The Hokies are in their 2nd week of practice for the new season, and it’s time to take stock and see how things are progressing.
The Mid-Week Session for Week 2 is in the Books
It was the mid-point of the second week of practice for the full 2025 Hokie football team, and the local weather finally cooperated enough to provide a relatively cool and cloudy, but very humid photo opportunity. There was definitely a different feeling to the atmosphere when we walked out onto the practice field and the barndoor side of the “Beamer Barn” (Beamer-Lawson
Practice Facility) than in the last several sessions that we have gotten in prior years.
There was certainly no milling around and shouting going on. The players were at their drill stations working on technical skills, timing, and pacing. (Face it, they aren’t going to allow the media into the critical parts of practice where actual plays are being executed, but the grace given to allow us to photograph a segment of the drill structure is always appreciated.)
The practice drills are broken up into 5-minute segments and broken down by squads so the linemen are working on something, the quarterbacks and receivers something else. You’ll see the linebackers working on certain skill sets that the coaches think need honing, and the defensive backs are drilling on the critical ball and receiver coverage skills that always involve tough footwork that most normal people who have problems walking in one direction will never get. Sometimes you wonder if a ballet master is needed to untie feet and legs.
In past years, the pace during and between drills was always loud and frenetic. This year for the 2nd observed drill period, the drills were quiet, and the transition periods were organized and lacked the raucous indiscipline of the prior seasons’ observed drills. Players wrapped their final repetitions and moved to the next drill quickly and quietly. Frankly, that’s neither good nor bad, it’s just an observation and a potential harbinger of the revised discipline a new strength and conditioning coach might bring to the table.
Again, all of the coaches and assistants were heavily in the action, though Pry was less directly involved, and more focused on moving between sessions to observe and offer some pointed observations and “encouragement”.
Observational Breakdown from the Offensive Drills in the Barn
Since the drills are conducted in different places let’s look at the observed work. We’ll start with the Offensive Line. One would think that there would be a slight change to the way the offensive line was working on skill sets given the reality that minus Coach Davis (who has moved to Tight Ends and they move in and out of the O-Line drill stream), the entire line staff has been changed by the arrival of Matt Moore with assistant Jens Danielsen as the line coaches under OC Philip Montgomery’s supposedly “new” offensive scheme. The O-Line was working techniques for most of the practice, there was a whole lot of post snap engagement, pulling, and blocking setup practice going on. These are critical base skills necessary for actually getting a play off the ground on the right foot.
The internal line audibles are something you never hear, but the results of the setup and reaction to the assignment are critical to the successful start of any play. That means muscle memory and constant understanding of footwork and positioning of both the defender and the potential of dynamic changes in the play structure. Face it the “O” side of the line is not the static target sketched out on the pad or whiteboard. That guy is big, fast, strong, and has football supercomputer between the ears, just like the guy trying to block him. The drills worked those skills and what was encouraging is the work on pulling, there was structural change to the routines observed. The theoretical positions were executing straight pulls, not looped pulls. (The best neutral descriptions that I can think of…). These are the most difficult to execute because they occur in heavy body traffic, and have to be executed firmly and almost instantly after the snap to avoid getting cut down and knocked out of the play.
Overall, repetitions were methodical, checked for crispness and pace. There was a lot in the way of communication between coaches and players, but none of it sounded to be anything other than encouraging or teaching.
Arms, Hands, and Legs
The passing and receiving drills were pretty straight forward. Patterns were being worked in toward the goal line – like something you’d throw inside the other guys’ 40, and the outbound passing from inside the 30 was dealing more with out routes and a few post routes sprinkled in. Needless to say, sometimes two quarterbacks were firing off passes to two different receivers on two completely opposite patterns.
There were just a few too many drops and balls delivered behind the receiver to make any coach very pleased. Even with no pressure the timing is still not completely jelled. There were a few nice post routes in toward the goal line, but there were also several sets of the dreaded “bubble screen” routes. One hopes that they aren’t a feature of the offense anymore. They rarely gain much in the way of yardage, but always present the opponent with a long slow pass to potentially pick off. They are useful for full checkdowns and dump offs, though.
With these sets the actual potential for plays isn’t even relevant to a certain extent. The drills did provide active targets for the quarterbacks but seemed more for pure rhythm and timing than for making plays. Those competitions we aren’t invited to cover so we can only speculate about the competitive one on ones that offenses traditionally run with the 1s and 2s pushing each other.
Tone, Organization, and Event Management
Nothing methodology wise is much different from prior preseasons, but the general tone of the players was more earnest and thoughtful than the usual adrenaline pushed activities. The difference between now and Spring practice is noticeable, however. The new coaches have settled into their roles, and the players seemed to be more focused than pumped. The organization and purpose behind the drill periods was largely the same as prior seasons, but there was also much less of a crowd. Maybe the reduced roster size made that much of a difference? We won’t be sure until we start seeing the pregame warm-ups and the squad management there.
The recruiting visits for Game Days are always important, but of late the crowds have been getting out of hand and the drill space for the team has been crowded out by on-field non-football activities. One hopes that the event management then is as efficient as it was for practices.
There was definite progress from the first week checkup, but there are still new and rough edges to smooth over, and we really won’t get a chance to look at the results until the offense takes the field in Atlanta.
