BLACKSBURG — After losing two long-time senior starters at cornerback after last season, Virginia Tech already had a major retooling in store in the secondary in 2018.
News that the Hokies officially confirmed Friday — that senior Adonis Alexander is no longer a member of the football team and junior college transfer Jeremy Webb suffered a season-ending Achilles injury during offseason workouts — only makes matters tougher, especially with a high-profile opener at Florida State on Labor Day night.
Alexander’s departure is related to academics, according to a source. The senior, who had missed three games earlier in his career because of suspensions, at least once because of marijuana, finished spring practice in April as a spectator while he focused on school.
"We wish Adonis the very best as he determines the next steps he wishes to pursue," head coach Justin Fuente said in a release.
Webb, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound junior college transfer from ASA College in Brooklyn, had only arrived in Blacksburg a few weeks ago for the first summer school session when he suffered the injury. He has surgery earlier this week.
Webb has a redshirt available and will have two years of eligibility when he returns to action in 2019.
“While we share Jeremy’s disappointment that he will miss the 2018 season, our medical staff is confident that he will make a complete recovery,” Fuente said. “We look forward to Jeremy beginning the rehab process as soon as possible.”
Both were potential starters at cornerback, leaving the Hokies in the lurch at the position, with little to no experience in the wake of the graduations of Greg Stroman and Brandon Facyson, who had combined to start 76 games in their college careers, with 14 interceptions between them.
Redshirt freshman Caleb Farley, a corner-turned-receiver-turned-corner who missed last year after suffering an August knee injury and was still on the mend and limited this spring, was a good bet to challenge for a starting spot even before Friday’s news, though he’s still never played in a college game.
The next group of cornerbacks on the depth chart — junior Jovonn Quillen, sophomores Bryce Watts and Tyree Rodgers and freshman Jermaine Waller — have little to no experience outside of special teams.
Waller, an early enrollee from Washington, D.C., typified the Hokies’ young cornerback crew in the spring game, having moments both good (nearly intercepting an underthrown pass) and bad (getting beat deep by Sean Savoy for a touchdown).
“He’s kind of a microcosm of our football team right now,” Fuente said after the spring game. “I think he’s got talent. He’s young. We don’t have time to take him aside and say, ‘Just relax. We’ll call you in a couple years when it’s time to play.’”
It’s possible Virginia Tech could draw from its nickelback/whip linebacker pool to bolster its cornerback ranks too. Though Devon Hunter is more of a safety, senior starter Mook Reynolds began his college career as a cornerback and early enrollee D.J. Crossen could be an option as well.
Other freshmen defensive backs in the 2018 class arriving soon include Nasir Peoples, Nadir Thompson and Chamarri Conner.
Add this news to the other turnover on defense from graduation and early NFL departures and this is shaping up to be a tough rebuilding job for defensive coordinator Bud Foster. Virginia Tech will go into 2018 with two starting linebackers who have never played a significant snap in college and three new starters in a secondary that also lost Terrell Edmunds to the NFL.
The premature departure is a fitting end to the 6-foot-3, 207-pound Alexander’s rocky career. The Charlotte product was a second-team freshman All-American by several publications in 2015, intercepting four passes as a safety and impressing with his athleticism.
An offseason marijuana possession charge led to a suspension that forced him to miss the Liberty opener in 2016. He came back to have a solid sophomore season only to turn in an erratic 2017 that included a two-game suspension for what Fuente termed as not living up to the program's expectations.
He returned but suffered a hamstring injury at Miami that put a damper on the rest of his season. Still, he entered the offseason with high hopes, a third-team preseason All-ACC pick by Athlon.
Webb, who’s originally from East Mims, Florida, earned first-team Northeast Football Conference honors last fall with ASA College before signing with Virginia Tech in December as a four-star prospect.
As an older player who had gotten some reps at the college level before, the Hokies expected him to potentially be in the mix for a large role.
“Webb is going to give us the opportunity to bring some maturity there, bring some experience at a different level and hopefully some gamesmanship where he can get out there and win a starting job,” cornerbacks coach Brian Mitchell said in April.