Bucks-Hokies wrap first week of college football … The first week of the college football season wraps up with a really intriguing match-up later this evening with a special Monday nighter between defending national champion Ohio State and Virginia Tech at 8 PM ET on ESPN. Normally, there wouldn’t be a ton of intrigue in any game between the national champs and a program coming off a 7-6 season, but Virginia Tech was the only team to beat Ohio State in 2014 when they upset the Buckeyes right in Columbus in the second week of the campaign last fall. The bigger intrigue, though, will be who starts at QB for Ohio State, either sophomore J.T. Barrett or junior Cardale Jones who have been locked in a dogfight for the job throughout training camp. In the end, expect the more athletic Barrett, who was named a team captain last week while Jones was not, to get the nod, although ironically Jones, who has a big-league arm, is by far the better pro prospect. In fact, even though he has only played in a handful of games to date, most NFL teams appear to view Jones as a potential mid-opening prospect for the upcoming draft based on his physical potential alone, although he still very rough around the edges. One guy who won’t definitely won’t play any QB this evening for OSU is former starter Braxton Miller, a two-time former Big Ten player of the year as a QB, who will play WR instead as he continues to rehab an injured throwing shoulder that got dinged early last season and still isn’t 100%. There also won’t be any Joey Bosa sightings at all for the Buckeyes against the Hokies. The junior DE, who reminds pro scouts of Houston’s J.J. Watt in terms of his size, strength, and non-stop motor after posting 13.5 sacks last season, is the consensus favorite to be the first player off the board period next April, but is sitting out a one-game suspension for one of those ubiquitous violations of team rules. However, even without Bosa and likely Jones, Ohio State still has one of the deepest potential draft classes in the country including at least four other solid first-round prospects in junior RB Zeke Elliott, a 225-pounder with track speed who ran for almost 1,900 yards last season, including almost 700 yards in the team’s three post-season games alone, along with veteran LT Taylor Decker and DT Adolphus Washington and big-play junior WR Michael Thomas. Meanwhile, TE Nick Vannett, OLB Josh Perry and junior OG Pat Elflein are among the best at their respective in the country and could figure in the latter part of the second day, while other OSU underclassmen that could impact the early part of the 2016 draft include junior FS Vonn Bell, and sophomore OLB Darron Lee, a super athlete who played QB and CB in high school, but who has morphed into an explosive upfield WLB who had 7.5 sacks and 9 other tackles for loss as a redshirt freshman last fall. Needless to say, Virginia Tech isn’t as talented as Ohio State, but the Hokies have their own share of early-round prospects for 2016 including junior CB Kendall Fuller, one of the top 2-3 prospects at the position with mid-first round credentials, DE Dadi Nicolas and redshirt sophomore TE Bucky Hodges, who may very well be the best in the country at that position. Pro scouts are also intrigued – there’s that word again – to see how veteran DT Luther Maddy, along with star junior RB Trey Edmunds and redshirt sophomore CB Brandon Facyson fare after missing large chunks of the 2014 season with injury. Should be fun!
