On October 16th, the Flames head up Highway 501 to Lexington for their 1st Big South road game of the season at VMI.

No one would ever accuse VMI of soft scheduling for 2010.  Of their five non-conference games, two are at FBS teams (UVa & Army) and their other road trips are to William & Mary (who begins the season generally ranked among the top 3 FCS teams in the nation) and fast rising ODU.  That would be a steep challenge for any team.  But for the Keydets it sets up to be a very long season.

Courtesy: Winston-Salem Journal

Winning has not come easy for Sparky Woods in his two years at VMI.  After a surprising 4-7 season in 2008 in his first year with the Keydets, 2009 was a disappointment across the board at 2-9 for the former Appalachian State & South Carolina head coach.  There are no quick fixes at a school that essentially doesn’t accept FBS transfers and requires its student-athletes to be involved in a rigorous training regimen with their fellow classmates.  Making it 2010 especially challenging is that the three offensive weapons that have carried VMI in recent years have graduated.  Tim Maypray, Kyle Hughes & Howard Abegesah combined to contribute 62% of scoring last season and 74% of total yardage.

So it was time for a new plan and that meant Sparky would go back to his pro-style offensive roots this spring.  He has three young inexperienced quarterbacks including a pair of redshirt freshmen battling to become the starter.  Frankly it is tough to identify any key offensive contributors in light of all of the personnel and scheme changes.

Courtesy: VMI Athletics

Slotback Michael Rainey-Wiles is adding defensive back duties in order to get his athleticism on the field more often on both sides of the ball.

Courtesy: VMI Athletics

Defensively the Keydets bring back more personnel and they’ll need them after giving up over 400 yards a game last season.  Their top four tacklers are back led by free safety Byron Allen who posted 93 tackles in 10 games.  Obviously it is never a good sign when the guy furthest away from the line of scrimmage is far & away your leading tackler.  Junior linebackers A.J. Gross (pictured above) & Emilio Calvin cover a lot of ground and Josh Wine is tough-nosed presence at defensive tackle.

Bottom line:  The Keydets proved to be a challenge for nearly every opponent they faces last year including top-ranked Richmond.  Outside of a 40-point beatdown by the Flames and an 18-point loss at JMU, the Keydets played with two scores of all comers.  The change in offensive schemes will likely have a lengthy learning curve with so many new faces involved in the process.  So I would not expect VMI to be able to hang with the Flames.

It should be noted that VMI has scheduled Parents Weekend for the Liberty game.  So there should be close to a full house in what already is one of the coolest gameday atmospheres we ever face.