Thoughts after Watching Virginia Tech's Second Open Scrimmage of Fall Camp

The secondary looked sharp, first-team o-line not clear cut, third receiver needs to step up.

[Virginia Tech Athletics \ Dave Knachel]

Saturday's scrimmage may have been the last opportunity for the public to see Frank Beamer's squad before No. 1 Ohio State rolls into town. It was a beautiful day and lots of beautiful football plays were made. However, I can't help but be a little nervous about the upcoming season because of the few roster questions that have yet to be answered. The margin of error for this team will be pretty thin once again, and the fate of the season will be determined by how the coaching staff solves their remaining roster riddles.

Positional Breakdowns

As much as losing C.J. Reavis hurts, I believe that Desmond Frye is going to be a very solid player for Bud Foster. Frye never looked lost making calls and he didn't hesitate to react to his reads and fly forward to help in a tackle. He seems like a player that Foster can trust to make the sound play, although I didn't see him matched up against anyone offensively that required him to make a spectacular play. Frye got a round of applause from me on one third-down by tracking his man from one side of the field to the next on a shallow crossing route, cutting through the traffic in the middle to get to his man right after the ball and bring him down before he could gain any extra yards. I haven't seen him get challenged down the field in single coverage against an elite athlete yet, which is a scenario bound to happen in Foster's high-pressure scheme. How Frye responds to those scenarios will determine how good this secondary can really be.

I'm a huge Brandon Facyson fan and I thought he looked great again on Saturday. He has an insane closing burst and the length to compete for any jump ball. Facyson is getting smarter and more technically sound to go with his impressive athleticism; that spells doom for opposing receivers. On one play in the redzone, Facyson's coverage responsibility went in motion before the snap and ended up on the opposite side of the formation. Facyson instantly recognized the threat of a pick play and used his speed to get in a position to avoid any picks and blanket his man. It was a route combination specifically designed to beat man coverage and Facyson single handedly blew up the scheme.

Donovan Riley and Chuck Clark are both playing really well right now. Riley is someone to look out for this year. He has made a lot of plays in both scrimmages and has experience taking snaps at a lot of different positions in the secondary. He would be starting just about anywhere in the country but will play a vital role for the team at some point this year. Chuck Clark is poised for a big season as well. In my opinion, he has always been at his best with his eyes facing the quarterback so I was ecstatic when he was moved to free safety. He diagnoses run plays very quickly and will spend a lot of time as the run support free safety, especially when Foster uses his Bear package. If he does get matched up in man coverage, Clark does just fine. He is going to be a playmaker in 2015 even if he's bound to make some mistakes in his first year at a new position.

Michael Brewer has been about as consistent as you can be ever since the 2014 season ended. He has been smart with the football, choosing to throw the safe routes to the outside as well as throwing the ball away if no one is open. I think he has been really sharp on his bootleg throws. He found Bucky Hodges down the field on a crossing route Saturday, making a beautiful read and throw right as Hodges got separation. Brewer still hasn't been completing many deep throws, but I'm not sure how much you can lay that at his feet. There are going to be lots of offenses that can't challenge this secondary down the field and Brewer didn't have Ford or Phillips available Saturday. Brewer did spot Bucky on a streak route and made a good throw but it fell incomplete because of some great coverage. Brewer will never have the arm strength of Logan Thomas or Tyrod Taylor's elusiveness, but he will be as good as the playmakers around him. If his teammates uphold their end of the bargain he is good enough to beat anyone on the schedule.

Motley and Lawson were the other two quarterbacks of note Saturday. Motley gave his standard performance, ripping off a few long runs and showing off his impressive arm strength. If pressed into service, Motley is explosive enough to win a game or two. The one area that he needs to work on is the speed with which he works through his progressions. He was late on a couple of throws Saturday. His long touchdown toss to Meyer was more adventurous than it needed to be because Meyer almost ran out of room before the ball arrived. On another occasion, Kevin Asante ran past Riley and was 30+ yards down the field before Motley saw. Brenden's arm allowed him to get the ball to him (it was a heck of a display) but the delay gave Riley just enough time to recover and disrupt the pass.

Dwayne Lawson was live on Saturday and certainly flashed some potential. Lawson looks like a pocket passer who can run more than a running back who can throw. Don't get me wrong, Lawson can run in between the tackles on power plays and has the speed to get the edge on a defense. He CAN run a spread rushing attack offense. I think his ceiling is much higher than that though. We know he has great arm strength and throws a pretty ball, but the calmness he has in the pocket has actually surprised me. His height allows him to stand in the pocket and throw across the middle to beat blitzes and he doesn't panic if the center of the offensive line gets pushed back into his space. Remember when Loeffler said that if he had Logan Thomas for four years, Logan Thomas would have been a first round pick? Well if Loeffler sticks around for the next four years, we'll see if that was true, because there is no doubt that Lawson has the physical traits scouts are looking for.

Trey Edmunds, Shai McKenzie, and Travon McMillian all had good days Saturday. Travon had a long run for a touchdown on one drive and Edmunds did the same thing on the next one. Trey still looks a little rusty, he's not hitting the holes quite as decisively as he was right before he got injured in 2013, but he has the goods to be very productive if given the shot. Shai got some work and was effective, especially in between the tackles. He is a patient runner who manages to snake his way forward and get extra yardage after contact. Shai did appear to get tired after one hurry up session though and had to get subbed off. I seriously doubt that Shai redshirts this year, Tech will almost certainly need him at some point this year because of injury. Even if no one does get hurt, Shai could be the most talented back on the roster anyways. He'll play.

Receiver Play

After Brewer quickly reaffirmed himself as the Alpha QB during the spring practices, the biggest concern offensively was the lack of depth at wide receiver. Everyone wanted to know who was going to pick up where Willie Byrn left off as the third receiver. The fact that we are two weeks away from the season opener and we STILL don't know who that third receiver is going to be is starting to concern me. Not just concern me, but confuse me.

How could the race possibly be this wide open? On saturday, every time I looked up it seemed as though a different receiver was getting reps with the first string. C.J. Carroll is a crowd favorite not just because of his short stature but because he gets open on those quick-hitting routes slot receivers are known for. Carroll also catches the ball and shows an ability to pick up yards after the catch. He probably can help the offense this year in specific situations, but like I said last week, his size will be an issue on Loeffler's run/screen plays he loves to run in hurry up situations. Carroll isn't big enough to win those one on one blocks on the edge and I'm not convinced he's a threat to do a lot of damage as the recipient of a screen pass.

Deon Newsome was my favorite to win the third receiver spot. He is an impressive enough athlete to win blocking or rushing battles in the screen game, but he hasn't secured the position yet. With his success running the jet sweep, I assumed he would have the quickness to win in the short and intermediate pass game. Apparently the offensive staff hasn't seen enough out of him to agree.

For me, the real head scratcher is the Demitri Knowles situation. He was a very productive member of the receiving corp for Logan Thomas under Loeffler in 2013, but hasn't done much since. Knowles didn't make much of an impact on saturday's scrimmage either, despite running with the first unit most of the day. With three years in the system, I doubt that playbook issues have been holding him back. Knowles has never been a huge threat on vertical routes but when he has been most successful it has been on the type of routes you'd expect to see from a slot receiver. Crossing routes, out routes, stick routes... go back and rewatch Knowles game against UVA in 2013. If Loeffler can keep Knowles on the inside and use his speed in the middle of the field, I think Knowles could finish his career at Virginia Tech with a solid senior season.

Offensive Line Questions

I am genuinely confused about what is going on with the offensive line depth chart nowadays. I'm not going to presume to challenge Searels' handling of his position group, he deals with those young men every day and knows the situation much better than I do. He also gets paid a lot of money to know a lot more about offensive line play than I ever will. I don't doubt that Searels has a reasoning behind the recent fluidity of the first string offensive line, I do wonder if he knows who his starting five is going to be against Ohio State.

In case you haven't heard, on saturday the first unit offensive line had several different groupings. Eric Gallo and Augie Conte both played with the first group the entire scrimmage and Jon McLaughlin was with the first group for most of the scrimmage. Wyatt Teller, Josh Nijman, and Parker Osterloh rotated out frequently for the remaining two spots on the line. For what it's worth, Nijman and Osterloh started out the day with the ones and Teller finished the day with the ones.

Nijman and Osterloh both played well. Early in the scrimmage J.C. Coleman ran through a huge hole in the left side of the line right where Parker Osterloh was sealing his man inside and Josh Nijman was moving his defender towards the sideline. These two young men looked like they belonged all day. They didn't play perfect and they weren't racking up pancakes left and right, but they weren't getting abused either. I feel a lot more comfortable about the depth of the offensive line now than I did before the first scrimmage. Wyatt Teller played well himself, although he also fell short of dominance.

I don't know what the reason behind the mixing and matching of the first string offensive line is. It is a little concerning though, if only because this was a unit that was supposedly to be set in stone. Again, I'm not saying Searels is doing a bad job of coaching by trying new things out. I will say this though. I don't buy the idea that nothing has changed Searels is only "building depth" by getting second stringers (Nijman and Osterloh) reps with the first string. That just doesn't make sense for several reasons. For one, if Searels wanted to get his second stringers some reps with the first... why wait until two weeks before the season opener to do it? Why not do it during the spring or earlier in summer camp? Secondly, if he did want to build depth... wouldn't he want to rotate in a second string center so the backup can practice communicating with the first string? That never happened though, Gallo and Conte were in the entire scrimmage. The other four players (Nijman, Osterloh, McLaughlin, Teller) were the only ones rotating. I'm not convinced that Searels doesn't know who his five best players are right now, which is concerning if only because all signs pointed to him knowing just a couple of weeks ago.

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