Hokies Stock Watch: Travon McMillian

My dad always tells the story of the time former Virginia Tech running backs coach Billy Hite filled in as offensive coordinator during the 1994 Gator Bowl. Then Tech OC Gary Tranquill left to take a job a Michigan State, and even though Frank Beamer had already hired Rickey Bustle to take over next season, he needed Hite's services against Peyton Manning and Tennessee.

Hite dressed and acted the part. He donned the headset and game planned, but he didn't call plays. Instead, Frank took the play sheet himself and decided what the offense would run on every possession.

When asked why Hite would not call the plays, Beamer laughed.

"'Hey diddle diddle, we're coming up the middle!'" Beamer sang, teasing his running backs coach. "I don't want none of that."

"Hey diddle diddle, we're coming up the middle..."

It's funny in the kind of Frank's lame dad joke way, and hilarious if you think about Beamer calling plays in any other era of his career. Could you imagine him taking the duties away from Scot Loeffler, a man who prides himself on schemes with more verbiage than the Harry Potter anthology?

Tech was steamrolled 23-45, by the way. And most effective part of the offense? Dwayne Thomas' 102 yards on the ground. Maybe the head coach could've used a little more of Hite's expertise.

The point of this story is to show how Virginia Tech has always run the ball. At their peak, the Hokies won 10 games and pounded defenses on the ground. When nothing else was right, the squad could still rely on the likes of Thomas, Ken Oxendine, Cedric Humes, or any number of other guys to play the role of safety blanket.

I mean the Hokies had to play Nick Sorensen, a safety, at QB for three games in 1998 and won two of them. You think they managed to survive the stretch using the Run-N-Gun?

And it stayed that way through David Wilson's record setting 2011 campaign. And then as the program took a turn for the worse in 2012, so did its rushing attack. The days of thousand-yard backs seemed long gone as Michael Holmes, J.C. Coleman, Trey Edmunds, and a litany of others plowed their way into the ass of a lineman 30 times a game.

But last year, a mini-renaissance occurred in Blacksburg. In just a half season's worth of starts, Travon McMillian brought the ground game back. He rushed for 1,043 yards, averaged 5.2 yards per carry, and stuck it in 7 times. Most importantly, he gave Hokie fans what they'd been searching for since Wilson's departure — a ground threat who's both reliable and explosive.

Consider that production along with McMillian's three remaining seasons of eligibility, and the youngster seems set to be Tech's offensive focal point for many years to come. In fact, considering he just put forward one of the most impressive displays by a Tech freshman back in the last two-and-a-half decades (in my eyes it was behind Ryan Williams in '09, and tied with Kevin Jones in '01), isn't it appropriate to wonder how much damage he could do over the rest of his career?

It's easy to let your mind wander when a player puts forth the kind of debut McMillian did. Personally, I know visions of broken records, twelve-hundred yard outputs, and double-digit win seasons dance across my brain when thinking about his potential. But then I force myself to pump the breaks. McMillian had a fantastic 2015, and he may put up those kind of numbers for the rest of his career. But there are a few factors standing in his way.

The first is workload management. At his best, the tailback is a speedster. Turning the corner in a blur, breaking a tackle and streaking his way to the end zone. It's tough to stop, just ask Dave Doeren and the rest of N.C. State's squad.

Side question: Do you think there were any Wolfpack fans who only watched Tech in their game against State and assumed the Hokies were good? Because between McMillian's coming out party, Isaiah Ford's three touchdowns, and a suffocating 270-yard defensive performance, they left quite the impression.

Side note to the side question: Tech's thrashing of the Pack was kind of like meeting someone at a friend's party and lying about what you do for a living, because what the hell? You'll never see them again. There are at least four people who lived in the greater Washington D.C. area in 2010 who think I'm a NASCAR pit chief.

Was it an absurd lie? Yes. Do I know anything about racing? No. Did people buy me drinks because they thought it was cool? Of course, but only Coors Light and Wild Turkey, because I'm nothing if not a loyal brand man to my fake NASCAR Xfinity Series team.

McMillian averaged 7.1 yards a carry through Tech's first seven games, but was limited to 8.5 touches per. Then, Shane Beamer used the youngster up with a vengeance. During a three-game stretch against Duke, Boston College, and Georgia Tech, McMillian racked up 382 yards on 86 attempts (28.67 carries per game), and left no gas in the tank to finish things off.

McMillian — a former high school quarterback — never shouldered that load before. He was rammed into the teeth of a superb Boston College defensive front 33 times. No other back had more than three touches against the Eagles. He went from 59 total attempts in his first seven games, to 62 in his next two (Duke and BC).

And the freshman limped, quite literally, into the final two regular season matchups against North Carolina and Virginia. His lack of pop was noticeable, and McMillian's production dipped to 4.12 yards per carry even with more moderate usage (19.5 attempts per game).

Did McMillian's decline in output provide guidance for the maximum number of carries he can handle?

It's in no way a knock to say McMillian may need a limited number of rushing attempts to be at his most effective, not everyone can play for Nick Saban and run until their legs turn into nubs.

Baylor's Shock Linwood hit over 1,300 yards on 196 rushes. Before injury, Notre Dame's C.J. Prosise ran for over a thousand yards despite never carrying more than 22 times in a game. You can even look at Florida State's Dalvin Cook. The Seminole piled up an incredible 1,691 yards, but it's fair to assume with a full season's worth of starts, McMillian 200 attempts would've ballooned past Cook's 229.

The more teams speed up the tempo, the more skill position players are shuffled in and out to play as fast as possible. For instance, look at the Justin Fuente/Brad Cornelsen offense over the last four years. In their time at Memphis, no player had more than 201 carries. And in three of those four seasons, at least three different players rushed over 80 times.

Though it could hurt McMillian in a historic capacity — he may never break a yardage or touchdown record — the new offense could maximize McMillian's efficiency without taking a hatchet to his lower body halfway through the fall. Combined with a quarterback who's a threat to take off (and can bear some of the rushing responsibility), Travon could be one of the most dangerous weapons in the ACC in 2016.

Whether or not it happens, however, depends on the other thing standing in his path: his current standing on the depth chart.

Fuente noticeably tepid on analysis of McMillian. On RBs: "We have a lot of work to do there." #Hokies— David Hale (@DavidHaleESPN) July 26, 2016

Throughout the spring, McMillan was about as invisible as a thousand-yard back could be. The trend started early in April when Zohn Burden made it public McMillan would not inherit his starting role.

But Zohn Burden, the Hokies' former receivers and current running backs coach, made it clear Tuesday that there's no depth chart set in stone at the tailback position.

"Travon is a competitor and he understands that it's not about last year, it's about right now," said Burden. "It's about moving forward and getting better and working his butt off and competing everyday. Like I said, it's a competition. He's gotta earn everything with me as a new position coach, but also with a new offensive staff. It's more about him just getting out there and proving himself every day."

And after such a warmly enveloping quote, McMillian surely came out in a big way in the spring game to secure his spot, right?

Not exactly. And by not exactly, I mean he had four carries for 11 yards. Talk about sticking it to the haters.

So what happened? Did he come in overconfident? Did rejoin practice out of shape? Did Shai McKenzie and Marshawn Williams take him hostage like some sort of weird Celtic Pride remake?

A more realistic scenario, though neither as fun nor as weird, is the staff identified players that better fit their scheme better. As much as it stinks, sometimes once productive performers aren't held in as high a regard by a group of new coaches.

Maybe Fuente, Cornelsen, and Burden just think Deshawn McClease fits their scheme better. Or an inside/out hydra of Sam Rogers, Steven Peoples, McClease, and McMillian can all split carries with whoever ends up at QB.

Or maybe Shai McKenzie is healthy after three years of knee problems. It seems implausible, but unlikelier things have happened.

Or maybe it's all a ruse. Maybe McMillian, through all the questions over the last six months, was put on the Isaiah Ford plan. Ford's so important to the overall production of the offense, it doesn't make any sense to expose him to extra contact in practice. Why do you think Bucky Hodges left the spring game after a handful of plays? Some guys are too important to risk injury in a glorified scrimmage.

But in terms of McMillian's 2016 production, that's a few too many maybes for my taste. The situation, offensive coaching acumen, and age factor all work in his favor. It should be a no-brainer to pencil him in for quadruple-digit yardage totals in a year of overall team improvement.

And maybe, because of McMillian, the Hokies will finally get back to the offensive identity which kept them afloat over the last two decades. And maybe it'll help Virginia Tech win the amount of games we all once came to expect.

Maybe.