After watching the National Championship Monday night, I woke up Tuesday morning already looking ahead to what next football season is going to bring us Hokie fans. Some may say this is too early to start talking next season, but, I beg to differ. While we are losing a few key pieces to our offense and defense, I feel that the players behind them have been prepared and are ready to step in and do a good job for the Hokies next year. We are losing our leader and quarterback in Tyrod Taylor; we are also losing Ryan Williams, Darren Evans, Beau Warren, and Andre Davis as starters on offense. We are losing Stephen Friday, John Graves, Rashad Carmichael, and Davon Morgan on defense.
I was impressed with the athleticism and with the way Logan Thomas played when he came in this year at Tight End and in relief of Tyrod under center. He caught passes as a tight end, and when he came for relief of Tyrod he made some impressive throws and did not make any big mistakes. As far as Ryan Williams and Darren Evans leaving, yes I am disappointed to see them go, but we are still left with a very talented back in David Wilson. I actually feel that David Wilson has the potential for a huge season. The last four seasons that we had a solid starter at tailback, last season Ryan Williams went for 1,655 yards, in 2008 Darren Evans went for 1,265 yards, in 2007 Brandon Ore went for 992 yards (just 8 away from 1,000), and in 2006 Brandon Ore went for 1,137 yards. In 2005 Ore, Humes, and Imoh all split time and had similar seasons as Williams, Evans, and Wilson this year. But, I feel David Wilson has the most breakaway speed of any back mentioned in this article, so with the Hokies returning 4 starters on the offensive line and with a young and inexperienced quarterback under center, I look for Wilson to have a huge year and to help keep pressure off of Logan Thomas. As for Beau leaving, he is a great center, but, I watched Andrew Miller wrestle and play football at Bassett, he was an absolute stud, and after two seasons on campus I look for him to do a good job in filling Beau's shoes.
Well Pittsburgh is not getting Bud Foster and the defense only loses 4 full time starters. Stephen Friday and John Graves have big shoes to fill and I feel that the Hopkins brothers might be the men for the job. I don't know at the moment what kind of defense Bud is looking at next year, whether or not he will go back to a 4-3 type scheme or stay with the Nickel type scheme he ran for most of this year remains to be seen. With the success he did not see this year I would say he will be looking at changing something for sure. But, Chris Drager, Antoine and Derrick Hopkins, and maybe James Gayle as our four down lineman is defintely not a bad D-Line by any means. As for Davon Morgan, I know I am supposed to be looking ahead, but, I am still salty with him for getting toasted all game under the lights in Miami. Exum got a good bit of playing time and while he has holes in his game and things he needs to work on, he still showed promise. If Exum puts in the time this offseason I feel like he will be fine in stepping in as the starter in Morgan's place next season. As far as Rock goes, he will be missed, but, Bud Foster always puts studs on the field at the corner spots, so I am not worried one bit here. Our defense has now had a year under their belt, so I look for them to be the typical 'Foster-Fense' we are used to again next year.
While these are just probable scenarios on who will start and how they will play next year, I feel like we are going to be fine, even though we lost some big players this year. Our offense has a lot of playmakers that can help Logan Thomas settle in and keep him comfortable. We have somehow, once again, kept Bud Foster for another year and our young defense got a lot of playing time this year, so look for it to be back in top-10 lunchpail form again next year. All I know is that I will be counting down the days until April 23rd so that I can watch our boys get back on the field again and after that I will have September 3rd circled on my calendar. Here's to a good 2011-2012 season, Go Hokies!
Comments
The Drager option
I've heard lots of talk about moving Drager back to TE. Just don't see the point. Kid has a huge motor and massive potential on the DL. Why move him to a position we almost exclusively use for blocking?
i wouldn't say
massive potential at DL. he's a solid plugger who probably won't be as good as martin was for tech at DE.
he's the best TE on the team right now, unless the freshman from NY is a beast.
I've heard the same about Drager and I don't like it either for the reasons the Box mentioned. What makes the most sense, yet will never happen is moving Lanier from tackle outside to tight end and growing with Becton. In terms of depth behind him at the tackle position we have both Laurence Gibson and Mark Shuman who are big time recruits that can hopefully contribute a little sooner than in Newsome's "third year."
As far as defensive end is concerned I like what Gayle and Collins did when they got snaps and I think they'll be alright, but it would be nice to start getting Zack McCray PT so when he leaves early for the draft we all aren't wondering why we wasted his talent.
lanier may
move to TE if drager doesn't ... as the blocking TE.
In the Stinefense is there a difference between the "catching" tight end and the "blocking" tight end? Andre Smith caught 20 balls last season and Boone caught a whopping 7 in '09. TIC of course, but we underutilize the tight end enough as it is so at this point there isn't much of a difference to me. We need to run more out of the two tight sets this season, because it's effective and Lanier needs to be moved to tight end because he can't play tackle. I think Marcus Davis is going to have to grow into that go to guy in the end and red zone because he's got the big body.
Agreed
I agree here with the comment on Marcus Davis. I think he needs to for Logan's sake and will develop into that receiver for the Hokies. He has the big NFL type body and can be a go to man for Logan Thomas. This can help young quarterbacks tremendously with their confidence.
I think he was part of the red zone packages
5 TDs out of 20 doesn't seem like too much for Andre, but anectodally I seem to remember some discussion about this mid-season. He was part of the solution for the miserable red-zone pass-rush ratio, so things might have changed since Boone.
And 100% agreed, maybe Stanford showed us how to utilize our big boys more.
What I like
about College Football is that every year is a new team with new hope. Let's wish our guys heading for the NFL good luck. In his statement about entering the draft RMFW stated he was thankful for his time at VT and the opportunity to play for us (the fans). He also stated he will always be a Hokie. I thought that was pretty decent of him. We need to remember that there are many individuals, players and coaches, giving it their all to keep us entertained and holding on to hope of a National Championship. Keep supporting them and spreading the word. We are building good Karma that will reward us when the time is right.
also
He said that he hoped the fans wouldn't be too mad at him. That comment right there ingratiated him forever to me.
watching Cam Newton
I couldn't help but think, "Hey, we have one of those". I know its a big leap to assume Logan's playing style will be similar, but can't argue their stature is.