VT-Western Michigan Preview

Virginia Tech (0-1, 0-0) closes out a three-game series with Western Michigan (1-0, 0-0 MAC) Saturday at noon Eastern in Blacksburg, VA (no TV, XM 180). In 2001, the Hokies beat WMU 31-0 at Lane Stadium, and in 2002 they visited Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo, MI to again shut out the Broncos 30-0.

The Hokies are hoping to use this home opener to work out some of the kinks revealed in their season-opening loss to Southern Cal. WMU’s program has taken a bit of a slide in recent years, and though they demolished I-AA Tennessee-Martin 42-0 in their opener, the Broncos aren’t expected to provide the Hokies a serious challenge; Chris Stassen’s composite predictions reveal a team generally picked fourth in the MAC Western Division.

Of interest on the Hokie side of the ball are the recent shakeups at wide receiver and in the defensive backfield. The only two upperclassman WRs available, USC 2nd-string Richard Johnson (sr) and USC starter Chris Clifton (jr), were demoted to third string; freshman Josh Hyman held onto his starting spot, but switched to split end, and true frosh Eddie Royal was promoted to starting flanker. The 2nd string now consists of freshmen Josh Morgan and Justin Harper. The coaching staff has kept its public comments on the WR situation to statements about “want[ing] to have our best players on the field,” but it’s certain that a few key drops by Clifton and multiple muffed punts by Johnson played a role in the decision. They’ve been more vocal about the defensive side, where mental errors by Jimmy Williams led to freshman Roland Minor being named co-starter at boundary corner.

Other things to watch for include some rotation at offensive line, where the five starters played every snap against USC, and Cedric Humes’s condition. Justin Hamilton looked subjectively better than Humes against the Trojans, but the box score didn’t flatter either (Humes 9-26, Hamilton 8-33). Some have speculated that Humes’s broken leg from the spring may not yet be fully healed. If this is truly the case, the Hokies just need to get through this and the next game (vs. Duke) before Mike Imoh returns from his suspension. Freshman George Bell is available if necessary, but the coaching staff would strongly prefer to redshirt him this year, and there’s even been some talk of redshirting Imoh with Hamilton’s return to RB and Eddie Royal’s emergence as a genuine return threat.

Scanning Western Michigan’s pregame notes [PDF], special teams jumps out at me as one area of interest: senior punter Adam Anderson was a preseason All-America honorable mention, and junior WR Greg Jennings averaged 21.6 yards per punt return. Hokie fans, of course, will hope to see plenty of Anderson and not much of Jennings (unless he returns kickoffs). Western’s new starting QB, junior Blayne Baggett, went 16-23 with 3 TDs and 1 INT last week against Tennessee-Martin, but his backup is more familiar to Hokie fans: junior Rutgers transfer Ryan Cubit, whose father is now-Stanford QB coach Bill Cubit. Cubit’s situation at Rutgers was fraught with controversy, as he was named starter as a true freshman in 2001 when his dad was brought on as offensive coordinator. Cubit transferred back to his high school haunts in Kalamazoo after the 2002 season, and was widely expected to win the WMU starting job this year, but instead gave way to Baggett.

crossposted to Fanblogs ACC