Defensive Back Thoughts: Young At Corner, Strong Up The Middle

New coach Tyrone Nix will coach the free safeties, rovers and whips. (Photo by Jon Fleming)

Virginia Tech’s secondary is young in more ways than one.  Not only do the Hokies have a lot of freshmen and sophomores in the two-deep, but even their most experienced players are just third-year guys.

The Hokies have three juniors out of 16 scholarship defensive backs, and all three are true juniors, meaning they never redshirted and are third-year players.  One of those, cornerback Jeremy Webb, is a JUCO transfer who has to sit out this season with an injury.  Another, Jovonn Quillen, has never played a meaningful snap at cornerback in college.

It’s not just that young guys like Caleb Farely and Bryce Watts are inexperienced.  It’s that the most experienced guys are inexperienced as well.  Of all the players in the secondary, the only one that we can count as an experienced guy is starting rover Reggie Floyd

Today I’ll give my thoughts on all areas of the secondary, including one very important player who may or may not end up in the starting lineup.  Also, I don’t know what position Nasir Peoples (Fr.) or Devante Smith (r-Fr.) are playing, and I haven’t heard them mentioned by any coach in the preseason, so I’m not going to include them in today’s analysis.  Also, Tyree Rodgers (r-So.) is working at free safety, but it doesn’t sound like he’s going to be a factor.

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