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I watched online.
Salem has a change at QB this year as last season's starter Hunter Chaney decided not to play this year. Junior Chauncey Logan who has started on defense since his freshman year and got some snaps at QB last year is now the full-time starter. Logan started off the game looking like a WR playing QB on a few early throws but after the second offensive drive he settled down and through some beautiful passes. Even a few of his incompletions were drops and a WR slowing down just a bit on a sure TD throw. He made an amazing play on a bobbled snap during an extra point attempt and threw an amazing pass across his body and momentum to Cam Leftwich in the back of the endzone for a two-point conversion. I will say, there is a very different dimension to defending Salem when they have a running threat at QB as well and he kept the ball once on a designed run for a 34-yard TD. The offense this year might remind some people of what Salem did when they had Keith Gaines at QB.
Zavione Wood started off the scoring with a fumble recovery return touchdown and then broke around a 75-yard TD run on Salem's next offensive possession in which he broke about five tackles then cut back across the entire field for the score. He was simply dominant every time he touched the ball. Junior Cameron Leftwich at fullback looks like he is about 220-225 pounds this year and he was absolutely punishing as a blocker and with the ball in his hands.
Shawn Collins was the main receiver as was to be expected and had a few issues judging the ball and dropped a few passes as well but ended up having a nice TD grab. The McDonald twins also are playing WR again but didn't get many opportunities with the ball.
I thought the offensive line played better than a Salem OL usually is at this point in the season. The three interior players Torian, Clemons and Haley (left to right) all started last year and looked good tonight. The two new starters at tackle are Senior Filip DeHaven at right tackle and Sophomore Andy Lutes at left tackle. DeHaven was 6'0 and close to 400 pounds last year and it was his first year playing football... he is now 280 pounds and a starting offensive lineman and played a very nice first game as a starter. Lutes goes 6'4 250 as a sophomore and I saw some good potential out of him... very good feet/athleticism for how young and tall he is. Junior Jake Massey did some good work at Tight End as well in the running game.
The defense has the potential to be as good as any Salem defense... I am not exaggerating. The interior DL has two Juniors returning that started last year as Sophomores in Stacy Williams (6'4 294) and Cameron Martindale who I think is around 6'1 265 this year and they were both dominant. KyJuan Waller is returning at Defensive End and he was nightmare all game... looks much improved athletically and he was already very good player before. Massey started at the other DE and looked good at the POA and then Junior Nathaniel McClure also got a lot of reps at DE and made a lot of plays behind the LOS.
The Linebacking unit has a few new players this year in Juniors Carson Williams and Noah Collins. Collins was fantastic at DE late last season and he looked great at MLB against Blacksburg. The other linebacker is Zavione Wood who just like the last two seasons will be one of the best defensive players in the entire state... he was great as usual and started the season scoring on a fumble recovery TD.
The DBs have a new look this year as the McDonald twins (6'4 225) both committed to Virginia Tech have finally grown out of being cornerbacks after starting there the last two seasons and now the two safeties. Shawn Collins after starting at safety the past two seasons is playing corner and then Chauncey Logan is the other corner (also moved from safety) but as the starting QB, he will likely play very little on that side of the ball and did not play much in this game. All four of those players are in their third seasons as starters in the secondary. The McDonald twins look physically like NFL players already and they were absolutely crushing every single player they hit... it was brutal. Several other players got early snaps at corner as well and they all were willing tacklers and didn't give up any completions. The entire defense was hitting HARD every single snap. It was as physical as I have seen... especially this early in the season and the entire unit has amazing team speed and flies to the ball. I could be wrong on this but Blacksburg might have finished the game with negative total yardage offensively. Before the injury to Epperley, they at least picked up a couple of first downs but might have still been in the negative column then. Again, I HATE to see him get injured... such a great, tough player.
The first extra point looked very shaky for Salem and had me a little bit concerned but it looked better every kick after that and got some pretty good (though not great) depth on kickoffs as well. Speaking of kickoffs, I LOVED the coverage and hitting that I saw out of that unit. Junior Addison Wolfe laid some MONSTER hits and Amarri Edwards was the first one down every time and made a ton of nice tackles. I also noticed Keyondre Daniel making plays on special teams and Zach Fetrow as well... they both played well in the second half with the second team defensive unit as well. Sophomore Jamien Lingenfelter was as the punt returner every time but didn't get too many opportunities to get into the open field although he did save quite a bit of yardage on fielding punts that would have bounced/rolled for additional yardage. He looked good at running back with the second team offense in the 2nd half.
It is hard to tell how far off Blacksburg is based off of just this game and obviously the health of their leader and best player on both sides of the ball will play a major role moving forward. I can say that they have some tough kids on that team. A lot of players took huge shots and were shaken up but would continue to stay in the game and fight... #4 Ritenour is a great example of that. Junior Malcolm Collins is a very good athlete and will give a lot of teams problems with the ball in his hands and also made a ton of tackles and was a wasn't backing down from contact. I thought #77 William Thomas gave great effort up front on both sides of the ball and made some plays. I hope to see them improve throughout the season and I am interested to see what type of team they end up being.
