BLACKSBURG – Thanks to Hurricane Florence, the Virginia Tech football team will not be playing a game this Saturday.
But the Hokies still will be working.
The hurricane forced the cancellation of the Hokies' home game against East Carolina, so the Hokies plan on taking advantage of the extra time to practice in their indoor practice facility and to iron out the kinks after their first two games of this season. Following the victory over William & Mary this past Saturday, head coach Justin Fuente said the mantra for his team each week would be to improve.
"Today's performance in all three phases was not perfect by any means," he said afterward. "We had a mistake or two on defense as well as some mistakes on special teams. We acted like we were allergic to the ball for a little bit on offense so plenty of things for us to work on that we have to improve, but that kind of has to be the rock of our team to improve."
For sure, Tech has done a lot of things right so far, playing stingy defense and getting rock solid performances from its kickers. The offense took a step in the right direction Saturday, scoring 62 points and rushing for more than 300 yards.
The play of the offensive line was a topic of conversation Tuesday, as select assistant coaches and players met with media members at a news conference at Cassell Coliseum. Line coach Vance Vice rotated linemen at will against the Tribe and played different players at different positions. That often goes counterintuitive to what most line coaches do – most like to play a set group to develop cohesion.
But Vice likes his group – and plans on continuing his strategy.
"Coach [Brad] Cornelsen, Coach Fuente, we spend a lot of time keeping it simple, especially up front – as simple as you can," Vice said. "Obviously, we see multiple fronts and different things like that and pressures, and we've got to get prepared for those, but keeping our plan simple allows me to play as many people as I can when they're ready and when I trust them.
"I'm fortunate right now in that I have quite a larger normal [group of players] that I trust. There are a couple of guys in there … I know [D'Andre] Plantin has been in there and he can fit anywhere up there. If one guy isn't getting it exactly right, I can shuffle a guy over or him over and it allows me to have a little bit of false depth with guys being able to play multiple positions, or play all the position on one side or the other.
"We practice like that. All our backups get the same number of reps as the 1's in practice. That's on purpose."
The numbers certainly show his faith in his group. So far this season, Vice has played 12 offensive linemen, with six of them playing in both games.
Of those 12, two are true freshmen (Christian Darrisaw and John Harris) and two others are redshirt freshmen (Lecitus Smith and Silas Dzansi). Darrisaw actually started both games at left tackle, and Harris played two different positions Saturday against the Tribe.
Of course, Harris and Darrisaw, who is competing with Dzansi daily for the position, still could redshirt under the NCAA's new rule, one that allows freshmen to play up to four games while keeping a redshirt year. Vice plans on waiting before making that determination.
"I would like to redshirt all of them, but I want my best five out there," Vice said. "I kind of forget their age when they've proven to me that they can do it."
For the most part, this group appears to be able to hold up to the pressures of Division I competition, whether on the road in Tallahassee or at home against an FCS team.
"Hopefully, I'll be able to do it from here on out," Vice said. "The more people who play, the better your practices are and the better your meetings are. They stay in it. Those guys are working, and as long as they're working, they'll get an opportunity – as long as they have my trust and doing better than the other guy."
