As most Spring Games do, there was some measure of slop that began to creep into this rather pretty afternoon weather-wise down in Blacksburg Va.
Likewise, and as cliché as it may be, the defense was ahead of the offense as the day wore on.
However, we did show a few nifty elements over on offense -even when they forfeited “leverage” on their “execution”. And man-o-man folks –this is one speed-merchant defense. Even if I’m not real sure how that stacks up in short-yardage or with their backs to the Worsham Field wall inside the red-zone. This defense pursues like mothers and it gets there fast, in a hurry and quickly on top of that.
2nd series KO:
Nothing real epic to see, as none of these coverages appeared to be all-out warfare to me. Decent “Lucy” or left-side hole, patient enough return by Carlis Parker, who has earned some lofty praise from Coach Moorehead this spring. Carlis is said to have some game-changing attributes and he is also said “…to have a little Vick in him.” By none other than the Big Whistle his ownself. That being said, any blocking at all outta back-up Lb #50 Jamieon Moss -who suffered his very own Marcus Davis lapse of contact moment on this return- and this one might have proven interesting indeed. Keep your power dry #50, as try as we might; football still ain’t called “band” for a reason. As with a little help (i.e. blocking) you all might have enjoyed seeing Parker’s electrifying 1.63 shuttle time on this one. As that perfectly suits the inherit stop-start nature of any gridiron return. (see: below pic)
Play#1: Shotgun Ace with 3 wide and an H-back vs. 4-3 base with semi-variable Man
Low-snap on the read-option where the hand-off was not the best read by Leal -who now has his degree conferred- vs. a +2 defensive alignment over on the even or offensive right-side. As there was a latent A-gap hole that opened up on the left-side for a Qb keeper here. My boy Dadi (correctly) takes the Qb, and nobody on the offense took #36 fifth year senior Chase Williams as Chase took poor J.C.Coleman to the cleaners on this one.
Though I do wanna add that J.C.C. ran has hard as his little body possibly could during this spring-game. In point of fact, it sure looked like he ran as if his career was on fire or outright on the line in this one. The kid did what he could, though let us be honest here, try as he might, J.C.C. is just very tackle friendly. J.C.C. for -5.
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Play#2: under-C I-Veer hybrid, with Pro right and 2-wide vs. almost a 5-3 or WT-6 look with boundary off-man:
(PENALTY, false-start, on a very minor looking flich or backwards rock by McLaughlin over at left-Ot) as this one was blown dead prior to the snap. And yet, this was an interesting looking one, as it looked like a Wham-play to the right or in about the 6-hole after short to wide side motion across the hasmarks. As the countering or backside element to the Loeffler offense appears to know no bounds. -5 on the laundry.
Play#3: I-Pistol with 3-wide and H-back right vs. a 4-3 press-man Tampa-1:
Quick hitting bubble-screen out the the left to Byrn who gets an ok or middleocore block outta Parker out in front; and with an even better diagnostic job and open-field tackle from #19 Chuck Clark who quietly had a very productive Fs spring and narrowed the starting Fs gap. Chuck may not be a Earth shattering play-maker at Fs, though he is one other thing, as his game is pretty much misQ free. He is a steady, solid, smart form-tackler, and he is heady enough to help make pass coverage calls and on top of all of that he can return a punt or two. Only thing he needs is to get past his defensive D.Wang history of ankle rolls so we can rightfully measure just what kind of athlete this kid truly is. +2 from Byrn.
Play#3: Shotgun 4-wide vs. 4-2 nickel with off-Man and Cover-2:
Really nice look off PRE-snap after catching the therefore bobbled pass from C over to his left immediately prior to the quick-hitting right-side throw to #4 J.C.Coleman, who was split wide-right from M.Leal. This is some fancy pants salesmanship folks, even if he (Leal) almost dropped the “HIKE” for his troubles.
And if this play looked familiar; well, that’s because it was. As in it was the very same play we ran immediately before; with the set-up element of having gone left on the first one; hence the pre-snap line-of-sight sucker-punch. However, this is not what you need on 3rd and 18. This is however a good second-n-long or maybe even 1st-n-ten look. As J.C.Coleman does well enough, picking up fourteen hard yards vs. a really soft umbrella look –and yet he needed to pick up 19 for the first down. Though I suppose this is another way to get J.C.C. involved, as somebody surely must just flat out love J.C.C. down at Virginia Tech. +14 to J.C.C. (below pic)
Play#4: punt:
Decent enough 43 yard punt with a net of 43 as well by A.J Hughes -who seems ready to flirt with all-A.c.c. status- on this one; thanks mainly to the bobble by Deon Newsome in PR. As one could argue that Newsome should have just yet this one hit this close to the sideline as he was late to the fielding party here. Our version of “neon”-Deon is said to be more than a little flashy indeed. Same as Parker, as I keep hearing some game-breaking noise here. Additionally, a 300 lb. bench, a 365 lb. front-squat and a whopping 38” vertical does not suck coming from a relatively mere 5’10” 184 lb. guy. Newsome was a nifty looking dual-threat Qb in high school and that always brings trickeration into play at any place not named Virginia Tech.
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“LETS GO!”
“Hokies!”
bourbonstreet**