According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Hokies and the Yellow Jackets will kickoff the season on Labor Day inside Lane Stadium. The gametime has not been announced but it appears that ESPN will broadcast it in a time slot "with little competition." That probably means the game will be in primetime much like the Maryland and Miami game from this past season.
The past few seasons at Northside High School have been really exciting. My only problem with it is our program actually had to wait for my senior class to graduate before we started winning football games. The Vikings won the State Championship in 2009 and ever since then has been a real power in the Blue Ridge district. Despite this recent string of success, it wasn’t until the 2012 class that Coach Torrence produced a quality division one recruit. Enter tight end Dakota Jackson.
Signing Day is fast approaching and with it comes a new sense of relief, worry, and sometimes anger amongst college football fanbases. Obviously, if you’re an Alabama fan, next Wednesday should be a fun day for that fanbase. If you’re a Rutgers fan, well, the ABC store is open. For the Hokies, it’s looking more and more likely that Tech fans will have a few reasons to celebrate on National Signing Day.
With larger recruiting classes, sometimes you have players who commit early that stay an unknown within the fanbase. I’ll be honest, before I did some research on Desmond Frye, I really didn’t know what type of player he was. I knew he was a versatile prospect that could play numerous positions in college but I didn’t know his skillset. The bad news is I couldn’t find any senior film on him, which means I’m going to have to go off his junior film in my analysis.
Virginia Tech will sign three offensive linemen in this 2012 class, which is a welcome sight with Tech all but striking out in 2011. The first lineman to jump aboard in this class was Jack Willenbrock out of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Willenbrock is a similar recruit to that of Greg Nosal back in 2007. He has a terrific frame but at 260 pounds, he’s going to need some time to bulk up before having a chance to earn a spot in the two deep.
Let’s talk offensive line. The Hokies caught a huge break this season when they received a transfer waiver from Brent Benedict. That gave the Hokies offensive line an immediate boost from a player who was once regarded as one of the top offensive linemen in the country out of high school. In a way, that covers up a rather poor offensive line recruiting year.
