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On a spectacular late August afternoon in Southwest Virginia, a collection of Virginia Tech football
players, sweaty and exhausted after another grueling preseason practice, gathered around Dave
Gittings, the team’s chaplain, to go over any prayer requests and for a post-practice prayer.
That Wyatt Teller joined them came as a bit of a surprise. The gregarious offensive lineman doesn’t
necessarily strike one as being aman of faith given his love of a good time and his relatively nasty disposition
on the football field, but there he was, head bowed and eyes closed in a rare moment—at least publicly for
him—of serious reflection.
“Well, my mom was a Catholic and my dad was a Southern Baptist,” Teller said shortly thereafter when
quizzed on the subject.
Then he added, “They’re a lot the same, right?”
And there it was—the real Teller standing up, a comedian unwilling to let an opportunity to provoke laughter
slip away. Tech fans only know what they see on game days, which is a darn good player who has them Googling
the football version of the term “pancake.” But to know Teller—really know him—means being around him,
watching him in action, listening to the jabs and jokes and then joining in the laughter. He makes cutting up an art
form, and he proudly wears any related label as well.
“Coming from the family I do, you can’t be very dry,” Teller said. “If you ever met my mom or dad … I think my dad
can be heard over the cheerleaders in the parent section. He’s very, very outgoing, like me.
“But yeah, definitely coming from the family I do, if you don’t have an outgoing personality, you’re not going to
get along with us. Half the things that happen, or half the things I say, are just family jokes or something like that that
we’ve all said.”
Wyatt Teller is arguably Virginia Tech’s most outgoing
football player, and he likes to have fun, but the talented
offensive lineman is all business on the field, where he
continues making a name for himself
by
Jimmy Robertson
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Inside Hokie Sports