Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 13 No. 1 | August 2020

8 Inside Hokie Sports by Jimmy Robertson Wow, what a summer! Instead of enjoying vacations, relaxing and recharging, and discussing the Hokies’ outlook for the upcoming season, nearly all the people in Hokie Nation spent their summertime focused on safety and wondering if there would even be a football season, as the COVID-19 pandemic created a mess in the sports world. Normally, this time of year includes conversations about offenses, defenses, and great players, and this year, those conversations instead consist of testing, protocols, and masks. The Virginia Tech football program is scheduled to open this season against NC State on Sept. 12—a byproduct of the ACC’s COVID- induced scheduling changes. But who knows? That may change by the time people read this. At the time of this writing, the ACC, SEC, Big 12, and certain Group of 5 conferences want to play and have elected to forge forward. Those conferences want to run this season-long race. And hopefully, to put this in horse racing terms, they can get inside the starting gate. All of that is a wordy way of ineloquently saying that the only certainty in a pandemic world is uncertainty. This pandemic continues to produce a staggering amount of that. To the credit of Tech sports medicine staff, they continue to create the safest possible environment for Tech’s student-athletes. Staff members test each athlete once he or she returns to campus and then conduct a follow-up test two weeks later. A percentage of the school’s student-athletes then get tested randomly along the way—and that occurs just during the preseason. They plan to test more frequently once competition begins. The sports medicine staff also has been executing an aggressive education plan. Doctors and trainers have sent out videos and held multiple Zoom conferences with athletes and coaches. Signage exists throughout the athletics facilities reminding athletes to wear masks, wash their hands, and distance themselves. The staff even walks through locker rooms and calls out athletes who aren’t adhering to protocols. In fact, they are doing more in certain areas than the ACC and NCAA currently recommend. “I’m also a parent of a Division I student-athlete [a football player at William & Mary] whom I love more than anything in the world, and I would put him in our protocol any day of the week and sleep very soundly,” Tech Director of Athletics Whit Babcock said. So as we all lurch toward kickoff, what to make of the actual team, assuming the Hokies get to kick off? On paper, there is a lot to like. They return 16 starters and both kickers. They feature a talented quarterback in Hendon Hooker, a big offensive line, and talented skills players in Tré Turner, Tayvion Robinson, and James Mitchell. They return three defensive linemen, an all-conference linebacker in Rayshard Ashby, a steady safety in Divine Deablo, and an emerging talent in cornerback Jermaine Waller. Head coach Justin Fuente shook up his staff in light of Bud Foster’s retirement, naming Justin Hamilton as the defensive coordinator and bringing in four new assistants. Hamilton lacks Power 5 experience, but he is smart, articulate and well respected, and the rest of the coaches on defense bring familiarity (Darryl Tapp), NFL chops (Bill Teerlinck), experience (Tracy Claeys) and youth (Ryan Smith)—a rather nice blend. But … the Hokies face a much stiffer schedule after the ACC’s changes. They lost two winnable nonconference games and added NC State and Clemson. Truthfully, Tech’s talent isn’t necessarily going to be the difference in wins or losses. Tech’s coaching probably isn’t either. More than any other, the success this season hinges on what the Hokies do off the field. Discipline to wash hands, wear masks, and stay away from large groups of people mark the keys to success. Inevitably, college players will miss games. The teams that keep their important players on the field hold every edge. Fuente continues to hammer that point home to his players. Every single day. “If we want to play, we have to understand that we can’t do things that we’ve always done,” he said. “That’s just the bottom line. If we want to accomplish this, then the onus is on us, and we have some control over it. I think that’s the point I’ve tried to make to them. We don’t have total control over it, but we need to focus on what we can control and do the best we can. That means we have to alter our behavior, and we’re going to have to sacrifice things—and that’s unfortunate … It’s different, and we have to acknowledge that and understand it.” Up to this point, the players have adhered to Fuente’s messaging. Tech’s seniors held a players-only team meeting shortly before the students returned to campus, and they made safety the main topic of conversation with the younger players. The message was clear— let’s not ruin something that already remains very tentative. “We were talking about how serious we have to take this season,” safety Divine Deablo said. “If we want to play, we’ve got to be smart off the field and not just on the field. To be honest with you, I’m not even worried about the older guys. I just had to get the message to the younger guys because this is their first year in college, and they want to have fun. But they’ve got to know that, at least for a semester, we’ve got to be smart.” The Hokies, fortunately, possess the maturity to deal with the current situation. A veteran roster includes 20 seniors and 25 juniors. They realize the future isn’t a given. All of them need to live like it. As Fuente said, only a portion of whether the Hokies see the field this season is in their control. Circumstances change daily, and again, may have changed by the time you read this. Hopefully, the Hokies and the rest of those competing get to kick off. They need this in their lives. So does everyone else. Uncertainty is unfortunately the word of the summer in college athletics