Today's practice report is provided by two of our insiders. The Hokies had (stop me if you've heard this one) another good practice, and we've got some observations on the quarterbacks, thoughts on Cary Wade at rover, and info on Jonathan Lewis and Sergio Render.

"Once again, I thought that VT really had a good practice again," observer #1 told us. "I don't want to sound like a homer, but these guys are focused. Bill Roth said it on the radio today [on Greg Burton's show "The Drive" in Richmond], and I'll say it again, no VT team that I have seen has ever run off this many good practices in a row."

Quarterbacks: We are told that the quarterback play, on the whole, was good again Thursday. Marcus Vick looks blazing fast on his rollouts. "And as fast as he looks, Chris Ellis can keep up with him. Ellis is a beast, and will start this year." (For the record, Ellis is listed as co-#1 at the Stud defensive end position with Noland Burchette.)

Sean Glennon is still #2 at quarterback, but is being pushed by Cory Holt. Glennon in general practices well, but he "always has two or three plays that he'd love to have back. He threw a pick into coverage today, and almost threw another on a corner route. He also had a perfectly thrown deep ball for a TD. It was a thing of beauty."

Cory Holt is improved, we are told, and is not throwing into coverage very often at all. The battle for backup behind Marcus Vick is going to be close.

Ike Whitaker is getting good reviews thus far in practice. "It's not that I don't like Boone. He's injured, so he has gotten zero reps, although he did throw in one QB drill the other day, and was very wild with his passes. He deserves a shot this spring, but honestly I don't see any way that he can beat out Ike. Ike will likely put him in his rear view mirror in the coming weeks because he will get all the reps with the scout team, and Boone will get none."

Fortunately, Boone is a multi-talented player who can play elsewhere, if necessary.

Rover: Cary Wade is doing a good job and knows where to be, but once again we're being told that he isn't big enough to cover tight ends. Wade had tight coverage on Jeff King in Thursday's practice, but the QB placed the ball perfectly on a seam route. "Wade [5-10, 184] just isn't big enough to get around our wide body tight ends to prevent the completion by knocking the ball away. Wade is a good player, but this one deficiency has stood out to me the last couple of practices that I have been to."

Do you give credit to the QB and tight end, or should you be worried about Wade's size? Time will tell, and the VT coaches will make the correct decision between Wade and Rouse (6-3, 222). Rouse is listed #1 on the depth chart at the moment.

Receivers: Josh Morgan made a tremendous one-handed catch on a corner route today. Any of Tech's top five receivers could be a starter right now, with Gilchrist an outstanding backup. "Flip a coin," our insider says. "I view them all as even, each with certain strengths that make them very valuable to the team."

An aside about the receivers: "I really wish Harper had redshirted last year. It will really hurt to lose four top notch receivers in the same year. But they can't redshirt him this year, he's too good to keep off the field."

Our second practice observer gave us a couple of comments about Sergio Render and Jonathan Lewis:

Sergio Render continues to impress and appears to have a bright future as he battles for a spot on the two-deep as a true freshman. "Render is going to be nasty," observer #2 said. "I watched him abuse Andrew Bowman today. Yeah, yeah, I know, but it was the WAY he abused him, not who he was abusing. They're looking at something of a backup line A and a backup line B. One has Tripp Carroll at that guard spot and Ryan Shuman at center. The other has Carroll at center and Render at guard."

It was this insider who worried that Jonathan Lewis looked a little overweight (something that we mentioned in our last practice report), but that concern may have been dispelled. "He looked better today than he has all preseason. I guess those vets can turn it on when they need to turn it on."

TSL Pass Home