My main/only issue with the coaching staff...

[jocknerd]

In the Kansas game, it wasn't that we passed, it was that we seemed to only throw deep. But thats our style. Run, run, throw deep. Thats how it was under Vick. Thats how it is now. Its like Beamer has no patience for an effective short to medium range passing game other than the occasional out pattern.

[bugman]

I am flabbergasted at the number of college football coaches that are available. The VT staff surely can find an OC upgrade on this forum.

“We are inclined to think that if we watch a football game or a baseball game, we have take part in it.” John F. Kennedy

[public knowledge]

Also, in big games, see what is working, then do the opposite. Since the other team knows what is working for us, they *might* change their defense and stop us, so we will trick them by not exploiting their weakness.

[ShockWaveVT]

That is how it works, force them to stop it. I remember Stinespring saying in the Kansas OB, "he saw a safety creeping into the box, that is why he call a pass play". That is not how it is done. Force the safety to commit and ACTUALLY STOP the run, then on the next play playaction not before.

You have to make the defense ACTUALLY stop the strategy first not before. You actually make them adjust and have the safety IN THE ACTUAL TACKLE BOX, before you play action pass, not creeping down.

This is something Raleigh Hokie has noticed as well, and mentioned in his excellent writeup about the Sugar Bowl. Our offense play calling seems to be predicated completely on alignments - trying to take what the defense is giving us. For instance... Who cares if 6'4" Marcus Davis is matched up 1v1 against a 5'8" freshman CB in the redzone, they're in 3-deep zone so let's run the ball instead of a corner fade pass.

We certainly don't seem to attack mismatches or even stick with what's working to see if the defense can adjust to stop it.

The only times we seem to go against this tendency of "taking what the defense gives us" is when it's the "unexpected" thing to do so. Like trying a QB sneak when there are 3 DT's lined up on our Center & the A-gaps.

[InsaneHokie]

All about adjustments. Bud does it but our Offensive staff doesn't...It's very frustrating. It's like Stiney develops a plan and if it doesn't work...oh well. Clemson was weak against the run yet we come out slinging it around with no misdirection calls. I just couldn't imagine VT without Bud. Thank You Bud!!!

[InsaneHokie]

We're not big on routes that allow the WR to catch the ball on the run. We throw a ton of hook routes and sideline routes. I did like the quick slant to DJ Coles in the Sugar Bowl. It worked great so we stopped doing it

[hokie-ritaville]

I think you touched on something here that is fundamentally wrong with how we attack teams...sometimes I feel as though we are so determined to be balanced that we get away from what's working, be it the running game to the outside(v. Kansas/Orange Bowl) or the downfield passing game(v. Michigan/Sugar Bowl). There's nothing wrong with being one dimensional if the one dimension is working.

On the defensive side of the ball it's a completely different story; yes, we're trying to make the other team one dimensional, but the one dimension we want is them to be passing every down. I don't think we've ever gone into a game with the idea that on defense we're going to take away the pass first.

[IAHokie07]

The issue with the offense is that they try to mesh all the different styles out there into one playbook. I can't think of any other successful team that runs an offense like ours. Alabama runs a pro style run-first offense. Oregon runs the spread. Oklahoma State is a pass-first pro style offense. VT puts people on the field and runs a mix of everything, but does so with a pro style run first mentality. Therein lies the problem: the personnel on the field doesn't match what they are trying to do. Spread offense relies on tempo, which this offense obviously does not have. We recruit OL to run a spread type offense (faster more nimble bodies up front) and typically recruit mobile QBs which are more conducive to the spread, but we run the clock down and never get into a rythym offensively.

Power run game used to be awesome, but now that we altered the OL to be more nimble and quick, we lost the beef up the gut and any holes get stuffed, particularly when the runs up the gut are called out of a spread formation or zone read play call.

The list goes on with the incompatibilties of the personnel to the offensive styles (plural).