Hokies tweak practice routine for unique Jackets’ attack

BLACKSBURG — Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer was 15 minutes late to his weekly press conference Tuesday.

He had good reason.

“I’m sorry I’m running late,” he said. “It’s a tough preparation. There’s a lot of stuff going on. If you look at that Georgia Tech crowd, you’d be late, too.”

The 19th-ranked Yellow Jackets (5-1, 3-1 ACC) employ a one-of-a-kind offense and present some unique complications in the kicking game, so the fourth-ranked Hokies (5-1, 3-0) have had to make some changes to their routine this week to get ready for Saturday’s game in Atlanta.

Georgia Tech’s option-based offense is different from anything Virginia Tech has seen or will see this season.

“There’s no comparison to anybody on our schedule that’s anything like this,” Hokies defensive coordinator Bud Foster said.

Defenses have had a hard time stopping the Yellow Jackets, who run the ball on most downs with a series of pitches, misdirection plays and runs. Through six games this season, they’ve averaged 53 rushes and 277 rushing yards.

“They bring people from different directions. They’ve got good misdirection. You’ve got the run fake and then receivers running down the field. You’ve got to get your secondary involved in run support,” Beamer said.

“They know what they’re doing. They’ve run it for a long time, and they know exactly what they’re doing. That makes it tough.”

The Hokies are doing some different things in practice this week to simulate the Yellow Jackets offense.

They’ve pulled freshman Antone Exum from his accustomed free safety position on defense to play scout team quarterback. Exum played quarterback in high school and has the speed and size — 5-foot-11, 209 pounds — to make a suitable clone of Josh Nesbitt, the Jackets’ 6-1, 217-pound speedy signal-caller.

They’ve made some other scout team adjustments as well, like scrapping the snap to speed up the tempo and replacing running backs with quicker wide receivers.

They are also spending more time in team periods in practice to give the defense more snaps against the funky offense.

“We’re working hard to get the execution and speed coming off the ball and that fullback hitting up in there with the speed he hits up in there,” Beamer said.

“We took Exum, who was a quarterback last year and a good one in high school, and we’ve got him working in there as a quarterback. He’s got good athletic ability, so he keeps you honest there and gives you a good look. You try to do it the best you can. These guys have spent one week running it, and those guys have spent a year and half running it.”

Re-creating speed is one thing. Finding a scout team player with the skill of a Jonathan Dwyer or Nesbitt is another.

Dwyer, the Jackets starting B-back and the reigning ACC offensive player of the year, is averaging 6.5 yards a carry and has scored five touchdowns. Nesbitt has accounted for 1,346 total yards and 10 touchdowns.

“(Their offense) is hard to simulate in practice,” Virginia Tech defensive tackle John Graves said. “To simulate their caliber athletes is a tough task.”

Option principles, like defending the pitch and dive, are drilled into the Hokies’ players heads early in the preseason. Foster wants them to know their assignments against any option play by any team, but those principles come in extra handy against a team like Georgia Tech.

“As soon as we installed our defense, one of the main things was option principals, just like installing the blitzes and coverages and just the basics of our defenses and knowing all our option responsibilities,” Hokies linebacker Jake Johnson said.

Beamer has also spent some extra time this week studying film of Georgia Tech’s punt formations.

The Jackets mix up their coverages more than any other school he can remember.

“They can actually be in nine different formations that I’ve counted, and they could probably be in more,” Beamer said. “You flip those over, so that’s 18 formations that you prepare for.”

Beamer was asked how many punt formations other teams regularly use, and he answered, “Probably one. It’s different. There are three moving parts, and where those parts go changes the formation.”

The change in practice routine might be tedious, but the Hokies did it last season and held the Yellow Jackets mostly in check in a critical 20-17 win in Blacksburg.

They hope to duplicate that success Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

“I think (last year’s experience) helps, but I think they’re probably more advanced this year. The second year they’ve been in it, you can just see they don’t turn that ball over that much and they keep it in that quarterback’s hands quite a bit, but I just think overall they’re more advanced. too,” Beamer said.

“I think it can work both ways. I think the fact that it’s different from what you see on a normal basis makes it very difficult to prepare for here in four or five days.”