With quarterback Josh Jackson expected to take a step forward in his development this offseason, the Hokies should be poised to make another run at the Coastal Division title. Jackson threw for 2,991 yards and 20 scores and rushed for 324 yards and six touchdowns in a standout freshman campaign in 2017. Restocking the offensive line and developing a few playmakers will be the top priorities this offseason for coach Justin Fuente. Deshawn McClease and Steven Peoples are a promising duo at running back, while Sean Savoy, Eric Kumah, Phil Patterson and Caleb Farley will be asked to step up at receiver to replace Cam Phillips. Additionally, Ball State transfer Damon Hazelton could be an impact player after catching 51 passes for the Cardinals in 2016. Guard Wyatt Teller is the biggest loss on a line that must replace three starters. The defense will be anchored by the standout tackle duo of Ricky Walker and Tim Settle, but the unit is set to lose standout cornerback Greg Stroman and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds is considering an early jump to the NFL. Even with a few departures, Virginia Tech's defense isn't likely to suffer too much on the stat sheet with Bud Foster calling the plays.
Hokies rank 16th in Athlon's Way-Too-Early College Football Top 25 for 2018
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Consider my expectations way too high, but fuck everybody else in the coastal.
Reasonable. I.won't change on that.
But fuck Clemson
Edit: my wife said I should tell y'all I'm drunk. That don'T change shot to me
Haha I support this post. Get down with your bad self.
Fucking awesome.
poor grammar, punctuation AND spelling? yep, story checks out, you're drunk. Good effort!
Drunk Reese is one of my top 10 favorite things about this place
I subscribe to this line of thinking. A bunch of my friends were rooting for Miami against Wisky the other night because ACC and I was like hell will freeze over before I ever root for Miami (unless it directly benefits our Coastal position)
I'd prefer to be ranked 25, but what do I know
We were only 8 or 9 plays from beating everybody on our schedule.
With a Freshman QB
With an unsure RB situation
With our best receiver (possibly ever) playing the entire season with a sports hernia
With none of our other receivers having significant experience
With our best deep threat being knocked out in preseason with an injury
With questionable depth at both OL and DL, and LB for that matter
With a surprise at safety going out with an injury
We have potentially our best ever recruiting class (ratings-wise) coming in
We could get our top tackler, a good secondary player, and top DT to stay for another year
I say 16th is too low.
When you look at who's ahead of us, 16th seems about right, with an argument to be made for us to be one or two spots higher. To me, Michigan is comedically overranked, but I can't see putting us above ND, Stanford or USC.
I like the optimism, but I think we were further away from Miami and especially Clemson than 8 or 9 plays
Miami wasn't that good this year, we picked a bad game to make a lot of freshman mistakes. They almost lost to like 5-6 bad teams and did lose handily to a very bad Pitt team. Miami might be trending faster in the right direction, particularly in recruiting, but that team doesn't scare me one bit. Clemson on the other hand, is more than 8 or 9 plays ahead of us as a program for sure.
Good analysis here. While they are back to recruiting elite, we should and could have beaten Miami this year. It's going to be fun to watch VT-Miami games to decide the Coastal over the next 5 years with a shot at taking down the powerhouse Clemson.
Oh look a national source raving about redshirt freshman quarterback Josh Jackson!
But he has no future here! /s
255 ypg and 2 scores per game is fine by me for the QB for VT*
*assuming the RB rotation can get about 200 ypg and 2+ scores per game as well
Some fans are acting just like the Bills which is so terribly ironic.
Am I the only one impressed by the knowledge in the article?
Sure, any TKPer could have written it as it's just a commentary on the roster, but I just expect most national publications to write some basic platitude about the quarterback and then move on to the bigger SEC teams. They basically hit the analysis on the nose.
Shout out to the author Steven Lassan for knowing a little something about Tech!
Yeah the fact that he mentioned Caleb Farley, who has never stepped on the field, is impressive.
Athlon does good work. Their preseason mag is outstanding.
You sure this was not an Onion article? Top 25 will be pushing it for a few years until QP is ready and we build a receiving corps, not to mention finding a RB, OL...
I have to hope this is a joke. You can't have a top 25 prediction until you have had your players announce or not for the NFL and National Signing Day.
Hence why they are called "way too early" lists.
Your timing was almost too good...
I wish. But it was a coincidence.
A little high, IMO. Teller and Phillips were the two best players on offense, and McMillian was the only back that could get more than 6 yards on any given play. The defensive secondary and now with Settle declaring open up questions there too. If Jackson morphs into Drew Brees, yeah 16 is reasonbable, but not seeing it right now.
Did you see McClease in the bowl game?
Yes in person. I also saw him in every other game. McMillian was the only back that could break one "consistently"- its been a problem ever since David Wilson left, so I'm not picking on Mc Clease or Holston or Peoples. McMillian was our best "back" last season and he is leaving. That hurts in terms of projecting VT as a top 20 team IMO
Don't have the stats up, but I do believe that this season's two best running games were the two games he barely played (UVA and OkSU).
Love Travon, but think there's a lot of addition by subtraction if/when he's out of the rotation next year. Never could get comfortable finding the holes in Fuente's scheme, IMO.