Hokies Camp 2010, Vol. 23: Who's this Jacob Sykes guy again?

As promised, today you get an introduction to CB Jacob Sykes.

First, a couple of notes:

* WR Xavier Boyce and LB Lorenzo Williams got the results of their MRIs this morning. Pretty good news for Boyce, whose left knee injury looked pretty serious on Saturday. He has a grade-2 MCL sprain, which doesn’t require surgery, and he’ll be out 4-6 weeks. Pretty bad news for Williams, who always seems to be battling injury. He tested positive for a Lisfranc sprain in his right foot and will likely have surgery next Thursday. He’s expected to miss the entire 2010 season. Williams was third on the depth chart at whip linebacker and Boyce was probably Tech’s fifth-best receiver, but it stinks for both young guys who were trying to make a move this camp.

* I exchanged a few e-mails with athletic director Jim Weaver’s assistant today and a few pieces of interesting info. I saw a recent report that only 14 of 120 FBS schools actually made a profit from campus athletics in 2009 and wondered if Tech was one of them. Turns out, they were. Weaver’s assistant said the Hokies “finished the year in the black with a small surplus in our operating budget.” ... Was also curious about the status of men’s basketball coach Seth Greenberg’s new contract, the details of which were supposed to be revealed weeks ago. Weaver’s assistant said the contract is not yet finalized, that “university counsel is still working with outside counsel on the deferred compensation section of that contract.”

* Finally, in my continued pursuit of an accurate number of tickets sold for the Boise-VT game, I continue to come up empty. The Redskins VP told me last week they had “less than 10,000” to sell in a 91,000-seat stadium. Weaver said on the radio this week that 67,000 tickets have been sold. I asked his assistant for the latest, most-accurate, TOTAL number of tickets sold, and was told, “You’ll need to check with FedEx regarding the total, but 26,000 have been sold (directly) by VT.” Clear as mud.

Now, back to the Jacob Sykes Story.

He’s a 6-foot-1, 190-pound redshirt junior from Goldsboro, N.C., who came to the Hokies in the Class of 2006 as a wide receiver, rated the No. 28 prospect in his state by rivals.com. Sykes averaged 20 yards per catch as a senior in high school and had 800 yards in kick and punt returns.

As a freshman at Tech, he ran a 4.48 in testing and posted a 35-inch vertical leap – both pretty impressive measurables.

None of that, however, is what makes Sykes so interesting.

What’s wild about his story is that Sykes moved from receiver to cornerback before the 2008 season. He played in all 14 games that season on special teams, posting the only five tackles of his career.

Last season, instead of building on that, he pretty much faded into obscurity – with the exception of one exceptional play. Sykes blocked a punt against Miami that was returned for a touchdown, helping ignite an absolute beat-down of a highly hyped Hurricanes team.

So anonymous was Sykes, though, that he didn’t originally get credit for the block. Up in the press box, his No. 37 jersey (wet from a downpour and crumpled up) looked like the more recognizable Kam Chancellor’s No. 17. And it made way more sense to everyone watching for Chancellor to have made that play.

But it was Sykes, and that was the last time anyone really heard of him ... until he suddenly became a playmaking machine during the last three weeks of preseason camp. In two scrimmages, he’s broken up four passes.

The sudden emergence led the inquisitive minds of the media to ask Tech’s coaches about Sykes. Which led to both defensive coordinator Bud Foster and defensive backs coach Torrian Gray calling him the “surprise of camp” and noting, bluntly, that they’d pretty much told Sykes he could “go on with the rest of his life” in the past year. But he refused.

OK, so my interest is officially piqued. I’ll let Jacob take it from here ...

CB JACOB SYKES

ON REACHING A CROSSROADS IN HIS TECH CAREER THIS WINTER: “I was home during holiday break and I got a call from Coach Beamer’s secretary saying he wanted to talk to me. He called me and said, basically, I don’t have to return if I don’t want to. When he said that, it put a lot of things into perspective. I started here and I didn’t want to quit. He gave me the option that if I wanted to stay, it was up to me. So I talked to my parents. They knew I’d never quit anything I started in my life. If I was going to go out, I was going to go out with everything I had. Coming into spring practice, I gave it everything.”

ON WHY HE GOT THAT CALL FROM BEAMER: “At that time, I wasn’t performing to the expectation they had for me – and I wasn’t performing to the expectation I had for myself. Being in this program, you have to come up to where Virginia Tech is at. I had to pick up everything I was doing, get better, put a better effort forward.”

ON WHETHER BEAMER ESTABLISHED CONDITIONS IF HE DECIDED TO STAY: “Yeah, it was basically if I was going to stay, I had to perform very well. I knew that coming in from winter break, going into winter workouts and spring ball. It was just an uphill battle from the time he called me to now, really.”

ON BEAMER’S CALL FLIPPING A COMPETITIVE SWITCH IN HIM: “Yeah, no doubt. It turned on all the switches I have in me. I have a son back home. I couldn’t live with myself having an opportunity to play here and make big things of myself and my life, while he’s home, and not doing it. If I wasn’t going to play, I could’ve stayed back home for that.”

ON THE BIGGEST CHANGE HE MADE: “I put better effort into everything I’m doing, not being lackadaisical. I watched film more. I really didn’t watch that much film before. I relied on my athletic ability, which you can’t really do playing at this level.”

ON WHETHER NOTED FILM JUNKY AND STAR CB ROCK CARMICHAEL HELPED WITH THAT: “Oh, yeah. We’ve been close since spring of 2005 when we came to football camp together. We met then and have been tight, like brothers, ever since. He’s had a lot to do with it. And a lot of my other brothers on the team, guys I call my brothers. I called Rock and talked to him (after Beamer’s call) and decided from then on, ‘I’ll give it my all and see what happens.’ ”

ON HAVING ONE HUGE HIGHLGHT AT TECH, A BIG BLOCKED PUNT AGAINST MIAMI LAST SEASON, AND WHETHER HE HOLDS ONTO THAT IMAGE FOR MOTIVATION: “I think of it, but I don’t really stay on it. I want to make progress from that. I know how it felt, so I can just imagine how it will feel to make more plays, bigger plays, in a bigger spotlight. That just makes me work hard. I can envision myself making more plays. That’s a stepping stone for me right now.”

ON HOW GOOD IT HAS FELT TO SHINE IN BOTH OF TECH’S PRESEASON SCRIMMAGES AND DRAW RAVE REVIEWS FROM THE COACHES: “It means a lot, but I can’t dwell on what I’ve done so far. I’ve got to work harder. I’ve seen plays that I’ve made recently where maybe I could intercept the ball instead of breaking it up. So I’m just watching more film, spending more time in the weight room, and getting ready to make more plays.”

ON THE VALUE OF BEING A CORNERBACK IN A PROGRAM KNOWN FOR DEVELOPING GREAT CORNERS: “I’ve seen a lot of players since I came in as a freshman – Macho (Harris) and Brandon (Flowers) – and just to know that I can be a part of that prestige is amazing. And coach (Torrian) Gray is a terrific coach. He pushes the buttons that you need to have pushed to get the best out of you. I’m blessed to be in this position I’m in.”

ON GOING FROM ALMOST OFF THE TEAM IN JANUARY TO THINKING ABOUT COMPETING FOR A VACANT STARTING CORNER JOB IN 2011: “My whole mindset changed. I have to take advantage of this opportunity. A lot of people from where I’m from don’t have chances like this. I have to do something with it. It’s what you dream of when you’re a little boy in your back yard, making imaginary plays. You imagine you’re on the big field, in a big spotlight, with a great team like Virginia Tech. That’s the ultimate goal.”

ON BELIEVING HE HAS A REAL CHANCE AT THAT JOB NEXT SEASON, WHICH WILL BE VACATED BY CARMICHAEL: “Any spot is open. Competition breeds excellence. That’s one of Coach Gray’s quotes he goes by. I’m looking forward to competing with those guys next year and see who can get that open job.”

* For instant updates on the Hokies, follow me at twitter.com/kyletuckerVP

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