Every time you turn on the television to watch the Hokies play, you hear the announcers go on and on about Frank Beamer’s special teams units. They’ll remark that Tech is outstanding at blocking kicks, and generally does everything well on special teams. But that’s not all true. The Hokies still do some things well on special teams, but there is room for a lot of improvement in many areas.

The Hokies return literally all of their kickers. Brandon Pace and Nic Schmitt enjoyed stellar junior seasons. For the most part, they were very consistent. First let’s take a look at each of the kickers.

Jared Develli has developed into a very consistent kickoff man for the Hokies. He routinely puts the ball into the end zone, with 29 of his 64 kickoffs (45.3%) going for touchbacks last season. He should be even better with another offseason in the weight room.

Jud Dunlevy also saw playing time last season. Beamer prefers to use Dunlevy in certain situations because he gets better height on his kicks than Develli. Dunlevy is good in his own right, with seven of his 21 kickoffs (33.3%) going for touchbacks last season.

The much-maligned Brandon Pace has had an outstanding career in Blacksburg. He has rebounded from his critical miss at the end of the 2004 NC State game to become an All-ACC caliber kicker. He was 21-of-27 in 2004 and 19-of-22 in 2005. That’s a very impressive 40-of-49 for his career, with a long of 46 and nine career field goals of 40+. He is accurate and has good range. With the Hokies breaking in almost an entirely new offense this season, Tech may be settling for a lot more field goals. Pace needs to have a big year.

Schmitt was forced into action in 2002 because of an injury to Carter Warley. He went 14-of-14 on extra points, but missed four of his six field goal attempts. He will backup Pace this spring and serve as the starting punter.

As his size would indicate, Schmitt has a very powerful leg. In his first season as a starter in 2005, he averaged 43.2 yards on 52 punts. He pinned the opponent inside the 20 on 15 different occasions.

Bowden redshirted in 2005. He’ll likely see playing time in mopup situations this fall to get him ready to take over as a starter in 2006.

This is where the Hokies need some serious help. Virginia Tech finished 88th in the nation in kickoff returns last season, averaging 19.04 yards per return. Punt returns were slightly better. Tech finished 62nd nationally with an average of 8.87 yards per return. The primary kick and punt returner was Eddie Royal. He had 14 of Tech’s 24 kickoff returns, and 32 of their 46 punt returns. Royal averaged 20.9 yards on kick returns and 8.2 yards on punt returns.

It’s debatable as to whether these problems have come from blocking schemes or personnel. At any rate, look for the Hokies to try a number of guys on kick and punt returns this spring. Victor Harris has a year under his belt, and he is a likely candidate to get playing time in this area. Other options include Kenny Lewis, David Clowney and Josh Morgan, among others.

The depth chart listed above is nothing more than a simple guess for kick and punt returners. The coaching staff will try a number of different players this spring, and the depth chart will shake itself out.

The Hokies have fallen off in this area recently. Tech blocked just three kicks in 2005, a far cry from the numbers they were racking up in the mid to late 1990s. That being said, the Hokies were very, very close to blocking a lot of kicks last year. On numerous occasions a Tech special teams player would arrive at the punter a fraction of a second late, or would take a wrong angle and miss what should have been a block. It also seems as if Frank Beamer is focusing more on the punt return game, rather than blocking punts.

It’s worth mentioning that Virginia Tech has become a victim of their own success. Thanks to their incredible run of kick blocking in the 1990s, protecting the kickers is now something opposing coaches have to spend extra time on when preparing for the Hokies, as well as other opponents. VT may be struggling a bit now, but it’s partly because of what they accomplished in the 1990s.

Blocking kicks could be very important this season. With the Hokies breaking in a new offense, points could be hard to come by at times. A blocked kick could swing some tight games in Tech’s direction and get them a couple of victories, even if their offense doesn’t produce as needed.