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Scrimmage Notes
by TechSideline.com, 3/31/05

Observers of Wednesday's scrimmage came away impressed with two players: Marcus Vick and Branden Ore. Find out what our insiders had to say about those two, plus get some descriptions of the action in the latest TSL Pass spring football update.

Marcus Vick electrified observers of Wednesday's scrimmage with his first two passes. Vick threw a flare pass in the flat to Josh Morgan, leading Morgan perfectly with an NFL-quality pass. Vick hit Morgan perfectly in stride, and Morgan caught the ball behind the line and accelerated up field, picking up 15 yards.

On the next play, Vick dropped back and got good protection from the offensive line, who did a pretty good job all day of pass blocking. Vick uncorked a 66-yard touchdown pass to David Clowney, who got behind two defenders and was the recipient of another beautifully thrown ball. Clowney caught the ball on the 15-yard line -- it was thrown 58 yards in the air -- and scored easily from there. Click here for a picture, taken just after Vick's release.

Vick also had his rough moments, fumbling a couple of times, including one play where he was trying to avoid the rush and simply dropped the ball. But overall, he impressed one of our insiders with the tremendous potential he has. "He's pretty good for a third string quarterback," our insider said wryly. "I can name a few NFL teams whose third stringers aren't as good as Marcus. It's only March, and I'm ready for these guys to suit up now, because I want to see what he can do."

Meanwhile, the resemblance between Ore and the former Hokie whose number he now wears, Lee Suggs, continues to be eerie. "He does an outstanding job of drawing the defense to the inside, and then uses his superior lateral quickness to bounce the play to the outside," we were told. "I swear, I think he averaged 9 or 10 yards a carry today."

The BeamerBall.com video clips of practice support that, showing Ore slicing up the middle through some pretty good holes and turning it outside for good gains. The run blocking by the O-line was reportedly strong, even against the first-team defense.

"Generally, the offense is way behind the defense at this point," our insider said, "but today, the offense appeared to be much further along than any offense I have seen in the past four years at this point. At least that is the case when Vick is in the game. The offense has so many playmakers on the field that they are hard to contain, even for a good defense like Bud Foster's unit."

Other Notes

  • The grass in Lane Stadium, often the subject of criticism, looks good. "I don't know if it's something about Bermuda grass that takes it a while to settle in, or it's because of the very mild winter in Blacksburg," we were told. "Probably a little of both. But the field looks great."
  • Hokie stone has been installed inside Lane Stadium, in the corners. Click here for a photo of one of the corners. (Interesting note about the photo -- it shows Channel 10 interviewing a local man who found George Bell's Insight Bowl ring in a hotel room and returned it to Bell. The story ran on Channel 10 during the six o'clock news hour Wednesday night.)
  • "Kory Robertson just needs to get his head in the game," one observer told us. "All the physical ability in the world, he just needs to use his head. He was called for two consecutive offsides penalties, another one somewhere during the day, and could have been called for another, but I think the refs felt sorry for him and called it a false start instead."
  • Barry Booker made a play where he bull rushed through the OL and batted a pass down, very reminiscent of Jim Davis' play against Miami last year in the Orange Bowl.


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