On Wednesday, the Hokies held their annual football media day at Lane Stadium.  I caught some clips on the local TV news, and here's what I saw:

• QB Al Clark has broken the silence on his knee and its condition.  Al says that he's "95% and getting better every day," according to Greg Roberts of Channel 10 in Roanoke.  He professed some confusion at how long the knee has taken to heal, saying words to the effect of, "It wasn't major surgery, but it (has taken so long to recover that it) seemed like I was recovering from reconstruction."

• Greg talked up Michael Vick, showing a clip of him walking on the Lane Stadium grass and smiling for the camera.  Vick is not a big kid, but he's more muscular than I thought, and I think that he'll be able to easily put on weight and get up to 210-225, if he works at it.  Right now, he is somewhere in the 185-195 range, depending upon whom you listen to.  Greg said that the coaches have been very impressed with Michael.

• Vick said in a clip that he's the kind of person who always keeps his head up and takes a positive outlook on things.  Reporters who have interviewed Vick tell me that he is "a great interview, very open, with a million dollar smile."  The plan is still to redshirt Vick for 1998.

• It was a trip seeing the Hokies decked out in their new Nike jerseys.  The uniforms look almost exactly like the old Starter uniforms as far as coloring, number style, and the use of orange, but they appear to not have the "pinstripe mesh" affect that the Starter jerseys had.  The Nike swoosh appears on the left shoulder pad (it's white on the maroon jerseys and maroon on the white jerseys), and some sort of small triangular patch that I couldn't quite make out appears on the right shoulder pad.   I did not get a look at the new helmets, unfortunately.

• Coach Beamer said that the freshman class appears to have about "five difference-makers" in it.  He followed that up by saying, "I don't want to name names, but you hope they develop."

One more note:  I watched the media day reports on three different channels - Channels 7 and 10 out of Roanoke, and Lynchburg's Channel 13.  Channels 7 and 13, as expected, covered UVa's media day first, and then Tech's, but Channel 10, which usually covers the Hokies first (and best) did something rare and also covered UVa first ... grrr.

The 'Hoos are ranked in most polls, and the Hokies, generally regarded as being in a rebuilding year, are not ranked by any poll.  It appears that we will once again be facing an uphill battle for coverage against the media-friendly 'Hoos and their omnipresent ACC conference.

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