2008 Virginia Tech Hokies
Written July 3, 2008 by Jason Lowry
There is plenty of reason to start thinking about the upcoming football season, and Jason Lowry is ready to give you his 2008 Virginia Tech Hokies football predictions. The Hokies were one of the best teams in the country last season, as there 3 losses cam to like likes of LSU, Boston College, and Kansas. The Hokies finished up the season at 9-3 and seen a lot of their team head off to the NFL, which mean head coach Frank Beamer will have a lot of new faces in the starting line up this season. To get a good idea at what they got, lets take a look at who gots the starting edge on both sides of the ball this season.
Offense:
With 6 returning starters there is reason for some concern here, but the fact that they got their starting quarterback back in action for his senior year means more to this team than you might think. Last year Sean Glennon threw for 1,796 yards and just 12 touchdowns, which isn’t terrible seeing how much the Hokies like to run the ball. The team does hope that redshirt freshman Darren Evans will help improve the ground game after it has been through two of the lowest years in the Beamer era. While the team does have some solid weapons at the tight end spots in juniors Sam Wheeler and Cory Holt, but the wide receiver spot is a little different. They lost all their 4 leading receivers and are hoping sophomore Zach Luckett and senior Cory Holt are the likely guys to step in. The Hokies should have a solid offensive line in 2008 as they return 4 starters from last season, and they got a couple of really good ones in junior right guard Sergio Render and senior left guard Nick Marshman.
Defense:
This is where it gets a little interesting for the Hokies, as they only return 4 starters on this side of the ball after seeing many of their players say good by to the school. The team only brings back 1 starter on the defensive line in senior defensive end Orion Martin who is coming off a 6.5 sack season. It looks like the team will go pretty young as they are planning on putting sophomore John Graves and junior Cordarrow Thompson at the tackle spots, while the plan on plugging sophomore Jason Worlids at the other end spot. The team only brings back one starter at linebacker, and look like they will go a little older here and use seniors Brett Warren and Purnell Sturdivant at the open spots. The secondary does bring back 2 starters and they are both solid players, but it will be on the shoulders of sophomore Rashd Carmichael to step in at the open corner spot and play good enough for this team to win.
Prediction: 2nd in ACC Coastal
While its hard to find a team better than the Hokies in the Coastal division, we think that you just might see the Tar Heels sneak into the picture this season. If we were talking about any other conference this team might not even be in the top 4, but since the Coastal is pretty weak we still got this team finishing in the top 2. The defense just has two many wholes and the offense is lacking playmakers.
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