1) Will Special Teams be special, or will it be a long year? – Lakeridgehokie

Chris Coleman: It’s not a secret that Virginia Tech had depth problems last year. Depth problems will show up on offense and defense, of course, especially in the fourth quarter. However, depth problems will show up on special teams for all four quarters.

The Hokies finished No. 97 in special teams in the FEI metrics last year. That’s not too surprising considering the lack of depth, and also considering the fact that it took them over half the season before they found a punt returner. Even then, outside of the Georgia Tech game, Tucker Holloway spent most of his time fair catching punts because he didn’t have the room to return them. Still, that was an improvement over what the Hokies were doing on punt returns earlier in the season.

There are only three teams in the top 25 of special teams FEI with a losing record in 2022, and only one team that won fewer than six games. I won’t bother to show you the bottom 25, but suffice to say that the situation is reversed. There are a lot of teams with losing records, and not many with winning records.

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