Your Cultural FAIR CATCH Eye in the Sky is, closed!

Virginia Tech=10, Duke=45

…because after all… if Fu’ had not “addressed them“?

Duke mighta actually done us out by 46-9?
…or, not.
💯

Head Coach: Justin James Fuente (born July 30, 1976 A.D.) Age=43.
Salary=$4,000,000.oo
(buyout: $15,000,000.oo)

Record:
53-4o overall, 27–17 at Virginia Tech, 15–11 in the All Coaching Conference and 2-2 in Bowls.

Awards:
A.A.C. Coach of the Year (2014),
A.P. 2016 A.c.c. Coach of the Year,
ACSMA A.c.c. Coach of the Year (2016),
Athlon A.c.c. Coach of the Year (2016).

Baller/Qb-Fu’ amassed 2,289 yards passing with the 1995-1996 Oklahoma Sooners starting parts of two seasons before transferring to Murray State. At Murray State, Fuente was named the Ohio Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Year and a finalist for the Walter Payton Award following the 1999 season. He still holds several single-season records at Murray State for a Qb including: most pass completions (24o), highest passing efficiency rating (151.21), most seasonal passing yards (3,497), and most touchdown passes (27) in a year. WOW!

Eye FEEL for this guy the person/Christian.

Coach-Fu’ started out under Coach Denver Johnson at Illinois State, who he had played for when Johnson was an assistant coach at Oklahoma; and later on again when Denver was named the head coach at Murray State (…and now you and Paul Harvey “know the rest of the, story”). Coach-Fu also studied under legendary T.c.u. defensive wizard Gary Patterson in Forth Worth. Coach-Fu’ has coached football for sixteen seasons in total.

Big Whistle Fuente was the head football coach at the University of Memphis from 2012 to 2015. He was an assistant at Texas Christian University (T.C.U.) from 2007 to 2011 and at Illinois State University from 2001 to 2006. Fuente attended the University of Oklahoma before transferring to Murray State University after his redshirt sophomore season. He played Qb for both schools. Fuente played a single season with the Oklahoma Wranglers of the Arena Football League before embarking on his coaching career.

Coaching Tree:
Barry Odom: Missouri (2016–present)

Daddy-Fu’ is married, to Jenny and they have three daughters:
Charlotte, Cecilia & Caroline.

This poor kid is realllllly hurting on tape. : (

game duration:
A hi’ tackling defense this year… anyone else noticed this? A N.A.F.T.A. or northern hemisphere tackling D. Lottsa shoulder pad and neckline grabbing going on. Not much forehead-helmet leading or shoulder leading hitting here. Very JayVee physicality wise on film.

2Q 6:15 remaining:
However, Hazelton will hit you… prolly the biggest Wide Receiving corps pure hitter we’ve had in a while— when he chooses to be. He’s big/strong enough in the northern-hemisphere to really deliver a blow. T.Hill I’ma looking at/for “U“! (and this is a sketchy flag to me… as we’ve all seen much worse go uncalled).

2Q 2:42 remaining:
Best throwing to a spot from Harris and Duke that I’ve seen upon breaking tape since Brewer breaking the vertical sideline plane out of bounds to Ford about half a decade ago. If you appreciate the Gift of Grab? This one’s for you.

1st-half duration:
Far out to see upon review… that Bud Lyte fought a little harder a little longer than the Fu’fense did. As Foster and Co. tallied a fair to middling amount of Qb pressures right up until intermission. (and PROPS @Harris!!! He made a handful of serrated throws under full-frontal Penthouse pressure).

3Q  12:08 remaining:
Mister Scott football here folks, as same as the famous U.s.s. Enterprise r-shirt engineer… Garbutt is “giving you all he gots“. And here he gets his bad left-shoulder (acromioclavicular) dinged back up. (may St.Christopher bless; again). And again, at 3Q 2:13 remaining marker… although this time poor Garbutt twists his (knee)? May St.Nikhon bless. (the dogpile obscured the camera’s LOS (line-of-sight) here; tho’ it is downstairs, as I doubt he limps off on his shoulder all that, often).

3Q 10:57 remaining:
A (fake) fair-catch?
Far-out. And I would give you actual special bonus-points had this actually; worked.

3Q 4:10 remaining:
NICE steal here folks, as #83, Tayvion Robinson has shown us his wheels— in particular in open-space. And yet here he shows us he is not averse to a good, hard, steal. This is my kinda kid… starting to grow on me in point of fact. And this very well may be the Hit of the Year. Well, on an opposing Training Staffer a green-mile out of bounds— who accidentally dropped-kicks T.Rob’ right in the junk as T.Rob’ bowls him over; doh!

Gonna be ^that^ kinda a year I reckon men…

He literally says: “… are you kidding me??!??”

3Q 3:38 remaining:
Lip-readers… did you catch this one in real-time?

(Suffhokian on Will’s pay-MB did. All props on him!!!)

4Q 12:25 remaining:
This is what time it currently is… and if I were a betting man? (and I am), I’d wager the over on this only continuing to grow. As the back-up Dukie Rb (#25) gives our fans a serious “what for” over behind the Duke bench after hitting another HR TD play. As Bobby -the brain- Hennan once to ineloquently said… “you kick people when they are down because they are easier to reach.” We/VeeTee? We are about to get Ray Guy’ed if this searching for our O&M bottom continues.

2nd-half duration:
Mea culpa, Eye did miss this in real-time, tho’ for having a very quality night, McClease has some kinda wrapping on his left knee. And here I thought he was having one of his two quicky/darty feelin’ healthy -for a change- type of rushing nights?

Friendly Fire 1o1…

Game Duration:
For as much flack as Ry’ on wheat R.P.O. catches? Our De’s ain’t much better vs. the option… as I repeatedly watched them bait-n-switched or tackling Duke ball-carriers sans… the… ‘ball.

4Q 8:45 remaining:
Now this is what I’ma talking about sports-fans! I mean, if you run this far? You might as well hit somebody right?

Just watch as #2 Jeremy Webb -who is actually more than a little bit streety- watch as he steals his very own teammate (Brion Murray) out-of-bounds at the end of the fake-punt.

Can you call an oranges-on-oranges or same-on-same personal foul for this? LOL… and I guess it has officially come to ^that^. “…sigh.”                                                                                                  🙄

Gnarly looking play; shew!

4Q 4:47 remaining:
Floyd had better thank St.Nikhon he has either knee left after this hit. Although he did get up all-right; he took a double (accidentally) collapsing leg-whip from behind (from Tisdale). “Sweep the leg(s)” indeed.

4Q 3:32 remaining:
Someone forgot to tell Hewitt to “let-up” and stop trying so damn hard. As this proud kid came in with his O&M Dexter/sinister shield held high and was (fu’lly) willing to get carried out on the same.

As this is a helluva a blocking effort on the VT KO-return when the game was entirely decided and way too many of his fellow Hokies went to the bakery, loafed… and had already checked-out.

4Q 1:52 remaining:
Me and Lee Suggs hate wasteful late-game trite injuries such as this,  as we see poor #79 come up lame on his right-leg to boot. As honestly, just how much better is a r-Sr. Tyrell Smith gonna get in the final minute and change of this blowout, curb-stomping, dumpster-fire of a game?

And Smitty was by far and away… one of the more serious weightroom/workout leaders/pushers we’ve had. And we ain’t exactly had too many now have we? Dang…

Time To Throw (TTT)©:

Virginia Tech:
Qb pressured=5
Qb hurried=2
Qb hits=14
Sacked=2

Duke:
Qb pressured=10
Qb hurried=o
Qb hits=17
Sacked=o

The Time To Throw metric prolly missed this one in all candor. As that sure looks like a closer contest than the 35-point final margin suggests. Nonetheless, here is a vastly larger number to consider than any one-game Duked out metric(s).

281-157.

That is that in our last 7 A.c.c. football games gents, as we’ve given up 281 points and scored 157. We’re not just getting All Coaching Conference beat we are getting X’s and O’s pumped. By an average score of 40-22 against. Or basically… I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

The highest score by an opponent in Lane you ask? How ’bout 49 by Houston in 1974. And then penultimate little ole Duke, yep, Duke, just dropped four-five or (45) upside our pigskin heads.

Then there is this… the whispers said that Staff thought we had a good two weeks of practice. Between Furman and Duke. Go fig’ on that (now); right? (additional vibes are that Ry’ on wheat was full of sourdough for being yanked in lieu of the fumbling Hen’House). Nevertheless…

Because if we accept this practice-field scoping as valid? Why does our peepee freeze up whenever someone else walks into the men’s room?

Performance anxiety or stage fright much guys?
(and do they make a pill for that, yet?)

Is our Applied Sports Psychologist… (Gary Bennett, Ph.D.) about to be totally, swamped?
And in this upside-down culture, Ph.D. stands for what… Playar Hater Day?

m.s. Hokie tackling did slip a bit overall. Though it REALLY did was worsen post the Hookin’ ain’t easy fumble. Until then? One missed tac’ on a very solid stop-night. Well, right up until we let go of the rope and spit-the-bit. Foster and Co. sure play some shallow spill/funnel angles and we are much more available to off-T offensive works than we are inside at Dt right now. i.e. if Eye am seeing this guess who is So.Beach seeing this too?

Longfield Management (Lo.FM)©:

Virginia Tech:
positive: |||| |
Swiss (neutral): |||| | (2 Duke penalties)
negative: |||| ||| (1 VT INT, 1 VT personal-foul)

Duke:
positive: |||| |||| (2 Duke TD’s, 1 Duke fake punt, 1 Duke 4th-D conversion, 1 VT penalty).
Swiss (neutral): |
negative: |||| ||| (1 Duke flag)

If you are a keen Euclidian observer… do you see what I see?

As I see our first ever negative Pie-Chart; ever. WoWoW!
I mean, this is the typically quick-hitting Fu’fense too. Which as I have tried to teach you, skews blocking grades to the “+” or to the positive side due to so many less than “1-Mississippi” type of “bang-bang” instant ‘ball directional plays. Or at least it did, as a lotta them are gone; under Ry’ on wheat being a poor pocket Qb2 trapped in our Qb1 spread set O.

Making for a very unusual Fu’fensive start to the game… with a lotta Lo.FM’s for our O&M game of Cornhole. When, historically typically, we frontload our script with “go” type plays. As Fu’/Corny has not shown to be ones to pocket or G.O.P. go-plays for J.I.C.’s later on. i.e. this early Lo.FM. prostitution should have been a warning to the cogent gridiron cognoscenti among yah.

To take ^that^ a step further, the Fu’fense muddled its way with very mixed results through not less than six that’s (6) different field-position challenged Lo.FM’s before Duke hit their very first Lo.FM situation late in the 1Q— which V.Tech seemingly appeared to dominate. Again; something’s not kosher in Denmark here sports-fans.

To compound fracture the brain all the more… Duke hit not less than six that’s (6) consecutive Lo.FM’s to the negative -with no positives and no neutrals- to begin the game up through the ~22-minute mark of play— and still, the Dukies led? Think about that men… Duke freakin’ leads 14-3 with 100% negative Lo.FM’s; compared to six that’s (6) positive or neutral rather sporting and seemingly composed Lo.FM’s for the Fu’fense from Virginia Tech… huh? Does that make any chain-gang sense to you?

I mean… that’s so absurd to the point of being unique.

And frankly I’da called that: “umpossible” had Eye not seen it play out on Friday Night Frights. Or in other words… this was not actually a matter of ‘staying on schedule’ so much as it was: “if not for bad-luck the Fu’fense would have no luck at all.” Seriously, this is like being sentenced to life in front of the firing squad down in the torture chamber. And right as the hammer drops and a blank cartilage fails and goes “click”, the old antiquated WWII flame-thrower suddenly sparks up.

Cue that ole sinking feeling and inset (________), here.

Then to K.Kong gut-punch and finish all of ^that^ off… Duke suffered seven different drives with NO Lo.FM’s chasing the chain-gang situational possessions in a row!?! A.K.A. Bud Bøck was not blessed with his typical down-n-distance teeing-off opportunities to mix my sporting-metaphor. This forced Bud Lyte to reach for plays that really were not technically there and when you reach for plays vs. an Offensive Davinci type of coach you tend to get got. Insert trickeration 30-days early (__________), here.

Which is not to say that Eye found Duke to be unbeatable, so much as it is to say we went hidden cam’ and beat ourselves half-to-death.

You won’t have to play perfect defense anymore.” Remember that?
4-years ago said by Fuente to Foster at their top-secret-meeting.

Well, the Fu’ture is now… or this next Saturday night vs. a mentally and physically 13-days restive albeit (mercurial) Miami football team. “Resistance is… Fu’tile” indeed.

Do you see the pictorial (and colorful), metaphor?

the takeaway

Right now, I’ma not honestly sure how/where we peg?

Are we more parts Tin-Man or are we more parts Cowardly... Lion?

Although even Dorthy is sure it is gonna take a good deal more than a catharsis of total Kill(er) to come in and Wizbang this hot-mess after “toto” hiked his hind-leg then plum runaway.

I say this because it was a medium-sized lead-jab that left us legs-gone and on Queer Street while technically still up 3-nil and (seemingly) playing pretty well. We just held Duke to 15′ in the opening ~20 mins. of scrumming. That’s fifteen feet of Total O allowed!

Did this single solitary play just ruin our entire year?

Then Duke lands a crisp lead-jab. It did land flush— although it was a freakin’ lead-jab folks.

Not a Mike Tyson uppercut. Or a Klitschko right-cross. Much less anything that Earnie Shavers ever threw.

And it literally knocked us mentally -and possibly culturally- silly.

Then we went… dark.

Why is this?

Why are we so emotionally chinny after 2018’s cultural Commonwealth Cup and Bowl Streak close shaves? As our whiskers are as catty as can possibly be. We are officially feline …in a word.

Or F.u’.B.A.R. in another…

***

Some of this is lack of seniors… some of this is a widening cultural bottoms-up cultural gap or disconnect. Tho’ another real live zinger is that our better/freakier ballers are not natural leaders. Think about that men… as the best-case is when Magic Johnson is mutually your hardest worker (Acta non Verba, or via example) and then he is also your one true teamwide mouthpiece that (successfully) police’s your lockeroom *your way* for you. So, who(m) among our few “twitchy” ballers would you feel comfortable placing on Fu’ Leadership Council? Yah; Roger that on me three and me neither.
Now mix in being just waaaaaay too phobic of P.T. (playing-time) reductions. Playing tight as a Highty Tighty snare-drum. Thus, leaving us marooned as a “Scared money” gone full monty caricature of itself.
We ain’t winners right now people. We are a L’ing .428 team that gets pumped by 19 points on average in the last calendar year. This after our worst home L since Nixon was (still) Prez.
And allow me to let you all in on a little secret… this is gonna get worse before it gets better, prolly much…

As no potential incoming Kill(ar) or fall-guy replacement assistant coach with any reputational currency is going to spend it on building a Blacksburg move until the head coach situation is stabilized, rectified and set right as rain in viable Hokiestone. Remind you of a former Staff shuffling?

…a Murray State déjà Fu’?

This (heinous) Duke game... is R.A.T.T. code for what?

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Techbits:
  • Tisdale finishing second in stops -off the bench no less- tells us what?
  • Frank’s teams -even the south of <.5oo ones- always tended to get better as the year wore long. Fu’s last two teams have worsened as the last two seasons have worn on. Think about that…
  • Fu’ remind you of anyone in the VeeTee coaching lineage? Justin Stokes?
  • Ry’ has turf-toe and a bum throw-shoulder. N.Pollard Dt left-shoulder. Tre (whispered) leg-ding; although the camera missed it. So, you did not get that one from me. Tisdale has a dinged-up left-shoulder to boot.
  • Our many faces of Eve or multiple personality disorder former Frank-n-Stiney O now lacks a Fu’fensive Identity? Yah… that could be; although don’t you have to I.D. what actually works, first?
  • Have you ever seen Fu’ and Eeyore in the same press-conference room at the same, time? I’ma jus’ sayin’… as icicles rub hotter than Fu’.

    DO, NOT...
  • In our last calendar season of play… there is now a 38.5% probability that the Fighting Gobblers will be outfought by 3 full scores or more.
  • Not since the (bleep)-kicked days of So.Co. (Southern Conference) football has good ole V.P.I. opened up o-2 in conference play. (effectively already eliminating the Hokies from 2019 Coastal contention as things stand now).
  • Coach Cut’… an offensively minded County Fair blinking-contest man’s Franklin, Mitchell; Beamer redux. (think about that if you did not get it the first, time…)

…in closing...

Now, I of all people could go one better and hold my very own feet’s to my very own Applied Sports Psych’ clinical fire and publish a; correction. And all of my “pot-stirring” and “vendetta” alledging peeps: I should publish you some “forgiveness”.

Therefore, ergo, to Whit, let us at least learn and commit to memory… this much… when you read me?

  1. The more outside the hexagon my take is?
  2. The more you need to unbox and unpack it in full.
  3. In extreme particular, if it left you butt-hurt and perplexed.

So, one time only— let’s put this tired arse šhite to rest and per John Locke’s tabula rasa I’ma gonna wipe your slate clean. All sins are forgiven. Just realize that nobody else writes about culture, and therefore nobody else has been close.

Nevertheless… and lest you think me nice… Coach L.Tolstoy, I just ain’t. Accordingly, if declaring Peace does not work? Guess what I’ma gonna declare, next?

     Fu’rther… and as I do need to own my very own misQ’s; and because the only place that improving comes before owning is still the dictionary…
oOo

Do you recall the end game pic up @Pitt last year of Fu’ on the ketchup bowl sideline? “distancing himself” from the team? Looking altogether wooden, laconic; in a word. Remember?

I had thought this to be not only distancing… I had thought it to be distancing to provide {sic: max’} headroom for thinking his way out of last seasons 2018 motivational conundrum… like the worlds most ensconced intellectual Matryoshka Doll in the history of nesting dolls themselves.

Fu’ turtled and went deep inside the one person he was sure that he could trust. i.e. himself.

However, then it occurred to me during breaking Duke tape

Look at the right side of the graph… this is a coach heading for a professional lobe-cleaving breakdown. That Pitt pic’ may have been distancing, spacing, separating indeed, nevertheless what that pic’ truly was -and now is all over again- is STRESS. As in freaked-out, stressed-out, stroke-out, careerist-cardiac-attack, pressure, anxiety and tensity max’!!!

Poor Virginia Tech football…
and Poor comradè Fu’

Because if we cop a Duke fair-catch emotional ‘tude down @(thuggy) Miami next Saturday?
Fu’ could very well be… over, done, thru.
🙌

PROPers @Chris Coleman!!!
Your prediction can go beat my prediction.

                                       May St.Mark bless and intercede for Mr. Laaser.
#wimps!

Virginia Tech=10, Duke=45

LETS GO!

Hokies!

bourbonstreet**

12 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Disclaimer I’m no coach. We are looking to the fumble as the point disaster struck mentally on defense. It appeared to me that Duke around the 22 ( I believe was immediately after the fumble) minute of the game went to a spread empty back field set that the defense had no answer for. Wouldn’t this set expose our weaknesses to handle Qb containment and cause in play adjustments because of movement with inexperienced players?

  2. Bstreet , they could have saved a lot of bank by hiring you as a consultant rather than Kill …just a thought 😎

    1. Nah… he’s way, VASTLY more experienced than me… I would not want the work as well.
      Not that young for 20 hour days no mo’.

      b.street

  3. I’m the guy who thought, just before kickoff Friday night that the Hokies would win by at least 10, and take the Coastal at the end of the year.

    I take all of that back.

    My new prediction is Fuente not finishing out the year. That guy is LOST, and I truly feel sorry for him. Sometimes you just get in over your head.

    1. I feel sorry for him; completely.

      Backed a lotttttta my comments/takes off, accordingly.
      Poor guy…
      🙏

      b.street

  4. Mr. Lacy:

    Robot KILLING my reply… did get it on the Pay MB for you.

    HTH’s
    b.street

  5. Guess I was wrong about the ODU kickoff return being a point at which players and even fans (re-)learned how to weather the storm. About the only bright side is that young players, individually and collectively, tend to have higher variance in week-to-week performance, the distribution of which probably has skewness to the downside. Feels plausible that what we saw on Friday was a -2, maybe even approaching -3 sigma event to the downside.

    1. If you can plot that?
      I’d love to see that. is it bimodal? twin-tailed?

      Dunno…

      b.street

      1. …actually maybe a double-helix? (saddle?)

        Fu’ I mean who knows?
        b.street

      2. In my mind this is just a highly simplified view of what I’m thinking. Red is freshmen and green is seniors (starters for both, not 3rd stringers). I didn’t intend to introduce any kurtosis, that’s just me drawing bad. Freshmen have a wide variance in performance between bad and good and the overall mean is closer to bad. Seniors are generally better than average but their performance also has tighter variance.

        https://i.imgur.com/tbKXIv4.jpg

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