Before I get into the key issues I will focus on as I attend my first Hokie spring football game this Saturday, I would like to take a moment to also welcome Brian Marcolini to @TheKeyPlay's staff. I have been very impressed with his first post and he will be an excellent addition to the team.

So, after shooting off my mouth all last week about my concerns about the lack of offensive identity in the offense made worse by adding offensive plays that require a new fundamental skill set to be learned by the offensive line, quarterbacks, and running backs, now the Hokies coaching staff has an opportunity to make me drink a big ole glass of shut the hell up this Saturday. Here are some of the key things I will be looking for in the performance this weekend.

1) Offensive Identity

I exepect that if the Hokies extensively use a pistol and spread package, they should showcase the full array of BASE plays out of each set. I have spent some quite moments this week watching YouTube videos of Nevada's pistol offense, and there are a couple of base plays that I feel the Hokies must establish in order to utilize the set in the heat of the ACC schedule.

Word just came from the Hokies 66-play scrimmage this evening that the Hokies defense got 10 sacks on 66 snaps. And, that was with both James Gayle and JR Collins sitting out of the scrimmage to do classwork. Either the defensive line will be unstoppable this year, or the offensive line may be abysmal. Let's hope it is the former.

Other notes from the beat writers:

Logan Thomas was 9-13 for 70 yards. Michael Holmes lead the running backs, and a little bird told me that Martin Scales may have passed J.C. Coleman on the running back depth chart... Coleman didn't gain a yard on 6 carries.

During spring football, hope "springs" eternal. Hope and expectations for the following football season abound, and any struggles can be dismissed as the learning curve that every college football team must endure as seniors graduate and future NFLers head to the draft.

Let the Countdown begin in earnest. See y'all April 21st.

Source photo: Josh D. Weiss Photography

As the Hokies start to ramp up spring practice, we outsiders have received trickles of information that have started us down the road of starting to formulate conclusions about the makeup of the 2012 Hokie football team. What are some of mine?

On Oct 21, 1892 W.E. Anderson, despite playing right tackle, scored the first touchdown for Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College ever. Coached by Professor Ellison A. Smyth, the VAMC football players beat the St. Albans football team 14-10. These forefathers of Hokie football purchased their own equipment and had a hard time finding enough people to man a team to play on a wheat field carved out by plow. As hard as it was to get started, this was the beginning of something that 120 years later we sit here anticipating the tidbits of news from the first day of spring practice.