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inside.hokiesports.com
17
football spotlight
greg stroman
Still, the coaching staff at UMass wasn’t afraid. The coaches there recruited
him as their quarterback of the future.
“Right after they offered me, my dad and I took a flight and went straight
up there and talked to the coach,” Stroman said. “I think it was a junior
day. With them being my first and only offer [at the time], they were
definitely being considered.”
Stroman later received offers fromFBS schools, namely Virginia Tech,
Virginia and Duke, with Blue Devils coach David Cutcliffe offering him
an opportunity to play quarterback. Stroman’s mom, Priscilla, loved
Cutcliffe, and all that kept Duke in the picture.
Stroman also liked UVA coach Mike London, but the Cavaliers were
struggling at the time. In the end, former Tech assistant Torrian Gray
and current defensive coordinator Bud Foster convinced Stroman to
come to Blacksburg—fortunately.
“I think the relationship I had with Coach Gray was very strong, and
Coach Foster,” Stroman said. “Those guys had our area, and I came to
camp here my sophomore or maybe my junior year, and I just had a
great relationship with Coach Gray from then on. That’s just how that
went, and I felt it was not too close to home, but close to home, and my
mom liked it and my dad liked it, and it just felt like the place to be.”
As many know, Stroman bounced between offense and defense his first two years. As
a freshman, he recorded three tackles, and he also rushed for four yards and caught a pass
as a receiver in Tech’s win over Cincinnati in the Military Bowl. The next year, he rushed for
12 yards on seven carries, mostly on jet sweeps, while also playing at cornerback.
The past two seasons, Tech’s staff kept him at cornerback, and that paid off handsomely, as he
intercepted seven passes and broke up 21.
“It’s always fun having the ball in your hands, but I think I found my home at corner,” Stroman said.
“I like corner.”
“You know, Stroman comes to work every day,” Foster said. “He’s one of the most competitive guys
that we’ve had in our program. He’s not the biggest guy, but he comes to work every day … just comes
and fights and competes and works at it every day, and you can see the results of that.”
Of course, Tech fans also know that Stroman has been equally valuable as a punt returner. His four
career punt returns for touchdowns rank second in school history behind DeAngelo Hall’s five, and he
also finished his career second in both punt returns and punt return yards.
Perhaps more impressively, he became just the third player in Tech history (John Ludlow, 1979-82;
and Eddie Royal, 2004-07) to lead the Hokies in punt returns and yardage all four seasons of his career.
Greg Stroman played
on both sides of the
ball early in his
career, but he became
a playmaker as
a cornerback the past
two seasons, and he
departed as one of the
school’s all-time
greatest punt returners
by
Jimmy Robertson
Early
BIG
RETURNS
INVESTMENT
in
STROMAN
P
rovided
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