Hokies Offensive Coaches Discuss McMillian, Teller, TE's and the Recruiting Process

Redshirt freshman running back Travon McMillian was the only player at this afternoon's media availability, but he was joined by Shane Beamer, Bryan Stinespring, and Stacey Searels.

McMillian, a former quarterback at C.D. Hylton HS in Woodbridge, Virginia, transitioned from dual-threat signal-caller to tailback during his redshirt season in the hopes of getting on the field quicker. Labor Day may still be two weeks away, but it appears as if the switch will pay early dividends.

"He'll play at running back, he'll be in the game on offense against Ohio State," said running backs coach Shane Beamer. "He'll be in there plenty."

Throw in the fact that McMillian will likely be utilized as a kickoff returner and it's clear that the coaching staff may have found their next young weapon.

"He's got big play ability," said Beamer. "Coach Foster and I were talking about it after the scrimmage, he's got a home run ability. Not that Trey Edmunds and J.C. (Coleman) and those other guys don't, but Travon has an ability to make people miss."

That game-changing ability was on display in Saturday's scrimmage as McMillian ripped off a 70-yard touchdown run. Despite McMillian's impressive running abilities, Beamer may be even more excited about the young tailback's ability to catch the ball out of the backfield.

"He's a little bit of an easier target for the quarterbacks to see than J.C.," said Beamer. "He catches the ball a little bit better than Trey, naturally. He's just one of those guys that football kind of makes sense to him."

To aide McMillian's development at a new position, Beamer spent time this summer cutting up film of several NFL running backs that he felt resembled McMillian's diverse skillset. One of McMillian's NFL counterparts? None other than Shane Vereen, one of the most feared pass-catching threats out of the backfield in the NFL.

While McMillian still is behind both Trey Edmunds and J.C. Coleman on the Hokies depth chart at tailback, Beamer made it clear that the coaching staff would be comfortable with McMillian being the No. 1 guy.

"We'd have no concern with him being a starting running back for us," Beamer said of McMillian.

With all of the talk at running back surrounding Edmunds, Coleman, and McMillian, redshirts could be on the horizon for both Shai McKenzie and Marshawn Williams. However, no decisions have been made by the coaching staff as of yet.

One of the most intriguing storylines in Blacksburg over the past week has been the Wyatt Teller saga. Teller, arguably the Hokies' best offensive lineman last year, has been working with the second team offensive line for reasons that remain unknown. Stacy Searels provided some clarity on the situation today, but still left some questions unanswered.

"We're just trying to work all different combinations to get people ready to play," said Searels. "Yosh (Nijman) and Parker (Osterloh) have really come on this camp and shown that they deserve some playing time. Like I said before, people get dinged up and moved down and moved up and get more reps. So, he'll (Teller) be playing."

But when asked if he anticipated Teller to start against Ohio State on September 7th, Searels was far less committal.

"We've still got two weeks," said Searels. "I think he's a good player and he played really well for us last year. I expect him to do the same this year."

Starting left tackle Wade Hansen was noticeably absent from Saturday's scrimmage, but Searels wasn't overly concerned with his health.

"Offensive lineman with an ankle, that's part of life," quipped Searels.

Player and Coaches Quotes

Travon McMillian

ON IMPORTANCE OF HIS REDSHIRT YEAR:

"Really important, so that I could, like you said, sit down and learn the offense inside and out and know my protections."

Stacey Searels

ON ABSENCE OF OHIO STATE'S JOEY BOSA:

"When that happened, my high school coach reminded me of when I was in college, I played against Cornelius Bennett. You know who his backup was? Derrick Thomas. So I'm sure Ohio State's got another player just like him. He's a very good player, an excellent player, but I'm sure they've got some good ones behind him."

Shane Beamer

ON HOLLAND FISHER/SHAWN PAYNE AND RECRUITING AS AN INEXACT SCIENCE:

"I think that's recruiting. You look across the country, all these highly recruited guys that may not turn out to be great players and guys that aren't highly recruited at all that turn out to be great players. That's just part of the recruiting aspect of it. You hate it from a standpoint of you want guys when you bring them into your program to have success and disappointed it didn't quite work out for Holland and Shawn because they're good kids and really good football players. I talked to them both over the weekend and wish them the best of luck going forward and hope things work out for them as far as where they end up and hopefully they've got big football careers in front of them. They requested their release for different reasons, and it's not all football. When a guy leaves your program or a guy decides to transfer, sometimes it's not just a football standpoint. There's other factors that play in their personal lives as well. People forget that these are 18-, 19-, 20-year-old kids."

Bryan Stinespring

ON THE RECRUITING PROCESS BEING AN INEXACT SCIENCE:

"That's part of the recruiting process. I think there's a transition from high school to college and as you've heard me say many times Mike (Barber), this is not an exact science on anything. Especially when it comes to recruiting. The NFL spends millions and millions of dollars on combines and workouts and scouts and come here to a practice and you see scouts here watching practice. There's the individual combines they have, and it doesn't always work according to plan with how somebody's ranked or what a guy's projected as in the NFL draft or what a guy's projected in the top 25 in the state on Rivals.com. It doesn't always work out that way."

ON THE PLEASURE OF FINDING AN UNKNOWN RECRUIT:

"The ones that work out are all satisfying (laughs). Let's make sure that's the big part of it. But I think we all have that underdog mentality, a little bit, and some carries over to recruiting. We all take on a guy that didn't get a lot of attention that makes a big impact. Those are the stories we all pick up on. It doesn't have to be football or sports, in general. That's always a great story. So, yeah, I think we all get a tremendous feeling when a guy that comes in that nobody really thought a lot of or flew under the radar, so to speak, and then all of a sudden they're a viable part of our success or success on Sundays, whatever that may be. I think we all take a lot of pride in that part of it."

ON THE MATURATION OF BUCKY HODGES/ASKING QUESTIONS TO COACHES:

"He does, but that didn't start until this spring. Back in the fall, probably, as I've told people before, we really spent most of our time doing 'what does he absolutely have to know right now?'. Because when you try to throw the whole gamut at him for a guy that never played the position, when does he become overwhelmed? Now he understands and is getting a better feel for coverages, he's asking questions about coverages, he's got a feel for what he's asking, so he's more involved in our meetings now than he's ever been. It started in the spring. I'll click through something and he'll stop and say 'go back'. That's always a telltale sign for me because they (usually) just want you to keep clicking and go to the next play because they know eventually it's going to get to the end and they can get out of there. But when you've got a guy that says 'hey, rewind that back' and he's asking about something else, that's important... That's when you know that they see the big picture.

ON RYAN MALLECK AND IF HE GETS TAKEN FOR GRANTED:

"Do they take it for granted? Maybe people outside the program, but I can assure you in our room, on this staff, offense and defense, there's nobody that takes for granted what he does. I think you've probably heard me say that he makes this whole thing work."