Virginia Tech's fall camp kicked off on Wednesday with the Hokies' third practice on Friday giving the Hokies their first day in their shells, allowing for more direct competition between the offense and defense including in the trenches. That can allow some built up intensity and desire to actually hit someone rather than only compete in drills to spill over into chippy-ness and ever some scuffles during fall camp.
That proved true today as during an inside run drill, tempers flared with junior DE Keyshawn Burgos, who started multiple games last season, appearing to throw a punch in the direction of veteran starting OT Parker Clements. That moment led to Brent Pry throwing Burgos out of practice with Pry and Burgos exchanging some words as Burgos left the field.
After practice, Pry address the confrontation with plenty of praise for the aggressiveness and motor of Burgos.
"You know, Keyshawn’s one of our hardest, most aggressive guys. Great motor. He’s had some issues in the past. We’re trying to get him over the hump. He’s a lot better. He just lets it get the best of him. It’s so important to him. He plays so hard. But we can’t have it. We had ACC officials here today. He would have been thrown out of the game, and I threw him out of practice. And I brought him out at the end, it was a lesson for everybody," Pry said.
The fact that Burgos did come back at the end of practice is a good sign of the buy-in that Burgos has, especially since he seeming was in the locker room waiting for the end of practice for a little over an hour given that his ejection came around 4:45pm during the end of the open portion of practice for the media, with practice wrapping up around 6pm.
While Brent Pry would likely prefer not to have a scuffle, he does love the intensity that he's seeing from his team early in fall camp.
"I love the intensity. The first two days, you’re just in helmets. And the O-line’s over here doing things, the D-line … And they just can’t wait to get together and go after each other. So that’s why we make it a five-minute period instead of nine or 10. You’re going to get some good pops. You’re going to go after each other and go on to the next one," Pry said.
One thing that stood out during that moment was Cole Nelson who appeared to intervene during the yelling between Pry and Burgos after Burgos was ejected, with Nelson calming Burgos down on the junior's way to the locker room. When asked after practice about it, Pry had plenty of praise for the growth of Nelson as a leader in the locker room along with his continued development as a player.
"I’m glad you bring that up. Cole has been an outstanding leader the entire summer. He’s had the Lunch Pail. He’s very, very proud right now and he deserves to be. He came on the back half of the season for us and he’s carried that momentum through the winter, spring, summer and into camp. He’s bigger and stronger than he’s ever been. He’s primed himself to have a good year and we need him to," Pry said.
After that scuffle, the defense appeared to turn up the heat even further dominating the rest of the drill. For veteran S Jalen Stroman, that's simply the mentality of the defense and how they rally around each other.
“Well we’re always gonna turn each other up as the defense, that’s what we feed off of is energy. Once one of us make a play, we’re all gonna make a play. We’re gonna push each other always and turn each other up," Stroman said.
Brent Pry also had plenty of praise for a defensive unit that has gotten the better of the offense so far during fall camp while being more pleased with the overall competitiveness between the two units.
"Absolutely. Right now I’d say they’ve set the tone the last couple of practices. The offense bounced back in a couple areas today, particularly down in the red zone. But every competitive period today, from pass rush to red zone to open field, skelly, everything was really competitive. That’s what I look for. I really hate to see lopsided periods where somebody just kicks the snot out of somebody else. But the defense, their energy, led by Coach Marve and his staff, they brought it today for sure," Pry said.
Scuffles are inevitable in football and no one should be surprise that we see them, especially since just about every NFL team (with their fully open practices) has them at least one or twice during training camp. It's just not too often that they happen during the relatively few times when the media are allowed into practice on the college football front.
What's clear though is that the competitiveness and intensity is right where Virginia Tech wants it, even if they would prefer to not have the extracurriculars.
Looking for the best coverage and analysis of the Hokies? Become a TLP Insider today here.
