I didnât get to watch first quarter. But from what I saw both QBs look good. Spring games can be clunky⌠mixing starters and reserves guys timings and such being off. And of course not going actual game speed.
Is that the same approach theyâre taken on regular season games the past 3 years?
5+ red zone possesions and 3 pts. Looks exactly like last year in the red zone
Yeah not great but again itâs also just a spring game. Theyâve talked about wanting to be a physical running team and thatâs not something youâre doing in April haha.
Like what Iâve seen from Twitty and Edrine
Did the blue team â where our esteemed OC was calling the plays â ever score? I turned it off with 7 mins to go and white up 10-0.
Des kitchings deserves to be fired for todays performance.
Just coming here to see if there was anything to take away from todayâs spring game that I missed while doing yardwork:
The 2nd half was better at the very least lol. I think the talent is definitely improved, Iâm just very bearish on Des as a playcaller and it was not encouraging to see us go 2-6 in the red zone with only one TD (granted we did also miss two chip shot FGâs with both Bettridge and Prozny unavailable).
Was the red zone futility all on the offense looking bad or was there any good defense involved?
Three of the red zone stops were 4th and 2 or 4th and 3. Each of those playcalls was a run.
Coming back to this⌠how on earth was he allowed back? He is a terrible coordinator. Has always been the case!
For the same reasons Howell kept getting brought back by Bronco
Not good at all
Spring games are generally pretty meh from a playcalling perspective as well⌠most of these guys weâre so excited about are new right now, not from start of school year. Youâre getting them worked in and trying to get a general grasp for how they stack up now. You work in complex plays and âmoney callsâ over the summer before season starts.
I also want to be very clear here, Iâm not trying to defend Des haha. Heâs been pretty bad. But in this staffs defense they truly werenât given very much to work with that fit what they wanted to do. This is the first time that to me theyâre getting the ok this 100% on you judgement so Iâm trying to just give him benefit of the doubt until itâs that bad in a real speed game.
Not to nitpick too much, but maybe they should have changed what they wanted to do when they realized theyâre at UVA and operating with a talent disparity. Being inflexible with your scheme and failing to adapt to your talent realities isnât commendable. If anything I think it makes them look worse.
I mean, Iâm glad weâve dropped bags for them and now they can truly sink or swim on their own and nobody will say they werenât given a fair shake. But there are plenty of ways to put up points with less talent in college football (see our prior coaching staff for just one example). These guys shouldnât get any kind of pass for putting up such anemic numbers over the past several seasons.
Should they have? 100%. But we also hired a first time HC and a OC with 1 season of experience doing so. Not excusing it but understandable why it didnât happen.
I will 100% give them a pass on starting off personnel. Call it for what it is, the last staff before didnât set them up for success at what I think is the key unit in CFB.
And then to come off what happened to end that first season⌠again, tough time to be getting big time recruits for anyone much less a school that was A avoiding NIL like the plague and B has the standards admission wise it hasâŚ
Now it seems like both are working in the staffs favor and we appear to be reaping those benefits, atleast on paper.
Spring games are pointless. Thereâs a reason why programs are doing away with them.
Not saying Des turned a corner as a play caller but no football coach is going to show any wrinkles in a spring game. They will almost always run belly dive on 4th and short to not give any indication of what theyâd do in a game.
Are there exceptions? Of course nothing is 100% Football coaches are notoriously paranoid.
Huge difference there was the personal relationship. Mendenhall and Howell had worked together a decade before coming to Virginia. Elliott and Kitchings had never previously worked together.
The only similarity between the situations is that Howell and Kitchings are both below average coordinators â or worse.
Yeah but at the end of the day they both were kept around because the HC wanted them there. The personal relationship is pretty immaterial