2023 Depth Chart (VT Football, ESD "way too early" edition)

I've been trying to combine a bit of data to take a peek at what our depth chart is likely to look like come next season. I've used the Hokiesports roster (and Signing Day page), OurLads depth charts, the 247 Talent composite, the handy Tech Lunch Pail Portal Update hub, and even combed through Recruiting Threads back to last March to track down PWO/WO commitments.

There's a few inconsistencies amongst these references- for one, I count 93 scholarships; Tech Lunch Pail counts 91 (I'd take their word for that one). The charts are fairly easy to use and color coded- hopefully everything is fairly intuitive and doesn't require a key or anything. I tried to calculate returning production in the left column for each position group. Regardless, it looks like we'll have to end up dropping up to 6 scholarships before next season as it stands (and one additional for every new recruit or transfer going forward).

EDIT: I'm not sure how well these depth charts are showing up on desktop. You may need to right click and "Open Image in New Tab" in order to read the names and numbers.

QB/RB

We get almost all of our production back at QB with Grant Wells. I imagine the QB battle right now is a two horse race between Grant and newcomer Kyron Drones out of Baylor.

We have about 2/3 of our Running Back production coming back with the loss of Jalen Holston. I'm not sure if there's some kind of gamesmanship going on (I know Cole Beck is now listed as a WR), but it looks like we only have 5 true RBs on scholarship (not counting the two early signees).

TE/WR

Our returning production amongst all pass-catchers is right around 50-60% (if you consider receptions and yards to be the significant stats for that). Tight Ends look to be in good position, with Gallo, Wright and De Iullis returning. (I believe Drake De Iullis has a seventh year of eligibility remaining- he's taken a medical red (2017)-shirt, a true red shirt the first season it was pushed to four games (2018), and a free Covid year). I might be wrong on this- let me know if I am).

With Kaleb Smith off to South Bend and Jadan Blue only eligible for this one past season, WR is easily the most crippled position on the roster. Only about 40% of our production is returning. The coaching staff signed 5 HS players and 2 portal WR's (and perhaps are not done there). While I don't think that this position is necessarily going to be a strength next season, it's certainly being addressed for the future. Ali Jennings (ODU) only has one year of eligibility left; Da'Quon Felton (Norfolk State) has two.

OL

When I went through each game last season on Hokiesports, it showed that the same 5 OL started each and every game. With two of these starter's eligibility expired (Dzansi and Jordan) It's pretty safe to say we're returning 60% of our OL production. We did get regular snaps out of Bob Schick and the younger Hollifield, who appear to be the next men up at the starting spots, it will be crucial for the guys behind them to fall into reliable roles to build depth.

ST

Special Teams look to be in good shape. We found our punt returner late last season, and our weakness- long snapping, will hopefully be assisted by a recent transfer who probably won't even need a scholarship (Griffin Armstrong). Hopefully this will get our punting back to form- Peter Moore was a good punter as a freshman, and dropped off a bit this season.

DL

With the announcement of Mario Kendricks return, at least we're not losing all of our starters (Norrell Pollard is still undecided). If Pollard returns, we should be returning 100% of our production at DT. If he leaves, we still get about 3/4 production back (Fuga and Pene were pretty active, and Kyree Moyston and Malachi Madison were already seeing reps as true Freshman as well).

However we took a big hit on the DE position with expired eligiblity from Tyjuan Garbutt and Jaylen Griffin. with only about 40% productivity returning (considering tackles and TFL as vital stats there). Fortunately, we have four players that have taken significant reps vying for the starting roles, along with two promising transfers in Temple's Darian Varner and Nebraska's Pheldarius Payne.

DB/LB

The CB group has taken quite a hit, and we're only returning about half of our production with the loss of Chatman, Murray and DJ Harvey. Dorian Strong and Mansoor Delane should be more than capable of taking over directly, and Cam-1 and Nyke-2 have gotten some reps in already as well. We've also bolstered this position considerably with 7 DB signees.

At safety, Chamarri Conner is off to the draft and Nasir Peoples has elected to stay for his super-senior year. Between Jalen Stroman and Ny'Quee-1, we should have a pretty solid starting secondary going forward. Behind, that, though only Jalen Hoyle has taken reps. I count ~2/3 production returning at Safety.

The Linebackers have taken a hit with the loss of Dax and Artis, so we only return about 2/3 production there. It was a pretty deep group with a lot of guys getting reps. Thankfully Alan Tisdale has elected to return for his super-senior season. We may have a bit of a dropoff in production, but should have a pretty experienced two-deep to start the season at Linebacker.