Your winning Old Dominion Eye in the Sky is, up!

Virginia Tech=31, Old Dominion=17

Virginia Tech football… won!

The Hokies evened their 2019 docket at .5oo or 1 up and 1 down although they came up rather short on an underwhelming Vegas day as a 30 point homesteading favorite. As our Fighting Gobblers played well enough then hung-on long enough and finally did just enough to put 7-5-7 and upset-minded Old Dominion down for the count with 12 mins. left in the contest. After that was anticlimactic enough as Coach Fu’ and company went Tour de France and took their foot off the pedals and merely coasted home to close. Or is that all this team is? 31-17 at home when the books said: ~47-17 if this is where Bud Lyte taps. Now whether this was due to not wanting to show too much to Furman or just plain being unable blow a seemingly outgunned O.d.u. outta the Duck Pond water, I leave to your very own surmise. Nonetheless, if you ask me? And you did via reading these very words… if you ask me, we sure are a Frosty football team…

BEND the knee!!!”

1Q 14:52 remaining:
Rambo is our best blocker.
Rambo is our best blocker in… years!

…not a Goode, look!

Seriously… lb. for lb. the best V.Tech blocker (including Sam) in what? A decade? As Keene is entirely I.H.O.P. keen as he be pancaking and bitch-making all day long. 25/8! This kid’s a stud. And someone go ask momma Keene to get back to work! We need all the Keene’s she can get.

1Q 11:30 remaining:
This is phat. Way too phat. (no wonder Jackson is a one-man, Five. It looks like he ate Tito and Jermaine here.)

1Q 9:22 remaining:
It got started here… as Chamarri Conner accidentally steals #2 of O.d.u. at the end of the play. No joke, this is a steal and C-Con-22 never saw #2 and de-cleated him sans the big-hit intent. LOL, has it come to that?

(caveat being: it was “on” after this… no matter how much Fu’ hates elephants, clowns, 3-rings, high-wire-acts, et al. …Floyd, in particular, had an off-day behavior-wise. Tho’ you gotta finish when you fight. We (accidentally) big-hit peeps and help them up? LOL, no wonder they act-out on us… or did that just make too much sense?

1Q 5:32 remaining:
As if right on cue… Floyd right-hooks #89 for blocking him out of bounds? Floyd has been a ticking timebomb all year. Mitch’ or J.Ham’ need to defuse this before 15-yards worth of zebra therapy does. And the stink of it is… he doesn’t even hit eight-nine dat hard. Geez!

As this is one uptight and starting to act out to the ‘rong team right now gents. Mark my words here…

1Q 4:42 remaining:
Hewitt, Keene and seldom seen tho’ on his way to being an authentic V.P.I. wearing Letterman and back-up Te Drake DeIuliis… all score pancake hits on this VT KO return. Never mind the factoid that Hewitt and Drake crowned the same Monarch. NICE to see some open-field hitting; for a change.

2Q 1:05 remaining:
Watch as big ole rumbling, bumbling, stumbling S.Dzansi seems to stomach-cramp-up on this one. Tho’ it did not seem *that* severe upon breaking-tape… and St.Elmo’ bless, easy for me to 62 miles away.

3Q 6:40 remaining:
My almost-boy Ry’ on wheat with the hawt-sauce here! Brushing his jersey off after being fed-all-day on the TD jaunt. Too funny! (caveat is… 10 other teams are prolly #5 salivating when you bring this).

4Q 12:15 remaining:
Did NOT like seeing this left-knee pop along our sideline at the end of the hard blocking Dalton Keene game-ball type of efforting day. It’s the other knee… not the one he had cleaned out pre-springball. Tho’ dang… (may St.Nikhon bless); as honestly? This looked worse upon tape than it did in real-time. As poor Rambo was fully planted when #8 of O.d.u. unintentionally leg-whipped him like a damn dog. A very gimpy sudden accordion flexion to boot.

Q to Qb2 for Furman?

4Q 10:00 remaining:
BIGGEST whiff I’ve ever seen as Ashby -for being a tackling machine- might as well had been tackling the Invisible Man on this one. As he literally tackles pure air. 78.09% N? Check. 20.95% O2? Done. Bits-n-pieces of Argon, Carbon Dioxide, etc.? Gotcha. #4 of O.d.u.? Not so much. Redunkuless! As Ash’ will be the butt of many a film-room camera winding back-n-forth set of jokes here. As O.d.u.’s #4 is gonna make a number of peeps look un-Smartt this year.

4Q 8:10 remaining:
Ry’ got his bell ‘rung here. Forehead to forehead and it was not leading or targeting or anything else. Just part of the game that shook Ry’ up and got Ry’ sat down to boot. Good clean hard-hit upstairs by the other #4 of O.d.u.

Game and foreseeable future duration:

Do you sudden DAX haters see what Eye see here?

4Q 1:44 remaining:
Above is the Hooker injury play… clearly this is his unorthodox or non-throwing side. Be this his left-wrist or left-shoulder. (St.Julia and/or St.Christopher bless!)

Time To Throw (TTT)©:

Virginia Tech:
Qb pressured=4
Qb hurried=zip!
Qb hits=11
Sacked=1

TTT Analysis:
A very clean pocket for Ry’ on wheat here men. Vice Squad kudos! Much better than last week whereby Ry’ took a shellacking at times. (less one game-ending sideline hit— Ry’ was prolly on pace for betting the under on O.d.u. whirlpool time post-game).

And honestly… you’da thunk we’d beaten O.d.u. by at least three to four scores as TTT business went. As Budweiser got much more exotic with his pressures in Euclidean terms. In very particular his back or blind-side pressures as clearly he and Wiles musta saw something on tape.

Old Dominion:
Qb pressured=15
Qb hurried=1
Qb hits=26
Sacked=5!

100th in Rushing Defense is better than 106th last year. And so is 74th in Total D overall (all the way up from 98th best). Pretty much precisely what someone said when they said the mid-’70s is a pretty good improvement and getting to just average (~65th), is Coach of the Year territory.

On the other side? To me and for my $0.o3 ante in the game of life? Coach Wilder and crew outcoached us— and for the second week in a row. Loved their Denna Smith 4-corners O which clearly let the air outta the ball and helped sit the more talented team (Vah.Tech) for ~+6 min. advantage in TOP (time of possession). That’s coaching the verb folks.

And same as closing with uVa last year… it took the individual burners of one hero speedster to pull the O&M fat outta the opposing fire. As who knows where this one goes on 3-n-out in a then one-play game; sans the epic Wheatley KO return sideline jaunt?

As the Hokiebird was not perched upon a 3-hour stomachache at that moment, the Hokiebird had plum run a fowl and was catching an upper quad infirmary ole sinking feeling prior to that game-changing and possibly game/season-saving KO return. A game of inches? Yup, all 2,556 of ’em.

As one could dare to oblong spheroid say… we caught a good bunce there indeed.

oOo

(my peeps’) boy… K.King’s crowning fumble you ask? Hmmmmm…

Who recalls how much the likable C.J. Carrol sat his final year for his two post-reception, fumbles? Yah; me three on neither as Fu’ never sat him at all. Now, Fu’ can call the King butterfingers misQ a: “teachable moment” all he likes. Me? I’ma calling a lack of codification on this one… as you have to treat stars and scrubs the same. As Henry Jordan once said when asked how HOF Coach V.Lombardi treated the African American players on the super Packer teams… Henry merely replied: “He treats us all the same; like dogs.”

And honestly, that’s how this has gotta be, get a (corrective/coercive) so-called Laundry List, and just read right down to the given infraction. Ignoring jersey number, class rank, and surname alike. Infraction ABC begets punishment ABC. Not XYZ. Not LMNOPee. As there are times that it seems like Fu’ is piling on as in-game P.T. (playing time) subtractions go for something prior to the game, itself. Or textbook residue coaching 1o1.

Longfield Management (Lo.FM)©:

Virginia Tech:
positive: |||| |||| |||| (1 VT TD, 2 VT fumbles; 1 O.d.u. flag)
Swiss (neutral): |||
negative: |||| |||| || (1 VT penalty)

Lo.FM analysis:
Well, and although I thought coach Bobby and Staff did all they could O.d.u. do? We sure helped them out more often than we helped ourselves, too; them. As Coach Wilder build an entire game-play around LaLa and what this pretty Smartt Qb1 could do. Thereby leaving V.Tech getting stoned, indeed.

Old Dominion:
positive: |||| |||| || (2 VT penalties)
Swiss (neutral): |||| |
negative: |||| |||| |

  • 24th in Passing Offense… D.Strock sweet!
  • Yet 56th Passing Efficiency… hmmmmmmmmm?
  • (with rushing at 106th best— which will have to actual Spread/rushing-Qb1, or 2020; wait)

And yet… 1st down O? Well, 1st down O is 30th best. Ergo, we should be opening most series ahead of the chain-gain. Foxtrot Uniform Lo.FM’s.

And 3rd down O? Well, 3rd down O is even craftier (27th best) as Ry’ on wheat is generating some quality plays in the bottom of the third inning. (be that via his arm, or via his first down yardage scampering wheels).

So the 2019 Fu’fensive bookends seem sharp enough; right?

And yet the 2019 Fu’fense is a very middleocore overall 63rd or about 25 steps backwards in Total O if you are keeping score at home.

As the Vice Squad nearly set a record via going to the 1Q 1:48 remaining marker before breaking the seal (block) on it’s very first negatively graded blocking play of the day. On top of all of that, we opened up with an r-Sr. or fifth year Qb operating as the 3.5 total years worth of Qb1 tenure as a starting Pivot in annual terms. This generated perfect looking seven consecutive (+) or positive Lo.FM. plays to begin the contest. And yah; me three on never seeing that one before? As we ended Q1 with a stunning 8-o-1 Longfield Management marker. And every single Offensive Coordinator in America would love to have Corny’s problems’ ^here^.

Do, you, see, a; trend?

Then we missed a Lo.FM. throw on the goal line. And suddenly the 12.5 opening minutes of Lane Stadium scrumming per a pretty snapping looking Fu’fense? Well, it went sappy looking in a single play. And before you tell me I’ma stirring the pot… explain the play-by-play down-n-distance metrics that I merely reported/observed, here? As after that sizzling hot like the Sun start? We went nearly belly-up and clearly desequenced 1-2-10 on our next 13 Lo.FM’s. Huh?

(and yet then? We opened the 3Q with a shiny 15 play TD scoring drive that only went behind the sticks once, and we converted that Lo.FM right as rain!)

Bipolar or schizophrenic much? I mean… how can we/anyone run that melty hawt and then chill nearly totally out like the freezer section on the R.M.S. Titanic in a single play?

Seriously… we went from a snappy, bang-bang, zip-zip, crispy cream big-O to a wasteful nocturnal emissions O. Statistically and objectively, I’ve never seen this… so same as seeing a bigfeet, I’ma not real sure what to make of this 5th-year senior spearheaded first time ever Fu’fensive returning starting Qb1 O? (are you???)

***

As for whatever reason or reason(s)… there does seem to be some kinda ppg or scoring cap in play here. Off the top of my head… could it be…

  • a HEAVILY front-loaded A+++ opening script that goes good-play dry after a Q or so?
  • a (still) Pocketed Qb1 playing as a juxtaposed Spread-set starting Qb1?
  • lack of oLine footwork and agilities? (which fits the Fu’fense, nil)?
  • lack of oLine defensive front-7 identification(s)?
  • (never mind offensive-line blitz-cognizant)?
  • with a limited traditional Run-Game?

Or is this just a lack of football acumen, X’s & O’s I’s and Q’s, or a dullard of a huddle?

As I was wondering this up @Boston College and I am serially wondering it now… are Fu’ and Corny -smart as they may collectively be- now officially coaching over their heads?

As I know some of you are bristling to tell me that this is a >31 ppg O.
Maybe… tho’ how so? Why are we oh so very ceilinged here?
(or is 29.5 ppg pretty much our new scoring, roof?)

eMail: [email protected] for coach Fu’ and
[email protected] for coach Corn…
just as soon as you do know!

TIA!

the takeaway

The Fight or Flight response (also called hyperarousal, or the acute stress response) is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival. It was first described by American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon.

F.E.A.R. (forget everything and run)

…or…

F.E.A.R. (Face Everything And, Rise!)

Fu needs to lighten WAY up. Players are so worried about making mistakes that they aren’t making some plays that are there to be made. If you doubt this? Just look at the rise in misQ’s during high-stress situations on the Lo.FM. This should not be happening with a 22-year-old Qb1 at the helm gents. And yet once the narrowing scoreboard stress level went up our mistakes went Elephant walk right on up. Hand-n-hand or trunk-to-trunk. 

#InvtrovetedSensorThinkerJudge …type coach 1o1.

In my U of Illinois Applied Sports Psych textbook, *the* Dr.Minnix called this: “gating in too many emotional cues…” or too much anxiety in pure terms.


“Circus” in town? Well, who hates the circus? A little Barnum & Bailey There’s a sucker born every minute. Don’t let your very own line-toeing Tao or cultus of Fu’ sucker you in. This team might just need a dwarf, a bag of steaming peanuts, gorilla-wimminz and a flaming sword swallower. Or is that a double-entendre? And although I tangent… this is team is playing way to tight at time(s). This is not going through the proverbial motions so much as this is lacking in (good) clinical emotions themselves. And lest we forget… College football is THE emotional pageantry filled game of them all. Well, in less, of course, it… ain’t.

As a dog chasing his very own tail is rather telling indeed. As the more this fan-base “groans” and “(be)moans”? The fu‘rther into his cognitive Myers–Briggs (I.S.T.J.) shell Fu’ goes. Between the ears, flexing the largest muscle in the human body with: “I’ll show them!” As any Applied Anything textbook will tell yah… we all tend to revert to our basics -be that a pro or con technique(s)- when under pressure. Yes, pressure bursts pipes and pressure makes diamonds alike. Tho’ Fu’ is still questing for his seminal/cultural defining moment now 3.15 seasons in. All while looking more wooden, more laconic and positively more Coach Data of Star Trek fame than ever.

Robotic or not… Coach Fu’ needs an emotional chip breakthrough. He needs to karate chop a green-slate chalkboard and let a piece wing Black.Ashby and White.DAX and do something to wake this sleepy-hollow Ichabod Crane O&M team right on up.

***

And then Irish Hokie dropped this absolute emerald gem on the Pay-Message Board:

Also, I am observing a person who is very uncomfortable answering somewhat difficult questions from the press. I cannot imagine, given his personality set (highly introverted/analytical personality type). Someone (such as his close advisors/handlers) needs to show him what he ‘looks like on camera’…that water bottle is his ‘pacifier’. He’s constantly clenching it, squeezing it, whenever someone asks a question that is even in the slightest way inconvenient for him.

Even though we are only at week 3, like many of you, I am concerned…probably more now than I’ve ever been, even during the waning years of Frank. I have always been a Fuente supporter, but I am seeing someone that might be in a situation where he is so uncomfortable, it is having a debilitating effect on his ability to be THE STEWARD of the program. Of course, his ability/inability to handle the stress of it all is creating a whole host of personality manifestations that are very negative…anyone can see this.”

If you sat here in the 3o4 you heard me say the one-word fourplay description in the 2nd-half.

F.L.A.T., like a… Carpenters Dream.

As that’s how we looked and that’s how we played. Almost, “stale” in point of fact as Fu’s most animated moment was when his pocket-style gone spread-set Qb1 got his bell rung along the sideline. (Fu’ telling Ry’ on wheat to take a dive ’cause “Hookin’ (ain’t easy)). i.e. to give Hooker the medical-timeout moment to warm-up and enter the game with a mini-me sweat already broken.

And then maroonhiker took it up a notch here…

He seems to me to lack some emotional intelligence, as smart as he obviously is, and that is not a good thing for a head coach. Dax got at this when he mentioned that Fuente will walk right by a player or staff member or another person in the hallway and not even notice he’s passed another human being. Imagine Beamer doing that — not often. Not that Fuente has to be Beamer, but if he is going to have the personality of Bill Belicheck then he better put a better product on the field. Prickly doesn’t work in SW Virginia.”

And all that cacti coaching? Well it works pretty dang well in the lowercase (a.a.c.) American Athletic Conference indeed. Tho’ here where the BIG-boys run in the All Coaching Conference?

Well, that’s a misnomer here, see? As here is where the defending national champion lives. Here coaching -the verb- can only cover many ills. (just ask our 2016 A.c.c. championship go at the obviously physically superior Clemson Tigers).

Or maybe JAX really was Fu’s coach’s son head-game maximum pet Qb after all?

Techbits:
Good hands or allState people 1o1…
Tackling improved… quite a bit statistically less the O&M whiff of all-time from poor Ashby. As a change of direction in space is spacy at best for a top-heavy chugger like him. Snapping was perfect; first time/long-time since I’ve said that. Catching was sharp again. Ry’ was actually a bit more accurate. With a helluva an under pressure fingertip 50-yards in the air throw in the 3Q!!! Did I mention Rambo’s blocking; yet? And Bradburn is truly weaponizing the Punter position. They say he is a N.A.S.A. style punter who is crushing “moonshots” on the routine in practice this year (and 57 ypp does not suck!) Additionally, a whopping seven (that’s 7) different members of our catch-corps averaged a first down (≥14.7 ypc) or more per snag. (as Ry’s throw-points are deeper than ever for his final campaign). And Cb Chamarri Conner is a very intriguing edge blitzer… best anticipatory wise I’ve seen since D’lo. Hall seemingly knew the snap-count.

Right now after a 7-point @BeeCee L and 14-point home O.d.u. win... VT football is R.A.T.T., what???

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O.d.u. Lo.FM & TTT (Σ=summary):
  1. V.Tech won both. Tho’ neither says V.Tech blew this 30-point ‘dog O.d.u. out. (and the game tape and box score both agreed). Splash two more Lo.FM. & TTT bogies.
  2. Nevertheless, this was a sloppy or highly uneven game. Going Full Metal Jacket in podiatry terms and shooting ourselves in our very own O&M foot over and over and over… (just look at the misQ’s in the Lo.FM section).

    PLEASE leave lottsa $$$, here!
  3. Sources’ say that Staff says this year’s team “is way ahead of last year’s team” {sic: at the same point}.
  4. Really? I mean… maybe? 2019 V.Tech is the favorite to beat 2018 V.Tech? Mmm-k; tho’ by how much? 2019 V.Tech is a three-point betting fave (VT-3)? Maybe closer to 2019 V.Tech as a full TD fave (VT-6)? Maybe… tho’ are any of you comfortable betting your life on that one?
  5. Me and my life: “We, neither!” I’m a trinary addict. A, i, r! Gettin’ mo and mo’ fond of breathing as I age too. (LOL!)
  6. Still yet…

An ugly O.d.u. win >>> and ugly Boston College L.

25/8.

Stay Frosty, kittens!

(on to the Greenbrier Classic here…
see you for the Furman Eye in the Sky next, and per always… Coach God willing!)
#wimps!

Virginia Tech=31, Old Dominion=17

LETS GO!

Hokies!

bourbonstreet**

18 Responses You are logged in as Test

    1. whoooops!
      That was an easy catch for you I take it?
      ; 0

      we good now and my humbled thx!
      b.street

  1. Fuente brought his problems with him. And kept a coach that is leaving this year that hasn’t helped that problem. Whit has a big job for these problems..

    1. Kan’t be a BIGGER Fu’-fan than Whit.

      If Fu’ catches O&M fire and takes off?
      Comminisher Whit sure looks shiner for it.

      (and versa-vica should the whole shebang tank like Shamu)

      b.street

  2. I don’t know if I would consider it to be us getting outcoached just because they ran more time off the clock.

    That’s how they played against Norfolk State as well so I think they are generally just going at a much slower tempo. But I can’t deny that the slow tempo does help when playing an opponent above your weight class to keep it closer than it probably would’ve been otherwise.

    1. might be so trivial/trite that most don’t get that; either…

      Last year in whoopin’ our ass?
      -1 min. in TOP for O.d.u.

      b.street

  3. This is a lot of analysis for a game that the team treated as a scrimmage. No. Really. This was a for-pay scrimmage. Nothing more. It is hard to take much away from such a game; the game told us nothing about the team, really.

    1. It was whoring out a game… so are the D-1aa’s as well…

      (as they -and this season on the balance- can only confirm: negatives)
      S.O.S. is so flimsy as to not support a positive/affirmation.

      b.street

  4. Good stuff, does the Eye see that a FuFense Starting QB has to be the alpha/field coach leader aka QBEvans or now Terps JJ ( or last Dalton/Lynch). Without that link offense is often in land of the lost. Section 7 crew has debated loss of Coach Scott hurting communication to team (Defense & Special Teams) but without that Alpha QB leader under center, Communication is lost in space with the O.

    Came apparent that post head injury to head coach and QB Willis we’re talking by each other vs being in the same page.

    Let’s Go Hokies
    Beat Furman

    1. Yah; that’s not a bad take…

      …as a true Alpha Qb1 is a buffer/shielder vs. the Alpha Tao of Fu’ martinet ways as well.
      (as Evans did… this rebukes the stickler Fu’ a bit here-n-there)

      b.street

  5. From my east stands vantage point, captains-for-a-day Kumah and Cunningham (particularly the former) spent an awful lot of bench time way out on the edges away from their teammates.

    Wonder when the last time it was, other than the emotionally turbocharged UVA game last year, that Tech was winning a game, started to fade and let it slip away (a few game minutes before ODU cut it to 24-17 I certainly had that sinking feeling and had premonitions of a 31-24 final), but hit a big play knockout punch to regain control. That kind of thing can get some extended mileage out of restoring the winning confidence in both a team and a fanbase.

    1. Let us hope so!
      Tho’ they all sure seemed pretty uptight post-game.
      And that’s a bugbear here to me. Not that you turn flips after
      a closer than expected game. Though: “…you never let ’em see you sweat”.

      b.street

  6. High marks for this one, b’street. IMO one of your finer pieces. One nit to pick: Fu is 3.15 yrs in, not 4.15.

    Thanks for the insight!

  7. Rambo should be our running back! I thought their jucos were big and played well. Where can we get some of these? We need them.

  8. Good Eye.
    Yah; solid point… they did JuCo plug-n-chug like a champ indeed.

    +severa!
    b.street

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