Texas just got more wide open.

The slogan for the Texas Economic Development Bureau is "Wide Open." This fine organization should consider signing new Dallas Cowboys receiver Danny Coale as their spokesman.

I hear they got good indo in New York.

With the 96th selection of the 2012 NFL draft, the New York Giants selected Jayron Hosley. I now am faced with the daunting task of having to be a Giants fan.

David Wilson eats Chickfila (and plays football) on Sundays.

With the 32nd overall selection of the 2012 NFL draft, the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants selected David Wilson.

Upon arrival in the Big Apple, David plans to run up the side of the Empire State Building.

David Wilson, you, sir, have moxy. And first round money. You will be missed.

Jim Weaver Holding Unexpected Press Conference Today

Weaver has scheduled a press conference for 4pm today.  Let the Weaver-retirement and/or Bud-Foster-leaving nightmare scenario speculation begin.

EDIT: For everyone speculating that this could be Bud getting the head coaching job at Arkansas, I didn't see any mention of a press conference on Arkansas' sports website.  In addition, I have to think that we would have heard about Bud interviewing with other schools like we heard in previous years.

EDIT #2: The press conference will be streamed here.

EDIT #3: The press conference is NOT about Bud Foster OR Seth Greenberg leaving/being fired.

EDIT #4: The Washington Post is reporting that Greenberg HAS, in fact, been fired.  If their version is accurate, it means that Weaver scheduled the presser before informing Greenberg of his termination and that Greenberg had to hear about it from a reporter, while he was hosting a recruit on campus.

Never mind.

So all that stuff about the spring game? Yeah, not so much. Mother Nature decided to rag out on us and the game was initially delayed and then finally canceled due to lightning in the area.

And yet I am still more excited than I have been after a spring game in many years. Why? Because it was also raining verbal commitments in Blacksburg yesterday.

I know it's hard to get too excited about the 2013 recruiting class when the 2012 season is still four months away, but VT landed what in my mind was its absolute must get target in 757 QB Bucky Hodges. Hodges is not only a highly rated QB (13th in the nation per Rivals), but at 6'5" and 225 pounds he could be a plug and play replacement for LT in the existing hybrid spread offense being built around Logan. This is doubly true if Hodges gets a redshirt year and some Gentrification before assuming the reins.

I'm not going to do a rundown of every name that verbaled to the Hokies yesterday, but there were at least six commits for the 2013 class. Two of them were O linemen, which means the staff is taking the need there seriously. And we also reportedly got our first verbal for 2014.

That leaves our top overall target as five star cornerback Kendall Fuller, brother of Vincent and current Hokies Kyle and Corey. Kendall holds offers from literally just about every BCS conference program. Shane Beamer is his recruiter. Read that last sentence over again and smile with me.

Spring Game Checklist

Tomorrow the Hokies wrap up their spring practice with the annual Maroon and White Game. Traditionally the spring game hasn't been a whole hell of a lot to get excited about, as Frank has tended to play his cards close to the vest in case someone is scouting us. This year promises to be at least a little more exciting for a couple of reasons.

First, Frank done went and put damn near every projected starter on the maroon team, lining this thing up as a first string vs second string affair on both sides of the ball. As Antone Exum tweeted, on paper it looks like this thing will get ugly quick. But in a wrinkle that I absolutely adore, the maroon team is spotting the white team 21 points right from the start. Kind of like Boise State in 2010. So yes, the maroon team is STACKED with talent on both sides of the ball, but they're three TDs in the hole before the ball is ever snapped. If the maroon team wants to win that means they have to come out firing on both sides of the ball. And if the white team wins, the second stringers get to brag about it all damn season. I like this model.

Second, we're gonna see the pistol and the hurry up tomorrow. Book it. Frank's already shown it off during the open scrimmages, so if it was going to get scouted it's been scouted already. Plus the offense needs some quasi-live game reps in the pistol to iron out some of the kinks. So while I don't necessarily think it's going to be pretty the whole time (it never is when installing a new offensive package in the spring) we should actually get a decent hint at what the offense will look like this fall.

The game is going to be broadcast on ESPN 3, so for those of you able to watch, here's a few things to keep an eye on.

1. How many sacks does LT take? So far this spring the O linemen have been a sieve, giving up double digit sacks in most scrimmages. I'm actually not having kittens over this quite yet because there's so damn many inexperienced new starters on the line, our D linemen are the best in the ACC, and the definition of a sack in spring ball with the QB in a non-contact jersey is pretty weak. But this will be our starting O line against our backup defensive front seven, which means if there was ever a time for our offensive line to look good, this is it. If we still see eight or nine sacks on the day, it might be time to worry a little.
2. Which tailback stands out? Michael Holmes is on the maroon team, which indicates Shane is leaning toward him as the starter. Martin Scales will suit up for the white, and JC Coleman will float between the two squads. Expect Holmes to have the best stats on the day, both because he's been the most consistent running back all spring and because he's going exclusively against the second string defense. Should Martin Scales manage to put up big numbers against our starting front seven it would be a huge argument for giving him the number one or two spot on the depth chart. And this might potentially be JC Coleman's argument against a redshirt. 
3. How is the chemistry between LT and his receivers? There have been quite a few drops so far this spring, though that's nothing new. But LT has lost his two favorite targets to graduation and has to find new go to receivers. DJ Coles will be benched, which in end might be a good thing as LT won't just be able to dump it off to the best hands receiver on the roster each down. If Corey Fuller continues to haul in TDs at the rate he has been, chances are he'll crack the two deep at split end.
4. How do we do in short yardage situations and deep in the red zone? As is customary for the spring game, the majority of the time the defense will be limited to rushing a maximum of five defenders, but in three or less to go situations or inside of the eight yard line in the red zone the handcuffs come off and the defense can throw whatever it wants at LT. With the LT sneak last season pretty much anything and one to go was a gimme, but two or more to go was painful to watch. And our entire red zone offense was cringe worthy. Even with it being against the second string defense, if our O manages some success in short yardage or deep red zone situations with the defense able to use everything in the playbook then we might just be inching toward turning the corner.

This will be the last football fix until Labor Day. Enjoy it.

Pistol Whipped

So if you're like me, you just sort of assumed that the lack of coaching changes in the offseason was an indication that there would be no major tweaks to the offense heading into 2012 ball.

Not so much.

I've already mentioned that offense coaches want to increase the tempo of the offense as a whole, and now I find out that Stiney and O'Cain are developing a pistol formation on the offense.

For those of you unfamiliar with the pistol, it was developed by Nevada head coach Chris Ault as a hybrid of the shotgun and the single back sets. The QB lines up 3-4 yards behind the center, instead of 7 yards like in the shotgun. (Get it? He's not as far back from the line, and a pistol is smaller than a shotgun. Clever.) Instead of lining up beside the QB, the single running back lines up behind the QB, like in the single back formation. The pistol is considered to be a spread offense that is easier to run out of than the shotgun, because the running back receives the handoff while running north/south, instead of east/west like in the shotgun. The handoff comes quicker out of the pistol than the shotgun too, because the ball gets into the QB's hands quicker than with a shotgun snap.

The pistol is considered a spread offense, with the base being three wideouts and a tight end. It can easily accommodate four and five wide receiver sets. In the five wide pistol, the QB is alone in the backfield and is the only running threat.

Nebraska has become a rushing juggernaut under Ault's pistol offense. Since 2007, Nevada's total offense has been ranked no worse than 11th in the nation, and they were one of the top three rushing teams in the nation from 2008-2010. Last year their rushing rank tumbled all the way down to eighth. Expect firechrisault.blogspot.com to go live any day now.

It should be noted that Nevada runs the pistol as an offense, while VT is developing it as a package. Several programs running a multiple offense have a pistol formation they use from time to time, including Alabama, LSU, and the Kansas City Chiefs. It remains to be seen if the pistol will replace one of the other more traditional formations VT uses or if it will just be added to the existing playbook, but the Hokies won't be adopting it as an every down, every distance formation. At least not to start with. I personally feel that the pistol is well suited to the types of players we have at pretty much every position, and as long as the guys can get the basics down I wouldn't be surprised to see more and more pistol creep into our games as the 2012 season wears on. We saw more and more traditional spread elements incorporated into O'Cain's playcalling as LT found his groove in 2011, and I think the pistol is going to suit his game even better.

If nothing else, we should all be excited over the pistol for one reason: it eliminates the sloooooowwwwwww handoff twelve yards behind the line of scrimmage that caused me six ulcers last season. That alone is reason to be pro-pistol.

It remains to be seen if Stiney and O'Cain are planning to use the pistol exclusively with the new hurry up no huddle offense they're developing this spring. As close to the vest as Frank likes to play his cards, my guess is we'll probably have to wait until the Techmo Bowl to find out.

WTF does this MEAN???

"Offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring said the offense has made some 'adaptations and adjustments' to the tempo, but they haven't 'fully defined the scope of that tempo.' Sounds like a work in progress."

The above is taken from a blog entry from VT beat writer Andy Bitter, following the first mini scrimmage of spring camp in regards to the rumor that the Hokies will be incorporating more spread option, no huddle or quick huddle, hurry up style elements to the offense this season.

Just me, or do you get the sense that someone is just sort of winging it?

UPDATE: Okay, apparently this is really fucking happening.

Must-get QB target Bucky Hodges recently visited Blacksburg and met up with LT and Mark Leal, who went over the ins and outs of being the Hokies' QB. Hodges told recruit757.com that LT himself spilled the beans that the Hokies are overhauling their offense. The key word is up-tempo. Think hybrid spread look here, people.

This could be huge.