mechanics. For comparisons sake, consider that D’lo Hall was a slender looking Field-Cb with very narrow shoulders who got moved to the far more physical Boundary side later on in his VT career. However, even at a modest 194 lbs., D’lo was nearly 25 lbs. of right-mass to the good when compared to Jayron. Wild ain’t it? And I for one will be most curious to see if twenty can stand up to approximately 50 quarters worth of scrimmaging over on the Boundary side where we are a bit thinner than compared to the Field-side.
Xavier Boyce has transferred to Norfolk State.
Here are the five year Quarterback numbers at Virginia Tech under Coach Mike O’Cain[1] when taken as an arithmetic mean:
- average completion%= 57.96%
- average number of TD’s thrown in a year=11.6o
- average number of INT’s thrown in a year=6.4o
So as you can see, Qb’s Coach Mike O’Cain is not really asking a whole helluva a lot outta his Qb’s in aerial play-making terms. The one thing he is however asking them is to not screw the pooch. Even if they do not win the game, they had damn sure better not L the game or give one away in their own right.
However, let us now compare the Mike O’Cain performance prerequisites to the industry standard; or in our case to the A.c.c. quarterbacking standard so that any deliberations of such might gain some functional traction. Last year A.c.c. Qb’s put up the following numbers on average:
- A.c.c wide competition%=59.27%
- A.c.c. wide number of TD’s thrown=21
- A.c.c. wide number of INT’s thrown=10.9o
Interesting isn’t it?
As the VT completion percentage under Coach Mike O’Cain is only 1.31% lower than the A.c.c. average. Whereas the other A.c.c. Qb’s nail 180% more Td’s than VT Qb’s do under Coach Mike O’Cain; and yet they also wet the bed for 170% more INT’s during a given year on average. Talk about your risk-reward analysis –as it is now no less than quantitatively clear that VT runs one of the more conservative passing offenses in Atlantic Coast terms. Further, do be certain, that the A.c.c. ain’t exactly the Mountain West when it comes to throwing things around in the first place. Some of this of course was indeed a trait of the former Frank-n-Stiney offensive tendencies which tended to be on less than semi red-state on their most liberal day. I do expect things to loosen up just a little bit under pseudo Offensive Coordinator Mike O’Cain: as a few short patterns will now be mid-range and a few medium throws will now go long. On top of that, a whole buncha well seasoned senior and junior Wideouts with professional aspirations won’t hurt these numbers one iota. That said, I do in fact look for O’Cain to loosen things up a bit vs. say the bottom-8 defenses we play and then I look for him to tighten things back up vs. the top three or four defenses we play where the paradigm will once again shift back towards game-management which is really only code for a VT Qb who does not bat an eye in a mistake oriented blinking contest. I know for a fact that L.T. does not have the full play-book nor the full set of reads and check-downs fully installed in an effort to avoid the mind tying up the body. We all also know that #3 is per se only an r-sophomore Qb and very likely three full seasons removed from his collegiate prime. Accordingly, I’ll forecast a 54% completion percentage, with a somewhat heightened sense of TD’s and INT’s alike, say 19:9 respectively for the breath taking physical specimen otherwise named Logan Thomas.
Been a while since we’ve seen a #88 out there roaming the field and making plays on defense –not since the days of Ashley Lee in fact circa the mid 1980’s. The new eighty-eight is perhaps the biggest recruiting bargain bin find by the VT Staffers in a long long time. Luthar Maddy(sp) is his name and dodging the red-shirt tailor is his game. Actually his game is that of a uber John Graves if you will as I really like how this guy gets off of blocks and makes lateral or pursuit fueled plays between the hashmarks or just beyond. This kid is agile and mobile even if he is 2013 away from fully filling out in D-1 powerhouse full body terms.
To continue the Qb dialogue from part I, one thing both Chris and I noticed was the fact that both Leal and Ju-Ju were a bit looser out there sans Mr. Ricardo Young (who has elected to transfer). Objects do appear closer in the mirror indeed and the depth chart can be a crowded or claustrophobic place when all you ever hear is footsteps coming over your shoulder. That said, whenever you depart a scholarship Qb your Pivot depth becomes a bit shallower all things being equal. However, Young’s departure also thinned the already on-campus competition for a Bucky Hodges or Christopher Hackenberg in terms of who(m) calls “next” as the starting Pivot goes post L.T.
Yes I need to see more and yet I am not yet the smitten kitten like everyone else is with the first string defense. Accordingly, I see three points of attack: brand new ‘backer, brand new Field-Cb and same old Whip. On top of that, B.Taylor his very own self has admitted that he is less than epic when it comes to pass coverage. Do you see a pattern and therefore a solution here? The pattern is that our second layer straight across and in fact all the way over to the wide or Field-side is at least a little bit susceptible to be picking on through the air. Me personally –I’d go 3-wide (sometimes 4-wide) and force the VT Linebackers to match up in man-to-man while taking a few shots at ‘backer and Field-Cb specifically to see if I can take advantage of any assignment or inexperienced mistakes. Ditto my best Slot guy vs. the VT Whip and a quality Fb or Te working the middle hook-zone drop vs. B.Taylor. The kicker of course is that most years we face precious few (if any) true blue passing quarterbacks and this season in particular there are no less than 7 rookie first year starting Qb’s out there in the Atlantic Coast; 8 if you count the new guy at Marshall. This part won’t be news to any of you, however, Dt depth is sketchy and VT was at a quarter century low-water mark last year in terms of stopping the run. Yes this 2011 defense is better than the 2010 one, it’s just that it is a full year -possibly two- away from being great again.
Did any of you catch our two gunners on punt coverage for this season? Chris Coleman did to give credit where credit is due: Exum and Tweedy. Sure hope that does not add any unnecessary mileage to Exum’s wheels that have more than a few laps in front of them as is at Rover. I’d like to see someone step it up a notch and #17 (K.Fuller) and #8 (D.Bonner) both hearken to mind as both of these guys are physical players with a solid fundamentally sound tacking base.
In pure X’s and O’s terms, how many true Fb sets did you see last Saturday? I saw three. That’s not much and that sure says just how much NOT having the Fb in the game aids and abets D.Wilson’s vision and it prolly also says something about the Fb’s as well. That said, watch for the pinch look from Wilson lined-up nearly immediately right behind the Fb himself, in what I can only describe as a backwards or inverted Pistol set. Such is a rather neat new wrinkle as it surely can not be easy to get a good read on my boy when he is that well hidden behind the VT Fb if you are an opposing linebacker. In further X’s and O’s armchair Qb terms, look for Tyrell Wilson to operate as the first De off the bench in our 30-set and for #66 to really be much more of an OLb in in a proto 3-4 look in strict football lexicon terms regarding his style of play. Or in other words, look for numerous variations of Zone-Blitz from Wilson who is simply not much bigger than me at a mere 214 lbs. This of course is also code for being on red-alert for teams to run right at him with Ot’s who will out-weigh him by upwards of a full 100 lbs.
#83 R.Dunn sure brings an element of play-making to the Te position. It has been a while since we’ve had that kinda athletic ability dot the underused Tight End spot. I doubt Dunn gets many looks, however I would not be surprised if he has a nifty looking average yardage per catch when he does get the ball.
As for the back-up Secondary guys who are auditioning or could even be pressed (prematurely) into playing-time: in short, what I am seeing is a very mixed bag. What we truly need to do is to que Dr. Frankenstein to come and put all of these uneven parts back together again in order to synthesize one or two full-time players. #13 K.Jarrett is not bad in run-support and yet he is toast when it comes to man-to-man fundamentals. Not since the days of a younger “macho” Harris have I see a VT Cb get his hips turned the ‘rong way this often. Eagle-drill, Eagle-drill and more Eagle-drill is the order of the day to correct this entry level error in technique. Mr. Van Dyke is pretty much #13’s opposite number, as he is rather well-developed for an 18 year old kid who can’t drink for four years when it comes to man-to-man coverage. On top of that Van Dyke floats freely enough in our zone schemes and had the subtle feel of a guy who just needed to settle in and get his cleats just a little bet wet before breaking on the ball. You could see Van Dyke hesitate on a couple of throws that the smart money says he will pirate long before his O&M days are done in scrimmage#1. Thing is, Van Dyke and his lanky looking frame were downright ping-pong ball like when asked to come up and lay the wood in run support. The bad news is that this kid needs to add some right-mass to get D-1 ready; the good news is that his towering frame has plenty of room left for filling out later on. This kid will start someday as this kid is a keeper, although we are R.A.T.T. looking at 2012 or beyond before you want him playing for keeps.
I realize that some of you are pretty big fans of Ju-Ju Clayton and wish him well. Accordingly, it is my pleasure to finally publish a bona fide passing attribute as #12 goes. Soft-touch, girls love it socially and Ju-Ju clearly has developed it on his throws; as he throws an extremely catchable ball at this stage of his O&M career.
That said, if I were prompted to comparatively sum up how both back-up Qb’s played, I would say to you that both made good throws, it’s just that Leal nailed the much tougher throws. In particular, there was one sequence along the pressbox sideline where Leal was flushed from the pocket to his right; and with both the line-of-scrimmage and the sideline itself acting as the 12th and 13th defenders respectively, six was forced forward, and while running out of real estate riffled off a bullet throw at the very last second while also looking off his primary receiver to find (name) barely open between two defenders. Hellvua a good throw folks, in fact this very well could have been the completion of the day. Yes, Ju-Ju settled in and played some very nice football to close, however it is just not within Ju-Ju’s Coach God given abilities to make this the throw that Leal made through no fault of his own.
As for the back-up defense or the “2’s” as Frank and company like to call them, I saw them working from an 8 men in the box set and then I saw the second-string oLine routinely chiseling off 8, 10, even 15 yard chunks against. That’s not good and neither is our lack of stop-unit depth beyond the Mike and ‘backer spots this year.
The catch of the day did not come from a Chicago-Maroon jersey’ed offensive baller, instead in came from still recovering and formerly starting Mike linebacker named Barquell Rivers who reached up with a single paw and deflected an overthrown INT perfectly right into is own lap. Helluva a snag, best one I’ve seen out of a VT defensive player in years plural. That said, it was obvious that fifty-two is still caring some bad-mass around at 252 lbs. that simply can not be doing his ripped up quadriceps tendon any favors whatsoever.
#83‘s Corey Fuller’s hesitation move post-catch was positively A.I. esque; as in Allen Iverson in cleats. Best hesitation move I’ve seen on a VT football field in years. Also, do recall that A.I. is still ranked ahead of somebody named “Vick” as Tidewater high school Qb’s go by many. Ergo, if you have an A.I. move in your bones, you Sir are a fun to watch; such has me pretty curious to see where eighty-three shakes out as we will need some help at Wideout next season.
Not listed on the official injury report post-scrimmage is #35 who at least tweaked his left-ankle late in the afternoon on punt-coverage.
Here is a fun one for you, no less than four full times did I scribe down #57’s Telvion Clark’s numeric digits for doing some superlative. By superlative I actually mean making something happen, making a play, or causing some version of disruption. Dynamic, electric, problematic, that’s Mr. Clark and that’s his game, coming to backfield near you.
33% of our initial top-6 at Dt are now hurt; you do the maths.
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In short, my word for Josh Oglesby is “stiff”. Not robotic, or mechanical, just stiff. However, that’s not really all that surprising, if you take a non-speed back who puts nothing named Shake-n-Bake into his oven at home, and then you move him to Fullback and then on top of all of that he gains even more right mass and guess what? You have a stiff looking Tb on your hands. Don’t believe me? Believe Rb Coach Shane Beamer who hinted last week that #2‘s second-string job was not exactly Fort Knox as it has let to be locked up good and tight.
T.Greggory however looked much better than I expected in terms of acceleration on his surgically repaired left knee and do note the the absence of a knee brace in the above pic. Not bad for a guy who has had two knee injuries in his career and who was lugging around ~12 lbs. of added right mass on top of all of that. To me #22 is not an every down back, however he is a nifty change of pace situational type contributor ä lä say a heightened Justin Pickle.
For those of you in attendance, have you ever seen a given Tb move the sticks for 54 yards on 11 carries more quietly than #31 Michael Holmes did? This kid is a very good looking prospect who I personally believe to be the second best runner on the football team right now. Shyrone Stith is who thirty-one reminds me of, just a bit bigger and stronger (already) if you can believe that. Loved his patience based north-south darty running style; as thirty-one waits for an opening to develop and then simply squares his shoulders and uses a better than expected burst to squirt up-field while leaning forward the whole time. (big PIC link)
“LET’S GO!”
“HOKIES!”
b’street
[1] Bill Roth, The Kroger Roth Report, 15th August 2001, 17th August 2011, http://www.hokiesports.com/rothreport/recaps/20110815aaa.html