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Here are some observations from Tech’s closed scrimmage on Saturday:

• It was great to see receiver D.J. Coles back in action in the scrimmage. Coles continues to look better. In the scrimmage, he went in motion and then ran a crossing route all the way across the field before catching a pass from Mark Leal. The gain went for 26 yards. More importantly, the play should give Coles confidence in his knee going forward.

• Demitri Knowles had some nice returns in the scrimmage that got ignored by many who saw the stat sheet. He returned a kickoff for 47 and 40 yards and a punt for 21 yards. He possesses the speed to be a great returner and may end up with the kick returning job. We still expect Dyrell Roberts to be the punt returner.

• Tech head coach Frank Beamer said the staff plans to have Trey Edmunds work with a package of plays over the next few weeks and they plan to keep bringing him along. The staff doesn’t plan to play him early. He’ll make the dress squad for the Georgia Tech game, but won’t play unless several other tailbacks get hurt.

• Tech worked on kickoffs and kickoff returns, and Beamer said that he hasn’t decided on which kicker will be doing kickoffs. He mentioned Cody Journell and Ethan Keyserling, and he also threw Michael Branthover’s name in the mix. Branthover’s inconsistency has hurt his chances at winning the punting job.

• Beamer also said that A.J. Hughes led in the battle for the punting job, but he added that the battle is ongoing. He loves how high Hunter Windmuller punts the ball. Windmuller probably was the more impressive of the two in the scrimmage Saturday.

• Linebacker Tariq Edwards hasn’t been ruled out for the Georgia Tech game, but the odds of him playing are highly unlikely. He did say his knee is feeling much better, and he’s more optimistic about his future. Doctors had installed a rod in his leg to repair a stress fracture and a screw was creating pain in the knee. They took that screw out a week ago.

• Lost among all the talk about D.J. Coles’ knee and Josh Stanford’s emergence has been the improvement of walk-on receiver Corey Fuller. The young man caught a 50-yard touchdown pass in the scrimmage from Logan Thomas and is starting to earn the confidence of the quarterbacks and the coaches. The Hokies lost two great receivers in Danny Coale and Jarrett Boykin, but we honestly do not see this current group missing a beat.

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