High expectations this season have quickly subsided for the Virginia Tech football team after a debilitating loss to James Madison Saturday, dropping the team to 0-2 on the season.
At the forefront of the issues is Virginia Tech’s offense, which was supposed to be one of the best in the country. Featuring senior quarterback Tyrod Taylor, former ACC Rookie of the Year winners Ryan Williams and Darren Evans, as well as an experienced wide receiving corps, the Hokies were poised for a high-flying attack rivaling the Michael Vick-led offenses of the 1999 and 2000 seasons.
Instead, the offensive weapons have been shut down by shaky offensive line play and particularly a lack of execution in the red zone. Last season, the Hokies were 52nd in red zone touchdown percentage and through two games this year Tech has spiraled to 96th in that category.
To put that in perspective, Tech has had 10 red zone opportunities this season with just four touchdowns, and three times the Hokies came up empty with no points.
Offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring described the reasons he thought were behind the Hokies’ red zone woes.
“Sometimes (with) this game you’re a half-second too fast, sometimes you’re a half-second too slow,” Stinespring said. “Sometimes you needed six more inches of push or whatever it is and it was a combination of all those things.”
Taylor agreed, emphasizing the offense needs to change its mindset when getting close to the goal line.
“I think the main thing is, as far as the offense goes, we’re just not finishing our drives like we should be,” Taylor said. “We sat down and talked as an offense, we need the attitude when we step on the field it needs to be a score every time. That needs to be in our head, every time we step on the field, we need to put points on the board.”
Although the offense has sputtered this season, it shouldn’t be a surprise to Hokie fans who have been accustomed to the defense-first mindset throughout the years. However, criticism for Stinespring has mounted considering the expectations heading into this season.
Former Tech wideout David Clowney, who played for Tech from 2003-06, was critical of Stinespring on his Twitter page during the Boise State game.
“If we lose (to Boise State) I’m blaming (Stinespring),” Clowney tweeted. “He hasn’t changed one bit.”
Additionally, the blog “Fire Bryan Stinespring” has continued to offer its opinion on the offense and Stinespring. Nonetheless, Stinespring admits there is some validity to comments saying he needs to improve on simply coaching the players.
“Every game you have good calls, every game you have a bad one you’d like to have back,” Stinespring said. “It’s not any different than anything that you do. I’m not going to go back and sit there and say well we need to overhaul what we’re doing or what we’re calling. Just we need to do better, I need to do a better job of coaching. Put that down, that’s what needs to happen.
“We’re in position to be more successful than we are and you don’t need to point at this guy, that guy, this position. I need to do a better job of coaching them. That’s it, period.”
A version of this article appeared in the Sep 17 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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"I’m not going to go back and sit there and say well we need to overhaul what we’re doing or what we’re calling." - Stiney
You might not say it, but I'm pretty sure almost everyone else in the free world would. Keep using that high school offensive playbook.
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Stinespring is just echoing what him and Beamer say year after year "we need to execute/play better". The offensive issues will never be fixed with this guy and the only way of addressing them is to let Stinespring go or demote him to another position and get rid of Newsome completely. But that won't happen and so the offensive woes will stay while we rely on our defense to make it less noticeable.
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