Hokies harbor high hopes for next season

Expectations were tempered this season for Virginia Tech’s inexperienced football team. That’ll change next year following a magical 2008 campaign that saw the Hokies win their second straight ACC championship and first BCS bowl since 1995.

Tech is expected to return 16 regular starters (18 from its 20-7 Orange Bowl victory over Cincinnati) next season. It has a favorable 2009 schedule that includes home games against Nebraska, North Carolina, Miami and Boston College.

The offseason will be fueled by thoughts of returning to Miami for the Orange Bowl. Some of the Hokies players might even be setting their sights higher.

“I can see this team win a national championship one day,” said junior free safety Kam Chancellor, who announced after the Orange Bowl his intentions of returning for his senior season.

Tech, ranked 19th before last Thursday’s Orange Bowl win, overcame long odds to finish 10-4. It accomplished something only one other team in school history has: It won a conference championship and BCS bowl game in the same season, joining the 1995 Hokies, who won the Big East championship and Sugar Bowl.

This year’s team overcame injuries and suspensions — it lost seven starters between preseason and the Orange Bowl — and four heartbreaking losses, three of which were decided by five or fewer points.

“We did it together, and that’s what a team is when it’s a bunch of guys that really kind of click and bond and really just depend on each other,” said redshirt running back Darren Evans, who rushed for a Tech freshman record 1,265 yards and 11 touchdowns this season.

“There aren’t a lot of individuals here. I mean, we’ve got stars like Macho (Harris, starting cornerback) and Tyrod (Taylor, starting quarterback), but you wouldn’t be able to tell just by the way they ... they’re all together.”

The Hokies return their offensive nucleus next season: Taylor (1,774 total yards and nine touchdowns), Evans, tight end Greg Boone, both starting receivers and three starting offensive linemen.

Defensively, it must replace senior standouts Orion Martin, a former walk-on defensive end who saved his best career games for the ACC championship and Orange Bowl, Harris, an All-American who had six interceptions and two touchdowns, and its top two tacklers in linebackers Purnell Sturdivant and Brett Warren.

But with the departure of a much-accomplished senior class — it finished tied with last year’s senior class with a school-record 42 wins — the Hokies will have plenty of young playmakers to blend into its rotation.

“I think we’re going to improve a lot next year. We had some close games this year that we let slip away from us that we should get next year,” said redshirt freshman offensive guard Jaymes Brooks, who made his first career start in the Orange Bowl in place of academically ineligible senior Nick Marshman. “I feel we’ll be pretty good next year.”

Players like redshirt freshman linebacker Barquell Rivers, who filled in for the injured Warren in the Orange Bowl and came up with a critical goal-line stop of Cincinnati’s quarterback in the fourth quarter, and Brooks, who was solid in his first major playing time, will get their opportunities to make their names in the spring and preseason.

Next season will also mark the debut of a handful of freshmen who wowed their teammates in practice this season while redshirting. At the top of that list is tailback Ryan Williams, who many of Tech’s defenders deemed the fastest running back they faced all season.

He’ll join a backfield that already includes gamebreakers Taylor and Evans.

Though Taylor emerged as a confident leader this year and will be the clear starter next preseason, the Hokies will still enter 2009 with a major question mark at the position. Senior Sean Glennon provided a valuable insurance policy if Taylor was injured. Tech won’t have that luxury next year.

Entering spring practice, freshman Ju-Ju Clayton, who ran the scout team this season, will be the No. 2 quarterback. Boone, a strong-armed quarterback in high school, could also see increased work at the position.

Finding depth on the offensive line will also be a priority for the Hokies. Sophomore Beau Warren and Brooks will likely replace senior center Ryan Shuman and Marshman, respectively, and Richard Graham will probably get a long look at left guard.

There will be very little experience, though, at any of the backup offensive line spots entering the season.

Harris is the biggest defensive loss. Redshirt freshman Cris Hill and sophomore Rashad Carmichael will battle for his vacated cornerback position.

Rivers, the next Vince Hall according to Harris, is the leading candidate to take over for Warren, while Jake Johnson has a leg up at the middle linebacker spot.

There are several freshmen who could make Johnson and Rivers work for the starting spots, though, including Quillie Odom, Allen Stephens and Lyndell Gibson.

Junior Nekos Brown, who filled in for Worilds in the Orange Bowl, was a de facto starter this season, and he will be the leading candidate to take over for Martin.

Martin said he doesn’t expect a dropoff with Brown, or at any other position for that matter.

“They sky’s the limit with these guys,” Martin said.

The Hokies jumped a big hurdle with their Orange Bowl win over Cincinnati. Bigger things could be in store next season.

They open the 2009 season against Alabama, college football’s top-ranked team for most of 2008, in the Chick-fil-A College Kickoff at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome on Sept. 5.

“We’ve got some good (players) we’re redshirting (this season), but there’s no guarantees in this business,” Tech coach Frank Beamer said. “You’ve got to get down to it. But I do feel like we’ve got a lot of good players in our program and a lot of them are young, and a lot of them have got more time at Virginia Tech.”