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Inside Hokie Sports
Fifteen spring practices did not yield an
answer as to the starter at quarterback for
the Virginia Tech football team, with head
coach Justin Fuente and his staff electing to
continue the competition into the summer.
In doing so, Fuente decided to follow the
2016 process in which Jerod Evans, Brenden
Motley and Josh Jackson battled throughout
the summer and throughout August. Roughly
10 days before the season opener against
Liberty, Fuente named Evans the starter.
That process worked out well, as Evans led
the Hokies to 10 wins, an ACC Coastal Division
championship and a Belk Bowl victory. Given
that success, Fuente felt in no rush to tab a
starter this spring.
“I don’t ever set a timeframe to make a
decision,” he said. “Obviously, some decisions
you have deadlines you have to meet, [and]
you have to make a decision. There is only one
deadline [for the quarterback decision], and
that’s by the time the first huddle trots out
there in the first game. Whenever it happens,
it’ll happen. I don’t know when that will be.
“We will continue to evaluate it. Same thing
as last year. It was not a decision where we
made a decision months and months ago and
then let it draw all the way out to whenever it
was we announced Jerod was starting. It will
be the same thing. When we know who that guy
is going to be, then we will let him know and
everyone else know and kind of go forward.”
The three candidates for the job this
fall—Jackson, A.J. Bush and Hendon
Hooker—all show signs of being a quality
starter. All possess similar skills, though not
exact. To varying degrees, all possess the ability
tomake plays in the running and passing games.
Quarterbacks
show potential,
but the
BATTLE
will continue into
the summer
by
Jimmy Robertson
2017
(in numerical order)
2
Hendon Hooker
(6-4, 196, Fr.)
5
Ryan Willis
(6-4, 211, Jr.)
6
A.J. Bush
(6-4, 219, Jr.)
11
Jack Click
(6-3, 218, r-So.)
17
Josh Jackson
(6-1, 211, r-Fr.)
18
Chase Mummau
(6-2, 183, r-Fr.)
Quarterbacks
On paper, Jackson would appear to have
a slight edge. He enrolled in January of last
year and participated in spring practice, and
he played well enough to get into the mix
for the starting job. He wound up taking
a redshirt year, though Tech’s staff placed
him on the travel roster each game to gain
experience.
So he has a full year of experience. Bush
and Hooker enrolled just four months ago.
“Josh is working consistently on some
things, some minor things mechanically, to
help him deliver the ball a little bit quicker,”
Fuente said. “He has continued to improve
that part of it. He has a good understanding
of what we’re trying to accomplish. I think
that’s improved. He’s no longer the wide-eyed
freshman in there. He’s made some steps
along the way from a technique standpoint
and from an execution standpoint.”
As for Bush, he spent two seasons at
Nebraska, taking a redshirt year during one
of those seasons. He then spent a season at
Iowa Western, a junior college in Iowa.
His numbers in junior college weren’t the
greatest, but part of that stemmed from the
timing of his transfer—he missed offseason
workouts there. In the end, Tech’s staff
saw enough talent in Bush to offer him a
scholarship.
“We felt like he had a skillset that fit what
we could do if that’s what we wanted to do
offensively and had some talent,” Fuente
said. “I didn’t get too hung up in the numbers
and all that sort of stuff. I never really have.”
Last, but not least, Hooker graduated from
high school a semester early and enrolled at
Tech once Evans made his decision to make
himself available for the NFL Draft. The
lanky Hooker spent the spring learning the
offense, and more importantly, getting used
to the speed of the game.
“I’ve been pleased with his progress,”
Fuente said. “I think that he’s got a lot of
talent. He’s a pleasure to be around, and it’s
important to him. It is a big jump, though.
It was a big jump for Josh [as a mid-year
enrollee last year].”
So overall, no starter emerged, or a depth
chart, for that matter. The competition
continues.
“They are still basically even,” Fuente
admitted.
JOSH
JACKSON
2017 Football Spring Game Photo Gallery