Breaking down the running backs as the Hokies prepare for spring practice
Virginia Tech’s spring practice is fast approaching, with drills beginning March 27. To prepare you for what should be a highly-anticipated spring session, I’ll be breaking down the Hokies by position groups over the next week and a half.
I did the quarterbacks yesterday. Today, it’s the running backs.
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The 2012 numbers
– J.C. Coleman: 109 carries, 492 yards, 4.5 avg., 2 TD, 21 catches, 132 yards, 1 TD
– Tony Gregory: 64 carries, 299 yards, 4.7 avg., 1 TD, 7 catches, 60 yards
– Michael Holmes: 70 carries, 280 yards, 4.0 avg., 4 TD, 5 catches, 23 yards
– Martin Scales: 52 carries, 203 yards, 3.6 avg., 2 TD, 3 catches, 9 yards
– Daniel Dyer: 1 carry, 1 yard, 1.0 avg.
– Joey Phillips: 5 catches, 18 yards
– Riley Beiro: 1 catch, 3 yards
The departed
– Scales
– Joey Phillips
Spring cast
Tailbacks
– Tony Gregory, 4-Sr.
– Daniel Dyer, Jr. (walk-on)
– Michael Holmes, r-So.
– Maurice Taylor, r-So. (walk-on)
– J.C. Coleman, So.
– Trey Edmunds, r-Fr.
– Chris Mangus, r-Fr.
– Jerome Wright, Fr.
Fullbacks
– Riley Beiro, r-Jr. (walk-on)
– Greg Gadell, r-Jr. (walk-on)
– Griffin Hite, r-So. (walk-on)
Fall reinforcements
– D.J. Reid, Fr.
– Drew Harris, Fr. (maybe)
The question
After a season in which nobody seized the starting job, can the Hokies find an every-down back capable of being the physical, smashmouth runner that they’ve grown accustomed to in Blacksburg?
The star attraction
He’s yet to play a game, but Edmunds has all sorts of intrigue around him. The Hokies gave him an extended audition last fall, not finalizing his redshirt decision until a few weeks into the season. Even then, it seems they weren’t completely sold on the idea of keeping the talented youngster off the field in his first year. Frank Beamer threw out a Kevin Jones comparison after one scrimmage, during which the 6-foot-1, 212-pound Edmunds gave the fans in attendance a glimpse at his talent with some hard-nosed runs. But he also had some fumbling issues, which probably contributed to the redshirt decision. A strong offseason conditioning program in which he matched J.C. Coleman with a 4.37-second 40 (in Hokie time, which is always inflated) reinforced the excitement surrounding the redshirt freshman heading into the spring. All eyes will certainly be on Edmunds in spring drills.
The battle
It starts at the top. Nobody established himself last year as The Guy. Holmes struggled, then was hit by nagging injuries. Gregory had his moments but was also bit by the injury bug. Coleman is the most tantalizing of the backs and led the group in rushing and dynamic plays last year, but there will always have questions about his size, at least in terms of being a 20-25-carry back. With Scales gone, the Hokies lack that true bruising back, one that you figure is going to be a big part of the offense based on everything the new coaches said upon their arrival in January. Running backs coach Shane Beamer had a hard time whittling down reps, both in practice and games last year. He’d probably like to have a more strict rotation of backs this year, provided any of them step up to show they can handle the role.
The new guys
Wright signed last year but delayed his enrollment until this winter, spending a semester at Fork Union. At 5-foot-11, 223 pounds, he’s the biggest of the tailbacks currently on the roster (at least based on the currently listed weights). Reid, from Thomas Dale High, was the only high school back to sign in February. That’s because Harris’ saga with the NCAA Clearinghouse continues. It remains unclear if the four-star recruit will be able to sign with Virginia Tech and enroll in May, when the first summer school session begins. At this point, with how unpredictable the clearinghouse process is, the Hokies can’t count on it. If he does get in, he’d be another big-bodied back to add to the mix. Even if that happens, he won’t have the benefit of spring drills to accelerate his game.
The wild card
Remember when Holmes was the presumed frontrunner for the running back job? It wasn’t that long ago that Frank Beamer was saying Holmes reminded him a lot of Logan Thomas heading into the 2011 season — someone who had the skills to succeed but had just never had the opportunity. Well, things didn’t go as planned. Holmes never got more than 13 carries in a game and never ran for more than 60 yards in a contest. A late-season injury made him an afterthought down the stretch. Holmes played in two of the final four games, getting just one carry in the bowl game for negative-2 yards. Perhaps a new season and a fresh outlook will do him good.
The fact
Thomas led the team in rushing with 524 yards, the first time a quarterback has done so since Bobby Owens in 1965. Coleman’s 492 yards led the running backs. That’s the lowest rushing total for a lead running back since Terry Smoot led the Hokies with 356 yards in 1967.
March 17, 2013 - 11:19 AM
Good summation.
I think folks have been to quick to blame the Oline for the RB’s weaknesses last year. I don’t doubt they could have done better making holes but the running backs showed many weaknesses, particularly size. Gregory and Coleman are both small bodied backs. Quick yes, but completely unable to break a tackle. It semed far too often they dropped at the first hit.
Other than Scales, who got far to few carries last year in my opinion, none of the other backs exhibited any power.
Holmes had zero glimpses of anything and Beamer’s gushing over him makes me question whether he was getting bad input from his son or our defense, which with the exception of the first game against GT was very porous the first half of the season, made him look better in practice than he really was.
I don’t think any of these backs are confident enough they’ll start this year that they weren’t working their butts off in the off season, so that’s the upside.
Is it too late to bring back Coach Hite to coach running backs?
God yes it’s too late. Shane will be just fine as soon as he has a decent back and a solid line.
It is called being able to recruit with the big boys.
Part of the reason Holmes and some of the other backs looked good during practice was obviously because our defense was horrible against the run as evidenced by what transpired during the season.
Most any coach would be a good coach with a decent back and a solid line.
Roughly a year ago, Shane & his daddy told us how wonderful Michael Holmes would be as the featured RB. All the ‘whispers’ (by the enablers) were that Holmes would be the next in a long line of great RBs.
My, how time flies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZaZqx9v3dU
Now, the back – oooh, the FUTURE – who sat on the sidelines as the Hokies marched to a 6-6 regular season with the weakest RB corp in the last four decades, this guy is the answer? What position coach made the decision to ignore his glorious talents and instead to swat boxing gloves on sticks at the rest of the deflated lambs on hand? Oh, that’s right, the successor. Excuse me, The Golden One.
Let’s make sure we point the finger of blame in EVERY possible direction, excepting that of the Last Name. After all, it’s all about the Circle Of Trust, The Family….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dSvsp3dxvc
Time for everyone to get back on the same page, even if it is off the reservation…
Anyone who says it was the RBs fault last year has been watching Hokie football too long. If the O-line was right then the running game wouldn’t require a Vick, or a Tyrod, or one of the many 1st Round type RBs VT has had carrying the ball. I wouldn’t point the blame at Shane Beamer either. RB is the most instinctual position on the field and therefore requires the least coaching
You Hokie Fans???? amase me – Spring parctice isn’t even here, you know anything about the new Coaching Staff, development of the o line and you are already nick picking, pointing finegers –
Sickening bunch!
Hey crooked road, that was very good.
This father – son deal at Tech is out of character for the university.
The running backs were as bad as you say.
It would be especially nice if we had any of this supposed plethora of RBs get more carries than our QB. It seems like the default position by the coaching staff all season was – ‘LT is big, we should run him because he’s probably hard to tackle’. I think much of the retarded development of the RBs was due to the obvious intent to make Thomas the (virtually) sole focus of the offense.
I just reviewed all the box scores for last year, and the Hokies only had two games all season where a RB got more than 13 carries. They had more games than that where NO running back even got 10 carries. Logan Thomas was easily the most frequent rusher for the team, no RB even had 2/3 the number of carries as Thomas.
Now, before the retort is even attempted, Logan Thomas wasn’t even close to being as effective in YPC as the RBs. Thomas averaged 3.0 yards per carry. That was not even in the top ten YPC of anybody who had any rushing attempts on the team. Not in the nation, not in conference, on the team. Yet… he had the most carries by a HUGE margin.
So… unless that changes, it might not even matter if we have any good RBs. Unless you think that we might have not used the proper coaching strategy last season when we went 7-6, and that strategy was prevalent throughout the entire season.
So… are we committed to good RBs?
I say let’s put all the running backs in the game at the same time! That will create some havoc. No wait that would be a penalty for too many men on offence. O well let’s hope the new coaches will use the best ones. I think they have some talent to choose from.
7-6 last year BOB!
Imagine Taylor, Williams, Evans, and Wilson running behind a well coached and nasty OL. Since 2005 the problem has definitely NOT been the backs!
#14 cpoovey, the problem with that is the entire offensive philosophy has been extremely dysfunctional. To draw a proper analogy – take the most uneducated, most vain Offensive mindset you could find residing in an eight year old child. Then blend that in with an immature child two elementary school grade behind that.
That is what we have had for several years now, even before the RB quadrant you mentioned. Let’s not forget that we have also had Frank Beamer enthusiastically endorsing this Pre-K offensive mentality so forcefully that Frank Beamer has insulted the fan base multiple times on his radio ‘talk show’ (SUCH a misnomer!)
Remember, Frank Beamer remains so wrongly loyal to Stinespring that he had to be threatened at the point of his own job before he’d deign to ‘promote’ Stinespring DOWNWARD.
The only way it gets better is if Frank Beamer actually discards some of his antiquated Jerry Claiborne stillborn offensive tendencies. Based on Frank Beamer’s extreme contentment with contending for an ACC title and only pretending to even care about an MNC, the answer seems obvious. Any guy that sticks with Stinespring for more than a decade as a totally incompetent Offensive Coordinator? Well, the answer is extremely clear, though the apologists will try to BS their way out of it.