Drones's Performance

Bud Davis (stat dude) posted this a few days ago:

pic.twitter.com/1RHP3DJg5D— Bud Davis (@JBudDavis) September 11, 2024

The big takeaway here is that teams are lining up in zone 81% of snaps.

The TSL podcast talked about this as well (unsure if the source is the same), but I found their analysis to be interesting (Link, 18:10ish for Drones Discussion):

• Across all of college football in 2023, offenses saw zone coverage 52% of the time. VT is seeing it 81% of the time.
• Chris Coleman believes that the zone coverage is forcing drones to read the entire field
• "He's seeing some things for the first time this year and struggling to process it, but the more he sees these things, I'm sure he'll get better at it"
• They also talk about Drones inexperience: He has not started a full season of college football yet, and due to COVID, only started one normal season of high school football
• Will Stewart (using PFF data) makes the argument that Drones is getting pressured the same amount, but getting sacked more and is throwing it away less.
• Will Stewart also makes the argument that Drones isn't as effective of a runner this season. Andy says that Pry addressed this the midweek presser, and Pry says that a lot of these are read plays, and the defense is forcing Drones to give the ball up.

Discuss.