https://hokiesports.com/news/2025/01/21/virginia-tech-football-jarrett-f...
Jarrett Ferguson has been promoted to Assistant Athletic Director of Football Strength and Conditioning, Head Coach Brent Pry announced on Tuesday. Ferguson has two decades of experience in the field.
"I am thrilled to have Coach Ferguson lead our strength and conditioning efforts," said Pry. "He has demonstrated a commitment to the holistic development of student-athletes for 20 years. Coach Ferguson is devoted to Virginia Tech athletics and our student-athletes, empowering them to perform and excel in all aspects of their lives."
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
This feels real meh, but then again, maybe S&C is where you want program alum if available, because they know the culture. He played during the peak of Tech football, so maybe he knows what it takes.
Wait and see on how well this works out and I really hope it does, but I am very skeptical about it. If he was our top choice, not sure it should have taken 1 month and 9 days to announce it.
Same. Very skeptical. I get the feeling we weren't offering enough money to attract any of the marquee names in the S&C world.
Like this guy.
We can't afford that kind of mustache action.
The wait to announce may have been to give him time to show what he can do without a drop off in player training (he's been working with our players since Galt was fired), and to give him time to come up with a plan for Pry and Whit to evaluate. Just because it's an internal hire doesn't mean it's a bad one.
As you said, let's wait and see. This is probably the one hallway hire that I don't have a problem with. If the DC is internal, then we've got problems.
A VT /Whit hire if there ever was one.
Who does Whit have in his ear that's still there from the Jim Weaver era? Is this another Ballein bullshit call?
Ballein
Best of luck to Jarrett. I remember Saban saying this was the most important hire when he took over Bama. It feels a little like a plan B hire but let's hope he has a vision to bring life back into the program.
If he was plan A, they would have announced his promotion the day they fired the other guy. No reason on earth not to. But, alas.
What are the odds Pry asked him for a comprehensive plan on what he'd recommend as a path forward.
I feel doubtful that Pry had had any discussions with any potential hires when the decision was made, hence the interim names announced at the same time.
So not that he was a Plan A or even B. Maybe he asked several guys for plans and Ferguson was legit the best?
Yeah, there are a lot of good reasons to wait. The only people who feel that hires need to happen quickly are the message board fanatics.
I'd rather they take their time and make sure they're getting the right guys than hurry up and grab the first available dude. The idea that the time it's taking to announce is due to all our candidates turning us down is just a message board narrative that people are blindly accepting as fact for some reason.
People have stated ad nauseum that these hires are going to determine whether Pry and Babcock get to keep their jobs, then are flummoxed as to why they're taking their time with the hires. Seems pretty logical to me that they're doing some due diligence and not just hiring the first guy that answers the phone to make the 1% of Hokie fans who hang out on TKP or TSL happy.
^^^ This right here. I'm not concerned with the "timing" aspect of the announcement.
I am not underwhelmed by this hire at all. I'm actually excited about it. Hard nosed Hokie who knows smack mouth football is okay by me and now has a perfect opportunity to showcase what an S&C program should be. IMO and in my gut, this is what we will get from Jarrett vs someone who is a Minnie Me of Galt and more of the same.
So I finally made into the 1 percenters ? Awesome!
feels a little like a plan B hire
I'm thinking plan F
"Evil Plan Z"....preferred by Plankton.
A month and a half just to promote internally here is classic Babcock.
Don't get your hopes up on the DC.
Maybe we're saving money here to spend on DC? Choosing to be optimistic...
This could also be a great hire. I genuinely don't know.
We are small soft and skinny.... and to make up for it we don't know hoe to use timeouts. Skimping on the SC coach is 100% the wrong thing to do. But maybe they aren't interested in the LBs getting run over every game.
So under Ferguson, the guys are going to go from soft and skinny to hard and well built?
You guys watch the games. You know what I'm talking about.
You ever have a boss that wants you to implement what they say even if you think it's dumb?
That's the rule, not the exception.
Literally every boss I've had I have told the same thing. If I'm told I need to do something and I don't understand the reason why,, I will ask "Why"?
If I disagree with the reason, I'll question it and present my opinion. If the answer is "because that's what upper management or federal regulators demand" AND whatever they are asking is NOT illegal or immoral, then
I do it the way they ask. But at least my objections are noted even if overruled. That philosophy has served me well in the nearly 32 years I've been with my current company.
Quote from a coworker at a former job where we had a boss who had no clue.
That is both hilarious and sad. It's like the pointy-haired boss in Dilbert.
We actually made that comparison at the time. In 17+ years of work in municipal government, she's the only person I've seen fired for gross incompetence. And she was a department director, so that's really rare. They usually close ranks and protect their own, but she had spent years making people mad and causing more work due to her incompetence.
My county government is showing but I had a coworker who would shake his head and say "I get paid the same to do stupid shit." Truer words have never been spoken around here.
Some days it be like that. Workplace culture is important. Everybody has their threshold and tolerance for the pay to bullshit ratio.
Yeah this is bad. I'm done with the Whit experience.
Is there any logical reason to think things will improve with an internal hire? I'm hoping there is. But hard to see it. Maybe just a fresh start will help. But man, I know I'm reaching.
Well, hope for the best.
If you want optimism, Fergeson was here in 2006-2017 - the beginning of which was not a time where we had S&C issues. So maybe he knows something š¤·
Don't get me wrong I love Jarrett Ferguson but this hire feels not good. We had what seemed like apparent S&C issues and then hire a guy that was already part of the S&C program.
Hope he proves me wrong and/or we got an absolute dynamite DC hire. I'm not holding my breath though.
My personal opinion: firing Galt was Pry making him a fall guy for the close losses, spinning it as primarily a conditioning issue and glossing over his game management and coaching issues in one-score situations. This is why I think it was a simple promotion for Ferguson. I do agree we need to get bigger and stronger across the board, but I still think this change was more of a "fire an assistant before you get fired" measure to buy Pry more time more than anything. I don't think we were ever seriously considering any outside candidates. Against JMO.
Dude - look at the other comments about our guys being skinny. And it's harder to tackle guys who are bigger than you if you lack muscle. The firing was a good decision. The question is whether the Ferguson hire was a good hire.
I don't disagree at all. But like you say, we are going to find out if Jarrett is the right guy and if Pry was truly serious about fixing S&C and it being a reason we lost close games.
Let's put it this way, Pry saw Galt's results for three years and could have raised his concerns at any point. He extended all of his assistants after 2023. So we will see how much of it was truly concern over S&C and how much was to buy Pry more time.
I hear ya, but how much of the first 2years were just turning over the roster? Remember we had BAD culture before - where there were players who WANTED to lose a game so they didn't HAVE to go to a bowl game. Maybe we weren't paying as much attention to the S&C piece because we were focused initially on fixing the culture piece? And once the culture was where Pry wanted, the S&C was easy to see as an issue. Given it probably took 2 years to turn over the roster from a culture perspective, it makes sense (to me) that he'd make the decision to move on now.
yeah its 2025- time to let the Eric Kumah wives tales and all that other shit go. Indiana built a playoff team in one offseason. Its a different world now, it doesn't take 5 years to build a team to beat Duke and Vandy.
I hear ya - but he probably didn't inherit anyone on the team that didn't want to play or win. I would assume there's large chunks of related laziness that is related. You're generally not going to be good if you have guys who have those traits.
You point to them, but I'm curious as to how many times people turn a team around and how long it takes. Wasn't it Rhule that turned Baylor around, but took 2 or 3 years? I'm still hoping with a good DC hire Pry can turn us around. Maybe it wasn't as quickly as you (or the rest of us) would have liked, but I'll take it taking longer if we get there.
Edit: wives tale? There were articles about it.
totally unlimited transfers precede Rhule at Baylor- so its different now as I said. I'm asking to beat Duke... not win at Natty
Well, we certainly have made heavy use of the portal for transfers in this year. To your point, we'll see if the grading for guys from non-P4 or FCS translates to the P4 and how good we'll actually be with those transfers.
Of course there are exceptions to every rule, but if you are a struggling program that fired 3 coaches AND you are bringing in guys from G5 and FCS by and large in the portal on the backs of the 43rd class- let's be real, you are simply hoping to get lucky to be competitive. At some point if your expectation is over 5-6 wins, Pry has to raise the talent level on this roster- A LOT.
A lot of the S&C is culture, and I think he will excel in that area. He loves the school, wants to be here, and remembers the culture in the team when we were good at football, and worked with S&C under Gentry for a long time.
That said, the most important part of S&C is still the actual strength and conditioning part. Hopefully he brings the right mix of old school mentality to S&C, but has been keeping up with the sports science advancements to keep us on the cutting edge in terms of functional strength, explosiveness, and injury prevention.
What are the odds that this is a culture hire and we make another hire for actual S&C? Or, as I mentioned above, that Ferguson thought Galt's approach to S&C was dumb, was forced to implement it anyway (and stayed because he's a culture guy), and now is free to do stuff different. He was here under Beamer's guy (Gentry?), so maybe he'll do things that way (and maybe Gentry will mentor him?).
Zero.
This is what we all have to cross our fingers and hope for now!
Been trying to decide if I even want to keep my donations to the Hokie Club going. On one hand if I ever want to see changes or improvements the AD will need the money. OTOH is giving money to this AD a total waste and I should just bank it and then donate a double when the new admin is announced?
Yep, very much a chicken/egg situation. I would normally suggest that everyone contact the athletics department and let them know the reason why you pull your donations (e.g. lack of faith in Whit spending the money in the best way possible), but I also have a fear that it would fall on deaf ears.
Whit has publicly stated that he caters to the very few top level donors and stops the catering there.
To be fair, you don't know for a fact that HomebrewHokie isn't a top level donor. Maybe he's got the clout we need!
I wish. My HC spot is high enough to get some priority, but not THAT kind of priority.
weird it took over a month to announce this - color me skeptical
It just feels like VT is continuing to slip further and further into the college football basement. The dim light just seems to keep getting dimmer and I'm losing hope, frankly.
These are dark times for VT athletics for sure. At probably the most pivotal moment in FBS sports right now, we have a pretty glaring lack of leadership and vision, and a continuing pattern of incompetence. Really hard to get excited about much at this moment.
I'm starting more and more to resign myself that this is inevitably going to end up with a new HC and AD when this is all said and done, but not before the administration allows Whit to retire with grace and we have another 2 lame duck years from Pry so he's allowed to finish out his contract.
Yep. That is inevitably where this is headed, but instead of being proactive and getting out in front of it, we will waste two more crucial years, and set ourselves back another half decade or more on another total rebuild.
We don't move quickly. We don't act proactively. We don't invent the future. We cling stubbornly to the past.
The lack of leadership and vision as you said, is staggering, and I hope it haunts Whit into retirement. The drop off in quality under his leadership ought to be studied in classrooms. I appreciate that he seems to know how to kiss ass well enough to improve our fundraising, and for that we should all be grateful, but otherwise his tenure has been a nonstop parade of monumental fuck ups that I could not have begun to fathom possible when Beamer retired in '15.
We could have stood in front of 100 doors that lead to 100 different hypothetical outcomes in 2015, and I'm basically convinced that the one we walked through was one of, if not the worst possible door, and we have yet to even start to course-correct.
What you saw on TV last night- that level of money, talent, and performance- VT is done competing at that level. Done- no hyperbole. Could we upset ND once one year? maybe but that doesn't change what I just said. VT is in a sub division clearly below what you saw last night and will be as long as we are in the ACC. The days of us competing at that level are long over.
see, here's where you are wrong.
I did not watch anything on TV last night
ND has 3 freshman O Lineman(6-5, 312; 6-5, 330; 6-7, 328) bigger than Xavier Chaplin, who is the heaviest tech O-lineman at 323# on the roster. You're right. It's just a different game. Jarrett Ferguson can't put that size on if he's a perfect hire.
Bingo.. people forget that all those 5 star LBs Bama and Georgia have? one reason they are 4 and 5 stars is they have prototypical size and strength- its not just their 40 time. Top rated recruiting classes are simply bigger players than ours are by average. If you are 6'07 360 left tackle- yes you are going to ND or Bama and not VT. This is ESPECIALLY true the last 10 years for interior DL. The good/big ones go elsewhere and we have to put weight on and coach up Josh Fuga.
I wonder how much Hokie nepotism is playing into hires like these, especially with Ballein still in the building. Are we truly evaluating all hiring options to get the absolute best person for the job that we can? Or are we playing favorites to those who know the "Hokie way" despite that success being a quarter century ago?
I mean of course the rot continues if you aren't completely removing the sources. Ballein isn't helping. Whit isn't helping. Sands isn't helping. The BOV isnt helping.
The rot goes incredibly deep and I'm not sure its something that will be fixed in our lifetime.
I'll say it... Why does nobody ask the question... is fucking Ballein even good at his job? The football team stinks. Recruiting is mid, etc. What the fuck does he even do? Is he ANOTHER thing associated with VT football that has nothing to do with winning? I could see holding onto a fossil in the same job for 35 years if he was actually good at his job.
I understand people's hesitation with the internal hire but me personally my donation to VT just went up
It's just really difficult to understand the logic here.
Let me state, first that I hope Ferguson is wildly successful.
But...he's been here off and on since 2006, has never been promoted to Head of S&C nor has anyone hired him away.
And he worked under Galt...how much different could his overall Philosophy be??
It seems pretty clear there was impetus to fire some coaches and very little forethought into who would be replacing them....
"It's just really difficult to understand the logic here." - Jarrett here is a 3% raise to be the full time SC coach. you have an hour to decide or we are moving on - Whit
I've already typed out and deleted two posts... one criticizing and another rationalizing this hire. I'll just say that this does not feel like a save-your-job type hire by Pry, especially over a month after Galt was let go.
I'm still trying to withhold judgement until they announce the DC, but given this S&C hire, I am starting to sharpen my pitchfork.
Congrats to a great Hokie Jarrett Ferguson on the promotion and I really hope he proves me wrong.
I have to wonder how many offers got declined in six weeks to bring us to this. Otherwise there was no reason for delayed announcement.
I hope it works out but all the markers are there that this is another nail in the coffin....hopefully Whit's coffin first.
I'm worried about the same regarding the DC hire. Was the search process was poorly conducted? Did Whit fail to give Pry sufficient resources to get the right guys? Did the right guys not want to board what they view as a sinking ship? Some combo of the three?
All concerns I share.
IMO, probably not.
IMO, probably not. More that Whit doesn't have the sufficient resources.
IMO, more of not wanting to board a pontoon boat while other programs would be boarding a luxury yacht.
I really wish we had some insight as to what the general coaches circle opinions are about careers at VT, how much they are tied to the program itself vs to Whit/to big-time donors/etc. Maybe we've reached the point where the only people we can convince are those wearing O&M glasses.
This is a weird reaction by this board.
Ferg is a legendary character in VT football lore...went from walk-on to starting fullback for the '99 team to 7th round draft pick by the Bills, all off his work ethic and desire to lift heavy things. Exhibit A of Gentry's program and what made Virginia Tech great during the height of the Beamer era. Culture personified. He's revered by the old heads and from what I can tell, the players like and respect him...sometimes we have to go back to move forward.
Ferg essentially worked as middle management between Galt and the players and had his hands tied about what he felt was the best for the program. This promotion is a move towards a Gentry-influenced S&C program with modern twists. That plus who Ferg is as a professional (20+ years in the space, several years as a S&C senior director, NFL career) and a person makes this a home run hire.
You guys may think this an underwhelming hire, the following don't:
Michael Vick
Shuman
Anthony Lambo
J. McLaughlin
Dwight Vick
Isaiah Ford
David Wilson
Aaron Rouse
Tapp
Adibi
Armani Chatman
Luther Maddy
Sergio Render
All of whom have publically praised Pry for making the right decision.
I think it's a function of the general mood/mindset of the board regarding no news on the DC hire. Everyone has spent the last month bitching about Whit being a cheapskate. An internal hire looks like the path of least resistance, but I agree with you that I don't think that's what's happening here.
It looks cheap/lazy to outsiders with a preexisting bias against Whit and the idea that internal hires are bad. It's a logical conclusion, but I think it's wrong regarding Ferguson.
This is a home run hire, IMO. People should be stoked.
Pretty sure in another thread, there were a lot of people clamoring for Ferg to be promoted
Thanks for the reasoned and data driven response. I entered this thread and have been shaking my head in frustration going through the entire thing until I read this. I don't know why the delay in announcing, but based on this reasoned, data filled, data driven input, I don't care.
Ferg is gonna eliminate the skinny legs. Bring it! Go Hokies!
As someone who didn't become a fan/go to Tech until the very end of the Beamer hey day, thank you for the perspective!
Look, not trying to lay on snark here and again, I do sincerely hope that Ferguson is successful and really moves the program forward but...
While all that is true and has some value, none of it indicates he has the ability to excel in this role. And ultimately, that's all of us really want---VT Football to be better.
But the combination of such a long wait and a ultimately hiring/promoting another "VT Guy," leads further and further into the idea that the Athletic Department is still more focused on pinching pennies and trying to recreate "doing things Frank's way," than actually making progress.
Maybe Galt was holding Ferguson back (that's really our best hope at this point) but from the outside, it looks more like Ferguson was the option we had left once other's weren't interested.
To be honest, I don't think that's the conclusion a true outsider would jump to. I think that's the conclusion a group of Hokie message board fanatics would jump to. We just spent weeks complaining about Whit being cheap and making lazy hires. If that's your starting point for evaluating Ferguson's hire then yes, your conclusion is the most logical.
Ask someone with none of your biases or preconceptions and you'd probably get a different answer.
I meant from outside of the Athletic Department.
Obviously, none of us have first-hand knowledge of how the process was conducted. But we do have logic.
If the feeling was Ferguson was more effective than Galt and was a better option to lead S&C, the prolonged delay in announcement makes little sense
Not to repeat myself from elsewhere in this thread, but who says there was a delay? I see no reason why they should have announced this a month ago. What difference does it make? None that I can see other than assuaging angsty message board posters.
That's one point of view....
Another---equally valid and reasonable point of view would be that ----if you had the guy you wanted in the building.....why delay announcing you are hiring him???
Its not like this sentiment is out of left-field---this is the same Athl. Department that hired another Alum....Justin Hamilton...who we all knew was probably too inexperienced to be effective but he was here and he was affordable and would placate fans.
What you call angst others might call Deja-vu....
And the difference it makes is simple----this is the midst of Portal Season, players want to know who is going to be coaching them. You're not helping your Recruiting efforts having coaching vacancies sitting unfilled.
I get it, but the simple answer is that they interviewed several guys and decided Ferguson was the best.
Just because they hired a guy already on staff doesn't mean they didn't consider any other candidates.
Edit to address the recruiting thing:
Also simple, just tell the recruits he's the top candidate and let Ferguson talk to them. He can do that because he's already on staff, right? The recruiting angle is only a problem if you are going with an external guy and he's not hired yet. They can tell recruits whatever they want.
Ferguson was already on staff so the "delay" is meaningless.
It's much easier to gain support from players when you've experienced their challenges firsthand.
DC is correctāwe're competing on an uneven playing field. The top schools in the B1G and SEC consistently outspend us. We can't defeat Goliath by imitating Goliath with less resources. We can no longer be the softass, skinny leg program we've been for the past several years.
What made Virginia Tech thrive during Beamer's era was three key factors: (1) Elite and innovative coaching in defense and special teams, (2) Recruiting players with that dog in them, and (3) A top-tier strength and conditioning program led by one of the best S&C coaches of the BCS era.
Hiring Ferg indicates that Pry is aiming to revive that classic VT mentalityāthe "fuck you, pay me" mindset that made many of us fall in love with this program...listen I know a lot of you wanted someone more established or you think this is a James Johnson-type hire. It's not. I'm personally excited for him to take over.
I choose to accept this point of view as my reality and substitute it for all others. Ferguson was one of my favorite hard-nosed Hokies from the glory days and I truly hope he brings that hunger and passion for success to the entire program. No more skinny-legged Hokies!
Also, dude is my age and he's fucking yoked. Couldn't see his legs in the pic though, so no word yet on whether they're skinny.
To steal a line from French, "The athlete muscles, no matter the sport, are between the waist and the knees."
Is there a trend in S&C where those muscles aren't focused on, and upper body mass and scultping are more emphasized? I really thought after Hilgart left we'd see guys' legs get bigger.
It reminds me of something my grandmother said while watching VT play Miami in the late 90s. She was looking at their OLine get set and said, "Every one of them fellers has a butt as wide as a Mack truck. How are all their butts so big?"
Grandma loved her some gyatts.
Big Emmett Smith fan.
Yeah I've been a bit surprised at reactions too, though I think it's more a byproduct of the time it took than anything else. I think he's going to surprise people
I think it's that he was on staff and we still had guys who didn't look like they'd been a part of a real S&C program. I get the sentiment, and am concerned about our team being strong enough and in good enough condition, but hoping that him having been there under Gentry, knows what success on that front looks like, and can HOPEFULLY get us there. The positive reactions may be culture based and him being a real positive influence. I'm just hoping that our team shows up next season looking like they got some horse DNA mixed in with their wheaties.
Man that seems a little extreme... Idk if anyone deserves to have horse semen in their cereal
Well that's not what I intended - I was thinking more like splicing it in or something - not well thought out, mind you, just thought it sounded impressive. Guess I need to think things through a little more...
around here, yeah.
Red Bull -- Gives you wings.
The original recipe for the Thai version of Red Bull (Krating Daeng) did have Bull testicle extract in it, which is where the taurine came from. Or at least, that's the Thai legend as told by Thai friend. Taurine is now chemically manufactured.
It wouldn't be incongruent to suggest that bull semen would be useful for enhancing training. I imagine Horse semen may also have such benefits.
Deserves, no, but us real men crave it like it's water. That stallion power helps get me through the day by making me highly attractive to women with my pure horse strength and my other horse features.
"Other" horse features?
You wear a manure bag too? Here I am thinking I was the only one...
Yeah, there are better ways to get your protein, man. Maybe try some chicken first.
A brewing friend and I make a Kentucky Common called Horsey Men. People drink it by the pint!
oooooo-fucking-kay. A month to hire from within?
The hire is fine. Why a damn month
Why did they need to announce the hire a month ago? He was already on staff and working with the players. Why not give him the time to pitch a detailed plan on how he would improve things over Galt and to see how he runs things?
Also, perhaps we were waiting for him to decide. Maybe he was considering other offers.
Allow time for other candidates to interview and see if he's the best person for the job. Would you rather just immediate promotion with no additional vetting?
The mood I'm getting from the board right now is regardless of who we hire, and regardless of when it's announced it means we messed up, are being cheap, are not trying, or are being passed up by the coach from East Wedt Central Tech. It's tiring
It's tiring because it keeps happening. The big dogs keep going to other programs and we keep shelling out tons of money for underwhelming results.
I dont know if this is good or bad because I have no clue how much he wants to move the program forward. If he's a weights weight the same kind of guy then this will be a failure. If he attacks this job with the dedication and tenacity he played with then he could be very good.
The best way I can sum this up.
I love this for Jarrett. I don't know if I love it for the team.
I don't know how this will turn out, but the alumni and some of the guys on the team that I follow seem to like the hire.
Gentry knew strength building, and built a lot of practical strength, not just weight room strength.
I went home from a Tech camp with a Gentry workout plan around 2001. I was not committed to the weight room at all, and that program still worked to build strength.
If Ferg has similar chops, bring it on. We've been pushed around too long.
Did Whit "walk down the hall?"
Or was it the ghost of Jim Weaver?
I am sure Jarrett will be fine as long as he studies the right books....
Fun fact: Somewhere 2004-2005ish, I wrote to Frank Beamer about what I could do to prepare to try out for the team once I left active duty and got to VT. I had delusions of being Daniel Rodriguez before Daniel Rodriguez. Him and Gentry sent me an autographed copy of
this bookwith a nice letter. Spoiler Alert! Delusional dream remained just that.Edit: Wrong book. This is the one they sent me.
VT (it may have changed) but they would ask potential walk on's 2 questions- 1. How much eligibility do you have left, and 2. Let me see you run this cone drill without a football. That was it. If you said I have one year left (hilarious to think about now) you were told thanks but no thanks- before you even stretched. If you had 3 or more years left and looked similar to barry sanders in the cone drill, then you moved onto the actual tryouts with the position coaches. The cut before the 2 questions was strictly based on size... you had to be very close to 6 ft or taller and 200lbs to even make it to the 2 questions phase.
I had a friend that was followed around campus at least once a month by the football and basketball coaches while getting his chemical engineering degree. They always asked him are you sure you don't want to play basketball/football at the college level. He was also 6'8" and 300 lbs of muscle. Let's just says when "Grog" smashed at volleyball everybody dove out of the way.
I hear you. My delusions weren't exactly that far fetched. I'm 6'3" and at the time I wrote them was 235lbs of muscle. I'm also not saying I would have made it by any means. But I would like to think I had a better than average chance of at least making the practice squad. And for someone who's been a lifelong Hokie fan, that would've been more than enough for me. Life happened long before it went any farther than the letter anyway.
I covered the whole process for my senior project at VTTV. Also had 2 friends that actually tried out. Funny enough our guy Ballein ran the whole process until a position coach told Beamer the guy should be considered. Gentry and Ballein were pretty brutal with these kids- they didn't waste much time- if you looked big and were basically a freshman, they considered you. Also keep in mind, they "recruited" walks ons back then too- it just wasn't publicized. This was also the height of holding roster spots for FUMA and Hargrave guys. So this particular round, I think there were 15 or so guys in rector and 3 of them made it to the next phase- which was shell pads with some football drills with real coaches- Hite, Foster, etc. If they liked what they saw, you got recommended to the head whistle.
Appreciate the insight.
When I tried out back in '01 they did a cone drill and also a timed 40. I thought I had a decent chance but just didn't have the speed. I was also wearing running shoes because I had to reschedule my tryout around a test and they told me it was moved indoors. It was not.
In hindsight it was one of the best things I did as a young man. I always wanted to play football at the next level but never wanted to ask myself what if somewhere down the road. Being told no is not always a bad thing and let me move on to the next stage in life. Got to shake some coaches' hands and bump chests with some players before a practice before leaving it all behind. Life my man. Life.
My "No!" came in the form of a blown out ankle.
You could have been VT's version of Rudy! Scout team guy helping them get ready for Saturdays. Hopefully your size would have helped you not get your shit pushed in like they did to Rudy.
My first and only contest against a starter ended in a devastating arm wrestling defeat to Jake Grove. Don't know if that was much help, though.
Why the hell would you arm wrestle Jake Grove? I'm impressed you still have both arms.
Assuming, of course, that he didn't rip your arm off and beat you with it. In which case, my bad.
I don't know. I was at a party at a friend's in Foxridge. Met him and had enough liquid courage that it seemed like a good idea at the time. Arm is intact. Pride? Also still intact. C'mon, it was Jake Grove. Not ashamed of that L.
Yeah that's a lifelong story to tell right there, that's awesome
My "No!" came in the form of lacking any athletic ability whatsoever...coupled with delayed puberty. I was 4'10" my sophomore year of high school.
Wow- and I thought my 5 ft 5 at that point was short-of course I only went up to 5 ft 8 lol(though with a 6 ft 1 armspan)
Great story. Glad you got that experience.