It should come as no surprise that when a team loses all five starting offensive linemen, there are going to be some young offensive linemen who get the chance to earn starting jobs. For Virginia Tech, that is certainly true with a trio of redshirt freshmen and sophomores set for either their first or most significant starting roles of their careers.
Let's start with the youngest of the bunch and one of the biggest risers of spring practice: redshirt freshman Kyle Altuner.
The West Virginia transfer had plenty of buzz around him as a high school recruit and when he transferred in to Virginia Tech, following his offensive line coaches Matt Moore and Jens Danielsen to Blacksburg. However, it seemed like a potential risk to have a redshirt freshman taking the helm at such an important position on the offensive line at center.
Even with that, there was no certainty that Altuner would win the job over returning redshirt freshman Tommy Ricard.
However, what seemed like the most wide open competition on the offensive line seems pretty much shut and closed after Altuner rose into the starting center role and impressed his coaches. That includes offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery who had extremely high praise for Altuner as someone who plays like he's a lot older than a redshirt freshman.
