Ferguson, who turns 46 on Thursday, has worked in the Hokies’ strength and conditioning programs for 16 years during two runs, coming back to Blacksburg in 2022 as an assistant director position in football when Brent Pry took over as head coach. He’d served as the head of the program on an interim basis since Dwight Galt IV’s firing last month.
“I am thrilled to have Coach Ferguson lead our strength and conditioning efforts,” Pry said in a release. “He has demonstrated a commitment to the holistic development of student-athletes for 20 years. Coach Ferguson is devoted to Virginia Tech athletics and our student-athletes, empowering them to perform and excel in all aspects of their lives.”
The move is a tie to the Hokies’ past, specifically to Hall of Fame strength coach Mike Gentry, a key component during Frank Beamer’s run who has been instrumental in Ferguson’s playing and coaching career.
“Jarrett Ferguson represents the best of Virginia Tech athletics,” Gentry said the aforementioned release. “He was one of the premier players on championship football teams and achieved his success the old-fashioned way. He earned it. Jarrett is a man of honor and character who understands the value of unselfish hard work. Virginia Tech got stronger today.”
Ferguson, who has a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a master’s degree in education from Virginia Tech, previously spent 13 years with the school from 2006-18, working with the football strength program for the first 12 years and presiding over conditioning for Olympic Sports in 2018.
He’s worked with the last three Hokies football strength coaches — Gentry, Ben Hilgart and Galt, whose three-year run came to an end Dec. 12.
Pry cited a lack of conditioning, particularly late in games, for making a change after the 2024 season.
“I don’t think we were a team that was conditioned well enough to start the year and to finish games,” he said last month. “You can point to a lot of things there, not just Coach Galt. … We have to be mentally and physically tougher. We have to be a more conditioned team. Those things are very apparent to me.”
Tech also announced the retention of Brandon Dillard and Ryan Hardie as assistant directors of strength and conditioning.
A Goodview native who played tailback at Staunton River High, Ferguson turned down several I-AA offers to walk on at Virginia Tech as a 5-foot-8, 183-pounder in 1997, though it was his dedication in Gentry’s weight room that punched his ticket to the field.
He added 40 pounds to his frame to grow into a fullback, playing an unsung role for the team that played for the national championship in the 1999 season. Ferguson benched 390 pounds, had a 39-inch vertical and ran a 4.46-second 40-yard dash time by the time he was a senior.
“Jarrett is in a class of his own,” Gentry told the Washington Post in 2001. “We hope that everybody improves when they come here ... but he has taken it to another level. He’s totally focused, all business.”
Though mostly noted for his blocking exploits, Ferguson had 738 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns in his career, with 40 receptions for 443 yards and four more scores. The Buffalo Bills selected him in the seventh round of the 2002 NFL Draft.
After interning with the Hokies in 2003, Ferguson nabbed his first full-time job in strength and conditioning as a director at Ohio University in 2004, overseeing training for baseball, women’s soccer and volleyball.
He went to North Carolina for the 2005-06 season, working with football and women’s basketball before returning to Virginia Tech for the first time.
After his first run with the Hokies, Ferguson founded Steel Train Performance in 2018 in Moneta, adding strength coach duties at Staunton River High to his résumé starting in 2020.