Virginia Tech-Stanford Review: Hokies Pull Away From Cardinal

13 Comments

1. 

   brownsummithokie October 9, 2024 at 8:47 PM

   Favorite TSL article of the week. Thank You
2. 

   Lancelot Link October 8, 2024 at 7:14 PM

   Has Brumfield made much of a difference?
   1. 

      namibiahoke October 9, 2024 at 3:02 AM

      I have the same question! After much chatter of him being THE MAN, there's been little to no commentary about his performance through the first six games. Depending on how you look at it, that could be either good or bad.
   2. 

      ShockWaveVT October 9, 2024 at 10:32 AM

      I've been trying to keep an eye on him when watching our defense. Not an all-conference team level player by any means but definite improvement over last season's Mikes. > Overall he's in the right place much more frequently than Keller or Lawson were when they were playing Mike last season. Basically by not running himself out of the play / running himself into a very blockable position. > He diagnoses run plays more quickly and attacks the LOS more aggressively. Still not as consistently as I'd like to see, but it actually happens a couple of times per game vs never last year. > He's a little lost in pass coverage - generally his initial drop is good and takes away quick hitters, but he doesn't seem to have great awareness of where receivers go on their 2nd/3rd moves and leaves gaps. > He takes poor angles too often against outside runs. (less often than Keller/Lawson do) That play featured above with Keller tracking down Ford also featured Brumfield taking too shallow an angle and getting beat by Ford. Luckily he doesn't get in the way of Keller who had the speed to catch Ford. Spencer was also there to the outside to keep a missed tackle from becoming a huge play. So perhaps a calculated risk.. > His size is a big limitation on his effectiveness against good/great blockers and ball carriers. He's the size of a (slow) strong safety playing Mike. But in our scheme he does not have to beat those blocks both ways, he just has to get leverage to his gap and wrap up on tackles when the ball comes his way - things he's been pretty good at accomplishing thus far.
   3. 

      Brandon Patterson October 9, 2024 at 11:30 AM

      I think he's settled things down, and he's generally where he needs to be. That's pretty big after last year.
3. 

   downjerseyhokie October 8, 2024 at 6:16 PM

   On the first couple of Stanford series it appeared they had one running play that kept picking up good chunks of yardage. There appeared to be a big hole every time they ran it. Any insight on that and if the Hokies changed anything to stop it.
   1. 

      Brandon Patterson October 9, 2024 at 11:29 AM

      On the first drive, at least, Stanford used pullers a bit. On a Toss Read call, the Hokies rallied to it fast from linebacker and safety, and after that, Stanford got away from it.
4. 

   jacksonhokie October 8, 2024 at 3:35 PM

   Great article
5. 

   RustyHokie94 October 8, 2024 at 3:35 PM

   I'd like to know snap counts and the PFF grades. Thanks for the articles!
6. 

   MKD October 8, 2024 at 12:30 PM

   Love your film breakdown and simple explanations which helps novice fans to better understand the game.
7. 

   DW Hokie October 8, 2024 at 11:49 AM

   Good stuff as usual! Tuten’s not the only one wishing Drones would keep it more often. Maybe you could analyze Drones’s decision making on run options and whether he is in fact not keeping it when he should.
   1. 

      GoneFishin Hokie October 8, 2024 at 4:40 PM

      There were more than several times I was yelling at the tv screen for Drones to keep
   2. 

      Brandon Patterson October 9, 2024 at 11:39 AM

      That's hard to do without knowing how Tech is teaching him to make the read. There's a bunch of different ways to do it. We can all say something's a mistake in hindsight, but it's harder to see if it's an actual error in the execution of the play unless it's blatant. It's sort of like the issue of not seeing an open receiver who is late in the read or not even part of the read...e.g., a QB might not see an uncovered receiver running deep, but if the play's first read is a slant to the TE, and the TE is also open, the correct execution is to throw to the TE.