Offense rushes for 183 yards in closed scrimmage

Virginia Tech held a closed scrimmage on Saturday afternoon in Lane Stadium, and they released some limited stats to the media at the conclusion.

Scoring plays…

Michael Santamaria, 46 yard FG
Travon McMillian, 5 yard TD run
Deon Newsome, 65 yard TD pass from Andrew Ford
Willie Byrn, 35 yard TD pass from Michael Brewer
Kendall Fuller, 87 yard blocked FG for a TD
Cam Phillips, 2 yard pass from Mark Leal
Joey Slye, 36 yard FG
Shai McKenzie, 3 yard TD run
Joey Slye, 42 yard field goal

The offense ran for 183 yards on 42 carries, a 4.4 yards per carry average.  That includes four sacks for -26 yards, so the actual running game produced 213 yards on 38 carries.  Though the team did not release individual stats, Shai McKenzie told the media following the scrimmage that he had seven carries for 67 yards, including a run of around 50 yards to set up his touchdown score.

The theme of the day was quick scores.  Both the Deon Newsome and Willie Byrn touchdowns were one-play drives, and the Shai McKenzie  score was a two-play drive.
The offense flashed big play ability with the two long touchdown passes, as well as the long run by McKenzie.  They also showed the ability to run the football, though it’s not clear how often the starting offense played against the starting defense.

Brenden Motley continued to nurse a bad back, and did not participate in the scrimmage.  It’s a two-man battle between r-Sr. Mark Leal and r-Jr. Michael Brewer, though all signs point toward Brewer winning the job.

A number of key defensive players were held out of the scrimmage because of injury, including Ronny Vandyke, Luther Maddy, Detrick Bonner, Brandon Facyson and Dahman McKinnon.  Bud Foster noted that most of those guys would have been able to play if there had been an actual game.

We’ll have video interviews with Frank Beamer, Bud Foster, Scot Loeffler, Shai McKenzie, Michael Brewer and Mark Leal up on the site tomorrow.