Spring Bloggin', Volume 1 ...

Greetings, Hokies. The rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated. I do apologize for my long absence. Thanks to newspapers’ incredible shrinking budgets, along with some new recent media restrictions in Blacksburg, our decision-makers didn’t think it feasible to cover the early part of spring practice.

But we’re back with lots and lots of stuff for you. I’ve been in the ‘Burg since Wednesday evening gathering notes and quotes. And now I’m ready to start spilling some of it here.

Stay tuned over the next few days for further updates. Let’s start, though, with Saturday’s scrimmage. First, some of the plays that got extra scribbling in my notepad. Then some post-scrimmage reaction from coaches and players.

Enjoy ...

* Ju Ju Clayton wasted no time stating his case for being the back-up quarterback. His second pass of the day, against the first-string defense, was perfect. He floated a fade to the back of the end zone, down the left side to Dyrell Roberts. Clayton dropped it over Roberts’ shoulder, beating projected starting corner Rashad Carmichael, for a 12-yard TD.

* Tyrod Taylor, your obvious starter at QB, remains fast and elusive. He scrambled in for a 3-yard touchdown against the first-team defense early in the scrimmage. In the passing game, Taylor was spraying the ball a little high and wide early on, but he settled down late. More on that in a moment.

* The Hokies really are, it seems, developing some depth on the offensive line – for the first time in my six years covering the team. The back-up blockers opened a gaping hole for RB Josh Oglesby to race through, untouched, up the middle for 4-yard TD. Oglesby is looking like a legit option in the backfield. Sadly for him, Ryan Williams and Darren Evans are going to be very difficult to wrestle carries away from.

* FS Kam Chancellor loves to deliver big hits. And he is, well, good at delivering them. At one point, WR Xavier Boyce – who ran with the first string most of the day – caught a screen from Taylor and ... KABOOM. Chancellor sniffed it out and destroyed Boyce. Biggest hit of the day ... by a defensive player. More on that in a moment.

* RB Darren Evans loves to deliver big hits. And he is, well, REALLY good at delivering them. With the first-string offense operating from the opposing 7-yard line, Evans ripped off a run up the middle. LB Quillie Odom came up to meet him. The meeting was unpleasant. Evans leveled Odom, putting him flat on his back, bouncing off and lunging forward to the 1-yard line. Afterward came the line of the day by RB Kenny Lewis, who remains sidelined but chirpy: “Quillie! You know we’ve got counseling for that!” To quote Frank Beamer’s favorite comic: I don’t care you are, that’s funny.

* We all know RB Ryan Williams can run. The big question has been whether he can block. Um. Yeah. Williams sprang Ju Ju Clayton for a 23-yard scramble by first blocking A.B. Latif, then releasing him and cracking back on DT Kwamaine Battle in the backfield. The 210-pound Williams sent 283-pound Battle flying. It was nasty. I think Williams has been trying to prove a point this spring and, well, point taken.

* Williams followed that up with a sweet little move. Clayton, under pressure, dumped a pass off to Williams, who was engulfed by DT Antoine Hopkins when he caught it. Despite what looked like a certain tackle, Williams ducked under the big guy, somehow slipped out and picked up 11 yards. The guy is the definition of slippery.

* Welcome back, Sam Wheeler. Once Tech’s most promising tight end, Wheeler has spent more than a year hampered by a knee injury. But he has looked good in my limited exposure to him this spring. Never better than on a 23-yard grab from Clayton, who rolled out left and floated one down the field. Wheeler adjusted to the slight underthrow and made a leaping catch between two defenders. He also clobbered the safety (not sure who) on the way down. Nice grab.

* Great play call on an 8-yard TD pass from Clayton to FB Kenny Younger. Clayton sold the play-action to the right, then connected with a wide-open Younger in the left flat. This completed a very surprising 11-play, 95-yard drive on which Clayton was 4 of 4 for 51 yards and rushed three times for 34 yards. If I’m picking this race, Clayton is the Hokies’ back-up. But as you’ll read later ... Marcus Davis’ potential is difficult to predict. He’s one heckuva athlete. More on that in a moment.

* Brent Bowden is the best punter in the ACC. That’s all. He was bombing it Saturday.

* Ah, yes, back to Davis. Sensing that he was losing that back-up QB competition, Davis ripped off a 62-yard touchdown run. It was against the third-team defense, but this guy has some good shake and some great giddyup. Whether he wins this particular competition or not, methinks Marcus Davis will be a major player for the Hokies somewhere at some point in his career. He followed the TD run with a pair of 8-yard runs against the first-string D. One was pretty special, spinning out of a near-sack by Barquell Rivers.

* Confession time: I kinda stopped paying attention at this point. BUT ... Tyrod Taylor, who was erratic throwing it for most of the day, finally put something together. He connected on three straight throws against the No. 1 defense, including a 10-yard TD strike to Greg Boone. A perfect throw and a great, leaping grab by Boone over starting CB Stephan Virgil.

QB JU JU CLAYTON

ON LEADING AN IMPRESSIVE, 95-YARD DRIVE IN THE SCRIMMAGE: “I was just trying to move the ball down the field the best way I could. Coach Stinespring called good plays and some plays I just had to make something out of nothing.”

ON WHAT SPECIFIC PROGRESS HE SEES HIMSELF MAKING: “I’ve been able to read coverages better because of a lot of film work with Coach O’Cain. Then being able to pick up certain blitzes and working on my sights more for my receivers on corner blitzes and safety blitzes.”

ON BEGINNING TO GET COMFORTABLE: “Oh, yes, I feel myself settling in. I’m just making sure on my play-actions to flip my hips around quick and get back quick on the drops, make proper reads. I feel like I’m getting better at all that.”

ON HOW FAR HE’S COME SINCE SPRING STARTED, WHEN BOTH HE AND MARCUS DAVIS WERE STRUGGLING WITH THE SNAP COUNT: “The first day was pretty awkward, because that was the first day for both of us. After that, we went back to the dorm and practiced going over our cadence. It was new for him, so I told him the key points. We just went over certain plays and made sure we called out the right formations.”

QB MARCUS DAVIS

ON HIS PROGRESS: “I came a long way from Day 1, thanks to Ju Ju. We’ve got classes together. He’ll be telling me cadences and I recite them back to him during class. With his help, with Ty’s help, with Coach O’Cain’s help, I’ve come a long way from Day 1.”

ON WHAT CLASS THEY DO THIS IN: “Intro to acting. It’s not a big class, but she can’t really focus on all of us. It’s a class where we’re allowed to talk and interact with each other, warming up before the start of class. We’ll go around and he’ll say something to me and I’ll say it back, so it’s not like we’re interrupting anything.”

ON WHETHER JU JU’S 95-YARD DRIVE WORRYING HIM: “Yeah. When he had that drive, the first thing that came to my mind was: I’ve got to go out there and do something to show I’m ready to play also, so the coaches wouldn’t say he can’t handle the pressure. That really fueled me.”

ON HOW LITTLE HE KNEW ON THE FIRST DAY: “I didn’t know anything. I knew routes because I played receiver. I knew maybe a couple of drops. But my footwork was bad. My reads were bad. I was just going out there trying to make plays. The first day, you could see I was throwing to the tight ends, the check-down, because I didn’t really know how to make reads back then.”

ON WHEN THEY EXPECT TO FIND OUT WHO IS THE OFFICIAL NO. 2: “Monday, I guess before practice.”

ON HIS 62-YARD TOUCHDOWN RUN: “Like I said, I had to do something to counteract what he did. I felt good after that.”

ON HOW MUCH HE STILL DOESN’T KNOW: “Mostly it’s just some things I doubt myself on. It’ll be a motion or a movement and that kind of confuses me sometimes. But I re-say it to myself before I get under center and then it comes back to me. So maybe sometimes it’ll be a little slow, but as long as I get it off.”

TRAINER MIKE GOFORTH

ON OL JAYMES BROOKS’ ANKLE INJURY DURING THE SCRIMMAGE: “Oh, he’s just got an ankle sprain. It’s a high-ankle. X-rays were negative. Nothing I’m worried about for the summer or next fall. We’re good. (Likely sit out for the final week of spring ball, though.).”

ON DT COURTNEY PRINCE’S INJURY: “Just a right knee sprain. The ACL feels good. All the major ligaments are fine. He might not be out there next Saturday, but he’s going to be fine.”

ON LB JERON GOUVEIA-WINSLOW: “A right knee and right ankle. He had surgery on that knee back in high school. We’ll go back and look at the records of that, but we don’t expect that to be anything either.”

HEAD COACH FRANK BEAMER

ON THE BATTLE FOR BACK-UP QB: “We’re going to look at video then talk about it. I thought both of them did some good things. Both of them, you can see them just getting a little bit better all the time. Both great kids, and both of them give you something. We’re going to take a look at this video and make a decision from there. But I don’t that we’re in position to make a definite decision right now. Both of them kind of had their moments.”

ON JU JU CLAYTON’S BREAKOUT PERFORMANCE: “Yeah Ju Ju was 6 for 7 wasn’t he? (Yes, during one stretch). But then Marcus gives you something, too. And Marcus has only been playing quarterback here this spring. He wasn’t doing it in the fall. You see some good things. What I see is hope – that we’re going to have a pretty good back-up here before it’s all over.”

ON WHETHER THE COMPETITION RE-OPENS IN AUGUST: “Well, I think we go through the Spring Game. Right now, we’re going to get both of them a lot of work in the spring game. In the end, at some time, one of them needs to get most of the second-team work. That’s just the bottom line.”

ON WANTING TO NAME A NO. 2 BY MONDAY: “Well, that was the plan. You’ve got by what you see on the field and what I saw on the field was both of them give you something. I think both of them need to continue to develop that for a while before we make a final decision.”

ON WALDRON AT KICKER: “Waldron’s doing well. He has all spring. He’s been the most consistent all spring. We do a kicking contest every day just about, and he’s won most of them. He’s been the most consistent kicker we’ve got. But you know the other thing is both Hazley and Meyer both kicked the ball well today. We’re fortunate to have some good kickers here at Virginia Tech. But I think Waldron’s been, overall, the best this spring. He’s got good technique. He’s really worked at kicking. And his is the one that stays in the middle most of the time.”

ON RYAN WILLIAMS’ BIG BLOCK IN THE SCRIMMAGE: “He’s had a really good spring. He’s had some good runs. He’s got real toughness. He’s bigger and stronger than he was in the fall. I think he’s got a bright future.”

RB RYAN WILLIAMS

ON HIS FAVORITE PLAY IN THE SCRIMMAGE: “When I set to blocks for Ju Ju. I don’t remember who I blocked first, but they were coming Ju Ju’s way. I want to say A.B. Latif, but I’m not sure. But I slowed him down. Then I saw Kwamaine and I released off A.B. because I knew he wasn’t going to get Ju Ju. Then I made a block on Kwamaine and I was looking for more. I was having fun out there. It was like a big play field for me out there.”

ON SAYING HE ‘MADE A BLOCK’ BEING AN UNDERSTATEMENT, CONSIDERING HE DE-CLEATED BATTLE: “(Laughing) It felt good. After the situation, I heard the crowd, the coaches and everybody. I take pride in that. Any little thing I can do that will help this team, I’m all for it.”

ON THE KNOCK AGAINST HIM LAST YEAR BEING HIS BLOCKING: “My high school coach was here and he actually said, ‘They said you can’t block but you just put a big defensive lineman on his butt.’ It was cool. It felt good knowing what I was doing and didn’t have to ask the coach, didn’t have to be reminded by anybody. Just get the play called, go about my business and just work.”

ON ITCHING FOR THE SEASON TO START: “Very anxious. I feel like everybody’s put me on a high pedestal, and I love it. I never shy away from high expectations. I always try to be above what’s expected of me. I can’t wait. Everybody’s labeling me as the X-factor, the big-threat player. And that’s what I’m going to be.”

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR BUD FOSTER

ON HIS LIKELY STARTING LINEBACKERS: “I don’t know yet. Right now, I’ve been real pleased with Barquell (Rivers). He’s played very, very well, played very consistent, understands his position and the expectations of it. I just like where he is right now. Jake Johnson has really showed a lot of improvement. Some little things he needs to continue to improve on, but he’s a very willing kid, wants to please. I’ve been real pleased with his work ethic and how he’s responding. He’s going to be alright. Bruce Taylor’s really done some nice things. Today he missed a couple plays in space that he made a week ago. But he and Quillie (Odom), both those guys have gotten better and continue to improve. I just think Jake and Barquell are ahead of the curve a little bit. But I really feel much better about those kids, those four guys, now than I did.”

ON HIS BIGGEST CONCERN AT THIS POINT: “Right now, I still feel like our field corner is a concern, finding another corner. Chris Hill has done a great job out there. Him and Eddie Whitley have been the two that have been out there on a consistent basis. Rashad Carmichael has missed time (for class conflicts) and sometimes he comes out and doesn’t look like his technique and fundamentals are up to par. But we understand that, and he’s going to have a fall and two-a-days to do that. Same as (Stephan) Virgil. He should’ve played that play a little better that Boone scored on at the end. But he comes out one day a week, on Saturdays and scrimmages. He gets no technique or fundamental work.”

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