Despite an extra year of eligibility that was granted by the NCAA due to the coronavirus pandemic, Virginia Tech offensive lineman Tyrell Smith hung up his football cleats in the winter, opting to remain at Virginia Tech as an assistant within the strength and conditioning program.
After continual talks with Justin Fuente and Vance Vice, those cleats have come out of retirement.
Smith has decided to return to the football team for one final season this fall. It will be his seventh collegiate football season.
A two-year captain in 2019 and 2020, Smith has played in 54 games, though he has never recorded a start during his time in Blacksburg.
A sorely needed veteran in the second OL unit, this doesn't completely fix our OL depth issues but it does help tremendously.
Comments
The grind of college and football is no joke. I hope this year is full of success and he enjoys his time. Glad to have him back, as a Hokie.
Please tell me by the time he leaves Tech he at least has a Masters, if not a Ph.D
Hey now, I spent 7 years at Tech and I'm no Dr. AFreitas112!
7 years? Man, that's nothing. Between undergrad, working for a year as a lab tech, ostensibly to get more lab experience before grad school, but the truth is I just liked Blacksburg so much and didn't want to leave (was a tech at Tech) and grad school, I was 11 years for me!
I think he already has his Masters.
Dr. Smith is calling.
90% here won't get this!
DANGER WILL ROBINSON!
"You bubble-headed booby!"
You're trying to tell me there's good news in Blacksburg for the football program?
The good news being that our OL is so depleted that our HC and OL had to repeatedly hound a guy in his mid-20s who had already retired from college football to agree to come back for one more year?
If that is truly what he wants to be doing, then I am happy for him, hope he makes the most out of his 7th year, and I'll be rooting for him
I remember when we played Texas in the 95 Sugar Bowl, they had a guy in his early 30s (or late 20s) that played in that game (and he wasn't a Mormon), so it's not like our program hasn't seen this before. No idea what the story was with him other than his age, my friends and I still have a laugh over it to this day.
Maybe military out of high school and came to college and played afterwards? I dunno
Ah, the lost art of recruiting players from Virginia Tech's oldest pipeline: Virginia Tech itself.
Would that be like portalception?
Excellent news!
Is there any receivers with an extra year that want to put the cleats back on too?
great news for a thin position group on OL
Dude that's next level smarts. Spent the spring helping in the S&C program didn't have to do spring workouts or Colorado's and now is back in the roster!
The numbers always work themselves out. I hope he get some quality minutes on the field and best of luck to transitioning into the weight room
is tyrell smith bak . com
Lets goooo
HOKIES!
Maybe Fu can let the man start a game finally? He was certainly earned it.
Welcome back Ty
Ref: "Illegal motion in the backfield before the snap, 5-yard penalty."
Number 28: "I have tremors, ya nincompoop!"
Fun fact: that was a real practice and he was legitimately making Kansas' first team D wiff.
I was going to say, seems like a realistic portrayal of Big 12 defense.
Sounds like a win-win to me. The value of free tuition, dining plan, etc is likely greater than what he would've made as an assistant strength coach
I guess maybe this means trolling the portal/JC's for OL isn't looking so good?
He's 32!