If the offense can just not regress substantially (we had a top 30 O) this team can win a lot of games.

Last year was a perfect storm of disaster for VT on the defensive side of the ball, retirement of a legend, cancellation of the off-season while making a system change, injuries to key players (Crawford, Waller, Farley opt-out) then COVID absences and lack of conditioning. All that said, the defense flashed at a high level vs Miami, Clemson, and UVA.

We're really experienced on that side of the ball, and the younger guys we have are setting up to be great.

On the line we brought in Jordan Williams, get a healthy version of Crawford back, have a 3 year starter in Belmar + Garbutt returning, then have a future star in Barno. Not to mention Kendricks and Pollard who will be coming off the bench after starting the majority of last year. If one of the 4 young DEs makes a jump we are deep AND big, for the first time in a long time.

We've got two 4 year starters at LB, one of which is moving to his natural position. Conner has consistently been the most fundamentally sound player on the team. The wildcard is Tisdale who seems to have put on 20lbs to address his main weakness.

In the secondary we return an all-ACC corner who missed last year, also have a freshman all-american on the other side + 2 backups who started last year. We return all our safeties but Deablo, and replace him with an experienced SEC starter.

Add in a full offseason to pick up the scheme and learn from some quality developmental coaches for the first time and it's a recipe for success.