Isaiah Ford stole the show in Friday’s closed scrimmage, catching four passes for 94 yards and three touchdowns. In doing so, Ford has clearly established himself as one of Virginia Tech’s top offensive playmakers, and a sure fire starter against William & Mary.
The true freshman had touchdown catches of 26 and 27 yards from Michael Brewer, and a 35 yard touchdown catch from Mark Leal. As we speculated in today’s Friday Q&A, Ford looks like a definite starter at wide receiver.
Cam Phillips added a short four yard touchdown from Brenden Motley, while Bucky Hodges hauled in a 55 yard touchdown from Mark Leal. That’s two scrimmages in a row that Phillips has scored a touchdown from inside the five, and that was a weak point of Tech’s offense last season.
Marshawn Williams had 54 yards on the ground. The Hokies only rushed for 87 yards as a team and averaged 1.9 yards per carry, but note that over 50 yards were lost in sacks. Tech’s backup offensive line is too young and too thin to handle the VT starting defense, plus the quarterbacks were in yellow jerseys.
On the downside, the offense was just 2-of-17 on third down conversions. Combined with last Saturday’s scrimmage, that makes then just 3-for-33 in scrimmages this fall. What isn’t clear is how much of that is the fault of the #2 offense, which spends much of their scrimmages going against a very good starting Tech defense.
The coaches will have a staff meeting on Saturday, and they will discuss the starting quarterback position, as well as redshirts. It seems as if all decisions will be made on Saturday, though it’s not clear if that information will be released tomorrow or if it will be released during Monday’s press conference. Stay tuned.
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