\

I was wading through the gazillion blogs and articles about the Hokies today and of course, I stopped on Kyle Tucker’s blog, because, well, Kyle gets paid to know stuff that the rest of us don’t. And here’s the mini-shocker of the day … highly recruiting 4-star freshman runningback Ryan Williams will likely redshirt this season if he hasn’t seen any action by the UNC game in two weeks.

For those that don’t recall, Williams decided to come here in part because the coaches told him that he’d play as a true freshman. But, according to Hite, Williams has come around to the realization that he’s not quite ready for the college game. This is really the best thing for Williams and the program. The Hokies are just loaded in the backfield this season with redshirt junior Kenny Lewis, Jr. and redshirt freshman Darren Evans having emerged as the top two RBs, followed by Josh Oglesby, another redshirt freshman, Dustin Pickle, a fifth-year senior and Jahre Cheeseman, a redshirt junior. That’s five tailbacks and we only lose one for next season, assuming the other four return. So the backfield will still be crowded in ’09. Playing Williams this year would just be a waste of eligibility.

Here’s the quick Q&A with runningbacks coach Billy Hite regarding Williams:

ON WHAT THE CONVERSATIONS HAVE BEEN LIKE LATELY BETWEEN HIM AND FRESHMAN RYAN WILLIAMS: “He and I have had quite a few talks. And Ryan understands right now … I told him if I haven’t played him by the Carolina game, and it’s going to be his decision … right now he knows he’s not ready to play. But he’s made more and more improvement. Every pass route today, he knew exactly what he was supposed to do. The protections, he’s gotten so much better at that. But again, I told him I don’t want to waste him. I could be a selfish coach and play you and not worry about wasting you for 200 plays in a season. He understands that part of it. I told him, ‘Think about it tonight.’ He came back and talked to me the next day and said, ‘I know I’m not ready to play right now.’ What he would like to do is keep working at it and see if something doesn’t happen here in the next week. If something doesn’t happen, then I think he’s set on redshirting.”

ON WILLIAMS REALIZING IT’S HARDER TO PLAY THAN HE THOUGHT: “Yeah. And I told him, I would never want you to be in a situation where something embarrassing could happen to you as a young player. I don’t want you to lose your confidence by putting you in a situation where maybe we lose the game because of something you did wrong. He understands that, and he’s really been very good about it.”

ON THERE STILL BEING A CHANCE WILLIAMS PLAYS, THOUGH: “Still a chance. After Carolina, that’s it. I won’t go after that – unless something happened and there was an explosion in the backfield. If a grenade went off, then obviously he would have to take the shirt off.”

Read more good stuff like this over at Kyle Tucker’s blog.

Popularity: 2% [?]