Seth Dooley Claims the "Light's Come On" As He Prepares to Step into New Role as Third DE

Dooley finally seems ready for a bigger role this season, even if some worry he could be "too nice."

Seth Dooley has a big opportunity ahead of him as he tries to seize the primary backup DE spot. [Mark Umansky]

Between the Hokies' depth at defensive end and Bud Foster's complex defensive scheme, there are plenty of reasons why Seth Dooley hasn't seen the field much in his three years in Blacksburg.

But Dooley's old head coach at Glenvar High School in Salem can think of one explanation for his lack of playing time that might not seem particularly apparent.

"That's the only thing I can say against him, he's too nice," said Kevin Clifford. "Sometimes nice kids, it doesn't always translate."

Dooley laughs off that particular concern. After all, he did earn 282 snaps last season between his time on special teams and defense, and he looks to be the third defensive end in line this season behind Dadi Nicolas and Ken Ekanem at least partially because of his intensity on the field.

"When it's on the field, I get that switch, it's not the same side, not the same person on the field," Dooley said. "It's cool because people don't understand it, they're like 'you're such a nice guy, I don't understand how you act like that?' But it's a war out there pretty much, you get 'em or they're gonna get you, so that's how I think of it."

Still, Dooley has offered Clifford plenty of reasons to be incredulous about his possession of a mean streak. Ever since he enrolled at Tech, Dooley has made frequent returns to his old stomping grounds to keep in his touch with his roots and show his softer side.

"He comes back, works out with us, hangs out with the kids, he'll come to my house, he's friends with my sons, comes and hangs out when he can when he's home," Clifford said. "He's not caught up with all those other things. Not that he doesn't have a good time in college and enjoy himself. He's a handsome kid, I'm sure he's got a pretty girlfriend. He's just well grounded, he hasn't forgotten where he's come from, and I think that's really important."

But Dooley doesn't just head back to Glenvar to spend time with Clifford and the football team. He also makes a concerted effort to spend time with children with disabilities at the school.

"Any time I can help out in my community or anything like that, I love to do that," Dooley said. "The reason I get here is because of the people who helped me, so I always want to come back and give back whenever I have time to."

It's a practice that Clifford says he picked up in high school, frequently working at special olympics events, and the coach calls it a credit to his former pupil's "empathy."

Yet sometimes, Dooley's demands as a student-athlete keeps him from making the roughly hour-long drive home. In those cases, he works to get the Glenvar kids to come to him.

Last year, Dooley coordinated with staff at Glenvar to arrange a tour of Tech's facilities for the group on Nov. 19. Tackle Wade Hansen and long snapper Colton Taylor joined Dooley for the tour, and he says the group of 15 kids got to see the "Legends Hall" portion of Merryman Center, the weight room, locker room and the tunnel into Lane Stadium "so that they could touch the Hokie stone."

"I finished my homework up quick and I walked them through the locker room, showed them through Lane, and any time I can do little things like that, I love to do that," Dooley said.

It was a relatively small gesture, but Dooley says it was still a "rewarding" one for all involved.

"It really puts life into perspective, just knowing the opportunities (I've) been given and the opportunities that they may never have," Dooley said.

Dooley has an especially acute appreciation for his opportunity to go to college on a football scholarship because of how close he came to missing his big chance. If not for one fateful PE class with Clifford, Dooley might not have ever realized his potential as a football star.

Up until his junior year, Dooley spent the bulk of his days playing basketball, yet from his very first day at Glenvar, he caught Clifford's eye.

"He's 6'5", 6'4" his sophomore year, so people always asked me about him like 'can he play?'" Clifford said.

But Clifford says between some reticence from Dooley's parents about football and some discouraging reviews from his other coaches, he didn't press the matter for a while.

Yet Dooley's rapidly growing frame forced Clifford to change his mind.

"I'd heard from his other coaches that he wasn't real athletic, he didn't move real well," Clifford said. "But (I heard) he had leg surgery when he was young and I figured this kid passes the eyeball test. I've coached a lot of Division I kids, a lot of Division I defensive ends actually, and I was just like 'this is crazy.'"

That led to one fateful day in PE class where Dooley couldn't help but realize what a good fit he might be at DE.

"I was in PE, and I was just sitting there and he was like 'ever think about football?'" Dooley said. "I was like 'nah,' and he just told me 'get in the stance' and got in it and he said 'I think I could help you, you could do big things if you work with me' so I said 'alright.'"

With Dooley himself convinced, Clifford set about selling the rest of his family on the sport.

"I was at Walmart and I saw his mom and dad, and I'd never really met them, but I went up to them," Clifford said. "I said 'I know you don't know me from Adam,' and I introduced myself and I said 'I've been doing this for a long time, I played college football, and I've coached a lot of Division I kids, and I can't guarantee this...but if he works hard and does these things, then there's a good likelihood he'll get money to go to college and play football if he wants.'"

Clifford's plea clearly had its intended effect, and Dooley's parents gave him the green light to lace up his cleats. His first year, Dooley immediately started at defensive end, and Clifford notes he had double digit sacks in his very first season.

That attracted the attention of the Hokies, and with Glenvar in Tech's very own backyard, it didn't take long for some of the staff to swing by and get a look at Dooley. Clifford notes he has a long-standing relationship with recruiting coordinator Bryan Stinespring, and he didn't hesitate to let him know what he thought of Dooley's talents.

"Coach Stiney would come in and I said 'just look at this kid, eyeball him, he looks like a kid you'd get from the '757,'" Clifford said. "'He's not a kid you're gonna get here much, he looks like a kid from South Florida.' So they looked at him, started talking to him."

OLB coach Cornell Brown stopped by another Glenvar practice to get a look at Dooley, and following that visit, the Hokies were sufficiently convinced that he deserved serious consideration. By the spring of his junior year, Dooley got invited up to a camp in Blacksburg, and after an impressive performance there, they extended him an offer.

But when his senior year rolled around, some big changes were in store for Dooley.

"Seth's senior year we moved him, and we didn't really have any linebackers, and we knew he could run, we knew he had size," Clifford said. "So it was like 'well, we have this kid who's 6'5", 225, what are we gonna do? Well, let's put him in the middle.'"

Clifford also decided to play Dooley at running back, and even though Clifford admits neither position was perfectly suited for him, he still managed to make second-team all-state at linebacker.

"Seth just worked, he worked hard, did what I told him to do, he worked hard in the classroom, really got it done in that part," Clifford said.

With both his rapidly ballooning size and his newfound versatility, Dooley had plenty of positive attributes to catch the notice of other programs. While JMU, Norfolk State and VMI were the only other schools to offer Dooley, he started attracting the attention of Tennessee as well.

"I told him 'they're gonna offer you if you come down, they just want to look at you, they saw your film, they saw how big you are, they want to look at you," Clifford said. "But he said 'coach, I really just want to go to Tech.'"

That assertion caught Clifford a bit off guard. Even though he professes to "have a lot of respect for Tech," Clifford couldn't help but encourage Dooley to at least give the Volunteers a chance.

"I said, 'look, just go down to Tennessee, we're talking about the SEC, buddy," Clifford said. "Just look at the NFL draft, look at all the guys who come out of there, you get to play in front of 110,000 crazy fans, that's the toughest overall in the country. Look who's fighting for a national title almost every year. But he was set on Tech."

But once he got to Blacksburg, Dooley didn't exactly get to step on the field right away. The Hokies first encouraged Dooley to delay his enrollment and grayshirt, a suggestion that he met with some apprehension before ultimately agreeing.

"At first he was upset, but I was like 'Seth, this is gonna work out great,'" Clifford said.

It would take awhile for Dooley to see the payoff. Even once Dooley got to Tech in January 2013, the team eventually decided to redshirt him as well.

With the benefit of hindsight, Dooley recognizes how much that helped him as he adjust to the huge changes at the collegiate level.

"It was different, definitely different," Dooley said. "Especially when you come up here and they expect you to know your stance and all that, so it took me a little bit of time."

Last season, Dooley didn't spend a huge amount of time on the field, making just five tackles in his 100 snaps at end. But he still thinks the experience was instructive for him, now that he can combine it with the lessons he learned in his redshirt year.

"Redshirt year, I was kind of learning everything, but once I started playing, you actually feel how close you are, how close you were to doing it," Dooley said.

Now the Hokies will need Dooley to be ready to make the next step in his career and help spell Nicolas and Ekanem. Luckily, he says he feels adequately prepared to fill the void as the team's third DE.

"After working through last year, trying to get my feet wet, I definitely feel ready this year," Dooley said. "I've got a year of experience under my belt, so I feel a lot better this year. I'm making more plays, feeling more comfortable."

The coaching staff seems ready to see him in that role, frequently singling him out for praise over the spring and summer.

"Seth will play a little bit more of a significant role," said defensive coordinator Bud Foster. "I think we've helped ourselves at that d-end spot."

Dooley says he feels both stronger, recently setting a personal record in the bench press, and sharper mentally headed into the new season.

"It's the speed of the game," Dooley said. "Working with Bud Foster, he's a genius, so he has us doing all sorts of things and, for me, it was just knowing the play, and then reacting to what the offense does."

But it's not just Foster giving him lessons on the defense. Dooley credits his fellow DEs, and even some of the DTs, for helping him along.

"Dadi, Corey (Marshall) and (Luther Maddy), they all get off the ball pretty well, so just picking their brains, seeing what part of the ball they look at, that's what definitely helped me out, just watching their moves, trying to incorporate it into my game," Dooley said.

Coming from a small school like Glenvar, Dooley says he can't help but marvel sometimes at the caliber of linemen he gets to play alongside these days.

"I've never been around this much talent in my life," Dooley said. "We've got a lot of really special guys."

Recently, Dooley has ceded some of his time on the field to the rest of that talent. A shoulder injury has kept him limited in recent practices, but he expects to be fine for the Labor Day opener.

Dooley says that after waiting so long to get on the field, he isn't likely to let some bumps and bruises stop from seizing his big opportunity.

"The light's come on," Dooley said. "I wanted it now, but the way it was, I had to take a little time. So I'm where I want to be right now, but I'm never satisfied."

Even if Clifford is a little skeptical about Dooley's gentler side, he acknowledges that he seems to be close to realizing the potential he flashed at Glenvar.

"Will he turn out to be the player he looks like he should be? I don't know," Clifford said. "But he looks like he's getting there."

And if Dooley somehow does prove to be too nice to be truly successful at football, Clifford doesn't think he'll have any trouble finding another outlet for his other talents.

"Whatever he does in life, whatever happens after football, he'd probably be really good at working with people with disabilities," Clifford said. "He has such a good heart. There's not a lot of college kids like him."

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