Wyatt Teller is a Beamer Era holdover. He was highly recruited for the 2013 football season as a Defensive End (Strong side, meaning more Tackle than End) or Tackle whichever position that he might fit. Teller was a dominant player in High School (Liberty HS, Bealton, VA) and I had the displeasure of seeing him destroy my kids’ High School football team something like four times. As with most players at that level, Teller played both sides of the football, and Tech was desperate to fill in empty holes in the offensive line after redshirting his academic Freshman year. The move to Offensive tackle didn’t last very long, and soon he was beefed up and moved into the inside from 2013 on. He played 2/3rds of the 2014 season on special teams with a scattering of offensive snaps, and then finished the last six of that season as a starter.

Teller’s 2015 season was impressive for a Virginia Tech Offensive lineman. He started all but one game, and finished the season with that shootout against Tulsa. Tech’s offense may have struggled at times (we won’t go there for this) but Teller was definitely not the biggest problem. He did have to cure a tendency to get behind his techniques, and was called for a few too many holding penalties.

His 2016 season didn’t start off too well. There was this small issue with a coaching change, a new offensive line coach, and a new coaching attitude from the new coaching staff. Some people think that he was scolded and “taught” a bit of a lesson for the season opener and second game. There was evidently a bit of a clash in personalities that left the coaches a bit less than pleased with Wyatt’s 2016 practice ethic and football acumen. Whatever the “lessons” were, and riding the pine for two starts that season, seemed to have been the attitude adjustment that Teller needed. Wyatt ended the season with First Team All ACC honors, and a National Player of the Week note.

There was no looking back once Teller figured out what Vice, Cornelsen, and Fuente wanted. Last season Teller started every game, he was only was beaten five times and those only resulted in QB pressures. He gave up no sacks. That’s a great performance even if those splashy honors didn’t come his way. I am sure that Josh Jackson was happy. There were pro scout issues with his season; they value the 2016 effort more.

We will have to see how high he goes. I’ll save my predictions for the final article on Wednesday evening.

Good Luck Wyatt! GO HOKIES!!!