Duane Brown, David Wilson make NFL All-Pro teams
Two former Hokies made the Associated Press’ NFL All-Pro teams, which were announced Saturday morning. Houston Texans tackle Duane Brown was a first-team selection, while New York Giants running back David Wilson made the second team as a kick returner.
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Brown, who finished his fifth year in the league, was the leading vote-getter at tackle, getting 27 out of 50 possible votes. The NFL website called him “the best left tackle in football.” He allowed only 2½ sacks and went the entire season without a holding penalty.
Wilson, who left Virginia Tech a year early and was taken in the first round last spring, found his niche on kickoff returns. In Tom Coughlin‘s doghouse for most of the year as a running back, Wilson made an impact with a 26.9-yard average on kick returns. He took one back for a touchdown against the New Orleans Saints.
Wilson got three votes, well behind Baltimore’s Jacoby Jones, who got 37½ votes after finishing the season with a 30.7-yard average and returning two kicks for touchdowns.
January 12, 2013 - 10:41 AM
Huge congratulation to both players. Here’s especially hoping that Wilson’s nomination helps Tom Coughlin move beyond the fumble by an eager rookie in his first ‘live’ game. Wilson has shown he’s got the tools, when given the opportunity.
Congratulations Duane and David!
LT should follow in the footsteps of
David Wilson and make the right decision and ” get the heck out of dodge ” and move on to pro football where he can get REAL coaching.
Before any of you Beamer apologists say that Brown is the reason why Beamer needs to keep the current staff intact, I direct you to this article that makes a pretty damning statement against the offensive line coaching.
Thanks for directing me to the article! I just read where Duane says, “My experience at Virginia Tech sucked so bad and my offensive line coach also sucked eggs too. They are there REAL reason I fell to the bottom half of the first round of the NFL draft instead of being the #1 pick out of college, given that I was recruited as a pro O tackle and projected for greatness out of high school! Its a wonder why schools like Alabama or Boston College didn’t recruit me instead, even though I had no O tackle experience prior to being taught the position at VT! DAMN those Hokies for making me into a first round draft pick!!! I never learned the fundamentals of my position!”
Okay Trevor, you know I’m just busting your balls. I don’t group you in with the kooks like crusted road, Barry or ancient bobcat. At the same time, while I have not followed D Brown’s comments like a groupie, I have never seen any VT alum in the NFL come out and say that his coaching could have been better.
At the same time, I HAVE seen many players fail to meet their potential bc they chose to enter the pros early, and never have I heard someone say, “Man, I wish I had listened to my coaches and had actually STAYED one more year!” I think MV1 was a perfect example of raw talent that produced some poor decision making.
Thanks for ‘keeping it real!’
“I was very ‘raw’ as a first-round draft pick. I only played three seasons at tackle in college, one on the left side,” Brown said. “I didn’t understand exactly how important technique was until I started to play my rookie year. I have worked extremely hard, and still do, to try to perfect my craft. Also, film study plays a huge role in the success of a left tackle, or any position in this league. That was something else I had to learn my first couple of years.”
The Coaching staff (Beamer and Company)need to read this!!!!!!
In fairness, the college game is a lot different than what is played in the NFL though it may look the same. Blocking schemes are far more technical and complex, footwork and technique are at a premium. On top of this college coaches are only allowed a certain number of hours a week to work with players, so drills and practice techniques tend to be more general than you would have at the pro level. In short, no college offensive line coach is going to have either the time or wherewithal to properly prepare an OL for immediate plug in into an NFL offense. You will also note that Brown never calls out VT or the coaching staff for any of these issues, just states these things as a matter of fact. I’m sure that any NFL OL from any school would say similar things about his early NFL experiences. I’m not defending the VT offensive coaches here by any means, just saying that a certain measure of slack should be given when you understand the differences between college and pros.
Truth, again, you made my point for me. You can read whatever you want from those comments, but there is no indictment of poor coaching by the VT football staff in those comments.
We all know that Coach Newsome is leaving VT. Damn those inconvenient things called facts that tell us that the VT coaching and recruiting staff of Newsome and Coach Cav took a raw, 250 lb high school senior Tight End with only four offers Duane Brown, got him to go to VT over UVa, UT and UMD, and crafted him into an all-ACC lineman two years in a row.
An intelligent person would expect that he received excellent coaching once he continued on to the NFL (duh). He just signed a $53 Million extension to his contract! I’m sure Beamer and Co. are very happy for him and having seen him on the VT sideline more than once over the past few years, I would again submit those crazy things called facts that when he was hanging out with his position coach he probably appreciated the coaching he received at Tech.
Oh Mikey! Guess you didn’t read the entire article did you? The Truth shall set you free! Koo! Koo!
So Mary from Ivy how do you like them apples……….nice road win for the Hokies
Can you believe that the Yellow Jackets collapsed in the last 5 minutes of the game and allowed those Hokies to steal a win? I am so glad we have a great football team, will be ready for those football Hokies in Atlanta later this year.
And congratulations to AJ Hughes for making ESPN’s 2012 All-Bowl team! Great job AJ!
Why are you people writing comments in this newspaper and hoping that Frank Beamer reads them? That is NOT going to happen. If you want Frank Beamer to read what you think of him and his staff – write directly to him. Why are you afraid to do that?
My guess is only one of the two Hokies will be back flipping in Hawaii.
Nice road win in Lanta for VT today.
Greg adkins would be an excellent hire. Hope VT can get him!