A Defense for the Future

I’ll chalk a lot of Tech’s defensive struggles up to general bowl weirdness. Give a bunch of young guys that much time away from a live game, throw in all the usual distractions plus Beamer’s retirement, and half a coaching staff looking for work and the other half serving two masters, and pit them against a team that’s been stewing over the gambling lines and lack of media attention, and you’ve got a recipe for a tougher game than might be expected.

Throw in a defense that couldn’t keep a lineup going all year (or even in this one freaking game), and things get funky. Even before Riley’s broken collarbone, Foster was worried more by the Tulsa passing game than their running attack. On Tulsa’s first long touchdown run, not only was there no safety help, there wasn’t even the possibility of a free hitter. The Hokies were already outnumbered in the box on a run play involving the QB, e.g., a zone-read or a QB lead draw – six defenders for six blockers, and zero defenders for the runner – and when Edmunds came off the edge, the only hope for spilling an interior run (such as what happened) went up in smoke.

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