Yosuah Nijman Sparks a Solid Offensive Line Performance Against Ohio State

Few folks woke up Tuesday morning with positive feelings about the rest of Virginia Tech's football season. The absence of quarterback Michael Brewer for the foreseeable future, and the disappointing second half of Monday's night's 24-42 loss to No. 1 Ohio State ushered in an overcast forecast for the Hokie's remaining 11 games. It is unfortunate, because up to the moment that Brewer was injured, the young Virginia Tech offensive line was showing signs that a return to dominance may not be as far off as some expected.

In the 2014 matchup with the Buckeyes, the only bright spot for Ohio State was the dominance of their defensive line. The Virginia Tech offensive line busted assignment after assignment in pass protection, and generated almost no movement in the running game in 2014. Without Brewer's ability to scramble, and a terrific game plan built around taking advantage of Ohio State's new cover 4 system, Tech's offense would have been non-existent. Buckeyes' All-American DT Michael Bennett graduated last year, and likely first-round NFL draft pick DE Joey Bosa was suspended for Tuesday night's rematch. The Hokies had to generate something in the running game and protect Brewer better in order to combat a Buckeyes' defense that was better than last season in coverage and at linebacker.

The Future First Five

The Hokies began Monday's game with the expected starting group: Jonathan McLaughlin at left tackle, Wyatt Teller at left guard, Eric Gallo at center, Augie Conte at right guard, and Wade Hansen at right tackle. This group spent the entire spring practice together as a unit, and lauded chemistry and cohesion as a big factor for the improvement of the running game during spring. In fall camp, Hansen had a foot injury that caused him to miss some practice time. The injury to Hansen caused OL coach Stacy Searels to use several different personnel groupings, including true freshman Yosuah Nijman at left tackle and Jonathan McLaughlin at right tackle.

The aforementioned No. 1 group got some movement in the running game, however Wade Hansen struggled a bit finding some second-level defenders on zone runs. On the second series of the game, the Hokies called a rub route to Bucky Hodges in the right flat. The offensive line "p-hole" blocked (blocked low/cut blocked to get the defensive line's hands down). Hansen whiffed on DE Sam Hubbard. With no throwing lane, Brewer took a sack, and the five-yard loss on first down was enough to force an eventual punt.

On the next drive, there was a potential changing of the guard at tackle. Nijman entered the game at left tackle, and Jonathan McLaughlin moved to right tackle in place of Hansen. For the rest of the evening, the Hokies were winning most of the battles in the run game up until the moment Brewer's injury allowed the Buckeyes to outnumber Virginia Tech inside the tackle box.

After a couple of nice pass protection plays, Nijman and company got their first opportunity as a group to show off their improvement in the running game. Sam Rogers is aligned at tailback, and Michael Brewer runs a bread and butter inside zone read.

The slow motion of this play doesn't do it justice. At live speed, the pop of the Hokies' offensive line as they come off the ball and punch into the chests of the Buckeyes' defensive line is audible. I haven't heard that sound too often over the last couple of years. It is beautiful music.

Play side, Nijman widens out the defensive end. He has the end moving to the sideline, and his arms are fully extended with his palms under the shoulder pads of the defender. This is excellent technique, and only Nijman's lack of size and strength prevent this from being a dominant block versus just an effective one. For dominance, glance inside at Wyatt Teller. Teller chips the defensive tackle to help Eric Gallo and then squares up on blue chip middle linebacker Raekwon McMillan. Teller drives McMillan almost ten yards down field. My only gripe with Teller's block is his hand placement. Teller's right hand is outside the shoulder pads and could be called as a holding penalty. Fortunately, Teller was smart in choosing his gloves. The white-on-white may have masked a potential hold.

The toughest block on the play belongs to center Eric Gallo. Gallo has to reach the one-technique DT (No. 51). Gallo snaps the ball, gets his head across and moves the DT laterally to the sideline at the top of the screen. Gallo also has tremendous hand placement, right up and under the pads. Gallo isn't getting as much movement, but has the defender upright and dictating where he goes. This is a strong block from the center position.

On the right side, Conte and McLaughlin get strong initial movement. However, you can also see how critical head placement and timing are for double team blocks. Conte's job is to turn the three-technique defensive tackle's pads to the outside, and then slide off to the second level. McLaughlin doubles the three-technique, and as Conte slides off, McLaughlin would ideally have his head inside the defensive tackle (between the defensive tackle and the running back), or McLaughlin will drive the defensive tackle across the hole. Conte and McLaughlin get good initial movement. Unfortunately McLaughlin has sloppy head placement and is too high. At the 0:06 second mark, McLaughlin's shoulders should be in Adolphus Washington's (No. 92) ribs and his helmet should be in Washington's left armpit. Instead, McLaughlin pushes Washington right into Sam Rogers. Rogers' effort to run through Washington's arm tackle salvages the play and turns it into a nice gain.

Rogers isn't without some issue on the play. The hole really develops between Nijman and Gallo (behind Teller) rather than inside Gallo. Rogers' tremendous effort makes all the difference, however the correct play is to plant and get up field through that outside gap. All night, J.C. Coleman, Trey Edmunds, and Sam Rogers ran hard, however they left yardage on the field by not finding the most open bubble on many of similar inside zones. I walked away from the game feeling like Travon McMillian may ultimately be the best fit in this system, and I will be watching him closely against Furman this Saturday. Will Loeffler eliminate using McMillian on jet sweeps and stick with him as a true tailback, where he looked much more comfortable on Monday night?

The next play highlights, a pin and pull on an outside zone, a blocking technique used by Virginia Tech

Rogers and McLaughlin stretch the defensive end and outside linebacker to the boundary. Augie Conte blocks down and pins the one-technique defensive tackle (No. 77) to the inside. Eric Gallo and Wyatt Teller pull from the back side and lead Trey Edmunds on the play. Teller pancakes McMillan on the play. Again, I am impressed with Nijman on the back side. He takes a proper lead step with his inside foot, gets his head inside the back side three-technique defensive tackle (No. 93), then he cut blocks him down. Far too often, inexperienced players will dive at the legs of a defender right at the snap, which allows the defender time to recover and squeeze the cut back lane. This is excellent technique.

I mentioned the vision of the running backs, and that was a concern of mine after this game. Some solid gains had potential to be big gains, and I didn't see J.C. Coleman and Trey Edmunds finding those holes. They ran assertively, tough and were effective. However, with Brewer out for a prolonged period, the Hokies will need to get big plays in the running game. They are not Georgia Tech and are not designed to move the ball 4 yards at a time up and down the field on sustained drives.

Virginia Tech runs an inside zone from a trips bunch formation. H-Back Sam Rogers wham blocks across the formation; effectively like a trap block from a pulling lineman. Wyatt Teller and Eric Gallo get huge movement on the defensive tackle on the play side, and Nijman completely beats Washington off the ball and scoops him back to the outside. The cutback lane is so clean that Rogers doesn't have anyone to block. Yet, Coleman doesn't cut back and follow Rogers (as an inside zone with a wham is designed to do). Coleman runs into the teeth of the defense and gets a marginal gain. Running backs Shai McKenzie and Travon McMillian will get more work against Furman, and if they can make this cut, the coaching staff will seriously have to consider adjusting the tailback rotation. Opportunities like these have to be capitalized on.

Communication: Blitz and Stunt Pick Ups in Pass Protection

After last season, Virginia Tech's blitz and stunt recognition in pass protection needed to improve. On Monday night, it was evident that the offensive line made great strides in the offseason. Eric Gallo, in his first start as a Hokie, appeared to be correctly identifying the strength of the Ohio State formation and slid protection the correct way for most of the football game. When Ohio State stunted or blitzed, each offensive lineman stayed in their area and handed off one defender to the other blockers. Michael Brewer faced some pressure, but Brewer was given much more time to throw than he received in 2014 against the Buckeyes.

The offensive line seemed very comfortable in protection with Nijman at left tackle and McLaughlin flipped to the right side. Let's take a look. On this play, Ohio State runs a zone blitz. Tyquan Lewis (No. 59) fakes a pass rush over right tackle and drops off into a zone. The rest of the Ohio State defensive line slants hard to the bottom of the screen, while right outside linebacker Darron Lee (No. 43) blitzes right at Nijman.

Too many times in previous years, someone up front would have chased the slanting lineman, opening up a hole for another lineman or the blitzing linebacker to come free. Here, each blocker calmly stays in their zone. McLaughlin picks up the defensive tackle. Gallo picks up the other defensive tackle, and Teller picks up the crashing defensive end. This blitz is designed to take advantage of Nijman and get him to chase the crashing defensive end to the inside. Instead Nijman finds Lee and drives him outside with great extension.

The teaching point is that Gallo sets the protection, and then each of the linemen block the gap to the side of the call. On this play, Nijman, Teller, and Gallo all block the gap to their left. Each steps to the correct place and blocks a zone, rather than reacting to the stunt. It seems simple, yet this was a huge problem area at the end of last season.

Frankly, Brewer checks down way too quickly. McMillian doesn't have a window with the defensive end dropping into the soft zone. Downfield, Ryan Malleck breaks wide open on a quick in route at the sticks in front of the safety. If Brewer had continued his progression, Malleck was the correct throw. Malleck had great success in that area of the field all night while Ohio State's tighter press looks in cover 4 made things challenging for Bucky Hodges and Cam Phillips.

Here is another play with a similar protection scheme. Gallo correctly identifies the strength to the right side. The Buckeyes use a 30 front, blitz the middle linebacker and fake a blitz on the right side of the Hokies' offense.

Teller, Gallo, and Conte all step to the right side, and the Ohio State inside linebackers run right into them. McLaughlin gets sucked inside just a bit however he recovers. On the blind side, Nijman is one-on-one with the defensive end. Nijman is balanced, has good bend, and isn't over extended. Nijman gets his hands under the defensive end's shoulder pads before the end can initiate a leverage move. Nijman then uses his huge wingspan to direct the defensive end to the outside where he is no threat to Brewer. Again, this is textbook stuff from Nijman. After the spring, I wasn't sure he would ever contribute in Blacksburg. Basic fundamentals like first step and getting off on the snap count sometimes made Nijman look like me trying to solve a quantum physics equation. Nijman clearly has put in a ton of work learning the position, and he looks like he could be a player.

Last season, Brewer took a pounding. On Monday night, outside of one bad hit on a scramble and one sack, the young offensive line kept Brewer clean for most of the game. However, one busted protection was enough to cost the Hokies their starting quarterback.

The Hokies motion to a bunch trips formation to the field side. The Buckeyes zone blitz with three down linemen, and an inside linebacker in the A gap between Teller and Gallo.

There are two breakdowns. Teller gets baited to the outside. Instead of stepping to the guard-center gap, he gets bumped by the defensive tackle and chases him to the outside. Gallo steps to the right side along with Conte. Adolphus Washington (No. 92) is a decoy on the play. Washington sits in the gap between Conte and Gallo. Conte chips Washington, but he has the responsibility for the guard-tackle gap to his outside. If you look closely, you can see Conte looking to the outside. Washington is Gallo's man.

Despite Teller's bust, the Hokies are still in an OK situation. Coleman has to block away from the protection call, which is the first free man to the left of the center. Coleman is in the proper position to meet the linebacker in the hole. However, it seems like when Gallo saw the linebacker shoot the A gap past Teller, he abandons Washington. On the replay, you can clearly see Gallo and Conte step to the right, Teller step left and chase the down lineman, and Gallo change direction after the linebacker blitzes.

When Gallo moves to his left, Washington now has a clear path to the quarterback and Augie Conte has no angle to try to recover to the inside. The best thing Conte could have done was to grab Washington and pull him down for a holding call, but even a hold would have been tough given the angle that Conte had to work with.

If you told me that a sophomore center, in his first start, would only have one noticeable protection error all game long, I would have popped some champagne.

Also, prior to the play, Trey Edmunds rushed three straight times for 6, 7 and -1 yards. The Hokies found themselves in a short passing down, and inexplicably Edmunds was replaced with Coleman. Coleman carried the team down the stretch in 2014, is seemingly one of the team's hardest workers, and was effective as a runner. That being said, for three years he has proven to be a liability in pass protection, and between McMillian, Edmunds, and himself, Coleman is the least effective pass receiver. It's curious that he was subbed in this scenario. If I wore a tinfoil hat, I might think Gallo may have tried to pick up the blitz because in the back of his mind he knows Coleman is at a heavy disadvantage size-wise to the linebacker. However, that's a story the film doesn't tell.

The young offensive line has an easier challenge this week against the Furman Paladins. Furman runs a base 4-3 front and some nickel against spread looks. Last week against Coastal Carolina (No. 5, FCS), the Paladins defense gave up 328 yards passing and just under 500 total yards in a 38-35 loss. With Brewer out, Scot Loeffler should lean heavily on the running game to make Brenden Motley (or whichever quarterback wins this week's practice battle for repetitions), comfortable in the pocket. If the Hokies' offensive line executes on Saturday like they did against Ohio State, those five yard runs against the Buckeyes should translate to big chunk gains against a less talented Paladin front. Travon McMillian and Shai McKenzie should get plenty of work to make their case to be the top running back, and both have the vision to take advantage of the bubbles created against Ohio State. If the Hokies are dominant in the running game, play-action should provide opportunities for the Hokies' quarterback to make some big plays down the field. That will be the formula for success as the Hokies try to navigate the rest of their non-conference schedule before an October matchup with Pittsburgh; run the football, make plays down the field when play-action creates opportunities, limit and count on the defense to have a better performance against teams that don't have anywhere near the firepower of the Buckeyes.