Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 1 | August 2018

inside.hokiesports.com 33 CORNERBACKS August, 2018 (in numerical order) 2 Jeremy Webb (6-4, 202, Jr.) 3 Caleb Farley (6-2, 202, r-Fr.) 5 Bryce Watts (6-0, 177, So.) 12 Nadir Thompson (5-10, 177, Fr.) 18 Tyree Rodgers (6-1, 187, r-So.) 20 D.J. Crossen (6-1, 191, Fr.) 26 Jovonn Quillen (6-0, 187, Jr.) 27 Armani Chatman (5-11, 183, Fr.) 28 Jermaine Waller (6-1, 182, Fr.) Watts brings what every defensive backs coach wants—pure speed. He won the state title in the 100-meter dash during his senior season at Toms River North High in New Jersey, and he showed some of that ability this spring. In one scrimmage, he intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown. “Where we start out, I really like Bryce Watts,” Foster said. “He had a great spring, so I feel really good about him. Jovonn Quillen was arguably one of our most improved players through the spring.” Others who received a lot of work this spring included Tyree Rodgers, a rising redshirt sophomore who played in seven games this past fall, Jermaine Waller and D.J. Crossen. The latter two enrolled at Tech in January and went through spring practice. Foster expects to work two other freshmen at those spots throughout August —Nadir Thompson and Armani Chatman. An X-factor at cornerback comes in the form of Caleb Farley, the star of last year’s spring game—as a receiver. Farley, though, spent most of his time at cornerback before being moved to receiver for the final few practices and was set to play receiver last fall before tearing his ACL in August. He missed the entire season. This past winter, Fuente decided to move Farley back to cornerback, with the possibility of also working him as a receiver this fall. The 6-foot-2, 202-pounder first needs to get his knee healthy, as he missed all of the scrimmage work this spring. “Getting Caleb Farley back and him being healthy and watching him run makes me really excited about him,” Foster said. “Obviously, he worked with us this spring a year ago, and I just like his skillset, length and capabilities.” This group lacks a senior leader, and in fact, the only juniors are Quillen and Webb, who has yet to play a Division I collegiate football game. But they hope to make up for a lack of experience with talent and with a desire to learn. Foster refuses to ease any of them into the mix. In fact, he planned on turning up the heat when practices started Aug. 5. “We are actually going to start with throwing a lot at our guys on Day 1, which is earlier than we ever have,” he said. “I think that is a credit to the kids we have here, and it goes back to the football IQ from some of these young freshmen. So we are going to throw a lot at them early and then do it repeatedly. “We are not going to slow down. I want them to come up to our level. For us to compete at the level we expect our football team to, they need to step up to that level. That doesn’t mean we are not going to pay attention to the little things. We are going to, obviously, but we are going to do a lot of teaching and sharpening the tools in their tool box, as far as technique and fundamentals. We know there will be some growing pains, but our kids have to step up to the challenge.” The Hokies have a lot of intriguing pieces at the cornerback positions, but they come with questions. Can Watts be a shutdown specialist? Can Quillen keep improving? Will the freshmen develop enough? What about Farley’s knee? Hopefully, those answers come early in August —and hopefully they’re positive. Tech’s 2018 pass defense strategy hinges largely on that.