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1. One some-more good offense for aged time’s sake
According to Sports Reference’s SRS measure, Frank Beamer has been in assign of 12 of Virginia Tech’s 13 best-ever teams.
His 1999 and 2000 squads that went a total 22-2 are third and initial on a list, and he roughly surfaced himself with a 2005 group that went 11-2. Tech won during slightest 10 games for 8 uninterrupted seasons after all-world quarterback Michael Vick left, and a Hokies haven’t finished with a losing record given 1992, his sixth year in Blacksburg.
The Hokies have finished in a AP check 18 times, and Beamer was to appreciate for 16 of a finishes, including all 7 top-10s. With 231 wins, he is Tech’s winningest conduct coach, a cold 167 victories forward of second-place Bill Dooley. If a deputy Tech manager went 15-0 and won a inhabitant pretension for 15 true years, he’d still be 6 wins behind Beamer.
In a annals of Virginia Tech football, he has lapped a margin several times.
We know all of that. We also know this: in terms of SRS, Beamer’s final 4 teams have ranked 24th, 58th, 40th, and 38th in Tech history. In my F/+ ratings, a Hokies ranked between fourth and 17th for 5 of 6 seasons between 2005-10. Since then, they have ranked 28th, 41st, 25th, and 33rd.
This is still flattering good, mind you. But it’s also a transparent slip. And it isn’t too formidable to figure out a means of a problem.
TL;DR
Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports
Projected SP+ ranking: 26
5-year recruiting ranking: 25
Biggest strength: The invulnerability has a best pass rush and best cornerbacks in a country, and maybe a best coordinator, too.
Biggest doubt mark: Even if we’re good and write 2014 off to injuries and youth, it’s been a while given Virginia Tech had a somewhat dangerous offense.
Biggest 2015 game: Virginia Tech-Georgia Tech (Nov. 12) is roughly always heated and critical in a multiplication race.
In one sentence: All a healthier Tech offense has to be is competent, and a invulnerability will take a Hokies to a 10-win deteriorate and a expected multiplication title.
Defense and special teams have prolonged been a Virginia Tech job card. Beamer was a defensive coordinator during The Citadel and Murray State before he became a conduct coach, and given 1995 he has employed his former Murray State linebacker Bud Foster as one of a many successful defensive coordinators in history.
Still, on many of Tech’s best teams, offense was somewhere between a cunning and a strength. Beamer’s 12 best seasons all came between 1995 and 2010; of a 55 players Tech had drafted in that span, 29 were defenders and 26 were descent players. Vick, Marcus Vick, Tyrod Taylor, Josh Morgan, Kevin Jones, Andre’ Davis, Lee Suggs, Jim Druckenmiller … a lot of a many iconic players of a Beamer epoch played on offense.
The ongoing prevalence of a Tech invulnerability has finished a descent struggles unbearable. This isn’t a box of an aging manager losing his grasp — Beamer’s (and Foster’s) hold on a D is as clever as ever. But it’s been 4 years given a Tech offense has been even decent. The line has been consistently unsuccessful, there has been unconstrained turnover during using back, and of a 20 Tech waste of a final 4 years, a Hokies scored 12 or fewer points in scarcely half.
Beamer is 68 years old. Speculation is pointless, though he isn’t going to be coaching forever. It would be a lot of fun to see one some-more good Tech offense element another good Tech D, usually to see how distant a Hokies can go, one final time.
2014 Schedule Results
2. Couldn’t deflect off a funk
In Virginia Tech’s biggest win in a prolonged time, a offense averaged 4.2 yards per play.
The Hokies’ win over contingent inhabitant champion Ohio State was a master category in timely offense and a invulnerability holding advantage of youth. Tech did unequivocally small repairs though converted 9 of 17 third downs, played keep-away (time of possession in Q1 and Q4: VT 18:52, OSU 11:08), and finished a shining immature quarterback impatient. Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett rushed 17 times for 124 yards (not including sacks) though finished usually 9 of 29 passes with 7 sacks and 3 picks, and with a Buckeyes pushing for a intensity restraining score, a Donovan Riley collect 6 hermetic an implausible result.
The problem with timely offense over good offense is that it stops being timely. The week after, Tech went a decent 8-for-19 on third downs though total usually 5 scoring opportunities to East Carolina’s 8 and lost, 28-21. The subsequent week opposite Georgia Tech, a Hokies went 8-for-14 on third downs though staid for 4 margin goals in 6 scoring opportunities and lost, 27-24.
Because of defense, Virginia Tech started a deteriorate 4-2. And given of offense (and a defensive glitch opposite Boston College), Tech mislaid 4 of a subsequent five. Your invulnerability can usually save a universe for so long.
Average Percentile Performance (first 6 games): 82% (~top 25 | record: 4-2)
Average Percentile Performance (next 5 games): 43% (~top 75 | record: 1-4)
Average Percentile Performance (last 2 games): 77% (~top 30 | record: 2-0)
In a must-win opposite Virginia (following a degrading scoreless-in-regulation detriment to squalid Wake Forest), a Hokies put together maybe their best descent opening of a season, gaining 433 yards (5.8 per play) opposite a good, if fading, defense. And in a bowl, Tech clinched another winning deteriorate by roving invulnerability to a gentle win.
Offense
3. The energy of identity
Virginia Tech fan HQ
Virginia Tech Hokies
Virginia Tech fan HQ
We speak a lot about temperament in these previews. Basically, “identity” boils down to meaningful how you’re going to pierce a round when we need to and meaningful how to precedence your strengths and minimize your apparent weaknesses.
Identity is apparent in some offenses — a Mike Leach atmosphere raid, a Paul Johnson widespread option. When we know a specific truth inside and out, offense roughly becomes like a checklist. Defenses are doing this? Then we will do this.
Not all coaches have a definable system, and that’s fine to some degree. New Pitt descent coordinator Jim Chaney is one of my favorite descent coaches in a country, and in a final 3 seasons he’s had success with a spread-esque Tennessee offense that leaned on dual receivers and a power-oriented Arkansas offense that employed a run-and-run-again approach. If we have a grasp of strategy and a stretchable offense, we can make large changes from year to year formed on a strength of your personnel.
Virginia Tech coordinator Scott Loeffler hasn’t led a good offense in a while; his 2011 Temple offense ranked 64th in Off. SP+, his 2012 Auburn offense ranked 93rd, and his dual Tech offenses have ranked 71st and 85th, respectively. Changing jobs roughly each year can’t help; it’s tough to know your crew when you’re removing a code new register each year. In 2014, with Loeffler finally staying in a same place for a full offseason, injuries and girl forced him to again work with new ability position weapons opposite a board.
Tech had a send during quarterback, a beginner using back, and 3 freshmen heading a receiving corps. That’s frequency going to furnish a good offense, no matter a coordinator.
So we can contend Loeffler gets a double-mulligan for a approach his Tech reign has started. But a tardy ends this year. With 8 starters returning, and pivotal damage returnees during using back, receiver, and parsimonious end, he needs to figure out what Tech can indeed be good at.
Quarterback
Note: players in confidant subsequent are 2015 returnees. Players in italics are controversial with injury/suspension.
Running Back
Receiving Corps
4. Freshmen spin sophomores
Brewer can be good!
Brewer can be good!
The volume of girl was considerable final year. Running behind Trey Edmunds wasn’t nonetheless full-speed after pang an nauseous leg damage late in 2013, and beginner Shai McKenzie tore his ACL early in 2014, withdrawal another freshman, Marshawn Williams, to lift a heaviest load. He showed earnest explosiveness, though he frequency found a open field. And then, naturally, he tore his ACL.
Meanwhile, 2013’s No. 2 receiver Demetri Knowles battled injuries and a dog house, and rising sophomore parsimonious finish Kalvin Cline harmed his knee in a offseason. The result: beginner Isaiah Ford led a group with 90 targets, beginner parsimonious finish Bucky Hodges was second with 75, and beginner flanker Cam Phillips was third with 65. That a 3 total to normal 7.5 yards per aim wasn’t awful, deliberation a inexperience.
Now Ford, Hodges, Phillips, and a healthy Cline are sophomores. Knowles is healthy and had a decent spring. McKenzie is gone, though Williams and Edmunds (a correct aged junior) should be prepared to go this fall. Plus, J.C. Coleman earnings for what feels like his 14th year in Blacksburg. The ability positions have some-more knowledge and utterly a bit of upside.
It’s adult to quarterback Michael Brewer to cut down on mistakes. The immature ancillary expel didn’t help, though Tech’s offense won’t urge unless Brewer’s 6.4 percent pouch rate and 3.4 percent interception rate come down.
Offensive Line
5. It’s been a while given Virginia Tech had a good line
One area that didn’t have injury-related reasons for a struggles: descent line. There was a small bit of shuffling, sure, and girl was also an emanate — as we see, 38 of a 41 returning career starts go to dual juniors and a sophomore.
Still, a Tech line has been unsure prolonged adequate to remove all advantage of a doubt. Tech ranked initial in Adj. Line yards in 2005 and usually once ranked outward a tip 30 between 2005 and 2011 though has ranked 102nd, 106th, and 98th a final 3 years. Shaky using behind play can minister to that, though 3 years is a lane record.
And while a quarterback has a large purpose to play in pouch rates, a fact that Brewer was sacked some-more than 6 percent of a time while throwing mostly brief passes is ban for everybody, from a QB to a receivers to a line.
We can speak about how knowledge competence assistance a ability position players, though unless it helps a line, zero else unequivocally matters.
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Defense
6. Should we be means to make a Hall of Fame as a coordinator?
As frustrating as a offense has been, it becomes doubly frustrating when we comprehend how it’s managed to remove some implausible defensive play.
After descending to 35th in Def. SP+ in 2010, with debates about either a arise of a widespread has neutralized some of a speed advantages in Foster’s famed defense, a Hokies rebounded to 18th in 2011, afterwards spent a subsequent 3 years in a tip 10. They’ve finished this notwithstanding a spin of damage fitness identical to a one that took a offense down final year.
Leading defensive tackle Luther Maddy, a usually 2013 starter returning adult front, played in usually 4 games in 2014. Stud cornerback Brandon Facyson played in usually three. Linebacker Chase Williams, a usually comparison in a section that mislaid both starters, played in nine. Linebacker Ronny Vandyke didn’t seem to be utterly full-speed after returning from a 2013 injury.
No worries! Tech still ranked second in Success Rate+ and 10th in IsoPPP+ and close down scoring opportunities as good as anybody. Four linemen available during slightest 9.5 tackles for detriment in Maddy’s absence, then-freshman Andrew Motupuaka became a good arms though Williams, and then-sophomore Chuck Clark became a star though Facyson.
In scarcely dual decades as a eminent coordinator, Foster has adapted. His invulnerability faced a elaborating sport, afterwards got even better. Sure, recruiting has helped; he’s not accurately using a two-deep full of two-stars (then again, Maddy was a Rivals two-star, and dermatitis pass-rushing star Dadi Nicolas was unrated). But Foster continues to figure out ways to thrive.
And he welcomes behind an annoyance of riches. Only injuries will keep Tech out of a Def. SP+ tip 5, and as we schooled final year, even injuries will usually dump a Hokies to 10th or so.
Defensive Line
7. Almost everybody back, and Maddy
Including Maddy’s 2013, Tech earnings 5 players who had during slightest 9.5 tackles for detriment in their prior seasons and 4 who had during slightest 4.5 sacks. They have dual four-star sophomores watchful for a turn, and they sealed 3 four-star freshmen. Tech was clever adequate to arrange second in energy success rate and quick adequate to have a best pass rush in a country.
I don’t even know what to say. Find a weakness. we brave you. If we wish to worry about a linebackers, we theory we can. If we somehow found a downfield event using a ball, we were spasmodic means to get somewhere with it, though a opportunities were few and distant between. This was even some-more of a “break-don’t-bend” invulnerability than Michigan State’s final year.
Linebackers
Secondary
8. Just don’t throw
With dual safeties gone, one could consternation if a delegate competence have a integrate of holes. Kyshoen Jarrett and Detrick Bonner were brave playmakers who total for 9 tackles for detriment and 13 passes defensed. Senior Donovan Riley is back, and four-star sophomore C.J. Reavis looks a part, though there will be girl during safety.
Forgive me if we can’t get too concerned. Young safeties can be a problem, though a problem will be minimized by a country’s best set of cornerbacks. Including Facyson’s 2013, he, Kendall Fuller, and Chuck Clark total for 15 tackles for loss, 8 interceptions, and 34 break-ups in their final seasons. The third-best dilemma in this section (and I’m not even certain who that is) would be a best on roughly any other group in a country.
Special Teams
9. BeamerBall needs some lapse men
It’s been roughly cruel. Every group in a nation suffers special teams miscues, though each time it happens to Virginia Tech, it’s accompanied with “… what’s happened to BeamerBall??” exasperation. The Hokies set a bar ridiculously high.
That said, there have been some-more miscues. Tech ranked initial in special teams potency in 2007 and 2010 though has ranked 69th, 61st, 75th, and 42nd in a final 4 years. Last year was an improvement, as a flog and punt coverage were scarcely as good as a pass coverage, and then-freshman Joey Slye was plain during kicks underneath 40 yards. (The biggest emanate with Slye: he was asked to flog 28 margin goals. Again, a descent issues harm in a accumulation of ways.)
Tech still needs an old-school lapse man. Greg Stroman didn’t uncover most explosiveness on punts, and Hokie flog earnings were some of a slightest fit in a country. With good returns, this is a top-30 unit. But there’s no justification a Hokies will get them.
2015 Schedule Projection Factors
10. “A top-25 group competence go 10-2″
Scouting a rivalry
Scouting a rivalry
Last year, we wasn’t high on Virginia Tech, during slightest by Tech standards, though remarkable that a Hokies’ report was a accessible one if they could get to a top-25 level. That competence have been a case. Instead, they ranked in a mid-30s, mislaid 5 games by a total 20 points, and finished 7-6.
I see a identical standard. There are copiousness of decent teams on a schedule, though with usually one home competition projected improved than 38th and dual highway opponents projected improved than 46th, a Hokies are again in a conditions where, if they can stand behind adult to a tip 20 or 25, they could be looking during double-digit wins for a initial time in 4 years. Lose to Ohio State, separate opposite Georgia Tech and Miami, have an offense good adequate to equivocate some foolish upset, and voila.
I competence sidestep and envision 9-3, though we consider Tech gets behind to around 25th, maybe a bit better. The invulnerability can’t urge unequivocally most though won’t regress, and a offense, with fewer damage issues (you roughly can’t have more) and sophomores instead of freshmen, could urge adequate to get out of a way.
Beamer has finished extraordinary things in Blacksburg; a easiest stream explanation is a dismay a few seven- or eight-win seasons has brought. With another implausible invulnerability and an offense that can keep a bottom lineup on a field, his Hokies should mangle past 8 wins. Considering a high-upside youth, a good 2015 would set a list for a good 2016.