It’s a pretty good read with Fowler doling out plenty of kind words for the program – check it out.

Cheeseman, a rising senior, announced prior to the Orange Bowl that he would transfer for his senior year.

For $85, you get 18 holes of golf at beautiful Hanging Rock Golf Club in Salem, Va., a golf cart, a cookout dinner following golf with guest speaker Mike Burnop, beverages during your round of golf, and chances to win great door prizes and if your golf game is good enough, more prizes!

VTHokieFans.com will be there along with sponsor GobblerGear.com, which has also signed on to sponsor the golf tournament. For more information, check out the brand spanking new Web site for the Roanoke Hokies Alumni Chapter (www.roanokehokies.com).

“The Hokie Nation has responded in typical fashion as it supports our football program in this exciting 2009 season opener,” said Director of Athletics Jim Weaver.

The game, which will be played in the Georgia Dome and televised nationally on ABC, will kick off at 8 p.m.

(Source: HokieSports.com)

Read Doughty’s article Hokies assistant Newsome undergoes heart surgery.

Where does this leave former Hokie standout Eddie Royal? Last year, the 2008 second round draft pick set Denver Bronco rookie receiving records with 91 receptions, 980 receiving yards, 1,089 total yards and five touchdowns. He also only committed one turnover in 15 games, all of which he started. So far Royal’s name seems to be getting left out of the conversation quite a bit when it comes to Marshall’s inevitable departure.

It would seem to reason that Royal benefited from having Marshall on the other side of the field often times being double-covered, leaving Royal with a chance to prove himself. Royal was an untested and undersized rookie that garnered little attention from opposing teams in the preseason. That all changed in week one of the regular season. Royal caught nine passes for 146 yards and 1 touchdown as the Broncos bombed the Oakland Raiders 41-14. Royal exploded onto the NFL scene in a big way.

Will there be a sophomore slump for Royal in 2009? He won’t have Jay Cutler to get him the ball and without Marshall drawing double coverage, it wouldn’t surprise me if Royal sees fewer open lanes. But, as Hokie fans know, Royal has a knack for getting open and he’s a very smart young man, so I’m sure he’s aware that he will have to work even harder this season with a new – and considerably less-talented – QB, as well as the team’s former No. 1 receiver.

If ever there was a time for Royal to step up and assume the role of the go-to guy, this is it. While I don’t expect a repeat of last year’s 1,000-yard output (mainly because of Orton at QB), I still expect Royal to make the most of the situation and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he surpasses last year’s record-setting rooking numbers.

Hear what Eddie Royal had to say about Jay Cutler leaving the Broncos.

The NCAA is expected to have an official announcement later today. Virginia Tech opens its 2009 season against the Crimson Tide in Atlanta on Sept. 5 at 8 p.m. on ABC.

For more game times and broadcast information, read the ACC press release.

In other news…

Bishop Kearney High School’s (Rochester, N.Y.) Jerome Lewis, a 6-4, 225-pound tight end/defensive end, verbally committed to Virginia Tech this week. Lewis was a 5-9, 138-pound freshman when he got the call to play for the varsity squad but has since added 50 pounds and seven inches. According to Lewis, he also had official offers form Syracuse, Pittsburgh and East Carolina.

Lewis is slated to join the 2010 class and play either tight end or flanker for the Hokies. If that’s the case, I would expect Frank Beamer to redshirt Lewis in 2010 considering the extremely talented and deep pools of receivers currently in the program. A pool that will only be juniors by the time this kid arrives.

For more information about Jerome Lewis, check out Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle.

Michael Vick is back home in Hampton, Va., after being released from prison yesterday. The disgraced and supposedly penniless former NFL star will begin work at one of W.M. Jordan Co.’s 40 commercial construction sites earning $10 an hour as a general laborer. The company’s president, John R. Lawson, is an ‘75 grad and a member of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. Clearly he believes that Vick deserves a second chance, as do I.

Here’s the thing that really bothers me: Michael Vick did more time in prison, 19 months, for killing pitbulls, than St. Louis Rams defensive lineman Leonard Little did for killing a woman in 1998 while driving drunk. Little served 90 days in jail, four years probation and 1,000 hours of community service… He KILLED a woman. A mother. A wife. A 15-year-old boy lost his mom and a husband, who had already lost a daughter to a car accident lost his wife. And all Little got was 90 days in jail.

The NFL suspended him for eight games. Vick has already missed two full seasons and could very well get a suspension from current no-nonsense commissioner Roger Goodell, but he has said that he will not even meet with Vick until the former star’s home confinement is completely on July 20.

Following Little’s 90 days in jail, he said that he would never forget what he had done. Apparently he did because in 2004 he was arrested for driving drunk and speeding. He failed three sobriety tests, but somehow the charges were dismissed and he walked away with a mere speeding charge. Unbelievable.

So, what can we take from this? That killing a dog, while unthinkable and detestable, is a greater crime in our society than killing a human being. Some will argue that in Little’s case he didn’t intentionally mean to kill someone. Bullocks! He got in the car while drunk and he should be responsible for his actions. In my opinion, Little deserved more jail time than Vick and so does Dante Stallworth of the New Orleans Saints, who faces DUI manslaughter charged after killing a man while driving drunk. And now for the head-shaking bit of news from Yahoo! Sports, according to Jason Cole’s article Stallworth may get break on manslaughter charge:

Stallworth, who is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, may still have to serve time in jail and reach a civil settlement with the family of Mario Reyes, who was killed when Stallworth hit him in the early morning hours of March 14. However, Stallworth’s jail time could be only a matter of two or three months rather than the possibility of up to 15 years in prison under state law, two NFL sources said this week. Beyond that, Stallworth could play this season, one of the sources said.

Only a matter of two or three months? He could play this season? For killing a man? Am I the only one outraged by this? Thankfully I’m not alone , but it seems like we’re in the minority. Kill a man and you can be out of jail in 2-3 months and play that season. Kill pitbulls and go to prison (not jail, there is a difference) and serve nearly two years and miss 2-3 seasons. Yeah, America, our priorities are completely out of whack. Stallworth should be suspended for the season, at least!

The other things that bothers me about this whole thing is that PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) says Vick doesn’t deserve another shot at the NFL until he passes a psychological evaluation. Really? Really, PETA? Your whack job zealots go around throwing blood on people … perhaps you need to undergo psychological evaluations before you start mandating who can and cannot return to their job after paying their debt to society as prescribed by their sentence.

What Vick did was horrible and as a dog lover I do not condone what he did. But he paid his debt to society. He paid more for his crime than his peers did or will for their crimes of killing a human being. Vick deserves a second chance and I can’t wait to see him get his life together, show repentence and then get back on the field.

This could be a watershed game for the Virginia Tech football program. This is probably the most highly anticipated season in the program’s history and the expectations have never been higher. With a stable of running backs and wide receivers and a quarterback that can change a game in a couple of plays, the Hokies have an opportunity to make a statement for the 2009 season from the opening game. If they beat ‘Bama on that kind of stage, it will be a defining win for both Frank Beamer and the university. I would even go so far as to say it would surpass the 1995 Sugar Bowl win over Texas.

The knock on the Hokies has always been their inability to beat ranked teams on a consistent basis. Tech hasn’t beaten a top 10 team since 2004, going 1-5 since beating No. 9 Miami on the road on Dec. 4, 2004. That was the game that sealed the Hokies’ first of three ACC titles to date. A win over the Tide could change a lot of perceptions among those in the college football world and you have to believe it will get some blue chip recruits to put Blacksburg on their list of colleges to visit.

I have been following Virginia Tech football long enough to know that I shouldn’t get my hopes up – see the 1999 national championship game. But, at the same time, I can’t help but drool a little over the possibilities should the Hokies pull off a win in Atlanta.