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Inside Hokie Sports
This past fall, the Virginia Tech
cornerbacks accounted for five of the team’s
18 interceptions, and the group wants to
improve drastically on that number this
season.
Hopefully, Brandon Facyson’s interception
in the annual Maroon-Orange Spring Game is
a sign of things to come.
Facyson anchors a veteran group that
also features rising senior Greg Stroman and
rising junior Adonis Alexander. Facyson,
a fifth-year senior, started every game in
2016, while Stroman started nine games and
Alexander five. The trio ranks as arguably
the most experienced and talented bunch of
corners collectively in the ACC.
Facyson stands as the most experienced,
as the fifth-year senior has started 36 games
in his career. He contemplated leaving school
early and making himself available for the
NFL Draft following this past season, but
ultimately decided to return and improve as
a player.
He made strides toward that objective this
Upperclassmen
LEAD THE WAY
at
cornerback
this spring
by
Jimmy Robertson
spring, and it showed in the spring game.
Officials flagged him for pass interference on
three occasions, but Facyson kept playing and
recorded the lone turnover in the game.
“He’s had a great spring, and I’m expecting
a great summer,” defensive coordinator Bud
Foster said. “He’s going to be one of our
leaders. He kept playing one play at a time
[after the penalties in the spring game], and
that’s all you can ask.”
Foster also raved about Alexander’s spring,
citing it as Alexander’s best. The young man
possesses a lot of tools, and over the first
couple of years of his career, he flashed them.
The coaches, however, wanted to see more of
that on a consistent basis.
They received more consistency from
Alexander this spring. That leaves Foster
expecting a big 2017 season from the Charlotte
native. At 6-foot-3, Alexander gives Tech the
height to be able to match up with the league’s
bigger receivers.
“Outstanding,” Foster said of Alexander’s
spring. “He’s probably playing his best
football right now. He’s long, and he’s
athletic. Everyone can see that, but he really
approached this spring with a workmanlike
attitude. He was very coachable, and he
worked hard to improve the technique and
fundamentals that Coach [Brian] Mitchell
[Tech’s cornerbacks coach] is trying to instill
in those guys.
“We’re trying to be multiple at corner and
not just play ‘bump’ corner all the time. We’re
trying to change techniques and different
things like that, and Adonis has worked hard
at that, trying to improve those. He’s big,
athletic, can run and is physical. He has all
the tools.
“The receivers aren’t getting any shorter.
There is a premium on long corners. You’d
like to get those guys, and he fits the bill.”
The final member of the trio, Stroman,
missed spring practice while recovering from
an injury suffered in the fall. In fact, the injury
cost him to miss three games, and while he
returned for the final two games, he wasn’t
100 percent.
ADONIS
ALEXANDER