By Jimmy Robertson
BLACKSBURG – College football programs around the nation start practices this weekend, and with that comes the usual array of related news, including team press conferences, media days and preseason polls.
The latter was on Tech head coach Justin Fuente's mind Thursday afternoon, as he met with media members at a press conference held at Cassell Coliseum. The Amway Coaches preseason poll came out, and the Hokies were picked No. 17.
Fuente, however, refused to put his team in the poll for the second consecutive year.
"Who knows? It's a preseason poll. I don't know how good any of those teams are going to be, so I picked the ones I think are the best," Fuente said. "I think we should earn our way into that, as I think everybody should. I don't think there should be a preseason poll. There should be a poll after week 4."
"I feel the same way," Tech rover Reggie Floyd said about Fuente not putting the Hokies in his preseason poll. "I agree with him. We have a lot of young guys, so we don't want them to be geeked up over the top polls. We want them to focus on the first game, and of course, camp is coming up."
ARE YOU READY FOR SOME 🏈❓
— Virginia Tech Football (@VT_Football) August 2, 2018
Here's some highlights of what @CoachFuente + @CoachFosterVT were saying today. More to follow ...
Key Takeaways via @JRobIHS ⤵️https://t.co/ujT9FZu7lv#Hokies 🦃 pic.twitter.com/hMxye4ZOfR
Fuente, defensive coordinator Bud Foster, offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen and a group of Tech players received a variety of questions about the team, which returns to campus Saturday before starting practice Sunday. The topics included the running game, Tech's young receivers, the situations at the cornerback positions and the defense's faith in Foster.
The players' faith in Foster is one shared by Hokie Nation and a confidence well deserved given Foster's track record. But Fuente cautioned against overconfidence in Foster's abilities.
"I think everybody knows this and our kids know this, but Bud isn't going to make any tackles out there," Fuente said. "He's going to line them up and coach them up and get them in the right position, but ultimately, they're going to have to take ownership of what they're doing. It's the same in special teams, and it's the same on offense.
"But I do like that they have a belief in what's going on. That's certainly a good thing. He's been through situations like this before. He's been through seasons when large numbers of guys have graduated on defense, and you've got to come back and get ready to go the next year. As a staff, we'll get them coached up and get them prepared and get them ready to go."
Foster, whose defense lost seven starters – many of whom are in NFL camps right now – agreed with Fuente's comments and he deflected much of the praise, saying a lot of the credit goes to the players and the staff.
"I appreciate the guys having confidence in me," Foster said. "I know this, I have a great staff around me, and we'll be professional and do a great job of teaching and coaching and demanding. I think we've got a willing group of kids that want to be coached and want to please and want to work. They understand what it takes to be successful. Obviously, we've got to help some of them continue on that path and work that way. We can only control what we have and what's in front of us, and that's what we'll do."
Here are a few other nuggets from the news conference:
• Many fans expect the offense to be ahead of the defense once practice starts Sunday and for good reason, given the return of eight starters on that side of the ball. The offense may need to carry the squad early this season until the defense finds its football and may rely on a power running game to do so. In other words, run the ball like the Hokies did against Oklahoma State when they finished with 248 yards rushing – their most against a Power 5 opponent in 2017.
"What the MO for this team will be, I'm not sure yet," Fuente said. "Obviously, you can infer that there are more guys coming back on offense than on defense. That doesn't necessarily guarantee that's the way it's going to have to go, but that's part of us trying to evaluate camp and games and trying to figure out what it's going to take to pull it off."
• Arguably, the top priority heading into the start of fall practices centers on the cornerback positions, where the Hokies lost three talented and experienced players. Foster said Bryce Watts and Jovonn Quillen entered the mix at the top of the depth chart, but the Hokies need to find backups out of a group that includes redshirt sophomore Tyree Rodgers, redshirt freshman Caleb Farley, and freshmen Jermaine Waller, D.J. Crossen, Nadir Thompson and Armani Chatman.
"Bryce Watts had a great spring, and I feel real good about him," Foster said. "I thought Jovonn Quillen was maybe our most improved player. I really like Jermaine Waller, who came in early. I think he's got a chance to be really, really special, and getting Caleb Farley back [from offense and from a torn ACL] and him being healthy and watching him run … I'm really excited about him. He worked with us in the spring a year ago, and I like his skillset and his length and capabilities.
"We're going to find out what some of these guys' strengths are and what's their liabilities and weaknesses, so to speak, and build on those and find out who can play early. Then we'll go with that."
• Tech also started practice with a group of linebackers who own a combined handful of snaps of collegiate experience, and Foster said that Rayshard Ashby and Dylan Rivers were the frontrunners right now. Everything is subject to change, especially if a guy like touted recruit Dax Hollifield continues his rapid development.
"I've been extremely impressed with Dax Hollifield," Foster said. "If he hits like I know he's going to and be the type of guy, the way he's picked things up … he's everything that we thought he was going to be."
Hollifield worked at mike linebacker this spring, but Tech's staff also thinks he could potentially be a backer.
"Dax might be the guy that could do that," Foster admitted. "As you guys following his recruiting and followed who he is, he's a gym rat. He's an exceptionally high IQ guy … He wants to know everything, and he's working his way to doing that."
• Cornelsen hinted that tailback Coleman Fox may have more of a role in the offense this season. Fox tends to be productive when he gets opportunities – he averaged 5.7 yards per carry last season, though some of that was skewed from playing late in blowouts of Old Dominion (66 yards) and North Carolina (58 yards). But he also produced in scrimmages this spring, thus earning himself a look at a more prominent role.
"He's a guy that can do a number of different things, and so this spring, getting him out of the backfield some to try to expand his abilities and what he can do to try to find a little bit more of a role for him," Cornelsen said. "He's a guy that we trust and we know what we're going to get out of him and we know he's going to be there, and as he continues to get bigger and stronger, he's one of those guys that next thing you know, he's in there and he's making some plays."