Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Bassett High graduate Brandon Dillard was projected to be a starting wide receiver this fall for Virginia Tech, but an Achilles injury that he suffered on Tuesday night will keep him out for the entire 2008 football season.

Virginia Tech's biggest question mark heading into the football season has become even more convoluted.

In a vicious blow to flanker Brandon Dillard and the Hokies' inexperienced wide receiving corps, the redshirt junior from Bassett High will be out for the season after rupturing his right Achilles tendon Tuesday evening in player-organized passing drills on the Tech practice field.

Dillard, who ran the 40 in 4.28 seconds last winter and made two huge plays in the Hokies' spring game on April 19 and had worked his way to No. 1 on the depth chart, will undergo surgery next Thursday at Montgomery Regional Hospital and will face four to six months of rehabilitation, Tech head athletic trainer Mike Goforth said Wednesday.

"Brandon caught a ball and just went to turn up field and blew it," Goforth said. "It's crazy. The crazier thing was I sitting in my office [Tuesday] talking to some engineering professors and an engineering student about how we don't see Achilles ruptures in this age group very much ... and boom!

"I have not had this injury since I've been here [10 years] ... never in all my years of athletic training, period," said Goforth, who has been in sports medicine at different levels for 17 years. "I've had game officials do it and I've had coaches do it, but never players. It's not unheard of, it happens, but it's very rare."

Dillard, who caught a 25-yard touchdown pass and set up another TD with a 49-yard reverse in the spring game, sustained the injury on a play in that he's made many times before -- a simple catch and a quick turn upfield off his right foot.

"From what I understand, Brandon was running a route and pushed off and felt something go," Tech offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring said Wednesday. "It's a totally fluke deal.

"It really pulls at your heart to see a guy who has worked so hard to get on the field, a guy who has waited on his time, to get hurt like that. We were counting on him a great deal. It's a setback not only to Brandon, but for this football team."

In a release from the school issued Wednesday, Dillard, 21, said: "I'm just going to try and turn this negative into a positive. I'll used this an opportunity to teach the young guys and even though I won't be playing this year, I'll still be cheering on my teammates.

"I'm going to get this surgery done, start rehabbing and slowly start trying to work my way back."

Goforth said the earliest he thought Dillard might be ready to go again would be in four months, meaning somewhere in early to mid-November. Goforth didn't sound overly confident, however.

"I don't think it has hit Brandon yet," Goforth said. "I fully laid out the situation to him. He's either one tough sucker or he's in a little bit of shock."

Scratching Dillard leaves the Hokies even more depth-shy and inexperienced at wide receiver. Tech lost four senior receivers off last year's 10-3 club who were either drafted or signed as free agents by NFL teams in late April.

"Losing four seniors is part of it," Hokies wide receivers coach Kevin Sherman said. "But here you're just looking forward to getting a guy on the field who has worked hard and improved so much. It's unfortunate for him because he was sitting behind those four seniors for two years and have his opportunity coming up this fall to show people what he could do."

Dillard, a walk-on, was close to earning his much-awaited scholarship following his breakout performance in the spring game. He will have to wait longer now. He could apply for a medical redshirt season, which would give him two years of eligibility if he misses this fall.

"I think Brandon was really looking forward to [being given a scholarship]," Sherman said. "He's worked his butt off to get to this point to have this setback. I think he's going to take it for what it is and fight through it, and maybe things will work out for him. I think they will."

With Dillard out of the fold, the Hokies' top wideouts include a pair of ex-quarterbacks -- redshirt senior Cory Holt and redshirt junior Ike Whitaker; redshirt sophomore Zach Luckett; redshirt sophomore Prince Parker and three redshirt freshmen: Danny Coale, Ervin Garner and Patrick Terry.

Macho Harris, the Hokies' All-American cornerback who worked at receiver this past spring, may wind up playing more offense than originally anticipated now.

Dyrell Roberts, Randall Dunn, and Jarrett Boykin, who are among 22 freshmen recruits who enrolled early in the second summer session of classes, are three youngsters who will command serious looks from Sherman in August preseason practice.

"We'll have to throw in those three freshmen and see what they can handle," Sherman said. "The first thing they have to do now though is get in that weight room with Coach [Mike] Gentry and learn our system and work ethic so that can help them going into August."