Well, Saturday was a bit more eventful in a very frightening way on Saturday April 18th. The Remembrance weekend activities, blended with the Corps Change of Command, and the capper was the Franklin Era Debut at the Spring Game.
A Sincere Note of Gratitude, First
The Tech Spring Game made national headlines, but the reason was definitely not one that the university or the athletic department wanted. The show for the game was to be game quality, with pyrotechnics, a full military march on by the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets as they
changed command, and our usual crew of precision parachute jumpers to land on the field. The show went smoothly, right up until the lines formed to make the fan corridor for the team to run on to the field. Nature really wasn’t cooperating, however, and the wind gusts kicked up -like they had been all day- as the parachutists neared the stadium bowl.
The first jumper ended up coming in from over the South stands, with the wind gusts, lost control – or from the pictures allowed his parachute to lose any residual lift on landing (the general idea is to land against the wind to minimize the forward speed). He ended up taking a tumble going the wrong way and worked to avoid being dragged across the field by his parachute. He was safe, though, and recovered his equipment.
The second jumper was towing the Hokie Bird flag, and as he approached the North rim of the stadium, an overpowering gust of wind caught the flag and his parachute. He managed to make a right-hand turn, even with the flag dragging, and landed in either the parking lot or practice field behind the North side of the stadium.
That was disappointing for the show, but what happened next, to the jumper with the large American flag was almost a tragic accident. This jumper made it to about 100 or so feet over the jumbotron in the North End Zone and another gust of wind caught the flag, stalled his forward momentum – which caused the parachute to drop much faster – and then he failed to clear the scoreboard. This is where the miracle occurred, and no one is saying much about that, because it was, indeed, a miracle. That sign is 3-4 stories high, and a fall from that height to the asphalt below would probably have been fatal. By some amazing luck, divine hand, fortunate accident… whatever it was, the jumper’s parachute snagged on the C and the H of the Virginia Tech lighted sign that he had just bodily smashed into and dropped past. He was caught up on the sign, but the parachute was slipping and wouldn’t hold for long.
Miracles Can and Do Happen
The fire crew and the stadium maintenance/operations crew went up into the jumbotron, located the right panels to open, and secured the hung-up parachutist before anything else could tear away. Within a half-an-hour or so, the Blacksburg Fire Department positioned their tallest bucket ladder under the jumper and pulled him to safety. The parachute remained hung up on the scoreboard for the remainder of the game, which was played in full.
Gobbler Country sends prayers of thanks out for the safety of the parachutist, and the quick and capable response of the Blacksburg Fire Department and the Stadium Operators.
Needless to say, with 12-minute quarters, and very limited clock gimmickry, the game was essentially delayed by an entire half.
Now on to the Game
(Or at least the first half. Personal Note, I am still rehabbing a full knee replacement and am on doctor’s orders to not push my still weaker than normal legs too far so in order to walk out to transportation, I had to limit game coverage. The near tragic parachuting accident that delayed the game by an entire half certainly didn’t help.)
The rules for the game were the usual, setting up high school quarters at 12 minutes, and putting orange no contact jerseys on the quarterbacks. The timing rules for the 2nd half were also adjusted to speed play. There were no kickoffs, and all kicking team activities, punting and place kicking for points, were done without whole squad participation. PATs and field goals were strictly the long snapper, holder, and kicker setups.
The Nittaney Hokies Showed Out
The squad mix wasn’t quite even between the maroon and white squads, but for the most part the interior positions for the first half were shaded toward the potential starters wearing maroon. New quarterback, Penn State transfer redshirt sophomore Ethan Grunkemeyer suited up for Maroon along with returning wide receivers Ayden Greene and Takye Heath with Duke transfer Que’Sean Brown. The probable starting running back was Redshirt Freshman Jeffrey Overton, Jr.
The remainder of the maroon squad was mixed in with various levels of the depth chart, with some ones, twos, and threes mixed in on each squad. The major separation seemed to be between the skill talents to get their opportunities on one squad or the other.
The white squad’s skill players were more of a mixed bag of 2s and 3s on the depth chart. Again, though, both the lines and defensive backfields were mixed between 1s, 2s, and 3s. The important things to note about the skill positions were that the quarterbacks, though probable 2 and 3 in the depth chart were also very active on the field and split snaps for the entire quarter.
Bryan has already gone through the details of the game in his summary; my job was to give you an impression of what I saw on the field and how it looked like it was running. So, I will split this by positions and personnel regardless of shirt.
Quarterbacks
Ethan Grunkemeyer (we had a star QB named Druckenmiller, so why not?) started and played the entire quarter for the Maroon Squad. Of a note of concern was the knee brace on his left knee, but those are increasingly common on many players. What it did say was that there weren’t going to be a ton of called runs for the QB for this one. If he ran it was a scramble or an experiment of some kind. Of course, there was no more than two-hand touch contact allowed so anything heavy was stopped by the refs pretty quickly. In general, we’ll not that the coaches were on the field when the White Squad was up, but less conspicuous for the Maroon Squad. Also noted was the wrist coach on each of the quarterbacks, so it looks like Coach Franklin has made some systematic changes to the way the offense is called from the sideline. If Jim Druckenmiller was eventually just “Druck” how long will it be before Ethan is “Grunk”? Okay, all silliness aside, the impressions and observations on EG were overall really good.
He looks confident behind the center, and looks like he’s seeing the field pre-snap, to make audible reads. What really has changed is the feel after the snap. Grunkemeyer was smooth with either his hand-offs, play fakes, or actual conversion to passing. He moved well in the pocket and had the footwork confidence to keep his eyes downfield. There were even several “look off” passes that he executed well. His post-snap downfield reads were good, and even with the one pick-off that he tossed, it was balanced with a nice rollout for a touchdown throw to Que’Sean Brown for the first score of the game.
Short of some disaster, or a Spring to Summer breakdown, Grunkemeyer is the odds-on favorite to be the starter in September, though with the first game being VMI, we might see another number show up on the field behind center for some reps.
Bryce Baker (The very Doug Flutie #22) redshirt Freshman transfer from UNC, and redshirt Freshman Kelden Ryan both took snaps in the first half. Neither quarterback made atrocious mistakes in the half they just didn’t really get the ball moving. Baker did get the bulk of the first half white squad snaps and operated with a more athletic approach than Grunkemeyer on the other side. Both players are dual threats and can pull the ball down and run, so expect some play calling style differences if they get into games this season. Ryan’s touchdown definitely impressed the media crowd, and everyone from both squads made the majority of their passes.
And that was the general observation on the offense for the quarterbacks. There was more passing at all three levels for this one. That may or may not be indicative of a trend but as noted by Bryan in his summary, the real story of the game was the targeting of tight ends more often. Both squads were salted with starters so that might be some encouraging news for a change. Tech has been noted over the past decade for wasting solid Tight End talent as extra Tackles.
The reality of this Spring session is that the Quarterback room is the healthiest it’s been in quite a while.
Running Backs
Jeffrey Overton, Jr. is returning to the Hokie roster with a purpose. He had a break-out starting season last year, despite the record disaster. He started for Maroon and looked every bit the part of the #1 or #2 back. so Overton took the bulk of the runs for Maroon at 5 attempts. He was smooth, took quick decisions, cut well, and moved the ball in a positive direction.
The interesting wrinkle was that Marcellous Hawkins was dressed out for the game and listed in the active game day roster for the White Squad but did not play. That meant that a lineup of the bulk of the remaining running backs from that room were lined up to get a chance to move the ball. That really meant that Quarterback Bryce Baker ended up getting major dual threat runs and yardage on the field. He led the squad with 43 yards on the ground but also gave up 11 so his net was lower, but Gray Paterson and Tyler Mason both showed up with significant yardage.
Until we find out completely what happened to Hawkins it’s probable that Overton and Hawkins will start the season as the one-two punch for the Hokie ground game. Former coach Elijah Brooks ran a quality running back room, and Norval McKenzie looks like he’s keeping that going. The Hokies are looking good in the backfield, this will be doubly important with Grunkemeyer starting as a more classic pocket passer with the ability to scramble, instead of being a purpose driven 2nd running back.
Receivers
Well, how about this? We get to talk about Tight Ends in the active receiving corps, instead of occasional emergency dump off guys. It looks like OC/Tight Ends Coach Ty Howle is going to actually use Benji Gosnell, Ja’Ricous Hairston, and Harrison Saint Germain as active receivers on the offense. Gosnell and Hairston were the leading receivers on the White Squad, 12 total targets and 92 yards between them. Saint-Germain was targeted 2 times for Maroon for 29 yards total. Maybe we’ll see a new intermediate passing game that could open the door to a critical two-minute offense that the Hokies have been missing for a decade.
The wide outs operated most from the White Squad with the ball being spread around to 12 different receivers including the tight ends. Maroon’s roster was tighter and included Nittany Hokie Luke Reynolds for 5 targets and catches for 69 yards. We already noted Greene and Brown as significant targets, with Brown catching Maroon’s only passing TD.
Offensive and Defensive Line Play
Everyone was holding their collective breath for the lines. The Offensive line for both squads was markedly better until the end of the game (which I, unfortunately couldn’t observe) the Maroon OL starters provided solid protection for Grunkemeyer, and made some significant holes for Overton with one sack recorded for the starters and unfortunately for backup QB Troy Huhn the backups gave up 6 sacks (thankfully it’s two hand touch on the QB, that would have been a brutal outing if the QBs were live). The White starters weren’t as efficient at getting the run going but only gave up 3 sacks on their quarterbacks.
The defensive lines weren’t doing much fancy, but there weren’t a lot of exotic looks, stunts and blitzes. The lines on both sides generally kept the offenses from making big ripping plays and provided good snap practice for the offenses.
The Game Day Atmosphere, in General
It was a beautiful if gusty day, Saturday. Everyone, including yours truly, reeked of sunscreen liberally slathered on. The Corps of Cadets presented their new sophomore class – since they had a Change of Command this weekend. Those will be fond memories for the young men and women who endured the last two semesters of what used to be called “Rat Year” (We were proud to be called Rats, folks. It wasn’t an insult.) But getting that first gold stripe on your blouse sleeve was pretty special.
The pageantry was regular season Game Day quality, and the full game was played even with the emergency before the entrance. One thing that I have to say is that Hokie Nation stood out for this one. There were more people in Lane than I can remember since going to every available Spring Game since 2009. The West stands were full, the lower level of the South and East Stands were populated, and the North Stands had a good turnout of students. There wasn’t an official count published, but it had to be the biggest Spring Game, ever.
For all of the pictures from the Spring Game Gallery visit our Facebook Page.
Now, It’s Summer Beak
The hoopla and grind ends and the Spring Practice Session is over. The players and coaches all head off to do their Summer activities, and things drop down into the end of the Baseball and Softball seasons… We’ll be covering more of the baseball games now that we can, and the football roster reviews will start up in August as the new players arrive and practices begin again.
Until then stay with us for trips to the ballpark, and a new Summer series on the business of college sports.
