Dinwiddie County (Virginia) quarterback Chris Hall is fifth player to commit to the Hokies. Hall will grey shirt and will play tight end. He's lean at 225 pounds, but has a big frame, 6'4" to build on upon. Just think of Greg Boone, who was 6'3" 258 lbs when he first got to Blacksburg. His highlights below are all of him behind center, but it's still worth the watch. Surely the level of competition has something to do with it, but he's showing off his athleticism by consistently outrunning opposing defenses. At he 2:10 mark he fakes the QB blast and throws a jump pass for a touchdown. Wild Turkey anyone?
Well, that's another huge get this week for the Hokies (and we're hearing there could be another later today). Adeboye Aromire is an imposing physical corner, with speedy 4.47 40, that could play elsewhere in the secondary if need be. Aromire was Ricardo Young’s former teammate at H.D. Woodson High School out The District and selected Tech over Maryland and UNC. Check out VTF for a more in depth breakdown.
Now understand that a workout at Tech’s football complex is not like an afternoon at your local gym. There are no TVs in the corner, and no smoothie bar in the lobby. In fact, the sign on the door says "No cell phones and no iPods allowed." This is a work place. Every minute counts and every lift is charted, and there is a method and system that’s evolved over the years. It’s high intensity, all under Gentry’s eye.
But the atmosphere is still enjoyable and fun for the players. They see the progress their teammates are making and help each other through the most challenging and difficult lifts. Good chemistry all the way around.
Soon to be senior wide receiver / defensive back / linebacker Christian Reeves of Eagles Landing Christian Academy in Georgia gave his commitment to Torrian Gray today. He caught 26 balls for 584 yards (22 YPC) and 4 scores his junior year.
Last night the Northern Virginia Hokie Club organized the first ever Bud Foster's "Chalk Talk". Coach Foster sat down and spoke candidly with host Chris Colston (who's 2010 Hokie Football Annual goes on sale July 1st [buy it]) for over an hour on a wide variety of football topics. I was in attendance and did my best to summarize the more important points. The format of the conversation was question and answer, first asked by Chris and then by the audience. Below are my notes.
Hypothetically Speaking, VT and the SEC...
It's nothing more than a rumor.
The ACC is a great league.
The Big XII disintegrating would be bad for college football.
We've had great success in the ACC, which surprised a lot of people.
Meeting with Iowa's Coaches
Discussed philosophies with Iowa's defensive coaches on how to stop Paul Johnson's Spread Option.
Took loss to GT personally.
The most difficult part in preparing for GT is having the scout offense simulate their option at game speed.
Depth Chart
Ends – Chris Drager and Steven Friday have solidified the starting spots. Drager had big games last year against Maryland and Tennessee. Friday could be 2010's Cody Grimm. The backups are all young, but can run and are as big as we've ever had.
Tackles – John Graves is the leader of the defense, the "bell cow". He exhibits trust, loyalty and accountability. Kwamaine Battle is penciled in as the other starter and has a high motor. Antoine Hopkins has the potential to push Battle for snaps, but he needs to consistently play hard. Bud's concerned about the depth behind them. Isiah Hamlete and Joe Jones were both moved from end to tackle to bolster depth. Jones reminds Bud of former Hokie Barry Boker. Dwight Tucker along with incoming freshman Nick Acree and Derrick Hopkins will all be in the mix to earn PT. Acree and Hopkins are physically ahead of the game. Describing Acree, "He pretty."
Whip – Committee of Jeron Gouveia-Winslow, Alonzo Tweedy and Lorenzo Williams will share time. Right now Winslow would play 40-45/60 snaps. Tweedy is a special teams demon. He runs like a "scalded dog", just not always in the right direction.
Mike – It will be a close call whether or not Barquell Rivers has recovered from his torn quadriceps tendon by the start of camp. He worked hard to get lean. Bud's never had a kid as big as Bruce Taylor playing the Mike and he has the feet plus awareness too. He has a great, not good spring. He could also play backer. Quillie Odom had his best spring ever.
Backer – Lyndell Gibson reminds Bud of Vince Hall. He's got the vision, "heavy shoulder", IQ and has matured. Chase Williams has the potential to be a special football player. He's tough with a high IQ, suffered a setback with a knee injury in high school playoffs. Tariq Edwards could eventually move to end.
Secondary – Eddie Whitley is the first string free safety right. Don't be surprised if he turns out to be better than Kam. Rashad Carmichael and Jayron Hosley are the starting corners. Hosley is that next dynamic guy corner. Chris Hill is the 3rd corner. More than any other position, Bud has to trust the player to play corner, because a missed tackle or assignment means the game. Antone Exum had a great spring, but needs to be more consistent. However, he could just be a "gamer".
Youth is an issue now, but based on work ethic Bud's encouraged for the future.
Let's concentrate on the last item, SEC expansion, as I believe it will most directly effect Virginia Tech and the ACC if it happens. Florida State, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Miami are most identified as likely ACC targets for the SEC. Popular opinion is because they're the most SEC-like schools, with historic ties to the conference, are tradition rich and are committed to winning football games above all else.
With that said, the ACC has two options.
Be proactive, preserve the current 12 teams, and offer conference membership to some combination of Uconn, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, etc...
Do nothing and fill the holes of the (potentially) departing teams with some combination of Uconn, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, etc...
If I had to bet my life one of the above, it would surely be on choice two.
F4H put it perfectly, John Swofford is spineless and the Tobacco Road power brokers are old, short-sighted and stupid. I'll also add, they want to do all they can to keep the ACC from further branching away from its basketball and academic roots. The ACC brass' complacency with the status quo and lack of aggression worries me.
If the second scenario happens the ACC would be watered down, we're talking dollar cocktail weak. In the land of 16 team super conferences the ACC would be the new Big East. None of the potential replacements come close to supplanting the departing teams.
Ryan Williams and Darren Evans shouldn't be referred to as Crash and Burn, Mount Rushmore or anything else non bourbon powered. They're nicknamed The 100 Proof Backfield. It's treason against the State of Hokie Nation to call them anything else.
Blasting Through Lane Stadium and the Rest of the ACC this Fall
Or that's what we're calling it at least. Feel free to leave comments, or way too early predictions in the comments. Have a good Memorial Day Weekend Everyone.
Phil Steele's complete list of his Preseason All-ACC selections hit our inbox this morning. Ten Hokies are among the 112 total Atlantic Coast Conference players chosen (you can view the entire list at Phil's Blog). Ryan Williams leads the way as our only first team selection and is joined by:
Tyrod Taylor - 2nd Team
Jarrett Boykin - 2nd Team
Blake DeChristopher - 2nd Team
Darren Evans - 3rd Team
Beau Warren - 3rd Team
Rashad Carmichael - 2nd Team
Dyrell Roberts - 2nd Team
John Graves - 4th Team
Barquell Rivers - 4th Team
The only shocker, to me, was Danny Coale not being on at least the 4th team.
In order to better compare us to the rest of the conference I did some number crunching. Below (and after the jump) you'll see I weighted each teams' offensive, defensive and special teams units. My formula was simple, 4 points for a first team selection, 3 for a second, 2 for a third and a single point for a fourth. Therefore, the weighted total is out of a possible 120 points. My intent was to identify which are the more talented teams in the conference. However there are two flaws in the logic. It doesn't weight position importance. For example, it assumes a first team guard is "more important" than a second team quarterback. Second a first team player isn't necessarily going to be four times better than fourth team player. Therefore, I don't think the analysis is complete enough to conclude that team one > team two > team three, and so on. However, I do believe it is a good indicator of general overall ranking, that is to say the teams at the top are better than the teams at the bottom.
Oh hello there disinterested UVa football fan, Wahoowa! It looks like you're just flipping though the channels before another Frasier marathon starts. Instead, why don't you put down the changer, sit back, relax and give me a minute to tell you about a brand new show starting on May 18th.
Finals are over and Commencement is only a couple of days away. In Blacksburg, it's a time to relax, head downtown, get drunk and nostalgic. In between sips of your Rail or chugs of an icey cold mug of beer from Sharkey's (what we called The Tank back in the day) you'll most likely talk about the parties you got thrown out of, that bar you snuck into, the epic comeback in beer pong and unforgettable wins in Lane Stadium.
ON HOW OGLESBY WILL LINE UP AS THE 'B-BACK': "He’ll line up all over the place. When we went to the Pony backfield last year, he was the other guy that was in the shotgun. Your B-back could be one of those two guys. Whether he lines up there or lines up in the I-formation (as a more traditional fullback) or if we decide to empty the backfield out, he could line up at a wide receiver spot because of his hands. Put him in motion, a lot of things."
This picture come to us via @VTjawo. I'm not a fan of many of these slogans, but all of them framed on display in Squires is 100% kick ass. I still wear my EVERY PLAY IS KEY! shirt once every couple of weeks. His original tweet asks everyone:
How many do you have?
I lost my HOW 'BOUT THE HOKIES? and GET OUT OF OUR LANE tees at some point when I moved. Other than that, I'm missing just the maroon VT GAME PLAN.
We were in attendance for the Spring Game on Saturday. Despite warnings of inclement weather, I'd say about 35,000 Hokies made the trip into Lane. The pregame atmosphere was festive and it felt like fall in the 'Burg. A little taste of football (and bourbon) was good for the soul. Our notes are below.
The end of an era, Tyrod's last spring in Blacksburg.
The Hokies held their second scrimmage of the spring yesterday and campus correspondent James (his tweets are FTW–@hokie8807) was there grinding to bring us these notes.
Lane Stadium is once again home to the Fighting Gobblers.
The letters were taken down during the west side expansion of the stadium with no plans to put them back up. Some alumni with swang were embarrassed by the phrase.
Cheers to whomever got them put back up and sucks to the haters because they kick all sorts of ass.
