2009.10.31
LB Gibson to get first college start at East Carolina
BLACKSBURG -- After watching his defense being stung for 490 rushing yards in consecutive losses to Georgia Tech and North Carolina, Virginia Tech coordinator Bud Foster has decided to stir the pot a bit.
Following the Hokies' practice Saturday, Foster said redshirt freshman Lyndell Gibson will start at inside linebacker when Tech travels to East Carolina on Thursday.
Gibson will make be making his first college start, replacing sophomore Jake Johnson, who has started the season's first eight games. The 5-foot-10, 220-pound Gibson played most of the Hokies' 20-17 loss to North Carolina last Thursday, replacing Johnson after the defense's first 16 snaps. Gibson finished with seven solo tackles and assisted on four other stops.
"Right now, Jake has done a solid job and Lyndell has continued to improve, and we just need to find more production out of that spot," Foster said. "Jake's still going to play, I'm just going to give the nod to Lyndell right now to see if we can't get juiced a little.
"There's some other positions as well. But that's just one thing I'm going to try to do. I talked to Jake about it this morning. I think he has started out well and has kinda leveled off here a little bit, and Lyndell has continued to improve. So you're just trying to make a decision that you think that's best for the football team."
The middle of the Tech defense has been getting gashed lately, primarily to ineffective play at tackle and linebacker, Foster said.
"John Graves has been dinged up, and he's been our bell cow in there, and he's playing at about 90 percent," said Foster of his junior starting tackle. "Cordarrow [Thompson] didn't play very well the other night. Demetrius [Taylor] was a non-factor.
"So right now, in my opinion, and we've talked about it as a staff, we're not as productive inside at both the tackle spot and the linebackers' spot right now.
"I'm hoping maybe we can shake some things up and we'll play better."
Starting center Beau Warren, who had to leave the UNC game with sprained left knee, did not practice Saturday. His status for ECU will be released in Tuesday's injury report.
If Warren can't go, redshirt Michael Via will get his first college start. Via replaced Warren early in the third quarter against UNC and played the rest of the way.
-- RANDY KING
Bud Foster - Not afraid or too politically afraid to swap things around for the betterment of the team.
Comment by David Falls — November 1, 2009 @ 6:44 pm