Obviously, Tech-Nebraska is a big one this weekend. That’s why I’m trying to give you guys as much to read here as possible.

I’ll just go ahead and break it down by player/coach ...

LG NICK MARSHMAN

- He knows how a noisy stadium can affect a lineman. Last week at North Carolina, he didn’t get the correct call on one play, and he blocked as though the play was a run play, even though it was a pass play. As Marshman plowed down the field, his fellow linemen blocked correctly. The play ended with Marshman get penalized for being downfield because he was standing next to Darren Evans when he caught the ball.

- The linemen have code words when they’re making a call at the line of scrimmage. This way, they can relay the information to each other quickly and discretely. “Sometimes, we make some up as the game goes on,“ Marshman said. “I think last week we came up with two brand new ones. We’re using them again this week (so he wouldn’t say what they were). It’s just something you come up with real quick, just kind of little code word. So you can make a call right in front of a defensive lineman and he doesn’t know what you’re doing. Helps you get calls out a lot quicker.“

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PK DUSTIN KEYS

- He already has two game-winning field goals in his first four games—something his predecessors, Brandon Pace and Jud Dunlevy, had none of during their careers. But Keys was down on himself after missing an extra point and a 44-yard field goal in the opener against East Carolina. “For the next couple days after that, I couldn’t believe that my first game that I had missed that field goal,“ he said. “People say, ‘Well, it’s a 44-yard field goal.‘ To me, 50 and in are very makeable kicks for me.“

- He talked to his dad, who was his kicking coach in high school, the day after the East Carolina game. “He kind of caught me offguard, because I just figured that he would just tell me, ‘It was your first game,‘“ Keys said. “He told me that him and my mom were proud of everything I had done. Then he said, ‘From a coaching standpoint ... ‘ And I said, ‘Oh, here we go.‘“ Keys’ dad had examined video of his kicks against East Carolina and noticed that his plant foot was farther back than it normally is. Keys’ plant foot usually lands with his heel lined up with the spot of the ball. But against ECU, the middle of his foot was lined up with the spot of the ball.

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QB COACH MIKE O’CAIN (a lot of this is dense, but O’Cain always does a nice job of trying to simplify “inside football” stuff for knotheads like myself)

- On Tyrod Taylor’s first interception against North Carolina—“Just kind of forced the ball. We were trying to clear the linebacker with the tight end and bring an outside receiver underneath the tight end. The linebacker started to go and Tyrod took his eyes off of him and threw the ball, and the linebacker closed and broke in front of the receiver. You’ve just got to stay with that linebacker a little bit longer, be a little bit more patient with it and let things develop.“

- On Taylor’s second pick—“Made his mind up a little bit too quick. Had a man coverage corner, pressed up. So when he saw that, that’s where he wanted to go with the ball. But when he came up under center, he put his eyes right on [the receiver he wanted], which pulled the safety over there to him. He didn’t make necessarily a bad read. He just locked in on the receiver, which pulled the safety off the hash. If he kept his eyes on the safety, it would have probably held the safety. He just took his eyes off his key and went to his receiver. That’s a cardinal sin. You’re gonna pull people to where you’re throwing the ball.“

- On Nebraska’s defense—“What you’ve got to do a good job of is knowing when they’re in man and knowing when they’re in zone. The thing that makes man coverage somewhat easier is it takes a lot of your reads away. You’re not having to read people dropping into zones, which, to a degree, is easier than reading zone coverages. You can make your mind up and go. If it’s a man with a centerfielder, then it’s kind of like Saturday [and Taylor’s second interception]. You’ve got to do a good job of not taking him to where you’re gonna throw it, if you’re throwing the ball downfield. You’ve got to use your eyes well. We need to hit some plays. They get in your face and they force you to throw the ball down the field. You’re not gonna hit all of them, but you need to hit two or three or four of them a game.“

- O’Cain said the coaches try to call six or seven plays every game that are conducive to longer completions. “A lot of people are playing two-deep [two defensive backs deep in coverage] against us, soft coverage and backing people off and they’re just not giving you the deep throw very much. Saturday, we had a couple that we were going to throw the ball deep, period. It didn’t matter what coverage they were in. We were gonna throw the ball downfield. And then we probably had another three or four that we would have liked to have thrown the ball downfield, and because of something they did, we weren’t able to throw the ball. Or we got pressured and had to move out of the pocket or something like that.“

- On why teams are playing a lot of two-deep—“That’s kind of what people have gone to. It’s a softer zone coverage. They’re keeping things in front of them. I think part of it is they want to make us have to read, take time. Man coverage, you can kind of set your feet and go somewhere. There’s not a lot of reading going on. With a zone coverage, sometimes you might have to hold the ball a little bit for a guy to come open into a zone, which allows pass rush to get to you a little bit quicker. I think people have done a little bit more of zone, and that’s what people are doing. That’s kind of the nature of the game. There are some teams – Nebraska, LSU – that are going to play a lot of man coverage. But most of the people we see, they’re more zone-oriented.“

- On Taylor still struggling with reading coverages—“That’s not something that happens in a year and a half, or eight ball games or so that he has really played a lot. That’s why I felt if we could have redshirted him, it would have helped so much to get that extra year. Sean [Glennon] probably understands the game as well as any quarterback I’ve ever been around, and his redshirt sophomore year, which put him three years into it, there were some reads that gave him trouble. It’s just something that you have to experience and go through and do over and over and over. Is he where I want him to be? Absolutely not. Is he where probably most true sophomores are at this stage? Probably about where they are. It’s just fortunate or unfortunate, whichever way you look at it, that’s he’s been put in this situation so early.“

- On Taylor improving with not taking off too early out of the pocket—“He’s done a better job of that. I think Saturday, there were two cases on two third-down completions. The first one [was] to Danny Coale, where he hit Danny on a little crossing route. He had to move out of pocket, slid out of the pocket to his left. There was an unblocked guy there which is what we call a spy guy. He was a linebacker. When Tyrod slid out of the pocket, he slid out of the pocket and came. Tyrod stood in there with a guy in his face and put the ball on the money. Late, on our last touchdown drive, he dropped the snap. Did a good job. Didn’t panic. Shuffled his feet. Found an opening. Again, had a guy right in his face, made a nice throw. He’s seeing things a lot better. It just takes time. The thing that I think hurts Tyrod a little bit is his height. He’s not a 6-3 or 6-4 guy that can see things. He gets two or three of those big folks piled up in front of him, it’s tough. So he has to move his feet. Sometimes when you have to move your feet, because of that, then you move yourself into trouble. Then it forces you to make other moves.“

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OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR BRYAN STINESPRING

- On whether he is employing more spread-type formations—“I’ve probably have more questions about being in the spread. I think we’ve been in the spread. It seems like if you’re not in the gun, if you’re not split out every snap, then you’ve never been in the spread before. I thought last year we varied it quite a bit between two tight [ends], two wideouts, three wide. There’s more to it than what we’re doing. [Tech is probably doing] not as much in the passing game, because we’ve got some young receivers. Now, I think when we’re spreading it out, there’s more [in the running game] than just a zone right or a zone left or an occasional outside zone. There’s a little bit more to the running game part of it. We’re trying to have different types of runs to be able to outside zone it from the gun, to be able to show some triple-option effect out there. What we’ve got to be good at any time we run the option and the triple option of the gun is how we handle the ball the decisions we make. What we’ve done thus far is we’ve protected the ball.“

- On deep-pass calls—“I think there’s a big misinterpretation. Probably about 75 percent of our drop-back passing game, there’s an alert throw. There may be spacing routes, there may be digs, there may be crossers, there may be some curl routes. But there’s an alert for a deep-shot throw.“

- Stinespring said he has watched film of Louisiana State and Ohio in addition to Nebraska footage. First-year Nebraska coach Bo Pelini was the defensive coordinator last season at LSU. His brother and current defensive coordinator, Carl, was the defensive line coach last season at Ohio.

Posted by Darryl Slater in • College Sports • Virginia Tech
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