My generous source came through for me again with the stats from football scrimmage #2, which was held this past Tuesday. It contains some eye-opening numbers. I posted these same stats on the message board (with a mistake, which is corrected here), but I thought it was nice to have them here for history's sake.

Small note: during these scrimmages, the QB's wear yellow jerseys, and the defenders aren't allowed to hit them. If a DL gets close to the QB on a pass play, the whistle is blown, and it is ruled a sack. Hence, the preponderance of sacks in the stats below.

The next scrimmage is on Friday at 6:00 p.m. If you're interested, keep an eye on the message board, and I'll let you know where I'll be sitting, so we can hook up. Hope to see you there!

Highlights of Football Scrimmage #2 - 8/19/97

Scoring:
Angelo Harrison 70 pass from Al Clark (Shayne Graham kick)
Angelo Harrison 70 pass from Al Clark (Shayne Graham kick)
(note: the second TD is not a typo - he had two 70-yarders)
Lamont Pegues 4 run
Ken Oxendine 1 run
Marcus Parker 10 run (goal line)
Nick Sorensen 5 run (goal line)
Shayne Graham 41 FG
André Davis (fr, SE) 46 pass from Dave Meyer
Ken Oxendine 3 run


Rushing Leaders:
Ken Oxendine 12 carries 47 yards, 2 TDs
Jarrett Ferguson (fr, TB) 3 carries 44 yards
Marcus Parker 3 carries 20 yards, 1 TD
Lamont Pegues 8 carries 18 yards, 1 TD


Passing:
Al Clark 13 of 18 for 260 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INT
Nick Sorensen 8 of 19 for 95 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT
Dave Meyer 1 of 3 for 46 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT
Denny Randolph (fr) 0 of 2


Receiving Leaders:
Angelo Harrison 6 catches for 227 yards, 2 TDs
André Davis 3 catches for 54 yards, 1 TD
Ken Handy 2 catches for 30 yards
Marcus Gildersleeve 2 catches for 21 yards


Defensive Leaders:
Jamel Smith 8 tackles, 1 sack (-6 yards)
Corey Moore 7 tackles, 4 sacks (-32 yards)
Chris Cyrus 5 tackles, 1 sack (-7 yards)
Kerwin Hairston 5 tackles, 2 TFL (-10 yards)
John Engelberger 5 tackles, 1 sack (-9 yards), blocked FG
Keion Carpenter 5 tackles, 1 TFL (-1 yard)
Sean Ruffing 5 tackles, 1 TFL (-1 yard)


Punting:
Jimmy Kibble six punts 46-yard average (58, 53, 49, 48, 35, 33)

The word from those in the know is that Angelo Harrison (6 catches, 227 yards) is a changed man since coming back from last year's suspension. I don't know the ramifications of the word "changed" in this instance, but I can tell you that he looked awfully good in the Spring Game, and that impression is carrying over into the early Fall scrimmages. Angelo, who dropped a wide open TD pass in the Rutgers game last year and struggled returning punts, seems to be ready to be the go-to guy in the receiving corps this year.

The early reports are that WR Andre Davis is ready to contribute now, and his stats (4 catches, 71 yards in two scrimmages) support that. Davis is a newcomer to football, having only played two years in high school, so he could be another of the famous Hokie diamonds in the rough.

Among the running backs, the Ox and Pegues both got a lot of work (12 and 8 carries, respectively). Meanwhile, Al Clark continues to impress by not throwing interceptions, which should be Job One in our offensive system (hell, in any offensive system).

On defense, it's great to see Jamel Smith (8 tackles, one sack) and Corey Moore (7 tackles, 4 sacks) doing well. Those are going to be two guys to watch this year.

HokieCentral reader Lanny Dietz emailed me with the URL to his new Hokie sports site, and although he cautioned me that it's not ready for prime time yet, I'm throwing him to the wolves, anyway.

The reason why is that Lanny's site fits a much-needed niche: it's intended to cover Hokie football players in the pro ranks. He's got an attractive, simple layout, and the site is going to rely heavily on the input of others. There's not much there right now, but if you take a look at it, you'll see that it's got some great potential, and that's why I'm posting a link to it now, this early in its life:

Hokies in the NFL - by Lanny Dietz

Stop by, take a look, and bomb Lanny with email!

Between HokieCentral, GoVT's Homage to All Things Orange and Maroon, The Screaming Lizard's Hokie Hotline recruiting site, Hokie Express, HokieBrad's Message Board, Hokie Matt's Virginia Tech Page, CyberHokie's Universe, Another Hokie on the Web, and now Lanny's new site, we're building ourselves quite a Hokie information and opinion empire here (of course, the pressure is on Lanny now to get his site rolling and keep it updated).

Two weeks ago, I talked about how HokieCentral had reached a new plateau with 4550 hits in one week. Well, like the Dow, the numbers just keep going up. The week after that, it was 5350, and the week after that, 5850. So far this week, the hits are running at well over 1000 a day. I love football season!

Sure, a lot of that is message board posters coming through the main page, where the hits are counted, to get to the message board. But the traffic is definitely increasing - I get 5-10 new requests for passwords a day, which adds to the 400+ that have already been handed out. It's amazing that discussions on the board to this point have stayed civil, but I guess that happens when people know Big Brother is watching. And that, of course, is why it's password-protected in the first place.

Anyway, many thanks to everyone for making HokieCentral such a success and such a great gathering place. Somewhere along the line, that tail (HokieCentral) started wagging this dog (me), and I'm just hanging on for dear life now.

I'm taking a long weekend to relax with friends. We'll see you back here on Monday!

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