Four Weeks, Four Questions: Who Makes The Leap?

Ah, spring football.

The time of year when we simultaneously attempt to analyze the football team's performance last year, while we also try to wipe any memory of the previous season from our minds.

The Hokies start their spring practice today, which is exciting for a variety of reasons. It's the only time in which you can be unabashedly positive and no one can tell you otherwise. I can't even tell you how many stupid things I've talked myself into during spring footballs of old, but let me try to list them:

The Ike Whitaker era, the George Bell era, Ike Whitaker era two: wide receiver edition, Curt Newsome keeping Sean Glennon upright, Mike O'Cain significantly developing Tyrod Taylor in 2007, Donaldven Manning-shutdown corner, Mike O'Cain significantly developing Tyrod in 2008, Cody Journell possibly being the best kicker under Frank Beamer, Mike O'Cain significantly developing Tyrod in 2009, national title contention in 2010 and the "we may use some pistol!" plan in 2012.

And those were just semi-recently! (If we extended it any further it would have included things like "I'm sure Marcus is innocent" and I don't think we want to pick at that scab.)

Moral of the story, I'm dumb. In fact we're all just suckers buying in to whatever the coaching staff wants to feed us. But it's spring ball, and we can believe just about whatever we want (looking at you, Club Leal.)

Another thing that makes it so great is the unknown, the fact that there's enough to speculate on to satisfy our football fix until August. And to have stuff to chew on over the summer, I do the same thing each time this season comes around. Once I've researched and completed my bracket, I do a deep dive of Hokie football. While I'm digging through all the stats and roster changes, I often come up with a handful of questions that will guide my thinking from now until late September.

While yes, that is a long time to hang on to only four or five things, they're broader than your run-of-the-mill inquiries. For instance, I'm not going to spend my summer worrying about who the starting quarterback will be, but instead what does the quarterback situation mean for the growth of the wide receivers? Unless you have talents that are clairvoyant in nature, correctly answering something like that this early is basically just guessing.

And once those general thoughts are in place, I watch them unfold over the next six months. Since there are four weeks between today and the spring game, I've decided to put my musings in print this time. Once a week between now and that magical ESPN3 televised Saturday in April, I hope to flesh out my curiosities.

So without further ado, here's the first.

Question 1: Who makes "the leap"?

It's something that's been asked about every team in every level of sport. While it sounds like a discussion for either bad sports radio or a generic listicle in mid-May, the leap is something that should be taken very seriously. It's when a player improves his game from one level to the next, and is vital to an organization or program's development.

Growth can come in all shapes and sizes. For example, Ken Ekanem took the leap last year. Though he was a highly sought after recruit, the defensive end had never done anything of note up until the beginning of 2014. But now, nine-and-a-half sacks later, could you imagine what Tech's defensive line, razor thin at end, would have looked like without him?

But that being said, a player making the leap doesn't have to have the great breakout year that Ekanem had. Andre Smith only had 20 catches as a senior in 2010 but was an incredibly important target for Tyrod. Cody Grimm was splitting time at whip with Cam Martin in 2008. Martin got dinged up and Grimm became one of the best defenders for the Hokies in October and November, part-one of his two-step ascension into becoming a human missile launcher.

Watching a guy take that next step in his career is not only fun in the personal aspect of rooting for the individual, but also because it has a huge meaning for the Hokies. It's even more impactful for a team like Tech, one currently teetering on the precipice of irrelevancy. They need any big time player they can get, at whatever position in which they come.

In a way that's good, because you can never really predict this kind of thing. The player that everyone assumes will break out often never does, for a variety of reasons. Coming off a stellar freshman campaign, Ryan Williams was thought to be a potential Heisman contender. Injuries prevented it from ever happening. Jake Johnson was supposed to be Bud Foster's next great inside linebacker, he lost his job to Lyndell Gibson and then disappeared.

And who will ever forget perhaps the most anticipated leap to never happen? Logan Thomas was once Mel Kiper Jr.'s golden child. We all expected the world, and he never quite measured up to all of our (probably unfair) hopes and dreams.

So even after admitting that we have no possible way to predict this, let's prognosticate anyway. Which players raise their game from 2014 to 2015?

Possibly the most obvious candidate is Andrew Motuapuaka. He had his struggles filling in for Chase Williams at mike linebacker, but it was also a tough spot to put him in. He has substantial experience under his belt, more than anyone thought he would heading into his sophomore season, which is a nice start. I wouldn't be surprised if Motuapuaka had his named butchered out of attempted reverence by over 60 thousand people in Lane Stadium come Labor Day night.

Sticking on that side of the ball, I'm not just looking for, but semi-expecting a Grimm-like jump for Chuck Clark. The guy had over 70 tackles as the nickel a year ago, and the thought of the thick shouldered, rangy defensive back playing at free safety is salivating.

It's trickier to do this on offense. I'm not going to say any of the wide receivers, the coaching change and the ongoing quarterback situation makes me dubious of any huge steps forward. That being said, I was suspect of two true freshmen pass catchers (Ford and Phillips) contributing right out of the gate last year, yet here we are.

If I'm hesitant to throw a receiver in the mix, I'm absolutely not going to expect one out of the quarterback position. Yes, it's Michael Brewer's first full year in Blacksburg and yes, he showed flashes, but there were enough negatives for me to pull the reigns back on even cautious optimism.

Some of the linemen are interesting, but I don't know enough about o-line play to confidently tag any incumbent as a leap guy. And with the injuries (and, well, legal matters) of most of the other young running backs this seems to only leave one person. The ever-fascinating J.C. Coleman.

Now, color me skeptical about any potential room for the rising senior to be a workhorse back that many once clamored for him to be. In fact, outside of one great game when he was a freshman (183 yards, 2 TDs against Duke), J.C. had never really showed many signs of life for nearly three quarters of his career. That was, however, before he finished 2014 like a five-foot-seven-inch jackhammer.

Is rushing for 468 yards during the team's last four games, sustainable? Probably not. But considering that there's not going to be much of a choice for Shane Beamer and Scot Loeffler this year, are those final weeks something to build off of? Definitely.

The Hokies haven't seen a runner grow into an ideal role since David Wilson was doing backflips at practice, but it seems like Coleman may be the most likely person to step into that void.

Or not, because these things are impossible to figure out. All I know is that I have some guys I'm watching, and they're ones that the Hokies need to make a leap if this season is going to be any better than the last three.