Hokies Camp 2010, Vol. 20: Becton's back and SO MUCH more on the O-line ...

If you don’t care about backup offensive linemen or converted tight ends trying to maintain weight or which true freshmen will redshirt up front or which former big-time recruits are finally pushing for some playing time on the line ... read no further than the first five questions in the below interview.

For the casual fan, here’s all you really care to know: Today, new starting left tackle Nick Becton took a big step toward coming back from the turf-toe injury that has kept him out of the last two weeks of practice. Becton got 25-30 reps against the scout-team defense today and was both in substantial pain and looked rusty. He said he feels about 75 percent right now.

Becton is still not getting true full-contact work against the Hokies’ first- or second- or even third-string defenses, but this was a start. Becton said tonight that it’s up to him now when he returns to normal practicing and that he plans to do that in the next couple of days. He would also like to participate in Tech’s final preseason scrimmage on Saturday (which is closed to the media and public).

The coaching staff is getting anxious for Becton to be back and to show them he’s ready for the Boise State opener on Sept. 6. Line coach Curt Newsome has been jokingly calling Becton “Pudding” and telling him to push through the pain because the Hokies need him.

For more on that, and all the O-line depth-chart talk you can handle, read on.

(Quick catch-up on other good injury news for Tech: Starting CB Jayron Hosley (hamstring) was back practicing full-speed, full-contact today. Alonzo Tweedy (groin), who should be a starting gunner on the punt-coverage team and was expected to compete for the starting whip linebacker gig, also finally returned to full practice mode after missing almost the entire camp.)

You’ve been warned: Way-too-deep look at offensive linemen coming up in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

O-LINE COACH CURT NEWSOME

ON STARTING LT NICK BECTON GETTING SOME INCREASED WORK TODAY: “Scout team, which is very little. You want them to get close to full reps, but it’s not like going against the varsity. He’s not quite ready. He needs some time. He was in some pain (today), and we thought he would be. But I think with two weeks, he’ll be fine.”

ON WHETHER HE MEANS BECTON IS ‘NOT READY’ PHYSICALLY OR THAT HE’S RUSTY: “I would say both. He had a couple missed assignments out there. Just not quite as sharp as he needs to be.”

ON PUSHING BECTON TO PLAY EVEN THOUGH IT DOESN’T FEEL GOOD: “He’s got to play through the pain. He’s going to be in some pain. If we thought he could damage it more, we wouldn’t have him in there. We want to get him back. There’s still a couple questions. Michael Via got some reps today, the same (as Becton). We played him some at right tackle. Otherwise (if Via isn’t ready for the opener), we’d have to move Andrew (Lanier) around from right to left. Right now, if we played at the end of this week, you would think Nick Becton and Andrew Lanier would rotate.”

ON WHETHER LANIER WOULD START: “Based on the end of this week, but we have two weeks.”

ON THIS SATURDAY’S SCRIMMAGE BEING IMPORTANT FOR BECTON, THEN: “He’ll need to. He’ll need to show ... he needs reps right now. There’s only way to get them, to get in there and get it. That’s what I was trying to encourage him to do today, ‘Hey, when you set over here, it’s going to hurt.’ Everybody up front, at some point this season, is going to have to play through a little pain. His is just earlier than most everybody else.”

ON GREG NOSAL’S VALUE TO THEM LAST YEAR AS THE ROTATING GUARD AND WHETHER HE’S FOUND THAT RELIABLE BACKUP GUARD THIS PRESEASON: “Vinston Painter and David Wang have both gotten better – much better. Now, are they ready to play against Boise’s two defensive tackles right now? No.”

ON WHICH ONE IS CLOSEST TO BEING READY: “Well, one’s playing right and one’s playing left. Whichever one we had to replace, we’d go that route. (So no rotating guy this year.) And Andrew Miller (backup center) is getting some reps. He’s going to get center and guard. He’s had a few at guard and we’re going to get him some more so we just have plenty of options for a backup there.”

ON WHICH SIDE HE’D FEEL MOST COMFORTABLE PLAYING A BACKUP GUARD RIGHT NOW: “They both do some different things well. David is playing more physical and that’s what we needed him to do. Vinston has been a little better in protection here lately and that was one of his weaknesses. So I couldn’t say right now, but they are getting closer. This was a statement that I made in our meeting after the scrimmage, in yesterday’s meeting: ‘I like where both of y’all are headed; we’ve just got to do it faster.’ We’ve got to get this process speeded up, because we play here pretty soon.”

ON BEING COMFORTABLE WITH WHERE BECTON IS MENTALLY: “Yeah. He’s been involved, been in every meeting. Now, it is so different on that board. When I have that laser pointer, I can block all of them. It happens a little faster out there (on the field). Now he lines up out there and he’s been hearing it in the meeting room and it just doesn’t (snaps fingers) ... you heard Brett Favre say he needed the speed of the game; you know a left tackle that’s played 11 plays in his life needs the speed of the game. That’s what it is right now, just getting him out there. He was into it the whole time he was out, studying the film. He just needs those reps.”

ON HOW HIS LINE, OTHERWISE, IS GELLING THIS CAMP: “I like it. I really like the group. We’ve got hard workers, got some tough guys in there, guys that can move around, that can move their feet. We’ve gotten more athletic up there. And it’s a group that likes each other, is fun to go into the meeting room. It’s been getting that way. Toward the end of the year last year, we were pretty good up front. But I like where we’ve started off with this group. Got some smart guys, too, can do a few more things.”

ON NOSAL STRUGGLING LAST YEAR TO MAINTAIN ENOUGH WEIGHT AND BEING 296 BEFORE TODAY’S PRACTICE: “Oh, that is ... he was actually playing in this league, at times, at about 268. He’s just a hard worker, a converted tight end, athletic and all those things, but you need some girth. I don’t think you need to be 5-10 and 320 pounds, but he’s 6-6. He can hold the weight. I am so glad he has held it, because he’s become a more physical football player and that’s what we needed from the start.”

ON SEEING A DIFFERENCE IN NOSAL’S PERFORMANCE: “He can get more movement, can create more space in the running game, can lock down and handle a bull rush a lot better. Your average guy, they put on 30 pounds a year and you see it in their feet (slower). Well, his feet haven’t changed. The weight, you can see his body, he can handle it. He’s just stronger and able to hold up better.”

ON WHAT HE HOPES TO SEE FROM BECTON IN SATURDAY’S SCRIMMAGE: “I’d just like to see how fast he plays. Boise’s got two, three, four good defensive ends. The whole front’s all-conference. They’ve got some guys that can pressure the quarterback. I want to see if he can get out in space and handle those type of things. That’s what he was really good at (before the injury) and I would expect that to continue. Then how fast can he play in the run game?”

ON WHETHER THE STAFF HAS DECIDED ON WHETHER TO REDSHIRT TRUE FRESHMEN TACKLES MARK SHUMAN AND LAURENCE GIBSON: “We’ve talked about it as a staff and you’d like to ... we talked to both of them yesterday and said that’s the route we’d like to take. Now, you never say never because you have a couple injuries and you’ve got to pull those guys. I’d like to keep them involved and get some reps with us in practice, then do some scout-team things, but would like to redshirt those guys. You’re a better football player that fourth and fifth year. The amount of quality (practice) reps those guys have had as young guys is going to make them better anyway. I’d like to redshirt them, but that depends on how Michael (Via) holds up with his knee, and Nick (Becton) and all that.”

ON VIA GETTING ALL HIS PRACTICE TIME AT TACKLE, NOT CENTER WHERE HE STARTED THREE GAMES LAST SEASON: “Right now. It kind of depends ... we haven’t had them all back yet. To get Andrew (Miller) some reps at guard, you have to have Michael back. Then you want to see if Michael (can play tackle), because if you redshirt Laurence and Mark, then you’ve got four tackles you feel like you can depend on. I think what we’d end up doing is playing Andrew (Miller) and Michael in a backup role at center but playing them some at guard and tackle also. Michael’s played in three games. Andrew Miller’s had a really good camp; I trust him. He’s going to be a really good football player.”

ON WHETHER MILLER COULD END BEING THE GREG NOSAL (ROTATING BACKUP, PLAYING MAJOR SNAPS) OF 2010: “That’s a possibility. That depends. He hasn’t had enough reps (at guard) yet. They’ve (Wang and Painter) improved, and that’s why we haven’t had to make that move yet. You can see those (second-stringers) have held up in scrimmages and they go against the (starters) a lot. We’ve held up pretty well, so those guys are getting better.”

ON PAINTER, A MASSIVE, FREAKISH SPECIMEN, FINALLY TURNING A CORNER WITH HIS ACTUAL PERFORMANCE: “We’ve been waiting for that. We’ve been waiting for him to get over the hump. It’s just a little slow process. What I think: His last two years here, we’ll be daggone glad Vinston Painter decided to come to Virginia Tech.”

ON TWO YEARS OF TOP PRODUCTION FROM AN O-LINEMEN IN COLLEGE BEING FAIRLY STANDARD: “The most you’re going to get is three, if you’ve got a real good one – if you’re where you need to be up front.”

ON LANIER, ANOTHER CONVERTED TIGHT END, TRYING TO KEEP ON WEIGHT LIKE NOSAL: “Lanier is the one you’ve got to watch it with right now. He’s in the 275, 280, 285. He’ll never be a 300-pound guy, but you’ve got to watch it and not let him get too small. A big, physical defensive end, you worry about that. But he’s been able to keep it on, so that’s been a positive this camp. He likes to eat, but his isn’t going to go in the right places. He was a high school fullback. He’s got a kind of small frame. I worry about it when he gets too much. It kind of looks like mine (pointing to love handles).”

ON PREFERRING TO HAVE LINEMEN TRYING TO GAIN GOOD WEIGHT THAN A BUNCH TRYING TO LOSE BAD WEIGHT: “I don’t think that’s the route you want to go. Football has changed. Now, the NFL, they’ve got some 3-4 (defensive) teams that are just two-gap and you’ve got to have great, big guys. But college football is about speed. You go against that defense we try to block every day and you try to block them with some guys that can’t move, you’re going to hit on air a lot. You’ve got to have some guys that can move their feet. We’ve had those converted tight ends and those kids that played fullback in high school, and we’ve just had a little more success. We’ve batted a higher batted average with those guys converting to the offensive line, with athletic ability being No. 1 – and smart is not far behind that.”

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