Virginia Tech held an open scrimmage on Saturday afternoon in Lane Stadium, and the defense spent most of the afternoon completely dominating Tech’s #2 and #3 offenses at the line of scrimmage.

Even with no Antoine Hopkins, Bruce Taylor or Tariq Edwards in the front seven, the starting defense wreaked havoc up front with Tech’s backup offense.  The Hokie defense was fast and physical.

GMSAHokie will have more on the Tech offensive line later this week, but here are a few observations from me on the battle between the offensive line and the defensive line.

• There is a big dropoff from the first unit to the second unit on the offensive line, as expected.
• Vinston Painter looks good.  He got beat by James Gayle once, but a lot of people get beat by James Gayle .  Gayle vs. Jake Goins isn’t fair.  Poor Mark Leal had no chance to complete passes against the #1 defense.
• Dadi Nicholas ran with the #3 defense, and he completely dominated at least one series single handedly.  Tech’s #3 offensive line couldn’t handle him.  He had two sacks, and numerous other pressures that forced early throws.
• Justin Taylor completely abused Nick Acree on one play.  Acree works hard, but I just don’t think he’s a Division 1-A player.
• Tech’s #1 offensive line did fine.  They went up against the #2 defense for most of the day, but they also had a series or two against the starting defense and they held their own.
• Kris Harley is out of shape.  He’s listed at 283 on the roster, but it’s not a good 283.  He’s not in shape, and he got embarrassed on one play when Martin Scales stiff armed him to the ground in the open field.

Again, GMSAHokie will have more this week.  But for now, I like Tech’s starting group up front, while the depth behind them is very questionable.  I’ll feel better when Michael Via gets back from his injury.

...