Locker Room Wrap: William and Mary Win Reveals Some New Wrinkles

When the Hokies open their season against an FCS opponent like they did this year, it's important to take the result with more than just a grain of salt.

Sure, a 34-9 final score looks impressive, and given William and Mary's strong history of performing well against FBS teams, it's hard to complain about a blowout win.

But it's important to remember that this is the same unpredictable, flawed football team it appeared to be heading into the season. It's tempting to declare a win over Ohio State all but certain now that the offense looks competent and the defense remains dominant, but the season opener can only explain so much about how this team will do next week.

Yet, this first extended look at the Michael Brewer offense and the newcomers on defense does offer a few hints about what to expect from this team going forward.

An Up-Tempo Offense?

Everyone knew that new quarterback Michael Brewer had plenty of experience running a fast paced offense from his time in college at Texas Tech and in high school with Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris, but seeing the Hokies pick up the pace in his very first start still came as a bit of a surprise.

The Hokies spent all week leading up to the game complimenting the Tribe's talented front-seven, but by making use of a quick pace early and often, Tech kept them off balance for the whole game.

"We're trying to change the tempo a little bit," said head coach Frank Beamer. "You mess with the tempo and you get people not quite lined up well, and I like that part of it."

Brewer looked decisive with the football when he got a chance to run the Hokies' not-quite no-huddle attack, particularly on the first drive of the game. He completed six of his eight attempts on the series, ultimately finding Isaiah Ford in the back of the end zone for a touchdown while looking like a veteran of Scot Loeffler's offense.

"It's amazing to me, the guy came in here in June and he's been able to pick up our system," Loeffler said. "You would've thought he's been around here a lot longer than he has."

The offense looked similarly effective when Brewer engineered a nine-play drive near the end of the second quarter that took the Hokies from their 22-yard line to the Tribe's three-yard line in a little under three minutes.

But the players know that they're not going to remind anyone of Chip Kelly's Oregon teams just yet.

"I'll ask Brewer like 'hey,how's this fast pace coming along?' and...I'm always saying 'hey, we're moving pretty fast,' and he's like 'yeah, we're moving' but he's used to Texas Tech and Oregon-style offenses where they're getting plays off in nine seconds," said receiver Willie Byrn.

The new signal caller's calm demeanor even as the offense picked up steam was immediately apparent.

"He never panicked, he never threw the ball into trouble, I thought he was very much in charge," Beamer said.

Brewer hasn't had the chance to test his quick decision making during a game in some time, but he says it's something that stays with you.

"It's just something you practice," Brewer said. "There's no excuse to make poor decisions with the football and I'd like to think whenever an opportunity comes to make a play, we're going to make it."

Brewer's decisiveness certainly helped the offense against the Tribe, but the bevy of new skill players was also a big boost for the Hokies. The staff mixed in new running backs Marshawn Williams and Shai McKenzie and new receivers Isaiah Ford and Cam Phillips to keep the group fresh.

"As you don't have energy and call to the sideline and we get a brand new set of receivers and a brand new set of running backs, that makes us a lot better," Byrn said.

Goal Line Woes

The only time the offense seemed to slow to a crawl on Saturday was when the Hokies made it to the goal line.

The team scored touchdowns on three of its five trips to red zone, but it didn't always look pretty.

The worst showing of all came when Derek DiNardo returned a fumble all the way to the Tribe's two-yard line, and it took the Hokies more than two minutes to actually put the ball in the end zone.

"Did that look as bad up there as it did on the sideline?" Beamer asked the media at the press conference after the game.

In a word, yes.

The Hokies tried two runs with Marshawn Williams that both went for no gain, before a pass interference penalty bailed them out and gave them a fresh set of downs.

"Of course it was my first time on the goal line, so things were moving way faster in the game," Williams said.

A fumbled quarterback-center exchange cost the Hokies one down, then an incomplete pass and an illegal formation penalty had the team facing a big third-and-goal.

But then Loeffler sent out the offense with Bucky Hodges split out wide, matched up one-on-one with a player that looked laughably small in comparison to the mammoth tight end, and the rest is history.

Brewer's pass was an ugly one, but Hodges went up and made a nice play on the ball to redeem the offense.

"I definitely create a lot of mismatches, and that helps our offense," Hodges said.

He's very right about that, and Loeffler tried to take advantage of his size the next time the Hokies were on the goal line on that drive right before half time.

After two ineffective rushes by J.C. Coleman brought the Hokies to the three-yard line, Hodges again tried to find his way towards the back of the end zone.

However, linebacker Luke Rhodes blew the play up and forced Brewer to throw the ball away and settle for a field goal.

"We just didn't get them blocked, there wasn't running space. So that was an ugly part of the game right there," Beamer said.

But after watching Logan Thomas throw several bad interceptions on similar plays last year, the staff had to be pleased that Brewer already seems to know how to avoid costly mistakes on the goal line.

"If an opportunity comes up to make a first down or something, we're going to take it...but if not, we'll shelve it and play the next play," Brewer said.

Pressuring the Passer

With the defense losing four of its top five sack leaders from a season ago, it wouldn't have been unreasonable to expect the Hokies to struggle when it came time to rush the passer.

However, the pass rush looked very promising against Tribe quarterback Steve Cluley, sacking him four times and hitting him 10 times overall.

The team really ratcheted up the pressure in the second half after making a commitment to start bringing more defenders to make Cluley uncomfortable.

"We started bringing a little more pressure, and Dadi's always a force by himself off the edge, I liked him," Beamer said. "Chase Williams got a couple hits on the quarterback, so we started bringing a little bit more pressure and made them hurry."

Nicolas had one sack on the day, but it was Williams that really stood out when it came time for him to apply pressure.

He got an almost unobstructed shot on Cluley that forced the big fumble, and he said it was an opportunity he hasn't gotten in a long time after spending the last four years mainly on special teams.

"I haven't had a clean shot like that in a long time, I wasn't going to waste that opportunity," Williams said.

He even ended Cluley's day with a sack that dragged him down for a loss of 12 yards at the start of the fourth quarter.

Williams says it was all a matter of adjusting to a different look from the Tribe.

"They came out and showed us a couple things that we hadn't seen before on film," Williams said. "They had two guys in the backfield, and we made a couple adjustments, came out in the second half and executed."

But Williams wasn't even the most effective linebacker for Tech on Saturday.

Instead, it was the surprise starter at whip, Derek DiNardo. He landed three hits on quarterbacks and tied for the team lead for total tackles with five.

Ronny Vandyke seemed like he was healthy when he spoke at Tuesday's practice, but the staff wasn't comfortable enough in him to name him the starter.

After planning on throwing out 2013 starter Josh Trimble, a late injury gave DiNardo his chance.

"Trimble pulled a muscle there in practice on Wednesday and Ronny Vandyke has been out and he just got back for the game today," Beamer said. "But we've got three guys at that position that are pretty good."

DiNardo didn't seem like he was forced into coverage situations very often, meaning that his lack of elite speed was never really a factor, letting Bud Foster leave him in the game to deal with the Tribe's size.

"They're a big tight end, running back team, they don't spread the field out the way a lot of teams do, so that gave (the whips) the opportunity to get out there," DiNardo said.

The tactic paid off, as the Tribe only completed nine passes in the whole game, and the constant pressure helped mask the fact that the secondary looked a little shaky at times.

Kendall Fuller played an outstanding game, as usual, but Brandon Facyson looked like he was still shaking off the rust a bit after missing spring practice and portions of fall camp with injuries. He got burned for 43 yards on Cluley's longest completion of the game, which had to be slightly worrying for the staff.

Nevertheless, the defense was still largely dominant, even if there's a little left to work on.

"There were some plays we could've made, there's always going to be a little bit to learn from every game, so we're going to take this film and learn from it," Williams said.

Slye Surprise

The other surprise starter in the game besides DiNardo came when kicker Joey Slye trotted out for the opening kickoff.

Beamer had previously named Michael Santamaria as the main field goal kicker and Mitchell Ludwig as the kickoff man, but last week's practice made him change his mind.

"Slye just had a great week of kicking and he was going to handle the long field goals all the way. When the ball was snapped on the 31, 32 he made a couple in practice with a little heat on him," Beamer said. "And then I said 'this thing is so close, I'd rather just have that guy be in there the whole time.' I was planning on just going with Ludwig as my kickoff guy, but I got him in there the first time, because I wanted him to get used to the game."

Ludwig and Slye shared the kickoff duties through the rest of the game, but Slye was the sole player to handle the placekicking, making kicks of 20 and 27 yards.

For Slye, learning that he'd only be involved in some scenarios made him work all the harder in practice.

"(Beamer) told me I was doing long distance field goals on Saturday, but during the week I worked and wasn't going to settle for just kicking the long field goals, and then he came in after our meeting and told me I was the guy," Slye said.

The former high school linebacker says he got over his opening jitters once he got a chance to make a tackle on the first very kickoff.

"On the kickoff, there was a lot of nerves," Slye said. "With the band playing, your heartbeat starts to go in the rhythm, so it's kind of funny, but after I found myself on the tackle, the nerves went away after I made that tackle."

While he wasn't exactly tested with the game on the line, Beamer still likes the way he handled himself in his first game.

"I like those guys to step up when the game turns on," Beamer said. "They don't go the other way, they step up, and he stepped up."