We are deep in the middle of college football's Dead Zone. For players it's offseason workouts and healing their bodies before the 2011 season starts in three months. For the coaches, it's about cherry picking as much top talent for the 2012 recruiting class. That means summer camps, hosting for visits, reviewing tape and making calls. After a disappointing finish to the 2011 class, Frank Beamer went out of character and made some staff changes, all in the name of better recruiting. It's been a little over three months but the changes look like they have worked. The Hokies have 12 verbals already, with defensive backs on the east coast racing to the phones to pledge their verbal to Frank and his staff. Recruiting is hot in Blacksburg and it's not luck either. Beamer noticed UNC and UVA encroaching on "his" territories and he made hard changes to better position his program. For the last few years the yeoman's work of recruiting fell on Bryan Stinespring, Curt Newsome, Torrian Gray and Jim Cavanaugh, so less than half the staff bringing in 90% of the recruits. By moving Coach Cav to a recruiting coordinator spot and bringing in Shane Beamer and Cornell Brown, the staff now has five big time recruiters, three of them under 40 years of age. Not to be overlooked is Cav overseeing the staff's effort. He is an excellent talent evaluator who has very good rapport with high school coaches in the Commonwealth and region. Enough about what you already know, let's take a look at the current verbals and some of the major targets known to be on the Hokies board.

For the better part of the next two weeks I'll be out of town.

That's a wedding cake topper. Yes, it's mine. Yes, it's awesome.

But fret not, you won't have to go cold turkey because there'll still be new posts around these parts. BeerControlOffense is working on something special for everyone, and I wrote a couple of posts last week that are scheduled to be published while I'm away. Everyone else is invited to contribute their thoughts too. All you need to is register an account to comment, post in the forums and write blog posts. The site has been updated with a WYSIWYG editor, so now you don't have to worry about HTML formatting when writing blog posts. I'll be keeping an eye out for any user contributions to bump to the frontpage.

Thank you to everyone who spends their time here, you make TKP what it is.

Is David Wilson ready to be the Hokies' featured running back?

"I think I perform well when pressure is put on me," says Wilson, who gained 619 yards on 113 carries while splitting time with Evans and Williams last season. "When I have to do something, that's when I feel like I perform better."
...

"It's my time," Wilson says. "I'm the No. 1 running back going into the season. I have to work hard and make sure I lock that down and keep moving forward. I can't be complacent. I have to be consistent."

It would seem so. However, I think it would be unreasonable for anyone to expect Blacksburg's very own sunny blend of Superman and Evel Knievel to make up for Evans' and Williams' production last season. While Wilson banged out 619 yards on his own, the 100 Proof Backfield combined for 1,331 yards. I think it would be a major success if he could carry his own production forward and account for 75% of the losses. That would be 1,617 yards.

In other news, bowling balls are disregarding gravity and taking to the air. Wilson finished 6th at the NCAA Track Championships. He leaped a personal best 53-1.75 in the triple jump and earned All-American honors.

You can hate me now.

The one game to win. Tyrod went 4-0 against UVa. In four years he threw for 537 yards, completing 60% of his throws, ran for 212 yards and scored 4 touchdowns. As of today we've owned the Commonwealth Cup for 2,387 consecutive days.

Drop a caption for Tyrod waltzing into the end zone in the picture above, below. If you're new around these parts just create an account.

As inspired by EDSBS.

In Game of Burning Thrones, Khal Holgo melts down Bill Stewart's prize whittling knives and pours them over his head.

June 7, 2011

Melting of whittling knives not pictures, but rest assured it happened.

Holgorsen may be sitting atop the couch alone pretty soon.

H/T @dmiller1856 for the title.

In the absence of important Hokie football news, and anything compelling to watch on television, let's take a couple of minutes to review the soap opera being broadcast out of Morgantown.

After 3:00 AM on May 18 offensive coordinator and head coach in waiting Dana Holgorsen was asked to leave the Mardi Gras Casino & Resort .

Police records indicate Metro 911 received a call from the casino at 3:13 a.m. that night. A "white male" was said to be "refusing to cooperate with the casino's management." Casino supervisors had the male detained at the time.

...

Nitro Police spokesman Patrolman Raymond Blake said Holgorsen cooperated with law enforcement when they arrived at the scene and did not appear to be in violation of any laws.

"We got up there and spoke to the male and said, 'Hey, they want you to leave,'" Blake said. "He complied, walked out, sat out on a bench, waited for the taxi, and when the taxi arrived he got in and left.

Holgorsen could have hit on one too many slots, pulled a chip off a table, smoked in a non-smoking area, drank too much, cursed at a table, done anything really. It doesn't really matter. He didn't get arrested or commit a crime. Still, it's damning to anyone's image to have the fuzz called on them in the early morning.

David Wilson. David Wilson. David Wilson.

Andrew Jones writes that Wilson is ready to be the main man carrying the rock.

"It's a lot of pressure because I am expected to be the man," Wilson said. "A lot of hard work comes with it. I'm ready to take it on and get ready for the season."

...

Down to 201 pounds after losing seven during track season, Wilson believes the lost weight will help him get more breakaway runs from scrimmage. His first few steps off the snap have been incredibly explosive, but Wilson thinks the fourth, fifth and sixth, the ones that usually enable a back to break free into the secondary and beyond, will be improved.

If anything I would have thought Wilson would have tried to maintain or increase his weight so he could better take a season full of pops.

David Wilson being awesome at what looks to be Macado's. (via)

Bill Roth also caught up with Wilson.

BR: Favorite song?

DW: Hustle Hard, Ace Hood

DW and Roth also talk extensively about Hokie football. If you're into that sort of thing.

Things have been quiet around here. That's a good thing, noise around a college football team at this point in the season is never a good thing. I hope you guys have more to share than I do.

Jim Tressel resigned as head coach of The Ohio State Buckeyes on Memorial Day morning. His brilliant coaching career was ended the minute he withheld information about his players receiving improper benefits. Good people make mistakes too, and I hope he gets the opportunity to redeem himself. Tressel (241) had been second only to Joe Paterno (401) in wins among active coaches. The Frankinator (240) now has the distinction of riding shotgun to JoePa. The HokieMD is thankful for everything Coach Beamer has done.

Phil Steele released his Preseason All-ACC Team Friday afternoon. Eleven Hokies were among the 112 players selected by Steele.

• Jarrett Boykin 1^st Team WR
• Blake DeChristopher 1^st Team OT
• David Wilson 1^st Team KR, 2^nd Team RB
• Bruce Taylor 1^st Team LB
• Jayron Hosley 1^st Team CB, 2^nd Team PR
• Jaymes Brooks 2^nd Team OG
• Eddie Whitley 2^nd Team S
• Logan Thomas 3^rd Team QB
• Marcus Davis 3^rd Team WR
• Danny Coale 4^th Team WR
• Dyrell Roberts 4^th Team KR

As far as the Hokies are concerned, I don't have any major gripes with his picks. I think you could argue David Wilson as first team running back over Miami's Lamar Miller. They have similar rushing statistics, however Wilson was more effective catching balls out of the backfield.

I'm more bullish on Marcus Davis than Steele. There's no doubt Boykin's past performance (2,123 yards 13 TDs in 3 seasons) earned him a spot on the first team, and it's well deserved. Tyrod had a great rapport with Boykin, and from what I saw and read during spring Logan is building a similar on-the-field relationship with Davis. I think more balls are going to end up going Marcus' way and he'll end up having a statistically better season. I do believe all four of our top receivers are truly some of the best to ever play at Tech, and each could steal the spotlight if given the opportunity, but there's only one ball.