Hokies Place Nine on All-ACC Teams

The ACC announced late yesterday that Virginia Tech had five first-team and
four second-team players earn All-ACC honors, giving the Hokies a total of nine
All-ACC players. This total was the most among all ACC teams, but it doesn’t
match last season, when the Hokies put eleven players on all-ACC teams.

The following Hokies made the squads:

  • First Team: Marcus Vick, Darryl Tapp, Jimmy Williams, Jason Murphy,
    and Will Montgomery
  • Second Team: Jeff King, Jimmy Martin, Jonathan Lewis, Vince Hall

Vick, the pass efficiency leader in the ACC and 15th nationally, beat
out Charlie Whitehurst of Clemson by a large margin, outscoring Whitehurst 118
to 48.

This is the second straight first-team honor for Darryl Tapp and Jimmy
Williams
. Last year, Tapp was the leading vote-getter among defensive
linemen, but this year, Boston College’s Mathias Kiwanuka, a newcomer to the
league, supplanted Tapp in the #1 DL spot. Tapp was the second leading
vote-getter, behind Kiwanuka.

Williams was tops among defensive backs, over safety Kelly Jennings of Miami.

Jason Murphy was a surprise first-team honoree. A converted defensive
tackle, Murphy was switched to offensive line prior to the start of the 2003
season. He played very little that year, then started the last seven games of
2004 after Reggie Butler faltered and the coaching staff made the decision to
replace him with Murphy. Murphy locked down the right guard spot from that point
on, starting all eleven games for the Hokies this year.

Montgomery, Tech’s best and most versatile offensive lineman, was
named the first-team center, beating out Pat Ross of Boston College. Montgomery
alternated between guard and center this season and because of that was not
named to the 37-man watch list for the Rimington Trophy, awarded annually to the
top center in college football. Montgomery has graded out at 90 percent this
season with 40 knockdowns.

Jeff King started off hot this year, catching 14 passes for 182 yards
and four touchdowns in Tech’s first five games. Since then, his production has
fallen off, to just six catches for 48 yards and one TD in the last six games.
King finished second in the voting to Maryland’s Vernon Davis, who thrives as an
H-back in the Terp offense and has caught 51 passes for 871 yards and 6 TDs.

Jimmy Martin has graded out at 89 percent this season with 24
knockdowns. Martin faced stiff competition at the tackle spot from first-teamers
Eric Winston (Miami) and D’Brickashaw Ferguson (Virginia), and fellow second-teamer
Jeremy Trueblood (Boston College).

Jonathan Lewis can legitimately stake a claim as one of the top two
defensive tackles in the ACC. Lewis, a stalwart on the Hokie defensive line and
a major reason for the resurgence of the Tech defense the last two years, was
one of only two DTs named to the All-ACC team DL, which featured six defensive
ends. Brodrick Bunkley of Florida State, a second-teamer with Lewis, was the
other DT on the All-ACC squads.

Vince Hall, Tech’s leading tackler by far with 96 stops (James
Anderson is second with 75), receives less publicity than most other inside
linebackers around the league. D’Qwell Jackson of Maryland, Ahmad Brooks and Kai
Parham of Virginia, and AJ Nicholson and Ernie Sims of FSU were all more highly
hyped in the preseason. Hall muscled his way into the group of six linebackers
named first- and second-team All-ACC, and as a sophomore, he is the youngest
All-ACC linebacker.

As noted above, nine players is less than the eleven the Hokies placed on
All-ACC teams last year, and it’s less than the Hokies placed on All-Big East
teams in their heydays in the mid-late 90s. VT had 11 All-Big East players in
1995, 12 in 1996, and 11, 15, and 12 in the three-year span from 1998-2000. If
however, you adjust for the fact that the Big East was an eight-team league and
the ACC is a 12-team league, placing nine players in a 12-team league equates to
14 or 15 players in an eight-team league.

Here’s Tech’s all-league history since 1991.

Season
Number of VT All-
Conference Players

1991

4

1992

3

1993

5

1994

8

1995

11

1996

12

1997

9

1998

11

1999

15 *

2000

12

2001

5

2002

8

2003

9

2004

11

2005

9

* In 1999, eight of the 15 players were selected to the
First Team All-Big East.

For a complete news release, including the full first-team, second-team, and
honorable mention selections, plus voting point totals, click below.