I believe every team since Purdue, who was apparently coached by apes, has had a spy assigned to Garrett.
He can't run with a spy just focusing on him. And I think it has gotten in his head a bit.
I have confidence VT is not coached by apes and will also spy Garrett. Spying Garrett should in theory weaken the defense. We should be able to take advantage but Coach Beck has struggled to make adjustments here.
It looks to me as though we have tried to throw the ball over the middle some, over the spy into an area that is generally wide open. I think sometimes our receivers (sometimes TEs) have struggled to get open and sometimes we have someone open but the OL gets pushed backwards 5 yards or more, giving Garrett little room to make a pass. We are getting a lot of passes knocked down by DL in our backfield. That is a huge problem.
Part of that is because Clemson, UNC and FSU have a bunch of DL who are bigger and stronger than our OL and they have been able to physically dominate the line of scrimmage. Looking at the VT depth chart, their DL isn't as big as the schools we have been playing. They aren't remotely as good either. Our OL should be able to hold their own. Also see a bunch of DBs in the 180 range. Our WRs match up physically better with them than most ACC schools.
VT totally shut down Wake's rushing attack in their last game. They were hurt by some deep balls but they got a lot of pressure on the WF QBs and ended up with 7 sacks. WF QBs fumbled the ball 4 times as well. VT has 13 TFL in the game. That is insane. They blitzed Wake repeatedly with no fear and Wake was unable to take advantage (inexperienced QBs played a role here).
Drones was VT's best running threat and he threw for 321 yards as well.
I expect VT will try the same formula on us that they did on Wake. They will play 7 men in the box, try and take away the run, play press coverage, blitz like crazy and dare us to try and beat them long. And spy on Garrett for good measure.
The same stuff we have been seeing. Hopefully the staff can come up with some answers to this approach and hopefully better matchups will also play a roll in getting better results.
This is a big game for the program, the head coach and the offensive coordinator. Hell, it is a big test for Rocky Long too. VT does not have good RBs. If we can take away the run and keep Drones in the pocket, and throw some stuff at him, we have a good chance to shut their offense down. We have struggled the last few weeks stopping the power run game but VT does not have the OL or RBs we have been seeing. It should not be a big ask to shut down their running game. If we can't, we are going to struggle to stop anyone for the rest of the year.
