Mike Burnop and Zach Mackey had some special guests on Thursday’s edition of Tech Talk Live ahead of Virginia Tech football’s Friday night game vs. Cal (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Jarrett Ferguson, the Hokies’ director of strength and conditioning, joined the show to discuss his playing career from 1998-2001 and the current vibes around the team.
Then Ace Custis, a special assistant to Tech men’s basketball head coach Mike Young, discussed the excitement around the program heading into Saturday’s exhibition vs. Duquesne (1 p.m. ET) and the upcoming season. He also talked about the Hokies’ celebration of the 30th anniversary of the 1995 NIT champions this weekend — a team he and strength and conditioning coach David Jackson were members of.
Jarrett Ferugson
Thank you for making time in your busy schedule and coming out here tonight.
I’m glad y’all are having me. Looking forward to everything.
Obviously, it’s been an interesting first seven weeks of the season. What’s it been like for you?
For me, I’m trying to keep everybody positive and pushing forward. Our staff is doing a really good job of that week in and week out. Our expectations are the same every week. Trying to keep the guys upbeat, trying to keep them training and helping them prepare for the next one. If things don’t go right, we’re still coming in on that Sunday and trying to keep everything going forward again and keep pushing and working them every week.
What was your reaction when everything happened with Brent Pry?
It’s tough to have a guy like that, somebody I’ve known since my playing career. When it went down, it was kind of a gut punch. Our big thing was to keep pushing and keep fighting because that’s what he wants us to do. Just talking to him, he wanted us to keep fighting and keep playing each week. He had a vision for us, and it wasn’t working out the way it was working out, and we’ve got to keep fighting regardless. We can’t quit and we can’t just lay down in the middle of the road and say, “We’re done.” We’ve got to keep fighting every week.
What can you tell us about the resiliency of this group?
The expectations haven’t changed. What we do when we come in, no matter win or lose, they know they’ve got to come in the next day and go to the next one. That’s been the thing for us. My expectation when you come in the room, you had the time after the game to celebrate or sulk. When you get in there Sunday, we’re going back to training again because we’ve got to get ready for the next game. The guys come in and they’re ready. My parenting and coaching style is “get over it and let’s go.” The guys come in and they say it. When I talk to them and get ready for the lift, they’ll say, “Coach, we’ve got to get over it, right?” Yeah, we’re about to put this bar on our back and squat.
A lot of guys left in the portal for their own reasons, but the younger guys are getting a chance, just like you did as a walk-on.
I saw it. These guys that are playing were the guys in the early summer, when we were running and the conditioning was really hard, those are the guys that were pushing and leading the pack. You look at a kid like Noah Chambers, that kid can run, and he doesn’t stop. He had that in the very beginning. He was on a mission, and it’s working out for him right now.
How did you and Philip Montgomery handle that bye week?
We still wanted to practice, we still wanted to train. We knew we had to give them some time off. We have some guys with bumps and bruises, but we wanted those guys to have some time to rest. We had to get our work done early in the week. We trained three times last week and then gave them some time off. Attacked the practices on that Tuesday and Wednesday, had some really good practices. With the younger guys playing, you don’t have to worry about getting them more reps on those days. We got in and still practiced and trained hard before giving them time off. They needed it.
The injuries this year — is it just bad luck or something you can put your finger on?
When you get in the trenches, especially with the linemen, guys get thrown around, guys fall on each other and there’s just stuff you can’t avoid. The things we try to help and build on is trying to limit those soft tissue injuries, which we’ve limited this year. The guys in the trenches are getting rolled up on, you can’t help that stuff, it’s going to happen. They’re bouncing back from it and I feel really good about where we’re going.
Are they in the best shape they’ve been all year?
Yes. Our guys are playing for four quarters. That was the goal when I came in was to get the guys in shape to fight for four quarters and not get pushed around. Have the confidence, be big, be strong. That’s what he built them on. The guys are fighting. There’s a reason things happen in the game that gets us. But we’re able to keep fighting and fighting, and that’s what we’re looking at. Making sure our guys can continue to fight and play throughout the game without puttering out.
How are you guys going to handle the 7:30 p.m. kickoff?
We’re probably going to get them up around 9, 9:30 and get them breakfast around 10. Then they’ll go through walkthroughs and meetings. We’ll have lunch around 12, 12:30 and we’ll give them a break. We’ll have a room setup for recovery and stuff where they’ll have foam rolls, boots, all that stuff. We’ll give them the option to come back over to the facility to do stretching, tubs, all the things that get you prepped and ready for the game. I’ll take them for a walk, get them in for the pregame, have a team meeting, do the team walk and get ready to roll.
How about the job Coach Montgomery has done?
He’s been great. When everything happened, we met with him and talked about how we can set up our practices and what we need to do to keep the guys on the right track and continue to push forward. He’s been great with it. We try to meet with him every week to go over the data from our practices to make sure that our intensities are up and we’re getting something out of practices. He wants our input, he wants to know what we can do better. He’s been very positive with our players. That’s been a really good thing with the season being as trying as it’s been.
How do you make the determination of how much you’re going to run them?
I get with Kelsey Vincent, our sports scientist, and look at practice, our player loads of each position to see how we’re doing with keeping intensities up throughout the practice. If the intensities stay up and we’re hitting our goals throughout practice, then I back off. If they’re not, I’ll take groups that were low and run them after practice to get their loads up and meet the needs that they need to perform in those games.
Sports nutrition is a big part of your job. Talk about Carly Hildahl and the job that she does.
We meet with Kelcey [Vincent] and Brett [Griesemer]. We meet almost every week and talk about the needs of the teams, if there’s injuries and what we need to do to help and build the team. Carly does a great job of keeping track of our weights and what we need to do as far as if we need to push more calories or get a plan in place for certain players. If they’re below weight or above weight, you need to come down on it. She does a great job on educating those guys on what to do to get to those goals and get what they need on the field.
How is it taking care of food on the plane after a road game? That’s got to be a bit of a chore.
She does a great job. There’s so much food, I feel like I gain 10-15 pounds and I’m not playing at all. Those guys are constantly eating. They have to replenish to recover to get ready for the next day. It takes a lot out of you to play those games, they have to get those calories back in to get ready.
Talk about your playing career, some of the best times of Virginia Tech.
I had a great time here with Coach [Frank] Beamer. He did a great job with walk-ons. I was in a walk-on suite when I came in. I think three of us made it all the way through and we were treated like everybody else. We worked hard and it gave us the opportunity to play. We did what we had to go out and do on the field, we worked for it. With all that stuff that we did, we still stay in touch. We contact each other. We have our little reunions. I go down to the lake and see a group down there every summer. We have a good time and I enjoyed playing here and being here. I always say that if football was taken away, I would’ve came to Virginia Tech regardless.
When you played with Michael Vick, when did you realize how good he was?
One of the first plays I ever saw him do, I don’t know how he got in, but he got in with the first-team guys. Dwight Vick really talked him up when Mike was in high school. He kept saying, “My cousin Mike — everybody keeps talking about Ronald Curry — my cousin Mike is way better.” And we were like, “Yeah, right. Ronald Curry is the best thing ever, everybody talks about him.” When Mike got in on that play, he threw a ball to Ricky Hall. Loren Johnson had his hands, he couldn’t have defended any better, and it was right over his hands right into Ricky Hall’s. I knew then, “We have something here, this guy can play.” We couldn’t wait for him to get on the field, he was special off the bat.If it was NIL, what do you think he might have made?
I don’t know if there’s enough money. If you look today at how electric he was and what he did for the game, I would think that they would give him any amount of money to play for this school. Same for any other school.I asked him the same thing. He said, “I never would’ve left. I would’ve stayed an extra year, which would have prepared me better for the NFL.” I can’t imagine what they would’ve paid him.
I think a lot of guys that declare early would’ve stayed if they had NIL because it gives another year to develop. If you’re going to make money, you can still do it in college and better prepare yourself for the NFL. It could benefit you more because you get to develop more.Do you remember the 2001 Gator Bowl against Clemson? You had a touchdown pass and a touchdown run.
Yeah, I was a big part of that offense. Coach [Billy] Hite always said that — those plays like that, a little slip route, I think I scored off a shovel pass, they’re always trying to find little ways for me to score, and it was really good for me that day. I ended up scoring two touchdowns in that bowl game as a fullback. Guys now will ask what a fullback is because it’s nonexistent. That game was really special, it felt like, when you look at Clemson in their dominant scene in the ACC, and back then we went and beat up on them a little bit. We had a great time and we had fun. Kids now look at it as more of a business. Man, we had fun playing football.I think they had less than 100 yards rushing. The defense had two interceptions and was dominant.
That was the thing — you had all three phases working together and playing well. We had a good time.What do you remember about taking the lead in the fourth quarter of that Sugar Bowl and having it slip away?
I try to end it in the third quarter and just remember that time. I don’t remember anything after that. I just remember feeling like we had a chance and an opportunity. The thing that I really remember is, it felt like Florida State was bringing somebody fresh in every series, and we were just fighting. We had a couple guys banged up in that game. Our first-team guys, we played almost that entire game, and we could. We were in shape, we were strong, you couldn’t tell us anything else. Florida State was bringing new guys in and it was somebody else we were trying to knock down.Did you play in the Music City Bowl?
Yes.Do you remember how cold that was?
That game was really cold.It was 38-7, you guys just pounded Alabama.
All week in practice it was an ice storm. We had a good time there, that was a fun deal. I remember I had about 25 family members come to that game. It was col,d but we all enjoyed it, and we beat up on somebody. It was fun. We had a different mindset of just being a dominant team, and we believed that we could beat anybody. That’s the thing that Coach [Mike] Gentry instilled in us. Work hard, when you get out on the field, we were going to make them tap out.Do you remember the lunch that they had between both teams? Corey Moore was at that table with the Alabama punter. Moore just started giving him the business. “Not only are we going to block one of your punts, we’re going to block two.” And I’ll be daggoned if they didn’t block two of them.
Corey had a way of getting on people. He has that wrestler persona. He also told a guy that didn’t give up a sack all year that he was going to get one.Does anything stand out about the best memories that you have here?
I look at when we played and had Mike Vick and Shyrone [Smith]. We had a great offensive line, we had some skill guys at receiver. Andre Davis, Ricky Hall, Emmett Johnson, you had all those guys. The thing that stood out, I just thought, “Man, I’m the slowest guy out here.” I ran a 4.4 and I was the slowest guy in that backfield. I come in that door thinking I’m pretty fast then I see these guys running. I remember trying to go make a block for Mike in the Boston College game, you can see me in the back, he just ran by me. I just remember stuff like that about how fast they were. Then you had Lee Suggs as the third-string running back and he ran a 4.2.Those are the things that stood out to me. I just had to work hard to get where I was, those guys were so fast. That’s the stuff that I saw. We had some great players that came along in that era that all worked hard. Coach Gentry always said that “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.. We had some talented guys and we worked hard, that helped us. Seeing that stuff and seeing those guys succeed and us succeed as a team was really fun. It’s hard to forget that stuff. We just had a good time, we loved each other, we loved playing ball and we enjoyed being around each other.
Ace Custis
Ace, how are you?
I’m doing well, thanks for having me. Good to be here today.When did you become Ace instead of Adrian?
Actually, when I was young, my grandfather said I was his number one ace. When I started playing little-league sports, my mom would be calling me Ace. The name kind of stuck. When I was in middle school, it was in the newspaper a little bit. We didn’t have Twitter and all that back that. Ace really stuck when I got to high school. My head coach, Bill Foster, probably didn’t know my real name.How fitting to have a son named Deuce.
I wanted to name a third one Trey, but my wife wouldn’t let me.There’s a lot of excitement around what you guys have brewing. What can you tell us about how things are going?
It’s a great time, we’re enjoying practice. We just got out of practice a couple hours ago. We’re really excited about this team. The excitement brewing throughout Hahn Hurst and Cassell [Coliseum] right now, it’s a lot of excitement. We have so many really good pieces. We have really good talent at the top and good pieces surrounding them. Hopefully when that unit comes together, it can bring special moments this year.Touch on the new blood in the program.
We have a lot of new faces. With this landscape of college athletics, NIL, the transfers, and so many moving parts, I had to get to know a whole new roster. We have nine new guys on our team. Each guy brings something special to our unit. Everybody is so excited about [Neoklis Avdalas]. He’s a pleasure to work with. We have big Antonio Dorn from Germany. I work with the big guys, the centers and some of the power forwards. First time in workouts, I was working with Dorn and I showed him a move. I asked if he could do that and he said “say less.” Not only is he a good player, he speaks good English as well.I wanted to ask about Dorn. What’s going to be difficult for teams in the ACC to handle a guy like that?
He’s better in person than on film. I knew he was a force on the inside, big body. Once I started working with him in practice, he had great hands, a great feel for the game, his knowledge of the game. He’s been playing basketball a long time over in Germany, so he understands the game. He picks up on everything that we ask him to do. He’s a willing teammate, a willing passer and he’ll bring a lot of toughness on the inside for us that we have not had in a while. He brings a lot of size, too, so we’re able to play small ball and then we can put a big lineup with him on the court.Talk a little bit about Neo.
The real deal. Not to hype him up. The things he does in practice, it’s breathtaking. He’s a 6-9 point guard. We first saw him and we thought he would be more of a wing. Coach [Chester] Frazier went over to see him and he said that he’s a true point guard. He comes off when you put him in a pick & roll, he demands a double team, he’s able to see over a lot of double teams and he’s able to whip the ball across the court and find the shooters. He can score the ball, really good shooter, but he’s more of a willing passer. We tell him all the time, “Neo, look for your shot. We know you want to pass it, but look for your shot more.” We need him to score and assist as well.Will you guys be hosting Duquesne like a normal game or will there be a twist to it?
No, we’re approaching it like a regular game to help prep for the regular season. It’s a warm-up game for opening night. We’re going to approach it like a regular game with scouting reports and all. We’re doing the best scouting report we can. Duquesne has a totally new roster so you can only do so much to know the players and what plays they’re running. We’re trying to scout based on what they did last year. Then we do research on each player to try to get a feel for the individual talent.Talk about Chester Frazier and David Moats a little bit.
Chester Frazier, boy, he’s a handful. The players love him, he’s a real players’ coach, he brings the energy. Wherever he goes, the defense is going to be great. He emphasizes defense, he brings the energy every single day. We were down a body in practice the other day and he had to jump in and practice, which didn’t go over too well. He was in the office getting treatment today.Why weren’t you out there?
Those days are over for me. I just use the whistle and instruct from the sideline. Those guys are too big and too fast. All this grey hair, I can’t handle that anymore.Tell us about the weekend.
We have a golf event that everybody is showing up to at 8:15 a.m. We’ll be there from then to 12 for a golf tournament at the Blacksburg Country Club. The entire team will be there, we’ll be moving them in and out because they have class. They asked if they could be excused from class, not happening. We’ve got guys taking them and bringing them back. We’ll be leaving at 12 to get the guys back to campus and get treatment. We have practice tomorrow at 2 over in Cassell, then we’re getting ready for the game to go support our Hokies against Cal. Saturday, we’ll have our game and we’ll have the tipoff banquet to introduce our current team. We’ll also have a little NIT reunion, I’ll get to see my fellas.
Talk about that, how many guys are back?
We’ll have 11 of 13 guys. One of the guys, Kelly Mann, he’s a football coach in Peterstown, West Virginia, he couldn’t make it. Another guy, Shawn Good, is in Canada. He’s a teacher and he couldn’t get away. But we have 11 of the 13. One of the guys just flew into town, Myron Guillory, over here to my left. He came over to the house before he came today, we’re already reminiscing and talking about some of the times on the drive over. I can’t wait for all of us to get together.Talk a little trash?
Talk a little trash for sure. Just catching up with each other like old times, we haven’t seen each other as a unit. I got married in 2002, NIT team came to the wedding. That’s the last time we were all together, June of 2002. Had to get that date right because my wife is sitting right here.How cool was it to be one of the two teams here to end the season with a win?
When we were sitting together as a team watching the selection show, we didn’t hear our name being called. It was so heartbreaking for us because we had a record of 20-10 and thought that we had beat enough teams to be in the NCAA Tournament. We turned the page real quick and decided to be the 65th-best team in the country. When we set out to play those five games, we felt that we had to prove for the next year that we belonged that year in the NCAA Tournament. We came together as a team and fought together on the court to bring something special back to Blacksburg.The season started later back then, around Thanksgiving. You guys won two-of-three in Puerto Rico.
We lost by 10 to Illinois. We played well and they made a late run to close out the game. We were unable to finish that game on top. We came back home from Puerto Rico knowing that we had a special unit. We competed every day in practice, but once we saw success against others, we knew we had a chance to be special.Walk us through the NIT games.
The first game was against Clemson here in Cassell. We came out with a chip on our shoulder. We felt like we had something to prove. We came out and played extremely well. Left here and went to Providence, Shawn Good played really well, he didn’t against Clemson. He came out and played really well, he was aggressive early in the game, set the tone, then we came back to play our last game in Cassell against New Mexico State. That game was a nailbiter, back and forth the entire game. I remember Shawn Good coming up the court, he threw the ball to me on the wing, and I always say they had a bad scouting report because the guy rotated to me, and if you knew me back in college, I wasn’t a 3-point shooter. Why was he rotating to me?I passed the ball to Travis Jackson, one of our best shooters, in the corner. It turned out to be the right play. He stepped up and made the shot. Next thing I know, the crowd was rushing the floor. The electricity in the building was unreal. We were on our way to New York. We went to New York and played Canisius, played extremely well against them. Then had a chance to see Michael Jordan play against the Knicks. That’s the game that Michael Jordan scored 55 points. Then the Marquette game was back-and-forth. It was a great game and it came down to Shawn Smith getting fouled with 0.7 seconds to go win the game. When he got fouled, it seemed like everything went quiet. I see the clock is at 0.7, they call a timeout to ice Smith. I was sitting at the end of the bench and Coach [Bill] Foster was talking, I don’t remember what he said because I couldn’t hear it. I was just looking at Smitty and saying I’m glad it’s you and not me. If that was me, we might not have been NIT champions. My legs were shaking for him. It was one of those things — he went to the line and calmly knocked down two free throws. We were the NIT champions.