Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 2 | October 2018

“ A s soon as Tech showed interest, I was there. That was the school I wanted to go to. That’s where I was committing. They showed interest in me, and I was ready to go. That’s how that went.” Steven Peoples on his recruiting process ” Virginia Tech’s football players and their coaches often watch in wonder at Steven Peoples’ strength to run over defenders and speed to run away from them, but they marvel more over his uncanny ability to say so little. Yet perhaps there is a logical explanation for that. A question about his childhood revealed the presence of seven siblings, including six brothers. So opportunities to speak probably were few and far between, and while his freedom as a college student and his status as a Division I athlete afford himmore chances to express himself vocally these days, he still prefers anonymity, keeping his thoughts to himself. “I’m very quiet,” Peoples admitted. “I like to keep to myself a lot of the time. I’m not going to say that I don’t like hanging out with people, but if I’ve got time to myself, I’m going to stay by myself and chill.” Tech’s coaching staff certainly has no problem with that. In fact, every coach in America loves coaching that type of player—the one who works hard and says little. Yet Peoples brings an added bonus. He’s good. The senior from Galax, Virginia led the Hokies in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns at the halfway point of this season. In every preseason conversation about Tech’s rushing game, head coach Justin Fuente singled out the return of a healthy Peoples, who missed six games last season with an injury, as a key for the Hokies and his reason for optimism. So far, Peoples has delivered. His best performance came in the Hokies’ worst. He rushed for a career-high 156 yards in Tech’s loss to Old Dominion, running with power, as evidenced by his 7.8 yards-per-carry average, and speed, as evidenced by his 87-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. Of course, that came as no surprise to Tech’s staff. They expected that from him last season after moving him to tailback only to see his season derailed by the injury. They saw how maniacally he worked in the weight room and how committed he stayed to conditioning. He pushed his weight to 225 pounds and actually made himself faster, thus providing a jolt to a rushing attack averaging 4.4 yards per carry through the first six games. “Peoples doesn’t say a lot of words, but his play speaks for himself out there,” Tech running backs coach Zohn Burden said. “He is one of those guys that the defense doesn’t want to tackle. He is a bowling ball in there. Just for our [meeting] room and the younger guys watching him practice, the way he goes about his day and working hard every day … You kind of always have to slow him down in practice, which is a good thing. “So he has a very positive impact on our room, and it’s good for those younger guys to see his work ethic, so it will carry over into their careers.” In addition to establishing himself as a quality tailback, Peoples also stands as one of the most popular players among Hokie Nation. He is the human version of the program’s brand—hard, smart and tough—and that appeals to the Hokies’ mostly blue-collar fan base. Yet many love him more because of his Southwest Virginia roots. Galax, best known for its annual Old Fiddler’s Convention, sits a little more than an hour’s drive southwest of the Tech campus. So Peoples is one of them—a local kid who just happens to be finding success on college football’s grandest stage. Rest assured, he comes from those same humble beginnings as many Tech fans. “It [his home] was kind of crazy,” Peoples said. “We shared rooms most of the time. We had a bathroom situation. But I enjoyed it [living there]. It always gave me something to do, whether you go outside and play games or stay in the house playing video games or watching movies. I always felt like I had friends near me at all times, so I really enjoyed it.” Like several of his brothers before him, Peoples first found his athletics niche in Galax. They toughened him up in pickup games at the local park, and the Galax High School coaching staff ultimately honed his skills once he made it high school. He became a star at Galax, rushing for more than 3,000 yards and 44 touchdowns as a senior. He set a Virginia High School League record when he rushed for 502 yards in a win over Graham High, scoring seven touchdowns—one on a fumble return. His recruiting picked up after that game, as one might expect. He picked up several Division II offers, but like many kids in Southwest Virginia, he wanted to go to his dream school—Virginia Tech. Defensive line coach Charley Wiles, who recruits the Southwest Virginia area, offered Peoples a spot as a walk-on, and the young man jumped at it. “In high school, I always wanted to go to Tech,” Peoples said. “This was my dream school. So as soon as they started showing some interest in me, I figured out then that I might be able to play college football. That was always been a dream of mine, to take that next step and make that dream a reality. I had a chance, so that was the route for me. Continued on page 32 30 Inside Hokie Sports