So let's just be clear about this. VT could have laid a hundred on Wake Forest, but that would have made things a little awkward in the golf cart between Frank and Jim in the offseason. Tyrod Taylor was a fucking maestro, picking apart the Deac secondary at will for three touchdowns and a passer rating of 191.4. That's just stupid. Tyrod also added a rushing touchdown. Darren Evans added three more. And David Wilson averaged seven yards a touch.
This was what we all expected out of the gate, right? Weapons everywhere. Not enough plays from scrimmage to get everyone the ball. The absolute destruction of opposing defenses. We finally saw it, and it was beautiful.
Okay. Deep breath.
Let's not interpolate too much from one Saturday against literally one of the worst defenses in college football. But let's not downplay it either. On Saturday VT looked exactly how an elite offense should look agianst a bad defense. For once the Hokies did not play down to the level of the competition. This was by far the best playcalling we have seen from Stiney thus far. I could explain why, but I'll actually let the man himself do the talking:
“I thought Wake Forest came in with a bit of a plan. They surprised me, I really thought they’d play contain, they went side to side, but I didn’t see that really. They had a couple guys that gave Florida State problems in protection and got sacks on Christian Ponder. I thought they wanted to keep Tyrod in the pocket because of that I called intermediate throws; high percentage and they were knocking them down early. We adjusted and went downfield.”
Holy Mary mother of God. What? WTF did he just say?
Offensive adjustments. Based upon what the defense was doing. Granted, it was adjusting against the 107th ranked defense out of 120 teams, but it was still an adjustment. And it worked. Really well.
That's big boy offensive coordinating there.
Of course, in true Virginia Tech fashion it took seven weeks to show itself, but there it is. And if this offense has really shown up, if Stinespring is finally ready to use his "hidden" weapons like Andre Smith, Josh Oglesby, and "OMFG is that" Logan Thomas (his new nickname, christened after VT's first touchdown against Wake), then watch out.
Now, to step away from the sunshine and roses for a second, I'm actually going to criticize something about the offense here. Yeah, I'm really going to say something bad about Bryan Stinespring after his squad just unloaded for 608 yards and seven touchdowns. But it's got nothing to do with the playcalling, the offensive line play, or even the migraine-inducing failure to convert 4th and 1.
Putting Tyrod back into the game in the third quarter after Wake Forest scored their third touchdown was... well... Antoine, help me out here, brah.
There's no guarantee Thomas would have led VT on a scoring drive. In fact, with the backups in it's pretty unlikely. But it would be the right move when trying to bring along a redshirt freshman QB. And if LT goes three and out and Wake does managed to score again to make it a three possession game, then go ahead and reinsert Taylor and put the game on ice. But give Logan a chance to respond to adversity, especially if that adversity is mostly just and illusion.
But credit where credit is due. It was an aggressive move on Stiney's part. He knew what he had on offense and he wasn't going to let Wake crawl back into it. And had it not been for Dyrell Robert's offensive pass interference penalty then it would have resulted in an eighth touchdown for the Hokies.
And I'll say this: when my only gripe is a philosophical difference in the personnel Bryan has on the field when we're up four touchdowns... I'm good, thanks.
And now we get to look forward to what sorts of new wrinkles Stiney will unveil against Duke before reverting to his customary two runs up the middle/40 yard bomb down the sideline into double coverage/punt gameplan during our tough November stretch. Gotta love it.
