Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 4 | March 2019

inside.hokiesports.com 17 Hearp Financial, LLC Strategies By Tech Fans, For Tech Fans, and more Todd F. Hearp is a Registered Representative and Investment Adviser Representative of, and securities and investment advisory services offered solely by Equity Services Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC, 4401 Starkey Road, Roanoke, VA 24018, (540) 989-4600. Hearp Financial, LLC. and Eddie Hearp are independent of Equity Services, Inc. TC91033(07/16)P 4401 Starkey Road, Roanoke, VA 24018 www.nfservicesinc.com • Hearp_Todd@nlvmail.com Strategies For Seeking a Safe Retirement Todd F. Hearp Class of ‘89 Eddie F. Hearp Class of ‘65 Proud to Support Virginia Tech Athletics (540) 989-4600 Hearp Financial, LLC is based in Roanoke, VA and our representatives have been helping families and businesses address their financial concerns for many years. Our clients receive the benefit of working with an entire team. Each team member has a specific area of expertise, which allows our clients to access the talents and experience of each of our specialists. • Financial Planning • Investment Services • Insurance Services • Wealth Management • Estate Planning Strategies we have six guys that really have a chance to help this football team. It’s a group that played a lot of football last year. All of those guys, with the exception of Tisdale, played … All those guys factored in last season. Q: You’ve mentioned Tisdale in past conversations. Is he a guy who can sneak in there and make a name for himself? BF: Well, he’s coming off a shoulder surgery. What’s his strength level going to be like with his upper body to be able get off blocks and those types of things? That all factors in. They’ve [the Tech sports medicine staff] turned him loose, but what does that mean? He’s still got a ways to go froma strength standpoint, but he did some things last spring, and I was excited about him competing at that position. He gives us a guy with a little more speed and length at that position. I’m anxious for a big spring. Q: Your entire secondary returns, but let’s focus on the cornerback position. Bryce Watts and Caleb Farley return. How much improvement do you expect to see from them? BF: I would expect them to take another step and be coachable, do what they’ve been coached to do and transfer that to the game field and be consistent. I could sound like a broken record with the whole group. As I said at the beginning, that’s kind of what we were. It’s personnel driven, it’s scheme driven, and it’s technique and fundamental driven. Caleb has tremendous upside and ability. He’ll be the first one to tell you that he didn’t tackle very well. I think Brian [Mitchell, Tech’s cornerbacks coach] said we gave up 27 explosive run plays because of missed tackles coming from the back end–and from our corners, in particular. We’ve been known here for having great corners, but they weren’t just cover guys. In today’s game, the corners have to tackle. Our corners have to buy into being a complete football player and not just a defender in the passing game. You have to be a tough, rugged tackler, a willing tackler, and understand fits and where your help is and all those kinds of things. That’s where those guys can improve, but I did think they competed, and it’s important to them. We met as a defense yesterday [Feb. 20] and let them know our goals this spring. Looking at the kids, they know what our expectations are around here. We’ve got to get a lot better. It’s not the scheme. We know it works. It’s about execution and technique and fundamentals and having the discipline to be consistently good all the time. Be consistent and do it the right way all the time. EMMANUEL BELMAR Continued on page 18