The defense gave up 566 yards in Saturday’s scrimmage.  That’s not a very good number, but most of it can be blamed on young backups who are getting their feet wet for the first time.  That especially holds true in the secondary.

Virginia Tech’s young defensive backs struggled in this scrimmage.  Part of that is because they are young, and part of it is because some of them have played multiple positions during the spring, which means their heads are spinning a bit.

True freshman Adonis Alexander was beaten multiple times.  Alexander has played free safety and rover this spring, but last Tuesday he was moved to cornerback.  Saturday’s scrimmage was his third practice as a cornerback, and naturally he isn’t up to speed yet.

Why move a big 6-3 guy to cornerback?  Well first of all, Torrian Gray is known for shifting his personnel around during the spring to give himself a better chance to see exactly where all the pieces fit.  Second, and perhaps most important: safeties are required to be used to cover wide receivers more in this era of the spread offense.  Getting them work at cornerback early in their career means you can teach them man coverage skills early on, and that will help them later in their career when they are asked to start at safety.

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