Analyzing Virginia Tech's Game vs Liberty
Watched through some of the Va Tech game versus Liberty on ESPN3's replay site. I didn't watch the whole game; just fast-forwarded through to interesting possessions. VT won the game 36-13. Liberty is a I-AA (FCS) team. Sagarin had Liberty ranked #159 for the 2015 season; in comparision App State finished #60. Here are some observations.


VT Had Difficulty with Pressure. Surprising how much pressure Liberty got on the QB in the 1st half. Jerod Evans panicked a few times with the blitz and Liberty was able to storm through VT's O-line early in the game a few times.

Special Teams Good. VT's special teams did pretty well. Lot of good kick and punt returns. I didn't see any big mistakes. VT also managed to pick up a safety against Liberty on a punt; however, the Liberty returner should've never caught the ball inside the 10.

Utilizing the Outside. VT's offense utilized the outside passing game heavily. Lot of quick passes to outside receivers, hoping to take advantage of mismatches. This is interesting, but we also know that the speed of our secondary is a big advantage, so VT could have more difficulty on the outside against us.

Picked On Secondary. VT found a few one-on-one match-ups they liked and picked on Liberty's secondary repeatedly. Once again, however, they are going to have more trouble finding those types of match-ups against us. I thought our secondary was our biggest strength vs App State.

Jerod Evans. Evans was a 4-star JUCO recruit from the 2016 class. He's a Junior and is listed as "Dual Threat." VT's offense with Evans actually looks a bit like ours with Josh Dobbs two years ago. Jerod Evans did a good job taking off with the ball when nothing was available. He only had 5 runs for 46 yards, but he had a very good sense of when to run. However, Evans made a lot of poor decisions in pressure, and made a few risky passes. Some of those passes, he got bailed out on by good receivers, but could be more problematic against defenders like Cam Sutton and Micah Abernathy.

VT Defense Played Well. Not too much to complain about with the VT defense. Bud Foster's defenses have been among the best in the nation for years. VT's defense had 3 interceptions and also recovered a fumble. They held Liberty to 90 rushing yards and 70 passing yards. Not too shabby, eh? Even against FCS competition, those are good stats.

Hokie Receivers Looked Good. Saw VT's receivers make a lot of very good catches.

Lot of Mistakes. VT had a number of big mistakes in the 1st half, as well. In fact, thought they had a lot of similar issues as we did versus App State, except that App State is a much better opponent than Liberty. Liberty led the game 13-10 in the 2nd Quarter.

4 Fumbles Lost. The game stats list on ESPN list 4 fumbles lost. I saw a few of them. Not sure if they had any more that were recovered (and didn't make the stat line), but regardless, looks like VT was having similar first week issues as we were.



The Takeaways

VT's D and Special Teams Will Be Tough. Moving the ball against VT will be difficult. It always is. I have to think our best shot is to just keep pounding away at them in the rushing game and try to wear the defense out. Given that Fuente runs a fast-paced offense, this strategy is viable against VT. And yes, this means using Dobbs as a runner much more frequently than last week against App State.

Blitz Early and Often. If the VT O-line and Jerod Evans were having difficulty with Liberty's pass rush, I have to think we should be applying a ton of pressure. I don't expect VT to be as mistake-prone against us as they were against Liberty, but Liberty's pass rush will also seem like a walk in the park compared to ours. Hope to see Shoop go very deep in our bench, bringing out guys like Shy Tuttle, Kyle Phillips, Jonathan Kongbo, and Darrell Taylor. Keep our D-line fresh and keep the pressure constant!

Contain Jerod Evans. We do have to find a way to prevent Jerod Evans from taking off for big gains. We've struggled with dual threat QBs in the past.

Don't Panic. As much as our fanbase wants to panic right now, VT had similar issues as us in Week #1. The only difference is that they played a cupcake game and we played quite possibly the best G5 team in America.

Both Teams Will Play Better. More of a prediction than a takeaway, but I'd be surprised to see either our Vols or VT making as many mistakes as during Week 1. Both teams will be laser-focused for what is a historic game.
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