BLACKSBURG- The football spiraled across the sky as D.J. Coles ran down the field. He turned, located it, adjusted his path and caught it. It seemed like any other routine play during the first week of Virginia Tech’s preseason practices. But for Coles, it felt like a landmark moment.

“I’m ready,” he thought as the ball landed in his hands. “It’s time to play.”

Coles, a sophomore wide receiver from Goochland High, has been one of the Hokies’ biggest surprises of August. He played just 14 offensive snaps last season as a true freshman while learning a new position. But after spending all summer in Blacksburg, he impressed his coaches enough this month that they plan to use him much more this season.

Tech returns its top three receivers from last season: juniors Jarrett
Boykin, Danny Coale and Dyrell Roberts. Two others were competing with Coles for the fourth spot: sophomores Xavier Boyce and Marcus Davis.

But Boyce sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in Saturday’s scrimmage. Moreover, offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring said he plans to use more formations with three wide receivers this season. So Coles and Davis could see action in those situations.

“[Coles] is going to be in the game early and often,” Stinespring said.

Coles played running back at Goochland, but his body— now 6-3 and 230 pounds— meant he would be a receiver in college. He spent 2008 playing receiver at Fork Union Military Academy. But he still struggled last fall with properly running routes and adjusting to deep passes when they were in the air.

Looking back, he wishes he had redshirted.

After spring practices, Coles told his position coach, Kevin Sherman, that he would spend both summer school sessions in Blacksburg.

Before his freshman year, he was around only for the second session. “That was an indication that the guy’s focus has changed, his mentality has changed,” Sherman said. “Maybe we can build on that.”

Coles was on Tech’s practice field two or three times a week this summer, catching passes from the quarterbacks. He invented a trick to help him locate the ball on deep passes and adjust his route accordingly.

He knew that, in games, if a cornerback is running stride for stride with him, he can’t look up for the ball too early, or else he’ll slow down and tip off the corner that a pass is coming his way. So even during the summer, when he ran routes against no defenders, he waited until the last moment to spot the ball in the air, counting in his head to determine when he should look up.

Running routes was also a problem for Coles. When cutting, he didn’t bend his knees and push through his hips enough, a bad habit of “running high” that lets a corner easily read when a receiver is going to cut, and could result in the receiver blowing out his knee.

Coles’ size makes it difficult for him to stay low in these situations, as well as when he is blocking. But that wasn’t a problem during Saturday’s scrimmage, when he used his bulk to his advantage.

Tailback David Wilson cut right, then left, and ran untouched around the edge for a 12-yard touchdown, thanks largely to Coles popping rover Davon Morgan at the line.

Coles said being a taller and thicker receiver lets him “get defenders off you a lot easier. Most corners don’t want to jam a guy that big.”

Plays likes Coles’ block are why Stinespring said he has “tremendous, tremendous upside.”

But Stinespring wants to see Coles demonstrate that consistently if he’s going to turn a productive August into a productive season. Stinespring has even joked with Coles that he wants to run a biorhythm check on him before every practice.

“Then we’ll know how that day’s going to go,” Stinespring said.

Darryl Slater is a staff writer for the Richmond Times Dispatch.