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SunDevilHokie SunDevilHokie OP
Oct 19, 2024 at 08:47 PM ET
Any opinions on VTs early season struggles?
it’s unfortunately becoming an annual tradition. Last year wasn’t unexpected with new faces, but this year we looked bad for the first month with experience and improved talent. Are we just not good enough to beat mediocre Rutgers at home or is the staff not able to prepare game schemes/players before the season. With a couple more tougher games on the schedule, it’d be nice if we don’t fully duplicate last year by duplicating our Louisville and NCState games and show some real year over year improvement.

13 Replies

1980VT 1980VT
OL and LB struggled
bburgnative bburgnative
Drones was not playing very well in the beginning of the season. He & our
oline have improved
AbsolutVT03 AbsolutVT03
Vanderbilt and Rutgers were similar in some ways. Both had a preparation
advantage. Vandy in that they had a ton of film on our guys but we didn't have much on their new offensive guys playing at Vandy. I'm sure we watched some film from New Mexico State but apparently they ran quite a bit of stuff that they didn't run at NMSU. Rutgers had a bye week (after only two games) so they had an extra week to heal and prep. The issue I had in both games was we were too slow to adjust defensively. The other way they were similar was that we gave away an early turnover that put us in a hole. Against Vandy it was the somewhat fluky interception by a DL on a screen. Against Rutgers it was the fumble on the punt return. It's worth noting too that Vandy executed their gameplan to near perfection in the first half. We only got three real possessions and one ended with a turnover. Meanwhile they controlled the ball and the clock while also building a multi-score lead. You couldn't have scripted it any better if you're Vandy. Don't get me wrong we probably should have still won both games but turnovers and penalties will kill you every time.
949hokie 949hokie
We got "Killed" by Gerry in the Vandy game. Having been at VT he knew
Our general weakness including forever problem of containing a running QB. I wish we could have kept him instead of FU...
M
marcbvtgm
Nonsense. How would he have any special knowledge? Was here under Fuente.
E
EDGEMAN
Maybe the coaches didn't know what to do with so many returning players?
Frankly they should pay back some of their salaries for their performance in our early games. They definitely didn't earn it. Next year we'll have to do a sizable rebuild.
949hokie 949hokie
Maybe returning most of your average talent results in slightly above
Average returns in some cases.
949hokie 949hokie
VT coaching staff slow to change on O and D. Qb not comfortable wth
The role They had him playing. And Some dumbass play calling.
bburgnative bburgnative
Agree. Drones is playing much more loose now that he's
able to do what he's best at
949hokie 949hokie
I believe Drones will be a solid QB 1 for us going forward but
I doubt we have to worry about somebody poaching him for more NIL or going to NFL next year unless he unexpectedly blows up in the rest of the season. Not likely.
Maroon Baboon Maroon Baboon
Yeah. We should be undefeated.
B
BigDaddyHokie
IMO the O and D were too plain vanilla early on
the O uses miss-direction and reverses and keeps their D off balance. Coach Pry said it, that we need to run our 2nd half plays early on. With our O eating more clock our D is rested and can play like their hair in on fire more
M
marcbvtgm
Not vanilla as much as not utilizing strengths.
And slow to adapt - both in game and from game to game. Also Marve finally started giving a few different bodies more PT and reducing the PT of others.