By Jimmy Robertson
BLACKSBURG – When Raheem Blackshear enrolled at Virginia Tech in January after transferring from Rutgers, he roomed with offensive lineman Brock Hoffman, who had transferred to Tech from Coastal Carolina and sat out the 2019 season after the NCAA denied his appeal for immediate eligibility.
The two shared a common bond – working through the complexities of the NCAA appeals process. Hoffman lost his appeal, but he cautioned Blackshear on being too negative about his chances.
In the end, Hoffman's confidence was rewarded. On Tuesday, Blackshear received his clearance and is eligible to line up for the Hokies this season.
"We [he and Hoffman] talked about it a lot," Blackshear told reporters via video news conference Wednesday afternoon. "He always told me to stay positive … He was like a supportive brother to me that I could come to and talk to. That was a really special thing to me."
Fuente informed Blackshear of the NCAA decision before Tuesday's practice. He walked up to Blackshear with a big smile on his face, and Blackshear wondered why.
"You better get ready to play," Fuente told him.
Blackshear played three seasons at Rutgers, taking a redshirt season for one of those. He worked as a receiver, a running back and a returner, and he finished his career there with 2,239 all-purpose yards. He rushed 29 times and caught 29 receptions in four games last season.
Tech's staff has worked him as a running back and as a slot receiver to create depth and take advantage of his versatility.
"The thing about Raheem is that he has a unique skillset in terms of he has receiver skillsets, and he's still a physical player," Fuente said. "He can line up and play running back. But I think what makes him unique is his intelligence. This is a kid that's a fantastic student. He's almost obsessed about getting things done correctly. Will literally badger the assistant coach all the way out on the field making sure that he understands the assignments and what he's going to be doing because he's going to be moved around quite a bit.
"It's important to him. Those guys are fairly unique – guys that have the talent, but also are intelligent and have this burning desire to get things right all the time. That can make them pretty fun to coach."
Blackshear brings much-needed explosiveness and versatility to a rather large Virginia Tech running backs position group. In fact, nine scholarship players are listed as running backs.
Another transfer, Khalil Herbert, is very much in the mix for a starting role. Herbert played four games at Kansas last season before taking a redshirt season and coming to Blacksburg as a graduate transfer. He and Blackshear share a bond of being transfers from Power 5 programs.
"Yeah, definitely, we've shared some stories," Herbert said. "Different things happened after we both redshirted, so it's just kind of funny to see how everything turns out."
Herbert, a Florida native, rushed for more than 1,700 yards in 35 games, including 187 yards in Kansas' win over Boston College early last season. By far, Herbert is the most experienced of Tech's running backs, with 320 career carries.
He could be a workhorse type of running back for Tech. But Fuente and his staff like playing multiple people at various positions, which means Herbert may need to find his niche in this offense.
"Whatever they need me to do, I'm here to do," Herbert said. "Whether it's coaching up some of the young guys or playing special teams, I'm here for it."
The battle for the job also features returners Jalen Holston, Keshawn King, Terius Wheatley, and Tahj Gary, and newcomers Marco Lee, Jordan Brunson, and Jalen Hampton.
Tech's staff wants to get more out of the running game this season, particularly because the Hokies feature a big, veteran offensive line and youth at the receiver spots. A year ago, the Hokies averaged 176.1 yards rushing per game, which ranked fifth in the ACC, but 49th nationally.
"All the guys in our room are great – the young guys, the older guys," Holston said. "I want to say you put anyone back there and we're going to produce. But as for my role, I want to extend to the role of being a leader, helping those guys come along and getting the whole team right. When my number is called, I'm going to come play."
"You can't help but get a little bit excited about what those guys may be able to do," Fuente said. "And we're going to need all of them. I mean, you get excited about it, and then you think about who may be out or who might not be in front of them or who might not be playing defense. Then you start to drive yourself crazy with the 'What ifs?' As it stands right now, I feel good about their development."
Here are some more takeaways from Wednesday's session:
• Holston declared himself 100% healthy after suffering a broken ankle in the Hokies' season-opening loss to Boston College last season. His season ended after just six carries.
"I felt it, but I thought I had tweaked my ankle," he said. "I thought I get could it taped up, walk it off, and come back after halftime and come back. But they taped it up and tried to get me going after halftime, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't put any pressure on it. I came back that next day and got the x-ray, and that's when I found out it was broken."
Holston and Herbert rank as the lone seniors among the tailbacks, though Holston has the most experience, having been in the program for the past three season.
"Me, using my experience of being here, I try to help guys like Khalil and Raheem," Holston said. "If they don't know something, I'm the guy to ask them. Or they'll ask me and come to me with questions. I try to help correct those younger guys, but I don't want to be the guy that's correcting everybody. I also want people to correct me. That's when that element comes into the room, and everybody helps each other."
• Fuente said he felt badly for Virginia Tech fans, who found out earlier this week that university officials and the town of Blacksburg were prohibiting tailgating for all sporting events this fall.
"I hate it for our fans," he said. "I also understand it. I know we're in unprecedented times and everyone's making sacrifices, and that's part of it. But I hate it because we all know it's more than just a game here at Virginia Tech. It's an experience. It's comradery. It's like a vacation. People build their calendars. They have weddings around Virginia Tech football games. They have major life-altering events that they either skip or miss to come to Virginia Tech football games. That's unfortunate. I feel for them because they have been such great fans for so long. But this is temporary. It will come back, but we're all having to make sacrifices right now."
• Fuente informed the media that defensive end TyJuan Garbutt is in Blacksburg and taking classes, but is not currently a part of the football program, as he works through a personal issue. Tech's staff hoped to see a breakout season from Garbutt, but the Hokies' coaches still like the defensive line, and in particular, the end positions, which feature veterans Emmanuel Belmar and Youngstown State transfer Justus Reed. Fuente hopes the additions of NFL veteran coach Bill Teerlinck and former Tech great Darryl Tapp lead to more sacks this season.
In 2019, the Hokie ranked fifth in the ACC with 38 sacks – but no defensive lineman had more than four.
"I think we've made some strides there, and I do think that's always been an emphasis for Bill and his family in terms of being specialists in terms of pass rush," Fuente said. "Early in camp, we went through some soft tissue injuries with some of those guys and held them out, so I think that hurt us early in camp. They're now coming around and kind of coming together, and the next week or so will be really important as we kind of get a full group of healthy guys out there working with Tapp and Teerlinck to help improve that."
• Fuente also informed media members that safety Nasir Peoples will be out for the season with an unspecified injury. The redshirt sophomore from Abington, Pennsylvania played in 12 games last season, mostly seeing work on special teams.