In sports, it’s easy for losses to tear teams apart. When groups face the tallest of challenges and the going gets rough, that’s when the team’s unity and bond is tested the most.
After fighting back and losing a heartbreaker at West Virginia, Virginia Tech’s locker room could’ve easily folded and started pointing fingers. That’s usually the easy route. But as left guard Lecitus Smith told the media on Wednesday, there was none of that, which impressed the redshirt junior.
“It’s a tough loss, but it is the third game of the season,” Smith said. “We have nine more to go, and we’re guaranteed nine more. That’s a lot of football to be played. What I see from this group, and what’s actually impressive because it hasn’t always been like this, we just came off a loss, guys were hurt, they were down in the locker room, but at the end of the day, we came back the very next day to practice and instead of walking into a locker room of guys pointing fingers and saying, ‘Man, it’s because of this, it’s because of that, it’s because the offense didn’t do this or the defense didn’t do that,’ there wasn’t any pointing fingers and that’s pretty cool to me because like I said, it hasn’t always been like that.”
Smith said it was interesting to hear teammates talk through things in the locker room, from the running backs talking about mistakes they made or the offensive linemen talking about film. He said in the past, the positive nature, willing to get better energy wasn’t always present.
“We actually got tighter after that loss, which was actually pretty impressive to me, that was pretty cool.”
There’s been a lot of criticism on social media of the players and coaches following the loss, to no surprise, with people thinking they know what the play calls were supposed to be or what the blocking assignments were on certain plays. There have been plenty of people calling for offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen’s job, and complaining about jet sweep calls. The usual.
Dax Hollifield addressed that topic after the WVU game. It was in the heat of the moment after a tough loss, but it was a smart answer.
Smith was asked about it on Wednesday, and agreed with Hollifield’s statement and gave a long and thoughtful answer to a question from Aaron McFarling of the Roanoke Times.
In the past, like Smith mentioned, the camaraderie wasn’t there. The chemistry and commitment towards a team goal wasn’t always there. There was obviously social media criticism, too, especially after the Hokies finished below .500 in 2018 and again in 2020.
It’s good to see that it’s become a tight-knit group. Like previously mentioned, negativity and losses can tear teams apart. The fact that Virginia Tech is “growing tighter” despite all of that speaks a lot to the leadership of the group. Smith touched on it on Wednesday, but the Hokies have a lot of older players.
Virginia Tech has five experienced captains – James Mitchell (Jr.), Hollifield (Jr.), Chamarri Conner (Jr.), Brock Hoffman (r-Jr) and Tyrell Smith (Gr.) – and an 11-player leadership council made up of veterans. That’s special, and it clearly has helped the Hokies stand their ground through difficult times.
“We’re an older group because a lot of our starters are older guys, and that’s actually pretty cool,” Smith said. “But it [the brotherhood] started way back in the summer, just caring about the guy next to you more than you care about yourself, honestly. More than you care about doing your job, you make sure you’re not only doing it for yourself but doing it so you don’t hurt the guy next to you, in a way. Us just coming together is something that’s been happening. It’s been the players caring about each other so much.”
Offensive Struggles, Especially In The Red Zone
Virginia Tech was very poor in many areas on offense against West Virginia, as detailed in previous articles this week. I wrote about Tech’s red zone struggles on Monday, while Brandon Patterson went into a lot of detail in his film review.
The Mountaineers sacked Braxton Burmeister six times on Saturday, including three times by Jared Bartlett, the Nagurski Trophy National Player of the Week. Tech also rushed for just 106 yards on 41 carries, an average of 2.6 yards. Combine that with the short field woes from inside the ten (12 plays, 10 went for zero or negative yards) and it was a poor offensive performance in many aspects.
It didn’t help that the Hokies lost right tackle Silas Dzansi in the first quarter to an injury, either.
“It stings a lot because as an offensive lineman, you don’t want anybody to get hands on your quarterback” Smith said Wednesday. “That’s my guy in the backfield, almost like a little brother, you don’t want no one touching your little brother. It definitely stung, but at the end of the day, looking at that film, we need to set more on the same level as an o-line. If I’m on the short side with Luke [Tenuta], we need to be on the same level because if a twist comes, we need to be able to pick that up. Just really adjusting and seeing what we did wrong and just being on the same level.
“Those guys blitzed a lot, they blitzed hard, but I have no doubt in my mind that we can pick those things up, and that’s not an excuse at all. If we set at the same level, we’ll be able to pick up anything anyone throws at us, so watching the film, there are a few minor adjustments we need to make and we’ve definitely done it throughout this week at practice.”
Another thing that Brandon Patterson pointed out was how, at times, Tech’s offensive linemen seemed to be on skates vs. WVU. There were moments where Tech couldn’t get anything going up front because the offensive line was getting roughed up, which Smith mentioned to the media on Wednesday.
“The biggest thing that I noticed [from watching film] was that we honestly need to get more push as an offensive line,” Smith said. “It’s kind of like I said, you get on social media and hear a million different people saying a million different reasons they don’t know, ‘oh, it’s this or it’s the playcalling or coaching or whatever.’ No. We put it on our back, we put this team on our back, we understand this team moves as we move, and if we want to score in the red zone, we need to get more push on the offensive line.
“It doesn’t matter if a defense is bringing different blitzes at us, if they bring a cat blitz or whatever type of blitz they bring, we’ve got to be able to pick it up. We’ve got to be able to go north and south. They have to have a hole in the middle if we’re running an inside zone, so our backs can get up in it and score, so that’s the biggest thing I see, no matter if they’re blitzing or bringing a linebacker off the edge or whatever it is, we’ve got to be able to pick it up and communicate a little bit better and get a lot better push up front. That’s definitely going to help us do better in the red zone as an offense.”
Richmond’s defensive line, like Fuente said on Monday and Chris Coleman pointed out in the game preview, is big and physical. Saturday’s game against the Spiders’ defense will pose another challenge for Tech after a week of fixing mistakes from a disappointing road defeat.
“They have some big guys up front, guys that are really, really strong,” Smith said. “Guys that are really strong, guys that have a motor that’s going to get after the ball and chase the ball. We’re going to have to match that intensity, if not bring more.”
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OK, so Oline owns up to it….but can/will they do better, and why so overmatched vs WV?
Great words from Lectus ,I support everything you said. I support your efforts and the team and will continue to do so as i have for the last 70 years.
Excellent read. Appreciate hearing the player’s perspective, which matched what I expected. Thanks
No one was criticizing the players. I hate they feel that way.
Not sure what you read but someone is always criticizing players to one extent or another. And it stinks. Kids doing their best should never be criticized but they are.
Yep, watching the twittersphere after a loss is brutal from the “fans”.
He gave the best player answer to social media and criticism that I’ve heard.
Go Hokies!
Kudos to Lecitus and the team. I hope they know that even the critical fans are only critical because they care so much and want the team and coaches to succeed. I do agree that social media can be very UNHELPFUL when it comes to cohesiveness and morale.
Some of our critical fans won’t be happy until the backup starts and we have all new coaches. They tend to whine a lot and may never be happy.
I read and hear, blah blah blah blah blah, but why don’t I read and hear the offensive play calling sucks, anyone in the stands on Saturday that knows anything about football play calling knew what play was coming next. So what do you think the WVU players knew???….how about the next play.
Bottom line….. the play calling SUCKS , and Fuente was hired because of his GREAT OFFENSIVE MIND, wow, you ever heard of a Black Hole????
Lol ok
I guess you are one of the fans Lecitus was talking about.
Good write-up! Some fans go overboard with personal criticisms. And they get all the attention. But most fan just want to win. Emotions do sometimes run to high.
With the heat and humidity there was on Saturday, I think the o-line would of appreciated if the offense were to huddle before each play. It gives them a break, and most importantly, they KNOW what the play is going to be. I think this ‘looking to the sideline’ is not the right way to go about it. Just my opinion.
don’t know about the playcalling, but from section 100 Saturday it sure looked like WVU knew exactly what we were calling and where we were going more times than not. Hopefully we continue to self scout and look for tendencies to break
I have posted the exact same thing. I’m glad they’re circling the wagons but it seems our offense is not very diverse, for lack of a better term.
My thought after the game was whether Nester was able to provide information on the OL and plays that helped the WVU defense prepare and sniff out what VT was doing.
So… I think there’s a possibility they are reading Fu’s lips. And likely other coaches, at times. Du does ZERO to cover his mouth when talking into headset.
Fu (not Du)
I think the paranoia about lip readers is the dumbest thing in sports. It’s so silly to see in baseball them covering their mouths in conferences at pitchers mound and coaches covering their mouths on sidelines
Maybe I can understand deciphering signs and such but reading lips AND understanding your opponent’s terminology?? Come on…not likely and definitely not able to decipher not quickly enough in real time
Plus Fuente doesn’t call the plays so…
well he should IMO, and can the Corn-dog
Lecitus mentioned you.