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

inside.hokiesports.com 23 SUN, SURF, AND HOOPS CANADA & NORTHEAST DISCOVERY CRUISE November 24–28, 2019 Maui, Hawaii August 24–31, 2019 From Montreal, Québec to Boston, Massachusetts HOKIES TRAVEL WITH MARTIN TRAVEL When planning a tour of Europe, a family vacation, a warm weather escape, or hitting the road to cheer the Hokies to victory, Martin Travel is the source for all your travel needs. Visit Your Local Store or MartinTravel.com/Hokies Blacksburg | 1344 S. Main Street, Suite 3 | 540-951-7854 Martinsville | 156 East Market Street | 276-632-6126 Roanoke | 3615 Franklin Road SW | 540-343-5400 Resort View Package Starting at $1,950 per person, double occupancy Ocean View Stateroom Starting at $1,709 per person, double occupancy 2019 MAUI JIM MAUI INVITATIONAL JOIN YOUR FELLOW HOKIES ON A WEEK-LONG TAILGATE PRIOR TO THE BOSTON COLLEGE GAME that I look forward to. He’s played the position at this level, and he’s coached a lot of good players—and knows how to coach his guys and get the best out of them. We’re excited to have him be the guy to make that transition. Q: You used Dalton Keene more and more last season. Is he close to becoming like Alan Cross, the great tight end whom you had at Memphis? BC: Certainly. A lot of the things that made Alan a good player are the same things that make Dalton a good player, which is toughness and his instincts and his intelligence. That position, that guy has one of the hardest jobs of all, with all the different things that we ask them to do both physically and mentally. All those things are similar with those two guys. They have little bit different bodies and a little bit different skillset here and there, but the bottom line is that guy is your Swiss army knife. He’s got to be smart, tough and reliable, and that’s certainly what Dalton is. Q: Where is James Mitchell in this equation at tight end? BC: I would love to play with more than one of those guys on the field, and James is a guy that we’re excited about. He’s got a lot of those same qualities that we talked about—intelligence and toughness. James’ upside physically is huge, so it’ll be a heckuva spring for James and figuring out what we can do with him. Drake [Deluliis] is another guy that is similar to James. They have similar skillsets and bodies. I think we can do similar things with those two guys, and those two guys are a little bit different than Dalton. Finding a way to get more than one tight end on the field is something that we’ve always liked to do, and now that we’re getting deeper and more talented at the tight end position, hopefully we can continue to develop that part of the offense. Q: There are a ton of offensive linemen in the program, but you lost three seniors in Yosuah Nijman, Kyle Chung and Braxton Pfaff. I’m guessing you’re comfortable with Christian Darrisaw, Silas Dzansi and Tyrell Smith at the tackle spots, but how closely will you be watching the interior of the line this spring? BC: Certainly with Chung’s versatility inside, his ability to play center and guard, and with Pfaff starting most of the season for us at guard, you lose a lot of experience in there. It’s wide open. [Zachariah] Hoyt’s gotten some good, quality time at center and is going to have a chance to have a really good spring and has to continue to come on. Lecitus Smith started several games for us at guard. We feel really good about his ability to continue to get better. John Harris is a kid that redshirted, but showed us that he was probably ready to play if we needed him TRÉ TURNER Continued on page 24