1. Will Vinston Painter step up?
Tackle Vinston Painter is 6-6 303. He was a 4-star recruit. He benches 430, cleans 336, front squats 500 and runs a 4.8 40. Physically, I don't think you could want anything more in an offensive lineman. However, the senior has yet to earn meaningful playing time. If Painter can get it together to have a Cris Hill like final season, it would go a long way to solidifying the depth along the o-line.
2. How will the abundance of D-line talent be used?
Defensive line is arguably the deepest position on the roster. Tackles Derrick Hopkins, Luther Maddy, Corey Marshall and Antoine Hopkins along with ends James Gayle, J.R. Collins, Tyrel Wilson and Zack McCray round out an athletic and battle tested two-deep. The coaches are also very high on Dadi Nicolas and Kris Harley who redshirted at end and tackle respectively in 2011. However, they all can't be on the field at once.
Will Antoine Hopkins regain his starting job? Will Corey Marshall play inside and out and be that hybrid player that moves around the field causing mismatches? J.R. Collins moved inside to tackle against Georgia Tech, does that become a thing against other teams? Do the coaches think some personel packages work better than others? Who will the starters be?
3. Where will Kyle Fuller play?
Field corner, boundary corner, Whip/Nickel and safety are all possibilities for Tech's do it all defensive back.
4. What tweaks is Bud making to better defend "spread" teams such as Clemson and UNC?
The defensive coaches met with Missouri's staff a couple weeks ago in Jacksonville to exchange ideas.
"Obviously we're going to be playing Clemson again. I think at times we played the spread pretty well. We did in the bowl game, with the exception of a couple plays, but it's getting different people's thoughts. It looks like the ACC is kind of going that way with Larry Fedora coming in and instead of North Carolina being a two-back offense, it looks like they'll be an up-tempo offense. That's what Missouri is. So I'm curious to talk to them, how they defend their people too. Because their offense is all no-huddle, empty a guy out, motion a guy back in and different things that make you change your calls, even in mid-stream, or the kids have a lot of check-with-me calls. So I'm just curious to see how they game manage and things of that nature."
If Bud is going to fiddle with his scheme, it's likely the seeds of change will be planted in the spring. I'm keeping my ears open for any mention of new defensive drills, personal groups or packages.
5. Whip?
Can either Alonzo Tweedy or Nick Dew supplant G-W while he recovers from his Lisfranc sprain?
6. Once the Maroon-White Game is over, what remains to be sorted out in August?
I don't think the coaches will be settled on a tailback, kicker or punter until the end of summer camp. J.C. Coleman and Michael Holmes are the leading candidates to replace David Wilson and Josh Oglesby. They will have the advantage of practicing during spring, but Trey Edmunds, Drew Harris (if healthy), Chris Mangus and other potential backs won't be on campus until summer. It'll be a fantastic competition to follow.
If not for his legal issues, Cody Journell would have been the kicker. We'll know more about his status with the team once his court case is continued on May 10th. If Journell doesn't return, Conor Goulding and newcomers Brooks Abbott and Andrew Murray will have a chance to win the job. Punter could come down to a two man duel between incumbent Michael Branthover and walk-on Hunter Windmuller. No matter what, expect the Frankinator to take his time and really work all the guys out before making his decisions.
I'm ready for practice to start, and to learn more about this team.
Comments
I also hope we answer the question as to who our #1 RB is. I know you alluded to that above but it would be great if Holmes solidified himself as the starter and JC was all but locked in as a close #2. I doubt they'd lock anything up completely until they get a chance to look at the other Fr RBs in the summer. But if the coaches feel good about those two guys and its just a matter of seeing other guys to make sure they aren't markedly better, I think that would be really good for us. The longer the RB battle drags on into the summer the less comfortable I become with the start to 2012. I think we really need to fine our 1-2 punch and get those guys a ton of reps before they hit the field on Labor Day.
TE is also a big question. Who will step up? I think we know what we have in Dunn and Martin. But what about Malleck and Redman? Will one of them take advantage of the opportunity?
I'm intrigued by tight end too.
The 2011 production was meager by design. Drager was a great player that should have gotten more looks.
Yards
How are they going to be used within the offense? Are we going to get back to running out of two-tights like we had so much success doing in 2009, will it mostly 3 WR 1 TE looks, or a mix of both... Having a play maker at tight end will help create more mismatches inside the redzone and could facilitate more scoring. I'm hoping Dunn and Malleck really assert themselves this spring and show the coaches they're an option inside the 20. Burning Malleck's redshirt for mostly special teams work was kind of a head scratcher, but at the very least it shows he was ahead of the curve and ready to play at some capacity. That's a good thing.
I'm excited to see what Dakota Jackson does in the summer. Cav compared he favorably to DRAGERBOMB calling "old school".
TE
has the potential to be a playmaking position in this offense especially seeing as it sounds like we are going to be in more of a spread look this season. We saw the emergence of Drager at the end of the season but he was more a between the hash guy not a guy that really stretched the field like you out of the TE in the spread look i.e Dewayne Allen. I remember Dunn being open on some fly/go routes during the season but either dropping the ball or its being a tad over thrown and not really making an adjustment to the ball in the air. Potential seems to be there but we all know if you can't block from the TE position your not going to be out there hope one of the new guys can provide solid blocking along with the ability to create a mis-match down the field
Nice post...
VP71 panning out at tackle would be a such a bonus. It's not too late for him to turn it on this year and make some serious money on Sundays.
I'd like to see who can handle wide receiver after this season. I know that's getting way ahead, but obviously Coles-Davis-Roberts lead the group this year. But we need to see some very promising talent emerge behind them as early as this spring. There's no shortage of bodies, it's just who/how many will be able to get the job done.
Painter could easily move himself into a late round draft pick if he earns his way into the starting 5. He's a physical freak and has the measurables of top round OL picks. Unfortunately, his play never matched that but with a solid season I think a lot of teams would be willing to take him somewhere in the back of the draft.
P.S.- I am just to comment endlessly on this thread. I really miss Hokie football.
new receivers
will definitely be interesting to me too .. corey fuller, though he hasn't been a huge factor, also graduates after this season i believe.
from the looks of it, if knowles and asante step up and with promising recruits coming on next year (stanford, caleb, irick, smith) -- we'll look good in the future at WR
Whip, Nickleback and FS
Will the defense be able to defend the pass and prevent big plays down-field? There is so much uncertainty with all these positions heading into the spring. If nobody steps up, it will be a long year, especially with the spread offenses infiltrating the ACC. An injury to any of those positions during the year is really going to stretch the defense thin. So, not only is finding a reliable starter important, but establishing depth and versatility is crucial.
we are great depth-wise at defense with the exception of the secondary .. kyle fuller saved our ass last season and i wouldn't be surprised if he played multiple positions next season too .. he's a future 1st-rounder imo and easily the defensive mvp last season .. losing farrows makes that even more painful -- we need some 2/3 deep cornerbacks to step up for sure
Best guess
I would love to hear everyone's best guess to the four starters in the secondary next year. I can't wait till spring to see how that plays out.
My guess...
Fuller and Jarrett will be the starting corners (Jarrett won't move to safety because Farrow left, but Bonner tweeted he will start the spring there).
Exum will be one of the safeties, I'm not sure which yet. The other safety will probably be either Bonner or Aromire.
^^ THIS .. pretty much what he said
Exum and Fuller at corner, Bonner and Jarrett at safety. Andy Bitter just tweeted something from Torian Gray regarding it. We'll see if that last through spring ball.
Yeahhhhhhh
I guess I was proven wrong pretty quickly haha
you and me both
No particular order...
...but I'll be paying attention to the following during Spring Game weekend, while not #LIVERBLOGGING.
1. Exum at corner, and by default how Bonner and Jarrett react to playing at safety. As mentioned by Joe in the newer post, Exum has the speed to be effective outside, but corner is more about technique than diagnosis, which is what he was accustomed to at his old position.
2. SPECIAL TEAMS. Will we have a punter that can boom the ball farther than one of the best WRs in school history? Do we have ANYONE that can make a field goal? Our specialists emphatically underperformed last season, plagued by inconsistency. The second leading WR in school history was our best punter. There was unnecessary dramaz in the place-kicking corp during the bowl season. Do we have anyone that can kick it through the uprights? If not, we can go MAD HATTER and recruit the goalie from the women's soccer team (if you're wondering, VT Women's Soccer will dress two junior and 2 sophomore GKs in 2012...OPTIONS!)
3. Who is going to round out the WR corps? I believe it's taken for granted that Roberts (assuming he is healthy), Coles, and Davis will be on the field a majority of the time, but are we gonna get Joel Caleb on the field? Will we have a Percy Harvin-esque package for him? We haven't used any Wild Turkey offensive sets since Greg Boone in 2009.
BOONE-BOOM'D
4. Who is going to get a majority of the carries on offense? Seems to be consensus amongst pundits that LT3 is going to have more carries before someone becomes the established back. There is hype surrounding Holmes, and the Icebox has made his intentions on starting apparent on Twitter. Can't wait to see them tote the rock in person.
5. As touched upon above, how are Bud's schemes going to take advantage of Tweedy's speed on defense?
6. Will Joe, Scott, and I survive the weekend?
I forgot
about the female kicker Lauren Luttrell that Beamer said he would try out in the spring. That will be something interesting watch. Maybe she's the answer to VT's kicker's problems. Seems to have a much better shot at making the team than Journell...
Will Stinespring pan out? Nope.
We have relied so heavily on the run game for past 6+ years I'm terrified to see what will happen to our offense w/o a stud in the stable. Yes, Logan can make up for Stiney's JV play calling. The OL and RB concerns me. Not because of their inexperience, but because of Bryan Stinespring.
because Stinespring still calls plays.....
Holmes
Im not too worried about running back watching Holmes run, he reminds me alot of Brandon Ore (on the field). I also believe at least 1 of our freshmen will be ready this year.The offensive line worries me a little bit but we have some good linemen, the only question is how will they work together. Actually the 1 position that I worry about the most is the secondary. Great athletes but where will they all end up? I have a hard time swallowing the idea that Jarret and Bonner will be our last line of defense. They are great athletes but that is alot of inexperience in a critical position.