It’s turning into a busy Thursday in terms of blog fodder. I’ll touch on a few items briefly …
HOLMES TWEETS: Running back Michael Holmes tweeted Wednesday afternoon for the first time since his arrest last weekend, denying many of the worst claims that have been made about him in the last few days. Here are his tweets:
He doesn’t have a preliminary hearing until June 13, so this might be the last we hear about this for a while. He remains suspended from the team indefinitely until the charge is resolved or dropped, per university policy.
PLAYOFF FORMAT SET: The upcoming college football playoff, which is cleverly titled, ahem, the College Football Playoff, is starting to take shape.
The first championship game under the new format — a four-team playoff — will take place Jan. 12, 2015, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, which beat out Tampa, Fla., for the honor.
The first year of the new bowl format will feature back-to-back tripleheaders on Dec. 31 (Cotton, Orange, Fiesta) and Jan. 1 (Chick-fil-A, Rose, Sugar). The Rose and Sugar Bowls are the national semifinals.
ESPN reportedly paid an average of $470 million annually for the 12-year College Football Playoff, the ESPN story said, citing sources. (Sidebar: if ESPN is reporting on ESPN, shouldn’t it be able to get someone on the record?)
Anyway, you can vote on the logo here. There was already some controversy about the voting yesterday. Don’t worry, those votes have been discounted.
Now the College Football Playoff just needs to come up with a selection committee and an agreed-upon selection criteria. Good luck coming up with non-controversial choices there.
A POSSIBLE COMMIT COMING: Colleague Doug Doughty wrote about C.D. Hylton Travon McMillian in today’s college notebook.
McMillian is a three-star recruit by Rivals and 247 Sports who will choose between Virginia Tech, California and Georgia Tech today. Doughty notes that the Hokies are the likely choice, since he’s been in Blacksburg each of the last two weekends.
He plays quarterback and has never played defense, according to his coach, Tony Lilly.
“From a development standpoint, I’d hire him tomorrow as a coach,” Lilly said. “He can run our offense and understands every aspect of defense and what we’re facing. I’d like to see him put up 2,000 rushing and 2,000 throwing this year.”
Doughty ranked McMillian as the No. 6 junior in Virginia in his recruiting rankings from December.
NFL DRAFT MISCELLANY: Lastly, the NFL Draft starts tonight with the first round. The second and third rounds take place Friday night and the fourth through seventh rounds finish things off Saturday.
Hokies fans might have to wait a while to hear one of their players’ names called. Most projections don’t have a Virginia Tech player going until the third day.
If that happens, it’d be the first time since 2009 that the Hokies didn’t have a player selected in the first three rounds and only the second time since 2004 that’s been the case. The only player taken in ’09 was cornerback Victor “Macho” Harris in the fifth round.
That’s unusual for Virginia Tech. NFL.com senior analyst Gil Brandt, the former VP of player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys from 1960-’89, tweeted about the schools that have produced the most draft picks since 2001. The Hokies are eighth nationally. Here’s the list:
- 1. Southern California 71
- 2. Ohio State 70
- 3. Miami 69
- 4. Georgia 64
- 5. LSU 61
- 6. Florida 56
- 7. Oklahoma 56
- 8. Virginia Tech 50
Projecting where some of the Hokies will go in the later rounds is a tough thing to do. Once you get past the first few picks, it’s a guessing game. Nevertheless, here are some projections that are out there for Virginia Tech’s players:
7-round mock draft on NFL.com:
- Round 5, Pick 136: Vinston Painter, Philadelphia Eagles
- Round 6, Pick 178: Corey Fuller, New York Jets
- Round 7, Pick 235: Marcus Davis, New England Patriots
7-round mock draft on ESPN.com (Insider account needed, but here are the Hokies):
- Round 6, Pick 198: Painter, Atlanta Falcons
- Round 7, Pick 239: Davis, New England Patriots
Linebacker Bruce Taylor and offensive tackle Nick Becton are also draft possibilities. I’ll have a little bit more in tomorrow’s paper and up on the blog on Davis and Fuller, who I talked to yesterday.
Woodbridge athlete Travon McMillian become the eighth commitment in Virginia Tech’s 2014 class when he publicly announced Thursday that he’ll sign with the Hokies next February. TechSideline.com was at McMillian’s press conference this afternoon.
