Virginia Tech football North Carolina Eye in the Sky

Virginia Tech football went down to Tobacco Road and came back with a soaking wet 34-3 win over homesteading #17 North Carolina down on Tobacco Road. On a sloppy field with simultaneously sloppy play.

To me, anything and every can and probably will happen when you play a football game right on the edge of a Hurricane (Matthew, God Bless). As the presence of the absence of the still concussed star Tb (Hood) of U.n.c. mucked up my Carolina digits a bit –although I don’t like U.n.c. and you can see the byproduct of said motive in the final paragraphs call. Thank you coach God insert _____here, check! That being said, methinks the goodness, or possibly even the greatness off this 2016 suddenly pretty dang handsome looking Virginia Tech football team hangs by two threads; as it hangs precisely by #4 (on O), and his pal #57. The health of #4 + #57=our gridiron margin of error, and it also exactly equals the rest of our, year.

1Q 9:26 remaining:
Give ’em hell Joe! Well, unless of course some special teams opposing coach decides to light Joey up for taunting such as this. And that leaves one wondering what brought such a loquacious display such as this on in the first place; and from a Kicker… of all things?!?

1Q 8:32 remaining:
This is one of the greatest hook-blocks I’ve ever seen at any level of play. As just watch Wyatt Teller go and get the read-n-react ILb for U.n.c. about 4-5 yards off the line of scrimmage (LOS) and then hook, seal, and then begin to drive him anti-backwards, back into the play itself, before finally burying him about 8 yards behind the LOS proper! WOW! I mean just freakin’ wow; as grizzly bear like #57 dogged catty #36 of U.n.c. out for about 12 yards of woodshed ass whooping! Now watch the uva sissy soft U.n.c. D pop-off post play about what was a manhandling good clean hit. Give me a flippin’ break; it’s called: “tackle” not tuba for a reason.

1Q 3:27 remaining:
Here is the accidental leg-whipping right-knee roll-up play on poor Conte at the end of the zone-stretch attempt to the odd-side or to the left. Do recall however that Tech uses a double custom knee brace orthotic, whereby the girth of your soleus (calf) and quads/hammie (thigh) is twice measured and twice custom refitted per season just in case you gained or cut any muscle mass. You would have to think that that much attention to custom fit detail saved the life of big ole #72’s knee here. Godspeed!

2Q 5:32 remaining:
Is Evans (in danger) of becoming the new LT3? As he sure is taking a lotta contact for dear ole V.P.I. 45 hits in the last two games by my charting and that’s even more than an pure wishbone Qb should take. Here he spits the bit and fumbles in the U.n.c. red-zone; and yah; I know he’s almost 6’4” and just south of 250 lbs. Still, Evans runs really high; and really square, making him hard to miss for hard charging defenders as this Qb1 of ours must be Black-n-blue all over; go ahead and bet the whirlpool over on him as well on Sunday morning. Don’t know about you, or momma Evans … though me? I’m starting to get; concerned, here.

3Q 11-9 mins. remaining:
If you have any doubts about just how R.A.T.T. hard-hitting epic Brandon Patterson’s last tecehsideline.com article truly was… look no further than the goaline stand by U.n.c. here. Watch Gallo and Conte getting worked and even Wyatt getting stalemated -once- his ownself if you need the measure of 80% of our men upfront on what B.P. called “Brute Force” plays in his highly pensive production last Friday. And quite honestly, I might have taken the chip-shot FGA here, as that would have virtually made it a three score game in the muck with Bud Triple Bock playing lights out and all outta bubble-gum.

3Q 10:16 remaining:
This is why you do NOT, as in not ever never talk (bleep) as a Kicker. Just watch Joey himself get absolutely Central Park physically mugged at the end of this kickoff by #56 of U.n.c. Easily the  steal of the game. : (

3Q 9:03 remaining:
WOW! Boy is Isaiah Ford Blessed with a capital B on this one sports-fans, as you seldom see a sprained right-ankle inflicted on an accidental roll-up from behind by Conte and as bad as this one looked; it could have looked Class III sprain worse, and easily. Isaiah must be one of those freaky flexibility stretching studs to be able to walk away from this. Shew!

3Q 4:53 remaining:
Shew some more! As this is a nasty looking left-knee hyper-extension (i.e., bending the knee hinge the ‘rong way back against itself) on the dreaded non-contact injury to big bad Tim Settle. Who had been playing a bit better of late as well. Godspeed on this one for Tim!

3Q approx 20 game mins. remaining:
Do wanna give the Vice-squad upfront some credit; as they (very) slowly; yet surely; began to wrest control of the line-of-scrimmage (LOS) from U.n.c. at the point of soaked attack late in this one. That one, and to be honest, U.n.c. has a talented, speedy front-7; that also has glass jaw as we say in boxing. As our offensive line not named Wyatt Teller, has TKO voltage at best as single-shot roundhouse power goes. And yet U.n.c folded up their sissy looking wet-tent and did not even want any of that in the last quarter and change of play as trench fighting went. That’s neither coach Vice’s nor his big ugly’s fault; either; the mentally tougher team (eventually) won, here.

4Q 12:52 remaining:
Tough to see how the impacting happened, though you can see #25 Philips wearing the Beamer tribute jersey take himself out of the game and the Hokie training staff taking a look at his left-wrist  after the End-around play on this one. God Bless.

Final 15 ish minutes remaining:
Wanna give coach-Fu a big humane sportsmanship shout-out here. As he basically borrowed a sporting page from legendary U.n.c. hoops coach Dean Smith; and went to a letting the air outta the ball 4-conrners offense to keep the game clock rolling at the end of this one. Such mercifully spared both teams from extra damage on a slippery surface with the game already in hand. As there were a slew of W.I.A.’s combined for both squads on Saturday; and this from the repetitious needy Fu’fense says a lot about the heart inside of coach Fuente’s chest to me. Just like 27 credit hours per semester, coach-Fu is all class.

p.s. and not that it means much in an academic run-out-the-clock kinda of game, though the 2nd-team oLine did NOT get one single negative blocking grade tick-mark on my old-school T-account chart. That’s pretty good back-up work –if you can get it, and it prolly helped that they were 100% fresh and that the U.n.c. front-7 was close to 100% worn down as well. Though still…

p.s.s. A+++ love to U.n.c. for the best post-game stat-guide I’ve ever seen and I’ve been playing or covering this great game since way back in ’71!

Time To Throw (TTT)©:

Virginia Tech:
Qb pressured=6
Qb hurried=nil
Qb hits=27! (a new TTT, record!!!!)
Sacked=2

North Carolina:
Qb pressured=8 (1 deflection)
Qb hurried=2 (1 deflection)
Qb hits=12 (1 fumble)
Sacked=2

Bud Foster is NOT getting his run here gents; as I love Star Trek as much as anyone; however I prefer Science-Fact. So let us pause to remove our O&M flavored contacts for a moment, and look at this 2016 Bud Stout stop-unit, objectively and R.A.T.T.

1. Bud (Wiles) do not have a single bell-cow J.C.Price or C.Brown dLineman. They have good C+ to B+ depth with one guy (Ken) flirting with the lowest possible A— level. (per Ken’s renewed health, same as J.C.’s final campaign, recall)
2. Bud does not have a single V.Hall or X in the 2nd-layer. Not even close; although here he does have B— (Tua) to basically the lowest possible B+ (Edmunds) caliber Linebackers. And Edumnds will press for A status in a season or two. And yet, least we forget, unlike the well stocked front-wall, the Linebacking corps’ depth is so thin as to be damn near invisible.
3. Bud (Scott) are pretty stout in the hind-4 or 5 however. As someone correctly said pre-season, this youthful lot is the truest measure of 2016 defensive strength. As Serta itself does not manufacture blanketing coverage any better than this.

p.s. although penalties have improved to a handsome 24th best in disciplinary terms | guess who is now officially dead last in most Fumbles?

Wishes anyone else would have propped Tua up, pre-season—>b.street

WAR ‘Tua!!!
You are hereby officially upgraded to “my boy” status Andrew.
FIGHT that good fight bro’.

---

Best batch of Foster on tap in may a brewing season gents. Bud merits Frank Broyles’ Award for top assistant coach in all the D-1 land considerations, here; and serially.

This dLine is the epitome of K.I.S.S., because to me? It all looks very elementary; on film. There are not a whole lot of Gap busting deep TLF here. More like Gap control, and therefore the best spilling I’ve seen on film since V.Hall and X’s era. I mean they are running this +1 Gap (i.e. the spill point or the uncovered defender) to the perfected proverbial T. Meaning, this may not be a bunch J.C. Price’s and C.Moore’s upfront pure talent wise. Although they are indeed semi to fairly talented; they are however listening/obeying their coaching 1,000% and when you talk to Woody and Williams in particular; it is pretty dang obvious that you are talking to high I.Q. human-begins. Never mind mere football acumen. Just sharp like tacks between the ears … and it shows in their textbook A+++ Summa Cum Laude style of play. Making this the best coached-up front-4 group in at least a decade.

Finally, for those of you who are true armchair General’s as gridiron warfare goes, did you notice the amount of solo stops in this one? Yes, overall tackling worsened on this jersey slippery day; although how about a solo stop on 60% or 30 of our 50 tackles overall. I mean that gives new definition to spilling the play to the uncovered defender as Hoover Dam does not spill any better than that. Coach Foster and company are enjoying their best collective coaching effort -so far- in at least a decade by my count. As I’ve never ever seen a 60% solo spill rate; well, not until now. As about 1 in 3 to 4 in 10 is the longitudinal solo stop ratio norm. MEGA props to Bud Stout here!!!

(mid script: would like to see a little better tacking out of Mook and Terrell however; as both overshoot makeable open-field stops in a fast-forward playing ahead of themselves rush to make the hit… other than that? There is not a whole lot left to correct or coach up on defense here; … and that is code for 9-11 guys seemingly playing at or near their personal ceiling play-in and play-out… wow!)

Longfield Management (Lo.FM)©:

Virginia Tech:
positive: |||| |||| (1 UNC penalty)
negative: |||| |||| ||| (1 fumble, 1 penalty)
Swiss (neutral): |||| |||| ||

North Carolina:
positive: || (1 VT penalty)
negative: |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| (4 UNC penalties, 1 INT, 3 fumbles)
Swiss (neutral): |||| ||  (1 UNC penalty, 1 VT penalty, )

Would it surprise you if I told you we are ranked below average in Total O right now in the nation? We are, as our 69th total O ranking suggests; or about the highest ever C-. How about if I told you the passing O is even worse than that? With the throw-game checking in at no better than the lowest possible C— or relatively mere 81st best. Don’t seem like it, do it?

Not with an O that is a very comfortable -and defensively restive- 15th best in TOP (time of possession). Not with a Qb who is on an all-time record setting pace in several O&M record book categories. Not with his obscene 15:1 passing ratio of TD’s to INT’s (and that really should be a perfected 15:zip). Not with his nifty looking 64% completion percentage thus far. Not with his potent looking 1,303 yards of individual total O; and certainly not with his fifth best in all the land 175 Qb rating. Not to mention a very useful 194 ypg rushing. I’m outta my mind and merely stirring the pot; again; right?

***

Well, if you think I am, than riddle me this… as I have three epic sized concerns here…

1. How many punches can Jerod Evans, take? Yah; he’s a semi stout looking Qb at about 6’4” and a well insulated ~245+ lbs. Though still, he just broke LT3’s single game Qb hits taken record vs. U.n.c., and since half past when is that ever a good thing? How about the fact that Evans has taken contact on a staggering 82 plays thus far this season! And he runs so high and so squire when he does. Additionally, did anyone else notice that he (Evans) added a lumbar spine protector this week? Wonder if he added it just for… fun?
2.  If our c-(right)-G are still quite suspect –and they are… why do we continue to mess with it? Can we not pull a a coach P.J. and move the mesh-point one Gap L/R and try to avoid that glaring weak-point? Or did that just make too much …sense? Can the return of my boy Osterloh allow any relief here? I do not know… nevertheless, I do know it is difficult at best to find good C and right-G half-full plays to write about. It really is.
3. The health of Wyatt Teller. To put it quite simply, #57 is a man’s man of an N.f.l. stud talent among four other mid-major boys. Nijman is folding and/or sealing collapsing the right-edge a bit better. He and all the rest have been pretty solid in the very quick hitting Fu’fense “one Mississippi” pass-protect sets. And beyond that? There is nearly a Goliath or giant sized gap between Teller’s run blocking and all the rest of the ground troops. Probably the largest blocking success gap I’ve seen on film going back to Jim Pyne simply mauling people at C. Or to put it another way… Wyatt and Evans had better stay right or this O will drop like a Hokiestone rock.

the takeaway…

The takeaway from a very attractive road win down on Chapel Hill is… @Syracuse does not bother me. They are uno-dimensional and that one dimension (the Orange throw-game) plays right into the teeth or the strength of the 2016 Bud Stout stop-unit or coach Scott’s nearly epic secondary. However, two dates in a mere five days and then three dates in 12 overall; does {sic: bother me}.

In very particular when you see how many dings and dents we’ve accrued in the last fortnight of scrumming. As three games in twelve days with a run that sees us go four out of five on the road is a tough row to hoe –even for a deep football team; which we just ain’t.

And such is a much tougher row to hoe with a bad back, ankle, hip, ankle, shoulder and a modicum of dings and dents all over. As neither Miami at home in an all hopped up rocking terrordome Thursday night clash | nor a actually average Pitt squad away in my hometown where the Panthers play third fiddle to the Pens; who play about ninth fiddle to the Sillers… none of them are unbeatable nor beyond our grasp. Still yet, I’ll be pretty damn impressed if we come through that much raw mental wear-n-tear and physical 12 abuse unscathed in the L column.

Pay attention now gents, … and try to understand folks that this is still a young football team. Or at least a football team in only its sixth through eighth football games of what we all hope/expect to be at least a decade long gridiron Hokie Coach Fuente tenure. And yes, I do know that coach Ben Hilgirth put them all through the S&C ringer this past spring-ball and August camp. I also know it is the first time anything pigskin has been put through any O&M ringer since MV1’s second year.

Or in other words, just like basketballers making the jump from scholastic tip-offs to collegiate -or even more severely, from college to the Pros- that audible mental and sometimes physical “thump” you tend to hear is them hitting the proverbial wall.

Here’s hoping one of those two enervated looking dates (Miami or Pitt) does not go… “splat”. Because, the thing is, someone is hearing this is a really dinged and dented team right now. And yah; three dates in 12 days may not be enough for UKSJ, although it may be a bridge too far for us.

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Virginia Tech=34, North Carolina=3

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

bourbonstreet**

V.A.D.A. approved