WR Willie Byrn Ponders His Football Future While Mentoring the Next Generation of VT Receivers

With the Hokies' final regular season game approaching, and a bowl berth entirely uncertain, Willie Byrn is starting to feel his football mortality.

"I just don't know whether I did my last lift in the weight room today, or whether this was my last Tuesday practice," Byrn said.

As the redshirt senior wide receiver approaches the end of his fifth and final season with the team, he's faced with an intimidating thought; while a loss to the hated Hoos might be devastating for the program, it also might be an incredibly painful farewell to the game he loves.

"I don't know whether I'm going to play in a preseason game or get another shot to play the game that I've been playing since I was seven," Byrn said.

Even if the Hokies do manage to win Friday night and extend Byrn's career by just one more game, he has no doubt the setting will conjure some emotions.

"I remember my last high school game, I knew I was going to go play college football somewhere, I knew it wasn't my last football game ever, but I still was really emotional at the end," Byrn said. "We lost and I was still extremely emotional. So with this game, it's that kind of feeling."

But Byrn isn't planning on repeating that kind of disappointment from his high school days. Instead, he plans on badgering the other, younger wide receivers until they get the message about the importance of this game.

"The thing that I've been saying is whether you're a senior or a freshman, you don't want to be on the team that snapped the streak of losing to UVA," Byrn said. "Obviously everyone's saying it, but it's nice for the freshmen to keep hearing it so maybe if they're annoyed with it, then by the time Friday comes, they can take it out on UVA."

Willie's role as a motivator for the receiving corps is hardly unique to this week. While the realization that his days playing the game could be numbered is especially acute now, he's also stayed very conscious of what he can do to help the next generation of receivers that will take his place.

From almost the moment they first got to campus, Byrn has tried to take an active role in helping out freshmen like Isaiah Ford and Cam Phillips.

"I remember the first summer 7-on-7 we had when all the freshmen came in," Byrn said. "As soon as I saw them balling out like that, I figured that they were going to play early, so I wanted to give them some advice, kind of take them under my wing a little bit, or as much as I can."

But his relationship with the young guys isn't just a superficial one; Byrn made a concerted effort to really get close with Ford and Phillips.

"Before I really got to know them, it was just a senior helping a freshman out kind of thing," Byrn said. "And then we got pretty close pretty quickly, so it was a lot easier to criticize them and get on to them. They know that I have the best for them in mind, I'm not just beating up them just because I'm older."

Ford makes it clear that Byrn's early attention really made an impression.

"I'm with Willie a lot, and he does everything the right way. He shows you how it's done on the practice field," Ford said. "Off the field, he hangs with us a lot, me and Cam Phillips, the freshmen, and that means a lot. Because I know some seniors would be like 'what are you doing freshman, get out of here' but he really took us in under his wing as like little brothers."

Yet the friendship isn't just a one-way street where Byrn imparts all the knowledge.

"They're guys that have some different tendencies and techniques, so every once in a while, I'll peek over and say 'hey I kind of like that,' so we're really learning off each other," Byrn said.

Even if the talented freshmen have plenty to teach Byrn, the redshirt senior is most impressed by their humility.

"Big time freshmen coming in like Isaiah, like Cam, they might sometimes have too big a head, they'll kind of just shoo away advice," Byrn said. "What's so good about Cam and Isaiah is they weren't like that all, they were really understanding, they know they still have a lot to learn to get where they need to be. So they were willing listen to a 5'11" little white kid like me."

Byrn says part of his motivation for offering his help to the promising freshmen comes from his memories of a pair of legendary Tech receivers that lent him a hand when he was first learning ropes.

"Two guys that were extremely helpful to me that are the two guys that are at the top of every single record at Tech, that's Jarrett (Boykin) and Danny (Coale)," Byrn said.

He thinks the record-setting pair saw the same willingness to learn as he does in Tech's new dynamic duo.

"That (work ethic) is kind of what Danny and Jarrett saw in me," Byrn said. "I wanted to get better, I was really hungry. They were willing to help out and you could see in their eyes that they wanted to help."

His coach at Virginia Beach's First Colonial High School, Sam Scarborough, says that hunger has been a feature of Byrn's game for as long as he's known him.

"The thing with Willie is he was never the biggest kid, he had to work for what he had," Scarborough said. "And I think he always kept that in mind, he was willing to return the favor. He loves the game, and part of that love is passing it on to others."

Now, with his time with the Hokies coming to an end, he's trying to help Ford and Phillips make their own marks on the school's history.

"They have endless potential, those two specifically, so if I can do anything along the way to get them where I think they can be, which is writing their name in the Tech record books, I would love to do it," Byrn said.

While he might leave behind a promising future in the receiving corps for the Hokies, Byrn's own football future is less certain.

Calling Byrn a marginal NFL prospect might be an understatement, but that's not going to stop him from taking a shot at the pros.

"I know that if I were to get drafted in the seventh round, that would be overachieving," Byrn said. "But I'm a guy that if I'm going to stick to a squad or stick to a roster, it's going to be through free agency, through work ethic and being the first one in and last one out, and I'm fully understanding of that and I'm excited to take on that challenge."

Some might scoff at the idea of this "5'11" little white kid" truly making it at the highest level, but Byrn doesn't see the harm in taking a shot at his dream anyway.

"When I was six years old, that was my dream, and the fact that it's somewhat accomplishable, it's too much to be too proud or be too cool to pass it up, so I'm going to give it everything I got and hopefully keep proving people wrong," Byrn said.

Considering that Byrn has already widely exceeded many expectations, Scarborough wouldn't be a bit surprised to see him keep beating the odds.

"I told him his senior year that if he went to Christopher Newport or Old Dominion, some Division III school, he could be an All-American right away, but he wanted no part of it, he wanted to play in the big time," Scarborough said. "And he went out there and accomplished all this at Tech, so I wouldn't be surprised if he kept proving us wrong."

It's not as if there isn't a precedent for Byrn to follow. Scarborough says that the success of smaller receivers like Wes Welker and Cole Beasley is a sign for Byrn that he has a chance to contribute.

"That's all he needs to see," Scarborough said. "He doesn't get rattled or intimidated. I know if someone gives him a chance, he'll work as hard as possible to make it happen."

But if the pros aren't the place for him, it's not as if he lacks options.

"I have some other ambitions I've developed as I've gotten older, so I'm not going to absolutely kill myself if I don't make it in the NFL," Byrn said.

Byrn has a communication degree from Tech, specializing in multimedia journalism, and he could see himself pursuing broadcasting in the future as well.

"I love to be around the action. You see the things on TV, what's going on, that's where I want to be," Byrn said. "I'm pretty confident that I'd be able to have a decent chance of becoming a broadcaster when it comes to football."

His professors say they see real talent from him in the area.

"Hes one of those guys where, as his teacher, Im excited to see what happens next," said Derley Aguilar, an instructor in Tech's Communication department.

Aguilar taught Byrn in a pair of classes, Advanced Multimedia Reporting and Studio Video Production, but she was so impressed with his talents that she asked him to participate in an independent study this summer as well.

"I specifically asked him to participate in a TV/web show we produced this summer, knowing that he could easily be in front of the camera or behind it," Aguilar said. "He did a great job overall and also brought elements of creativity to our production."

But while he may be a talented broadcaster, he's not married to the idea either.

"Coaching is a thing that I think would be a lot of fun, to keep me around a game that I've played for so long," Byrn said. "I've had some people say I might be a decent coach."

One of those people floating the idea is Scarborough.

"I asked him if he'd be interested in coaching, and he said he might be able to get a graduate position with Tech, and I think he'd be a great coach," Scarborough said. "I don't know how much he's interested in it, but I think he'd be fantastic."

His current coaches think that Willie has so many options coming out of school because he's used his time at Tech to develop more than just his football skills.

"Willie's got a lot of different things going on," said wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead. "I don't think football defines him, he's got a lot of things going, which really at the end of the day are going to make him a better person when he's done playing this game."

Moorehead thinks he developed such a varied identity because his first few years at school didn't exactly involve a ton of playing time for the team.

"I think when you're a walk on that hasn't played, you find a lot of different things that your life represents and football doesn't have to mean everything. Then all of a season, as a redshirt junior, you get thrown into it," Moorehead said.

That means that he's had time to work on other interests, like, say, playing the guitar.

That hobby even surprised Moorehead when he first found out about it.

"I'm sitting out there during halftime and he's up there singing on his guitar on the jumbotron," Moorehead said with a laugh. "I told him 'Everybody in this stadium knows you play the guitar, so you might get a couple more girls out of it.'"

While some coaches might hesitate to see their players devoting time to something other than the X's and O's, Moorehead loves it.

"I like that in my players, I don't want guys who are going to be cooped up in their room and sitting in a hole for the week and then they come out and go to practice and come back," Moorehead said. "That's not what college is about. College is about exploring and seeing different things and meeting different people and Willie's had five years to do that and I think he's enjoyed that. I'm glad to have been here for the last couple of his years at school."

Byrn admits that he revels in his eclectic collection of interests.

"When I go out and meet new people, I never tell people that I'm on the football team unless they ask or it's somehow brought up. I just don't like to be defined as that," Byrn said. "People, for better or for worse, as soon as they say that, they raise their eyebrows, they look at you a little bit differently. And it's hard to get out of the perspective of 'just a football player' to normal students."

That means that even if he can't continue his football career, with one more bowl game or even some time in the NFL, he's uniquely situated to adapt to life out of school.

"I'd never really want to be defined as one thing," Byrn said. "I don't think I would want to be defined as one thing in general, even if it was playing the guitar or being a broadcaster or a coach, I wouldn't want to be defined by that one thing. I have a bunch of different interests and I don't think anyone should be defined by one thing."

Considering that people know Byrn as a mentor, a broadcaster, a guitarist, and yes, a football player, there's little chance of anyone finding just one definition for him anytime soon.