Three keys for the Hokies vs. James Madison
Darryl Slater
Sep 10, 2010
If you’re going to be around a radio or computer tomorrow morning, be sure to check out the ESPN Blacksburg pregame show, hosted by Sean Bielawski, from 10 a.m. to noon.
I’ll be on there, along with Kyle Tucker of The Virginian-Pilot—a game-day version of our Thursday “Tech Beat” 5-6 p.m. hour on Bielawski’s regular week-days show. The three of us will do the pregame show for every home game, from a parking lot just behind the Washington Street tennis courts.
So for listening purposes: If you’re in the Blacksburg area and around a radio, it’s 1430 AM or 94.1 FM. If you’re near a computer, it’s espnblacksburg.com.
In the meantime, here are three keys for the Hokies tomorrow ...
GAIN CONFIDENCE AT LINEBACKER: In the Hokies’ season-opening, 33-30 loss Monday to Boise State, two of the Broncos’ three touchdown passes sailed over Jeron Gouveia-Winslow, the new starting whip outside linebacker. (Free safety Eddie Whitley and cornerback Cris Hill were in coverage on those plays, too, but Gouveia-Winslow was the last man between the ball and receiver.) Gouveia-Winslow also missed a tackle on a 71-yard touchdown run, as did inside linebacker Bruce Taylor, who could have tackled the ball carrier, D.J. Harper, in the backfield. Gouveia-Winslow and Taylor are new sophomore starters who last regular season played 22 and 57 defensive snaps, respectively. Growing pains are to be expected for inexperienced players, and both should play better tomorrow against a less-daunting opponent, James Madison.
SHORE UP SPECIAL TEAMS ISSUES: The Hokies made mistakes in almost every facet of special teams Monday. They had a punt blocked, ran into Boise State’s punter, missed a field goal and kicked off out of bounds. They also blocked a meaningless punt at the end of the first half and blocked an extra point in the third quarter. But the Hokies clearly have issues to resolve on special teams, once a nationally recognized strength for them. The blocked punt happened because of a miscommunication on the right side of Tech’s protection, which includes new members Gouveia-Winslow and walk-on sophomore fullback Martin Scales. Since joining the ACC in 2004, the Hokies had five punts blocked before Monday—two in 2004, one in 2006 and two in 2008.
BLOCK BETTER ON RUNS: Sophomore tailback Ryan Williams had the worst game of his short career Monday. He ran 21 times for 44 yards. Seven of his carries covered zero yards or lost yards. Last season, he went until the fifth game, and his 88th carry, until he accumulated seven zero/negative runs. Tech’s offensive line has two new starters, left guard Greg Nosal and left tackle Andrew Lanier, and both struggled at times Monday. They were the only offensive linemen who didn’t grade 80 percent or better, which line coach Curt Newsome considers a winning performance. Yes, Boise State often stacked the line of scrimmage to stop the run. But Lanier also gave up two sacks. Run blocking was a strength for this group last season, when Williams ran for a school-record 1,655 yards and gained 5.6 yards per carry. It needs to be again.
Sep. 10, 2010 at 04:23 PM
Basically, he gives points for good plays and takes away points for bad plays. The number, I believe, is a percentage—essentially, the percentage of the lineman’s plays that were successful. Of course, much of this is subjective, and Newsome has said that.
Those are good points. If the left guard and left tackle mess up on the same play, it certainly is more likely to fail than if one messed up on one play, and the other messed up on the next play. But that isn’t good, either, because you have more plays on which at least one lineman is messing up.
Anyway, since media couldn’t talk to assistants this week, all I know is that Nosal and Lanier were the two lineman who didn’t grade 80 or higher. What did they grade? I’m not sure. Sometimes, Newsome will make a point to say if a guy was or wasn’t close to 80.
But since we couldn’t speak with him this week, all we have to go on are the grades and the replay of the game, which showed Lanier giving up two sacks, unless I badly misread both of those plays in terms of which lineman got beat.
Hope that helps.
Sep. 10, 2010 at 03:47 PM
Newsome has posted how he grades the offensive lineman, but I don’t remember the specifics. Having said that. the lineman that DID grade 80 and above, if two linemen side by side (I.E. rg and rt) did not perform successfully at the same time on the same play….then it is a botched play. So in my mind, individual grades by themselves are less important than the grades of contiguous players on any given play. If the rg and the rt each failed 20%, but on different plays, that means 40% of the time the play around those two players is likely to fail. Sort of like a doubles team in tennis where as a team they get 80% first serves in, but one player had 100% and the other had 60%. As a team, they are probably are going to lose to lose the match.
What say you Darryl?