Frank Beamer noted after Saturday’s loss to Pitt that the coaching staff would talk about making some personnel changes. He went into greater detail during Monday’s press conference.
The first name Beamer mentioned was defensive back Greg Stroman.
“He’s going to be a wide receiver full time,” Beamer said. “We think he’s a great playmaker.”
Stroman provided a spark on jet sweeps against Cincinnati in the Military Bowl. However, his play in the secondary has left a bit to be desired. The move makes sense, considering Tech has no depth at all at wide receiver. Demitri Knowles and Kevin Asante haven’t played at all, with the exception of the fourth quarter against Furman.
Stroman’s future position is still a question mark, but for now he’s a wide receiver.
“I told him we’d meet again before the spring and decide where he wants to go from there,” Beamer said. “But for now I feel like getting some playmakers on offense…we need that.”
Many Tech fans have been wanting answers with regards to the running back rotation. Beamer addressed that on Monday as well, though he didn’t go into specific details.
“We sat down and talked about who needs to be touching the ball,” Beamer said. “I’m not going to get into that, but there’s only so many touches in a game and percentage wise you better have the right people touching the ball.”
Tech’s running backs combined for just 13 carries against Pitt, after carrying it only 17 times against East Carolina. The season numbers break down like this…
J.C. Coleman: 37 carries, 120 yards, 3.2 ypc
Trey Edmunds: 36 carries, 149 yards, 4.1 ypc
Travon McMillian: 32 carries, 223 yards, 7.0 ypc
Will we finally see more Travon McMillian on Friday night? We’ll find out soon.
Beamer also mentioned two true freshmen, including offensive tackle Yosuah Nijman.
“Nijman, offensive tackle, he’s 6-7 and athletic,” Beamer said. “We want to get him in there and play him more.”
Junior offensive tackle Jonathan McLaughlin struggled a lot against Pitt, and he’s not enjoying his finest season overall.
True freshman linebacker Tremaine Edmunds was also mentioned by name.
“Tremaine Edmunds, we want him to come along,” Beamer said. “He’s a talented guy. We’d like to get him more plays in there. We’d like to see him challenge a little more at linebacker.”
Edmunds plays the backer position, where he backs up Deon Clarke. Clarke started slowly last season before picking it up in November. His performance has been up and down so far in 2015, and the Hokies believe Edmunds the backer of the future. Beamer didn’t guarantee that Edmunds would start seeing time on defense, but he made it obvious that he hopes he comes along quickly.
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Did Frank finally wake up to find the pre-season is over and, that there are real problems that needed addressing? Really?
The next time you try to coach a sport and figure out personnel you’ll understand how difficult it is. And even the best coaches don’t always get it right. Personnel changes in the middle of seasons ALL the time.
Can’t agree with you more King of Hokies. It is like managing your fantasy football team times 1,000. Not as easy as it looks. It is truly a balancing act while trying to determine your best athletes for certain positions.
Yep. Then one of your most important players gets hurt. You have to halfway flip your whole team around to “make do.” But then you hurt yourself all over the place. It’s nearly impossible to deal with sometimes.
My biggest takeaway from this article is this: “I told him we’d meet again before the spring and decide where he wants to go from there,” Beamer said. Frank believes he will be back next year.
Not a chance. Frank would have to be delusional to not understand the desire for a fresh start. If he is not replaced, there will be an explosion.
I like it. He is a bit Shifty. Hell, He can’t cover Anybody-let somebody try to cover him. This might work.
1. What ever happened to using 2, or even 3, TE sets? Bucky and Malleck on the line, let them help on blocking or sneak out on pass routes.
2. Is it me, or are we not insane to go back to QB under center and run out of a singleback system and mix in some play action to give the o-line a better chance to establish a mean mentality. How do you expect these guys to play mean when play design is east-west read option sweeps that require our linemen to handle blocks longer (strike one), our wrs to participate in a block this century (strike two) and our rbs to have the speed to get around the end in the event we do actually block (strike three)
3. Why does Motley refuse to throw anything over the middle? No TE’s involved, no drag routes, it is all out routes we stare down and also require longer maintaining of blocks
4. Why do we continue to use Sam Rogers as a 3rd down back? When he blocks he misses assignment 80% of the time in a conservative estimate, and though he is a good receiver for a fb, he lacks elusiveness to be a 3rd down back that can get us firsts
5. Can anyone explain why we don’t use rbs as checkdowns in an offense that cannot maintain a block? A checkdown would prevent us from getting murdered in the pocket and going 2nd or 3rd and long and creating 0.00 chances of moving the chains.
6. Slant routes. In the playbook for Brewer, non-existent for Motley. I know the fear is that Motley errors high a lit on passes (hence the deep out routes and everything thrown at the sideline and the elimination of the TE), but if we play scared and only use long developing routes, we have zero chance of scoring ever.
7. Stroman to offense helps nothing. Another guy to do worthless jet sweeps and another guy to throw worthless screens to, and another wr that has zero chance at aiding our weakness- blocking.
You want to use Rogers, put him at fb in the I and give him some dives. Also, go 2 rbs split from the gun, and fake screen to rb on one side, spin and comeback to a screen to fb on other side (see National Championship tape vs FSU 2000….best play design ever).
More slants and quick pops to TE’s and drags to wrs and tes for 4 and 5 yds and let them create. We have to let Motley make throws using the middle to open up the running games. As we speak, teams can stack 7 at the line and drop cover 2 to guard our outs….make the lbs actually cover and all of a sudden our linemen can block 4 or 5 man fronts and use downhill runs to do so. We are a pass to open run team now, not a Hokie team of past run to open the pass. The line is just not talented enough
I’m with you on most of that, but I like Stroman moving to Offense. He can move well with the ball, but I hope we don’t waste him on jet sweeps only. That doesn’t serve any purpose.
He will only see jet sweeps and bubble screens and maybe some go routes. We don’t have a wr route tree other than screens, outs and go balls
Well we know what history tells us about that.
Thx for the post. Interesting.
Stroman to wr is a good move. We need playmaker backups. Now if the ol can protect Brewer
This is nepotism rearing its ugly head. Its October, and they’re finally figuring out the RB rotation is a joke? Nobody is challenging Shane obviously. He’s the prince of the palace. I know Loeffler isn’t this stupid. This smacks of a dysfunctional coaching staff from top to bottom.
The rb rotation is the very, very, very least of offensive problems. Trey has a good avg because he carries the ball on better play designs (not gonna fight he might be the most talented back we have, but when we line him up at rb in the gun and do east-west read option sweep as useless. ..and his big carries come on jet sweeps, where he is the only rb who gets them…JCC does fine in the rare event he gets a jet sweep).
A big issue is the lack of using the middle of the field on short pass plays such as digs, slants, hooks..
When you have 2 wrs, is it a good idea to play action jet sweep one of them and take them out of the route completely and now have 2 guys running a route on 3rd and long? It was run 10+ times vs Pitt and never worked
Forget rb rotation….worry about play design and inventing a short, quick passing game past the line of scrimmage (no stupid a. Wr screens).
Meant to say Trey is equally useless on east-west read option….that play design involves all of our weaknesses, holding a block and wr blocking. Trey has largely benefitted from getting 80% of his carries on the jet sweep (which does not take forever to develop and has the benefit of getting the handoff full speed and hitting the hole instantly and eliminates holding a block for an extended time and having to make Motley make a terribke read that takes waaaaaaay to looooong
I like the way You talk.
This program is a mess. I mean, a guy who starts at Boundary Corner one game is being moved to Wide Receiver two games later. I’d say it is safe to say our coaches are not all on the same page. Foster was surprised Stroman started at BC v. ECU (so he and Torrian clearly weren’t on the same page) and now he’s eschewing defense all together. What a mess.
Desperate times indeed, Frank is throwing darts with a blindfold on, hoping to get the board anywhere.
Desperation moves but good now that exhibition season is over. That is when you try new things isn’t it?
Running back rotation. It is like Barnum and Bailey. Didn’t we go thru this the last two years?
Burn them redshirts. We have been playing freshman for the last four seasons. How has that worked out?
RECRUITING… The elephant in the room.
If we refuse to run, put an extra ugly in backfield to help block and let Rogers chip and head to either flat.
Who gets to carries Friday ? Are we going to see more of Rogers too? Are they going to let Peoples carry the ball, I bet he could do three times as much in yardage as JC and Trey but maybe little Beams knows that Too…
Does Stroman know the passing tree better than Newsome? Who is faster/quicker? Are we looking at bubble screens or really trying to take the top off?
From what I’ve heard Newsome is a goof off. Doesn’t practice hard and he’s not focused so he’s probably out of place a lot during games. Stroman we all know is a hard worker even if it hasn’t translated on D. He was a huge playmaker in high school. He shoulda started on O anyways. I think he could be a solid slot guy. They are probably disappointed with Bucky not producing and realizing the need actual WRs
Re: Edmunds: “We’d like to get him more plays in there.” That statement is so Beamer. Who’s been stopping the staff from “getting him more plays in there”?……the staff’s decisions over the last 5 weeks, that’s who. And that goes for all the other decisions over the last weeks. Sounds like somebody should take ownership of what has occurred to this point. Whatever happened to “we need to have the best 11 players on the field at all times” mentality?
The “Buck” stops where?
Frank is too passive, too old, too tired. No way should Shane’s RB rotation still be going, and neither should the kickoff return team run so many balls out of the end zone. If there is something that Frank doesn’t like, it’s his duty to step-in and correct it. It’s just easier to say “aww shucks we’ll do better next week/year.”
I’m probably crazy, but I’d like to see Stroman get a couple of carries a game out of the “Wild Turkey” formation. His high school footage as a running QB was unreal, and he seemed far better at finding and hitting holes (if there are any) than JCC or Trey. He’s shown it at times on punt returns (at least the ones where he’s going forward).
He can’t seem to find the holes on punts that’s for sure. Obviously different technique there, but still. I don’t feel as though he’s the best option there. Need a decision maker who hits North South immediately with a quick cut. Not someone who runs sideline to sideline.
Disagree on the punt returner comment…it’s really hard to secure the ball, look up and make a guy miss who often is right there in your face…there are also the directional/rugby kicks that pin him on sideline. If he ever gets a line drive or a punt that out kicks coverage, he will go.
I’m excited about the move and had hoped and asked for it in the spring
They should move Trey to the Mike LB position this year as well!! He looks very slow at TB carrying the extra 15 lbs. he added in the off season. He was a very good LB in high school!! More carries for Travon makes perfect sense when you watch the game film. He sticks his foot in the ground and makes people miss, plus he hits the hole HARD!! Linemen love to block for that type of RB!!
Don’t matter who we add to the WR rotation if you CANT BLOCK. Hell, this just takes potential catches away from Ford Bucky and Mallett who are already proven (and rarely see the ball).
exactly! it all starts with the offensive line. good blocking allows holes for running and time for motley to pass. Adrian Peterson couldn’t successfully run right now.
Adrian Peterson would run wild behind this line. David Wilson, Ryan Williams, Darren Evans too. Give the line a back that can actually spot the seam and hit it agressively, and the running game is entirely different. Our issues running the ball are NOT primarily on our OL…it’s due to a lack of talent/development in our RBs and our RB coaching/rotation.
Doesn’t
No
Wr. need to get separation. Makes it easier to release ball quickly
I like this Stroman move. It’s obvious we need play makers. However, the big elephant in the room is still the o-line. Hopefully, they can pick it up….and hopefully, Brewer gets back soon. We need his leadership as well as his talents.
If the O lines plays like it did on Saturday, I’d hold Brewer out until they get their #### together. I wonder about where CSS’s head is right now.