Virginia Tech held an open football practice on Saturday afternoon in Lane Stadium. With many new faces and some number changes, sometimes it was tough to know who was who out there. However, I did note the starters on both sides of the ball during team drills. Today I’ll go over that, plus some basic thoughts on the position groups. We’ll then spend the remainder of spring ball on deeper thoughts and analysis of each position group.

Virginia Tech Defense Notes

Let’s talk about the defense first before we switch to the other side of the ball. Defensively, here was the starting lineup as best I can remember it for the 11-on-11 team drills…

DE TyJuan Garbutt (r-Sr.)
DT Josh Fuga (r-So.)
DT Norell Pollard (Jr.)
DE Cole Nelson (So.)
LB (Mike) Dax Hollifield (Sr.)
LB (Will) Alan Tisdale (r-Jr.)
LB (Sam) Jorden McDonald (r-Fr.)
NB Brion Murray (Sr.)
CB Dorian Strong (So.)
CB Armani Chatman (r-Jr.)
S Chamarri Conner (Sr.)
S Nasir Peoples (r-Jr.)

*When Murray comes into the game, a linebacker comes out. In this case it was always the Sam linebacker who exited the field when the Hokies went with their nickel package, but in actual games it could be the Mike.

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