The First Bank & Trust Friday Q&A: Linebackers, Camp Surprises, And More

Chris Coleman

Lead Analyst and Columnist

August 28, 2026 27

Virginia Tech Hokies — Cortez Harris and his Virginia Tech teammates are starting to look the part. (Ivan Morozov)

1) Does this year’s team pass the eye test after six months with a new strength & conditioning team? Does the collective team look better in pads from a physicality standpoint than prior fall camps, or is there still work to be done in the coming years to look more like a top Power Four team getting off the bus? — jewilso2

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Friday Q&A 2026 Preseason Football

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27 Comments

MACE HOKIE September 2, 2026 at 1:14 AM

My Rat year 1958, We rats got to take our bibs off after we beat VMI in a major athletic sport. But we lost in football and basketball, so they declared wrestling a major sport although most of us had never attended a match or knew where they held the matches. But the bibs came off.
3TechFanz August 29, 2026 at 7:29 AM

Like you - I question those tweets about the roster weight. How is Wisconsin the heaviest team by average in the country but not top 10 with heaviest OL? They got a bunch of chubby wideouts and corners?
4Hokies4U August 28, 2026 at 7:41 PM

VMI is an option team now. Look for them to take the air out of the ball and run clock as well. Tech needs to protect their legs from the type of blocking schemes option teams run. Tech will out talent them but beating them by 51 is a lot to ask.
jagerhokie August 28, 2026 at 5:34 PM

I’m more concerned about out defensive lineman’s knees with the triple option and cut blocks …we can win easily and lose some key players….get our starters out early 🙏🏻
SarahVTHokie24 August 28, 2026 at 4:33 PM

I remember when Ferrum was only a junior college, coached by Hank Norton. He sent a lot of kids to D 1 schools. My brother in law played 2 years for him.
1. KyHokie August 28, 2026 at 7:41 PM
  
  Went to ferrum my freshman year, before VT, Phil elmassion was rooming beside me in the dorm. Played quarterback
  1. Satkins August 29, 2026 at 8:30 AM
    
    Sweet stat
  2. Stech August 31, 2026 at 1:21 PM
    
    When were you there? National Championship team?
chagerma August 28, 2026 at 2:13 PM

Where's this depth chart on which you mentioned Davion Brown has moved up?
1. David Cunningham August 28, 2026 at 2:24 PM
  
  No guarantee VT even releases a depth chart. But good chance Brown is that fourth guy right now.
GoneFishin Hokie August 28, 2026 at 1:23 PM

UVa Wise just highlights the fact that the other campus is UVa Unwise (I know they have a NoVa campus, Less-Wise). I've worked with more than a few engineers that went to Camille. Only one has had an answer when I asked the simple question, "Why?". She is from Dublin, and said that she just "hates" Tech. Funny, she didn't hate it so much when she got her MS in Construction Engineering and Management at Myers-Lawson. Currently, I'm working with 4 engineers that graduated from VMI, all very good at what they do. They'll get no smack from me this week... what would be the point?
1. HokieHeartNSoul August 29, 2026 at 6:39 AM
  
  I knew a guy who had to mentor a VMI engineer grad who was new on the job. He was trying to show him something quite routine to engineering students that was taught in required courses at Tech as part or all civil engineering majors and the VMI guy kept saying one of two things: (1) We have that course offered and (2) that course was an elective and I didn’t take it.
HokiesandHerd August 28, 2026 at 1:09 PM

I remember that Florida A&M game. Super windy that day.
1. Stech August 31, 2026 at 1:41 PM
  
  Still upset the Rattler band didn’t play, the boards wanted it so bad, should have been negotiated in the agreement to play. PS I am good with openers against in state schools, if it’s ever Michael Vick’s Norfolk State team, negotiate they have to bring the Spartans band. Anytime you are selling tickets to watch something, you are selling entertainment. That’s how you fill the place, especially when the team you’re playing isn’t at the same level.
seekoHoG August 28, 2026 at 1:04 PM

Loved the Clinch Valley College shoutout. My time there was well before the school fielded a football team. I have both fond and haunting memories of my time living in Crocket Hall.
SCHokie1103 August 28, 2026 at 1:02 PM

Well then HokieJB you need to tell that to all the big boys and blue bloods because they all schedule games like this, not just VT.
ngahokie August 28, 2026 at 1:01 PM

Clinch Valley College. Close to home for me. I prefer the following for the one in charlottesville. UVA-unwise.
132629Hokie August 28, 2026 at 12:57 PM

To me, it’s the 1999 Michael Vick-jmu effect. It wasn’t that mv was noticeably faster than jmu, it was that he was noticeably faster than the other Hokies. That’s what I’ll be looking for/ hoping to see; do we have anyone that looks like a difference maker
HokieJB August 28, 2026 at 12:11 PM

" I have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone who chooses to attend VMI, and play college football at the same time. Those are the type of people that I’d want to surround myself with." ... Chris Coleman I second that emotion. It is for that reason that most of us will take no satisfaction in seeing VMI humiliated. This game should never have been scheduled.
1. True Hokie August 28, 2026 at 1:46 PM
  
  Oregon, GA, Indiana, Canes, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, LSU, Texas Tech, Alabama, BYU, Washington, and SMU all play FCS schools this year.
  1. HokieInAR August 31, 2026 at 7:34 AM
    
    The difference is that we wouldn’t feel bad humiliating most FCS schools. People hate that we’re playing VMI, because we don’t feel good about humiliating them.
2. astrohokiebob August 28, 2026 at 3:17 PM
  
  Yup, I'm with you brother.
3. George Baylor August 28, 2026 at 4:11 PM
  
  Hokie JB, fully agree. VMI is a great school for what it does for their grads, but we should not be playing them in football.
4. A79Hokie August 29, 2026 at 8:33 PM
  
  It wasn’t that long ago that VMI beat Tech in Blacksburg (1981). I am super hopeful that we can out “athlete” but there was a time not so long ago when I did not think we would ever lose to JMU or ODU for Pete’s sake! So let’s not book the win just yet.
  1. A79Hokie August 29, 2026 at 8:37 PM
    
    Oh yeah and how about Liberty! Liberty! So after what we have put in the field the last few years even if the good Lord himself is the head coach I would not be giving anybody smack.
  2. GO_HOKIES_GO August 30, 2026 at 7:19 PM
    
    Having attended that VMI loss I can assure you it was a lifetime ago. VT has grown exponentially in terms of football in the last 45 years and VMI is essentially unchanged. There is no reason to play this type of game and I hope the administration stops scheduling mismatches like this after ‘28.
  3. Chris Coleman August 31, 2026 at 8:53 AM
    
    Yes, let's book it. That game was before I was born, and VMI just lost to Idaho State (a middling FCS team) 38-10.

The First Bank & Trust Friday Q&A: Linebackers, Camp Surprises, And More

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