Virginia Tech Football Preview

[Music] andy bidder from the athletic is our special guest it's time for a virginia tech football preview this is acc nation that's will ogenna i'm jim quist welcome andy we appreciate you joining us hey thanks for having me hey my opening question question isn't how will the hokies do this season i want to tap into the many years that you've been covering the team and get your thoughts on on how you think they'll progress under brent pry and when you realistically think fans should expect that change to occur that's a tough one because i don't really know i wish i could look into the crystal ball and no but i don't i mean we're talking about i thought for sure you knew that yeah i wish i would the seuss there like that i would make a lot more money uh in vegas if i were doing that but uh it's tough to say it's it's a first-time head coach you know you don't really know how he's gonna operate uh he's coming into a school at virginia tech that you know has not won outside of the hall of fame head coach it had for 30 years you know you wonder if college football has changed enough that it's just tough for virginia tech as a program to get back to that level regardless of who's in charge of it um there are very few ties to the previous uh iteration of virginia tech football now they have jc price and pearson priolu and a couple holdovers like that but you know there's no bud foster in the program anymore this is a you know we were talking a little bit before this thing started sort of a total change over here uh clean slate from what it was for uh previously here so uh i don't know like before i would look at it and i go man and you know i think two or three years they could get back to where they need to be i'm not sure because i don't know necessarily virginia tech can get back to that level that it was so consistently at uh from you know basically 1995 to 2011. that's a good long run but you know football is different now these days recruiting is different nil is a major factor virginia tech's got to get his act together on that uh there are just so many factors that it i don't know if he can get back to that level i do expect it to improve i just don't know how much well i i must say i'm i'm very disappointed you don't have a crystal ball i know it sounds a lot better if i just go 20 25 mark it down there it is it makes for a better headline i think yeah i said i could i can make tapes disappear very quickly in 2025. uh following the acc football kickoff the media is expecting this team to be middle of the pack is that a fair assessment i think so i think you look at the team that's coming back and there's not a ton of headliners on this team they had a bunch of guys go to the nfl draft last year it's not even taken high but there were still four or five the guys that got drafted is a pretty good number for virginia tech uh you know lost some guys in the transfer portal braxton burmeister transfers tavion robinson probably a bigger deal at receiver uh so i look at the guys coming back there's no like surefire nfl guys in that group so it makes me wonder you know what is the top end talent of this team and beyond that what is the depth of this team because it's not a very deep team in terms of experience yet that's something they have to figure out so i look at one that doesn't really have the top end tail it doesn't really have the depth that they want yet you know a couple injuries at the wrong spots on this team this could be tough uh so that's why i go in with a little bit of caution i think i picked them fourth in the coastal i think the media as a whole picked them fifth uh you know uva virginia tech uh you know flipped them in any order i mean that game is in blacksburg this year virginia has not won in blacksburg since 1998 despite some very good chances to do so so uh i i would pick hokies in the middle of the pack in the coastal division and who knows they might surprise me they might uh live up to those expectations or live down to them too let's get into a little more detail here and will um you know wherever you want to pick up either on offense or defense and uh let's let's pick apart the team and take a look a little closer yeah for sure and uh let's start with uh the probably the most important position quarterback is obviously a little bit of a competition heading into the the opener here you've got grant wells who came in from marshall he and jason brown from south carolina and from what i'm seeing wells has taken a lot of the first team reps in in practice so far is he kind of the presumed starter at this point yeah i think wells is the guy uh you know we talked to the quarterbacks coach in june and you know even though they didn't name a starter he said you know we basically know who it is which i was kind of surprised that he said as much in june but you look at the spring performances and the spring game especially where grant wells is moving the ball up and down the field and you know jason brown wasn't you know admittedly with the lesser team that he was trying to lead but the ball moved when wells was in the game the ball didn't when jason brown was in the game and i think that's you know what it boils down to and i look at wells and what he did last year at marshall and yeah the interceptions concern you a little bit but he threw for 270 yards a game something like that he can push the ball down field now he's got a big arm that could maybe open this game up a little bit if they can do that that opens up things in the running game he can move better than you think he can too uh you know i don't think he's gonna run for 120 yards a game or something like that but if he can take off and scramble or keep it every now and then to keep defenses honest i think that's a pretty good thing so you know i go into the season quarterback surprisingly coming off of last year and bringing in two new transfers that's not among my biggest concerns for this offense i think they could be okay with grant wells in there you had an article on the athletic i believe it was on friday talking about connor blumrick and he's kind of uh taken on a to use a term that they use acro across town over in charlottesville football player role as uh kind of that all-purpose guy um he obviously we saw him as a quarterback he's a really good runner a decent thrower how is he looking as a pass catcher you know it's early and we've only seen a couple uh you know practices where he's been catching the ball out there it doesn't look foreign to him uh you know those quarterbacks always have pretty good hand-eye coordinations i would imagine with enough practice that he'd be okay at it you know i don't necessarily know how big of a role he's going to be i think it could be a gadget type thing it could be i think it could be a niche type thing i don't think you're you're depending on giving him the ball 10 to 12 times a game or anything like that but i think it could be you know for an offense that you're searching for weapons right now and there's not a lot of proven guys on the offensive side of the ball that have done it for a lot of years you'll take whatever you can and having a guy that can play a bunch of roles like that's you know taking coal back from the track team who you know signed as a football players a couple years ago became a track champion of the acc like i don't know what he's going to do as a receiver but he's really dang fast uh so just putting some interesting pieces out there i think that allows this offensive staff to sort of you know get the lab and figure out some different things they can do to try to confuse defenses yeah one of the things i don't i don't think there's a much of a question mark at running backs i feel there's three guys who've had experience and obviously malachi thomas probably going to be the one heading into the the season openers he's looked really good and last year and he's looked good in in camp so far and obviously jalen holsten and keishan king are both there too so this feels like a real real big strength of this offense yeah i think it can be i think it's still a developing group uh you know i like malachi thomas i liked what he showed in those couple games where he had a breakout last year uh other than that there are some question marks that i mean jalen holsten this is his sixth year and it's never really come together for him and it makes me wonder why all of a sudden in year six it will unless it's just an opportunity thing and he wasn't getting it under the previous staff you know keyshawn king is a guy who we've heard about his potential for a whole lot of years and how quick and explosive he is but it hasn't really translated on the field outside of a couple moments so uh you know perhaps this is just an indictment of the previous offensive coaches that they weren't able to figure out how to use these running backs correctly i mean this was the staff that had raheem blackshear with you know rushed for 100 yards and back-to-back weeks and get running back of the week and then they play miami and he gets two carries and you go what are you doing with this running back rotation so perhaps a new offensive staff maybe has a better handle on how to use those running backs but i think there's still a little bit of question marks there just because there's not this huge history of production among them yeah where the the real questions are are a wide receiver and offensive line and we'll get to the line in a minute but trey turner has been a staple in blacksburg for for a while and obviously he's graduating you mentioned earlier tavion robinson's transferred over to kentucky so between those two and raheem blackshare that's 100 receptions gone uh obviously jaden blue is in the uh came over from temple i mean you have to gallow at tight end but there's a lot of catches that are that are to be had on this uh this receiving core who do you see stepping up as a pass catcher yeah i think you know a couple of guys you mentioned jaden blue and nick gallo at tight end uh i look for somebody like caleb smith who's sort of been a third wheel in that receiving game he started a bunch of games but balls have not necessarily come his way a whole lot had a really big spring game two deep touchdowns over the top from grant wells uh a good sign for him possibly breaking out in you know this is his fourth or fifth year uh at the school here i think the staff really likes daewon lofton he was a true freshman last year uh you know justin fuente touted him quite a bit he played a little bit last season got his feet wet but he was the spring mvp on the offensive side of the ball so i think those guys uh add drake dulias at tight end you know perhaps a little connor blombrick in the mix keyshawn king and chance black have split out wide to do some receiver stuff uh perhaps steven gosnell once you get to that second team jalen jones it's gonna be guys have to step up into new roles because there's you know all the production walked out the door like you mentioned so it's uh you know not an entirely a clean slate but i think there's room for opportunities for a lot of guys who maybe have not got a lot of run in the past couple years to have a role the hookies have had a pretty solid solid success of getting offensive linemen into the pros and me wearing a minnesota viking shirt happy to see christian dara saw having a great start to i got my golden gophers shirt on here minnesotan here so i didn't like the vikings school of that i did not know you were a minnesotan i appreciate that i'm actually a virginia transplant living in minnesota but okay i'm i'm the opposite i'm a minnesota transplant living in oh i did not know that that's really cool um but anyways this is a this is really a massive question mark on this offensive line you got a couple of guys back a caden moore silas janzi i'm hoping i got it right uh you know johnny jordan started selling parker clements has started some but really after that not a lot of experience i see a lot of uh freshmen in the two deep so this is this really does look like one of the areas they really need to work on heading into the game one yeah the last two years a lot of talent has left the program on the offensive line i mean darius saw a first round pick uh in 2020 a couple transfers doug nester and uh brian hudson leaving they were highly recruited guys last year you lose brock hoffman lucita smith luke tenuta those guys have been mainstays on that offensive line so uh it does feel like a little bit of a resetting up front and bring a new coach in and joe rudolph as well who i think they're really excited about here um the four guys you mentioned that when you say them i could kind of imagine what this starting offensive line looks like and jesse hansen's another guy that's been around for a while that hasn't played a whole lot that's getting in there it's if there's an injury then i begin to to worry about this offensive line they had two true freshmen on the second team at offensive tackle i think at practice the other day uh you know the backup center has not played in a game uh the backup left guard is a freshman who is on the defensive line in the spring uh you know actually bob scheck was one of the tackles a junior college guy but he hasn't played so you know if you get an injury or two on the offensive line and let's be honest how how many years do you get through an entire season with no injuries on your offensive line they're in there they're banging bodies it's inevitable it's going to happen they're going to need some guys on that second team to be ready to play and it gets really green very fast and you know we've all watched football if you had a leaky offensive line that affects the entire operation you can't you don't have time to stand in the pocket you don't have holes to run through as a running back so it affects everything else so that's that's the biggest red flag on this team that i look like look at and i go man they just cannot have any sort of attrition or injuries on that offensive line or they could be in some trouble so andy everything that you guys have been discussing here in the last few moments it leads me as as this outside observer to think you know we've we've got all this new we've got new coaches we've got basically a new slate of players we're not really sure what we have which sometimes leads i think to wondering whether or not they can perform or deliver i mean rightfully so you know that's that's the tendency right but at the same time could people be overlooking the hokies from that standpoint with because there is talent there there is some experience and these aren't like i know brent is a new first-time head coach but nonetheless a very experienced guy and there's a lot of other experienced guys in there too who are working and we're not hearing a lot and every time i i don't hear a lot of chatter there's two things that i i come to the conclusion one that things are actually getting done and they don't want anybody to know about it or two it's just all going to go flat it's got to be either one or the other so is there a possibility that this team could be a surprise team and maybe do better than fourth or fifth well i think they can exceed expectations because i think expectations are very low for this team i mean you've heard me talk about it and you know i don't have extremely high expectations for this team but i see some of these off-season coaching rankings that they do with the power five schools and brent pry was ranked 65th out of 65. and that was sort of a default rating and the explanations are always well he's never been a head coach so i don't know what to judge him on so we'll just put him last um i think when this fair was made people were like who is that research a little bit oh the penn state defensive coordinator i think you know nobody gave virginia tech high marks for this hire even though as i've watched for work and listen to him talk and you know sort of trying to rally excitement for the program i think he's done a good job at that so yeah i do think people could be underestimating them quite a bit i'm trying to look at it a little pragmatically from just the roster and recruiting that over the years and you know what kind of nfl prospects they might have i don't feel like there's a ton there but you know sometimes you know if you do staff in to replace a coaching staff where things were you know i don't want to say dysfunctional but they just weren't working whatever it was it wasn't working there was this paul of the program every week was a referendum on fuente is he fired is he not you remove that and if you bring in a more competent staff that's able these players it's teaching things a new way that might connect in a different way that could you know perhaps about the last three or four years yeah i could see improvement i could see this uh team doing all right out there i just you know i i just brand new like this i think it could be a little bit of a struggle you're a gentleman and won't call it dysfunctional i will okay [Laughter] i'll take that weight on my shoulders it was dysfunctional it was horribly dysfunctional but um interesting uh to to get that perspective from you and and to to get a feel for where you think things are going there's another aspect of coaching which i think is very important that sometimes we overlook and and i hesitate sometimes to ask this question too frequently but i'm going to ask you here because i think it's very important how is uh brent doing from the standpoint of working with his his boosters his alumni and and the people who are important to pouring money into this program to make things happen and to help him build it into the type of program they would like to have i'm sorry my internet cut out there could you repeat that question okay not a problem how is how is brent doing with uh with um connecting with alumni the boosters and the people who are pouring the money into the program to to make things happen and and help him be successful you know i think that's been the area he's been the best and you know that's something that was such a a deficit a struggling point of fuente when he was here he just didn't seem to enjoy doing those things uh he was a bit introverted in nature and uh you know i think when they hired him he's like well he's kind of like frank beamer you know he's kind of a uh ho like doesn't need the big acclaim or anything like that he's like well frank bieber was extroverted he'd get out there and he'd work a room he goes in and he's the mayor all of a sudden he's shaking hands he's kissing babies that's he's the the best at it i mean he can fake anyone who's talking to him about football feel like the most important person in that conversation that was his great ability as a communicator and that was not just influential i think people found out over the years that you can't just put virginia tech on autopilot it doesn't sell itself like that this isn't you know 2005 or 2007 where the program has had this great run of success that just kind of does it on its own this is a program that needs to get out there and sell itself and have relationships with people and you know shake hands and talk to donors and all this sort of stuff and i think brett pry gets that and i think he gets it because he knows that was one of the reasons he was hired is that he's able to do this where his predecessor didn't so i think he's made it a point to do every possible media opportunity burger cookouts uh cheese content rating contest like whatever it is whatever they had lined up for him in the off season he seemed to do that uh so you know that's what you do that's what you need to do in college is go out there and sell this program and you know we'll see if that pays dividends down the lines whether it's recruiting in relationships or donors and relationships uh but it's something you need to do in this day and age and it was just really not there with the previous staff i'm not asking you about that cheese thing i mean it was there were so many things that he had i think there was some sort of cheese contest that was maybe i'm conflating this with something else but uh he definitely had a lot of stuff on his plate there you go all right we'll take a look at defense for us yeah we there were a lot of questions on offense obviously because there were so much new there's so many players gone but defense to me feels a little more subtle and i want to start in the back of the secondary because i feel like this is where it's the the most stability is that is is you know in the back end you've got the seer peoples and chamari conor back at safety they were two of the top tacklers on the team from last season i think they were second and third and tackles and then yeah dorian strong and armani chapman at corner most likely so this feels like a pretty solid unit in the secondary yeah it is and you know charlie connor moving over there new position but he's played a lot of of snaps this year people so i think is underrated in terms of how many you know what he brings to the defense of the backhand those two corners i think have a lot of experience in them i think they're pretty high on dorian strong and his length and what he can bring to the game and i would you know i'd also put brian murray in there he's a guy who's played a lot now he's hasn't always had you know straight line success had some moments where maybe creeping and peeking in the backfield and gets burned over the top but uh he's a guy who's battle tested and i think that matters in this whole thing so you know in terms of uh continuity or returning pieces i think the secondary you have to feel probably best about uh you know close to best about any of the the position units on the team the linebacker is pretty solid too you've got dax holofield back for feels like uh his 10th year i feel like you're 30 roughly yeah yeah he's been around a long time um and wait is it his brother on the team too jack hollyfield he's a uh second year center on the team okay yep he's on okay i thought i thought i remember seeing another hollow field on the roster um then he got alan tisdale back as well um and he's he he was fourth on the team in tackles but still even with you know one starter gun there's still you know a really strong unit yeah i think there's a lot of experience there um and a guy that they like a lot in that linebacking group is keante jenkins who played safety before they moved him uh one of the like 30 guys it seemed they cycled through the sam linebacker position which is a sort of this hybrid spot and brent price scheme and you know honestly we hear pride talk about keante jenkins he might be the linebacker he's most excited about in this defense and uh i think you look at that uh that will spot with tisdale i don't know if it's necessarily settled that he's going to be the guy there jaden keller has been pushing in that spot he's one the coaches have really liked he's young but he's he goes at things 100 miles per hour and he's just sort of plays at that speed that everybody likes it's a complicated position so i wonder if he's going to be ready yet to handle all the responsibilities there but i could see sort of a timeshare situation with him and tisdale you know splitting reps there but a lot of experience a lot to like in that linebacker crew i think and then you on top of that that's brent price old position that he coached so i think he takes a special interest in that group i would imagine linebacker play would be pretty good this year yeah no doubt i think yeah like you said you've got to if you're if you've coached them in the past you're going to have a special line i feel like they've got some pretty solid ones right there but really the only question i think is up front obviously amari barno is gone he's now in the nfl a couple st we got um taiwan garbett back norrell pollard's back and then they picked up phil darius payne from nebraska in the transfer portal but still this is a spot where it doesn't feel like there's a lot of depth there either no and and payne is actually out for the year so i'm sorry i missed that achilles injury in the off season so he won't be here i think you know you look they have a lot of guys there they have a lot of bodies but there's no headliners there's nobody that's like man you got to watch out for this guy coming off the edge i think they have some young guys they like cole nelson cj mcrae at defensive end to you know be paired with those veterans like taiwan garbage jalen griffin on the interior narelle pollard and mario kendricks are back uh josh fuga is a year older wilfried pinay i think they really like what he's done since moving to the defensive line as a former tight end but none of those guys jump out to me like oh man this is an all-acc player or something like that so i feel like they're going to have to do it by numbers and by volume and probably bringing the house from different levels behind them to get the kind of pressure that they're going to want to get on the opposing offenses because that's sort of what brent pride does is he disrupts things and i don't think they just have guys that can beat you with the front four you can't just rush forward with this team and expect to get to the quarterback i just don't think it's going to happen jim is going to get more into the schedule but let me just throw this one out obviously there's this is a return game this year of of the home and home with west virginia it's in blacksburg obviously for a number of years this this this was a big deal game but the last time west virginia played in blacksburg was 2004 and the freshmen in blacksburg were either not born or were or hadn't even said their first words yet so i'm wondering if this is still going to be a big deal for for you know for virginia tech fans especially the younger ones it is uh you know watching the reaction from that team going up to morgantown last year and losing the way it did down at the end uh it didn't go over well with the hookies fan base they don't like losing to the mountaineers they don't like watching the black diamond trophy go back up that direction after being here for 15 years or whatever it was when the the series was dormant for a while uh it might not engender the kind of like hate and just like white hot rage that it did when when both sides were like whoa we gotta cool this thing off for a while let's take a break uh but i think it comes back real fast and you know thursday night game early in the season uh probably should be a uh well lubricated fan base shall we say from the pregame uh you know i think it should be a pretty rowdy atmosphere for that game i think they'll get up for that one all right jim bring it on home all right let's talk about this schedule a little more in depth up front um a mixed bag old dominion boston college i believe wofford then of course the west virginia game which is well lubricated uh but then it gets really tough we're talking about unc pit miami that's going to be a really challenging part of the schedule that is in october and at least they get a little break with an open date but then they come right back at it with nc state this schedule has done brent pry absolutely no favors whatsoever yeah you look at it you can almost break it up into fours it's sort of that introduction part where there's two you know bc and and uh west virginia coin flip games i mean i don't know who's going to be favorite in either of those but then they hit that stretch where it's at unc uh i think it's at pitt miami at nc state um you know that is a tough stretch three of those teams are ranked and north carolina is a tough team to play at going down to chapel hill and play that game uh you're gonna find out a lot about this team in those four games there because this this could snowball on them quickly if things aren't going well so i'm curious to see sort of you know the metal of this team and they go down there see how they do and then if they can get through that it lightens up a little bit at the end of the season with georgia tech and duke and liberty and uh you know virginia could be a tougher game than people think because brennan armstrong is just a scary quarterback to play but like i said they haven't won in blacksburg since 1998 the cavaliers so yeah uh it always seems to kind of go virginia tech's way in that matchup so uh it's sort of that first four middle four last four and if they can survive that middle four i think the season could be you know a pretty decent one is this a postseason team i think i have them at six and six this season and uh because that's you know basically what this program has been for the last few years and going back before that the last couple years of the frank beamer era it was around 500 for a long time and i don't look at this roster and go man something is just going to get this team over the top they're going to do so much better maybe the coaching staff is all that and they do know how to reach these guys and take them to a different level than what they are but i'm sort of going to have to see it before i predict more than that but uh you know i would think they would get to the postseason it's sort of a a pretty big deal around here making the postseason and if you don't that's sort of seen as an ultimate failure of the season so i think there's extra motivation for these players that if they're five wins and need to get that sixth one uh i think they get over the the top there interesting looking forward to seeing how that all plays out that sounds like you've got a crystal ball to me um i'm wrong all the time i'm wrong man last year i was like first five games i nailed it then it went off the rails quickly for the rest of the season join the rest of us you can take acc nation with you by subscribing to our podcast on your favorite platform worldwide fans for the acc can listen to us on acc nation radio and be sure to watch our interviews on youtube be sure to subscribe and follow us there as well thank you so much to our special guest andy bitter of the athletic looking for the latest on the hokies well you should follow him on twitter that's one and make sure you subscribe to the athletic thank you andy for joining us thanks for having me [Music] [Music] you