Hokies Camp 2009, Volume 12 (O-line edition) ...

OK, so after yesterday’s deflating news, maybe you Hokies fans need some (potentially) encouraging info this evening.

Given that intro, I bet your first guess about my subject for tonight wouldn’t have been the offensive line, though, right? But ... it’s true ... there are signs pointing to positive progress for the “big uglies.” What a horrible moniker to get stuck with, by the way.

Yes, they’re all fairly large. But ugly? Who decided to hang that on every lineman for the rest of time?

Big fellas need love, too, people. (I’m just being proactive here, hoping to change the cultural stigma of being in the neighborhood of 300 pounds ... because the way I eat living in this college town, I might soon be moving into that neighborhood ... and I don’t want anyone shouting, “Hey, big ugly!” in my direction. I’m just saying.)

Let’s get serious. Virginia Tech’s offensive line could really, truly, be much-improved in 2009. Hey, stop laughing. I said we’re being serious.

What, you’re skeptical after two straight preseasons in which Tech’s coaches – with help from hacks like me – told you that the line might be, should be better? Only to have those lines surrender a combined 96 sacks? Uh ... yeah. I guess I understand your hesitancy.

Listen, I’m skeptical, too. To expect the worst is in a journalist’s DNA. People lie to us all the time.

But I’m kind of a numbers guy. This is, after all, a game of numbers. And examined the right way, I think the numbers don’t often lie. So here we go ...

To be blunt (and I'm just reading the numbers here), the Hokies’ offensive line has been, on average, fat over the last three seasons. Don’t take my word for it. The preseason starting five in 2006 averaged 309.4 pounds. In 2007, it was up to 320.6. Last year, the uglies were an average of 319.4 pounds.

Furthermore: In 2006, the preseason two-deep on the line had 7 guys who weighed at least 300 pounds, three of whom were 315-plus. In 2007, the two-deep had six 300-plus pounders, three 315-plus fellas. Those numbers were the same last year.

Perhaps it is no coincidence, then, that in 2006, Tech ranked 90th nationally in rushing and 79th in sacks allowed. Or that in 2007, the Hokies were 82nd in rushing and 115th in sacks allowed. Last season, despite the girth – and thanks largely to star RB Darren Evans and slashing QB Tyrod Taylor – Tech ranked 35th in rushing ... but still 111th in sacks allowed.

So why is there reason for hope this fall? Especially with Evans' knee blown out yesterday?

Well, this preseason’s starting five on the O-line averages a svelt 300.0 pounds. The two-deep has only five 300-plus pounders and only ONE guy over 315. That guy is Sergio Render, who Mel Kiper rates the No. 1 guard available for next April’s draft – so he clearly carries it just fine.

This bodes well for the Hokies. You see, line coach Curt Newsome likes lean, athletic blockers. That was the mark of his units at James Madison, where his line helped pave the way for a I-AA national title in 2004.

Newsome is entering his fourth season coaching Tech’s line. The last three seasons, he was playing with inherited linemen – a fair number of whom, head coach Frank Beamer admits, were recruiting misses.

Now, for the first time, this year’s line is made up entirely of Newsome’s kind of guys. There are two former tight ends in the starting five and two more in No. 2 roles. They can move their feet. They have gas in the fourth quarter. (Did you know that in 2008, Tech’s yards per carry dropped from 4.57 in the third quarter to 3.25 in the fourth? Or that in 2006, it dropped from 3.99 in the third to 3.07 in the fourth?)

Let’s pause for a moment for a reality check: Having several skinnier waists and a handful of guys who used to catch passes does not, by any stretch, guarantee greatness on the offensive line. And yes, the second group of linemen are still very young and largely untested.

BUT ... there is reason for (cautious) optimism with this group. At least that’s what they’re telling us. Again.

Are you a believer?

Here’s what the big beautifuls, and their coach, had to say ...

LG SERGIO RENDER

ON HOW HE INJURED HIS BACK IN PRACTICE FRIDAY: “I came off and hit a sled real hard. It didn’t move and I kind of jammed my back. I was out for the rest of that practice, but I’ve been practicing full for the rest of the days.”

ON HOW EXCITED HE IS FOR HIS SENIOR SEASON: “It went by fast, but it’s exciting. You couldn’t ask for a better group of offensive linemen or a better team. This is such a great group of guys. We all stayed here together again this summer, lost weight, worked hard. We’re just more of a complete offensive line. We just have to click together and play as a unit.”

ON WHETHER THIS LINE IS CLOSE TO THE KIND O-LINE COACH CURT NEWSOME WAS SUCCESSFUL WITH AT JMU (LEAN AND ATHLETIC): “Yeah, we are. If you were heavier and still could make the blocks, he wouldn’t mind. But if not, he wants you to lose weight, get in shape, and play every single snap at the top of your game.”

ON WHETHER THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST LINE AT TECH IN HIS FOUR YEARS: “I think it is. We’ve got some depth. We’ve got some guys that have played in games. I’m very excited. We’ve got a good line. We just can’t have mental errors.”

ON THE POSSIBILITY OF THE STARTERS ACTUALLY GETTING BREAKS THIS SEASON: “I always tell Coach Newsome I never want to come out of the game. But if need be, I feel good about my back-up coming in for a minute to take my place. We have back-ups that can play in games now.”

ON WHAT THAT’LL DO TO HELP THE STARTING LINEMEN LATE IN GAMES: “I think it will help a great deal. It gives you time to get your legs back up under you. You have a 17-play drive, it gives you a chance to gather yourself and then go back and play every snap at 100 percent.”

ON TIMES LAST SEASON WHEN HE WAS WORN OUT: “The first game against East Carolina was the hottest game I ever played in. It was so hot. It was rough. There were no breaks. It was hard to keep going. We tried. But this year we’re going to be in better shape than last year.”

ON THERE NOT BEING ANY SLOPPY FAT GUYS ON THIS LINE NOW: “That’s one of the biggest things. Our biggest guy is 325. That’s Vinston Painter, and he has hardly any fat on his body. So that’s a great deal. We have hardly any sloppy guys on this team. I like my gut. I don’t want abs or nothing like that. But we have some lean guys this year.”

ON BEING RATED BY ESPN’S MEL KIPER THE NO. 1 GUARD AVAILABLE FOR NEXT APRIL’S DRAFT: “I really don’t pay it no attention. It doesn’t matter if they’ve got me there right now. If I don’t go out and perform, show them that I am the best, then it’s not going to matter in the long run.”

ON WHETHER HE HAS PLAYED HIS BEST GAME OR BEST SEASON YET: “No, and that’s why I’m really looking forward to this season. This will be my best year. What bothered me in past seasons is sometimes I’d get a little winded and I’d have some plays were I just looked God-awful. But I’m going to correct that this year and go out there and play every snap full speed.”

ON HOW HE CAN CORRECT HIS INCONSISTENT PLAY: “It’s more of a mind thing. Sometimes when you’re real tired, you just want to stop. Even though I still come hard off the ball, I look sloppy. This year, I’m trying to fix that. I want to look good every play. I have some plays that I just dominate. Then I have some that I look real bad. But this is going to be a different year for me.”

ON WHAT KIND OF SHAPE HE’S IN RIGHT NOW: “Pretty good. On a hot day like this, I’ve been able to go full speed through all my drills. I’ve just got to keep getting better every day. I’m in the best shape right now of my last three years starting the season.”

ON THE NATIONAL TITLE TALK AND THE LINE BEING KEY TO THOSE HOPES: “We are the key to it. I mean, it’s a team thing, but we’re one of the main keys. Without us doing our job, the quarterback can’t hand the ball off to the running back, the running back can’t make plays, the receivers can’t catch passes. So we’re trying to put it all on our backs to carry this team to a national championship.”

ON THE ALABAMA D-LINE, ESPECIALLY ALL-AMERICAN D-TACKLE “MOUNT” CODY: “He’s a big, big guy. It’s going to be a battle in the trenches come Sept. 5. That gets me fired up. Plus, to play in my home state of Georgia gets me fired up, too. And Cody’s good, but No. 95 is also real good. Real good. That’s just going to be a battle and we need to be ready for it.”

RT BLAKE DECHRISTOPHER

ON EVERYONE WONDERING, YET AGAIN, WHETHER THIS IS THE YEAR THE O-LINE BECOMES LESS OF A WORRY AND MORE OF AN ASSET: “To be honest, we come out every year trying to be the best we can. This year, I feel good with our mentality and where we are physically. We’ve had a lot of guys working hard. We’ve got a lot of athletic guys. If you look at it: Beau Warren was a tight end when he came in. Ed Wang was a tight end. Sergio and Jaymes Brooks are both very athletic guys. I think it helps a lot. And we have a lot of athletic back-ups, which is going to come in handy because Coach Newsome can give us some breaks.”

ON HOW MUCH IT WILL HELP LATE IN THE GAME TO GET SOME SHORT BREAKS EARLIER: “If you look at any college football team in the country that primarily plays just one offensive line group for the whole game, it shows. Maybe in the third quarter, fourth quarter, guys get tired. So this is really going to help the team, as much as I hate to say it, because I never want to come off the field. But if it’s only for a series once in a while to give us a breather, it will definitely help.”

ON BEING MORE CONFIDENT IN THE O-LINE BACK-UPS THIS YEAR THAN LAST: “For sure. Greg Nosal, Andrew Lanier are both guys that can play right now. Lanier is pushing me. I like that. Some people don’t want competition right on their butt, but I love it. I’m getting better every day.”

ON THE POSSIBILITY OF THE LINE ACTUALLY BECOMING A STRENGTH OF THE TEAM IN THE NEAR FUTURE: “I definitely think so. The way our guys worked this summer in the Iron Palace, getting big, it has carried over. We just need to keep it going. I think during the summer, that’s a good time for us to get together and get close.”

O-LINE COACH CURT NEWSOME

ON HOW HE FEELS AFTER HEART BYPASS SURGERY THIS SUMMER: “I’m feeling good. I get here early in the morning and Coach Hite and I go for a walk. I’m trying to eat healthier.”

ON THE STORY OF HIS HEALTH ISSUES, IN BRIEF: “We go get a physical. The Doc says they’ve got a new CT scan if we want to sign up. I say, ‘OK.’ Then I call them the next day and say, ‘You know, I’m going to wait until after the season.’ I walk down to Billy’s office and he says, ‘No, no. What are you doing? You’re getting the test. I need it, too. We’re going to get it.’ So I call them back and say, ‘I’m the guy who just cancelled. Can I come on Saturday?’ I get the CT scan and the doctor says there’s major issues there. I go back Wednesday and get the catheterization, where they go in through your veins and look at your arteries. I had one blocked 100 percent and one blocked 99 percent. I’m not a health expert, but I think there’s only three total.”

ON THIS BEING VERY BAD NEWS, THEN: “Oh, I thought I was checking out. They put me in an ambulance and took me to Roanoke immediately. The doctor really helped me in telling me to take this test.”

ON WHETHER HE THINKS IT SAVED HIS LIFE: “I believe it did. Because sooner or later, something would’ve happened out here on the field.”

ON WHEN THE SURGERY WAS: “Seven weeks ago (Friday).”

ON HIS WEIGHT LOSS SINCE THEN: “I’ve lost about 20 pounds. I’m just trying to eat better and exercise. I figured if it took 50 years to get that bad, if I do the right things maybe it’ll take a lot longer to get back that way.”

ON WHETHER THIS LINE AT VT IS THE CLOSEST YET TO THE TALENTED LINES HE HAD AT JMU, IN THAT THEY ARE LEANER AND MORE ATHLETIC: “Well, yeah, and I think anybody would prefer a guy that can move his feet. The defensive lines have gotten so athletic that really, to keep up with those guys, you have to be athletic. Any more, the day of just getting big guys and mauling people are over. They can load the box and outnumber you with secondary guys to where you’re not going to be able to run it anyway. But, yes, Ed Wang was an ex-tight end. Beau Warren was an ex-tight end. Blake DeChristopher can move his feet. Jaymes Brooks is an athletic guy. I like those guys. They’re that type of guy. Greg Nosal and Andrew Lanier are ex-tight ends that are athletic and ready to help us. Nick Becton is athletic. Vinston Painter has had a very good couple days of practice. He’s come in great shape and he’s been better in drills than he’s ever been.”

ON THIS LINE BEING, ACROSS THE BOARD, NOW BEING THE RIGHT TYPE OF LEAN BODY STYLE HE WANTS: “As a staff, that’s the direction we wanted to go. We’re looking for guys on film ... we look from the waist down first, guys who can move their feet.”

ON NOT HAVING A FULL LINE OF HIS OWN TYPE OF GUYS THE LAST COUPLE YEARS AND WHETHER THIS IS REALLY THE FIRST SEASON IN WHICH IT’S FAIR TO JUDGE HIS COACHING OF THE LINE: “Well, I think you’re judged every year, no matter what. I think it is to a degree. But we play some pretty good defenses this year, too. We open up with a team that was No. 3 in the country in defense and 10 of them are back. I’ve coached for 28 years and I’ve been judged every year for what I put out on the field. I don’t get into the judging business. It’s production. Toward the end of last season, we were productive. It wasn’t like we played 14 games where we didn’t show up. We need to be consistent.”

ON STARTING SLOW IN TWO STRAIGHT SEASONS: “I’d like to see us get off to a better start. That has been an issue, the way we’ve come out of the blocks. The last couple years, the last half of the season, we’ve been pretty good.”

ON HOW YOU CHANGE HOW A TEAM STARTS, AS A COACH: “We’ve discussed it from Day 1. I don’t think it hurts when you open with a team like Alabama. I think our players realize how important every practice is. You stress it every day: We can’t waste a rep. We can’t waste a practice. And you hope you see the results in September.”

ON WHAT, EXACTLY, IS HIS ‘TYPE’ OF LINEMAN: “I like athletic guys who are tough. Tough, smart guys can play up front. We’re talking about body types and all that, but you get a guy that’s fairly intelligent who doesn’t like to lose, you can make an offensive linemen. It’s the one position where you don’t have to run a 4.4. Size and feet, and all that matter, but still that toughness factor is huge.”

ON HIM SAYING IN THE PAST THAT LEFT TACKLE ED WANG HAS ALL THE TALENT A GUY NEEDS BUT LACKED A KILLER INSTINCT AT TIMES: “He’s playing much more physical. I think the Florida State game was a turning point for him. He lost a couple of battles out there and he really took it to heart. He improved after that. He played faster, more physical. The last five games, he was an improved player.”

ON WHAT HE EXPECTS IN WANG’S SENIOR SEASON: “It’s a big, important year for him. For our football team and him personally. He’s a guy they’ll be looking at to play at the next level with everything he can do. He’s a senior now and he needs to take on a leadership role up front. I think he’s going to have a great season. I hope he does.”

ON WANTING TO PLAY MORE GUYS ON THE LINE THIS YEAR: “I think they’re all closer to being ready. We’ll see. We’ll play that by ear. As we go through camp, we’ll find out how close they are to being ready. And what the rotation will be. Will it be a third series with one guy going in at guard and one guy going in at tackle? We’ll have to decide that as a staff.”

ON HIS IDEAL NUMBER OF SNAPS THE BACK-UPS SHOULD GIVE THE STARTERS A BREAK: “I don’t know if there’s a number. We’d like to get to a series thing, where every third series a guard could come out, or a tackle could come out.”

ON NOT LOOKING, THEN, AT EVER TRYING TO ROTATE A FULL FRESH LINE IN FOR A SERIES EVERY NOW AND THEN: “No. That’s been done in the past. In a perfect world, you’d like to. But I don’t know if we’ll get to that point. I do feel a lot better about those guys, and they continue to get better. You know, you’re still talking about some young guys in those back-up roles. Nick Becton is a young guy. Greg Nosal is young, but I think he’s certainly ready. Michael Via is I think a heckuva prospect. He’s very close to being ready, but he’s still a redshirt freshman. I’ve said forever: In a perfect world, when you recruit the right ones, their first start is as a redshirt sophomore. I think it takes that long. This should really be Blake’s first year starting. Jaymes Brooks is a good example of that.”

ON WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS YEAR’S BACK-UPS: “I just think they’re athletic. I think they’re just a good group. They haven’t been out on the field yet, so we’ll see how that goes when they get out there.”

ON WANTING TO SEE MORE FROM HIS GUYS IN PASS PROTECTION: “We don’t just talk about sacks with our group. I emphasized we didn’t average enough in the run game. We cut our sacks down by 12 last year. I put it on the board after each game, the number we gave up and where they came from in our room. We would like to improve in that area.”

ON HOW MUCH HE THINKS INJURIES HURT THE LINE’S CONSISTENCY OVER THE LAST COUPLE SEASONS: “The biggest thing I’d like to see from the linemen ... like the last half of the season a year ago, the last half of the season the year before that, we were much, much better at the end of the season. I don’t think our schedule allows us to be that way up front. That’s how I’ve challenged them ... being better as an offensive line early in the season.”

ON THE EFFECT OF NOT PLAYING MORE LINEMEN IN ROTATION LAST YEAR, ESPECIALLY IN THE SWELTERING ECU GAME: “I think we’ve got the best strength program in the country. But it is still hard. We would’ve been better if we could’ve gotten some guys out. We weren’t as productive in the second half, and we’re in the production business. So it could’ve had something to do with it.”

ON WHETHER IT’S ALMOST AS IMPORTANT TO HAVE QUALITY BACK-UPS AS IT IS TO HAVE FIVE REALLY GOOD STARTERS: “Yeah, I think so. I think it’s critical to have enough depth that you can trust to get those guys out. Because if you just get them out a series, they’re a better football player. One series a half, that’s what you’d like to get to. And we’re getting closer to that.”

ON HOW HE ROTATED PLAYERS IN HIS BEST YEAR’S AT JMU: “I had three guards, rotated the guards. So I played six. And, actually, what you’re looking for is a tackle that can play either side and a guard that can play either side. That’s seven. You can get through a game with seven. The NFL guys only travel with eight. (Tech will travel 10 or 11).”

ON GETTING BACK TO PRACTICE AFTER HEART BYPASS SURGERY: “After the summer I had, it’s been good coming back. I feel better now. My pulse hasn’t been too high out on the field. But I haven’t changed too much, I don’t think.”

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