Virginia Tech=62, William & Mary=17
Virginia Tech football did what a bigtime power conference team is supposed to do when hosting a buncha Hostess cupcakes. Virginia Tech football treated them, poorly!
The Hokies did about as much and as well as you can hope for, less one epic #11 Wr from William and Mary and one pokey looking Hokie snap. That really mucked around with an erstwhile pretty clean day of football scrumming on short-sleep, short-rest, short-practice and all while being long on @F.s.u. emotions and physicality sprayed everywhere indeed. As this near walkover VicTory was less competitive than the final score shows… and #11 of W&M can drink from my canteen any day. And frankly, he can prolly drink from coach H.Wiggins canteen as well. He was that good and yet the Fighting Gobblers voted this Tribe off their Duck Pond Island and beyond on hurtful Dt injury; that’s about as good as you could R.A.T.T. hope for on 3.5 days prep’. Though let us see what went right, who got hurt, and what’s what after that…
Game Duration:
For such a lopsided game, the O&M Training Room was on the receiving end of a lopsided amount of dings and dents. Truly… and you almost have to wonder if short-work-week fatigue played any role here?
1Q 13:45 remaining:
First up on the hit parade was a guy who got his 2017 season hit up and this was only the first of his two black-n-blue boo-boos on the day. As big bad Nijman takes an accidental friendly-fire knee spear to the soft-fleshy back of his very own left knee in a play very reminiscent of the play that collapsed the posterior of his right-knee unceremoniously last year.
And because that’s just not enough for a guy coming off of a season-ending 2017 knee injury already… at the 2Q 13:33 mark, poor Nijamn is blocking smartly enough downfield and takes an inadvertent eye-poke for it. Dang cruel mistress the game of football. (may St.Nikhon and St.Helen bless)
1Q 6:45 remaining:
And then it got worse, possibly very… as the one defender we could not possibly afford to L went down like a sack (pardon the pun) like a sack of potatoes, like a dead sack of potatoes at that. As Big Walker Mountain suffers the entirely dreaded “no-contact” injury as he just falls down during the pass-rushing attempt. At first, I thought this to be a knee, though at the last sec’ in slowest-mo’, it looked like his left-ankle inflected, outwardly, on the plant, bearing every single oz. of his beefy looking full laterally moving weight. Dang.
As R.Dub looked very, very, upset after the injury, he even threw his hat (helmet) at the Hokie bench in disgust; and that’s not a good sign men. And upon replay, it sure looks like he (Rick’s) stepped right on the heel of the pass-blocking right-Ot of W&M and his ankle hit the Worsham Field turf it rolled so far. Either he’s super flexible or this is an ugly looking high-ankle sprain. (may St.Servatius bless)
1Q 4:55 remaining:
Well, this just sucks… as none other than Joshua Jackson accidentally harvest and rolls my peep’s best off-season oLine scoop right on up from behind as Joshua Jackson totally collapses Christian Darrisaw’s right-leg (and I do mean: leg) from behind on the impromptu bootleg (bad pun again); scramble. (St.Nikhon bless) Yikes!
2Q 11:04 remaining:
And in the category of giving new meaning to the “stretch-play,” we see Joshua Jackson sagely stretching the football out beyond the threshold of the vertical plane of the goal line in not less than a whopping 9 man dogpile where anything and everything does go {sic: on}. Helluva a heady play by JAX as I have no idea how he saw the goal line paint with his head pointing the downward/’rong way. Epic sense of field-awareness by #17; impressive; truly.
2Q 3:09 remaining:
The over the shoulder pitch-n-catch from Qb2 R.Willis to Wr1 D.Hazelton is at least a collegiate catch and quite frankly that’s a Pro’ throw. As I truly thought this to be a proverbial bad pass into virtual triple-coverage in real time. Although Ry’ threaded this needle right as rain… and upstairs St.Matthew and Matthew 13:25 must be proud as this is nothing short of a helluva an camel jocking 37-yard pass.
2Q :34 remaining:
I write for Will (Stewart); not for William & Mary… see… though still yet, I gotta give W&M some love for their absurd special-teams and offensive peal-back hitting as none other than all-Dick Butkus Lb recruit Dax Hollifield -who had a fine game in relief of Rivers beyond this play; a very fine football game; actually- as Dax found out the hard way indeed. Welcome to D-1(aa) speed son.
And was someone’s pre-game report bang on the chin or what?!?
Game duration:
Observe that the hard trying, hard living, needs to be hard studying T.Hill at De now vends a massive left-shoulder harness… I’ma just saying’. And I’ma also just sayin’ that for all his zone intrigue and aplomb, rookie Wr/Te hybrid and ex-Qb J.Mitchell cannot block. (recall my peeps were the ones saying that they thought him a bit, “soft” back in the spring)
Just musing a bit here… this is not from a source… just me thinking out loud… and we all know how dangerous that can be; right? Though did anyone else find the timing of the Willis substitution at Qb to be, unusual, indeed? Then why bring JAX back in after that?
(as there are whispers of a non-throwing arm in-game ding, here)
4Q 14:22 remaining:
Yah; you can see why Bud loves his boy (Dax) on this play in extraordinary particular. As the older I get, the more and more I realize that sporting-I.Q. and instincts are more or less code for vision. Field-vision in this sports’ case… as just watch as Dax literally sees the play before anyone else does on our defense. He’s a first mover to the hand-off/ball-carrier and he moves so fast that he literally jukes/slips his way past the W&M lead-blocker and oLineman and makes a solo stop his very ownself just beyond the right or even side A-gap. As the percentage of peeps in the world who can see this play developing and attack it before anyone else can even see is way way south of <0.1%. Or 15-15 Chuck Yeager vision or that of Canton Ohio, fame.
4Q 10:33 remaining:
UN-freakin’-BELIEVABLE!
Truly… this is the sickest most athletic play in O&M defense that I’ve seen in several years; plural; maybe even pushing up on half-a-decade give/take. As yah; no doubt; the kung-Fu‘ kick of the throw in pass-defense is nifty enough. As this is a Coach God truly Gifted play by one #26, third-year 6′, 188 lb. freaky-freak, Jovonn Quillen Jr. Who grasshoppers say used to be a very slick, slippery, and downright dynamic Qb, and oh yes… he has a nose for the ball, he blocks kicks, and did I mention that he’s virtually 4′ of vertical (rotational) leap off the ground here?!? As someone might wanna go give T&F coach Dave cCianelli a nudge.
As a lifelong Twitter/fb.com avatar is… born!
4Q 7:38 remaining:
I’ve never noticed this before… so I do not know if it is particular to special-teams Ace, coach James Shibest or not? Though do observe that he has his 1’s (or starters) in for this FG-block attempt late in an already decided 55-14 game at this foregone conclusive moment. As I coulda still played in this contest and it would have made no nevermind either way.
Though then guess what happens next?
As my pseudo boy H.Gains decides he wants to take some Tribal scalps and fight whomever he can… and then watch as our starting ‘backer, (Dylan Rivers), one #44 pulls up lame right along the sideline on his right-side (leg)… and I am left wondering why we do not have a FG-block set of 2’s to go get that VT-41 point-spread work?
4Q 6:10 remaining:
Was that so-called: “game speed” or what? And this from a kid who the whispers say needs the Fu’fense to slow down just a scosche for his head-game liking. As Hooker hit 4th gear and red-lined that all the way to end zone while never seemingly putting the pedal to the metal (God Bless Burt Reynolds) fully wound out 5th (gear). As there is no way in the world that his published 40 times can be correct after that kinda black T.A. effortless 69-yard dusting. Hooker has the look-n-feel of a legit 4.5o (or less) kinda guy with a lot under the hood to me.
Time To Throw (TTT)©:
Virginia Tech:
Qb pressured=7
Qb hurried=1
Qb hits=4
Sacked=1
William & Mary:
Qb pressured=12
Qb hurried=2
Qb hits=13
Sacked=1
Well, considering we just faced a star-studded constellation class F.s.u. d-Line and then a pretty feisty D-1aa W&M d-Line inside of 5 days and change time… I’d say all blocking Fu’fense things look pretty fair to middling, all short-work week things considered. And they might just look even better than that come November.
As we just saw the Vice Squad go deep… as in deep into his 2’s or top-9 rotation. Yes, snapping the ball was an (ongoing) issue, though so is the whispered cracked finger of our C1. Chung sliding over had the same snapping ills, and yet there was even an Austin Cannon sighting of all the things. As seeing a worker-bee like A.Cee get some playing-time love does an O&M heart, right.
And even if this oLine is not quite yet 100% fully rebuilt this is the deepest I’ve seen this oLine in at least 1.5 decades; plural. As it’s a pretty good if not quite a dominant oLine; and it is initial oLine coach Grimes deepening six through 10 as I type. As A.D. Whit really needs to pull coach-Fu’ aside and find out what the going rate for keeping a hidden oLine coaching emerald in the rough is gonna cost and likewise what it will take to keep $&¢ coach Hilgirth spotting things in Jamerson weight-room(s) indeed. As these two are doing yeoman type reclamation work(s) and are worth their respective weights in gold. As whatever they are being paid right now it sure as hell ain’t too much.
That being said… the debutant among you will notice that blocking mathematically regressed, or did it actually, progress? Well, what it truly did vis-à-vis our F.s.u. grading was to go mo’ middleocore. As the “Swiss” or neutral blocking-grade really bloated. Now it did bloat upwardly, receiving more osmosis funding from bettering up from below (negative) blocking plays than from worsening from above (positive) or drooping blocking plays. So if more negative blocking plays actually went neutral… I suppose that’s a centrist, middle of the aisle, or a Breyers uppity version of bean-chip vanilla. Or maybe it was just an Occam’s Razor or “tired” short-week midnight shadow version of blocking? Though either way; it did not get worse, the only maker is to quibble over how much it did get, better?
***
As other than the downright very solid W&M Dt1 (the Murry kid), we (mostly) had our way up front (physically) with this D-1aa opponent.
And honestly, how D-1aa long has it been since you saw a Virginia Tech D-1 power conference offense line treat a low voltage D-1aa defensive line just like that?
Like what they are… which is Colonial Athletic Association at most, or at best.
Vice Squad: #Burp!
Virginia Tech:
positive: ||||
Swiss (neutral): ||||
negative: ||||
William & Mary:
positive: |||
Swiss (neutral): |||| |||| (1 VT flag)
negative: |||| ||||
As trust me on this one gents… our 34th Def. S&P+ national ranking, our 9th ranked rushing defense and our modestly ranked 59th best passing efficiency defense will only advance and better from here on out. Coach God and stop-unit health permitting of course… as this much defensive youth is still on the pretty well ‘rong side of the Experience-Curve and they are not much deeper into the somewhat congruent Learning-Curve as well.
Basically, I liked everything beyond a need for a modest tacking and leverage improvement(s) here-n-there. Yes, the hawkish among you are correct; tackling is trading at a C to C+ centrist level overall for the year at this very moment. That’s the R.A.T.T. news, the good news is it has gotten better in-game both weeks -a very encouraging S&C sign- and it did improve from week no.1 on NO days rest in between and on just 3.5 coaching days the verb. That’s pretty damn solid gridiron work gents and 126 Tackles for a Loss (TFL), and 101 Qb sacking defensive teams, and 6 red-zone defensive teams all wish they had our halt-unit problems.
And if you will note above, tackling improved by close to 200% overall and on a less than robust short-work week. I’m pretty okay with that… even if that was merely stopping vs. a so-so D-1aa foe.
That and the Fu’fense was really just one botched 1st-down (BAD) snap 3Q series removed from nearly Lo.FM bitchplexing little ole D-1aa Bill & Mary on the day.
That’s what time it is… folks!
Loading ...Love our Kicker being a still perfected 12 for 12 on the year and in point of fact, he is currently 20 of 21 on leg-swings for his O&M life. Really enjoyed the yards-after-contact (Y.A.C.) run-game improvements. S.Peoples looking more and more like the absurd 502-yard single-game high school runner some of us all knew him to be. Terius Wheatley showcasing the next level burst that none other than our very own Chris Coleman hinted him to be.
All that, and if you sat here with me, did you not hear me say -in between furious note taking on my 1987 Shanks Hall clipboard- “this O is just starting to “click”.
As for my $0.o3 cents in the game of life.. that was as snappy as I’ve seen Joshua Jackson operate early-on in terms of the “P” side of his R.P.O. fits’. And can coach Corny write an Icon of an opening script or what?!? As the Qb whisper himself has gone font size=1 on oh so quietly authoring the 28th best 3rd-down conversion percentage O during the typically sharky looking Long-field Managment situations in D-1 football. And oh yes, 2nd best in all the land in the all-important vital of Turnover Margin (say it with me now folks), ‘does, not, suck!’
Jerry West, yes *the Logo* Jerry West taught us two key things regarding great teams at basketball camp many moons ago…
The first Westatocracy teaching is that… great teams go ahead and beat the teams they are supposed to beat and they beat them badly.
The second West edict is that… that great teams find a way to win when they do not play their best. We may not (quite) have a checkmark in the second check-box; yet; however, it has likewise been many a moon since I’ve seen V.Tech take a cupcake out behind the woodshed and devour the same. And less that one skewing bad snap series… everything pretty much checks out that Virginia Tech did just that, that Virginia Tech treated William & Mary accordingly and therefore treated this cupcake to a butt load of splinters.
Now imagine what this program can/will be when it marries epic parts (i.e. players) to epic coaching and culture… and as science-fact quantified coach Spock cultural evidence I offer you our 6th most disciplined in yellow laundry or penalties rankings— kick some knuckleheads to the curb and peeps toe dat damn line! Imagine that?!?
As two outta three ain’t bad in some sports although three outta three is a tix to the A.c.c. title game just begging to be punched.
#TheCoastalDivisionTitleLivesHere!
#wimps!
Virginia Tech=62, William & Mary=17
“LETS GO!”
“Hokies!”
bourbonstreet**
Does anyone understand this b_street guy? Must know his football, i think, but hard to translate.
This is one of his easier to read dissertations.
Agry.
Almost, dilute… not very sesquipedalian.
b.street
Good piece B!!!
: )
b.street
ahhhh insights from the eye in the sky…. Mr. Walker’s injury was worrisome as there he was on the ground… OUCH!!! Dax welcome tattoo happened right in front us Section 7, got caught with head not on swivel…experience… and well as I’ve said for quite some time, its Time TO TURN THE DEUCE LOOSE… those wheels and that arm are the best RPO Mr. Cornelsen has in his tool kit!!!
Deep debate after game w/in the Section 7 Crew: feel the OL love, but for a few something’s amiss, yes our starting center can’t consistently snap the ball to the QB, but more, there’s penetration up the gut too often forcing our 5′ 12″ QB out of comfort zone and passing from back foot. Believe an aggressive 4 man Defensive front will give this group fits until the G-C-G passing transition of DT gets more smooth… just an observation hope it improves w/ more practice.
Let’s Go…Hokies!!!
Beat the Pirates
“those wheels and that arm are the best RPO Mr. Cornelsen has in his toolkit!!!”
Maybe… (tho’ QVT might want a word with dis…)
However, either way; where is his head?
Though feets/jets he sure has.
That’s superlative game speed. Emmitt Smith+++++++++++.
dang!
b.street
Love B-Street’s schtick as usual! Although some do not, I do. The shoulder brace on T. Hill was also on during the free shoes u game. Might wanna check the video on that. Maybe injury or just precaution as #94 has the sickest bend and lean off the edge dipping that left shoulder that I’ve ever seen! The brace may help keep that shoulder down and help prevent OTs from posting 94 up. VERY nice to see we/VT can go under center in short yardage (albeit with RW) and score! The RW throw to Hazelton was definitely pro level putting it only where the WR could catch it and no DB could influence. SICK the QB talent we have in the 4 deep! WOW! Not sure little ol’ VT has ever had this amount of pivot riches. Heck, the entire team may be the most talented and game ready beyond the 2 deep I’ve ever seen; can’t remember ever seeing so many players get in early against a Bill & Mary type team! Bodes well for the present and future!
correct!
Nice Eye too.
As I had/saw that in my Eye (notes) last week and it never made it into the article.
So yes, it is an August Camp injury (as it was not there in the spring).
Qb quad-4 is sick.
Can we trade one for Dt, help?
; )
cheers!
b.street