Fuente pulls back the curtain slightly, talks OL, DL position battles

On the same day Justin Fuente opened up the first practice in weeks to fans and the media alike, the new head Hokie also began to shed a little light on some key position battles on both sides of the ball.

Though he admitted Tuesday's practice was "not all (he) had hoped," Fuente feels the team is generally getting closer to crafting a depth chart ahead of the season opener.

"We're getting it narrowed down," Fuente said. "We're trying to deal with the pool of guys that we feel like deserve to be in that top however many guys offensively. Defense is becoming a little bit like that in terms of substituting to match the offense. Whether you're in nickel or whether you're in three-down or four-down or all the different variables in that."

Ken Ekanem is all but assured to fill one starting spot at DE — perhaps contributing to his absence from practice, though Fuente would only say, "We know what Ken has" to explain it — but the Hokies seem to be setting up a pecking order for the rest of the DEs.

Fuente noted that Vinny Mihota is currently starting opposite Ekanem right now, but Seth Dooley seems to have abdicated his slot as the third DE to one promising redshirt freshman.

"I'd say (Dooley's) competing for the backup job right now," Fuente said. "With Ken (Ekanem) and Vinny (Mihota) in there, we're pretty solid there on the first spot at end. (Trevon Hill) is in there competing too, he's the third guy right now. We're trying to find the fourth end."

Dooley is still shaking off the rust after shoulder surgery sidelined him this spring, and Fuente believes that's part of the reason he's lagging behind Hill at the moment.

"He's healthy," Fuente said. "He's got some work to still do, coming back, just in terms of being the player that we want him to be. He comes to work every day, continues to be diligent and prepare. He had a really good offseason in terms of continuing to change his body, gain muscle mass and lost body fat and all those sort of things to give himself a chance."

On the other side of the ball, Fuente is also shaking things up a bit. Though he'd primarily worked with Jonathan McLaughlin and Parker Osterloh at left and right tackle respectively, he's since moved McLaughlin back over to the right side a bit to give Yosuah Nijman some run on the blind side.

"We've been working (Yosuah) Nijman on the left side and big Jon (McLaughlin) on the right," Fuente said. "I feel good about Jon. Obviously he's played a lot and he's gonna start for us. That's how we've been going here lately."

But for all that candor about the offensive and defensive lines, Fuente wasn't quite completely transparent Tuesday. After all, the team made headlines by announcing that LB Raymon Minor had rejoined the squad after he previously decided to transfer earlier this month, yet Fuente declined to delve into the specifics of that particular saga.

"He wanted to come back, so we welcomed him back," Fuente said. "I'm sure there was (a reason he left) but there's not anything that needs to play out in the public. That's between Ray and I."

Justin Fuente

OPENING STATEMENT:

"First, I wanna thank Elijah (a leukemia patient the team recognized at practice) and his family for coming out to practice today. It was fun, certainly keeps things in perspective. I think our kids did a great job with him; they're still out there right now. Tried to make it a special day for him. It was fun to see the students come out and hang out for a little bit, about 40 minutes or so. They obviously play a huge role in making Lane Stadium what it is. Today's practice was not all that I had hoped. There's many excuses for that but we're not gonna delve into those. Hopefully we'll have a better day tomorrow. We're still working a little bit of good on good. Obviously beginning our prep for game one versus Liberty."

ON IF HE'S NARROWING DOWN QUARTERBACK REPS:

"No, not yet."

ON IF THE OFFENSE IS AHEAD OF THE DEFENSE:

"I've never been anywhere where the offense was ahead of the defense. Ever. In years that we've been in the top 10 in the country on offense, it seemed like the defense was always, there's just a familiarity and all that kind of stuff. I don't know, I don't think this year's any different. It seems to me like it's been like that for a long time. If you go out and scrimmage and the offense runs up and down the field, you're in deep, deep trouble. That certainly hasn't happened, which is a good thing."

ON IF MINOR IS ON SCHOLARSHIP:

"We handle all that stuff internally, whether guys are on or off. We've put guys on that nobody knows about. I'm not the one that, I'm not the kind of guy that videos it and puts it out for everybody to see. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but that's just not how we handle those things."

ON IF A BAD PRACTICE LINGERS:

"I don't like it at all. It's usually a little better than you think. It's usually never as good or as bad as you feel like it is walking off the field. There's certain challenge there to get back and have a good one tomorrow. I'll be the first one to admit that that's my fault, my responsibility. That's what I told the kids, 'We didn't do a good job, not you. We didn't do a good job today. We've gotta be better tomorrow.'"

ON IF HE RUSHES TO WATCH FILM QUICKER AFTER A BAD PRACTICE:

"No. Not necessarily."

ON IF THERE IS ONE AREA OF THE TEAM THAT CONCERNS HIM MORE THAN OTHERS:

"The first game is always a challenge because we try everything we can to simulate things. In special teams, we do a live kicking deal. We hold our breath, but we do do that because I don't want the first time we cover a kick or the first time we do live punt return to be in the game. But those are where large, you watch the first week of the season, and inevitably there are large mistakes made on one side of the ball or another in that first week. That's the biggest concern or thought is always making sure to the nth degree on those special teams because there's such large volumes of yardage that can be gained or lost in those plays."

ON HOW MOTLEY AND EVANS HAVE RESPONDED TO JACKSON BEING IN THE COMPETITION:

"They've done a great job. I've been really pleased with all three and how they've handled the whole situation. The little bit that you guys have talked to them, I think you've got at least a sense of, Josh (Jackson) most recently, how he handles those things. Brenden (Motley) and Jerod (Evans) have done a great job with him. I've been pleased with that aspect of the whole thing. 'Cause we all know all three of those guys want to play. We understand that and respect that. We all want what's best for Virginia Tech."

ON IF KEN EKANEM HAS A NAGGING INJURY:

"Everybody's got a little bit of something. We know what Ken has. There's push players and pull players. Ken's a pull player. Pull him back a little bit. We're just trying to make sure we manage those guys that have played a lot. It's kinda like we've talked about all along, we've gotta get those guys ready to play. That doesn't mean that they should just stand on the side and drink water the whole time. But there's also just a whole 'nother class of guys that need a tremendous amount of work and Ken's certainly not one of them."

ON ELIJAH:

"I'm not really sure exactly how it originated. Obviously he's battling some health things and is a big Virginia Tech fan. I don't know who instigated it, but when it found its way into our office, we wanted to make it abundantly clear that we'll welcome him and his family with open arms. As much or as little as they or he wanted to be around."

ON JOEY SLYE'S CONNECTION WITH ELIJAH:

"Yeah, I think so. He generally has a little more time on his hands, too, in practice. I say that in jest. Joey is a class A individual. (He) really wanted to go out of his way to meet Elijah and spend some time with him. I was really proud of the rest of the guys after a tough practice, quite honestly, to kind of put that aside and go over and spend some time with him as well."

Practice Photos

For a thousand-word look at Tuesday's open practice, Michael Shroyer photographed the Hokies in action.