Looking Ahead After the National Championship

After watching the National Championship Monday night, I woke up Tuesday morning already looking ahead to what next football season is going to bring us Hokie fans. Some may say this is too early to start talking next season, but, I beg to differ. While we are losing a few key pieces to our offense and defense, I feel that the players behind them have been prepared and are ready to step in and do a good job for the Hokies next year. We are losing our leader and quarterback in Tyrod Taylor; we are also losing Ryan Williams, Darren Evans, Beau Warren, and Andre Davis as starters on offense. We are losing Stephen Friday, John Graves, Rashad Carmichael, and Davon Morgan on defense.

I was impressed with the athleticism and with the way Logan Thomas played when he came in this year at Tight End and in relief of Tyrod under center. He caught passes as a tight end, and when he came for relief of Tyrod he made some impressive throws and did not make any big mistakes. As far as Ryan Williams and Darren Evans leaving, yes I am disappointed to see them go, but we are still left with a very talented back in David Wilson. I actually feel that David Wilson has the potential for a huge season. The last four seasons that we had a solid starter at tailback, last season Ryan Williams went for 1,655 yards, in 2008 Darren Evans went for 1,265 yards, in 2007 Brandon Ore went for 992 yards (just 8 away from 1,000), and in 2006 Brandon Ore went for 1,137 yards. In 2005 Ore, Humes, and Imoh all split time and had similar seasons as Williams, Evans, and Wilson this year. But, I feel David Wilson has the most breakaway speed of any back mentioned in this article, so with the Hokies returning 4 starters on the offensive line and with a young and inexperienced quarterback under center, I look for Wilson to have a huge year and to help keep pressure off of Logan Thomas. As for Beau leaving, he is a great center, but, I watched Andrew Miller wrestle and play football at Bassett, he was an absolute stud, and after two seasons on campus I look for him to do a good job in filling Beau's shoes.

Well Pittsburgh is not getting Bud Foster and the defense only loses 4 full time starters. Stephen Friday and John Graves have big shoes to fill and I feel that the Hopkins brothers might be the men for the job. I don't know at the moment what kind of defense Bud is looking at next year, whether or not he will go back to a 4-3 type scheme or stay with the Nickel type scheme he ran for most of this year remains to be seen. With the success he did not see this year I would say he will be looking at changing something for sure. But, Chris Drager, Antoine and Derrick Hopkins, and maybe James Gayle as our four down lineman is defintely not a bad D-Line by any means. As for Davon Morgan, I know I am supposed to be looking ahead, but, I am still salty with him for getting toasted all game under the lights in Miami. Exum got a good bit of playing time and while he has holes in his game and things he needs to work on, he still showed promise. If Exum puts in the time this offseason I feel like he will be fine in stepping in as the starter in Morgan's place next season. As far as Rock goes, he will be missed, but, Bud Foster always puts studs on the field at the corner spots, so I am not worried one bit here. Our defense has now had a year under their belt, so I look for them to be the typical 'Foster-Fense' we are used to again next year.

While these are just probable scenarios on who will start and how they will play next year, I feel like we are going to be fine, even though we lost some big players this year. Our offense has a lot of playmakers that can help Logan Thomas settle in and keep him comfortable. We have somehow, once again, kept Bud Foster for another year and our young defense got a lot of playing time this year, so look for it to be back in top-10 lunchpail form again next year. All I know is that I will be counting down the days until April 23rd so that I can watch our boys get back on the field again and after that I will have September 3rd circled on my calendar. Here's to a good 2011-2012 season, Go Hokies!