Miami=3o, Virginia Tech=12
Cat’ V Hurricane!
(COMPLIMENTS @Bobby Iddings for his tutoring in authoring the Miami preview this year is long overdue)
***
b’street @Will about 3 odd years ago:
“We won’t know how good we are at TSL, until we stop fleecing the golden-sheep.”
Chris Coleman @b’street on Friday afternoon when I was telling Chris I thought we were finally ready to play a good game. “…That said, I really don’t trust us. Do you?”
Sager words never spoken Mr. Coleman; not once, not ever. And yes, I do trust us. I trust that we are about to go 4 up and 6 down and be in an 8 quarter dogfight for our bowling lives. Of this much I am sure.
Well folks, Jason, the Argo’s and King Pelias have all landed and they are all in a “baaaaaaa-d” mood. I seldom accused of being a Homer (pardon the pun) i.e. a P.A.T.T. or a N.A.T.T. The Eye in the Sky authentically and methodically writes itself each and every week. The film does not lie as lying is for rugs.
So I’ma not gonna mince any words or mix any more metaphors –at least not in the next couple of lines. I saw some things in-game that were down right disturbing and had a whole lot to do with one of the two words in life that I never say out loud. As my keys are always “misplaced” (never the L-word) and I never give up (or the Q-word) on anything. However, from what I saw on film on Thursday night; Virginia Tech sure did as we appropriately enough tanked just like Shamoo with Sea World only 233 miles away.
The Golden Era has now officially come to a close.
The 10-win streak? Done.
The 19 year Bowl streak? TBD (to be determined)
Though I for one am determined to step my damn game up and write you all 3 more (hopefully 4) more quality Eye in the Sky’s and game previews alike. How determined an about to be S-kicked twenty-twelve O&M football team will be at 4-6 remains to be seen. Though I do know that I won’t be missing the next 3 (or 4) Tech Talk Live’s for all the gold in Greece.
1st quarter opening drive:
That’s (hands down) the best opening menu-script we’ve had this season folks! We had four bang-bang plays to open the drive, we had the Cane defense in reverse, we had a truly Sunday looking throw from LT3 to Mallack that was threading a needle in a haystack; and we had a nifty HARD-count to draw the offside’s. Just a very good looking opening drive right up until it wasn’t.
Defend yourself at all times!
“I’ve seen this movie before.” Way back in 1992 in fact, when then a rather flimsy Vah.Tech experienced its last L season. This time LT3 makes a line-of-sight read that made David Wilson look like he had Chuck Yeager esque eagle-eye 15-20 vision. As I have no earthly idea how LT3 never saw #37 of Miami (or even #30 –who would have picked it if #37 did not). As #37 was only about 6=7 feet –not yards, feet- away from J.Phillips on this downright pathetic five yard wounded duck of an underthrown INT. (NOTE to reader: observe that LT3 is leaning backwards with Nobody in his face on this one in his fade-away or slice-throw stance which cuts the throttle on any and all velocity on this throw | (1st quarter 11:20 remaining)
Then to add insult to injury; #36 of Miami totally steals LT3 right at the end of the Hurricane interception return. OUCH!
Texas 2-step times 3!
1st quarter 9:52 remaining:
Boy is this just a downright fine pulling seal block by #79 C.Farris who was gimpy and played this entire game on about 1.7 good legs. Note as well that our pattern of good enough to occasionally great blocking continued for about the first 20 minutes of play.
1st quarter, 8:45 remaining:
Note that Mr. Hughes took a whopping 6-step punt on this one folks. 2 side-steps to field the punt and then a bizarre 4 steps to reset his stride is at least four too many strides as that advances you about 4-5 yards further towards the line-of-scrimmage than you should be in optimal release point terms. Although at least #91 M.Roth (no relation) took exception to all of this mess and drilled a Hurricane right in the back at the end of the dog-pile when both teams were scrumming for a meaningless possession of the football.
YIKES!
1st quarter, 4:44 remaining:
I’m really starting to like #45 J Phillips folks. Just watch this very sneaky steal right over the top of the pile at the end of the 3rd down impromptu LT3 scramble vs. the Fs from Miami. Joey carries some salt in his pockets and Joey can drink from my canteen any day.
1st quarter, 4:15 remaining:
Did not like this play however – not one iota as LT3 was really close to do some serious damage to his left knee that got pinned and partially twisted as he came up hobbled and lame after 3 different Miami defenders bent LT3 backwards at the waist at the end of this Qb read-option keeper. A mere mortal human being would prolly have gone Chef Boyarde and turned his left-knee into spaghetti on a inflection with about 600+ lbs. worth of Hurricanes up on top.
1st quarter, 3:19 remaining:
Watch as senior D.Roberts says: “no thanks” on taking one for the team with a set of alligator arms as he wanted no part of this much contact on the skinny post-pattern over the middle and he likewise wanted no part of the glory of being the hero on this play with a trifecta of Hurricane hurt bearing down on him and set to come crashing ashore. (big PIC link)
1st quarter, 2:00 remaining:
I realize that Kickers hold fondue parties, drink cosmopolitans, enjoy Barbie Dolls, N’Sync and whatnot. However, must you practice pure abstinence from any and all contact with the Miami KO return team in coverage? Just watch as #21 forgoes his manhood and actively avoids not only attempting to make the tackle; he actively ducks contact as well and is peacefully along for the ride on this 81 yard KO return by #5 of Miami. I’m not expecting any Kicker to be Dick Butkus in coverage, however, football still ain’t called band for a reason and band is the ultimate sport if you just wanna play with yourself.
Quarter Bounce:
Miami had 17 total yards in the first 13 minutes of the game and then the U racked up precisely 9` of offense in the entire third-quarter. And yet Miami won by 18 points –I’m jus’ sayin’
Late 1st-Q to early 2nd-Q:
I do not have an official time-stamp for this one folks. Though somewhere in that nebulous time-frame header I used just above there was an O&M disconnect. LT3’s was throwing curveballs right in the dirt; the Bud Stout defense that went an entire opening Quarter with zero missed tackles –the 3 you will see were all off of special-teams- suddenly softened up a bit; both in coverage and in terms of tackling alike. WHY is that? Being down 14-3 shattered our fragile eggshell mind? Does this mean that we the worst lockeroom hygienically incorrect punch line of them all? We are only good for one period because we don’t have a second string?
2nd quarter 6:50 remaining:
Dee.Bee or #8 D.Bonner has had a very uneven season as the adjustment from Cb to Fs and then to Nickel has been an difficult one at best for him. However, this is a good stick; his first one of the season on this level in fact and that tells you a little something-something about his level of confusion as this is clearly a case of a 8s mind tying up his feets.
2nd quarter 5:44 remaining:
Dangerous and fully accidental Hokie-on-Hokie crime play as poor Bonner accidentally leg-whips #34 Kay.Jay or K.Jarett right at the end of the pile as Bonner was hustling to get back into the play right when #34 came flying over the top Shew; as I’ve seen many a play such as this end someone’s game –or even sometimes their season.
GasX 1o1:
2nd quarter, 2:55 remaining:
Someone wrote about the U’s propensity for SportsCenter or highlight reel collision hits pre-game. And here that hammerhead level of hitting was; as the someone who wears jersey #2 for Miami (bleeped) J.C.Coleman up! Gotta give J.C.C. some street-cred for just getting up after this mother-load of a shot! (p.s. these hitting based personal fouls are for pansies! And normally I’m A-#1 when it comes to player safety; how do you legislate hitting outta a contact-driven sport? That’s robbing Peter to pay Paul in my book)
Game Duration:
For seasons someone has been told that year-in and year-out the Miami football game is the most physically brutal one on our schedule –hands down in fact. If I were a betting man –and I am- I’d wager the over on training room trafficking right about now. As I saw kids shaken-up and carried off the field for both sides all night long. That tells me that this is gonna be an extremely physically beat up and likewise extremely mentally worn down Virginia Tech football team set to host high and mighty F.S.U. on 12 days rest. (i.e. I’m already toying with the idea of picking the shutout)
2nd quarter under a minute:
See those three gold-bars under the Virginia Tech name on your screen Frank Beamer? Those are called timeouts. Well, unless you refuse to call them that is. As the only thing I can think of here is we miscounted how many TO’s we had left; and then refused to look at the game-clock once it was wound for play after the Zebras correctly returned one one, two full O&M timeouts for whatever reason.
Presuming we had gotten the first down inside of Miami’s 10 via whatever means; we left at least two full plays out on the field in this one. Maybe even three as you could conceivably have run the football three times and stopped the clock after the play with a full compliment of TO’s in hand at the 0:29 remaining mark. Recall we opted for the FGA on third down with 0.05 and 1 TO left on the clock. That’s at least one play officially left out on the field no matter how you slice it.
Loading ...Longfield Management: (Lo.FM)©
Virginia Tech:
positive= |||| ||| (1 Miami penalty)
negative= |||| |||| ||
neutral= |||| |
Miami:
positive= |||| || (2 TD’s)
negative= |||| |||| |||| |||
neutral= |||| (one VT penalty)
On offense we actually blocked ok which you will see in the blocking pie-chart in part II. Our Tb’s only combined for -4 yards on the evening and we enjoyed a downright well-disciplined Spartan night as we were only whistled for 2 penalties or 20 yards in reverse. And yet, Miami downed 3 punts inside our very own 20 yardline, we gift-wrapped starting field position for the Canes at our very own 19 and 16 yardline and suddenly starting field-position went total Zombie craze on us and eviscerated our living guts. That’s a real problem folks as Bud Lyte has simply not played as well as the rest of the O&M sporting media has been telling all of you for the last 8 quarters of play .What does it matter if there are only 19 and 16 yards to allow, and you allow the full 100% of 19 and 16 yards each time? Parse yourself and think about that one for a moment folks. As Bud Lyte just allowed 347 yards to Miami and 295 yards the week before @ Clemson. That’s 321 yards on average vs. two pretty fair to middling offenses and that reads all shiny and all fine-and-dandy to the less than sophisticated football mind. Such would indeed rank a downright nifty 20th best in all of D-1 football as total defense goes. And if you Aunt Kim had nutz and a bolt she’d be my uncle Tim.
Bert-n-Ernie
Bud Lyte is actually not playing that well because Bud Lyte does not have that many yards behind it left to give up. It is field-position my friends that is killing this 2012 Virginia Tech football team in mutual offensive and defensive terms alike. Someone said on the radio ~3 weeks ago that the twenty-twelve book was officially out on how to defeat this years’ Virginia Tech football team. You simply play for field-position, field-position and if all else fails play for field-position again. Leave long field-goal attempts out on the field and do anything and everything you can to pin Tech back deep. Farfetched homerun throws, selecting the wind (literally – not what’s down below) for the 2nd and 4th quarters, and simply force the Frank-n-Stiney offense to put enough consecutive plays together to call it a long-field drive all the while keeping the Bud Lyte defense pinned against the ropes by cutting off the ring and see how it does when it has to rope-a-dope in the championship rounds. Just like Real Estate, the 2012 football season is all about three things: “location, location, location.”
Recall that Bud Lyte which was playing pretty stout for the first quarter and then again in the third (i.e. when well rested) had no TFL (tackles for a loss) in the first-half and no sacks on the entire night! Now recall that Virginia Tech only finished with 4 TFL on the evening and if not for 8 Hurricane yellow-flags -7 of which produced 36% of the Hurricane Lo.FM’s Bud Stout would have nearly never played in the U’s offensive backfield all night long. A lot of other hacks are praised how well the O&M stop-unit played. Well they barely scratched Miami Qb S.Morris and they forced zero turnovers on this critical Coastal Division clash of a night. They did however tackle extremely poorly in the even-quarters (second and forth) after tacking rather smartly in the opening or odd stanzas (first and third) in each half. Or in other words, they tackled damn well right up until they did not; or right up until they wore down and then plum tuckered out. Now notice that Virginia Tech won TOP (time of possession) by a staggering 9 minutes and change and employed 17 more rushing attempts and 7 more passing tries. Anybody else sees something ‘rong with that set of maths? Well, I can offer you one single, solitary explanation; and film-study did tip-me-off to this in point of fact. As I saw numerous Hokies sucking wind on defense after just one or two initial passing plays from the beginning of a given Hurricane drive all night long. Now mix in the fact that Bud Lyte oh so quietly surrendered another 100 yard rusher on mere 11 carries and you have to begin to wonder just how much longer until this pistol-whipped stop-unit officially taps-out.
That to me speaks to pulmonary conditioning or lack thereof as old-school wind goes. How can you be in your very early 20’s -at the latest- and be that winded after only one or two plays after sitting on the bench for that long as TOP goes? Honestly folks, what sense does any of that make to any of you? Not much to me; however, the paucity of clutch plays outta our offense when combating long down-n-distance situations does speak volumes to me.
This 2012 football team is the Nick Anderson of N.B.A. Finals infamy of the 2012 A.c.c. When the chips get big and blue we turn blue in the face and either fail to make the big play or give-up the same to the opposition time and time again. In this critical Coastal Division football game, Virginia Tech left at least 10 points out on the field in this one while going self-Heimlich maneuver and choking away 17 more. Cough-cough, gag-gag as this twenty-twelve football team kan’t stand the heat much less the hottest fire — and its mettle is not exactly made out of the strongest steel.
“LETS GO!“
“hokies!“
bourbonstreet**
I sure wish Bstreet would use the English language when he wites!!
You poor Bastard, Oh Geez, for a moment there I thought that I was talkin to Logan Thomas. Wow, the worst VT Season in 20 years. Hey BStreet, I still love you, but it is no fun to dissect the game with you anymore. We have no Basketball, this is it for me. I’ll look forward to your BS in the Fall, and with any luck at all, Jim Weaver will be a Tech Sideline Subscriber down in Florida with the wealthy Jews.
bstreet, you could have saved some time and just typed the word “poop” for this eye in sky. haha just playing
SeniorHokieJock
OBSERVATIONS:
1)The best long ball receivers are “gliders”. Their heads and eyes stay level as they run so they can see the ball coming without slowing down. Corey Fuller is a glider. Marcus Davis is a “digger”. He digs with his toes causing his head to bounce as he runs. He tends to slow down on long balls in order to see the ball. Check the game films on Davis.
2)Tech’s offense is going to get Logan Thomas killed. Plays are too slow developing and too predictable.
3)Dyrell Roberts has been hurt so badly so often that he might be gunshy for life. His alligator arms across the middle are understandable. Don’t send him across the middle.
ACTION:
1)Speed up plays. Short bubble screens to Davis. Tight ends across the middle – 5 yards and quick. Pass to set up the run. Take the pressure off the offensive line. Shorten the time they have to block.
2)Florida State is viewed as a suicide game for us. Drop conservative play. Try to block every kick – we look terrified of roughing the kicker. Turn loose the “wolves”.
3)Focus on getting to the Florida State QB – jail break frequently. Find the weak player on their offensive line and go after him with blitzes through and over him.
4) Use a third speed “gunner” on kickoffs. Maybe Marcus Davis? Get downfield faster.
5)When players don’t “implement” the plays, change the plays or change the players.
6)Coach Beamer, assign a clock/timeout manager and listen to him.
PSYCHOLOGY/COACHES:
1)Do something different to reduce pressure and relax players. Find a way to let them have fun again.
2)Season is shot! Get outside the box in your thinking.
FANS:
1)We have the same coaches and the same players for the rest of this season. Support them
for the next 3 -4 games. Try to make it to the end of the year emotionally. In our anger and disgust, think what the team is feeling.
2)Pretending I’m a coach (as noted above) seems to dilute my anger with attempts at solving the team’s problems. I doubt anyone will listen, but it helps me. Use your own approach and stay or leave a you choose (as if you need my permission).
Jack, class of ’61 and still competing in Senior Olympic track and field and 3 on 3 half court basketball – 70 to 74 age group. Sports competition tends to partially release anger build-up from watching 2012 Va Tech football.I recommend it.
To 132,857 Hokie’s Comment, You Sir, are a Frickin Genius, plus You made Me laugh! You are very astute, and I’m sure that your Wife finds You very Ass Toot as well. Did You ever know Andy Bowling up there, he was a Bad Man!
Lots of good points there – especially regarding the punts. I’ve been meaning to write about this lately. Beamerball really died when Frank gave up on his aggression. Up to about 2003-2004 we tried to bluck everything. Punts, field goals or extra points – it didn’t matter we were coming. And the results spoke for themselves. Even when we didn’t block punts we ended up with a lot of great returns and great field position as the punter invariably shanked it or hit a line drive right to our returner. Then the other teams started to figure it out, they faked a few punts and field goals and got us pretty good. Since that time we’ve lost it. Now when we do go after a kick it’s telegraphed and a lot of we hit the punter. We play scared on special teams – we play not to screw up. We’ve got to re-instill the aggression. Go after everything. Special teams is the phase of the game where momentum changes the quickest. Quit playing not to mess up and start trying to make something happen. At this point I’ll take a few penalties for a big play. For whatever reason that’s what we lack on special teams and defense, the big play.
That poll question’s answer: Go all in! A win vs. FSU could right this Hokie ship
That’s about as funny as LT’s long TD run when he looked like a giraffe being chased by a lion.
I love the Hokies as much as the next guy but it’s going to be an ugly game vs FSU no matter what happens.
I will go ahead and predict the shutout.
FSU 27
Tech 0
Go ahead and bash me. It simply is what it is. Next season don’t look real good either.
Both Roth liked your description.
He was a big ole gangly Giraffe feeling the pursuit of the beast.
b-street
He really did look like a Giraffe being chased by Lions. That’s funny, I don’t care who you are. Logan has alot of potential. All the Best, Mike O’Cain
Go all in against FSU. This is football and its physical. Play tough and play hard every game or get off the field. I hate when the pros don’t play starters right before the playoffs so they “don’t get hurt”. Thats garbage. Even if we are ble to manage to keep it close I think that would be a boost to the team. But I do think we will get stomped good and hard especially after the rough game and the rest (lets call it 3 weeks since they had duke the week before their bye) FSU had.
Still gonna watch and root the hokies on though. Just not going to expect the win or a close game. Just don’t completely embarass yourselves hokies.
27 is way too low!
B-Street
Good article by the way. Looking forward to the rest of them for this year.
I’m signing off for the season. God bless Hokie Nation.
/r
Slim
B-Street
TAP OUT !!!
It’s coming against FSU on Thursday night. You are right to predict the shut-out.
EYES WIDE OPEN – good to see you and C2 finally speaking your minds with EWO!
The question to answer is, where do we go from here. I’ll be glad to offer you an answer after the scrimmages next summer.
Hang tough Hokie Nation !!
/r
Slim
@Slim:
Thx for all the responses this year.
F.S.U. can shut-us-out. No doubt about it in my mind.
TOUGH part is; I’m not sure we’ve got a whole lot coming back next year. Who is that much better who is on the bench or taking a r-shirt or whatever?
Our attitude needs work.
Our coaching does (on offense –mostly; though not entirely).
And yet how do we coach Talent?
That’s Coach God’s domain.
b’street
I don’t think we’re as short on talent as it looks. In fact the team coming back next year probably has more talent than 2 or 3 of our last 10 teams. First, the young guys will get better. For the most part they get bigger and stronger between their first 2-3 years and the reps help them understand better what they’re doing. I would imagine Wilson will just take a redshirt at middle linebacker so hopefully he’ll be back. That should make a difference. Secondary could be pretty good with Jarrett, a healthy Kyle Fuller, Kendall Fuller and an improved Manning. I might move Kyle Fuller to FS but that’s just me. I’m not reall high on Bonner. On offense we’ve recruited well lately and we’ll get DJ Coles back healthy. To me that’s a much bigger loss than we thought it would be. Plus Stanford looks good at WR and I’m looking forward to seeing Caleb play. We’re not Alabama talented but we’re not that far down. What we are lacking though are real playmakers on either side of the ball. I hoped Gayle was going to be that guy on Defense but he hasn’t been.
To me this year has been a combination of things which I’ll list.
1. O-Line graduation really hurt us (DeChristopher especially in my mind was underrated)
2. Hosley and Wilson going early took away two of our real difference makers. Both of those guys could overcome a lot of schematic errors with freaky individual abilities.
3. Further attrition of Clark, Aromire, etc. drained good backups from the program and early season injury to DJ Coles took away our real playmaker / best blocker at WR.
4. Bad schematic decisions by our coaches in the off season bit us early on – too much work on the stupid pistol formation / hurry up, too many RBs in the rotation.
5. Logan’s Sophomore slump – I know he’s a JR but you get the point. He’s not playing at the same level anymore.
6. No leaders when things got rough. For whatever reason we don’t have the guys on the team anymore like Vince Hall who would hold everyone accountable. Maybe we’ve gone too corporate, maybe we’re too nice, but we need to find the next Cornell Brown.
Thanks B-Street
I agree with NovaHokie. The cubbard is not bare.
DEFENSE: Since we are fairly good this year, we will be better next year by:
Putting Kendall Fuller at corner in place of Kyle (Kyle played corner as a true freshman and so can Kendall)
Move Kyle back to Rover.
BIG NEED: Find someone who can cover the RB or TE in short passing situations (Rover/LB?)
OFFENSE: Start w/basics.
Need to find the studs who really want to play O-line.
Play a true freshman or redshirt RB – Coleman is good but not the answer.
Use a 4 receiver scheme.
Stop all the meaningless shifts prior to snap.
In the spring – open up the QB competition and LT3 will respond and play better.
SPECIAL TEAMS: Woe un to me, not sure, but I think the answer is to put our best players on ST as we did 93-2005. Seems we no longer do that as a rule – now it is by exception.
Thanks for the opportunity to respond one more time.
/r
Slim
B-Street
OOPS, one last thought on offense.
Need to convert some of thos big mobile tight-ends to fullback. I realize CFB like to use walk-ons and give the little guys a chance but we are undersized in too many positions such as FB and special teams. This would also allow the FB to split out as a TE or the fourth receiver. Finally, STOP the 4th down attempts until we have enough O-line depth that we can substitue fresh legs on 4th and 1, or 3rd and 1, just as Nebraska did to us in the ’96 Orange Bowl.
Best to Hokie Nation. Hang Tough.
/r
Slim