According to a release on HokieSports.com today, rising senior runningback Branden Ore is no longer on the team. This frees up the backfield competition to include incoming four-star recruit Ryan Williams to compete with Kenny Lewis Jr., Josh Oglesby and Jahre Cheeseman.

Read the release.

Update: ESPN is reporting that Ore was kicked off the team because “Hokies coaches grew weary of player’s attitude.” While ESPN summarizes that this will hurt the Hokies 110th ranked offense, I think it will help the team because there is one less player who isn’t giving 100 percent to the team and it opens the door for some fresh legs to show us what they can do.

ESPN Article

Fair warning - this is me bragging about my kid because I’m a proud dad, so if that kind of stuff annoys you, hit the “back” button. My son has been to four Virginia Tech mens basketball games this season and loves every minute of it. He already knows the fight song and all of the other popular chants prevalent at Hokie sporting events. This video is of him doing the H-O-K-I-E-S HOKIES! cheer. He’s 2-1/2 years old. He sings this ALL THE TIME … especially on game days!

From our friend Shane at vt.fanfoc.us:

As the NFL combine swings into full gear this weekend - something that I think deserves a lot more attention is just how many hokies are participating in the combine this year – here are the top ncaa schools (ranked by # of participants):

• USC 12
• Virginia Tech 11
• Arkansas 8
• LSU 8
• Cal 7
• Oklahoma 7
• Texas 7
• Michigan 7

So you ask – exactly who are those 11 fine hokies heading to the nfl combine?

• Adibi, Xavier - LB 6′2″ 220lbs
• Booker, Barry - DT 6′4″ 284lbs
• Brown, Duane - OL 6′5″ 300lbs
• Ellis, Chris - DE 6′4″ 260lbs
• Flowers, Brandon - CB 5′10″ 190lbs
• Hall, Vince - ILB 6′0″ 238lbs
• Harper, Justin - WR 6′4″ 198lbs
• Morgan, Josh - WR 6′1″ 215lbs
• Parker, D.J. - CB 6′0″ 195lbs
• Powell, Carlton - DT 6′3″ 300lbs
• Royal, Eddie - WR 5′10″ 182lbs

I’m actually surprised to see 11 hokies on the list and it’s a testament to the quality of players VT has been bringing in lately and good job beamer and his staff do developing those players. So who isn’t on this list?

Click here to read the rest of the combine preview.

I recently joined the staff at The Butter Room (www.thebutterroom.com) and this weekend, TBR launched an online store featuring a wide selection of clothing with the TBR logo. The store was pretty cool, so I looked into it and decided to launch one for VTHokieFans.com. If you want to find a cool way to support and promote this site, shop our new store and buy stuff today!

We finally got around to creating a Facebook Group, so if you feel like coming over to the dark side, click here.

ESPN released it’s “way-too-early” preseason college football top 25 poll today and the Hokies are ranked No. 11. OK … first, it is entirely too early to have a preseason college football poll of any kind, but I give ESPN’s Mark Schlabach credit for admitting as much. That being said, it is the off-season and college football junkies are already going through withdrawals. So, releasing a preseason poll gives us something to talk about and debate.

I was listening to Greg Roberts Live on WFIR this afternoon and he was incredulous that Virginia Tech was ranked so high. He also said that he thought the Hokies would have to scratch and claw their way to get seven or eight wins next season. I like Greg and I respect his opinion, but I think he’s missed the mark here.

I boldly - some would argue foolishly - predicted the Hokies to go undefeated next season in my Feb. 9 blog post and part of me really believes that they can. But, I am also a realist and understand just how difficult that would be, especially with road games against Boston College, Florida State, Miami and Nebraska. I’m not backing off my prediction, but if the Hokies drop two or three games, I will not be surprised. But to struggle to win seven or eight game? I think that’s a bit of a stretch.

Roberts, who is a Virginia Tech grad and former punter for the Hokies, pointed to the huge personnel losses on both sides of the ball as his main arguments for his prediction. Yes, Tech loses three defensive linemen, one all-conference corner and two all-conference linebackers. But this is not the first time Tech assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Bud Foster has had to reload his squad. Remember, Vince Hall and Xavier Adibi saw considerable playing since their freshman years because Foster lost his linebackers from the previous season. Hall started 12 of 13 games as a redshirt freshman and Adibi played in seven games, but missed six because of a torn tendon in his right biceps muscle. Those guys had immediate impacts and the players waiting in the wings have the same potential. Sure, they may not been as good as Hall and Adibi, but Hall and Adibi weren’t just good, they were great. The guys replacing them are very good and have the potential to be great.

As for the offense, I addressed the loss of personnel in an earlier post, but again, all four of the receivers came in at the same time because Tech lost guys to the NFL or graduation. We have two 4-star and two 3-star WRs coming in, plus two better-than-average TEs in Sam Wheeler and Greg Boone, so as far as the passing game goes, I’m sure it’ll take some time to gel, but I think it’ll be just fine by the middle of next season. Hmmm, let me rephrase; it’ll be as fine as it can be under Bryan Stinespring.

The offensive line is another year older and they are monstrously big, and scary strong. I think this will be a much-improved group. The running backs should be one of our most reliable and certainly our deepest position. Again, I covered all of these positions already, so if you want more detail, read my Feb. 9 post.

The bottom line is that I have a difficult time seeing the Hokies struggling to get seven or eight wins. I give the coaching staff and their recruiting skills much more credit that Roberts’ apparently is. Virginia Tech’s football program has reached a point in its evolution where it doesn’t panic when it loses a lot of guys - they just plug in guys they have molded and prepared and nine out of 10 times, they step in and pick up where their predecessors left off. Of course there is an adjustment period, but thanks to the coaching staff’s preparation, it is usually a very brief period, thankfully.

As for Tech’s No. 11 ranking - I think that Schlabach is using the same logic - the Hokies have the personnel to simply reload as they have proven in the past. I’d say that No. 11 is about right.

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My son, Nicholas, loves going to Virginia Tech sporting events, especially basketball. One of his favorite parts of each event is the band and the music they play. So, I Googled “Virginia Tech Fight Song” and found this great Web site with fight songs from all of the ACC schools. Check it out!

http://fightmusic.com/acc.html 

Virginia Tech released its 2008 football schedule and that means it’s time for me to make my annual pre-preseason predictions. Last year, I predicted a 10-2 regular season, which is what the Hokies ended up with. However, I missed two games: I predicted a win against Boston College and loss against Virginia. Other than that, I was pretty much dead on. Don’t believe me? Click here to read last season’s previews.

First, an overview of how I think the Hokies will shape up next season.

(Editors note: vatechhokies50 pointed out that I conveniently left out the QB situation. I was planning on writing a more detailed blog about that later, but I still should have addressed it to some degree here. So, what follows is an addition to the original article.)

Let’s begin with the quarterback situation. We all know that rising r-Sr. Sean Glennon and rising So. Tyrod Taylor will be back. What we do not know is whether there will still be a dual-QB system in place. I have a hard time believing that Glennon will be the starter next season or even split much time. Tyrod is the future of this team and the future is now. Even when the team had four all-conference caliber receivers, Bryan Stinespring didn’t use them and Glennon is supposedly the more traditional pocket passer. So, if you factor in the team is without experienced receivers; has a huge and strong offensive line; and a crowded backfield - that just screams a return to the power running game, which screams for a mobile quarterback, ergo … T-Mobile, a.k.a. Tyrod Taylor.

Let’s face facts … the dual-QB system was fun while it lasted, but sustained success is highly unlikely, especially with a lot of new faces on the offense this season. You can’t have a bunch of newbies learning two sets of offensive game plans, you need to simplify. Running is about as simple as it gets. Center snaps ball. QB hands ball to RB. RB runs with ball. As Peyton Manning said in his United Way commercials … “This ain’t rocket science.”

Tyrod should be the starter next season and Glennon will be a great … well, a very good … backup QB if he’s needed. It is absolutely absurd to think that you wouldn’t have Tyrod on the field as much as possible after the way he played last season. But that’s just my opinion.

Read more »

From TechSideline.com:

Virginia Tech received 31 letters of intent from football prospects today, the largest recruiting class in Frank Beamer’s tenure at Virginia Tech. The class includes 22 players from the state of Virginia, also a record for Beamer at Tech.

Although not all of the recruits will be enrolling this year, it marks the biggest recruiting class Tech has ever signed. The class features a number of highly-touted players, and as usual, a few sleepers that have an opportunity to defy the experts and excel at the college level.

Click here for a more complete recap from the boys at TechSideline.com.