Eleven Hokies on Phil Steele's Preseason All-ACC Team

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

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

I did a weighted ranking for each team last year.

In order to better compare us to the rest of the conference I did some number crunching. Below (and after the jump) you'll see I weighted each teams' offensive, defensive and special teams units. My formula was simple, 4 points for a first team selection, 3 for a second, 2 for a third and a single point for a fourth. Therefore, the weighted total is out of a possible 120 points. My intent was to identify which are the more talented teams in the conference. However there are two flaws in the logic. It doesn't weight position importance. For example, it assumes a first team guard is "more important" than a second team quarterback. Second a first team player isn't necessarily going to be four times better than fourth team player. Therefore, I don't think the analysis is complete enough to conclude that team one > team two > team three, and so on. However, I do believe it is a good indicator of general overall ranking, that is to say the teams at the top are better than the teams at the bottom.

It would probably be more accurate to say, "the teams at the top are more talented than", rather than better than. That's assuming you place as much stock in Steele's evaluation and analysis as I do.

Offense

School First Team Second Team Third Team Fourth Team Total Weighted Total
Virginia Tech 2 2 2 1 7 19
Florida State 2 2 1 1 6 17
Clemson 1 3 2 0 6 17
Miami 2 2 1 0 5 16
UNC 1 2 1 0 4 12
Duke 1 0 1 2 4 8
Boston College 1 0 1 1 3 7
Georgia Tech 1 0 1 1 3 7
NC State 1 0 1 0 2 6
Maryland 0 1 0 1 2 4
Virginia 0 0 0 4 4 4
Wake Forest 0 0 1 1 2 3
Total 12 12 12 12 48 120

Defense

School First Team Second Team Third Team Fourth Team Total Weighted Total
Florida State 3 2 0 2 7 20
UNC 2 2 2 0 6 18
Miami 3 1 1 0 5 17
Maryland 1 2 1 1 5 13
Virginia Tech 2 1 0 0 3 11
NC State 0 1 3 1 5 10
Virginia 0 2 0 2 4 8
Boston College 1 0 2 0 3 8
Clemson 0 0 1 3 4 5
Georgia Tech 0 0 1 2 3 4
Wake Forest 0 1 0 1 2 4
Duke 0 0 1 0 1 2
Total 12 12 12 12 48 120

Special Teams

School First Team Second Team Third Team Fourth Team Total Weighted Total
Florida State 2 0 2 0 4 12
Virginia Tech 1 1 0 1 3 8
Maryland 1 0 0 0 1 4
Boston College 0 0 1 1 2 3
Duke 0 1 0 0 1 3
Clemson 0 1 0 0 1 3
Wake Forest 0 1 0 0 1 3
UNC 0 0 1 0 1 2
NC State 0 0 0 1 1 1
Virginia 0 0 0 1 1 1
Miami 0 0 0 0 0 0
Georgia Tech 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 4 4 4 4 16 40

Thoughts

  • Almost 2/3s of Florida State's starters made one of Steele's team. They're loaded.
  • Virginia better hope some of those #newhoos can play soon rather than later.
  • The ACC is top heavy with talent. Florida State, UNC, Miami, and Virginia Tech account for 152 of the 280 total points.
  • Georgia Tech is still going to be a tough out.
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Comments

Some stiff competition at the top...

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