Hokies running backs coach Shane Beamer discussed Virginia Tech's plethora of tailbacks in an interview with BeamerBall.com (Frank Beamer's personal website). Notes on my major takeaways are below.
Both Marshawn Williams and Shai McKenzie are further along in their rehab of ACL injuries than expected.
"They won't be participating in our spring practices, but, looking ahead to the fall, we're optimistic that both will be in the mix," Shane Beamer told BeamerBall.com. "Probably a little more optimistic about McKenzie, simply because his injury happened earlier as opposed to Marshawn getting injured later in the season and his surgery not taking place until mid-December. So, we'll see how it goes."
J.C. Coleman, who was the top tailback at the end of the 2014 season, will be at the top of Tech's depth chart when spring practice begins. But as Shane put it, "We want competition, it's your job for only as long as it takes for somebody to take it away from you."
Beamer Co. hasn't discussed moving tailback Trey Edmunds to linebacker, and it doesn't seem like it'll be an option in the foreseeable future. Anyone who wants Edmunds to move to linebacker is forgetting he's a damn good tailback, and considering he's a rising junior, the time necessary to get up to speed and play productive at backer might not be there. Furthermore, there are some young talented linebackers in the pipeline.
Beamer Co. hasn't discussed redshirting Juice Williams or Shai McKenzie, at least not yet. It seems like that potential conversation will take place after spring practice.
"We know what J.C. can do, what Shai and Marshawn can do, and what Trey can do. But, what we don't know, is how healthy will those guys will be. Before we'd talk about redshirting anybody, we'd have to see how much progress is made by Joel Caleb and Jerome Wright. Will we be able to depend on those guys? What about D.J. Reid and Trevon McMillian? Will those two show they're ready to play? So, it's obvious that we'll talk redshirts, but it won't happen until after the spring practices where we've had a chance to make evaluations and know exactly where we are with our personnel," Shane Beamer said.
Neither Shai or Marshawn will participate in spring ball, which provides an opportunity for the younger guys—Reid and McMillian—to make a name for themselves. Caleb and Wright will also have a chance to get back into the mix. My guess is: if one of the four separates from the pack, a redshirt for Williams or McKenzie becomes more realistic.
BeamerBall.com: Scot Loeffler is on record as pretty much saying "I hope they don't run me out of here after the first couple of seasons, because we'll have a chance to be pretty good in year three." Are you buying into that?
Shane Beamer: I do. No doubt. We knew across the board that we needed to improve our talent level, and build some depth. Hey, you have to remember that this past season, our starting QB wasn't on campus until late May. Our starting receivers didn't show up on campus until July. The starting TE was playing TE on the scout team the year before. And, your top two tailbacks most of the season were seniors in high school the year before. So, the point is we had a lot of youth and guys going through things for the first time. Now, our guys are in our off season program, getting bigger, faster, stronger, smarter and we think they're all weapons. So, we feel like we're restocking the shelves and now we don't have to try and reinvent the wheel. Let's just figure out what we do best in both the run game and the passing game and fine tune it and get our guys to go play with confidence and get out there and play fast. Of course, we have to continue to improve, continue to recruit, but now question, from a personnel standpoint, we've helped ourselves and we have more weapons in place than we've had in the past. So, we're optimistic about the upcoming season and the expectations around here are that we hope to make that big step forward.
The mess on offense has been well-documented. It was unreasonable to expect a quick turnaround from that side of the ball. Loeffler's third year is what I looked towards when he was hired to see substantial progress, and now it's almost here. If the offense doesn't take a big step forward, the coaches on that side of the ball are out of excuses.
Comments
I am very curious to see Reid and McMillian at RB this spring.
" Loeffler's third year is what I looked towards when he was hired to see substantial progress, and now it's almost here. If the offense doesn't take a big step forward, the coaches on that side of the ball are out of excuses."
Here here! I am looking forward to the improvements. One of the rare years where almost every skill position player on offense is back. We have had senior qb's with freshmen, a lot of effectively one hot year at running back, and finally a new bunch of wr's that were recruited to be WR!
I felt that if we weren't devastated by injuries last season we would've started to see improvement then.
I agree, it seemed like just as we started to gain some traction on offense, key players were hit with injuries. No doubt, it key guys can stay healthy, Laughler has NO excuse this season. To me, if he has a season similar to the past two...strike three, you're ouuuuuut!!!!
However, if we stay healthy and we don't see a significant increase in the offense, his seat has to be very hot.
And justifiably hot, especially if the line improves as much as Stacy and we want it too.
That should pretty much and essentially put the issue to bed.
I'm not exactly sure how it got out of bed in the first place.
What about moving Trey to tight e-
*is thrown into molten lava pit*
We have one of those available? My bet is on the steam tunnels! Get some grad students to work building a geothermal plant, Tech goes green! /s
would have been sweet to have an Edmunds brother lb corps just like we had a Fuller brother db corps 2 season ago, just saying...
At least with this arrangement we can have an Edmunds brother beating up the opposition on each side of the ball.
Let's not forget Fuller, Corey.
Yes but he was on the other side of the ball, not playing together with his brother
I think that was his point
Clearly this is all just one big conspiracy to keep Trey around longer. The coaches clearly saw how good he'd be at LB and knew he'd already be in the NFL by now.
A little OT, but that hoodie he's wearing is dope.
Hokie fashion is never off topic... I daresay that it is hair-splitting, spot-on topic.
Good work young man.
Man you beat me to it. All I want to know is where can I purchase said hoodie
Well I found it. For $65...
BUT FREE SHIPPING!!!!!1111!!one1!eleven!!
Its actually right around what I was expecting it to be. I'll just tuck that one away into the "when my wallet stops hating me" file.
On sale now for $55
That was the first thing I thought when I saw this article posted on Facebook. I think i'm going to go find that and make a sweet purchase now...
Really glad to hear Shai and Juice are well ahead of schedule. I do agree with the thought that at least one of them may end up redshirting if someone else can step up this spring. Really excited to see what Reid and McMillian especially can do. Potentially having Shai and Juice ready to go by fall is all the more comforting.
I suspect we will see some pretty significant improvement on offense this season. The "reinvent the wheel" comment really speaks volumes; because of a lack of depth or playmakers the past few seasons, we've really had to pull all the tricks out of the bag just to move the chains. I expect to see a more simplified offense that really highlights our strengths and playmakers. Probably a lot of multiple TE formations, and if the o-line steps up, I expect to see a very nasty and physical attitude with our run game.
It's exciting to have such a vastly improved talent level on that side of the ball. I think we will see a big step forward this year, and we will give the Buckeyes one hell of a game week one. The upset this year will be even sweeter than the last.
The excuse this year will be the OLine.
Temper thy offensive expectations.
The sad thing is, even with the major question marks at center and tackle, it'll probably still be miles ahead of the '07 and '08 lines, and almost certainly better than last year.
Don't believe it regarding the injuries ...Gentry, and especially Shane, are notoriously over-optimistic
My thoughts immediately when I read that part. Medical staff has continuously been poor in determining an athlete's readiness for the field.
In what fashion? My medical experience is limited to the back of the ambulance but I find it best to leave medical care and advice to people actually seeing the patients.
Their public pronouncements perhaps (I take them with a grain of salt too), but you have no idea what they are really thinking and discussing behind closed doors with regard to their determination of an athlete's readiness.
With kids working their tails off to try to get ready for the season, do you really expect them to come out 7 or 8 months before the season is starting and publicly say that a kid has no shot of playing this year -- or even, say, they won't be capable of even being on the field until mid-season at the earliest?
This is a really good point. No matter what happens, them attacking their rehab now and really pushing through it when it gets tough (which is a lot easier to do when you're actually playing for something) is going to benefit them immensely in the long run. I haven't seen a whole lot of studies on the subject, but expert opinion is generally that the more rehab you do earlier in the process, the better things turn out later. No point in taking away that motivation so far out from the season.
surprised we didnt hear anything about McClease in the article.He should figure into the mix sooner then later i suspect.
Probably doesn't even want to speculate on incoming recruits until they get on campus and Shane can personally evaluate them in practice. McClease will get his chance to win a roster spot, I assure you.
Better to leave the speculation to the amateurs who mostly project based on star ratings.
I'm sure you meant a spot in the rotation not a roster spot. He's on scholly he has to make the roster!
With so many RBs and so few scholarships it is only a matter of time before a couple guys get moved/move on.
I really was already on the bandwagon for Williams and McKenzie being the next great RB duo for the next 4 years, but right now I am feeling like I want them to redshirt. I think if we have a healthy JCC, Trey Edmunds, and some reliable 3rd RB between Caleb, McClease, Wright, Reid, McMillan then we should be OK. If we have an injury bug bite hard again and the season is going well, burn the redshirt then.
Terrordome: 8 RBs enter. Only one can start.
This spring is going to be fun with the young quarterbacks and running backs trying to prove themselves!
I thought you were recapping last year, except instead of the Terrordome, it was more like the Colosseum and we were dragging Gladiator RBs off one by one.
I think we are in decent shape with skill players. We have speed to threaten the edge and power to pound the middle. But do we have an o line that can hold it together enough to let the caches call the plays they want? It will be a process but. S&m excited to see it come together. Looking forward to seeing Kline in the spring as well!
seems rather off topic and NSFW if you ask me.
I think the dork magic took over his phone.
Someone certainly has interesting autocorrects...
It must be all of the reviews and fan pages for Fifty Shades of Grey that he's been "researching".
Pussy touchdowns, you say. . .
Right in the kinky pool.
Someone put a little too much slack in that line when they tied it to the dock. They probably wanted to see her fall in.
Who is the person taking video for 500, Alex.
*thick Scottish* I took a video of your mother last night Trebek
Not asking you...:)
I still feel if Trey can stay healthy(???), he can be a great back for us.
and if he and JCC can remain healthy, along with a viable 3rd back, then shai and marshawn can redshirt and fully heal.
I think no matter what, our offense will live and die by the Oline. If we don't see some improvement there then we're in for a long season IMO. To me, the Oline takes the longest to rebuild out of any unit/position on the whole team (offense and defense) and it's no secret that our Oline was in absolute shambles when SL took over. Going through Oline coaches the way we have been in recent years doesn't help the situation. I agree that year 3 should be the make or break year for Loeffler but I'm tempering my expectations because of the uncertainty in the trenches. I don't really expect our offensive line to be gelling until midway through the season (with no injuries) or, more realistically, next season
So wait, when is Trey moving to linebacker?
HOW SOON?
Yep, just as soon as Drew Harris enrolls to join the stable of RBs.
What ever happened to that kid?
He's enrolling for the summer semester.
Yes! Trey will finally see some time at linebacker! Wohoo!
I'm definitely going to watch this pot until it boils.
It'll probably happen tomorrow, which I'm sure will come.
In a few words, a long line of enrollments and leaving.
The beauty about the offense is that they don't have to be a top 25 offense for us to be really good. If they can just make it into the top 50, with our defense, we can have a very special year. I am not looking for miracles on offense, just consistent play with very few turnovers and we will be fine. Probably better than fine.
I know I have said it before but I really love that Rottweiler picture.
I think it depends on what metric you use. Top 25 in total yards probably isn't necessary, but in order to have a "very special year" I think Top 25 in points per possession is probably necessary.
Points per possession is the greatest offensive statistic/metric imaginable.
I agree, but the funny thing is even that metric isn't the "end all" offensive metric. If you have an offense that is high-risk high-reward, than you may score a lot of touchdowns but also put your defense in terrible positions. It might be more advantageous to sacrifice a touchdown per game (by calling less risky plays) in order to set up your defense with better field position.
Now you are entering the territory where some say it's horrendous that VT doesn't try to score on every single possession and somehow it means they are not trying hard enough to be champions.
So you're saying scoring more points than the opponent is a pretty important metric?