Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 5 | May 2019

28 Inside Hokie Sports Visit hokiesports.com/hokiekidsclub to join! KIDS CLUB THE OF VIRGINIA TECH ATHLETICS Official Virginia Tech’s football coaching staff worked on a lot of things during spring practice, improving some areas of weakness, while making stronger areas even better. Overall, the coaches felt good about what they accomplished over 15 on-field sessions with the players. But the coaches also know the work isn’t finished. For instance, they appear to be a little unsettled on special teams. The situation became a little more complicated when kicker Jordan Stout decided to enter the NCAA’s transfer portal before the conclusion of the spring semester. Stout turned into a real weapon last year for the Hokies, knocking 61 of his 70 kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks, while also providing depth at the kicker position behind Brian Johnson. He made two field goals in the Spring Game and appeared to be in competition with Johnson for the starting job. If Stout departs, he leaves a void, as the staff now would need to find a kickoff specialist and/or a backup kicker in the offseason—another large task on top of finding punt and kick returners. A year ago, the Hokies tried six different punt returners, with Damon Hazelton leading all of those with 14 returns and an average of 5.36 yards per return. He and a plethora of others received work this spring, and head coach Justin Fuente said even gifted playmaker Tré Turner was an option. Actually, everyone was an option. “I would say he [Turner] and a long list of other people may return punts,” Fuente said earlier this spring. “Short of taking out an advertisement in the school paper and asking for frat guys to show up and catch punts, we are having open tryouts.” The same exists at kick returner. Terius Wheatley led the Hokies with 14 returns for an average of 26.4 yards per return, but he missed spring with an injury. Caleb Farley, Deshawn McClease and DeJuan Ellis represent options along with others. On the positive side, Oscar Bradburn returns at punter after averaging 42.6 yards per punt in 2018—third in the ACC. He stands as one of the best punters in the conference. Plus, Tech returns a lot of players who played on coverage units this past fall. Guys like Jovonn Quillen, Divine Deablo, Khalil Ladler, Devon Hunter and Dax Hollifield all played a bunch of snaps on coverage units, and players such as Nasir Peoples, Chamarri Conner and Jermaine Waller may join those units this season. The Hokies want to get more out of their special teams units this season—more in the kicking game, more in the return game and better in coverage. Fuente and his staff want these players/groups to be difference makers and not just some mundane part of the game. For sure, Tech possesses a lot of potentially nice pieces to accomplish its goals. Fuente and his staff just need to sort out the pieces and fit them into the spots—and fortunately, they have some time to get all that done. Special Teams Kickers 93 Brian Johnson (6-1, 185, r-Jr.) 98 Caleb Quick (6-1, 159, r-Fr.) Punters 91 Oscar Bradburn (6-1, 211, Jr.) Snappers 64 Sam DeLuke (5-10, 235, r-Fr.) 97 Oscar Shadley (6-0, 235, So.) OSCAR BRADBURN