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With 28 days left until the Virginia Tech Hokies face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, we turn our attention to #28 on the roster Mr. Alonzo Tweedy. In all likelihood, Tweedy will be our starting WHIP Linebacker this year after his exceptional play in spots last season and during the spring practice session here in 2012. The WHIP has been an easy target for criticism ever since Cody Grimm graduated back in 2009. Jeron Gouveia-Winslow has struggled to play the position well and his play alone may have cost us a win against Boise State back in 2010. That may seem harsh but the WHIP LB is a crucial playmaking spot in Bud Foster’s defense. We need a playmaker there and I think Tweedy has the ability to end his career on a very high note if he earns the starting job.
The Scoop
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 189 lbs
Position: WHIP Linebacker
Year: R-Senior
High School: Hermitage High School
How Did He Get Here?
Despite being just a two-star recruit on Rivals.com, the Hokies offered Tweedy during the summer of 2006. With no other scholarship offers in hand, the Hermitage star committed to Virginia Tech on July 31st, 2006. Tweedy’s offer was a greyshirt offer so he didn’t enroll until January of 2008 but so far, the coaches have proven that offering Tweedy was a good move in that class. He has developed into a fantastic special teams player and this fall could be a breakout season for the Virginia native.
2011 Season Rewind
After Gouveia-Winslow went down against Miami, the Hokies shifted to more of a Nickel look for the remainder of the season. Tweedy only received one start last year and that came against Boston College. Despite that, he still managed to rack up 23 tackles, four tackles for loss, and one sack in 2011.
2012 Prediction
If all goes well this fall, I think you’ll see Tweedy enter the Georgia Tech game with his name atop the depth chart. Honestly, I like Tweedy a lot. He runs a sub 4.5 40 and he has increased his strength every year since he’s enrolled. For a player who was thin as a rail coming out of college, that’s going to go a long way towards helping him lock down that starting role this year.
The Hokies rely on the WHIP linebacker to blitz off the edge, cover the 3rd receiver in some cases, drop back into zone, and play containment on screens. There are a lot of duties and responsibilities that come with playing this position. It’s often why it takes somebody three full years to truly understand how to master it. With Tweedy entering his final season, I think he’s on the right track. He’ll need to beat out GW and RVD for the starting job, which he should be able to do if he can stay healthy. Once that happens, it’s up to Tweedy to follow in Grimm’s, Brenden Hill’s, and James Anderson’s footsteps. All three of those guys had tremendous senior seasons at the position.
Completely Made Up Fact
Much like his look-a-like in last year’s countdown article, most of Alonzo Tweedy's morning start off like this as well
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Any news on how C.J. Reavis’ visit went with Tech this past weekend??
It went very well. I don’t see him going anywhere except VT.
Nice. Some Ohio State site says Reavis wants a schollie offer from the bucks. Any need to sort about that?
Nice. Some Ohio State site says Reavis wants a schollie offer from the bucks. Any need to worry about that?
Everybody wants a scholarship from Ohio State. Holland Fisher said the same thing. It’s more of an acommplishment, reavis has repeated that tech is the leader. He’s coming here.
I hope RVD or Tweedy win the starting job JGW is not athletic as those two guys.
Tweedy is a darn good player, speed, quickness and experience but he will be no match for RVD once he get some playing time because RVD has all that plus size and strength and is savvy beyond his years. Tweedy is still a situational player for the most part, just glorified because he will start the first couple of games, which once RDV takes over the position full-time will be still valuable in nickel and down & distance situations… let’s face it Tweedy and JGW have only 13 games left in their career and both have been up and down and will not always have favorable matchups against top tier teams. RDV will not have any weaknesses after he get experience taken care of
I agree, with everyone I would love to have RVD as the Whip, he’s the complete package and as for Tweedy he’s always been a coverage type of linebacker at best, he has the speed, but not the size to stay fight over elite OL and he stuggles to get in the backfield for sacks. I’m not saying that JGW is the best whip by no stretch of the imagination, but let’s not sleep on him yet. I want to see if he made any strides or got better this offseason especially after his foot injury. He wasn’t playing too bad last year before his injury I know a lot of people forget about that. So in other words let’s just see what happens in training camp before we cast judgement.
Tweedy played very, very well in the Sugar Bowl and calling him a “coverage” linebacker at best is not correct. He was all over the field on run support and blitz packages and is too fast for most OL to get paws on. I’d expect him to start. Regardless, options at the position are nice.
VHokie, when I look at Tweedy’s career here at Tech. Please tell me what has he done besides special teams? I know he played very well in the Sugar Bowl last year, but overall in his career how many sacks has he had? In fact, I believe he had just 1 sack last year. When I compare LB’s I study game tape. And yes, I will stick to my opinion which is Tweedy right now is a coverage LB he doesn’t have great size or strength just pure athleticism and speed. I know he can tackle very well in the open field, but when we blitz opponents which is apart of the Whip’s many assignments. I have not seen him use his hands well when fighting off of blockers either. So until I see something different he will be a Coverage type of LB. And that’s just my opinion.
That speed is important at WHIP, especially coming off the edge in certain blitz packages. But, I do think you’ll see a mix of players playing that position this year. The starter won’t necessarily play the most snaps.
I love RVD and I think he is going to be spectacular but tossing him into the fire against GT may not be the best option. I’m reserving judgement on this until after that first scrimmage. After that we should have a good idea at who our starter is going to be heading into GT.
you don’t think Fuller will start at Whip against GT? I figure that’s not set in stone, but the coaches did ask him if he wanted to and he did say yes…
Updated Depth Charts on the eve of practice…JGW is listed as starter for now.
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/08/hokies-update-depth-chart-eve-august-practice
Weird… I’ve been told that Tweedy would be listed as the starter with RVD and JGW tied for 2nd. Eh, pre-season depth charts are never accurate.