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BLACKSBURG — The thoughts crossed Fontel Mines’ mind last season. There were instances when he pondered what the future was going to hold for him after Virginia Tech’s new football coach was hired. Was he going to be retained? Did his resume need to be updated?
The wide receivers didn’t notice Mines sweating the details. He wanted to maintain focus on the next opponent, not on potential changes that were coming after the season.
“I think naturally you’re a little fearful of what could happen. Play the ‘What if’ games a lot in your mind,” Mines said last week. “But my main focus for the entirety of the season was my boys, to be the same coach and the same mentor to them every single day, because as much as I had going on in my mind and in my house, it was double that for a guy that’s 19 and 22 years old and you lose your head coach.
“So I wanted to make sure I maintained a really good relationship with my players and made sure I stayed strong and made sure we kept the main thing the main thing, and that was trying to win games.”
Mines, who was retained by Hokies coach James Franklin, was able to maintain continuity in the wide receiver room after a 3-9 season. Tech’s option receiving option is back, along with promising sophomores and freshmen, and it added four transfers and a four-star prospect.
“I think it just kind of helps the new guys have a voice to be able to communicate with and give them the backstory on who I am as a person and as a coach,” Mines said, adding he had previously relationships with transfers Jeff Exinor Jr. and Que’Sean Brown in recruiting. “… Some of those relationships are new, and you grow and guys change and mature. We had to rekindle some of those flames.
“I just think they helped and they’ve done a really good job embracing all the transfers and all the newcomers, and that’s really important right now. Our locker room has taken a step forward. Everybody realizes it’s about the team, and you can’t continue to do the same things and expect different results. Those guys are locked in and focused right now.”
While the Hokies had four wide receivers from the rotation enter the transfer portal (Isaiah Spencer to Ole Miss, Cam Seldon to South Florida, Devin Alves to Hawaii and Tucker Holloway to Florida Atlantic), they were able to keep seven scholarship wide receivers on the roster amid the coaching change.
Ayden Greene and Takye Heath return the most experience among the group. Greene led the Hokies 31 catches for 516 yards and three touchdowns last season, and Heath remained healthy and finished with 22 catches for 200 yards and three scores.
Greene is expected to be a starter entering spring practice.
“I tell you what Ayden has done a really good job of is stepping up in moments where we need him offensively, whether that’s in the weight room, whether that’s in winter workouts, competition drills,” Mines said. “The moment’s never too big for him. He’s continuing to take the next step in his leadership role. That goes without saying, but that starts with the work. You’ve got to prove yourself. He’s not always the most vocal, rah-rah, leadership, but his work speaks for itself. I think he made a commitment to himself and to this program and more importantly to this team to make sure that he brings his best.”
Mines said Chanz Wiggins and Keylen Adams have recovered from their respective injuries that kept them out last season. Add in sophomore Shamarius Peterkin, redshirt freshmen Luke Stuewe and Cam Sparks, and the Hokies have plenty of untested depth on the roster.
“I think that’s up to them. We’ve got a lot of depth in the room. We’ve got a lot of competition. But we don’t have a ton of experience,” Mines said. “We’ve got some really talented guys that I feel like are going to earn the opportunity to play, but they’ve got to prove that. They’ve got to prove that every day, just like the guys returning with experience.”
The experience factor comes in Louisiana Tech transfer Marlion Jackson and Duke transfer Que’Sean Brown.
Brown is the star of the transfer class and projected to start at slot receiver. He registered 107 catches for 1,310 yards and seven touchdowns over his three seasons with the Blue Devils.
As a redshirt sophomore last season, he hauled in 64 catches for 846 yards and five scores.
“I think we’re just getting somebody that’s dynamic in space, that’s mature, that’s played a lot of football,” Mines said. “He’s been productive in this conference, which is hard to come by. You talk about a guy of his stature and his history of what he’s been able to do at Duke and be really successful, and he’s won a lot of games, and he’s also been through a lot of adversity. So he’s a really good resource for a lot of my freshmen and redshirt freshmen in that room of how to take care of your body, how to watch tape, what the work looks like extra to be successful at this level, and to do it for a long time.”
Mines said the spring will help the players get acclimated with offensive coordinator Ty Howle’s scheme. It will look and feel different than the offense Philip Montgomery ran and called last season, which is why Mines is emphasizing consistency throughout the spring so he can get his best players on the field for Howle.
It’s a relationship that helped Mines’ transition to the new coaching staff.
“He’s been awesome. He is very humble, selfless, down to earth. He’s easy to get along with, he’s easy to talk to,” Mines said of Howle. “He’s not too high or too low, has a really good personality, and we hit it off right away. We have a lot of mutual friends in this business and this profession, so it was an easy and seamless transition for us.”
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