FanHouse VirginiaTechHokies

Last year, Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg made an impassioned plea for his Hokies to get an NCAA tournament bid after losing to UNC in the ACC tournament.

Ultimately, his argument came down to the fact that while Virginia Tech lost, they lost close games. That did not cut it last year and it will not work this year.

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So sayeth this guy.

An analysis of the NFL performance of three particular groups of college players suggests these groups are vastly overrated in the NFL draft and unlikely to succeed in the NFL. Those groups are Michigan skill position players, Virginia Tech defenders and Jeff Tedford coached quarterbacks.

The draft is light in such players this year, but just the same the evidence bodes poorly for guys like Michigan receiver Steve Breaston, Virginia Tech safety Aaron Rouse and combustible Cal quarterback Joe Ayoob.

Why is this so?

Call it the scheme/system factor. Sometimes there's a tradeoff for college success as a player who otherwise dominates on the college level in a particular system may not develop certain skills necessary for the NFL. This most affects the Virginia Tech defenders.

Beamer's secret isn't getting top talent and building the defense around the talent, Beamer and his coordinator have a scheme and go after the talent to fit that scheme. What is interesting is the constant of what kinds of players Beamer gets, and its usually undersized or oversized players for the NFL eyes, undersized DLmen (Engleberger and Adibi seems to be the only one close to the standard NFL size for a DE, but guys like Chamblee, Tapp and Jonathan Lewis seem to be the norm), over-sized Safeties (Rouse, Jimmy Williams and Willie Pile, but the CBs tend to be normal sized-but slow) and undersized Lbs (Moore, C. brown, Ken Brown).

As for the Michigan guys, their solid offensive line play over the years has apparently cursed everyone else involved in the Wolverine offense.

if a QB knows that he has that extra couple seconds to make his progressions, he gets used to it and when he hits the NFL, the speed of the pass rush caused him the most problems. The same problem in the passing game also applies to the WRs and TEs. If a receiver (either TE or WR) doesn't have to improvise as much (for example: knows that he can run his assigned route most of the time) and doesn't have to run hot routes as much, then the receiver doesn't develop the skills that they need in the NFL.

The Michigan line has also been the (NFL) bane of many a memorable Wolverine tailback.

with such a dependable Oline, the RBs did not develop needed skill sets because they had a great oline in front of them year after year. It might be as subtle as not having to learn to wait for the blocks to develop, or learning how to make use of the crease that is there

I wonder if Mike Hart can break the trend next year?

The sign you see above was conceived of and created by some obviously cultured UVA fans, and was displayed during last night's Virginia Tech @ Virginia ACC basketball contest (many thanks to Can't Stop the Bleeding). It's far from the norm for me to stand up for Virginia Tech, but well ... that sign annoys me.

I hate to completely dismiss the sign ... after all, UVA students do own blazers, so they know what they're talking about. I don't understand the need for any hostility towards the world of agriculture, though. Cultivating land, raising crops, and tending to livestock are still things that are done is this country, yes?

Anyway, culture won out last night ... I guess because UVA's players spend all their time reading Shakespeare while VaTech's players were exhausted from plowing fields all milking goats all day.