Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 10 No. 1 | August 2017

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PREVIEWQUARTERBACKS
2 Hendon Hooker (6-4, 216, Fr.)
5 Ryan Willis (6-4, 220, Jr.)
6 AJ Bush (6-4, 225, r-Jr.)
11 Jack Click (6-3, 215, r-So.)
17 Josh Jackson (6-1, 215, r-Fr.)
18 Chase Mummau (6-2, 192, r-Fr.)
26 Dane Frantzen (5-10, 192, Fr.)
AUGUST • 2017 (In numerical order)
VIRGINIA TECH
QUARTERBACKS
Returning starter: None
Starter lost: Jerod Evans (14 career starts)
Projected new starter: Josh Jackson,
AJ Bush or Hendon Hooker
Top reserves: Jackson, Bush or Hooker;
Jack Click, Chase Mummau
Newcomers: Bush, Hooker, Mummau,
Dane Frantzen
Breakout candidate: Jackson
Notes: Click is the only Tech quarterback to
play in a college game, seeing mop-up action
against BC last fall … Hooker threw for 6,000
yards and rushed for nearly 3,000 during
his high school career … Bush spent two
seasons at Nebraska, but never saw action
in a game.
QUICK FACTS
ON TECH’S QB’s
Mention the phrases “value the football”
and “predicted outcomes,” and Josh Jackson
simply smiles.
“Oh yeah, I’ve heard all his terminology,”
Jackson said. “I try to do well at all of that.”
That’s because he wants to be the starting
quarterback, and head coach Justin Fuente
constantly reiterates his top prerequisites for
being named the starter—No. 1, take care of
the football, and No. 2, make the proper play.
The quarterback who exhibits the best of these
two traits will be the starter Sept. 3 versus
West Virginia.
Jackson, a rising redshirt freshman, is one
of three candidates in the mix and the most
experienced within the Hokies’ system. He
enrolled in January of 2016, took a redshirt
season in the fall, and headlined a crew this
spring that also included junior college transfer
AJ Bush and highly touted freshman Hendon
Hooker. Bush and Hooker enrolled this past
January.
The coaching staff refused toname a pecking
order at the position, at least publicly, coming
out of spring practice. Offensive coordinator
Brad Cornelsen liked what he saw from all
three, including Jackson, who received most
of his repetitions with the projected first-team
unit.
“He said I did well,” Jackson said. “One of
my biggest things that I bring is that I’m good
at reading defenses, and I’m pretty smart. He
wants me to sharpen that up. There were two
or three plays throughout the spring that he
brought up, and he wanted me to make the
correct decision. But overall, he said I had a
good spring.
“He wants me to speed up my feet, especially
with our quick game. I’ve been doing that all
summer. Other than that, he wants me to work
on reading defenses and looking at third-down
cut-ups.”
Jackson also spent a portion of his free
time this winter and this summer in his
recliner—but not watching The Lion King, one
of his favorite movies. He kept his eyes focused
on West Virginia’s defense, which forced 25
turnovers in 2016. The Mountaineers ranked
in the top 25 nationally in that category.
In addition, he spent a lot of time watching
himself, all in the attempt to become better.
“They’ve [the video office] made it so
that we can just watch us, so I’ve been able
to watch a lot of film,” he said. “I think it’s
helped. I watch and see everyone do their rep,
Quarterback
COMPETITION
features three
inexperienced
contenders
by Jimmy Robertson
and that’s good for learning, too. So yeah, I
think that’s helped me a lot.”
Jackson certainly is being challenged by
the other two. Bush spent two seasons at
Nebraska, taking a redshirt year during one
of those seasons. He then spent a season at
Iowa Western, a junior college in Iowa. His
numbers in junior college weren’t the greatest,
but part of that stemmed from the timing of his
transfer—he missed offseason workouts there.
Hooker graduated from high school a
semester early and enrolled at Tech once
Jerod Evans made his decision to make
himself available for the NFL Draft. The
lanky Hooker spent the spring learning the
offense, and more importantly, getting used
to the speed of the game. He put up quality
numbers in the spring game, though most
of that came against projected backups
on defense.
The competition figures to run right up
until the week before the first game—just like
last season when Evans beat out Jackson and
Brenden Motley. Jackson understands the
meaning of competition, and he embraces it.
“You go in and try to be the best you can be
and don’t worry about anyone else,” he said.
“We’ll see how it goes. That’s all you can really
do in a competition, and that’s how I approach
it.”