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From the Perch: Virginia Tech

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Roman Marciante

Roman Marciante

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After this breakdown I am going to need a raise and a vacation. So much to unpack but here are some thoughts on the game.


  • Jarren Williams' first interception was not necessarily a bad decision to throw, but a combination of not attacking the ball with your hands by Mike Harley, a great reaction by the DB after getting his hips turned, and an unlucky bounce.
  • Jarren's second interception was not sound mechanically and a bad mental decision when he threw the ball back inside when Wiggins won it outside.
  • Jarren's third interception was a byproduct of being hit, being in third and long, and trying to force a ball into a leveraged position when the DB knew the down and distance.
  • This offensive line is atrocious. The lack of communication and overall fundamental breakdowns that plague them from play to play is apparent.
  • If Zion Nelson is the best Left Tackle they have, then this program is in really bad shape. I honestly feel bad for this young man's confidence. He consistently gets beat on a week-to-week basis.
  • Miami got victimized so easily on a spin move with a 3-man rush (I say the tackle needs to apologize but was quickly educated by Brett Romberg that the right guard was supposed to kick out vs. that look once the LB backed away from the LOS). This is why I call myself a student. But man, that even makes the situation look worse if you ask me.
  • I don't think Butch Barry should keep his job if his offensive line does not improve. I will make this clear, though: This offensive line has gotten worse after week zero not better. Not even remotely.
  • N'Kosi Perry's interception was bad because it was in the red zone. But honestly the CB might have gotten away with one. No way it would ever have gotten called though, it was not in view of the ref but he definitely holds Wiggins arm down and then springs in front. Almost chalk that up to rubbing is racing.
  • I don't see how Enos looks at this film and still plays in a phone booth seeing this second half. I really don't. It was inverse. He sprinkled in under center concepts while being predominantly gun spread rather than his usual propensity to be under center while sprinkling in gun concepts. I felt it was much easier to navigate the noise.
  • If Blake Baker had any feel for situations late in ball games (4th and 17) this team could be 4-1. His late game calls considering he was victimized by the same play that torched him earlier in the game and the fact his defensive call to put Bandy on an island while keeping the free safety in the boundary away from him were not necessarily lock down calls IMO.
  • I really wish someone much smarter than me would invent a program that would rate a play caller's play call with algorithms with built in things like, down and distance, QB archetype, play previously, previous call success rates, etc. etc.
  • If Manny takes over for play calling on defense, I don't necessarily disagree with it.
  • N'Kosi Perry did not benefit because VT took its foot off the gas defensively. They actually remained aggressive throughout the whole game.
  • N'Kosi Perry has definitely improved since last year.
  • Manny might not have wanted one, but a quarterback controversy just went back into his lap

As always please subscribe to my YouTube page and that will be much appreciated. Thanks as always. Go Canes.
 
Last edited:
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Roman Marciante said:
After this breakdown I am going to need a raise and a vacation. So much to unpack but here are some thoughts on the game.


  • Jarren Williams' first interception was not necessarily a bad decision to throw, but a combination of not attacking the ball with your hands by Mike Harley, a great reaction by the DB after getting his hips turned, and an unlucky bounce.
  • Jarren's second interception was not sound mechanically and a bad mental decision when he threw the ball back inside when Wiggins won it outside.
  • Jarren's third interception was a byproduct of being hit, being in third and long, and trying to force a ball into a leveraged position when the DB knew the down and distance.
  • This offensive line is atrocious. The lack of communication and overall fundamental breakdowns that plague them from play to play is apparent.
  • If Zion Nelson is the best Left Tackle they have, then this program is in really bad shape. I honestly feel bad for this young man's confidence. He consistently gets beat on a week-to-week basis.
  • Miami got victimized so easily on a spin move with a 3-man rush (I say the tackle needs to apologize but was quickly educated by Brett Romberg that the right guard was supposed to kick out vs. that look once the LB backed away from the LOS). This is why I call myself a student. But man, that even makes the situation look worse if you ask me.
  • I don't think Butch Barry should keep his job if his offensive line does not improve. I will make this clear, though: This offensive line has gotten worse after week zero not better. Not even remotely.
  • N'Kosi Perry's interception was bad because it was in the red zone. But honestly the CB might have gotten away with one. No way it would ever have gotten called though, it was not in view of the ref but he definitely holds Wiggins arm down and then springs in front. Almost chalk that up to rubbing is racing.
  • I don't see how Enos looks at this film and still plays in a phone booth seeing this second half. I really don't. It was inverse. He sprinkled in under center concepts while being predominantly gun spread rather than his usual propensity to be under center while sprinkling in gun concepts. I felt it was much easier to navigate the noise.
  • If Blake Baker had any feel for situations late in ball games (4th and 17) this team could be 4-1. His late game calls considering he was victimized by the same play that torched him earlier in the game and the fact his defensive call to put Bandy on an island while keeping the free safety in the boundary away from him were not necessarily lock down calls IMO.
  • I really wish someone much smarter than me would invent a program that would rate a play caller's play call with algorithms with built in things like, down and distance, QB archetype, play previously, previous call success rates, etc. etc.
  • If Manny takes over for play calling on defense, I don't necessarily disagree with it.
  • N'Kosi Perry did not benefit because VT took it's foot off the gas defensively. They actually remained aggressive throughout the whole game.
  • N'Kosi Perry has definitely improved since last year.
  • Manny might not have wanted one, but a quarterback controversy just went back into his lap

As always please subscribe to my YouTube page and that will be much appreciated. Thanks as always. Go Canes.
Click to expand...


No controversy, he has Perry and a scrub, he needs to bench the scrub for good
 
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TemplarCane said:
I really wish someone much smarter than me would invent a program that would rate a play caller's play call with algorithms with built in things like, down and distance, QB archetype, play previously, previous call success rates, etc. etc.

Great idea.
Click to expand...

Like these guys have defaulted to coach speak for so many years and always blamed the kids time and time again. I know a tangible coaching number would go a long way with something like this and give a more realistic premise to the result of play.

But like this play



People are WAY smarter at this then me. But what is the coach indexing score on this one I wonder?
3rd and 10
Put an undersized lb at DT
A DE at DT
Play the boundary run strength really really heavy
Play the pass strength really lite

I mean the success rate for VT is through the roof here but how much of this is on the call? WE NEED AN INDEX
 
Roman Marciante said:
After this breakdown I am going to need a raise and a vacation. So much to unpack but here are some thoughts on the game.


  • Jarren Williams' first interception was not necessarily a bad decision to throw, but a combination of not attacking the ball with your hands by Mike Harley, a great reaction by the DB after getting his hips turned, and an unlucky bounce.
  • Jarren's second interception was not sound mechanically and a bad mental decision when he threw the ball back inside when Wiggins won it outside.
  • Jarren's third interception was a byproduct of being hit, being in third and long, and trying to force a ball into a leveraged position when the DB knew the down and distance.
  • This offensive line is atrocious. The lack of communication and overall fundamental breakdowns that plague them from play to play is apparent.
  • If Zion Nelson is the best Left Tackle they have, then this program is in really bad shape. I honestly feel bad for this young man's confidence. He consistently gets beat on a week-to-week basis.
  • Miami got victimized so easily on a spin move with a 3-man rush (I say the tackle needs to apologize but was quickly educated by Brett Romberg that the right guard was supposed to kick out vs. that look once the LB backed away from the LOS). This is why I call myself a student. But man, that even makes the situation look worse if you ask me.
  • I don't think Butch Barry should keep his job if his offensive line does not improve. I will make this clear, though: This offensive line has gotten worse after week zero not better. Not even remotely.
  • N'Kosi Perry's interception was bad because it was in the red zone. But honestly the CB might have gotten away with one. No way it would ever have gotten called though, it was not in view of the ref but he definitely holds Wiggins arm down and then springs in front. Almost chalk that up to rubbing is racing.
  • I don't see how Enos looks at this film and still plays in a phone booth seeing this second half. I really don't. It was inverse. He sprinkled in under center concepts while being predominantly gun spread rather than his usual propensity to be under center while sprinkling in gun concepts. I felt it was much easier to navigate the noise.
  • If Blake Baker had any feel for situations late in ball games (4th and 17) this team could be 4-1. His late game calls considering he was victimized by the same play that torched him earlier in the game and the fact his defensive call to put Bandy on an island while keeping the free safety in the boundary away from him were not necessarily lock down calls IMO.
  • I really wish someone much smarter than me would invent a program that would rate a play caller's play call with algorithms with built in things like, down and distance, QB archetype, play previously, previous call success rates, etc. etc.
  • If Manny takes over for play calling on defense, I don't necessarily disagree with it.
  • N'Kosi Perry did not benefit because VT took it's foot off the gas defensively. They actually remained aggressive throughout the whole game.
  • N'Kosi Perry has definitely improved since last year.
  • Manny might not have wanted one, but a quarterback controversy just went back into his lap

As always please subscribe to my YouTube page and that will be much appreciated. Thanks as always. Go Canes.
Click to expand...


Roman: nicely done as usual.

Agree with everything you said, and Romberg is right on that kickout. But it’s also incumbent upon the QB to know his protection, and understand what this means for where both the rush lanes and passing lanes have their principal boundaries. We’re all taught that, at least i hope nkosi is! A sack in a three man rush is just as much on the Qb in that instance, given what i said. Agreed?

Second, enos has definitely made Nkosi better since last year. You’re right. Which is leading me to my (early) thesis that Enos is a very good QB coach, and mediocre OC. (But i digress).

The area where nkosi has physically gotten better is you can see his throwing motion is much more consistent, and he’s more often on platform, and stable, especially in the hips. Last season you’d see that long whippy motion he’d often have, which i noticed was often due to a disconnect between his midsection and upper body. Very much cleaned up this year. Mentally, in the VT game, the area he was noticeably better was in his jumps through his progressions. I noticed him understanding the route combinations better and recognising when to come off a primary and jump to a secondary. Last year, he was very slow to understand: “you’re first look isn’t open, jump to the next one.” That speed of recognition comes from predicting “my no. 1 is likely most threatened by xyz coverage, so be ready to jump.” No way he was as intuitive or cognizant of that last year. He certainly wasn’t perfect, and as you correctly noted, had some cringeworthy moments, but he was much much better than last season, and 400+ yards in three quarters of play vouches for that.

What say you?
 
Roman Marciante said:
Like these guys have defaulted to coach speak for so many years and always blamed the kids time and time again. I know a tangible coaching number would go a long way with something like this and give a more realistic premise to the result of play.

But like this play



People are WAY smarter at this then me. But what is the coach indexing score on this one I wonder?
3rd and 10
Put an undersized lb at DT
A DE at DT
Play the boundary run strength really really heavy
Play the pass strength really lite

I mean the success rate for VT is through the roof here but how much of this is on the call? WE NEED AN INDEX
Click to expand...


Why in the world would Pickney line up at DT? Fail right there, without analytics. Throw in Rosseau at the other DT spot and you fire Blake off the bus back to Coral Gables.
 
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I'm no mayor's son but I can fix this. Bill Bedenbaugh makes 750k at Oklahoma (salary as of January). He wants to call plays one day. Won't happen EVER with Lincoln Riley as HC. Enos is 2 and out (some G5 gig will open up). Hire Bedenbaugh as OL coach, co-OC at 900k. Thats even more $ in Florida with no income tax. He can help Enos work in spread concepts (he helped Riley add a power run element to the Air Raid). He will also be OC in-waiting.

Miami gets better at OL play, recruiting, and play design. Plus Miami will be grooming a replacement for Enos when he leaves. I know- that requires Manny to be forward thinking and admit he made a mistake in his OL coach, and he's probably too insecure to admit it.
 
RedSquare said:
Roman: nicely done as usual.

Agree with everything you said, and Romberg is right on that kickout. But it’s also incumbent upon the QB to know his protection, and understand what this means for where both the rush lanes and passing lanes have their principal boundaries. We’re all taught that, at least i hope nkosi is! A sack in a three man rush is just as much on the Qb in that instance, given what i said. Agreed?

Second, enos has definitely made Nkosi better since last year. You’re right. Which is leading me to my (early) thesis that Enos is a very good QB coach, and mediocre OC. (But i digress).

The area where nkosi has physically gotten better is you can see his throwing motion is much more consistent, and he’s more often on platform, and stable, especially in the hips. Last season you’d see that long whippy motion he’d often have, which i noticed was often due to a disconnect between his midsection and upper body. Very much cleaned up this year. Mentally, in the VT game, the area he was noticeably better was in his jumps through his progressions. I noticed him understanding the route combinations better and recognising when to come off a primary and jump to a secondary. Last year, he was very slow to understand: “you’re first look isn’t open, jump to the next one.” That speed of recognition comes from predicting “my no. 1 is likely most threatened by xyz coverage, so be ready to jump.” No way he was as intuitive or cognizant of that last year. He certainly wasn’t perfect, and as you correctly noted, had some cringeworthy moments, but he was much much better than last season, and 400+ yards in three quarters of play vouches for that.

What say you?
Click to expand...

I say bravo. He was much more fluid with his reads. Only one time I caught him really looking a little locked on a side and pausing on a buzz flat defender undercutting his smash. Dropped eyes and looked at the rush and it was a wrap.

Other than that he was much more concise and confident where he wanted to go.

Mechanically? Much better as well. Slight slow arm I thought I caught on a play along the goalline to Jordan. But it get much more tightened up as the game went along.

Perry did have disconnect. 100% but it seemed to be a byproduct of trying to arm it... get a little more elongated to generate power that way and really suffered lower half because of it.

Like pitchers know that power comes from the legs and lower half. Football qb same way but with much shorter strides.

But Perry also now seems to transfer it up. Release point is there. Vertical body position looks better after throws and his back leg is coming up where it supposed to.(also indicating an improved lower half transfer) He is noticeably better then last year mechanically. He just is.

On the obb I said manny nailed the qb coach hire and yet to be determined on the oc one. So we see that one similar.
 
On defense, Diaz HAS to embrace the Ed Orgeron model if he's going to survive. He already can't run the team well and getting more involved in the defense isn't going to help that problem. Pair up with a good DC like Eddy O/Aranda. Eddy O is Is Venables available? Probably not. But you know who is a lot cheaper than Venables? Greg Schiano. Or hurt Florida big time by throwing 1.8 mil at Todd Grantham. Mel Tucker might also be available at that price. ****, I'll take the feel good story of Randy Shannon coming back to be DC/LB coach. Any way you slice it, Diaz is drowning and he need only look at another member of the Cane family over in Baton Rouge for the blueprint for how to fix this.
 
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Roman Marciante said:
After this breakdown I am going to need a raise and a vacation. So much to unpack but here are some thoughts on the game.


  • Jarren Williams' first interception was not necessarily a bad decision to throw, but a combination of not attacking the ball with your hands by Mike Harley, a great reaction by the DB after getting his hips turned, and an unlucky bounce.
  • Jarren's second interception was not sound mechanically and a bad mental decision when he threw the ball back inside when Wiggins won it outside.
  • Jarren's third interception was a byproduct of being hit, being in third and long, and trying to force a ball into a leveraged position when the DB knew the down and distance.
  • This offensive line is atrocious. The lack of communication and overall fundamental breakdowns that plague them from play to play is apparent.
  • If Zion Nelson is the best Left Tackle they have, then this program is in really bad shape. I honestly feel bad for this young man's confidence. He consistently gets beat on a week-to-week basis.
  • Miami got victimized so easily on a spin move with a 3-man rush (I say the tackle needs to apologize but was quickly educated by Brett Romberg that the right guard was supposed to kick out vs. that look once the LB backed away from the LOS). This is why I call myself a student. But man, that even makes the situation look worse if you ask me.
  • I don't think Butch Barry should keep his job if his offensive line does not improve. I will make this clear, though: This offensive line has gotten worse after week zero not better. Not even remotely.
  • N'Kosi Perry's interception was bad because it was in the red zone. But honestly the CB might have gotten away with one. No way it would ever have gotten called though, it was not in view of the ref but he definitely holds Wiggins arm down and then springs in front. Almost chalk that up to rubbing is racing.
  • I don't see how Enos looks at this film and still plays in a phone booth seeing this second half. I really don't. It was inverse. He sprinkled in under center concepts while being predominantly gun spread rather than his usual propensity to be under center while sprinkling in gun concepts. I felt it was much easier to navigate the noise.
  • If Blake Baker had any feel for situations late in ball games (4th and 17) this team could be 4-1. His late game calls considering he was victimized by the same play that torched him earlier in the game and the fact his defensive call to put Bandy on an island while keeping the free safety in the boundary away from him were not necessarily lock down calls IMO.
  • I really wish someone much smarter than me would invent a program that would rate a play caller's play call with algorithms with built in things like, down and distance, QB archetype, play previously, previous call success rates, etc. etc.
  • If Manny takes over for play calling on defense, I don't necessarily disagree with it.
  • N'Kosi Perry did not benefit because VT took its foot off the gas defensively. They actually remained aggressive throughout the whole game.
  • N'Kosi Perry has definitely improved since last year.
  • Manny might not have wanted one, but a quarterback controversy just went back into his lap

As always please subscribe to my YouTube page and that will be much appreciated. Thanks as always. Go Canes.
Click to expand...


On point OP. Thanks.

On your last observation, there doesn't need to be a QB controversy ... simple rules .. you don't produce results, you don't play. Anything else is not fair to the other 84 players on this team... if he wants to transfer, then let him.
 
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TimeB0mb said:
I'm no mayor's son but I can fix this. Bill Bedenbaugh makes 750k at Oklahoma (salary as of January). He wants to call plays one day. Won't happen EVER with Lincoln Riley as HC. Enos is 2 and out (some G5 gig will open up). Hire Bedenbaugh as OL coach, co-OC at 900k. Thats even more $ in Florida with no income tax. He can help Enos work in spread concepts (he helped Riley add a power run element to the Air Raid). He will also be OC in-waiting.

Miami gets better at OL play, recruiting, and play design. Plus Miami will be grooming a replacement for Enos when he leaves. I know- that requires Manny to be forward thinking and admit he made a mistake in his OL coach, and he's probably too insecure to admit it.
Click to expand...
Manny needs to go. Enos too. And Butch Barry is incompetent on a level we have never seen before.
 
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