2017 Preseason Camp Day 3: Instagram and Snapchat Review

Being able to draw conclusions is becoming increasingly difficult based on the film that is coming out. Most of the footage comes from agility and individual drills. There is almost no footage of team work or one on one drills.

At one point, we got a shot of AJ Bush with a group of Jalen Holston, Eric Kumah, Sean Savoy, and Zach Hoyt.

Even the quarterbacks were performing in form tackling drills with Coach Foster.

The defensive line was working in the chutes and boy, does Trevon Hill and Ricky Walker look quick getting off the snap and getting his hands on the bag without losing low pad level.

Number two OL group on the sled was LT: TJ Jackson LG: Braxton Pffaf C: Zach Hoyt RG: Kyle Chung RT: DeAndre Plantin. There isn't a shot of the top group, but if Chung and Pffaf are twos, that leaves Osterloh or a young player as the right guard.

All three quarterbacks are shown doing drills taking snaps at different angles and quick repetitions. I am not familiar with this drill, but Bush looked the quickest in the transition from getting the snap to getting the ball up in a throwing position. Again, this is very little to base any kind of evaluation on.

Zion Debose is wearing 35.

Damon Hazelton looks like a physical specimen. Given the news today about Farley, I hate that Hazelton isn't eligible. He has a big frame and looks very smooth running routes. I wish we could see more of Savory, Pimpleton, Keene, Kumah, and Patterson to get a feel as how they are progressing.

Divine Deablo is very quick in his transitions and has a huge wingspan as he comes in to form tackle. He is wearing Kam Chancellor's old #17, and has the makings of a ranging, sure tackling thumper on the back end. The Hokies will have a dilemma as they have three young, big, rangy safeties that are all probably best suited for rover, as Foster likes to use his free safety as over the top man coverage when he sends his nickel into the box, like he did against Arkansas. I believe Deablo was playing free safety in the spring before his injury, so if he gets on the field, watch his man coverage closely. If he can play well in man to man at his size, that would be huge for VT in 2018.

This is major nitpicking, but there were a couple of reps in drills that looked a bit lackluster. Yosh Nijman was going through a footwork drill where the OL holds their helmets up. Instead of having it out and extended, he was kind of laying it against his stomach. I may be reaching, but those are things that a coach will get a little ancy about with a multi-year starter, if for no other reason that it sends a bad message to younger guys that being perfect in the drill doesn't matter. Big Tim also looked a bit slow off the ball in the chutes drill. Walker and Hill beat him off the ball by a wide margin. Dylan Rivers has really nice feet and a heavy shoulder. But, in a form tackling drill, he didn't get his head on the correct side of the runner (head on the outside hip of the ball carrier.) This is nitpicking, and not shocking for early in camp. But, you want to see those veterans excel in drills even when the newcomers struggle a bit.

Sorry for the lack of insight. They just are not putting much out there. There were some still photos of Oklahoma drills, including of one that looked like Nijman was going to match up with Tim Settle. I would have liked to have seen video of that.