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Practice opens for the 2014 football season today … and the “ifs” that will shape the season are legion.

Finish every one of these lines with “…. the Hokies could be pretty good.”

• If Michael Brewer is the real deal …
• If Trey Edmunds comes back healthy …
• If Marshawn Williams can be a steady, productive power back …
• If the tight end corps is as good as we think …
• If Joshua Stanford steps up and Demitri Knowles improves …
• If they can find a reliable placekicker …
• If they can get more production out of punt and kick returns …
• If they can improve their special teams coverage units …
• If Bud Foster can find a player as versatile as Kyle Fuller …
• If the defensive ends stay healthy …

That’s a lot of “ifs,” and I probably left some out. Suffice to say that a lot of unknowns are in play. Too many unknowns, for a coach — Frank Beamer — who is seeking, like any Hall of Fame coach approaching retirement, to finish strong and cement his legacy.

Frank Beamer started winning conference championships in 1995 in the old Big East. In all, he won seven conference championships in 16 years, from 1995-2010, but he enters 2014 with a string of three seasons without a title. That hasn’t happened since the Hokies failed to win the Big East for four straight years, from 2000-2003.

With the Florida State juggernaut up and running again, an ACC championship in 2014 seems very unlikely. As recently as 2012, the Hokies were giving