Loss of talent, experience will test Tech

BLACKSBURG
Back in the day (about 47,316 cups of coffee and one nicotine addiction ago and before scholarship limits crunched the numbers), Billy Hite christened the running backs he coaches at Virginia Tech “the Stallions.” This implies, as you might suspect, plural. A herd.
Unlike the depleted stable Hite has managed of late.
His lead horse — unreliable, high-maintenance and inclined toward sketchy relationships — was deported. The next two guys in the pecking order went down with injuries in back-to-back scrimmages. All of which left Hite with a couple of rookies and a former walk-on to saddle up for Saturday’s spring game.
Nor was he alone in this stripped-down condition, not by a long shot.
Receivers coach Kevin Sherman? He was missing four 2007 seniors who snared 146 of the 151 completions pitched to wideouts. Linebackers overseers Bud Foster and Jim Cavanaugh? They were without the most productive twosome in school history. D-line tutor Charley Wiles? He was minus three graduated members of his front four.
Big boss Frank Beamer?
He’s lonely, too — but hopeful.
“There’s no question we lost some really good players,” Beamer said. “There’s no question we have good players. They’re just young and inexperienced.”
Sean Glennon doesn’t wear the young-and-inexperienced label. He’ll be a fifth-year senior, and if the latest returns are any indication, he’s a clear-cut No. 1 at quarterback over Tyrod Taylor, who shared the position as a rookie but looked skittery yesterday. Nothing much else in the way of revelations emerged from the game — other than the fact that junior flanker Brandon Dillard is really fast.
Whether he and the other new receivers will be really dependable is the larger issue.
Last season ended gloomily for Tech in the Orange Bowl, and the hits keep coming. All those pass-catchers and run-stuffers vamoosed. Ditto the kicker and kickoff man. The hot-shot cornerback turned pro. The presumed ballcarriers du jour — and we know how much Beamer likes to play gruntball, yes? — messed up a shoulder and broke a leg, of all the danged luck.
Not that you should take this to mean there isn’t still quality on the roster or that the Hokies will fall off the map. The O-line (surprise) should be solid. Ditto Glennon. There are still enough Orion Martins and Brett Warrens and Macho Harrises around to keep rival offensive coordinators awake at night.
But still ...
If you’re a member of Hokie Nation and you scan the 2008 schedule and digest those personnel losses, you probably should resist the impulse to think national championship. Think four losses instead. I know, that doesn’t sit well. Tech hasn’t dropped that many games since 2003, but it’ll do well to avoid backsliding a bit next season. Well, OK, maybe not if Kevin Jones and Ernest Wilford can steal an extra year of eligibility.
Bob Lipper is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Sure, you’ve got your Furmans and Western Kentuckys and Dukes treading lightly into Lane Stadium for ritual bloodlettings. That’s three locks. Now take a look at the opener: East Carolina on a semi-neutral field in Charlotte. That’s a toughie. September road outings at North Carolina and Nebraska — each a loser in 2007, each figuring on improvement — aren’t gimmes, either. Nor are consecutive October tests at Boston College and Florida State.
One thing in Tech’s favor is it belongs to the soft-core ACC — and that it doesn’t play Atlantic Division favorite Clemson. As for the Coastal Division competition this side of Duke (yuck) and UNC (who knows?), Georgia Tech is breaking in a new coach, Miami is breaking down and Virginia has personnel issues of its own.
So possibilities exist. But so do potential hazards.
“I would argue that we had one of the best senior classes in the country,” Glennon said. “But turnover is part of it. You’re not going to keep guys forever. This is a year where a lot of guys have to step up.”
The learning curve for some might require a ladder.