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

1,300 yards as a junior at Stonewall Jackson High School and added 635 yards receiving to account for nearly 2,000 yards. He quickly caught the eye of Division I coaches. Torrian Gray, the Hokies’ defensive backs coach at the time, invited him to a camp at Tech during his junior year. Most coaches recruited Floyd as a tailback, but Gray saw the potential in Floyd as a quality defensive back. The camp served as a tryout of sorts, with Gray putting Floyd and others through an array of drills. The day ended with then- head coach Frank Beamer offering Floyd a scholarship—as a defensive back. Not long thereafter, Floyd took the Hokies up on the offer, turning down the likes of Wake Forest, West Virginia, North Carolina and ODU. “It felt like home,” Floyd said. “The first camp I came to, I came out here and did everything Coach Gray wanted me to do. At the end of the camp, they brought me and said, ‘We love your play. We like what you’re about. We want you to join the family.’ As soon as he said it, I just knew I was where I was supposed to be.” Floyd admits to missing his old tailback position, but certainly things have worked to both his and Tech’s advantage here in Blacksburg. He played as a true freshman and then jumped into a starting role at rover as a sophomore in 2017, ranking third on the team in tackles with 72. A season ago, he finished second on the team with 88 tackles, including 9.5 for a loss, and he also grabbed two interceptions—tying for team- high honors. But the Hokies’ disappointing 2018 campaign left him feeling frustrated. In his view, individual success rings hollow when the team struggles. “Yes, of course,” Floyd said. “I feel like that would be frustrating for anybody taking the ‘L’ in multiple games that you felt like you possibly could have won. It just came with what happened. We had a lot of people gone; some people kicked off. We had to grow up and mature way faster than we expected, but I feel like it was a good learning lesson for all of us.” Floyd came away from the 2018 season feeling that he needed to do more. Head coach Justin Fuente felt the same way and told Floyd so during their postseason meetings. Fuente liked what Floyd provided in terms of productivity, but wanted more from Floyd as a leader. Floyd is one of just five seniors on the roster. That, and his two years of starting experience, carries a lot of weight on this team. Fuente knew that, so he knew he needed to get more leadership from Floyd this offseason. “He’s done a good job with it,” Fuente said. “With the times that I, or the assistant coaches, wanted more from him, he’s been open to listening to that and how to go about it and continue to learn how to do it. He’s got credibility with the players because he’s played well, and he is about Virginia Tech and Virginia Tech football. “He has some talent, he is a good player, and he’s a good worker. He embraces the grind of trying to improve, and kids like that. It’s been fun for me to watch him grow into that role, or maybe be thrust in that role before he wanted to be in that role and now embrace it.” Floyd spent his offseason working hard to become an even better player, but more importantly, mentoring and leading—first at the Christiansburg Recreation Center, where he worked an internship as part of his human development major, and then in teamworkouts. This team appears to be taking on his vibe. The Hokies say they are in a much better frame of mind, as they get ready to kick off the 2019 campaign. They face a difficult conference road test to open the season for the second consecutive year. A year ago, Tech won in Tallahassee to open the season, but a series of events led to an up-and-down season. M ost children blanch at the thought of having one of their parents serve as a teacher or an administrator at their school. Such a parental presence obviously curtails the opportunities available for mischief. Of course, there are some kids who look on the bright side of every situation. Take, for instance, Reggie Floyd, the engaging defensive back on the Virginia Tech football team. Floyd quickly learned to welcome his mom’s presence at his school, citing some rather important advantages for a young boy. “I loved it,” he said. “If I was going to the bathroom, I’d stop by my mom’s class and get a dollar and go to the vending machine and get a drink or a snack. That was the good part.” Floyd continues to carry that type of positive vibe today, as he gets his teammates ready for the 2019 season opener at Boston College in a campaign that marks his final one as a collegiate athlete. Like everyone else, Floyd was disappointed at the conclusion of the 2018 season. The Hokies finished with a 6-7 record—their first losing season since 1992. He never anticipated being a part of a team that ended the program’s streak of 25 consecutive winning seasons, never dreamed of it. But over the past eight months, the reality of the situation set in, and he took care to make sure this team prepared itself to start a new streak. “Every day in practice, I just let the boys know that whenever something negative happens or something doesn’t go how you planned it, don’t let it affect the outcome of everything else,” Floyd said. “If something bad happens, fix it and get over it and make sure you do better the next time. Just don’t sulk in the results that you had from the previous year. Just move on to the next play.” Floyd came about that type of attitude at a young age. His father, Derek—an Army veteran—instilled in hima work ethic and a discipline that he never lost. Reggie himself was born with a competitive urge, which often revealed itself when he trained and battled with his older brother and older sister. Derek Floyd trained and coached his oldest, Tarik, during Tarik’s teenage years. A former sergeant, he took a military approach with Tarik, overseeing both weight training and conditioning. Conditioning drills usually took place at a steep hill near their previous home in Manassas, Virginia home (the Floyds now live in Georgia)—and usually with a hot sun broiling him in the process. Though five years younger than his brother, Reggie often went with them. He was too young to participate in youth football at the time, but he desperately wanted to be a part of it, so he channeled that eagerness into his brother’s training. “Every workout he was doing, I was there,” Floyd said. “When he was at home working out in the living room, I was there. When they were watching film, I was there. I wanted to start at an early age, but you couldn’t play until you were 7. Once I was 7, I was able to play ‘ankle biters,’ and after my first time, I loved it.” Tarik Floyd went on to play football at Ferrum and later ran track at Keystone College in Pennsylvania before finishing his career at Virginia State. Reggie’s older sister, Nicole, underwent a similar workout regimen as her older brother, and she, too, reaped the benefits. She received a basketball scholarship to Wake Forest and later played at Fordham before finishing her career at Virginia Union. In other words, to be the best athlete in this family, you needed to be good. “It’s very competitive,” Floyd admitted. “No matter what, from my mom down to me.” Perhaps to no one’s surprise, Reggie became the best of the bunch, morphing into one of Northern Virginia’s top tailbacks. He rushed for football spotlight reggie floyd inside.hokiesports.com 27 Continued on page 28