The latest Hokiesports.com Depth Chart not only features Brendan Motley as the new number one quarterback, but also features a couple of other interesting changes.
1) David Wang is listed as healthy, but Caleb Farris has replaced him as the starting center. Wyatt Teller is at left guard and Augie Conte is at right guard. Brent Benedict has fallen to 3rd team left guard. He struggled mightily against Corey Marshall in the scrimmage Saturday. The twos feature Wang at center, with Mark Shuman and Parker Osterloh at tackle with Alston Smith and Braxton Pffaf at guard.
Benedict's demotion is surprising given his history with Searels, but we have often discussed how Searels wants to put together a group that can get push up front. The grouping of McLaughlin, Teller, Farris, Conte, and Gibson is a lean, athletic group that has good feet in space, but the interior is significantly stronger at the point of attack. While Wang excelled blocking laterally, he sometimes struggled with big nose tackles. Farris is a little stronger at the point of attack.
Watch out for the match up of Teller vs Marshall when the 1's go against the 1's in this weekend's scrimmage and in the spring game. If Teller performs well, I expect that the group we see now will be the starting front five come fall camp baring injury.
2) Jerome Wright is no longer listed at fullback. Instead he is listed in a four man pack for 3rd string tailback. Other than Williams, in very limited film clips Joel Caleb has looked like the most impressive tailback in camp. Still, Williams has been very good, and most of his work has come against the #1 defense with the #2 OL. I am not sure how Williams has performed in pass protection, but I would think that if the coaches had to get 20 carries from a back to win a football game, Williams has to get those touches out of the healthy options.
3) Donovan Riley is having another impressive spring. He is listed as the #1 field corner. It is critical that the Hokies have a minimum of three quality corners so Coach Gray can keep Chuck Clark focused at becoming the next VT free safety. It also allows VT to keep Dietrick Bonner deep instead of grinding him up against slot receivers.
4) Trimble and DiNardo are listed as co-#1's at whip. Vandyke is listed as full contact.
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