2003 Football Preview: Offensive Line and Tight Ends
by Will Stewart, TechSideline.com, 8/1/03

The Depth Chart

Here's a look at the depth chart, with one big change from the depth chart we ran in our offensive skill position preview: in light of Tripp Carroll's surgery for compartment syndrome, we have bumped him to third-string LT, and have moved Reggie Butler from third string to second string.

The two-deep in the chart is color-coded by class, and returning starters are listed in bold italics.

In the following text, statistics are for the full 14-game season, including the bowl game; snaps played are for the 13-game regular season.

Left Tackle

Starter: Jon Dunn (6-7, 343, r-Jr.)
Backup: Reggie Butler (6-5, 333, So.)

In 2002, Jon Dunn came under the most fire for his performance on the line. Dunn started the first seven games of the season at right tackle and eventually lost his starting job to Jimmy Martin, who started the last seven games. Dunn took 498 snaps, Martin 409 in the regular season. Dunn graded out at 80.3 percent with 22 knockdown blocks, while Martin graded out at 83.1 percent with 9 knockdowns.

Dunn often did well in run blocking (hence the high knockdown total), grading out high in the early games of the season, but he struggled in pass blocking. He's huge, but he didn't show quick feet and was often beaten by defensive ends who simply went around him. It's interesting, then, that he has been moved to left tackle, where he'll be protecting the blind side of right-handed throwers Bryan Randall and Marcus Vick (more on that later, when we talk about Jimmy Martin at the right tackle position).

Dunn is a huge key to the success of not just the Hokie offense, but the entire football team. If he improves upon his performance of last year, then it will take the pressure off of Bryan Randall and greatly improve the offense. If he doesn't do well, then Randall will be checking his backside all year long and will play nervous.

One rap against Dunn has been a lack of strength for such a big man. He has improved since fall of 2001, his redshirt freshman year, but not by a lot. His bench press is up from 320 to 350, and his squat has gone from 425 to 450. His weight has gone from 310 in fall 2001 to 333 last year to 343 this fall, so at 6-7, if he can move his feet and get in front of the defenders, he can be a force. If.

There will be a lot of eyes on Dunn this year, to say the least.

Meanwhile, Reggie Butler, who only played 49 snaps last year behind Anthony Davis, will probably see more playing time this year. Butler's bench press number of 370 pounds isn't particularly impressive, but his back squat of 550 pounds (down from a high of 570 last winter) is right up there with the best OL's on the team (Will Montgomery and Brandon Gore put up the top squat numbers with 575). One area of concern: his 10-yard dash time, a measure of quickness off the ball, was 2.04 seconds, slowest of all the OL tested this week.

But beyond the numbers, Butler is rumored to be applying himself and to have a better attitude. Butler was a lightly-regarded recruiting pickup, ranked #55 in the state of Virginia by Doug Doughty, and he didn't start playing football until his eleventh grade year in high school. He's got the size and has good leg strength. All he needs now is desire, footwork, and technique.

Jacob Gibson's man won't be making the tackle on this play. (click to enlarge)

Left Guard

Starter: Jacob Gibson (6-4, 306, r-Sr.)
Backup: Will Montgomery (6-4, 298, r-So.)

Jacob Gibson is VT's second-best offensive lineman, behind center Jake Grove. An All-Big East candidate, Gibson has gotten some attention from preseason publications: Street and Smith's listed him as one of 22 "Honorable Mention" offensive linemen nationally (and not Grove).

Last year, he played 768 snaps, third among OL (behind Grove and Anthony Davis), and was second on the team with 39 knockdowns (behind Grove's 43). In terms of snaps played per knockdown (where a lower number is better), Gibson was second on the team at 19.7 snaps per knockdown, behind Grove's 19.5 snaps per knockdown.

All of which ought to make you feel good about the left guard spot, as long as Gibson is healthy.

Behind Gibson is Will Montgomery, a walk-on defensive tackle who has earned a scholarship and converted to the OL, where he played 52 snaps last season, 34 of which came against Arkansas State. Montgomery is definitely green. His claim to fame -- as is appropriate for a former walk-on -- is that he's a strength and conditioning nut. Earlier this week, Montgomery set the all-time guard position power clean record with 366 pounds, third-best all time in Tech history. His other notable numbers are an impressive 1.76-second 10-yard dash, second-best among the OL, a 575-pound back squat, best among the OL, and a 370-pound push jerk, best among the OL.

So from a strength and explosiveness standpoint, Montgomery can hold his own with the best OL on the Hokie team. That's promising. This season is when he gets to start putting it together on the field. He might not see a lot of time playing behind Gibson, but hopefully, the VT coaches will have the wisdom to get him on the field and prep him for a possible starting role in 2004.

Center

Starter: Jake Grove (6-3, 300, r-Sr.)
Backup: Robert Ramsey (6-2, 307, r-Jr.)

Pray for Jake Grove to stay healthy, because it all starts and ends with him when you're talking about the VT offensive line. Grove is the frontrunner for All-Big East first team center. Sporting News named him the top center in the nation, Lindy's rated him #4 nationally, and Athlon named him First Team All-Big East.

Jake Grove leads the VT OL into battle. (click to enlarge)

Grove led the OL in 2002 with 43 knockdowns and a 90.6 percent grade for the season, and he was the only offensive lineman to grade out above 80 percent for every game. While the team was nosediving against Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and WVU, Grove went on a personal hot streak, grading out at 93 percent, 94 percent, and 90 percent, respectively. He followed up with a 91 against UVa and an 89 against powerful Miami.

Is he tough? As a redshirt sophomore, Grove led the team with 48 knockdowns, despite playing the last 8 games of the season with a broken hand.

Is he strong? This week, he tied Josh Redding's team record with a 500-pound bench press.

Is he quick for an OL? His 1.76 10-yard dash was tied for second among offensive linemen with Will Montgomery.

Is he a leader? During this year's 6 a.m. winter workouts, Grove was the only player to earn the coveted "Commitment to Excellence" T-shirt for all six workouts. The only one. For a lineman, that's almost unheard of.

So, Grove's the man. But behind him is a cast of backups vying for position, including Robert Ramsey (just 49 snaps last year), weight room force Danny McGrath (25 snaps last year), and Andrew Fleck.

Ramsey came on strong at the end of last season and during spring practice, when he practiced a lot of reps with the first team. The VT coaching staff will look to him to spell Grove a little bit this year, giving Big Jake more time on the sidelines than he had in 2002.

McGrath is a workout force with a 460-pound bench press, and the victim of a blown redshirt year last season. He played 22 snaps against Arkansas State in the opener and then played just 3 snaps for the rest of the season. In spring 2003, according to the VT media guide, he "took a limited number of plays ... because of the large number of players working at the center position."

Don't be surprised to see McGrath get his redshirt this year, if both Grove and Ramsey hold out this year, injury free.

Fleck is just 275 pounds and is probably a couple years away from being a contributor.

Right Guard

Starter: James Miller (6-6, 304, Jr.)
Backups: Jason Murphy (6-2, 296, r-So.); Brandon Gore (6-5, 328, r-Fr.)

Among last year's backup OL, James Miller got the most snaps, playing 270 snaps behind Jacob Gibson at left guard and starting two games. The coaches like Miller enough to move him into the first string spot at right guard, and now it's his time to step up. Miller was one of just four true freshmen to play in 2001, averaging 18 snaps a game, and he was named one of the team's most improved players in spring 2002.

The line on Miller is that he's got great lower-body strength but needs to work on his upper-body strength. He has squatted 540 (he didn't squat this week in Max Testing), but his bench press is just 350.

Miller will determine if the Hokie OL is going to be strong up the middle this coming season, because Grove and Gibson are givens. It's also important that Miller stay healthy, because Jason Murphy (a converted DT) and Brandon Gore are both green as all heck and huge question marks.

Right Tackle

Starter: Jimmy Martin (6-5, 283, So.)
Backup: Chris Pannell (6-4, 274, r-So.)

The decision to move Jon Dunn to left (blindside) tackle wasn't so much an endorsement of his ability as it was a decision to put Jimmy Martin at right tackle, where he is much more comfortable than he was at left tackle. Martin played RT last season, starting the last seven games and grading out at 83.1 percent, and the coaches tried him at LT early in the spring. He struggled there, so they moved him back to RT and put Dunn at LT.

Martin entered Tech in January of 2002, practiced with the team in spring 2002, and found himself getting serious playing time as a true freshman last year.

His strengths? Quick feet and solid fundamentals. Martin recorded a time of 1.70 seconds in the 10-yard dash this week, easily the best among the offensive linemen (second-best was 1.76, as mentioned earlier).

His weakness? Size and strength. Martin was thrust into the action too early last year, and too light, at 270 pounds. The good news is that he's up to 283 this year, his bench press is 400 pounds, and his back squat is a solid 560 pounds, second-best among the OL. His push-jerk is 360 pounds, second-best among the OL, and the 360-pound power clean he put up last winter was best among the OL and an offensive tackle position record.

So Martin's got the physical tools. His future is bright, and he should be a pretty darn good right tackle this year.

Behind him, pickings get slim, with converted defensive tackle Chris Pannell currently holding down the #2 slot. Pannell is athletic, but needs to build up his size, strength, and experience before he'll be a good offensive lineman.

Tight End

Starter: Keith Willis (6-5, 264, r-Sr.)
Backup: Jared Mazzetta (6-4, 260, r-Jr.); Jeff King (6-5, 258, r-So.)

VT tight ends caught just 10 passes last year for 226 yards and 2 TD's, in a 14 game season. As Ross Perot would say, "Now, that's just sad."

The leader by far was Keith Willis, with his 8 catches for 188 yards and a TD. Willis' highlight was an 87-yarder against Syracuse that, amazingly, did not go for a touchdown. He had 2 catches for 113 yards in that game, and to give you some idea of how lightly tight ends have been used at VT, that was the first time in 20 years that a VT tight end had over 100 yards receiving in a game. Cue Ross Perot again.

All kidding aside, Willis is popular with Hokie fans because of his high school hype, his good looks and his athletic potential, but despite that popularity, insiders to the program were rarely complimentary of Willis in private conversations. He was accused of being a little soft, and the phrase "prima donna" was even thrown around.

A little-known fact about Willis is that despite his popularity and the fact that he had 8 of 10 catches by VT tight ends last year, the coaches actually played Jeff King more than Willis last season. Willis had 8 starts to King's 4, but King played 437 snaps to Willis' 423.

Things appear to have changed this spring, with Willis dedicating himself to the weight room and paying attention to details like never before. Willis has beefed up from a skinny freshman in 1999 -- as recently as late summer of 2001, Mike Gentry weighed him at just 208 pounds -- to a solid 264. This will no doubt make him a more effective blocker, and we all know how the VT coaches like to have their tight ends block.

His media guide entry for 2003 says, "Has committed himself to the weight room and is doing all the little things that can give him an edge on the field." That's media guide talk for, "Finally snapped out of it and is ready to be a playah." Good for Keith, and a breakout year from him would be a big boon to the VT offense.

Jared Mazzetta will get a lot of snaps this year, too. He caught one pass for 19 yards last year in 102 plays from scrimmage, and if Jeff King does well as the backup fullback/H-back, he won't play as much TE, and Mazetta will get more snaps.

In any event, the VT coaches no doubt wish that they were as deep at, say, offensive tackle as they are at tight end.

Offensive Summary

For the Tech offense to be successful this season, it's clear that the following things must happen:

• Kevin Jones, Bryan Randall, and Keith Willis must step up their level of play. If they do, watch out.
• The offensive line must stay healthy, particularly at tackle.
• Jon Dunn must improve drastically and be more reliable as a pass-blocker.
• James Miller must flourish as the starting right guard.

If those four things happen, and if Ernest Wilford has another year like he had last year, the offense could become a force and take a lot of pressure off a defense that might turn out to be pretty darn good.

Speaking of which ...

Next: The Defensive Line

Our next article in this series will concentrate on the defensive line, as we turn to the shark-attack side of the ball.