Give it to the guys at the Roanoke Times.  No sooner do they run a snippet on Andre Davis in Saturday's paper than the guy goes out and makes serious noise in Saturday's scrimmage with a 90-yard touchdown reception.

For those of you who don't know, Davis is a world-class sprinter in the 200 meters at the junior level, and not too shabby in the 100 meters, either.  And he's not just a guy who can lope along at high speed and finish strong - he's got good acceleration out of the blocks, too.  Andre won the 55-yard dash at the A-10 Indoor Track and Field Championships last year, and he clocked a 4.29 40-yard dash last spring, the third-fastest time ever for a Tech football player.

So if you're like me, you're saying to yourself, all this guy has to do is separate from the defender, and he can get open.  Way open.   Way downfield.

And then, of course, he has to catch the ball.

Before practices were closed, I observed the true freshman wide receivers working out one day.  When the coaches run receiving drills that match the wide receivers and the DB's, watching new DB coach Lorenzo Ward and wide receivers coach Tony Ball is like watching night and day.

Ward is loud and boisterous, constantly shouting instructions at the players, while Ball, during the practice I watched, was more of the quiet type who made short, to-the-point comments to each individual player.  He watches a pattern, steps in, talks to the player quietly (mostly), and sends him on his way.

But the biggest thing I noticed was what they were telling the players.  Ball was telling the receivers not just how to run their routes, but how to separate from their defenders.  Use the arms and hands, swivel the hips just right, get away from them, square up, and accelerate (not all in that order - it depends upon the situation).

Ward was teaching his defenders how to stick to the receivers.  Put a hand on them, square up, swivel the hips, stay with them (and man, during one drill, freshman DB Garnell Wilds nailed it.  If he can do that consistently, you'll be talking about a great tandem of Whitaker and Wilds three years from now).

So Andre Davis's mission is clear:  get away from the defenders, and use his speed to break open.  Tech has a quarterback with a powerful arm that can toss up a ball that Davis can run under, as they demonstrated on Saturday.

Obviously, getting away from a defender isn't just technique, it's pure strength.  And as Andre works on his technique, he needs to work on his strength, too.  Tech's media guide (the Maroon Book - call 1-800-VATECH4 to order yours for $10 + $4 S&H, you won't regret it) lists Andre as 6-1, 199 pounds, and in his bio, there is the statement, "Still needs to get stronger (emphasis mine), but is ready to challenge for starting job."  (Just for the record, every depth chart in existence, including the one in the Maroon Book, has Andre at the #1 flanker spot, ahead of Terrell Parham).

The other part of the equation is, can he catch?

One play Andre made last year sticks out in my mind - an over-the-shoulder 49-yard reception against Clemson, a sliding catch that was made with a defender hanging all over him.  Hampered by a thigh bruise suffered in that game, he only made four other catches for 34 yards all year long, so we didn't get to see much of him, but for at least one play, the guy was money.

My guess is that barring injury, Andre will show us some flashes of brilliance this year against the weaker teams on our schedule, but he may struggle against teams with bigger and more experienced defensive backs.  That gets back to the technique and strength that he will develop over the coming years.

Senior Ricky Hall is expected to have a standout year at split end, but beyond that, there is a pack of young players at flanker and split end (Davis, Emmett Johnson, Terrell Parham, Deon Provitt, Andrae Harrison, and even Shawn Witten) who will be jockeying for position and looking to make a name for themselves.   In the coming years, they will comprise the strongest crop of wide receivers Tech has ever boasted, but the question remains:  who will step forward?

Everyone keeps saying that Vick is physically a more talented quarterback than Al Clark, with a better arm, and that will be the difference in our offense this year.  Me, I'm counting on the offensive line to be the difference.   Sure, Tech lost two good players in Derek Smith and Dwight Vick, but all you need to know about the Tech offensive line this year versus last year can be summed up in this paragraph from the Maroon Book (I'm telling you, you've got to get one of these):

"Last year at this time, Tech's offensive line candidates included just four lettermen and only two players with starting experience.   This season, the Hokies will open the season with eight letterman, including seven players who have started at least one game."

That's an amazing difference in experience, and on the offensive line, experience is the fuel that makes the engine run.

I'm one of those people that believes that the offensive line is the most important part of the football team.  A good offensive line demoralizes its opponents with long, time-consuming drives.  A good offensive line makes the passing game a series of mere pitch and catch drills, and a good offensive line insures that a running back will average five yards a carry, so long as he's not blind or crippled.

A good offensive line is what should make the difference in critical games this year against Miami, UVa, WVU, and Syracuse.  There's a lot of talk and a lot of hype around those games, but no one's talking about the fact that Tech is well on the way to quietly rebuilding an offensive line that has suffered depth and experience problems the last two years.

Keep an eye on those guys.  Of course, at 275-300 pounds a man, they're hard to miss.

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