What to do With Three Remaining Scholarships?
By my count, Virginia Tech has 82 scholarship football players heading into the 2012 season. HokieSports.com has removed the freshmen who aren’t enrolling until January, and there have also been a couple of position moves amongst true freshmen.
Here’s a quick breakdown of Virginia Tech’s scholarship players by position, as listed on HokieSports.com. Keep in mind that we don’t know for a fact that each and every one of these players are on scholarship, but this is our best educated guess at this time.
Offensive tackles (8) – Nick Acree, Nick Becton, Augie Conte, Jake Goins, Vinston Painter, Mark Shuman, Adam Taraschke, Michael Via
Offensive guards (4) – Matt Arkema, Brent Benedict, Laurence Gibson, David Wang
Centers (3) – Andrew Miller, Caleb Ferris, Jack Willenbrock
Quarterbacks (3) – Logan Thomas, Mark Leal, Brenden Motley
Running backs (6) – J.C. Coleman, Tony Gregory, Michael Holmes, Chris Mangus, Martin Scales, Trey Edmunds
Fullbacks (1) – Joey Phillips
Tight ends (6) – Randall Dunn, Dakota Jackson, Ryan Malleck, Eric Martin, Duan Perez-Means, Darius Redman
Flanker (4) – Joel Caleb, Marcus Davis, Der’Woun Greene, Demitri Knowles
Split end (8) – Kevin Asante, D.J. Coles, Corey Fuller, Mark Irick, Christian Reeves, Dyrell Roberts, E.L. Smiling, Joshua Stanford
Defensive ends (9) – Dewayne Alford, J.R. Collins, Ken Ekanem, James Gayle, Jarontay Jones, Zack McCray, Matt Roth, Justin Taylor, Tyrel Wilson
Defensive tackle (7) – Kris Harley, Antoine Hopkins, Derrick Hopkins, Luther Maddy, Corey Marshall, Alston Smith, Nigel Williams
Linebacker (7) – Deon Clarke, Tariq Edwards, Brian Laiti, Bruce Taylor, Jack Tyler, Devin Vandyke, Chase Williams
Whip (3) – Jeron Gouevia-Winslow, Alonzo Tweedy, Ronny Vandyke
Cornerback (5) – Antone Exum, Kyle Fuller, Donaldven Manning, Donovan Riley, Davion Tookes
Free safety (4) – Michael Cole, Desmond Frye, Kyshoen Jarrett, Dahman McKinnon
Rover (2) – Boye Aromire, Detrick Bonner
Punter (1) – Michael Branthover
Kicker (1) – Cody Journell
Unless my math is incorrect, or not all of those guys are on scholarship, that means Tech will have 82 scholarship players on their roster for the 2012 season.
What will Virginia Tech do with those three remaining scholarships? They’ve got a couple of options. They can either put them in their pockets and save them for next year, or they can reward them to deserving walk-ons. Current scholarship players who are former walk-ons include Martin Scales, Joey Phillips, Jack Tyler and Corey Fuller.
Ideally you would like to reward scholarships to rising seniors. They are deserving guys, but you really don’t want a walk-on caliber player tying up a scholarship for 3-4 years unless he’s really deserving and you know he’s going to play a lot, such as Jack Tyler.
There are two walk-on seniors who contribute significantly to the Hokies: whip linebacker Wiley Brown, and tight end George George. Brown played over 90 snaps over the course of 14 games last season, seeing most of his action on the kickoff team. George played 91 snaps on offense and 131 on special teams. Both of these guys have the potential to contribute a lot on special teams again this year. Rewarding Brown and George with scholarships won’t cut down on the number of recruits Tech can take, because both of those guys are rising seniors.
Another possible option would be to add Penn State transfers before the start of the season. Bill Roth confirmed on Twitter yesterday that Virginia Tech has been contacted by Penn State players:
“Coach Beamer confirmed during Norfolk Hokie Club Q&A that ‘a couple’ PSU players have contacted VT. ‘A very unusual situation,’ he said.”
I don’t know which two players that could be, and unless they end up at Virginia Tech, it’s likely that we’ll never find out. I mentioned Eugene Lewis as a possibility in an article earlier this week, but the true freshman told newspapers on Tuesday that he would stick with his Penn State commitment. If Virginia Tech does choose to add somebody from Penn State, I’d be in favor of grabbing an offensive lineman if one becomes available.
Virginia Tech doesn’t historically get many transfer players. I’d be in favor of handing a scholarship to the two senior walk-ons mentioned above, and then pocketing that last one for an extra 2013 or 2014 recruit.
Hokies Modify Future Schedules
The ACC is set to jump to a 9-game conference schedule beginning next season. That means that ACC teams who already had four non-conference games scheduled in future seasons have to drop one of those games.
Virginia Tech is one of those teams. The Hokies have postponed their 2014 road trip to East Carolina, and they also dropped a 2015 home game against Akron. According to David Teel of the Newport News Daily Press, the contract for the Akron game was never signed. Tech has also signed Liberty as a home opponent for the 2016 season.
Tech’s future non-conference schedule looks like this:
2013: Alabama in Atlanta, Western Carolina and Marshall at home
2014: William & Mary and Western Michigan at home, Ohio State on the road
2015: Ohio State, East Carolina and Furman at home
2016: Liberty and Wisconsin at home, East Carolina on the road
That’s a pretty balanced non-league schedule, in my opinion. There is a very difficult opponent each year, but the Hokies should be able to win the rest of those games without much of a problem.
I’m going to be very interested to see Virginia Tech’s scheduling philosophy in the future. The ACC schedule will be more difficult, assuming the league improves. (I think it will.) Another consideration is that selection committee that chooses playoff teams. Do you load up on cupcakes to better your chances to go undefeated? Or is that committee going to be more impressed with a schedule that includes someone like Alabama, Ohio State or Wisconsin?
We don’t know how much longer Jim Weaver will remain as director of athletics at Virginia Tech. The next AD could have a completely different scheduling philosophy. I still believe that Jeff Bourne is the top man for that job. We’ll just have to wait and see where things stand whenever Jim Weaver decides to step down.
Keep These Dates in Mind
We began our preseason coverage of Tech football this week with previews of the quarterbacks and running backs. As the days go by, we’ll have more preview articles. There are also some important preseason dates that you should keep in mind:
August 6 – Team report date. Heights/weights likely updated this day or the day after.
August 7 – Practice begins.
August 11 – Media day
August 18 – Saturday Open scrimmage, Lane Stadium, 4pm
August 22 – Wednesday Open scrimmage, Lane Stadium, 4pm
Typically Virginia Tech has their two open scrimmages on Saturdays. In most years, their second open scrimmage in 2012 would be on Saturday, August 25. So why are they pushing it up to Wednesday, August 22?
I’m guess that they are going to start installing their Georgia Tech game plan very early. The coaches will look at the tape from the August 22 scrimmage, decide on their final two-deep, and they will begin teaching their players the game plan on August 23. That would give them a lot of extra practice time leading up to September 3.
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Future schedules on hokiesports.com show only 8 ACC games for 2014-2016. Aren’t Hokies to play Pitt every year? Thanks
Chris, I agree that Jeff Bourne would be a great choice for VT. I had the opportunity to work with Jeff on occasion when I worked at Tech years ago. He always struck me as very sharp, organized, detailed oriented and an excellent business person. With the resume he has built at JMU he appears to have what it takes for the Tech AD job.
I’m sure there will be other qualified people interested in the AD position. Personally, I hope Jeff gets a shot at it when the time comes. In addition to his qualifications, he knows Tech.
I’m surprised that there isn’t a candidate for AD on Jim Weaver’s staff. I’m sure Bourne is a good choice but it is always good to promote from within and it seems that JW would be grooming a replacement with his impending retirement.
Why is it always good to promote from within?
Continuity and loyalty are good reasons. I wouldn’t want to work for a company where I felt I had no chance for promotion. I probably should have qualified it by saying if there was a qualified candidate.
We need to hire the best person for the job, not limit ourselves to someone already on the staff. It is certainly not always best to promote from within. If that route is chosen, you will have an AD with no direct hands on experience running an athletic department. JW worked at smaller schools before becoming AD at Tech. Frankly, I would feel much more confident in hiring someone that has experience running an athletic department. Jeff Bourne would be an excellent choice, especially since he’s worked at Tech before and has experience in the ACC.
Did you ask the same question about “someone having experience running” a basketball program when Weaver pretty much promoted from within for our basketball coach?
Not looking for a fight. Just seems that Weaver may have not followed your line thought for some of his hires.
Unless (now HERE’S a thought) Weaver thought he DID hire the best man available for that job as well……….hhhmmmm
If you are going to play a weak sister local football or basketball team I would suggest VMI rather than Liberty. Support the people who may very well die for us.
I”m a VMI grad, and though I’d love to see that, it would be an absolute massacre. Liberty will probably be in a MAC or Conf USA conference by then, so it won’t be an FCS school VT would be playing at that point.
As far as a patriotic team to play, I’ve always said what about NAVY? Home and home with them with the away being at FedEx or Ravens Stadium. Good opponent, similar offense to GT, large alumni base for VT home and away. Win-Win?
Weaver has tried to get Navy for years but they keep refusing. Playing in DC(MD) or Baltimore has been the most recent pitch I believe.
What about adding a DB from PSU to address our depth issues this year?
I hope that the OOC scheduling with 1 really strong team stays the same. Playing Alabama, Ohio State, and Wisconsin in consecutive years is great. I would think that would be a good selling point for recruiting as well. In addition to playing in the ACC we would be sending a message to recruits that we like to play big time schools from the SEC or Big 10.
I thought Journell lost his scholly.
Is that in writing anywhere? I thought it was a possibility, but I haven’t seen it in writing yet.
That would be a good response from FB on Cody. I understand the university allowing him back based on policy, but the Football Team can discipline him further after return. I think that would be a good gesture – either suspend for 1-2 games, or lose scholly.