DJ Eliot discusses NC State’s defensive performance against Virginia
· Yahoo Sports
DJ Eliot handled Dave Doeren’s radio show duties on Wednesday and spoke at length about his unit’s rough first game, and one comment in particular has raised the ire of many. Given the sour mood around town, I guess that’s to be expected, but it is also unwarranted.
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ON BEAU PRIBULA BEING USED ON MORE DESIGNED RUNS THAN AT MIZZOU
We really didn’t know what they were going to do. That’s par for the course in college football now. Every year brings a new roster, so you don’t know exactly what you’re going to get from an offense. They’re still making the pieces that they have now part of what they do. After the first couple of drives, we adjusted, got a feel for how they were attacking us, and then our players were able to hone in — more than just schematically — on how they attacked us and play better.
I’ve seen a lot of folks harping on that first sentence, but it seems pretty clear that what he means to convey is that NC State didn’t know how Virginia would go about utilizing Beau Pribula’s running ability. The play that Virginia ran successfully multiple times early, which featured a pulling guard leading Pribula around the right side, obviously was not in UVA’s repertoire last season.
Of course they understood that UVA would try to lean on the run game and that Pribula would be a part of that—they could see his deficiencies as a passer on film just as clearly as the coaches at UVA. The particulars of the UVA game plan were unknown given all the changes to that roster, so NC State didn’t have a set scheme it could prepare for. Inevitably that was going to lead to problems, especially for a defense fitting a bunch of guys into new roles. So it goes. We have enough problems without twisting anyone’s remarks to mean something they don’t.