Did our Blocking technique change in 2015? Or was it learning curve?

[GTech63]

Sorry for Hi jack of CPJ Sez thread. Will see if it can be moved to here. Already a pretty good discussion on the cpj sez thread so this may die.

"It seemed to me that we started blocking and staying on our feet instead of diving at DL feet and whiffing. Did our technique change or is that learning curve. Same with downfield blocking but there were very good take downs on the perimeter. Again change in technique or learning curve? Maybe both? Thoughts?"

 

[AE 87]

I think that our OL has an on/off call with respect to whether the opposition DL in on the line of scrimmage or off it. I think we saw more opponents lining up off the line of scrimmage this year so that our OL came out and drove them rather than cutting them. However, I haven't gone back and watched all the games closely to see if this holds.

I also don't think that it's an issue of making a change because the old wasn't working. I think we were doing pretty well with our base O in past seasons.

 

[up state jacket]

You're seeing what a dedicated effort at recruiting better OL has done. Tech has never had a coach come in an immediately put a emphasis on bringing in quality OL like CPJ has. We are seeing the benefits of that philosophy baring fruit. The OL I always wanted to kick arse was Morgan Baily. He is a great example of being a HS stud and never carrying that hype to a higher level. Fortunately for Tech, there have not been many misses in OL recruiting in the last 5 years.

 

[takethepoints]

I think AE has it here. We've always been ready to block straight up (except in 2008); it depends on what the D does. Folks watch VT and figure that since they have success laying off the LOS, they can too. What they tend to forget is that VT's D is usually the fastest in the conference overall. That's why they play us a yard or two off the LOS. Last year everybody seemed to think they were VT and we killed some teams. Having really good OL talent helped too.

But Up is wrong about Coach and OLs. When Bobby was at Tech he made recruiting OLs a major priority and that certainly paid off. We ended up looking like Maryland did when he was up there; every replacement OL we sent on the field was as good as the guy who came off. And we had some real roadgraders in 1989-91. Last year our OL looked like those teams. Hope that continues.