Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 4 | March 2019

inside.hokiesports.com 21 Virginia Tech’s offense played fairly well at times during the 2018 campaign and was inconsistent at others, particularly during a late-October/early-November stretch when the Hokies faced the meat of their ACC schedule. In looking at the positives of the season, Ryan Willis played well after taking over because of a season-ending injury to quarterback Josh Jackson. Also, the Hokies converted on 90 percent of their red-zone opportunities—11th nationally—after struggling in this area the previous year, and they finished in the top 40 in total offense (428.2 ypg). As for the negatives, Tech converted on just 37.3 percent of its third-down opportunities—tied for 82nd nationally—and the Hokies rushed for more than 200 yards on just four occasions. In addition, Tech’s completion percentage of 58.3 was 84th nationally. The Hokies lost seniors Steven Peoples, Braxton Pfaff, Yosuah Nijman and Kyle Chung on offense, but they return seven starters from the bowl game loss to Cincinnati and a bunch of younger players who played quite extensively this past fall. Coordinator Brad Cornelsen was optimistic about this group heading into spring practice—and more importantly, optimistic about what they could become by the kickoff of the season opener. He sat down a few days before the start of spring practice and answered an array of questions related to this side of the ball. Q: After you looked at the cut-ups from the 2018 season, what was your assessment of the offense? BC: Pretty encouraging. Disappointing at times. The consistency is always what you come back to when you feel like you have some talent and some guys that can make plays. Inexperience usually leads to inconsistency. I think that’s probably overall what we found, but certainly encouraged. I like what we’re doing and where we’re headed with our scheme — and the guys that fit into that scheme. I certainly got to see some guys for the first time and what we can see them developing into. Q: All of the main transfers were on offense—Josh Jackson, Chris Cunningham, and Eric Kumah. What are your thoughts about those guys leaving, and what is the fallout from that? BC: Those are case-by-case situations with each guy at each position. I don’t know that it [the transferring] was all unexpected, but none of those guys were young, newly developed guys that you’re waiting on to develop in spring ball. It was different in that regard. They were all kind of older guys. I think it’s all a little new to us in the coaching world. I think we’re all still trying to figure it out and figure out the best way to move forward. Every kid individually is motivated and looks at his situation, and everyone is case-by-case, but it’s something, moving forward, that we have to keep in the back of our mind when we start talking about recruiting depth and what those lines look like. It’s certainly nothing new at quarterback. I think that’s always been a position where you’ve seen guys … there are so few reps and pretty much one guy that takes most of the snaps. When you get loaded up in the room with good guys, that’s always happened for several years. The other positions, I think that something that is a little new … We’ll find the best way to move forward. Certainly, we want all our guys to be here throughout the remainder of their eligibility, like everybody else does. A fifth-year senior is better than a first-year guy or a second-year guy. Being in the system and having experience is valuable, so that’s what we’re shooting for, but it’s kind of the nature of it right now. It gives young guys quicker opportunities, and that’s exciting for those guys that are here and going through spring and anxious to get out there and make their mark. Q: Ryan Willis was in the top five of the ACC in most passing statistics this past season. How would you assess his play in 2018? BC: He was a guy that steadily improved. We knew from the beginning that the talent was there. That was never a question. His ability to stay consistent in execution was the thing that improved the most and the thing that gives him a chance to be a really good player. He can make all the plays. He can hurt you with his feet at times. Him becoming more consistent, doing the little things, doing his job every single play and continuing to take care of the ball—which he did a pretty good job of … That was the thing that we did not know going into the season and really the reason that Josh was ahead of him. We knew what Josh could do, and we knew how he could take care of the ball, and that was the biggest unknown with Ryan going into it. Once he did get his chance, though, he did a nice job of taking care of the ball. That’s exciting. He should only be getting better. I think we’re continuing to get better at that position. Q: Where do you want to see improvement from Willis? BC: His ability to set each play apart and regroup play in and play out and do the things he’s been coached to do every single play. He’s an emotional kid. He loves to play, and he’s passionate. A lot of those things that you love about him and the way he likes to compete, those also can hurt him at times if he cannot slow his mind down and regroup and make sure he’s seeing defenses and executing plays and getting guys lined up and all the details that go into playing that position. That was the biggest point of emphasis for him each week, and we saw that get better. That’s going to continue to be the same thing in the offseason. Q: Where does Quincy Patterson need to take his game to get more playing time? BC: The thing that Quincy and I have talked about is the speed of his execution. His level of speed, his level of play, has got to increase. He’s a very composed type of kid. His mechanics are really smooth. He’s a smooth athlete. His technique and mechanics have always been really, really smooth and precise, and the thing we’re going to push this spring is that IHS extra Continued on page 22

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk2NjE5