2008 College Football Preview

Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Victor Harris will be a two-way threat. | See a closeup

Virginia Tech

• Virginia Tech reloads for 2008 football season
• Macho Harris may double dip this season
• Aaron McFarling: In football, is it chicken or the egg?
• Virginia Tech's schedule

Virginia

• Virginia to endure survivor series as players go missing
• Winning 2007 season seems like ancient history for Virginia football
• Virginia's schedule

Teams in the area

• Ferrum: Dual quarterbacks on horizon for Ferrum | Ferrum at a glance
• VMI: Fresh start for VMI, coaching vet Woods | VMI at a glance
• Washington & Lee: New digs, schemes for Washington and Lee | W&L at a glance
• Southern Virginia: Schedule could be tougher for Knights | SVU at a glance

The ACC

• ACC suffering from conference inadequacy
• ACC capsules & players to watch
• 10 ACC games to watch
• Staff picks for the season

BLACKSBURG — Ask college football fans around the country to name the three winningest Division I-A programs since the start of the 1995 season, and many would name the first two on the list.

Ohio State, of course. The Buckeyes have won 130 times.

Florida? No shocker there. The Gators have 127 wins.

OK, who’s next? This is where most fans’ trifecta tickets wind up in the trash can.

Virginia Tech. Say what? That’s right. The Hokies have won 126 games in the 13-year span.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Tech senior cornerback Victor “Macho” Harris said. “Every year, Virginia Tech just reloads, not rebuilds. It’s that simple, really.”

May not be so simple this fall, though.

The Hokies’ ship has a lot of holes to fill. For starters, Tech lost seven starters off a defense that ranked fourth in the nation in yards allowed. Tech’s offense lost its four top receivers and its leading rusher.

But despite returning a league-low 10 starters, Tech was an overwhelming pick by the media to win the ACC Coastal Division.

Since moving from the Big East following the 2003 season, Tech has owned its new neighborhood, winning 27 of 32 regular-season games and capturing two titles in four years (2004 and 2007).

“It says a lot about our coaching staff,” senior quarterback Sean Glennon noted. “We lose [seven] guys on defense and people are still picking our defense to be pretty damned good. It’s says a lot about our players. We might be young and inexperienced, but I think we’re still pretty talented.”

Plus, they expect to win.

“Virginia Tech’s goal every year is to win the ACC championship and go to a BCS bowl game,” Glennon said. “We’ve come to expect nothing less than that. And all these young guys know what we expect out here. We expect 10 wins and a trip to Florida.”

Tech’s biggest keys to unlock the door to Tampa Bay for the Dec. 6 ACC championship game will have to be turned on offense. The Hokies are set at quarterback with Glennon and/or sophomore Tyrod Taylor — or any combination thereof. An offensive line that surrendered 54 sacks a year ago has the appearance of a much more cohesive and stronger unit this time, with four returning starters and redshirt freshman Blake DeChristopher.

The biggest question is at wide receiver where the Hokies lost the whole stock and barrel. Strong chance is there’s not another school in the country whose two leading returning receivers have caught a total of five career passes.

“Not much experience, but we have a lot of talent,” said redshirt junior Ike Whitaker, a converted quarterback whose three career receptions leads the unknown receiving cast.

Tech’s projected starters are redshirt freshman Danny Coale and true freshman Dyrell Roberts, following the suspension of Zach Luckett.

Behind those two comes Whitaker and more kids. The Hokies figure to play another true freshman in either Jarrett Boykin, Xavier Boyce or both.

“I think we’ve got some really talented freshman receivers,” coach Frank Beamer said.

Can they come in and play right off the bat?

Beamer paused and chuckled.

“Well, I think the good part is I think the further you can get away from the football, the quicker you can play,” he said. “And they’re about as far away from the football as they can get. If they get any further, we’re going to be out of bounds.”

To keep the ball in play and consistently move the chains until the receivers get their act together, the Hokies are hoping to rekindle a power running game that was shackled last season, running for a paltry 3.3 yards per carry. The Hokies’ backfield of Kenny Lewis and Jahre Cheeseman, plus others, will have some holes to run through, contend the big boys upfront.

“Coach [Bryan] Stinespring [offensive coordinator] has emphasized to us that we need to get back to the running game,” senior guard Nick Marshman said. “Because your play-action and your passing comes off that. If teams don’t think you have the running game, they can sit back and play defense, and wait for you to throw it.”

Defensively, Bud Foster’s bunch has looked like the usual deal in fall practice. The Hokies are fast … faster than last year.

The biggest concern is depth, especially at inside linebacker where fifth-year seniors Brett Warren and Purnell Sturdivant finally get to start after playing behind stars Vince Hall and Xavier Adibi. If one of those two should get hurt, there’s talent in reserve but it’s young and green.

A defense that has finished in the top four in the nation the past four years doesn’t figure to be missing a beat. Somehow, Foster manages to plug in new guys when needed to keep his side running with the country’s best.

“It’s been a while,” replied Foster, when asked the last time he had to replace seven starters. “But I’m as excited right now as I’ve been in a long time about our football team.”

Nobody wants to be part of a group that doesn’t live up to the majority of Foster’s “lunchpail” gangs of the past.

“I don’t want to think about that,” said Warren with a grin. “Seriously, I can’t give enough credit to Foster. I mean he knows his stuff. He knows how to teach us what to do and where to be. It works.”