Shane Beamer Provides Updates on Virginia Tech's Running Backs

Hokies running backs coach Shane Beamer discussed Virginia Tech's plethora of tailbacks in an interview with BeamerBall.com (Frank Beamer's personal website). Notes on my major takeaways are below.

Both Marshawn Williams and Shai McKenzie are further along in their rehab of ACL injuries than expected.

"They won't be participating in our spring practices, but, looking ahead to the fall, we're optimistic that both will be in the mix," Shane Beamer told BeamerBall.com. "Probably a little more optimistic about McKenzie, simply because his injury happened earlier as opposed to Marshawn getting injured later in the season and his surgery not taking place until mid-December. So, we'll see how it goes."

J.C. Coleman, who was the top tailback at the end of the 2014 season, will be at the top of Tech's depth chart when spring practice begins. But as Shane put it, "We want competition, it's your job for only as long as it takes for somebody to take it away from you."

Beamer Co. hasn't discussed moving tailback Trey Edmunds to linebacker, and it doesn't seem like it'll be an option in the foreseeable future. Anyone who wants Edmunds to move to linebacker is forgetting he's a damn good tailback, and considering he's a rising junior, the time necessary to get up to speed and play productive at backer might not be there. Furthermore, there are some young talented linebackers in the pipeline.

Beamer Co. hasn't discussed redshirting Juice Williams or Shai McKenzie, at least not yet. It seems like that potential conversation will take place after spring practice.

"We know what J.C. can do, what Shai and Marshawn can do, and what Trey can do. But, what we don't know, is how healthy will those guys will be. Before we'd talk about redshirting anybody, we'd have to see how much progress is made by Joel Caleb and Jerome Wright. Will we be able to depend on those guys? What about D.J. Reid and Trevon McMillian? Will those two show they're ready to play? So, it's obvious that we'll talk redshirts, but it won't happen until after the spring practices where we've had a chance to make evaluations and know exactly where we are with our personnel," Shane Beamer said.

Neither Shai or Marshawn will participate in spring ball, which provides an opportunity for the younger guys—Reid and McMillian—to make a name for themselves. Caleb and Wright will also have a chance to get back into the mix. My guess is: if one of the four separates from the pack, a redshirt for Williams or McKenzie becomes more realistic.

BeamerBall.com: Scot Loeffler is on record as pretty much saying "I hope they don't run me out of here after the first couple of seasons, because we'll have a chance to be pretty good in year three." Are you buying into that?

Shane Beamer: I do. No doubt. We knew across the board that we needed to improve our talent level, and build some depth. Hey, you have to remember that this past season, our starting QB wasn't on campus until late May. Our starting receivers didn't show up on campus until July. The starting TE was playing TE on the scout team the year before. And, your top two tailbacks most of the season were seniors in high school the year before. So, the point is we had a lot of youth and guys going through things for the first time. Now, our guys are in our off season program, getting bigger, faster, stronger, smarter and we think they're all weapons. So, we feel like we're restocking the shelves and now we don't have to try and reinvent the wheel. Let's just figure out what we do best in both the run game and the passing game and fine tune it and get our guys to go play with confidence and get out there and play fast. Of course, we have to continue to improve, continue to recruit, but now question, from a personnel standpoint, we've helped ourselves and we have more weapons in place than we've had in the past. So, we're optimistic about the upcoming season and the expectations around here are that we hope to make that big step forward.

The mess on offense has been well-documented. It was unreasonable to expect a quick turnaround from that side of the ball. Loeffler's third year is what I looked towards when he was hired to see substantial progress, and now it's almost here. If the offense doesn't take a big step forward, the coaches on that side of the ball are out of excuses.