Hokie Tracks Weren't Allowed to Watch Wednesday's Scrimmage

9 Days.

The Hokies held their final scrimmage of August yesterday. It was not open to the public. Here's the complete report from HokieSports.com.

Defensive end James Gayle had a monster scrimmage, recording four sacks as the Hokies held the final scrimmage of preseason practice at Lane Stadium on Wednesday evening.

The scrimmage ended on a sore note for head coach Frank Beamer, who took an inadvertent elbow from quarterback Logan Thomas right above his left eye. Thomas started celebrating after throwing a touchdown pass on the final play of the scrimmage, and unintentionally hit Beamer, drawing blood. Tech's head coach headed for the training room and received four stitches.

"I didn't mean to do it," Thomas said. "After I did it, I turned around and saw his papers on the ground and saw the blood. I was thinking, ‘Oh, my.' I apologized to him. He didn't say anything, so I hope he's not mad."

Gayle, a redshirt sophomore from Hampton, Va., was the bigger story in the scrimmage. He finished with six tackles — four sacks and two other tackles for a loss. Behind him, Tech's first-team defense recorded eight sacks in the scrimmage.

"I messed up on the first couple of plays and sometimes it's something small that sets you off," Gayle said. "That kind of set me off.

"I feel like our defensive front four is going to be at the top in the ACC when it comes to sacks. All of our guys are athletic and fast, and I see us getting a lot more sacks than we did last year."

Tech's first-team units did not face each other in the scrimmage. The Hokies' scored four touchdowns, with three of those coming against the second-team defense.

David Wilson, who rushed for 36 yards on five carries, scored on a 14-yard run, while fellow tailback Michael Holmes scored on a 4-yard run. Thomas threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Danny Coale on the final play of the scrimmage.

Tech's first-team defense allowed just one score. Backup quarterback Mark Leal threw a swing pass to Daniel Dyer, who went 40 yards for a touchdown.

Thomas completed 15 of 23 for 140 yards and the one touchdown. Perhaps more importantly, he did not throw an interception.

"That's how you win games — don't turn the ball over and create turnovers," Thomas said. "My job is not to throw picks, so I was really happy with that today."

Leal completed 8 of 18 for 160 yards and a touchdown. He, too, did not throw an interception. Tony Gregory led all rushers with 40 yards on four carries, and Jarrett Boykin led all receivers with five catches for 44 yards. Marcus Davis and Coale caught three passes each.

Tech's other scoring came on two field goals. Cody Journell missed a 43-yarder, but atoned by hitting a 35-yarder. Justin Myer made a 36-yarder.

Telvion Clark led all tacklers with nine (5 solo). Jack Tyler, James Hopper, Luther Maddy and Antone Exum finished with five each.

What stands out more to me than the accolades describing what reads like a crisp scrimmage is the fact that the starters played against the reserves the entire way. So take it with a grain of salt. The kicking game is still entirely too inconsistent, and you'd have to believe right now punts would be the call over long field goal attempts. There are 48 seconds of highlights available as well as an interview with Coach Stinespring. Mark Leal throws a tiz-ight spiral, and what nice gentle touch on LT3's touchdown pass to Coale. Stiney noted poor execution by the first team o-line in 3rd down situations, and the scrimmage was bumped up to Wednesday from Saturday to give the team two more days to focus on the Appalachian State game plan.

Bud Foster was a guest on the first Tech Talk Live of the season. Coach speak was kept to a minimum and he delivered actual information. Foster mentioned as many as six true freshman could play this fall: Luther Maddy, Corey Marshall, Ronny Vandyke, Kyshoen Jarrett and Boye Aromire are expected to contribute. Dadi Nicholas is straddling the fence. Eddie Whitley and Antone Exum flip-flopped positions. Exum will get to show off his athleticism at free safety and Whitley will get to lay the wood at rover. All four of the defensive tackles in the two-deep can make plays "away from their alignment". He finished by talking about the offense, expect more designed QB runs like powers. Oh, and he said David Wilson is the best running back he's seen at Tech in his 25 years.

Randy King punned the word whip three times in his piece on G-W stepping up his game and impressing his coaches and teammates.

"The whip is such a huge spot in our defense. We spill the ball and those guys are such free-hitters, and keep the ball in front and inside. There is a lot of pressure on him, I think. You ask him, and he would probably tell you that he didn't perform like he wanted to last season."

Gouveia-Winslow has spent a lot of time on pass coverage. Often last season, Foster was forced to bring in extra backs and play a nickel defense, a scheme that took his whip out of the game.

"My man coverage wasn't getting it done," Gouveia-Winslow said. "This spring and this summer, I was out there trying to work on my man coverage, and I got better, and I look better. I'm definitely trying to stay in the base defense because I want to stay on the field and show coach I can cover those guys just as well as the DBs can."

King missed the perfect opportunity to include this all-too-obvious music video.

Ricardo Young is transferring to New Mexico, best of luck.

MUST CREDIT BEAMERBALL.COM AND @BEAMER_BALL. "Indications are Corey Fuller has won the elusive 6th receiver spot. Meaning Demitri Knowles will most likely red-shirt." "Kevin Sherman indicates there are NO plans to red-shirt D.J. Coles." "Per Head Trainer Mike Goforth, Zack McCray [sic] foot has been placed in a boot and is out for todays scrimmage." He's expected to be back practicing Monday which is great news because McCray has done a lot of work in camp to climb up the depth chart as the third defensive end.