Senior Alonzo Tweedy listed as No. 1 whip linebacker
Senior whip linebacker Alonzo Tweedy hasn’t played much on defense this year, with most of his snaps coming as a special teams stalwart. That might change against Florida State.
Asked if Tweedy had been taking some first-team reps at whip linebacker this week, head coach Frank Beamer said “there’s a good chance he’s going to get on the field. … I think he’ll see some action this week.”
Tweedy has long been listed low on the depth chart, behind redshirt freshman Ronny Vandyke and the man he supplanted, fifth-senior Jeron Gouveia-Winslow, who was the starter at the beginning of the year.
But on the most recent depth chart updated today, Tweedy is listed as the starter, followed by Vandyke, who had three tackles and an assist in 48 snaps against Miami but also had some freshman mistakes. Gouveia-Winslow, who has worked as a safety the last few weeks, is the backup rover.
Tweedy, a fifth-year senior from Richmond, has played in all nine games this year, but all 15 of his tackles have been on special teams. He has eight tackles in punt coverage alone, five more than the next closest player.
A speedster who is 6-foot-2, 193 pounds, Tweedy could give the Hokies more of a chance against Florida State’s fast skill players. He battled a high-ankle sprain all of last year but performed well in a prominent role in the Sugar Bowl loss to Michigan, finishing with three tackles and a tackle for a loss while playing a big part in corralling elusive quarterback Denard Robinson.
In 47 career games, only one of which he’s started (Boston College last year), Tweedy had 80 tackles.
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Here are a few more notes and quotes from today’s press conference …
- A couple programming notes: the live chat will take place Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. I’ll have a link up in the morning. We recorded another A-Mac and Andy podcast this afternoon, which will be up tomorrow some time. I’ll tweet it out when it’s ready. It’s supposed to be mobile friendly this time. And lastly, the matchups post that I normally do the day before the game will go up the morning of the game. With it being a Thursday night contest, there’s all day for people to digest something like that, so I pushed it back.
- Also of note on the depth chart, Corey Marshall and Tyrel Wilson are listed as co.-No. 1′s at the defensive end spot opposite of James Gayle. J.R. Collins is a backup defensive tackle to Derrick Hopkins. That DE spot hasn’t been productive this year. Marshall moved up past Collins last week to start for the first time since the opener. Wilson has the production edge this year, though. Marshall has 19 tackles, a half tackle for a loss and no sacks. Wilson has 22 tackles, 5.5 tackles for a loss and three sacks, although much of that has come playing on the other side, which goes against the right tackle and not the left.
- Martin Scales is listed as a co-No. 1 with Joey Phillips at fullback.
- Beamer didn’t give a whole lot of specifics today. Everything came back to playing better as a team. Case in point: “That’s our message: Do everything right and this thing will turn around. You’ve heard me say it, in a team game, everything has to click together. And when it does, you get that momentum and all of a sudden, you’re making one good play and another good play. And when it’s the other way, things just don’t go your way.”
- Virginia Tech hasn’t been as sharp on special teams. Beamer thinks other schools might just be catching up to what made the Hokies so successful at it back in the day. “I don’t think there’s a big secret to it,” he said. “I think more and more people are putting their better athletes out there.”
- Beamer didn’t offer an opinion on the thought of Miami self-imposing another bowl ban, which would make a wide open Coastal Division race even more so. “I think I’m just going to put all my thoughts and efforts toward Florida State,” he said. “This team is good enough that if you’re thinking about anything else, you don’t have a shot. I think we’ll go in that direction.”
- Wide receiver Corey Fuller is having a breakout year, despite the Hokies’ lack of sustained success on offense. After catching only two passes as a junior, he has 29 catches for 547 yards and four touchdowns this year, becoming a go-to guy on third down through the air. Not bad for someone who was the fourth receiver before D.J. Coles went down with a season-ending knee injury in the opener. “In practice, I feel like I’ve been trying to get more reps to see different scenarios, see how people would defend it differently,” Fuller said. “And I think that’s one of the things that’s been helping me lately. The last couple of days in practice, I’ve been going against [safeties] Kyshoen [Jarrett] and Detrick Bonner, and they both gave me something different. So I’ve been looking at that and using that to carry over into the games.”
- Tight end Ryan Malleck is from Point Pleasant, N.J. His hometown got hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. “I’ve talked to my friends and my family and my house is fine, but most of my town is under water,” he said, adding that his parents didn’t have power for a week. “A few of my friends that live by lagoons and by canals, their houses, their first floors were under water.” Malleck said the image he saw on TV that stood out to him was a roller coaster that he used to go on when he was little that had been knocked into the ocean with the pier.
- Lots of talk about playing for pride today. Cornerback Kyle Fuller wasn’t necessarily all about it, though. “Me personally I don’t really see it as playing for pride,” he said. “I know what we can do. I’m not feeling sorry for us. We can’t settle. We’ve let a lot of games get away from us this season. We can’t settle with that. We have to improve and gain back those games that we lost. This would be a great one to do it.”
November 6, 2012 - 3:39 PM
Good for Tweedy. Fine young man, fast and he hustles. He gets excited and can fire up his teammates. I always thought he’d become a Cody Grimm type player. Not sure why that never happened.
I’ve been surprised that Tweedy hasn’t been on the field more. He is probably the best open field tackler on the team and he is faster ‘than a scalded dog’ (So Bud Foster). We’ve had lots of problems with open field tackles. I thought he should be in the umbrella defense, too. The season is 75% over. Seems like a waste, especially with the inconsistency on the defense in 2012.
Marcus Davis wants a leader on this team,, He says none are to be found..Time to step up who ever you are…
Wide receiver Marcus Davis says the struggling Hokies lack a strong leader this season…Washington Post
Tweedy should have been moved to a safety spot and Jarrett stayed @ corner. Gives depth @ corner speed and physicality @ safety. Been my feeling since spring. Thought he could have been our best big ppay guy on D last year. Exactly what is lacking this year. Jarrett has played great but very worried about his size at that spot for 3 years. If he moves back to corner in future really wasted a year of develpoment. Means he has adjustment period each year for his 1st three years.
Isn’t Marcus Davis a senior? While he’s busy looking around the locker room for a team leader, perhaps he could find the time to play a whole game at full effort just once in his career.
I just love Beamer’s analysis about special teams play. It all seems so clear now. Frank Beamer’s entire coaching reputation rested solely on playing ‘better athletes’ on special teams. At least that is what Frank Beamer implied. It had nothing to do with schemes or strategy, it just was a fluke of Frank thinking his better athletes could play on special teams.
I guess Frank never thought to consider what the other teams with successful special teams play did. That would require too much effort, evidently.
“And when it’s not going your way, it’s going the other way”. Wow! Now I understand…..
Tech’s success on special teams was because he did play his best athletes. A lot of his starters in the early days were from his best offensive and defensive players. The problem with that is special teams is where a lot of players get their most serious injuries. As you get more depth, you take your starters off special teams. More skilled players means better schemes can be run on special teams. Evidently, Franks backups aren’t as skilled as he thought.
I saw carlis parker play in person a couple weeks ago and I don’t get it. He’s a very good athlete but not a quarterback most likely will play receiver this is why were struggling so much along side bad coaching this staff needs to evaluate talent alot better. Hodges better pan out at quarterback or were in trouble the next 5-6 years.
VT’s success on special teams a decade ago was not solely because of using ‘better athletes’ on special teams. That is BS spin being put out by Frank Beamer and his apologists – Tom L – because he is either unable or unwilling to evolve his approach to be competitive in college football.
Easy way to know that Frank is BS’ing, along with his apologists? Frank Beamer held coaching clinics – naively – about his ‘secrets to special teams success’. Are we really supposed to believe that Frank held multiple clinics where his entire message was – ‘Play your starters on special teams. They can do stuff the reserves can’t. Thank you for coming, and best of luck in your travels back home…’
It’s just another in the extremely long line of BS answers that Frank Beamer gives in denial of his team’s performance, and that is eagerly gulped up by his apologists.
Crooked road, I ask you, what has Frank Beamer done to you personally? You need to talk to someone to work out your hatred.
Forever, feel free to defend Beamer’s statement, and to explain how special teams excellence at VT was only about playing starters, and not anything to do with schemes that have now been figured out and discarded. Feel free to engage in discussion about how Beamer’s special teams philosophy features new methods of kick blocking – the ULTIMATE momentum changer – being featured. Because for years we were told it was all about the momentum change. Now that Frank doesn’t even have the guys try to block a kick/punt, especially against FBS teams, we’re supposed to believe that 1). It was never about blocked kicks, & 2) Since we’re not blocking kicks anymore, it was only about starting players being on special teams.
Feel free to explain the clinics Frank Beamer gave on special teams play. Feel free to pretend they only lasted for about four sentences. I welcome your explanation.
Poor crooked road needs a hug. Beamer fell victim to what inevitably happens to all football innovators… everyone else either copies or adjusts. He also fell victim to what every Hall of Fame head coach (Bryant, Paterno, Bowden) has suffered… *one* mediocre season after a string of great ones.
Yes, I am a Beamer apologist. He made VT the winningest FBS program from 1995-2011, and made Virginia Tech and Beamer Ball items of national relevance and conversation. Just because some VT “fans” have the long term perspective of a six-year-old child doesn’t mean that VT should follow the addled thinking from their panicked tantrums.
VT has some major work to do. The man currently at the helm has done this kind of work before, and deserves the opportunity to retool and restore the elite program… the kind of elite program Coach Beamer himself is most responsible for creating.
Frank Beamer would disagree with you on the falsely applied ‘innovator’ label.
“I don’t think there’s a big secret to it,” he said. “I think more and more people are putting their better athletes out there.”
Those are his words, not mine. Can you call someone an ‘innovator’ if all they do is play the best player at a position in football? Frank claimed not to think so. Personally, I always gave him more credit than that, but if he wants to shun it, that’s fine. If his entire special teams philosophy revolves around ‘putting better athletes out there’, and the apologists want to dance around the absurdity of such a claim, that’s fine. IIWII, though.
They’re his words, folks. I’m just pointing out how silly they are. I’m using his quotes, and some want to complain? No desire for discussion, just no desire to think about the silliness of the denials.
Crooked, I’ll give it to you. You write and analyze exceptionally well. Sometimes, however, I can’t tell if you really are a sour Hokie fan or a bitter UVA fan who has found the perfect time to sit behind a computer and stir up a bunch of people in a loyal fan base. Beamer has always been a “good old boy” in his dealings with the media and for years it’s always been accepted and liked. As much as you would like to admit that the decline of VT football has been coming for years, it simply isn’t true. This year is bad, not one Hokie fan will disagree with you on that front. I have been to the clinics where Beamer, Foster, Stinespring, and others have spoke many times, much like clinics around the country that other college football coaches do. Ideas and strategies are shared and added to other teams arsenals. Every team has an identity but at Tech this year we’ve lost what it is that we’ve always done well. You know what I’m going to say. The ability to RUN the football. You don’t re-invent the wheel (make whole sale schematic changes) when things go south. You make adjustments (a blocking scheme here, a different formation there, or substitute players)to what YOU do, not scrap what HAS worked for years. Like I said before, if you want to “Fire and Hire” (not the answer to the problem) it’s going to take alot more than one bad season where athletes didn’t perform to their capabilities.
Frank said once that the reason they aren’t blocking more kicks now is because other teams are lining the 3 guys up in front of the punter. Well, if it works for them against Beamerball, shouldn’t Frank’s light go on and do the same? Maybe Hughes could have got that punt off last week. Frank is set in his ways, has his routine in place and will not change/adjust.
Mr. or Ms. appalwriter, Appalachian State made “national relevance and conversation” by beating Michigan, and winning 3 (three) NC’s. Granted, App State plays a lower level of NCAA football and competition. Why am I saying this??? Because although many of us fans “have the long term perspective of a six-year-old child” as you state above, I will not consider VT football and elite program until they can regularly beat top 25 competition (and especially top 10), not make me nervious to invest in a trip to see a post season bowl game live, and be a perennial contender in the BCS rankings. It will be interesting to see how we perform when we go to a “playoff” system, if and when we reach that level of play again.
Come On Man and the other Hokie apologists, a question — Do you also wear a blindfold to protect your eyes and stick in earplugs when you bury your head in the sand? You keep repeating between gulps of maroon Kool-Aid about how VT is going through one bad season now, but life was unicorns and rainbows for every season in the past that Beamer has been coach. You don’t seem to want to accept that the 10-win seasons include lots of cupcakes and low-level ACC (and Big East) team, or that the bowl streak contains very few wins.
It is also interesting that there is a mention of how a team should “make adjustments” when “things go south.” A lot of Hokie fans are still waiting for adjustments of about any kind to be made to the VT offense. Instead of coming up with an offensive scheme that fits the slim roster of talent available this season, the OC ADDED more junk to his scheme-less scheme. “Sort of go faster” (others use “hurry up”) offense isn’t working, nor are a lot of the plays that are called at the wrong time.
Those who have followed VT for a long time have a set of expectations (like the team should be able to win big games against Top-10 teams) that haven’t been met in quite a while if at all. They are quite frustrated that things that have been building up for the last several years haven’t been acknowledged by the coaching staff, but have been waved away with a bunch of “we didn’t execute” or “we were four plays away from turning it around” excuses.
Getting rid of Beamer isn’t an easy fix and most people would probably be happy if he would just own up to the problems and pledge to really make changes to fix them.
“crooked road” answer the question. Why do you hate Frank Beamer?
Are you meaning to say you hate the way he coaches football and answers questions or do you hate him?
Forever & always, I’ll be waiting for the answers to my own questions. Questions that Beamer apologists fear to answer. They’re not really as scary as you gals think. You apologists still scurry like rats from the special teams question, the RB question, the ‘Package’ question, the offensive strategy plan, the Stinespring excuses, the complacency questions, the… well, I could go on & on, but you all still wouldn’t answer a single question or invite discussion, as I’ve repeatedly requested over the past several weeks.
I’ve asked you apologists to discuss for weeks, and all you do is complain because I said something quotable by Frank. When you decide to discuss the topics and the direct quotes that I copied from Frank, then we can talk. I copy direct quotes from Frank, & you call me a hater. Interesting how myopic that perspective.
Enjoy the game tomorrow evening…
I’ve actually given alot of football insight in my posts to what the problem is currently and even gave criticism to the players AND coaching staff. You, crooked no fan and joe doesn’t know football enjoy the “Off with their heads” philosophy so much that you are blinded by your lack of real football knowledge that you think offenses can change week to week. You can just put your dream world, fantasy offense on the field after a days worth of listening to ESPN analysts flavor of the week. You haven’t the slightest clue how to run a team,stick to what you know about, bashing a program that needs its loyal fans more now than ever. You see it as a turn style to the next coach in line, who if they didn’t hit the ground running you’d be calling for another scape goat.