Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 10 No. 5 | May 2018

16 Inside Hokie Sports Jackson , Willis lead the way at QUARTERBACK coming out of spring by Jimmy Robertson In one respect, the Virginia Tech football team has a quality situation at the all- important quarterback position. After all, the Hokies return a starter in Josh Jackson. One of their backups, Ryan Willis, played 15 games over the course of two seasons at Kansas before transferring to Tech at the start of spring practice last year. Another backup, Hendon Hooker, enrolled at Tech in January of 2016 and took a redshirt season this past fall. And highly touted Quincy Patterson, a quarterback recruit fromChicago, comes to Blacksburg in July. So now it’s just a matter of choosing a starter among that group. Jackson goes into summer workouts arguably leading the pack, but he isn’t a lock to be the starter even though he threw for nearly 3,000 yards and 20 touchdowns as a redshirt freshman this past season. Head coach Justin Fuente and offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen expect competition at every position every day, and they want to see more big plays out of the offense. That means Jackson needs to produce more in the passing game. In 2017, Tech only had two passing plays of more than 50 yards and only five of more than 40. “I think he’s [Jackson] taken another step in understanding what we are trying to accomplish because he’s as bright a guy as I’ve coached,” Fuente said, assessing Jackson’s spring. “I think he’s taking a step forward, but there’s still room for him to be pushed. I think he still needs to fall more in love with the process. “He needs to fall more in love with preparing. He does a good job of that, but I think there’s another level of detail that he can reach in his level of preparation—but I’ve been really pleased with him.” Jackson found himself being challenged by Willis toward the end of spring practice. Willis threw for more than 1,700 yards and nine touchdowns as a true freshman at Kansas and threw for more than 800 yards and three scores as a sophomore. He arguably stole the show in the Spring Game, throwing for 262 yards and two scores. That included a nice 83-yard scoring toss to receiver Sean Savoy. “Yeah, I think he’s excited to get out there,” Fuente said after the Spring Game. “It’s really tough on kids. A redshirt year is difficult, and it’s even harder when it’s in the middle of your career and when you’ve had a chance to play, and then you’ve got to sit back and know you’ve got no chance of playing. I think he handled it really well. It was a productive year for him. “There’s no question he’s excited to get out there. He’s more athletic than I think maybe we thought based on the way he can run around and move. He’s got some talent at throwing the football. Making some strides … he’s got a long way to go in terms of our comfort level with him operating day in and day out.” The same could be said of Hooker, who possesses a lot of the physical attributes that one wants to see in a quarterback and yet battles inconsistency. His lack of experience showed at times this spring, and he finds himself playing “catch up” in his competition against two guys with college experience. “He’s handling it really well,” Fuente said. “He’s focused on continuing to get better. I mean, no jobs are taken. We are going to play the best people, and all our guys know that. The best guys are going to get out there to play.” As expected, Fuente wasn’t ready to name a starter or even a leader in that competition following spring practice. He and Cornelsen plan to spend the next four months watching, studying and evaluating, as all the players go through summer workouts and August practices in preparation for the season opener against Florida State on Sept. 3. The good news is that the Hokies appear to have several talented options with the potential to lead this program to wins. Now, it’s just a matter of seeing which one of can emerge to the front of the pack. 2 Hendon Hooker (6-4, 216, r-Fr.) 5 Ryan Willis (6-4, 221, r-Jr.) 17 Josh Jackson (6-1, 216, r-So.) 18 Chase Mummau (6-2, 200, r-So.) Quarterbacks RYAN WILLIS