You know what you get when you face a Frank Beamer and Bud Foster-coached team. Great Special Teams, which is Beamer's M.O., a tough physical running game, and a damn good defense, which Foster gets the most out of every year with what he has.
Since 1995, they've won 168 games, which is tied for tops in the country. In 2012, they return 12 starters, 9 of them on D, but just 3 on O. Beamer teams have won 251 games, which is the most among active FBS coaches. His record is 209-98-2 in his 25 year career in Blacksburg.
Let's start with a Beamer M.O. and that's on Special Teams. 2011, was not a year that was typical VT special teams play. Their punts were just horrendous, which is not Beamer Ball at all. They were dead last in the ACC and 108th nationally out of 120 FBS teams in net punting. They needed Danny Coale's leg to get them out of trouble.
That will not be the case this year with Coale graduating and now in Dallas with the Cowboys., they're going to have to find someone to step up and produce at the P position. is gone and none of the players trying to win that punting job - Sophomore Michael Branthover (5'9" 184), 5th year Senior Scott Demler (5'11" 201) and RS Sophomore Ethan Keyserling (6'2" 205) - did anything to stand out over the spring.
They'll also have Freshman walk-ons A.J. Hughes (6'1" 190) and Hunter Windmuller (6'3" 170) in the mix. Given Beamer's importance of field position, would he pull the trigger and give the job to a true freshman?
On Defense, you know that Foster will get the most of his personnel no matter how thin or deep they are. This might the best unit he's had in Blacksburg in a while. Three of the nine players back in 2012 are 1st team preseason All-ACC. 5th year senior LB Bruce Taylor (6'2" 244), RS Junior DE James Gayle (6'4" 244) and Junior CB Kyle Fuller (6' 193). Also their whole two-deep on the D-Line returns. They have 5th year senior DT Antoine Hopkins (ACL) back as well. In 2011, their top reserves got some very valuable experience when called on to do so. Their other LB 5th year senior Jeron Gouveia-Winslow is back healthy from ACL surgery.
If there's a question here, its at the LB position. They were hampered by injuries, and even though their secondary is very good, they are thin here, and if any of their key players go down, it could be trouble. In the end though, this is still a Defense to be reckoned with, especially with Foster running it. Did I mention that they were 10th in the nation last year in total yards allowed?
Now, let's talk about the offense. They get RS Junior Logan Thomas back at QB and he's now the unquestioned leader at QB. At RB, there are some questions that will have to be answered here.
Virginia Tech is the Coastal Division favorite again, but they still have plenty of questions to answer: The leader to be the #1 back is RS Freshman Michael Holmes (6' 208). This spring, he looked very impressive to their staff. The competition will be stiff.
Freshman J.C. Coleman (5'8" 192) enrolled in January and he'll have a very good chance to win the job. They'll also have a 5th year senior Martin Scales (5'11" 222), who will be one that can pound the rock in short yardage situations. Also in the mix are RS Junior Tony Gregory (6' 185) who is back from knee surgery which forced him to miss all of 2011, Freshmen Trey Edmunds (6'1" 212) and Chris Mangus (5'11" 187).
Their RB coach Shane Beamer (son of Frank), wants to have 2-3 backs to rely on once the bell rings on Labor Day vs Georgia Tech.
For the holes to be open for the backs and to give Thomas protection, the O-Line has to step up in 2012. For years, this has been the weakest link of the offense and if Virginia Tech wants to get to that next level, they have to come up big this year. They only return one starter from 2011, and that's RS Junior Center Andrew Miller (6'4" 304), although they did have 5th year Senior LT Nick Becton (6'6' 317) play a lot of minutes.
They do get RS Junior LG David Wang (6'2" 288) back. He missed the entire 2011 season due to a foot injury. On the other side of the line, its time for 5th year Senior RT Vinston Painter (6'6" 309) to step his game up in 2012, and they add RS Sophomore and Georgia transfer Brent Benedict (6'5" 304) to the mix here. If any of their starters were to go down, they'll have 5th year Senior Michael Via (6'7" 304) waiting in the wings to step right in and contribute. Via is coming off ACL surgery too.
This unit lacks a lot of starting experience (Miller's 14 starts accounts for all of it), however its not a young unit. Painter, Becton and Via are all 5th year seniors, while Wang and Benedict are in their fourth and third years of college, respectively.
The outlook for the 2012 Virginia Tech Hokies. The question is asked, is this finally the year they win the whole thing? Well, based on only 3 starters on Offense returning, one would say no. However, with 9 starters back on Defense, one could argue, their Defense is more than good enough to say yes. Here's the problem, when VT faces elite competition (i.e., Top 5 opponents), they fall flat on their faces almost every time. Their record vs Top 10 opponents is 8-46. That's not going to get it done. Looking at their schedule, they open with GT on Labor Day. They go to Pitt on September 15th to face future ACC foe Pittsburgh. They have to go to both Clemson and Miami back to back, with the latter coming off the BYE week. Then they host FSU the following Thursday Night and two weeks later finish with their Commonwealth state rival Virginia. To answer the question that is asked above, I'm going to say no. They'll be in the mix for the Coastal, but this year, I think they'll come up a bit short there. My prediction for VT in 2012 is 9-3.
In Part 10 of the series, the focus will be on the 2012 Virginia Cavaliers.
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