Virginia Tech’s spring game is fast approaching. I’ll have a couple of stories this week leading up to Saturday’s game, which kicks off at 2 and is free to the public.

I caught up with Nelson County native Brian Saunders and wrote a story on how he’s progressing as the team’s No. 2 punter. He’ll back up Brent Bowden this season, but it looks like next year the No. 1 job could be all his.

Expect the story to run in Wednesday’s Lynchburg and Nelson County papers.

There was one interesting tidbit I couldn’t include in the Saunders story. I asked him how nerve-racking it is to kick in practice every day in front of head coach Frank Beamer, who personally handles all the Hokies special teams chores.

Naturally, Saunders said it’s pretty distressing.

He said he was pretty nervous his freshman year, because he was trying to make a good impression. He handles his nerves better now.

One of his mental exercises is to punt like it’s just him and his dad, Massie, out in the field, kicking and shagging punts.

Rob Colley, Saunders kicking coach here in Lynchburg, gave him that idea. Colley, who punted for the Hokies in the early 90s, used that mental drill after letting Beamer’s presence get the best of him early in his career.

“I struggled with it. … I’d get nervous when he’d come around. … I’d be warming up and I’d boom it. Then he’d chart. He’d come over and stand and I had to start blocking it out. I’d visualize my dad being down there catching the punts for me just to try to get my mind off of Beamer.

“I can remember a conversation I had with coach Beamer. You know him. He’s a funny dude. When he put me at No. 1, he called me into his office and said, ‘I’ve been noticing, you punt that ball pretty good there guy, but when I come around, you seem to get a little nervous.’ He said, ‘You know, I plan on being at every game.’”

It’s a funny story, but Beamer isn’t joking around when he says he needs consistency from his kickers and punters, no matter the scenario. If a kid can’t handle practice when coach Beamer is watching, what is he going to do when he’s kicking in front of 70,000 fans with a game on the line?

“I think kicking is one of the hardest things you do,” Beamer said. “You’re over there on the sideline, you run in there and you do it. It’s kind of like a golf shot. It’s a timing thing and the whole deal.

“We intentionally try to put pressure on them in practice, and we get our field goal kickers out there and kicking in different situations, and punting is the same way. Part of becoming a great kicker is handling the pressure or getting used to the pressure.”

It’s no coincidence that Beamer and the Hokies have had such success with walk-on kickers. They keep those guys around for a few years, mold them into major Division I players and let them get used to the pressure of kicking in front of crowds … and Beamer.

The end result is a guy like Dustin Keys, who was with the team for four years before getting his shot at being the No. 1 kicker. He earned a scholarship last season, broke the school’s single-season field goal record and kicked three game-winning field goals.

Tech has had plenty of success stories like that. Saunders could be the next.