Know the Enemy: Virginia

0:30 Music. And welcome back to the Boundary Corner Podcast, along with my partners Brian Siegler, Shelton Moss, and Jonathan Talley. I am Curtis Wilson and this episode is brought to you by Doctor Jeremy Counts at the Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg. Your friendly neighborhood pharmacy. Three O 1 S Main St. in Blacksburg, boys. It happened to me a few minutes ago. Evening Lavar. My power's flickering, which means I might lose Internet service. So y'all better be on your PS and QS. Already on that shit we.

1:15 Gonna hold it down, We gonna hold it. Down you might. Lose it too weather acting crazy here. So November rain here. And that is the best 90s ballad treadmill horse. I know you're out there listening tonight. That is the best 90s ballad. At least the ones you listed at. Least the ones you listed. So how's everybody doing? It's Tuesday. It's been raining all day, man. I've been. This is, this is my one and only day of work this week. So you worked. One day. I worked one day. I was working from home today, pretty much making sure that there weren't any fires that needed pudding out. Since it was just I think one other person on our team that was kind of hanging in there. So just just there to provide backup and you know, make sure nothing goes crazy.

2:02 Thankfully, thankfully, nothing went crazy. So. Sheldon, what about you? I see you're still in Charlotte. You in Charlotte for the holidays? Yeah, so I'm I'm in North Carolina for holidays, going to go to my my family house in my cousin's house in in Apex, NC so, so stay in the Tario state, but I can enjoy the weekend and then I'll be in Tampa, FL this Saturday for the Charlotte football game. They're playing down at South Florida. So going to go see Raymond James Stadium, home of the Town Bay Buccaneers. Looking forward to it. Go find the pirate ship. Go find the pirate ship. Tally. What about you, man? How's the day been? Been pretty good, man. You know it's Thanksgiving week. Time to eat, drink, be merry.

2:43 All of that stuff. Find you some good moonshine. You may need it. We don't know. Who you rooting for? I don't know who you betting on, but moonshine will make it much better. I was telling Tally before we got on Curtis that tomorrow night is the drunkest night of the year in in the United States of America. More people drink on the day before Thanksgiving, the and the other night of the week of the year. So get get ready. Get like Tally said, get you some moonshine, get you something nice and nice to keep you warm. Maybe we should have divided into tomorrow night. We could have gotten drunk. Let's.

3:24 Do it again. I can get drunk tonight because I'm not working tomorrow, but you know. I'm working tomorrow. We already got like we already got the phone call, like, yeah, work, work a little while, you can leave a little bit early. 132 you could kind of just start heading out the out the building, yeah. So yeah, all right, lots on load tonight. Y'all. Obviously Hokies lose, as Brian said, the closest blowout ever 3528 against the Wolfpack on Saturday afternoon. So we're going to definitely be talking about that. We're definitely going to tell the truth Tuesday. We are also going to be breaking down UVA Little hate week here. A lot of hate pouring out.

4:07 A lot of hate started with their fucking loudmouth quarterback on Saturday afternoon. I better be in every fucking locker room with that. Everybody's, everybody's, everybody's for a little thing, but let's flip news and notes before we kick over to tell the truth. Choose down. Let's start with hoops and let's talk about men's. Basketball they down wall for just the other night by I believe 20. Plus I saw bits and pieces of that game. They shot well. Little shocker, Boise tomorrow or Thanksgiving night and then Auburn Lumen next week. I'm going to kick it to all of y'all. If the Hokies go blank, they will have a good season over the next. Two in those games.

4:52 In those two games. It's so hard to say in basketball because it doesn't matter until conference play starts. Like that's where you figure out who your team is. So if we had to put something on it, one and one, but even if they if they go O and two, I don't think it defines the season. I think they got to win too. I mean I'm just projecting for the ACC tournament because they don't really have a ton of opportunities for quality wins assuming they don't beat Auburn. So depends, I don't, I don't know, it depends how the ACC stacks up in terms of how they're projected with the the networkings and all that stuff. I don't know if it's going to be a proceed to the quick conference. So because of that Tech has to do well the non con.

5:34 So I think it's a pretty big, I think it's a pretty big tournament. OK, so. Yeah, I I think it's a two and O situation too, for the same reason, Sheldon said. This is where you got to build your resume. This is the time to do it. You know I don't as as Sheldon said, I don't think the ACC is perceived as a good conference. It's going to depend on how in that kind of second tier they fall. So that that's really going to kind of determine the strength there. So getting all the wins you can in the non con is going to be very important. Let's go to and O let's let's take this into December on a on a high note here. Yeah, I'm. I'm with y'all. I think it has to be two and O if anything is to build the confidence to play again.

6:17 Boise perceived as a good team, they lost by 17 to Clemson just the other night and Auburn is a good team. I think it's confidence because after those games they basically have following week, they open conference play with Louisville. So if you go in there, you go one O, 1 or O and two. I mean the confidence is going to be down. This team needs the confidence. Hey, because of what tally, I think what Y'all said, this is a shooting team. They're shooting. Team shooters need confidence. So let's see how that shakes out. It is Thursday night at 8:00, so I'll be watching the Niners here, the Hokies here. All right, Women's, they struggled a little bit with UNCG.

6:59 They've got a couple of Kansas, then Tulane this weekend, Friday and Saturday. LSU looming next week. I don't. Y'all y'all tell me. Not until we get to the LSU game. Are you worried? Like, honestly, and I mean, are y'all worried about any of these teams coming up? I mean. No, I mean I wouldn't call them necessarily a warm up, but they're certainly not, not any teams that going to I think press this wall to wall so. LSU got some bullshit going on down there right now, too. So yeah, maybe, maybe we can, you know, sneak around and blow them out. Angel Reese not dressing out for a game or got benched or something, we got all kind of stuff going on early this season.

7:44 Yeah, and that's not helping them gel with, you know, a couple new pieces that they brought in. So it'll be interesting to see if they, you know, able to put those pieces together between now and then. And you know, I I still like our chances regardless. They definitely play a more physical brand of basketball than we do. So it's going to be interesting to see if we can match that that that was a problem in the tournament last year. It was. So you know, if if we can either, you know, get a lead where that becomes less of a problem or you know, at least match some of that energy to kind of offset that a little bit, I think we'll be all right. Showing anything on this, that'll be fine, I think. I think Kansas will be a good test and I'll see when they when they get there, but kind of like what Ty was saying like non conference games especially for this team, just not the biggest deal in the world.

8:34 Like they we know that they're going to be high seed. So it'd be it'd be nice to win obviously for the resume and you know maybe for for the social media right bragging rights as well. But. It's bragging rights. It's confidence too. And as much as that people, you know, we're we're down about the Iowa loss. You playing with one of the best teams in the country, you're right there. Go to LSU, get that win and just, you know, just keep the building, keep building. Yes, we have been waiting. I have to watch that since this Saturday. Hokey Nation, 54231. More piece, One more piece, hokey wise, and I got to turn to one other thing. College football wise. Wrestling. Big win Up at Piscataway. They take out the number 15 Rutgers Scarlet Knights. That was a good win on Friday and over the weekend the Keystone Classic.

9:21 Wrestling's crazy because there's another thing going on tonight up at Penn State. I was reading like where. Like some of the best in the country are competing. It's like an All Star thing. That shit's crazy. But Keystone Classic up in Penn. Kayla Penson won. Bryce Adonian won. Andy Smith won. Hunter Cackle won. They take 4 championships up there, which is pretty daggone good. And it's much like women's basketball, right? Kind of the way we view it, It's like we're going to be good. We're going to send people to the Nationals. We're going to compete for the ACC title. It's just I like to just see the accolades, right?

10:02 Because when you see those guys winning the tournaments, having a good, having a good duel, it's like this is the confidence we need for some of those guys. Yeah. I think it's all about building up that confidence and kind of taking some of those that momentum into the conference time and seeing how you can build off of that. All right. Don't they have anything on the wrestling? Nothing. Shelton Alley? Nope. All right, one piece. I tell y'all. I keep up with hirings and firings. Dino Babers got fired the other day up at Syracuse. So now the run of the muck of how many people are interested in that job is going up and down.

10:44 There's two more pieces, actually. I mean, I guess if you're a long 10 year at OC or DC and they offer you a job, you take it, all right? Right. I mean, who can? Who can win in Syracuse? It's a tough job. It's a tough job, you know, It's just a tough football job. So not talking shit about them. But you know, I don't know. I don't know who can win there. It's not the 90s anymore. It's not, it's not and it and it's crazy to think if you go back and look in the history books that from like the mid 80s to the early 2000s, they were a legitimate top 25 program year in, year out. You know, we had our wars with them. Everybody.

11:28 Always. It was it 9797 game always hurts a little bit. All right, One more piece and everybody follows it. Saw it. I mean it. The tea leaves have been there for the last about six weeks, but Marcellus Barnes Junior Decommits over the weekend officially puts it out there. I think for I think for US, US 4 here, it's not a shock. Yeah, once. Once Georgia was starting to push hard, you kind of got a feeling that that was going to go the way it did. It's that's a hard one to win heads up you know especially for a player that you know has is kind of that lower, you know from a ranking standpoint that you know high 3, low 4 like getting that offer is pretty big for him so. You know best of luck to him you know looks like George is is the is the go there so sucks.

12:34 But I think we're we're we're on to the next, so we'll see what what comes down the Pike here. What's even more important, or more interesting, is as soon as he decommits, his ranking shoots up. Shut up. I'm just saying. Shut up. Oh yeah. Ranking. Ranking goes up. Hold on, We need. To Oh yeah, drop to a composite 3 before he decommitted and then I think he's back to a composite 4 if I'm not mistaken. He is, he's, he's he's almost a 90 now. Yeah, I'm telling you. Where's Matei? Call Matei, everybody. I'm telling you man, hey, they have to pay for subscriptions one way or the other. When certain people start. When some people.

13:15 When certain people start. Sneaking around, the rankings get a little bit different. We need this team to stay here. We need this team to stay here. We need this team to stay here. They know how it works, man. You. Conspiracy theory. You got a conspiracy? Theory and a conspiracy they keep showing us. I mean, they're making it easy. Make it. They make it super easy. He decommits from Virginia Tech as ranking goes up. What the fuck? If Georgia doesn't give an offer, he comes back as he going back to an 87.75. Expeditiously. We're talking about before he has to show you got anything on this, man? I know it's tough to give up recruiting with all you're doing.

14:01 Yeah, I know. I just only thing I would say I saw someone on social media. This happens a lot. Say something like, well, why would he, You know, you go to Georgia when you could be like a star at VTi think that's kind of a worked way of looking at it. I mean, you figure you go to Georgia, you've got the best coaches on the planet, best facilities, the the most exposure, nil money NFL draft opportunities. I mean, it's kind of a no brainer. So I just think it's, it's just a losing battle. They've got the money, they've got the the winning, the success. Just not something I'd overreact to too much. All right. Well. This has not been a very happy and we don't get even unhappier here and we got to tell the truth Tuesday and you know you all know the way we do this we always going to start with what went well and I'll fire this one right out the the the boys didn't quit the whole game. No, down, down 21 and fight all the way. What else Y'all got Anything else y'all noticed before we jump on the offensive, defensive sides of the ball? Just kind of in general about this game. Excuse me?

15:08 Drone can throw the ball, I mean. Oh yeah. I don't know if he's developed into that, but he definitely can throw it. So I was told earlier in the season that he was, he was struggling, he was struggling throwing the, throwing the deep pass, so. I'm just saying he's progressed, if that's what the case is. Well for sure. I mean you take a look at what he did. I mean those home run pass plays like I mean he he he is. Every time you see him take those he puts them in the right spots. He he and knock on wood damn it he is not an under thrower on a deep shot.

15:49 He's not. He puts it over their head and that's why you've seen so many drops in the he put it right here. And putting you up here, he drops the dime or it's going to be slightly out of reach. That's the one good thing, Brian. Anything else that impressed you with the offense or anything like that on Saturday? I mean, I'd say his patience it more than anything, waiting for those routes to develop and come open and trusting the pass pro was going to give him enough time against that pass rush. You know, there were a lot of times where you know. Things had to develop on the back end for some of those big plays to happen. So you had some patience there, was able to deliver accurate balls consistently and we were able to move the move the rock once we kind of got into that catch up mode unfortunately, which is kind of, you know, not not the game plan we had out the gate obviously. Yeah, and we're going to get.

16:45 Into the game plan Out of the gate. Can I say another thing? XTB is behest. Yeah, he's very fast. I mean and and that was one of that was such a great pivot play at that point in time in the game because and I'm going to mention this in a little while here, but when we ran that play to the boundary side, I mean everybody from NC State flowed and when I think came back, they did not see that coming. They did not see that coming at all. Sean, anything on offense you can think of that went well in your eyes? Watching it, reading over data, Anything, I mean I think it was it was a hard game to analyze because the box score stats in my opinion and kind of softened up what, you know, we pass on the field obviously check couldn't get the run game going so they had to kind of play from behind.

17:40 And once NC State got that three touchdown lead, they kind of went into a little bit of a shell turtled up so to speak. And that's when the the passings, you know, the passing kind of opened up. So I don't know if it was just them playing prevent. Obviously I like what I saw in the fourth quarter from from drones in the passing game. I liked how they had some big plays and they struck back when NCC scored touch ends. But I just don't know. It's hard because I don't know how NC State would have played differently if they had only had a one touchdown lead rather than a three touchdown. Lead. That's fair. That's fair. All righty. Now let's go to defensive side of the ball because I'm. I will be honest with y'all. Was the way I watched this game was very awkward followed on my phone the first half. Unfortunately, most of the third quarter I had to listen to NC State radio calls and Robert and I was calling a perfect game. Y'all.

18:27 I heard that like 6 times. I had to turn radio off twice because I got sick to my stomach. Luckily, about the time I hit Chase City Bron, the exit there? Thank God I picked up Bill and Mike the rest of the drive home. But, and then I came home and I watched the game and on defense, I like every nothing was right. Like the the play calls were bad, they were out of position. They looked lost. Do y'all have anything defensively? Honestly. Delaney hit somebody hard. Yeah, yeah. I mean trying to trying to find something. I mean we right, we never really got into a groove defensively like they they had us on our heels most of the game and I mean you know in the second-half, I mean obviously they kind of went a little more conservative. That was the only time we looked like anything. But again that was more a product of their game plan than it was anything that we did significantly well. So that that was the most you know? That was disappointing.

19:42 And I mean, I don't really think, I can't really think of anything that I saw that really stood out to me. That's like, yeah, that was good. I mean, D line play was all right. That's it. But it wasn't spectacular. And then what was happening on the back end, it needed to be spectacular. And it wasn't. All right, well, let's just jump to it. Let's go to what went bad. And I'm going to start with defense. And Sheldon, I don't know if you were able to pull this. But did were you able to find what Wolfpack's normal success rate is versus what it was Saturday? Yeah. So coming to the game, it was around 39%, which ranked 96. This game is about 46%. So plus 7% increase kind of pretty significant in the context of success rates, I think averages around like 40%, something like that.

20:31 But there was also there's also a big discrepancy in terms of. Standard downs are passing downs, so obviously standard downs like your first and 10s where you could either run or pass the ball, NC State 54% there on passing downs, they're only about half as successful. So basically when whenever tech was not, whenever tech did not force NC State into an obvious passing situation, that's when they really struggled. And that's kind of what we what I know Brian and I mentioned in our preview was like, you've got to get them into passing downs and and then when they did, it worked, but they just couldn't do it enough. All right, Brian, what else, Charlie? What else? One of y'all speak up. What else did y'all see that went bad in your eyes, 'cause obviously we just had a moment of silence up there, 'cause not that much went good.

21:14 I mean Concepcion cooked us a bunch of times, man. You know some of it was all those those passing downs, some of it was in the run game, some of it was just those quick screens. So, but he did a little bit of everything and and pretty much all of it hurt us at Different. Parts of the game. Yeah. He did whatever he wanted to do. I mean, he paid his, his he paid his $100 to the neighborhood hooker and he did whatever he wanted to do for the night. That's what happened. I'm just telling you Brian, that is at 2244 if you're. We we didn't get off. We didn't get off the field on 3rd downs at all like we needed to.

22:02 I mean it's the same stuff when we play bad, it's the same things. It's like again, this team is so up and down. You look at the same stuff week in and week out, whether it's good or bad. When it's good it's good, but when it's bad it's bad. You know the run fits are horrible. We don't get off the field on 3rd downs when we need to. You know we. Penalties just whatever, man. It's just the same stuff and people get tired of seeing it. And I get it. I understand everybody watching everybody. If you're watching this later on, if you're at work, if you're at church, calm down a little bit. You know what I'm saying? I get it. You deserve to be mad. But you don't have a couple of days.

22:44 Nobody's getting fired. So don't even get your blood pressure up because they ain't getting fired, you know? Do they need to be fired? Were we saying they need to be fired when we blowing people out? Like we got to take a whole body of work and look at what we need, what we were last year, what we are this year, what we need to be next year. It's a lot of stuff to think about, man. You start talking about firing people and just bringing new people in, then you fucking end up like Texas A&M paying a man $76,000,000 to be the same shit you've been. Use the same shit you've been. You just added some salt on top and the salt was him being mad at Nick Saban every week. So. I'm just saying, man, I ain't saying that, you know, the coaches don't need to be scrutinized.

23:27 But I'm not going to go into the whole let's fire the whole coaching staff every week until we actually have something that is going to make us better. I mean, I'm the, I'm the type of person that you know when, when you're when you're looking at something. I need to see what you can do, what you can do for me, what you can show me before I will show you the door. Yeah. And I don't think we're quite at that point yet with with anybody on this tab obviously definitely not the head coach. But I think we're, I think we're still waiting to see where the where the ceiling could potentially be and and and this is year 2 of what you know was going to be a multiple year rebuild. We're we're talking about a team that has shown improvement. But what what they're struggling with is consistency. That's the truth.

24:20 And The thing is it happened. And I'm going to, I'm going to bring us back to where we were because I'm agreeing with both of y'all on what y'all are saying. But what? What's frustrating Saturday in the most frustrating A. This is a male offense. This was not that good of an offense. Sheldon had the numbers where they ranked in the country. Not a good successful offense, a male offense. There are two guys that could beat you. We already mentioned conception. He beat us. He torched our asses. The other guy was Brendan Armstrong, and Brendan Armstrong had his fucking day. He ran for, if you an account of those knees at the end. He went for well over 100 rushing a ball. A lot of was designs and I think what got me a little bit and I'm going, I'm going to pitch it to Shell here in a second, was the first couple drives. We kind of pegged them.

25:05 We kind of had what their number and then they adjusted and we didn't and they scored on five. And I had to hear that from NC State as well. When I was on the damn radio, five drives in a row, they scored a touchdown. And it's just like that's. Just can't give. Yeah you can't give that up and don't answer. You know you get your defense to go out and you know, I know I seen a lot of people saying fire Mars, you know maybe one day you deserve to be fired. But against Syracuse? I'm just saying like what it what you, you, you, you in a 00 game going into the second, second quarter you know.

25:45 Your offense has to produce, man. You're at home. You got to bring some, you got to bring some juice. You got to adjust. So I ain't saying that the the defense had a good day. I'm just saying it's a it's a collective effort to suck. And that's what we did. Let me ask Sheldon, can I pitch to Sheldon real quick? Because Sheldon looked up. The one thing I was more concerned about every time you said the defensive line didn't have a had an OK game in your eyes Brown when you looked at the tape? I asked Sheldon look up yards before contact. What was that Shelton? Did you get to it about how much it was pre contact? Before contact, yeah, it was probably about say 55 yards. So think about that 55 yards.

26:27 They ran about 40 run plays. It was a yard and a half before we were touching them. On average a yard and a half. Y'all two boys played up on that front. If you're getting a yard and a half push, how's your running game going to do that day? Pretty good. I mean you, if you can get 3 yards to carry, you. All right. You know what I'm saying? So we're saying right there with that stat that he pulled up that before they got touched a yard and a half. And when I started looking more and more, our drops were crazy back for some of the linebackers like way off the line. And I didn't understand it. I didn't understand it because Ryan, you joked last weekend, it's the God honest truth.

27:13 Brendan Armstrong doesn't have the ball, the arm to push the ball down there. He doesn't. He never has. So by the way, we had our defense and this is where I'm frustrated with Marv. It's like the only way he could beat you is give him soft zones and give him some sort of run lanes. The two things you couldn't do, we laid on the platform. And that's what makes me mad because I see it here as a common football fan. I've talked to y'all I, Sheldon, about data and I say you telling me this, play press, stack the box a little bit, make them go over the top on you, force that they can get off the press. And we didn't do that. And we have three really good quarterbacks, and I know we've got to have some at safety right now, but we have three really good quarterbacks. And that's what pisses me off.

28:02 And it's like, what's going to happen if someone leaves? What's going to happen if the next guy doesn't develop quite well? Then it's going to be on Chris Mark. Right. Anything else on defense? I'm sorry. I got him a bad guy for a second. I mean the the last thing I'm going to say is that, you know, we said trick plays were coming, they came, they worked. It kind of sucked that, you know, you weren't able to do anything with it. Every single trick play they ran worked. It's bad, man. And again but but that's where it's like I don't believe in firing, you know, Chris Moore, Tyler Bowen. Nobody's getting fired this year because there's been at times where again you've seen all right looks like they know what the hell they're doing good calls and some people say, well that's against lesser competition.

28:51 Tyler, I go back to what you said earlier this year. You talking about when lose by a lot, lose by a little, win by a little. Start winning by more. The scenario this year is lose you the best three teams in the conference, Beat up on the bottom of the conference and not and not win by three points. Win by 4 points. Beat up the bottom of the conference. Right, so. Yeah. Yeah, I mean the weird thing is that the with the ACC, there's there really hasn't been a measuring stick. It's either been, you know, not not playing UNC and not playing a couple other teams like that. Georgia Tech, you know, Miami. Miami, There hasn't been a lot of middle tier teams on our schedule. It's either been bottom 5 or top three, so and we're getting another bottom 5 this week, so.

29:45 It. It's it's been really hard to get a barometer of where exactly this team is. We know we're not a bad team but we don't know how decent of a team we are. Shelton Anything else on the defence before we wrap this up? Yeah, so I I was having a conversation with one of my coaching buddies who who knows about scheme and I trust his opinion. And I think basically what he laid out to me was when you look at the linebacker play for Virginia Tech, you see the same issues with regards to force and spill and lever over and over and over again from the same players. And so I think it's reasonable to question if this is a coaching problem, given that it keeps happening over and over again. But what he also said was, and I agree with this, I I think that that whole lineback room needs a makeover. I just, I don't think those guys have the instincts with we're playing a bunch of converted safeties now. If we get some studs coming in next year and we still have the same problems, then it's definitely a coaching issue. But I just, I would like to see a a a Marv coach team that has guys with with instincts and a good feel for that position. Yeah, 'cause when you look at, you look at the conference man. And no disrespect to our guys, but. I think they're working hard, but like Sheldon said, I mean, we got a lot of converted safeties in the linebackers, you know what I mean?

31:01 And. You. Look at when you when you look at a linebacker, Virginia has a true freshman linebacker. Cam Robinson is a linebacker. Peyton Wilson is a linebacker. You know what I'm saying? Like, it is much different to have somebody like that playing linebacker than even to have Kelly Lawson. And I think, you know, I think Kelly Lawson's a good player, but as good as he may be for us, there's still a drop off from a top linebacker. We just don't have that play yet. Allen Tinsdale. Hey man, time to be a family, man. Join us. Come on, the podcast put you some headphones on. You don't got to go out there and get beat up no more. It's over.

31:49 You know, Come on up in here and I think what y'all, it's what's being reflected here before we move over to the offensive side of the ball is that linebacker position. It's instincts. Most guys who play that position don't move. You are a linebacker mostly all of your life. That's it. Because what it takes to be that it is a certain skill set. What what what Tally saying is can we just get him Andrew Tapapuaca at middle linebacker and name name a will. You don't have to name the best will we've had, but name a solid will and he do good. So yeah, by the way, the only player we, we see having good games on the lineman core is Jenkins. And why?

32:29 Why you want to? In my opinion, because the star is a true hybrid safety. Linebacker Keonta was a safety. It's more of his wheelhouse. All right, let's go to the offensive side of the ball. Anybody that wants to answer this question? Why did it take so long for us to open passing game downfield? Why? Because it worked. 20 Go ahead bro. I was just going to say, I feel like, you know, we we talk about this a lot on here that we're a little late with the pivots in scrapping the game plan, moving away from the script, all that stuff. After your first two drives of not having success, you need to mix it up.

33:18 You need to do something different. You need to go to something different. You don't wait till you're down 14 before you start, you know, dialing stuff up because that that's what happened. Yes, we went down there, we got a big play to XTB on that reverse after the big kickoff return, got it back to a touchdown. But then we didn't see the ball for like the next 10 minutes because they had a long drive. Scored before half came out, scored again to open the half on like a 7 minute drive. So I mean it, it was, it was a long time before we saw the ball again and we were down 21 by the time we did what you got. Tally, hey, similar to what we talked about. You know, in some of the other games it's like the coaching staff looks at the team and they go, yeah, it's going to be a rough one for us.

34:05 Let's see what happens and you know, we'll go from there, you know, pick our spots and things. Like when you play on a team and you're not. I know we were favorites, but North Carolina State was the better team to me, I mean. We essentially had the home hook. I mean, it was a. It was a pickle. Yeah, it was a. Pickle, to me it's like when you look at stuff like that, you got to come out swinging, man. You know what I'm saying? You got to take some shots. You got to hope some good stuff happens. You got to send some people, got to blitz some people and and and if they beat you, they beat you. You lose it anyway. You know when you're playing the top team. So I just think, Curtis said before we got on, when you get young coordinators, they're like super conservative or they're super like risky. You got to be a good mix of both and figure out what team you have to figure out what works for you. But both of our coordinators are like super conservative. It's like that stick is so far in their ass. You can open their mouth and and and thump it, you know what I'm saying?

35:12 I don't know man. You got to, you got to do some stuff different. But again depending on who we play to, we play. They call the, they call the games different. So it's true. But you've also and that's where I like what y'all are saying here. Because you've seen those games where we didn't divert from the plan and the next thing you know the next drive 4 plays touchdown, right? And then the drive after that we drive deep, get a field goal, then the next one we get on plus side we punt and put them inside of 10. It feels like to me it's like they have this whole of I know it's eventually going to work. I know it's eventually going to work until coach probably goes beat. This shit ain't working.

35:53 Do something different OK click. The other part I want to say is, and y'all, maybe it's my eyes deceiving me and and y'all can disagree. I felt like NC State had some of our plays absolutely pegged, pegged. The XTB play that was like a what was it? A toss toss. It was like a toss left right and they reversed it. Watch how they float like, oh, we know exactly what they're doing and when you pivoted. Nobody was. I mean, they're a well coached defense. I mean, you expect that from a well coached defense. And that's exactly what they got. I mean. You know you look at what Wilson was doing.

36:33 I mean he was all over the damn place. I mean he was even on that play that you were talking about. He was, he was, he was almost walking down. XTBI mean he was the second fastest player on the field on that play. So I mean it it's it's frustrating because you feel like when this team does have some early, early success, the coordinator has shown that he's he's he'll let his nuts hang a little bit, but when it doesn't work out the gate. It takes a little bit too long to move on to something different. I mean, you don't have to wholesale abandoned your game plan to throw in a handful of new wrinkles to give them something different to look at and something different to worry about. And I'll, I'll go ahead and mention it here since it's on the screen there.

37:18 Rex Parker said two to three touches were two. Big mistake. Again, I know some of that was dictated by the game plan, but you still got to get, you know, one of your three or four best players on the field involved in the offensive game. Plan. You got to get him the ball. You know, if it's nothing, but just for him to have some confidence for the next game, you got to get him the ball. You got to attempt to get involved, Sheldon. Let me ask this though, because it wasn't a huge sample size, but how bad were the run grades for the offensive line? Yeah, So we can go through them. Obviously we didn't run much like you, said Parker. Clements was the best, actually, surprisingly enough at 68 and then around average you got Berlin Morgue around 63. Xavier Chaplin's 60, so those are those are the passing grades and then below that Brody Meadows was not great at 50.5 and then last was Kayden Moore at about 50.

38:07 So kind of some some up and down there. I thought it was going to be a lot worse, but maybe that small sample size saved them. But we again, it's the up and downs and I had someone reach out to me and got to make a change and I was like and I made the point. On the offensive line you have 3 freshmen getting massive play time, right? Massive. You have a guy switching positions and we've I know we've mentioned this before y'all y'all y'all heard this from us before and there are two guys that at best should be your depth pieces not frontline starters.

38:48 That's just the truth. And and and now that they are much older, it's like if if we do not, I will be disappointed in this staff. If we do not go out and get at least one, I'd prefer two offensive lineman in the portal once it opens up in this. Yeah, you need to, but I get what you're saying. You need to. We need to all right. Excuse me. Don't die, man. Don't die. I don't air. I don't know what happened. All right, so anything happened Saturday, Y'all were not prepared for. I'll kick it over to Segla first. I'd say I just our general inability to stop that offense consistently, I thought we would have no problem, especially in the passing game kind of slowing them down a little bit and they kind of did whatever they want to most of the game until they got into that.

39:43 Protect the lead type offense there in the late 3rd, early fourth quarter. All right, Tyler, what about you? Brendan Armstrong turned into Cam Newton, what we had him looking like, just letting him fall forward, do what he want, do backflips, put his hand in his ass, throwing it down. He just did whatever he want to do. Our defense. Nobody hit nobody. Nobody. I mean, it's just a bad showing, you know, We just, I guess to sit. To sum it up, we didn't quit, which is good. Well, we talked about it in the beginning, but. I don't feel like we had fight, you know. I don't feel like we had the fight that we normally have. It's like we were defeated.

40:26 As soon as they punched us in the mouth, you know, Peyton Wilson was talking shit, you know, But you didn't have too many people saying nothing back, you know, It's just, oh, shit, he good. We can't fuck with him. Oh, you got to hit that motherfucker, just like you hit everybody else. But we didn't see that. We didn't see that Saturday, so we'll see. Sheldon, what about you? Yeah, I was most surprised, disappointed with how poorly they stopped Brendan Armstrong running the football. I know he's a good runner. I don't mean to take anything away from him, but his running numbers are down for the previous years and I thought that Tech did a fantastic job defending the run against Scared Trade or against Syracuse and also Cassillon's with BC. So it was definitely a surprise that that they struggled so much when they when they had success against other quarterbacks.

41:11 Find what you got. You got something on top of the tally there? Yeah, I was just, I was frustrated in general with, you know, we said it at the at the Open, like that was the closest blowout I've ever seen. It was. And it was frustrating because like Tally said, we got punched in the mouth early and it took us way too long to take that shit seriously. And I felt like it was really the fourth quarter. There was some fight in the fourth quarter where I felt like we really started punching back a little bit. Right. But it just took too long to get to that point and. I'm going to go hold on. I'm going to go with Andretti. Nailed it here. Because that is coaching. Yeah, to get you guys up to do it. I will say that it's coaching to get you guys up to do it. But I also will say coming from a player who's played and then watching my son, you can coach a, you can coach a kid as much as you want.

42:06 You can get them hyped during the when they get in the game and somebody hits them and they stand over them and they don't get up and push them off or their teammates don't come over and help them get up. That's on the, that's on the players. Now the coach might go back and evaluate for him and be like, hey, when your when your quarterback's down the line you got to go pick him up. You know, that should already be instilled in you. But it's like some games we just we get, we don't, we get in some kind of mold and we don't think about that stuff. You know what I'm saying? It's like, you know, somebody hits you and they they they flex over you. Nobody comes up to to to help the guy up or push the guy off or you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I don't think we have enough dogs in the in the trenches on offense.

42:51 You got to have some heart. You got to have some heart yourself, so. 100% hundred percent. But I do agree, Andrea, it is coaching it. Is coaching on that the one thing I'm going to say? I was not prepared for. I was not prepared for this game, getting over 60 combined points. If you tell me we lost a game and it was 20 to 27 or 2128 or something lower, this game getting to 63 points just blew my mind because the way both defenses have played coming into it and then how both offensive run offenses are ran. All right, y'all, it's only one week left, So what can we do better? Beat the shit out of UVA.

43:37 That's it. That's all you got to do? You got You got one more game in front of you for a chance to play a bowl game against your rival at Lane Stadium. N there is no damn excuse to drop this one. This is not a good football team. We're about to talk about them after we get up and get back from the break here. Go handle your business. Yeah, it's Rivalry week. Did I say that right? You got it. You said it. Robbery week. Yeah, it's robbery week. You got to go play, man. You got to throw. You throw out the records, You throw out the stats. You throw out what everybody's done the rest of the year and you just got to go play. I mean, that's what you can do better this week. Whatever ritual you got to have.

44:23 Wake them up at 5:00, throw water on them. Tar and feather. I don't know what you need to do to get hyped, but I do know they've already made some comments about how they going to beat you when they beat you. They're going to be back on the national stage to beat a fucking 5 and 16 whatever. But anyway, you got to go and you got to win. That's what you got to do. Because you really do need that bowl game and you do need those extra practices and you need to you need to be able to recruit and tell people that hey, we're missing one piece, we're missing 2 pieces. We bring you in. We go from a bowl team to hell. You could be a playoff team.

45:06 I ain't saying we're a playoff team, but look at Louisville next year. Maybe the playoff team. Yeah, 12 teams. Sheldon, you got anything? No, look, just win is a win, man. I mean, I don't I expected to be a dogfight this Saturday and if they come out on top, that's all I care about. So just go into go into the offseason with some momentum, some good mojo and. And and you'll we'll feel a lot better about about this, this whole pride thing we get AW, this Saturday. You're absolutely right. To me it's when it is all that matters and with saying that we are going to take a quick pause from our digital partners and Main Street Pharmacy. I can probably save you a lot of money and I can take a lot better care of you.

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46:37 I get to take care of people and limit Blacksburg. That's all neat. As we take a quick break, we'd like to tell you about getting your free website report from our digital partner, Grassroots Digital Marketing Student. They'll tell you how your website ranks on Google, on site, SEO and social media. No commitment to buy anything. You can get your free report by visiting grassroots digitalstudio.com/free Dash website Dash Report. Now back to the episode. All right and we are back. And now let's get to go. It's a little hate week. Know the enemy as we take a look at the UVA Cavaliers. And we are going to flip to the offensive side of the football.

47:19 As always, Brian, I give you the honor who we got running this show and what do they do? Yeah, we got Dez Kitchings running the show here. It's a pro, pro spread scheme, a lot of wide zone rushing concepts, likes the deep ball a lot. You'll see play action very frequently as well, and they score most of their points in the first quarter actually when you look at. This team, they've done very well kind of out the gate their first one or two drives and then slowed down a whole bunch after that. So that's something to watch for. Obviously with with some of the up and down starts we've had either slow starts or quick starts and not really a whole lot of steady Eddie, so that'll be something to pay attention to.

48:05 All righty. Sheldon, you got anything on Anything? This offense does good. I mean. Yeah, they've got really good wide receivers. I'll see. We'll talk about, you know, Malik Washington and knockout fields very shortly. But I think it's an offense overall that's struggled for the majority of the season. So that's why some of the metrics are so bad. But you do have to sort of use the eye test and look what they've been doing in previous weeks. And look at Duke last week, they averaged about 6.3 yards for play, which was pretty impressive, put up 30 points. So it's. It's a team that has misleading stats. I think they have gotten significantly better over the past couple weeks.

48:45 All right, some misleading stats. And you already mentioned the first guy we're going to talk about here today, and that is Malik Washington, A beast, 5 foot nine, about 190 lbs. He was a transfer guy from Northwestern after everything that went up there when he originally came out of high school, Parkview High School, Lilburn, GA, Class of 2019. He was ranked in an 86. And now at his time, while he was up at Northwestern, he did have two solid production seasons there, both 20, excuse me, both 2021 and 2022 combined for 109 receptions with a little over 1200 yards there. But this season he is absolutely blown up. 96 receptions, 13111 yards, 9 touchdowns.

49:35 Brian What does he bring to the table? Yeah, he's kind of an all around slot guy. He's a deep threat and a yak threat. They like to use him a lot of the screen game, quick pass game, but also they'll throw the ball deep to him. Very elusive in the open field. Definitely their biggest offensive threat by a mile. All right, and Shelton, let's get a little bit of grades on Malik Washington's because I believe, if I'm not mistaken, he is a balletical semifinalist. Yep, he is really, really good. So. Highest graded wide receiver in the ACC at 91.2, which is insane. He has the highest reception percentage, so that's percentage of targets. He catches the highest yards per route run, most yards after catch, most first downs, all ACC, and he does not have a single drop the entire season. So that's his, that's his body of work. He is a he is a exceptional whiteout. Tally, what does he catch your eye with 'cause you? Said Beast as soon as I dropped his name. Just good, man.

50:31 He's tough. He's not very big, but he's just he looks like a running back. You know like he's he's he's got a little bit of weight to him. When he gets the ball like you said, y'all stop to catch like he makes people miss. He's tough. He continues to run. He's not going down with one hit. So those D BS got the, I mean we've talked about is our secondary good or you know, our secondary stats may be misleading or not. You know, there's been of arguments about that. So they'll have their chance to see, because whoever's lined up against him, that motherfucker's coming for. You hell, we've argued about it on here man. And like, you know, like you said, I mean he, he finishes runs.

51:15 He kind of reminds me of like unfortunately kind of a little bit of you know conception last week except you know he's deep into his college career at this point. So he's a, he's a developed player whereas Concepcion still a freshman and. Kind of get his his legs under him here a little bit. By the way, y'all know his You don't have any times he's been held under 100 this year, probably 1. Twice. One was 97, the other was the opening game against Tennessee, and he only had 29 yards. So definitely a beast there. And as is the other opposite of him. And that's, excuse me, that's Malachi Fields. 6 foot four, 220 lbs. Came out of Monticello High School in Charlottesville. Stay at home, baby. 8 Legitimately, I mean it might be 6 miles between the high school and where UVA is. He was a deposit 82 coming out just 48th in the state of Virginia.

52:19 So obviously he has developed pretty well and so far the season he does not quite have the stats. That his buddy has but 52 catches, 722 yards, 3 touchdown run. Let's call the only six boys 220. I think his game's a little bit different than Mr. Washington. Yeah, I mean he's a little bit more one-dimensional than than. Malik is primarily a deep threat. Most of those routes are ran past the 15 yards, but he he will also. They'll hit him on some of the short stuff, like the the quick hitters. They'll also go with like, you know, the hooks and curls to kind of move the sticks with him. So he's kind of a guy that is going to catch the short stuff and kind of do The Dirty work outside or they're going to send him deep.

53:08 All right, now Sheldon, there's no possible way he can grade as good as Washington, but I've got a feeling just looking at his data points and look at some of the statistics, he doesn't probably grade too shabby. No, it's pretty solid. 15th highest created ACC wideout yards per catch pretty OK at Brown 13.9 He's not a big yards after catch guy and he's also not as sure handed as as Washington is only about a 58% catch rate and also lower lower passing red and went targeted. But the main reason for that, if you want context, is that he has a very high depth of targets, so about 14.6 yards is how deep he's targeted. So obviously more, more deep balls, obviously harder to catch.

53:50 So that kind of explains the contacts of the members, but still a very a very good pass catcher. Hey, Tally, two things. Anything on this guy? And then I just sent you a message. Quick, a quick look at it on our screen here. But you got anything on this guy? Did you get to watch him or see any highlights from him like you did Malik? Yeah, he's just, he's just a big wide receiver man. He's a you kind of a match up nightmare when you start looking at his size like you said he can move the change for you. Good downfield receiver, he's he's shown it by the yards that he has, but once again comes down to our defense. You know, they played some good defenses, they played some good players, but you know, we'll see what our, what our secondary can do.

54:35 Yeah, we'll see how the secondary can do and we're going to talk about a few more offensive players than we normally do this week. Y'all because the next guy I want to talk about is I do want to talk about the quarterback and that is Anthony Calandre, A6 foot, 200 LB quarterback out of Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg, FL. A consensus 84 when he came out back in the class of 2023. So he is a true freshman. He has played a lot, the red shirts already gone from him. Not a lot of crazy offers. Middle Tennessee. Buffalo. So not a highly touted guy coming back. Probably his next best offer was probably Kentucky, but we don't know how committable offers are. So far this season he's played in seven games, and in those seven games we have 17115 yards at about 62% completion percentage, 11 touchdowns, 8 interceptions. Also two fumbles lost.

55:34 LeBron, What's he showing on the tape there? Yeah, he's kind of a past first dual threat guy. He's got enough wiggle to be dangerous, but he's not like elite in that category. Great accuracy on deep balls, that's what he likes to throw the most. Really good at maneuvering in the pocket to buy time. Just average to mid, you know, when it comes to reading in the intermediate area of the defense, especially over the middle. Generally looking to drive the ball down field or check it down. He's not hitting a lot of those intermediate targets consistently and he will throw some picks as you alluded to there with the with the 11 to 8 ratio he'll he'll let the ball go to the defense. So, so that's an opportunity we have to get some turnovers and get some points on the board.

56:21 All righty. Tally. Were you able to find it? Yeah. So, as reported by Mike Barber, UV as quarterback says quote after the game versus Tech. After we beat Virginia Tech, this program is going to shoot up and everybody in the country is going to know about us, UN quote. Any comment on that, Mister Talley? For a team that's three and eight, hey man, he trying to he trying to let his nuts hang, you know, he got, he got his rival coming to his house. He's feeling good coming off of his third win of the season. I'll probably be talking some shit too you know but you got to be hey, TI said it best don't let your mouth write a check your ass can't cash.

57:09 So we going to see we going to see what this defense going to do. The last thing I would do as a as a three win team is try to add fuel to you know the other team fire but. He's LED this nut thing, but he's LED this nut thing that, you know, if if they beat A5, win Virginia Tech, they're all of a sudden the national. A A-Team to watch on a national stage that that's kind of a that's an odd flex, but you know a freshman flex a. Freshman flex day, yeah. You know what I got? I got in trouble with one of those against Bridgewater too. So back in the day. So I'm not going to let. I'm not going to get it get down on him too much all. Right. Sheldon, anything on Calandra that you noticed stat wise anything like that?

57:54 He really struggles a lot when he's blitz. I also found in terms of average time to throw about 2.7 seconds which is middle of the pack. He's very good when he has at least 2.5 seconds to throw, which is where the PFF makes the cut off, but struggles a lot with less than 2.5 seconds. Now some of those splits can be, you know, not exactly what you think. Sometimes a guy might have a better passer rating when he has less time to throw because if that's what the offense demands, like you know you get the ball out quickly, but in UV as case they need more time to throw because they are. A little bit more reliant on deep balls, and obviously those routes take longer to develop. So when he has at least 2.5 seconds, about 17 yards, average depth of target, and when he's less than 2.5 seconds to throw, he's run for interceptions. So bottom line, and we'll talk about this in our keys to the game, Get to the quarterback A.

58:45 100% get to the quarterback. All right, we're going to talk about one more guy here, Brian. We're going to talk about Kobe Pace. Running back 5 foot 10215 lbs Cedartown, GA came out 247 as a three star. One of the top 35 running backs in the country when he came out last year. Again this is another true freshman in this case and if you take a look at his sort of profile recruiting, he went to Clemson first. He was in Clemson, excuse me, as a transfer. So he is a third year player here. Had a lot of good offers coming out of high school. I'm seeing on here Auburn, we're seeing Duke, we're seeing some interest from Georgia Tech, Michigan, Nebraska, NC State.

59:25 So he was definitely one of those players that a lot of people pegged And so far this season, solid season so far, well, maybe not solid, kind of like 368 yards, only one touchdown, less than 3 1/2 per carry. And Brian, you've already mentioned a little bit about him earlier, but let's let's just break it down. Yeah man, Much like your boy hits the whole hard, runs through arm tackles, he finishes the run strong. He's not as effective outside the tackles as he is between the tackles. I think Curtis is freezing up on us here again there, So we caught a little bit of this before we went live, so ignore the the, the awkward freeze frame here. But yeah, pace is not a home run threat. He's not a guy that's going to get a ton of yards. As he's as he's running there he's more of a guy that's going to kind of get those gashes here and there move the sticks get that kind of you know good five or six yards on 1st down. But but he's not a guy that's going to be a home run threat. But the way they are able to hit the the home run threat to the passing game he's really a good compliment for what they're doing right now and and I'll just kind of go ahead and pivot since Curtis is is is is Mia here let's go ahead and talk about the offensive line because that that's always what we are we are offensive line podcast here so we got we got to talk about the offensive line and overall this is a bad unit guys it's really hard to even say

1:00:55 what they struggle with the most. When I look at it on tape, rushing attack is is good enough at times to complement the deep ball, especially with pace in there because he can kind of get some of those extra yards when he's dragging defenders and things like that. But they go for long stretches where the running game kind of can get stale on them and that that hurts their passing game. And they also surrender a lot of sacks. So really there's no good metric for them. I mean, I can let Sheldon talk about their their numbers a little bit here, but just looking at them on tape, they're not really good or stand out in any one area. We need to find who that Parker Clemens is and attack that motherfucker, whoever he is. Go in here.

1:01:39 Yeah, for sure. Well you mentioned the running backs their their running back explosive play numbers are pretty bad. I mean I know that you know pace and and Hollands are you know at the bottom of the barrel in terms of you know generating big plays in the running game. Now some of that of course you know obviously the offensive line. So you know just digging into some of their numbers, pass protection, it's been really, really bad for UVA. So they have the second worst pass block efficiency grade in the ACC. They leave the ACC and sacks and total pressures allowed. So UVA is you know, they they don't throw the ball necessarily a huge amount. It's probably middle of the pack. But the fact that they're getting up so many pressures, with that being said is is pretty is a is a pretty bad sign for them.

1:02:20 So they just they haven't been able to do anything on the ground. They have not been able to protect the quarterback and you know, as you can see it's a it's a struggling offense. Yeah, I mean they definitely struggled just watching them. It's been very up and down. Even in the Duke game where they had some stand up moments on offense, they would have stretches where they just struggled to move the ball. So it's going to be interesting to see, you know, if we can come out and set the tone a little bit defensively and kind of get them out of what they like to do and what they do well. And if we're bringing bringing those pressures, like like Sheldon alluded to, if we're if we're blitzing them, if we're getting to them quickly with our edge rushers, how much of a long day it can be for for AC there.

1:03:03 Let's go ahead and flip over to the defensive side here. You know, this is a John Rozinski defense hybrid, multiple front scheme. Curtis is back in the building here. Hey, we made it to defense without you, man. Good job guys. Teamwork there, there we go. So as I was saying, this is a hybrid multiple front scheme predicated on stopping the run. They bring a lot of different looks and pressures. They're pretty solid on 1st and 2nd down. They struggle a lot on 3rd down, not not a lot of sacks either. They don't get after the quarterback very well. So that's kind of what you can expect from the defensive side. From a scheme perspective, Sheldon, I don't know if you have any any statistics on them that you want to bring in before we move on to the players here. Yeah.

1:03:51 So just a couple, I know Curtis asked about their their dements of line metrics. So it's been pretty rough this year they are 121st nationally and success rate against so right around 46% and their running game, their run defense has actually been worse 125th and success rate. So you know they they let up 27 against against Duke. I mean it just, you know, it's again it's it's a team that's been up and down, they've been playing a little bit better. You know, they gave up 45 points to Georgia Tech and then had an OK performance against Louisville, who obviously has a really good offense. So it's just a question of what what UVA team do you get, But certainly the season metrics would tell you that this is a a a defense and a run defense in particular that has really struggled all.

1:04:33 Righty. And when I hear something like that and I take a look at the leading tackler, and that's the first guy we're going to talk about, it's Jonas Sanker. Jonas Sanker 6 foot, 190 LB Safety for this team. 97 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, no picks, 10 pass deflections and several forced fumbles out there. When he came out in the class of 2021, another one who stayed home, he went to the Covenant School that might be 10 miles from UVA's campus. He was ranked as an 85 to 33rd best player in Virginia. Other interests? Boston College, Air Force. In Ohio with a few other looks from FCS school, so not the biggest one there.

1:05:19 But Brian, what are you seeing from him? Because that is a lot of tackles for a safety regardless where they play. Yeah. And you know, we, you know, we talked about it's a hybrid multiple front. Their base package is a 425 and he is a true Rover box safety. He's in the box a lot. They like to bring him on run blitzes and an obvious passing situation. So they'll blitz him, you know 1st through 3rd down there, hard hitter and solid tackler as evidenced by the force fumbles there. He can get turned around in his own coverage though. They don't use him a ton in that capacity. But I mean he's he's really the the defensive player that kind of pops off for them when you when you watch the tape because he's a he's a little bit of, he's all over the place and he's making some plays. Hit them up and hit you.

1:06:10 You better hit him. Don't don't shy away from the contact. You got to start early and often. You got to go at him and you got to not be scared so. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, definitely somebody did. If you can hit him back a little bit, you can kind of, you know, take his game back to him and, you know, put him on his heels. All righty. So again. It's what Kelly said several times with Brian mentioned what we've all talked about. Don't let him set the tone. He comes and hits up through the shoulder into him. Let him come down with you and talk to shit as he goes down. All righty. So let's talk about the defensive line next. As we you know already heard from Shelton has been some issues there but one guy that kind of stood out to me was and for Muay class of 2018 was an 84 when he came out. He is from.

1:07:02 Kapola High School in Kapola, Hawaii. He is a long, long way from home but he is a big boy, 6 foot 2300 and 2 lbs and so far this year So far for his career. Solid career so far at UVA has been there now six years. Last two years combining for 62 tackles, 12 tackles for the last five sacks this year. Not quite the campaign of the last two years. Only 30 tackles, no sacks, 6 1/2 tackles for loss, but one interesting piece, 3 pass deflection which is pretty high on this team. Tells him he likes to get those hands up. Brian what are we seeing with Aaron? Yeah, he's he's going to play that 3 technique in their base package slide to A4, four eye when they're showing those three man fronts with it, which they'll do on occasion, Probably their strongest run defender overall, good with his hands and sheds blocks pretty well. They're in the trenches and he'll push the pocket occasionally on those drop backs. But again, this isn't a team that gets a ton of sacks, but he's definitely got the kind of speed up the quarterbacks timing a little bit with that.

1:08:08 All right. Sean, you said you had something on Aaron here. Yep. So you look at stops on PFF, which is a tackle considered a loss of the defense. Famaoui is 13 ACC with 19 stops in the season. So you know his grades aren't quite a side, but you know he's going to make, he's going to make a lot of big. Tackles. All righty, tell anything you notice on tape with him or anything you notice just reading about him or. Play them every year. We're kind of familiar with their players and and how they play. He's been there for a while and he does his job. You know, not super flashy, but kind of like Brian says, he's he's good against the run. He shares, he shares blockers, good offensive line. Got to do some work, man.

1:08:52 You got to, you got to, you got to, you got to give us some yards. You know, if they give two in some room he can, he'll make this defense pay. But they got to, they got to go get it. Yeah, big, big thing is getting those a good first step, getting your hands on him, making sure he's not getting your hands down, getting like a quick swimmer rip without significant contact because that's really where he makes his hay is using those hands and kind of getting away from that blocker real quick in the snap. So if you can get get on him, engage him a little bit, that'll slow up what he does best. All righty Well let's look the one more piece on the defense here and let's take a look at the linebacker room. Got a number of guys to choose from.

1:09:32 I I went with the guy that's a little bit closer to Virginia Tech than the other ones and that was James Jackson the six foot three, 225 LB linebacker. I believe he is the will on this team, 84 when he came out in 2021 with the North Cross High School in Roanoke. I think we're all familiar with that one and right now I'm having a really good junior season, Red shirt. Sophomore season, however you want to say it. 76 tackles, 4 for loss, one pick, one sack, 3 pass deflected as well. Brian What are we seeing with James Jackson? Yeah, I mean, he's he's not really that guy that's going to really pop off on tape.

1:10:14 But what he is, he's a very disciplined linebacker in the run game. He's very few mistakes. He's not out of place very often. He's not a guy getting blocked 5-10 yards off the line of scrimmage. Sheds blockers pretty well. Sure. Tackler, solid when he's in zone responsibilities. He does lack some athleticism for coverage, especially in those man to man situations, but he's kind of one of those guys that's just, you know, fundamentals and discipline are pretty good. So he ends up making a ton of plays. All righty, Tally. Anything on him? I know, Tally. You mentioned Robinson, right? Yeah, Cam Robinson. Yeah, I know we didn't have him down, but you know recruiting battle that we lost to UVA and he's a freshman linebacker. That's just he's a good player.

1:11:03 I think he's got a couple of sacks on the season. I mean a couple of picks on the season. I don't know about the sacks, but if you watch him play, he's just sideline to sideline man. You know not. Of course he's a freshman, so he's not going to be quite as. A handful, as Peyton Wilson was, but he's a good linebacker. You know his time there. If he stays at UVA, he'll he'll do some good stuff there because he's a good ball player. Yeah, he he's got great athleticism and you know, he's still learning to play the position at this level. So he's he's sometimes out of place, he's sometimes not doing, you know, everything you want him to do. But he does it fast. He does it at 100 mph and he looks the part. He doesn't look out of place out there. So that that's big for a true freshman. All righty.

1:11:51 Boys, let's click it over and let's talk about the hokey keys to this game. Brian, you got your name up here first, so I'm going to let you kick it off. What do we have to do to have success in this game? I know it's a broken record, but we need a fast start on both sides and I'm talking about at least a touchdown advantage after the first quarter. I said it at the open, they score a lot of points on their first two drives, probably like 3030% or something of their scoring has come on their first two drives of the game. So it's a it's a pretty high percentage. If we can slow them down out the gate and we can get a A score to ourselves, I'll feel really good about the way the the game will go after that.

1:12:33 All righty. Sheldon, what you got? Gotta get to the quarterback, gotta make Calandra uncomfortable and bring him down. Like I said, UVA is a team that relies on on deep throws and when Calandria has time to throw he is very effective. So when you get APR cooking, I need more from him. I have not seen as much as I would like over the past few games. So. So get him, get him going and get some sacks. That's that's going to be big and that's how that just, you know, bring pressure. Trust your quarterbacks. I think they're going to hold up well on main coverage and I think the Vt is going to have to outscore UVA this weekend. Tally, what about you? Time a possession and don't turn the ball over. Do not turn the ball over.

1:13:13 You win the game. All righty, I'm, I'm going to go with this one right here, he says. Don't turn the ball over. Force turnovers. This team is one of the worst in the country. They are 116th. They have 18 turnovers this year, total 18. That's a lot. That's almost to a game. We need I I think we can get at least one pick because I think there's going to be situations because if you look at the data they do get they they they also give up a lot of sacks. They've given up. Let me look at this number. She has 37 sacks this year. They've given up a ton of tackles for loss. We're going to put them in bad situations.

1:13:55 Colin's going to throw at least one pick. I think 2:00. We could probably run away with the game. But if we only get one, it's going to be tight, and I can definitely foresee one based on how he plays. Also, he likes to talk shit, so he's probably going to challenge somebody and get his ass perked. Don't bail them out on those third and longs though. No, do not bail them out. Yeah, do not bail. All right, Well, it's time for predictions and big screeners boys. This segment presented by Prize Picks Prize picks daily fantasy app where you make entries based on players projected outcomes. And they will match any deposit up to $100. When you sign up using BC picks or use the QR code there, you can see it.

1:14:35 And it is not just for football season, it's for basketball. It's for baseball. So you can do this all year around. Let's have a look at it here and let's go to our predictions. Ron, I don't know what order you have them in. Do you have Sheldon first? Sheldon's leading off. We're just going to go back around the horn to me. All right, Sheldon. What you got on? This Yep, I think that's going to be a high scoring ball game. I got Tech winning just because, well, it's UVA and we own them. So even though I do have some trepidations about this game, I do think the Hokies will win a close ball game. So give me Tech. All right, I am right there with Sheldon.

1:15:15 I've got this as a not quite as high scoring as he probably has it. I've got it a 30 to 20 victory for the Hokies. I think we jump out on them early. I think we establish ourselves on offense. I think we're making make them play catch up a little bit where we can tee off on them with our pass rushers and put them in bad situations, force a couple turnovers and that's the difference in the game. All righty. Now I'm next tell you get to go last. I I I thought I'd go last. I'm with the Hokies on this one as well. I think it is going to be. I hope it is not my prediction. I hope it is. Much worse than my prediction, but I think the Hokies are going to take this game.

1:15:57 We are the more talented team, we have more experience on our side and I think we take this game 27 to 20 at Lane Stadium. N tally, you get to wrap this one up. Yeah, I'm going to go. I'm going to go Virginia Tech. I'm going to go Vt on this one. I have been fading. The Hokies didn't work last week. I was hoping we get a win when I. I'm not pick North Carolina State, but I I honestly think we win this game. Even my prediction before the season started when I went through and you know, you picking teams and stuff, I kind of felt like it would come down to us going there and having to get a win and be bowl eligible. And I just think that you know it's time.

1:16:39 You know this is this is what we this is what we need to do. And again with the quarterback adding a little bit more fuel to the fire, I think that I think we go and get the win. I don't have a prediction just yet, but I think we get the win. Yeah, and I and I think it's this and I think it's not only this podcast, but I think it's team. I think the coaches and I think this fan base need that bowl. I think it's a mental thing. There are a lot of people that are screaming not a successful season, bad season. If we you know you, you, you, you look at the steps and all that. I think you go in there and we take the win Saturday. Things are looking up for a lot of people, so let let's talk about that a little bit.

1:17:22 Let's talk about that a little bit since we're here. We can do it. Is is this season a failure if we don't make a bowl? No, because I mean that That's been a big, big piece of chatter out there on the Twitter sphere when I look at it. And I'll shout out PB here because PB kind of started this discourse. When we look at whether it's a failure or success, I think it's a little more nuanced than that because I think there are, I've seen enough building blocks where I am comfortable with what we're working with. So I would not call this season a failure, but it would certainly be a disappointment to not make a bowl and not make a bowl by losing to your in state rival that on paper should not beat you.

1:18:17 So it would be a disappointment, but not a absolute failure in my eyes. Tally. Yeah, I wouldn't say it to be a failure just because of, like Brian said, some of the building blocks that we found, you know, I feel like we found some wide receivers, we found some stud quarterback, we found a stud running back, depending on how that goes into next year, knowing what we got. But. We've evaluated some good talent and brought in some good talent, so I wouldn't say that the season is a failure compared to what we did last year, but it would. It would be disappointing to not go in and go in and and win this game because of the nature of the game. You know it's a road game, we haven't produced well on the road, blah, blah, blah blah blah blah. We can go into all that, but I wouldn't say it's a failure. I think, Brian, the way you put it, it's the. The the the game Saturday.

1:19:14 If we don't win it's losing a battle. It's not losing the war because the way the war looks like is we're taking those like you said building blocks. We're taking steps forward. We're evaluating talent. We're able to bring people in and tally you mentioned a couple times especially regardless of our record it it's you go on the trail and say you know we only brought and I was saying beforehand drones Tooting Lane. Felton. And APR on the defensive side, no knock to Canteen. I think the second day would have been just as solid without him. We brought in a handful of players and we have went from getting shit on playing bad for multiple weeks looking terrible last year until the last week of the season to. Blowing teams out, being competitive in other games, three of the five, the six losses we have right now or two teams that are a combined, if I can get the math right here, 29 and 5 or 28 and 5:00 that's three of our losses, 28 and five is their record.

1:20:22 Think about that, so. And two of those losses that. You know are are on the other side where you hold that because we need to get the liquor flowing to have that conversation. The liquor will be flowing. We're not ready for that one. We're going, we're going to save that one for December 22nd. Mark your calendar, Evan. Evan Williams Mark your calendars. December Evan Williams up top there. Moonshine Below me, 4 finger Scotches and whatever Shelton's going to drink that night. All right, whatever. You're going to drink that night because you let it all hang loose. All right, well, guess what? We got other games to pick here because it is rivalry week, and to me, this is the week that makes college football, right? We were going through throwing games out there that we were looking at and this is the week that makes college football because crazy shit happens this. Week and it's fun to pick up even when the teams aren't necessarily on the same trajectory. Record wise, You damn right you damn right it is. All right, Tally, you got the first one. What is your pick for this week?

1:21:24 What did I have? Who did I have? Did I have Ole Miss? And, yeah, the Egg Bowl. Yeah, the Egg Bowl. Yeah, you be Thanksgiving Day eating you some Turkey and dressing. Got to have a cranberry sauce on. If y'all do gimlet gravy. Put all that on there. Have your nice plate. Watch the Egg Bowl. But I'm going to take Ole Miss in that game. I just, I mean, Mississippi State just fired that coach. I think Ole Miss is the better team. All righty. Who's the next one behind there? Sheldon, who you got on this game? Mississippi State breaking a new head coach. You give me all miss, I think. I think Kiffin's going to have those boys ready to play. All right.

1:22:07 Brian, who you taking? I'm chasing this one with Ole Miss as well, man. You know when you get a new coach in there, it's going to go one or two ways. You're either going to overplay your hand or you going to. Just come out there and put a dud out there. I feel like this has dud written all over it, so give me your Ole Miss. All righty. So a couple things for for a announcement selection here. The game is in Starkville so if you got multiple TV's, put it on the one that you ain't got the sound on unless you want to hear cowbells all night. That's 1-2. Mississippi State is one win away from being bowl eligible. One win 3. Have we not seen some of the craziest shit in this game over the last like 10 years?

1:22:53 The the home. What was his name that got the touchdown? Did the dog pissing thing? They missed the point. Elijah the dog missed the extra point because they got packed up. So many wild things happen in this game is a 730 kick. But in this reality Ole Miss is on the verge of potentially getting a potentially getting a New Year's 6 bowl. They're nine and two they go, they do go 10 and two. I wish we didn't have the hook because I believe it could be a 10 point game, but I'm, I'm going to go with Lane liking to run up to score and he'll score one late to win by 14.

1:23:34 All righty, what's the next one? Oh, I'm the next one, Brian. You're the next one. We go out West, we go to Eugene, OR we go to the Civil War. Oregon State, Oregon, Wow. That game on Saturday night, I watched just about all I got back home, watched just about all of Oregon and Washington. That was a great game to watch. Great game to well matched teams. So when I looked at this game, it's a lot of rivalry, a lot of bitter hatred. Oregon leaving the conference next year. If Y'all didn't notice, Oregon State and Washington State have basically been given the OK. They will be a two team conference next year. I don't know how that works.

1:24:16 But that's fun. That's got to be fucking fun. Oh my God. But in this case, you know, Oregon on the doorstep. I think Oregon's already clinched it. Oregon potentially chance again. Potentially could win the PAC 12, could potentially go to the playoffs if things break right. But 13 1/2 is just too much in a game like this. Especially. And I know Oregon State is like heartbroken, but ain't nothing like having the boys just up the street. Give me Oregon State take the 13 1/2 game a lot closer than people are predicting. Tally I'm.

1:24:59 Just going to, I'm going to take Oregon, man. They trying to get Bonix to Heisman, so they're going to try to let him sling it as much as they can. Are they going to try to run that score up with a a good, a good opponent in a rivalry game? I'm taking Oregon Shelton. Oregon is 8, two and one against the spread of this season. They're playing hot. I like the Ducks. All righty. And Mr. Siegelow. I'm riding with what Curtis is spitting there. I think this is going to be a tighter game than to think people looking at. I think it's still probably going to be a 10 point victory for the Ducks but I think that it's going to be pretty close there down to the end.

1:25:41 All righty, as Brian puts Oregon State on the board. Brian, you've got the next one. What rivalry game did you choose? Had to go with Gators and FSU after the Jordan Travis situation. This is going to be a a very interesting match up here because you got. You know, undefeated Florida State still trying to keep their hopes alive here for the College Football Playoff ACC championship is already the game is already booked there but obviously you know winning the championship is still at play here. So this is, this is going to be an interesting match up here. I think Florida is a good match up, especially with with Travis out there but I think it's just going to be too much town on the Seminole side. So give me Florida State.

1:26:28 All righty. Yeah, I'm up next on this one little Sunshine State showdown. I think Florida State is going to win the game, but without Jordan Travis, I don't think they're going to quite blow out Florida like we see. I think this is going to be a tight one. I do think Tate Rodhamaker is probably good enough to lead them over the Gators. All of the Gators are getting our playing for. Gators are playing for bowl eligibility so give me the Gators give me the points tally I'm. Going to take Florida State. I think Florida's quarterback is hurt as well. The starting quarterback is hurt, if I'm not mistaken.

1:27:10 Again, Jordan Travis is a amazing player. I hate that his college career comes to an end like that, but he got nothing to hold his head down. I mean he he brought Florida State back to relevancy. So I'm going to go Florida State and Sheldon. Yeah, I'm going Florida. I think they're playing on the road. FSU's playing on the road. I think they're going to. They're going to take some time to get adjusted to the new quarterback. So give me, give me Florida. All righty. All righty. So we got that one. Sheldon, you got to pick the next one. What game did you choose? Well, have to look at it. I believe I had the game. Is that correct? Yep. So, oh, how is it in Michigan?

1:27:52 I was just talking about with a friend earlier this evening. This game might honestly be the most consequential and important comfortable game in the last 10 years. I know that might sound crazy, but when you look at what's at stake with Ohio State potential losing three straight to Michigan, CFP hopes on the line, National title hopes on the line, Michigan With all the stuff they've gone through this season and the the after effect that would happen if they'd lost to Ohio State, this is such a huge game. I cannot even put into words how big of a game this is. So with that being said, I am going with. Ohio State to cover -2.5 3.5. You got a 3 1/2 cover. I think the line moved down before we picked it, so 3 1/2.

1:28:35 All righty. Brian, what are you saying on this one? I think Michigan's got a little bit of a chip on their shoulder with everything that they got going on this season. I think that Ohio State is going to give them a good shot early, but I think it's going to be too much Michigan in the end. I think it is going to come down to about a about a six point game there, but I I got the Wolverines coming out on top on this one, all righty and I am picking next and two really good defenses. I think we both see that 2 elite defenses and like you said everything that's been going on all season.

1:29:16 You know especially with the whole horrible thing and all this stuff that did Ryan Day hire the private investigator to start all this shit. Saturday's game's in Ann Arbor. The Hyatt game kick is going to be 32�� it is going to be clear a little slight breeze of 5 miles an hour and I think this is going to be old school big 10 war. War. I mean, I think I see this game like 20-17 and I think Michigan is going to win this game potentially on a last second like field goal. But that hook? Give me Ohio State. Ohio State covers. Give me Michigan.

1:29:59 They got coaches up there crying like Harbaugh Dead. I mean, you can't lose. When you got that much emotion, can you Shoot? Give me Michigan. All righty. All righty. Brian, what did we pick for the last? Because these are some great rivalries. Commonwealth Cup up top, Egg Bowl, Civil War. Sunshine Showdown, The Game. What's our last one? Iron Bowl, baby. Tally, we did that for you. That's a good one. We did it for you. That's going to dictate. That's going to dictate about two weeks for me. That Crimson and White team lose. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of wives in the hospital. Oh shit, Black.

1:30:39 Eyes and and busted lips with bill bottles and all types of shit, bro, that was. It How many TV's are going to have to get purchased? I can't remember my man that's on TikTok, the whole dude. I think his name is Willie. Go look up Alabama fan Willie on TikTok and you. You going to see what Alabama fans feel about Auburn and how they act? All righty, Well let's pick the game now. Bama is laying 14 1/2 points. Auburn loss to the Jerry Kill LED New Mexico State Lobos, I think. He's Jerry. Kill Truthers 9 and Three. We're out there.

1:31:22 Why didn't we just hire him to be the offensive coordinator back in 2019? Shit. All right. All right. Brian, who you got in this one? After that performance last week by Auburn, I'm I'm leaning bam on this. So I think it's about 17. It is going to be the final. Alabama's playing as good as I've seen them play here this year. Obviously they had a rough September, but they really turned it around, got their legs under them in October, and it really last three or four weeks have been playing some really good football. So I'm going to take BAMMA here. All righty. I got to be a little different here. I'm going to take Auburn because I don't think they can potentially play as bad as they did last weekend. Hugh Freeze does have sort of a knack for having Nick Saban's number. I don't think he has the talent.

1:32:08 I don't think he is quite there yet with Auburn. But I I just because how Bama plays this year and I know they've scored more of the last few weeks, I think I can take 14 1/2. I'll probably be sitting here on Saturday afternoon hopefully enjoying you know 56 nothing on this TV and watching the end of the Bama game over here with it being like a 14 point win, 13 point win for Bama. So you give me the points Callie, how you feeling on this one? You close to new? One man I got to take Bama. They just clicking at the right time Right now Hugh Freeze has got.

1:32:49 Some work to do as far as putting some people in place. Quarterback position is where he's got to get a little bit better. But I will say, I will say, like Curtis said, he has a knack for beating Nick Saban. He knows how to beat Saban. I just don't think he's going to do it this week. Am I on an island by myself, Sheldon? Yes. I'll take Bama. I feel like they've gotten better every week and for some reason people just don't like talk about them because you know teams like Washington, Oregon and Michigan are sort of the the, the hot topics. But they just, I mean if you look at what they've done since the USF game, I mean they've been really, really good.

1:33:30 So I I take Bama Roll. All right, he says Bama roll. All righty. So Brian, Tally, Sheldon, has anything broken since we started an hour and 34 minutes ago? We can go ahead and announce that next Tuesday we will have Pete be on air with us joining us to breakdown whatever happens at UVA this week and to talk a little championship week. Peter, Peter B from Too Deep. Awesome. Good to hear that. Glad we got confirmation up on that. Well boys, y'all got anything else tonight before we wrap it up?

1:34:10 We better fucking win, I'm going to tell you that right now. Andretti going to lose his mind if we lose? Andretti will be in his feelings. I love Andretti because Andretti gets on the live stream feed and he he gets his points out there 30-40, fifty minutes before we even go on air. I love that. Andretti, be ready. He sets the tone, man. He's been, he's been holding this shit since Saturday. He's trying to get it out. Got to get it out. Got to get it out. He's like it's Tuesday. I'm, I'm, I'm putting it out there right now. I don't care. He knows we'll get to it. He knows we'll get to it. Andrea We got to go to a game next year, man. You got to let us know what game you're going to. We got to get there. Got two, Got two, Got two. All right, fellas, that is Wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner podcast brought to you by Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg.

1:34:59 I'm Curtis Wilson. I'm Brian Siegler. Jonathan Taylor. And I am Shelton Moss. Visit our website boundarycornerbt.com to listen to all of our episodes. Check the merchandise. Shop out while you're there. Yep, there. There it is right there. You can purchase one of those. Follow us Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube. Thank you all very much out there. We cracked 300 YouTube subscribers last week. Kind of a goal we had set for ourselves and we can now hit it. We also are on all podcast sources you can think of. Spotify Amazon, Apple Podcast Jason Long plays us in plays us out Jason Long music.com where you can find all of his music. Apple, Spotify his YouTube and Facebook accounts Jason messaged us today.

1:35:43 Jason think he Did he think he tore something? Or did he just think he pulled a muscle at wrestling practice? I think it's just a pull, but the doctors have to confirm, yeah. Jason, you're too old to be out there with them kids, man. Well, he's, he's trying to teach him, man. So you know, he's he's doing good things. He's getting down there. Sometimes it's hard to get back up though. All righty. Well, that is going to wrap up it let's we thank you all for always listening. And as always, let's go. OK.