Hokies Getting Acquainted With One Another As Spring Practice Kicks Off

In an offseason full of change in Blacksburg, one of Justin Fuente's first tweaks to the Virginia Tech football program didn't happen on the football field. It occurred in the locker room, of all places, a calculated decision to mix in different position group's lockers with one another in an effort to foster a greater bond between teammates who may not normally spend much time together.

"Sometimes I just subconsciously walk into the locker room and start walking to the wrong locker," laughed offensive guard Augie Conte, a fifth-year senior who had no doubt grown accustomed to sitting next to his fellow linemen.

And with spring practice now underway, Fuente has doubled down, splitting his team into small groups to help them grow closer off the field. After practice, Fuente calls out players at random, putting them on the spot for five facts about one of their group mates. If anyone fails, the whole team runs.

One of Fuente's first victims? None other than Sam Rogers.

"I was ready to go," joked Rogers, who unsurprisingly rattled off five facts about redshirt freshman Tyrell Smith with ease.

Spring Assignment: Gotta know 5 facts about your teammates!!@sam_rogers10 // @TyrellSmith79 pic.twitter.com/gCaYMhdqlz— HokiesFB (@HokiesFB) March 23, 2016

But as spring ball progresses, Fuente promises to dial up the intensity with his post-practice trivia by transitioning to some of the younger faces in the Hokies' huddle.

"I expect Sam to know 'em," said Fuente. "It's the younger guys as we move through practice (that I'm worried about)."

Offensive Installation Underway

With just one official practice in the books in Blacksburg, the installation of new offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen's offense remains in its infant stages. And, as both Fuente and Cornelsen told the media Monday, the Hokies will be taking things slowly this spring.

"We won't move very quickly," said Fuente. "You're installing and you're also playing against a defense...The offensive staff is tasked with a pretty difficult objective there, of getting the base concepts installed even if they may not be things you particularly like against what our defense looks like. Just in order to get some foundation there...I'm not worried about winning practices. We're into getting things taught and moving forward."

It's an offense that moves even quicker than some of the no-huddle looks former offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler often sprinkled in, a fact that Conte said is turning up the heat on his unit.

"It's a little bit of a transition from Lefty's offense...We're trying to get lined up as fast as we can," said Conte. "Coach Vice always tells us to get lined up as quick as we can and let the quarterback dictate the tempo of the offense. Never have him waiting on the offensive line to get set."

But the X's and O's offensively, while of course somewhat different from the multiple looks of Loeffler, remain similar to the offense put on display in Blacksburg over the last 3 years.

"At the end of the day, football's football," said Rogers. "You're all gonna have similar schemes. I feel like with just about any offense you're gonna have some similar schemes and some similarities. It's just a whole new language because people call it different things. That's the biggest part."

But with the Hokies yet to even put pads on, Fuente insists that it's still too early to leap to judgements on personnel and depth chart battles.

"There's not a whole lot you can glean individually, maybe a little bit of their knowledge base of what's going on in the first two days just because it's not real football," said Fuente. "You're out there in pajamas running around."

Terrell Edmunds Adjusts to New Position

After turning in a solid freshman campaign at cornerback for the Hokies last fall, redshirt sophomore Terrell Edmunds will be moving to rover this spring as part of the Hokies' secondary shakeup. It's not an entirely new position for Edmunds, though, as the Danville, Virginia product spent part of his first spring in Blacksburg working at rover.

"It's different only just in the tasks to learn," said Edmunds. "With me and Adonis (Alexander) moving, there's not too much more that you have to learn...I feel like I'm learning it pretty well."

And with the departure of former defensive backs coach Torrian Gray, Edmunds will be playing for a new position coach for the first time at Virginia Tech. But for his part, Edmunds seems to be taking the transition to new safeties coach Galen Scott in stride.

"Every coach has their own swagger pretty much," said Edmunds. "Coach Gray had his own swagger. Coach Scott has his own swagger. They're both great guys."

It's been an eventful offseason for the Edmunds family — Terrell's older brother Trey elected to transfer to Maryland for his final year of eligibility, and younger brother Tremaine is slotted to be the Hokies' starting backer in just his second year in Blacksburg.

And while Edmunds certainly misses having the entire clan in town, he and Tremaine are excited for the opportunity to play on the same side of Bud Foster's vaunted defense.

"When I talk to him, he's always laughing and smiling, like, 'Hey bro, we're on the same side,'" laughed Edmunds. "He's just excited about it."

Additional Quotes

Justin Fuente

ON TECH'S FIRST PRACTICE:

"I thought we had a good days work on Tuesday. Obviously we're in the first stages of this whole thing. It's all about in the first 5 practices installation of our fundamentals and base principles in all phases of the game. Kids did a great job Tuesday. We've got basically the same practice structure today and then on Saturday we'll put shoulder pads on and the practice structure will change a little bit then. But I like the way the kids went about it. We've got another great challenge today to continue to get things installed, to continue to work on technique and really kinda take the first five practices to take our baby steps."

ON THE QB COMPETITION:

"It's been fine so far. It's been pretty smooth. Like I said, as we go through it, we'll taper those things. We won't stay like that the whole time for the entire spring. But as those guys earn more reps and we get a nice little sample size there, then we'll taper it to the guys that are moving towards the front to narrow it down a little bit."

ON HAVING COACH FOSTER ALLOWING HIM TO FOCUS MORE ON OFFENSIVE INSTALLATION:

"Well I'm focused on the team. My job is to coach the team. I have an offensive background, obviously, but I also empower the offensive coaches as well. 'How nice is to have Coach Foster?' 'It's fantastic.' But my job is to kinda coach the entire group and set the tone from that standpoint. But it's great to have Coach Foster out there. I think he's getting familiar and the new coaches on staff are getting familiar with him and how he wants things done."

ON HIS POST-PRACTICE TRIVIA GAME:

"I just want everybody to be familiar with each other. We're gonna need old guys and we're gonna need young guys. Guys from the region and guys from far off in order to have a chance to succeed. I wanna make sure we've got a good foundation of knowledge."

ON HIS GOALS FOR THE SRPING:

"I hope we gain knowledge level of what we're installing just purely X's and O's wise. I hope we can continue to move forward. And I know there'll be a time in the spring on either side of the ball or on special teams where we may have to take a step backwards in order to move forwards, but I hope we incrementally get better. I hope the players continue to feel more comfortable with the way that we're doing things and our level of expectations. I hope they understand that we have their best interests in heart and we're gonna be very demanding at the same time...and I hope they grow closer, each and every practice. I hope we learn how to practice, how to compete against each other while taking care of each other during practice."

Sam Rogers

ON BEING A LEADER IN HIS SENIOR YEAR:

"I've always tried to be a leader anyway I could. It's obviously a different kind of way now, it's more vocal now. The past two years I've been more vocal. Freshman year you usually come in and try to lead by example. Now leading by example really isn't enough. You've gotta open your mouth and help these guys."

ON DIFFERENCES BETWEEN STRENGTH & CONDITIONING PROGRAMS:

"I don't really wanna compare too much between the two. Everybody's gonna have their own nuances and styles and things like that. I love the guys here right now. I love what they're doing. It's been really good for us."

ON HIS H-BACK ROLE IN THE NEW OFFENSE:

"Fullback is kind of like an h-back in this offense. That's what they call it. But I'll probably be doing some similar stuff, I don't really know. We'll get into all that stuff later, but we'll see."

Terrell Edmunds

ON HIS MOVE TO ROVER:

"Well I know the coaches always have my best interests in mind. I know they're gonna put me in the best place I can be. I'm not saying I was mad about it. I'm not saying anything like that because it's a great move."

ON IF HE'S HAPPY TO HAVE COACH FOSTER BACK:

"Yes, ma'am, that's a great thing having Coach Foster back. I was hoping that he was coming back. Just having Coach Foster there and already know(ing) the defense, not having to learn a whole defense, that's just a great thing. And it's helping the defense out as a whole. Everybody's just growing together. The team's getting better."

ON MISSING HIS BROTHER TREY:

"Well, of course, that's my brother. I support the decision he made. It's kinda different not having him here, but I know he's having fun at Maryland and I'm having fun here still. I'm still glad to be a Hokie."

Augie Conte

ON PLAYING FOR HIS FOURTH OFFENSIVE LINE COACH AT TECH:

"Obviously you would like to have some consistency in the coaching. But from another standpoint, it's also, I've enjoyed just kinda picking up different techniques, different styles from different coaches. Picking up parts that they were teaching and adding it to my game as opposed to just having one offensive line coach the whole time, one set of techniques...It's been an interesting experience when it comes to just developing my game."

ON COACH VICE'S COACHING STYLE:

"It's definitely really similar to Coach Searles. I really enjoy working with Coach Vice. He's a good guy. I respect and I like what Coach Vice is saying when it comes to coaching. I think it'll be a good fit for our offensive line when it comes to transitioning from Coach Searles to Coach Vice."

ON BEING DONE WITH 5:30 A.M. WORKOUTS:

"Everybody's pretty happy not to have to do that anymore. Unfortunately for me, this is my last go-around, but the younger guys, they get to look forward to it next year."

ON GOALS FOR THE END OF SPRING:

"For the end of the spring, I'd like to have our depth chart established. I'd like for the offense to start gelling and working as a unit. Obviously I wanna have a majority of the game plan in for what we're gonna do for what we're gonna do when we go into fall camp. But just to be able to click as an offense and be able to establish some depth and find out the different roles. I guess the big question is finding out who our quarterback's gonna be. I think spring ball will kinda springboard us into fall. I'm sure there'll be some opinions on quarterbacks coming out of spring, but I think fall is really gonna be where the quarterback position is gonna be made in terms of who's gonna be playing."

ON IF HE HAS A SENSE OF WHAT THE STARTING OFFENSIVE LINE GROUP LOOKS LIKE:

"Obviously going in with a majority of last year's line still here, they've been taking most of the reps. But every position's open, especially when you get new coaches. There's no guaranteed spots. It makes for better competition...You can go to practice and watch the first starting lineup out there today, it could be completely different the next time we go out there."