Hokies hoping to repeat as ACC champs
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The Hokies took a beating through graduation and dismissals, losing their top receivers, three-quarters of the starting defensive line, All-ACC linebackers Xavier Adibi and Vince Hall, leading rusher Brandon Ore and steady PK Jud Dunlevy. As always, there's talent waiting in the wings in Blacksburg, but it needs to develop in a hurry to for Tech to go from being good to championship-level.
Fortunately, this is a bit of a down/stepping-stone season for the conference. For example, in the Coastal Division, Miami is at least a year away from being ready to mount a challenge for the ACC title, Georgia Tech is rebuilding under new head man Paul Johnson, North Carolina is better but still isn't Virginia Tech yet, Virginia appears ready to take a step back and Duke, while improved, is still Duke. In other words, the Hokies likely won't have to be at their highest level to get back to the title game. And they won't be, but that doesn't necessarily matter.
Regardless of the hurdles it faces, Virginia Tech has gotten this ACC thing down to a science since coming on board, winning the league or playing in the title game in three of the last four years. There's little doubt that the season ahead will bring major challenges to both sides of the ball, but again, in a division that has no scary threat, the Hokies should have a relatively clear path to Tampa in December against likely Clemson or Boston College.
Savvy recruiting plus outstanding coaching is a time-tested formula that doesn't fail Virginia Tech very often, and it won't this year, either.
What to watch for on offense: Where are the playmakers? Now that leading rusher Branden Ore has been exiled and last year's top four wide receivers have graduated, the Hokies are about to experience a power outage on offense after not exactly burning things up last year finishing 100th in the nation. While so much attention is being given to the quarterback battle between Sean Glennon and Tyrod Taylor, it won't matter who wins if the supporting cast is impotent. In the backfield, redshirt freshman Darren Evans has stood out and a deep ensemble of tight ends will be instrumental to the success of the passing attack.
What to watch for on defense: The run defense will be more vulnerable than it's been in years. No, opponents won't be able to gash and dash, but they'll find a little more running room than normal. Tech was gutted by graduation at defensive tackle and the losses of linebackers Xavier Adibi and Vince Hall won't be easily overcome. The onus falls on new tackles Cordarrow Thompson and John Graves, and middle linebacker Brett Warren to pick up the slack and exceed expectations.
This team will be far better if ... the offensive line does its job. It was a tale of two halves for the group last season, getting abused in the early going before coming together down the stretch. The Hokies are dangerously light at the skill positions, meaning it's up to veterans RG Sergio Render and LT Ed Wang, to create an environment for the new starters in the backfield and at wide receiver to succeed. The line dominated at times in the Orange Bowl loss to Kansas, but when the coaches went away from the power running game, the offense struggled.
The Schedule: The road trips are going to be challenging. There aren't many breaks in interdivision play having to travel to face Boston College and Florida State, while a late Coastal Division showdown at Miami could end up making or breaking ACC title hopes. The non-conference schedule is interesting with a trip to Nebraska for the first machup with the Huskers since the 1996 Orange Bowl (a 41-21 Hokie loss) to off-set layups against Furman and Western Kentucky. The opener against East Carolina won't be a walk in the park.
Best Offensive Player: Senior QB Sean Glennon. No disrespect to the veteran, but this is a selection by default on an offense that'll be hunting for new playmakers and better blocking up front. Glennon actually played well down the stretch last year, handling some early-season adversity and doing his part to get the Hokies an ACC title. Considered a low-risk game manager throughout his career, he's a heady competitor with enough zip on his passes to get some looks from NFL scouts.
Best Defensive Player: Senior CB Victor Harris. How much confidence do the Hokies have in Macho's athleticism? Enough to move him to the more demanding boundary corner position, use him as a return man and work him at wide receiver for part of the spring. While there are better lockdown corners in the country, few possess his combination of size, speed and ball skills. He can punish opposing receivers and pick their pockets like a thief.
Key player to a successful season: Junior PK Dustin Keys. While the defense will be typically stingy, the offense is going to struggle to put points on the board. Interpretation? The Hokies will be involved in plenty of close, low-scoring games this fall. The difference between winning and losing on many weekends could come down to the sporadic leg of Keys, who was the leader to replace Jud Dunlevy coming out of spring.
The season will be a success if ... Tech wins another ACC championship. Is that setting the bar too high in a season rife with turnover? Nah. The Hokies are still the class of the Coastal Division and the only program with a clear edge in talent, Clemson, isn't on the schedule and tends to be schizophrenic when it's expected to win. Even though Tech isn't as potent as last year, the goal of a league title remains in the crosshairs.
Offense
The biggest of many decisions the staff will make is whether or not both quarterbacks will be featured prominently again this season. In 2007, Frank Beamer used Tyrod Taylor and Sean Glennon extensively, often maximizing their complementary set of skills. However, even with 11 games of experience now in the vault, the dynamic Taylor is having a difficult time surpassing the more experienced Glennon. The Hokies favor the running game, but they haven't been able to come up with the replacement for Branden Ore. While Kenny Lewis has seniority, he's recovering from shoulder surgery, pushing Jahre Cheeseman and Darren Evans into more prominent roles. The attack will revolve around four experienced linemen headed by all-league candidates Sergio Render and Ed Wang.
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| Senior Sean Glennon has the edge to start at quarterback in the fall after helping lead the Hokies to an ACC title in 2007. (Doug Benc / Getty Images) |
Quarterbacks: Last season, the Hokies found that two quarterbacks can sometimes be better than one, but will they use senior Sean Glennon and sophomore Tyrod Taylor as freely this fall? While no official starter has been announced, it was clear Glennon had the edge coming out of spring. He has continued to mature since having a rocky sophomore season, displaying veteran leadership and a total grasp of the offense. Taylor, a high-end athlete with great mobility and tremendous upside, is the playmaker the offense is lacking.
Running Backs: First, leading rusher Branden Ore was kicked off the team. Then, his replacements, juniors Kenny Lewis and Jahre Cheeseman, suffered spring injuries that required surgery. Yup, the race to replace Ore will be tight and probably won't be decided until late in the summer. From Cheeseman to Josh Oglesby, none of the backs will be accused of dancing in the hole or avoiding the area between the tackles. The Hokies are a collection of physical downhill runners with the leg drive to be effective, especially in short yardage. There's no No. 1 to count on right away. If Lewis is slow to get back in the fold, Cheeseman, a former cornerback with 21 career carries, becomes the veteran of the unit.
Receivers: Now that last season's top five pass-catchers are no longer with the program, reliable receivers who can help move the chains are desperately needed. The tight ends will be fine, but the wide receivers have a long, long way to go. Coming out of spring, junior Brandon Dillard and sophomore Zack Luckett had nudged ahead in the race for the starting jobs. Assuming Sam Wheeler's knee isn't an issue, Tech is stocked at tight end. While Wheeler and Greg Boone have proven themselves as starters, 6-foot-4, 260-pound sophomore Andre Smith could wind up being the best of the group. It's a good thing Tech had the foresight to go heavy on receivers in February because blue-chippers Dyrell Roberts and D.J. Coles might be needed to contribute right away.
Offensive Line: The return of four starters isn't enough for Virginia Tech to feel secure about a line that grossly underachieved a year ago but got better late. Now that Duane Brown has graduated, the new anchor up front is likely to be junior RG Sergio Render, a two-year starter who's on the lip of the All-ACC cup. In an old-fashioned game of smash-mouth football, this group will be hard to defeat. All of them are powerful drive blockers who'll bury the opposing defender until the whistle blows. Pass protection was a nightmare last year, and it should be an issue early on. Yeah, things got better, but the Hokies still finished 115th nationally in sacks allowed, and that was when current Houston Texan Duane Brown was still in Blacksburg. At tackle, Ed Wang needs to exceed his potential and RT Blake DeChristopher must play like he's been here before.
Defense
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| With Virginia Tech losing three starters from last year's defensive line, senior DE Orion Martin will look to anchor the Hokies' push up front in 2008. (Marc Serota / Getty Images) |
This is one of those years Bud Foster has a chance to enhance his reputation as one of the game's premier coordinators. Seven Hokies who earned All-ACC honors are off to the NFL, meaning there'll be inexperienced players littered throughout the two-deep, and in need of coaching. While that won't stop Foster from being aggressive, he might be forced to temper his penchant for chaos and all-out blitzes until the newcomers prove they can handle man-to-man situations. Considering he's the only reigning all-star returning to Blacksburg, CB Victor Harris might feel a little lonely in the early going. DE Orion Martin will be the anchor up front, while Cam Martin is the steadiest linebacker.
Defensive Line: Three starters are gone from a line that was instrumental in a defense that finished No. 5 nationally in sacks and run defense. The lone holdover from that group is 6-foot-3, 253-pound senior Orion Martin, a former walk-on who erupted for 58 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks in his first season as a starter. Martin, Jason Worilds and Nekos Brown are glorified outside linebackers with the explosion off the snap and closing speed to wreak havoc in the backfield. If they're permitted to roam around in space, they'll blow up game plans and harass quarterbacks. It's not as if Carlton Powell and Barry Booker were star tackles, but they were solid veterans who did a terrific job of clogging running lanes. Their replacements have upside, but they're not polished.
Linebackers: All-stars Xavier Adibi and Vince Hall are in the NFL, leaving junior Cam Martin as the only returning starter from a year ago. Despite being just 6-foot-1 and 204 pounds, he plays the game with the speed of a former free safety and the instincts to be successful at whip. This is a very, very well-coached group. All of them wrap up and hit low, rarely allowing ballcarriers to squirm free for extra yards, but unlike the past few years, there aren't any real all-stars. This is a blue-collar group that isn't very big and won't turn any heads on measurables.
Secondary: Two top talents are gone. Two top talents return. Replacing boundary corner Brandon Flowers is the star of the defense, senior Victor Harris, who had been playing field corner before this year. As always, the Hokies have a group of ball hawks who are tremendous at batting away or intercepting passes thrown in their direction. Led by Harris, this unit will again be a nuisance and the catalyst for one of the ACC's most opportunistic pass defenses. The Hokies also had holes to fill last year and survived just fine, yielding only 10 touchdown passes while picking off 22. With Harris and Kam Chancellor anchoring the retooled secondary, Tech will have few obstacles navigating a schedule that features a shortage of scary passing attacks.
Special Teams: It's Virginia Tech — the special teams will be good. The most pressing concern is at placekicker, where Jud Dunlevy must be replaced. A quartet of players tried to impress the staff in the spring, but no one stood out. Out of senior Dustin Keys, Penn State-transfer Matt Waldron and walk-ons Tim Pisano and Chris Hazley, Keys has built a sliver of separation. He has good leg strength and has been around the longest but needs to dramatically improve his accuracy and consistency. There are no such problems at punter, where junior Brent Bowden returns after averaging 42.5 yards and dropping 28 punts inside the opponents' 20-yard line.
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