Virginia Tech Hokies 2024 Football Roster Review: Offensive Line

Can the Offensive Line Get to the 85/65 Level?

Many of you know the GC Rules for Football and Rule #2 (#1 regards Quarterbacks – that’s for later), but it bears repeating. The Offensive Line is 85% of the running game, and 65% of the passing game. If a team doesn’t have a dominant offensive line, or a way to implement a blocking scheme with a subpar talent and size level (Veer, Wishbone, Triple-Option, etc.) the offense is unlikely to move the ball well regardless of the running back or quarterback talent. If the linemen cannot impose their wills on their opponents, move them out of the way, or keep the quarterback on his feet, the game will not be won with offense.

Virginia Tech has had some amazingly good Offensive Linemen suit up in Chicago Maroon. We remember the likes of Will Montgomery, Duane Brown, Wyatt Teller, and Christian Darrisaw but it also took guys who would never make it in the pros or make it far as players. The Kyle Chung (Son of Hokie Great Eugene Chung), Greg Nosal, Vinston Painter, Blake DeChristopher, Nick Becton, Eric and David Wang. Those guys all had sterling positions in various Hokie O-Lines of the last 20 years, and didn’t go far in the pros, or made it in coaching. Tech’s quiet contribution to offensive line excellence has taken a bit of a detour of late.

Finally, Coaching Consistency!

There are some folks who will blame the former regime, but Vance Vice was one of its better coaches (probably its best offensive coach) and his offensive lines were solid if not spectacular (names like Teller and Darrisaw come from that path.) The great probability for the fall off in depth and struggles can be partially laid there, but also on the instability at that coaching position for the prior three seasons before 2023. The whip saw of having three different coaches with three different approaches over three seasons did no favors to recruiting, retention, and current performance. This season, we have a change of that pace. Coach Ron Crook is still prodding, teaching, encouraging, and building the current offensive line. This is his second season with the team, and there seems to be an entirely different attitude in the unit.

There are lots of different personalities on a football team, but the one pile of individuals who absolutely needs to work, think, and move together with a good deal of intuition and unspoken understanding is the Offensive Line. That isn’t just between the players of the starting line and then the #2s and 3s on the depth chart. All three starting levels need to be able to work with each other, execute, and function as a unit without much drop off between depth numbers. Playing in the line means enduring the equivalent of constant 30 mile per hour car crash impacts. Frankly, there is a good deal of other sorts of physicality in the mix as well. It’s an hour-long Greco-Roman wrestling match mixed with sumo. The injuries will occur, and the substitution shuffle is always a looming probability.

That means having a coach, teaching a method, and sustaining a recruiting flow of like-minded players is absolutely critical to the success of the line, and as we noted, the success of the line bears greatly on the success of the offense as a whole.

In addition to Ron Crook, the Hokies hired former long time Army Offensive Coordinator (and longtime associate of Coach Pry’s) Brent Davis. He helped Crook and the other offensive coaches with off field and non-player-interactive functions. This season due to new regulations put into place, Coach Davis is now officially allowed to directly coach players and has been named as Co-Offensive Line Coach. The combination will allow the Hokies to have some serious ground game experience on the field.

It looks like Coach Pry is very serious about getting consistency and power behind the offensive line by starting with the coaching staff.

The Roster for 2024, at the Start

The Hokies didn’t lose too much in graduation and nothing significant in the transfer portal. The Offensive Line from last season is actually largely the same starting depth as 2023. Some folks would say that isn’t particularly great, but those folks generally also don’t give much credit for learning and improvement with experience.

Let’s look at the chart, by Class. We don’t know the depth positions, and history tells us that Head Coach Pry doesn’t deal with depth details until just before a game, and that seems to be each game in a season.

The Probable Starters

We aren’t going to go into depth much, but we need to separate out the “almost definitely will play” guys from the guys in training. Many times, it’s not all by class levels, but this time we are going to see that the experience is going to get the probably label and the new players are going to be learning and/or redshirting. So, we’ll break down the list into three categories; Probably Starting, Probably Playing, and Redshirting.

Starting Quality Players

Kaden Moore will start at Center, again this season. He’s the line captain, the core anchor for the interior, and the indispensable man for this coming season.

Braelin Moore will probably start at Left Guard which he played for 12 games with 12 starts in 2023

Bob Schick started every game at Right Guard last season. It was a bit shaky at the beginning, but as he gained some confidence and a touch of nastiness necessary to play inside lineman positions Schick was greatly improved and part of the big running output in the Military Bowl.

Parker Clements looks like he is fighting for a starting spot on the depth chart this season. He has some serious competition from Brody Meadows at Right Tackle, and any move to Left Tackle will be blocked by the probable 2-deep log jam at Left Tackle.

Montavious Cunningham comes with serious chops, and an excellent PFF rating form Georgia State. He was a starter there and will be giving Xavier Chaplin some serious depth chart competition.

The Players Who are Probable for Snaps

With serious competitions going on for both sides of the line at Tackle, it means that the Hokies might actually be developing some quality depth. That brings up the probably will play category. These are the #2 and #3 guys in the depth chart who have served their time on Special Teams over the 2023 season and are looking at getting a chance to step up to regular play snaps in games. Of course. football being what it is, there is going to be an opportunity because no one but the super-human stays healthy all season.

Griffin Duggan played special teams in 2023 but did appear in all 13 games, Johnny Garrett also played on the Special Teams squads and made game appearances. Layth Ghannam played in one game, Hannes Hammer (Tackle) and Lance Williams (Guard/Center) were highly recruited players who redshirted last season. They are likely to see Special Teams action but will have to be prepared to play since there are critical depth holes, especially on the interior of the line.

The Freshmen Will Probably Redshirt

The 4-game limit might allow them to see some action in some games if the team can develop some quality “garbage time” in some of the less critical contests. True Freshmen Web Davidson, Elijah Haughawout, Aidan Lynch, and Tommy Ricard should expect to redshirt unless they come up huge in the current practice sessions.

Conclusion – There is Still a Concern

Face it, there is still a serious concern on the inside. The Hokies don’t have a named backup at Center, and their tackle sized linemen are a bit on the light side, and they have too few guards. The critical three interior positions will have to stay as healthy as possible, and the competition at Tackle should produce playing time and an “or” in the depth chart on many games.

The situation is miles better than 2022, and marginally better than 2023’s season end, but there is much to expect.

Next Up for Me… The Defensive Line Situation

GO HOKIES!!!!