Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 12 No. 1 | August 2019

“ ” Sliding to his left, eyes facing down the field and an array of burly defensive linemen and linebackers giving chase, Ryan Willis saw Dalton Keene racing across the field with a defender practically sewed to him, and he never hesitated. He uncoiled a laser for a 45-yard gain—arguably the biggest play in the Hokies’ 2018 season because it led to a tying score and ultimately a 15th consecutive win over Virginia. Afterward, reporters quizzed Willis on the play, with most expecting the typical athlete response. Instead, they received journalistic gold. “Scared money don’t make money,” he replied. While not necessarily an original, that quote continues to surface in Blacksburg these days. T-shirts have been made, and random people often bring it to Willis’ attention. The funny thing is those five words perfectly describe the mentality of Virginia Tech’s quarterback, who stepped in for an injured Josh Jackson a season ago and led the Hokies to both a win over their rivals and a 26th consecutive bowl berth. Though not a gambler, Willis possesses a gambler’s mindset, and while that type of risk-taking gives coaches ulcers, it also happens to make him a very good quarterback. Despite a fine season, Willis found himself in competition for the starting role both during the offseason and Aug. 2, when the Hokies opened fall practices. He certainly appears to be the favorite to win the job, but that wouldn’t matter to him. Ryan Willis bets on himself. He always has. “I LOVE FOOTBALL, I LOVE FOOTBALL ” Willis insists that his love for football came honestly and not because his dad, Steve, guided him in any certain direction. Steve Willis was a kicker at Kansas State in the early 1980s, but he let his son pick his sports passions, and in the fourth grade—when he became old enough to play—Ryan chose football. His passion was cemented after the first practice. Willis doesn’t remember this story, but his mom, Lois, gets a kick out of relaying her son’s initial reaction when she picked him up afterward. “She came to pick me up, and I grabbed my helmet with both sides and yelled, ‘I love football. I love football,’” Willis said. “She’s like, ‘Whoa, okay, calm down there, buddy.’ She tells that story all the time. I don’t remember doing it, but she tells that story all the time and laughs so hard.” He developed that inherent competitive urge early on, coming across it honestly. One doesn’t live in a family of former Division I athletes and not develop some sort of aggressiveness. Willis’ two older sisters both played basketball in college. Lauren played at Oklahoma and participated on two Final Four teams, while Abby played at St. Louis University before giving up the sport because of concussions. And Lois—whomRyan considers the best athlete of the family—was a track and field All-American at Iowa State. She won the Big Eight Conference title in the triple jump in 1984. “It was a little hostile at times,” Willis admitted of the family dynamic. They also lived in a part of the country that fueled those urges. The family settled in Overland Park, Kansas—a suburb of Kansas City and a city passionate about its sports teams. Thus, they all became absorbed in the successes and failures of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals. Sunday afternoons were reserved for trips to Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Chiefs. “It’s kind of where I fell in love with football,” Willis said. “It was just the whole atmosphere. I could name every player on the roster for a couple of years and just loved it. I’m one of the diehards. There’s not much else besides the Chiefs and Royals going on.” Willis’ passion for football meshed perfectly with his physical traits and work ethic, and he ultimately became a Division I prospect himself. Tall and lanky, with a strong arm, Kansas State offered him a scholarship before he had even played in a high school game. Other schools showed interest as well. Yet in the spring of his junior year, he decided not to pick his dad’s alma mater, and instead, committed to Kansas, a program near his home, but on a definite downward trajectory. The Jayhawks currently haven’t won more than three games in a season in a decade. Still, at the time, Charlie Weis coached Kansas, and Weis won three Super Bowl rings as an offensive coordinator with the New England Patriots. Ron Powlus, a former Notre Dame quarterback, worked on Weis’ staff at Kansas as the quarterbacks coach and played a role in Willis’ recruitment. “It was local. I knew I’d play,” Willis said, citing other reasons for choosing Kansas. “I was the only quarterback they offered in my class, so they had a lot invested in me. I was a typical Charlie Weis quarterback, and I thought I could succeed under him.” Only he never got the opportunity. On his birthday of his senior year of high school, Willis received the news—Kansas had fired Weis midway through his third season. Kansas officials later hired David Beaty, a Texas A&M assistant, to be the football coach, and Beaty and Willis got off to a rocky start. At their first meeting, Beaty informed Willis that he wanted to bring in another quarterback, preferring more of a dual-threat signal caller. Willis took that as an insult, but he stuck with his commitment, refusing to turn away from his hometown team. “So basically, I said, ‘Screw it, I’m going to prove this guy wrong,’” he said. By enrolling at Kansas, he bet on himself, and for themost part, reaped the rewards. He started the final eight games of his true freshman year, throwing for a Kansas freshman record 1,719 yards and nine touchdowns. A broken wrist, though, limited Willis the following spring, and then in the fall, Beaty opted to rotate quarterbacks when the losses mounted. That created a mess, resulting in a 2-10 season for the Jayhawks. Tiring of the situation, Willis decided to make a move. “It was just a merry-go-round,” he said. “We weren’t winning, and I thought I could be at a higher-level school.” BOLD DECISION Willis knew that transferring would require the sitting out of a year, but he viewed that as a sacrifice worth the effort. He wanted a fair opportunity to play quarterback at a Power 5 school. His dad and his high school coach, Bishop Miege head coach Jon Holmes, started making calls and doing research. They scoured both rosters and depth charts, searching for the perfect fit. Willis thought about going to Notre Dame. Powlus had landed there, and he put in a good word for Willis, but as Willis and his family investigated that option, they realized that many of his Kansas academic credits would not transfer. He risk the possibility of losing a year. They decided to contact Virginia Tech after learning of Jerod Evans’ early departure. Steve Willis reached out to tight ends coach and special teams coordinator James Shibest, who also happened to be one of his good friends. Willis and Shibest spent time together in the Atlanta Falcons camp back in the mid-1980s and remained close, with Shibest stopping by to play golf or attend a Royals game whenever he was in Kansas City. E very few hours, I was like, ‘What the hell am I doing?’ I’m driving across the country, leaving my girlfriend, leaving all my friends, and walking on at an ACC school that I know nothing about, never even visited. It was kind of sight unseen, just based on what the coaches were telling me. Crazy, right? Ryan Willis on transferring to Tech football spotlight ryan willis inside.hokiesports.com 15 Continued on page 16