■ 25 August 2009 | 9:06 PM
Just a quick nightcap. I grabbed several interviews after tonight’s practice and I’ll spread them out over the next couple of days. But here are a couple that will be of immediate interest to you, dear readers.
First, a couple of notes: As expected, RB David Wilson and RB Josh Oglesby were both back to full-speed, full-contact practices today. With their return, there are now NO players in blue, non-contact jerseys.
Minus starting RB Darren Evans, who is done for the year, the Hokies are healthy. Trainer Mike Goforth said that nasty infection in Oglesby’s heel is healed – completely. He said the infection is gone and the wound is closed.
The training staff bandaged and wrapped it before practice and cut a V-shaped notch out of the back of his cleat to avoid any rubbing on the area.
That’s all the news today. (Oh, and one to whet your appetite ... I saw TE Greg Boone wing a 40-yard bomb today out of the Wild Turkey. He’s clearly been keeping his arm loose.)
On to the Qs and As ...
RB DAVID WILSON
ON HOW HIS SHOULDER FELT ON HIS FIRST DAY BACK IN FULL-CONTACT PRACTICE: “It’s still sore. But you know, I just realized I’m just going to have to play around it to be ready for the Alabama game.”
ON NOT WORRYING ABOUT GETTING INJURED AGAIN: “You’ve got to forget about things like that and just perform the best you can. If you’re thinking about injuries, you’re not going to perform. I always feel it’s not up to me whether I’m going to get injured or not. So I just go 100 percent on each play.”
ON MISSING MORE THAN A WEEK OF PRACTICE AND HIS FOCUS FOR THESE NEXT TWO WEEKS: “Well, I actually feel more confident, because I got a lot of mental reps, seeing exactly what’s going down as the play progresses. I found some little helpful tips by watching.”
ON THE TRANSITION FROM WATCHING BACK TO DOING IT: “(Hite) made a comment about us. He said he didn’t think we needed to take two days off again. (Wilson said the team looked sluggish.)”
ON TAKING CONTACT TODAY: “Yeah, we did one-on-ones and blocking, and I did good with that. I still felt it, but I try to ignore. I’d say I’m 95 percent (healthy).”
ON WHETHER HE RAN A LOT TO STAY IN GOOD SHAPE: “Oh, yeah, I ran every day in the conditioning drills with the team. I was so determined not to miss. I was in here Saturday trying to convince the coaches to let me play. I don’t like to miss anything about football. It’s a lot of determination.”
ON WHAT HE DID NEXT TO BILLY HITE IN PRACTICE EVERY DAY: “I’d tell him my assignment on the play, exactly what I’d do from the steps to the block to the finish. He was impressed by that. When I first took that hit and realized my shoulder was hurt ... I was standing on the sideline and kind of grieving. Then I said, ‘I’m not going to let no time go by.’ I went out there and did what I could.”
O-LINE COACH CURT NEWSOME
ON HIS EVALUATION OF THE LINE AFTER TWO-PLUS WEEKS OF CAMP AND TWO SCRIMMAGES: “I think they’re moving in the right direction. I thought the 1s were very good last week. They graded out really well and were very consistent. Most of them were in the 80s.”
ON THE TIME THE FIRST LINE GAVE TYROD TO THROW AND THE ROOM THEY GAVE THE BACKS TO RUN: “It was good. I think these guys are coming.”
ON HOW MUCH FARTHER THE PASS PROTECTION IS THIS YEAR COMPARED TO LAST: “I don’t know. We’ll find out a week from Saturday. I felt comfortable, thought we’d be a little better than we were a year ago. So we just have to keep working at it and wait to see.”
ON HOW HARD IT IS TO GUAGE WHAT HE REALLY HAS WITHOUT SEEING THEM IN A REAL, LIVE GAME: “It’s always difficult. That’s the bad thing about college football: You don’t get four preseason games to really look at them.”
ON WHICH GUYS IN BACK-UP ROLES WOULD BE READY TO PLAY IF THERE WAS A GAME TOMORROW: “We’ve got some guys that are ready. (RT) Andrew Lanier needs to play and (LG) Greg Nosal is ready to play. After to that, we’ll see. (LT) Nick Becton is next. He’s close. You want to see how he progresses. Then (C) Michael Via, but you don’t interchange at center. But we feel comfortable with him. You’d like to have another year for him to get bigger and stronger, but he’s a sharp guy that works at it.”
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