Where I Come From: Who are Your All-Time Favorite Hokie Players?
by furrer4heisman on Jul 8, 2010 1:38 PM EDT
in EA Sports NCAA FB 11
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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 11.
There have been some great players to come through Virginia Tech the last few years, including Michael Vick, DeAngelo Hall, Kevin Jones and Eddie Royal. But my favorite players are rarely the guys who grab headlines. It's easy to count guys like Vick and Bryan Randall as your favorites, but here are the guys I consider my favorite Hokies of all time:
QB Will Furrer - Well, my pseudonym IS furrer4heisman and with good reason. Furrer led the Hokies in passing for four seasons and was Tech's quarterback when I first started to follow Hokie football.
FS Justin Hamilton - Hamilton played three positions is five years at Tech and was moved from offense to free safety (the quarterback of the defense) and helped anchor the 2005 defense, which is one of the best we've seen in Blacksburg. I think Hamilton personifies the self-less worth ethic that we've come to associate with Hokie football over the past few years.
DE Darryl Tapp - Another guy from that 2005 team, Tapp was a great leader and a fun defensive player to watch.
LB Cody Grimm - What is there to not like about Grimm? He was a former walk-on who was an undersized human wrecking ball from the whip linebacker position and was probably most fans' favorite from last year's team.
Who are your favorite Hokies? I have a feeling Bryan Randall is going to get a lot of votes, as he should.
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Randall is one of my favorites
I think my favorite player though is Macho. With what he over came with the grease fire and coming off a year where we lost Adibi and Hall he made that defense amazing. I just always respected him the most I guess. Royal is very high on my list, I really want one of his Eddie Royal with Cheese shirts too.
I also like Jim Pyne because I grew up a Bucs fan
Eddie Royal, Andre Davis, Cody Grimm, soon to be Ryan Williams
I still have a very soft spot for Michael Vick despite the whole dog fighting thing and that he was the dominant factor in sending my NFL team down the tube for a couple seasons.
Brandon Flowers
I’ve never seen a defensive players with his instincts or natural ability to break on a ball. He was great in coverage, could come up and make the stop in the run game, and never seemed to get beat deep. Good character guy that could have easily been a top 15 draft pick if his 40 time had been higher. His route-jump interception at UVA in 2007 is still one of my favorite plays. He also knocked Drew Weatherford out cold at home vs. FSU.
Cody Grimm is a close second for all that he was able to do in his time here.
Right behind him is Abidi. Nothing could compare to his sideline-to-sideline athleticism.
by JPCVT on Jul 8, 2010 4:44 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Can't believe I forgot Flowers
definitely a favorite of mine as well. I actually had a No. 18 Tech jersey.
A bullhorn, a bottle of whiskey and a dream. GobblerCountry.com
by furrer4heisman on Jul 8, 2010 5:10 PM EDT up reply actions
Corey Moore was the first hokie I enjoyed watching. He was nasty.
but I think Royal takes the cake. The feeling the we had whenever he fielded a kick return… we just knew he was capable of taking it to the house every time. I’ll also never forget that TD pass against Georgia in Chick fil a bowl to Sam wheeler. That was beautiful.
HUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!
Well lemme start you out with a shocker…Randall is #2 on my list. For my money, it HAS to be Cedric Humes. I still dream of getting a guy like Humes back in our backfield, and running with absolute abandon. I know some people think Evans is that, but Humes was the punishing kind of runner that also ran a 4.5 forty and could break away. It only takes looking back at that Maryland game for Evans to see why that isn’t the case for him (he was continually dragged down from behind with no one to beat). I know the stats don’t wow you, but looking at the way he ran, the way he split time with 2 other guys and how well he played within the team concept. He’s a really underrated guy that I’m surprised never stuck in the NFL despite being drafted as the potential replacement of “THE BUS.” Contrary to the way Ore ran after his injury, Humes ran HARD every play, on every down! That earned my respect of him, but what put him over the top to my all-time favorite was the game against BC his senior year. In the game against Marshall Humes broke his arm, introducing us to Branden Ore (a temporary godsend and a future giant thorn in our side). That was a Saturday. He got a week off and then was on the field STARTING no less that next Thursday against BC…WITH A BROKEN ARM, and was solid. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and Humes was on the front sports page of my local paper stiff arming a BC guy to the ground WITH HIS BROKEN ARM IN A CAST! He was tough as nails and did all of the right things to get better on and off of the field. So for me, it’s Humes.
Chris Ellis
I gotta say that I love to see TDs as much as the next guy, but a dominant defensive player really gets me fired up!! Chris Ellis has to be my favorite Hokie player. To see him make that come-from-behind “LEGAL” tackle of Jameel Sewell and the unrelenting pressure and sacks of Brian Brohm in the bowl game bring back some of my fondest Hokie memories. It still makes me laugh everytime I see the video of Brohm getting hit and the “nasal-plugs” come flying out. He’s there on the sidelines and they’re tryin to put them back in an he’s crying and complaining. :) Ok. One more. The time we were playin UNC and he laid out their QB. I think it was Sexton. This particular play sent the QB to the sideline wincing in pain. I remember him laying on top of him after the sack and it looked like he was taunting him to stay down. One bad@ss Hokie in my book!
That was Hunter Cantwell
Hunter Cantwell was their third string QB that year, and both Brohm and the second stringer had gotten injured. So it was Cantwell sporting the nose plugs.
by chicagomaroon on Jul 9, 2010 6:46 PM EDT up reply actions
Cyrus Laurance or Lee Suggs
Even listening to their games on the radio was intense!
3rd try
i started, stopped, deleted twice.
decided i will do this by era’s and only pick 1 for each 5 year set.
91-95 – college years
DT J.C. Price.
I wouldn’t call us friends, but I played basketball with him all summer at college park and drank more than a beer or 2 with him later that night at sharkeys or arnolds. small group of people, you bump into them over and over. nothing like a 6’3" 285 point forward, he had decent bb game too. loved to laugh and joke, i am sure he was pretty damn cool in the locker room.
96-99 – VT’s arrival
DE Corey Moore
favorite Hokie of all time. Holy crap did he play with passion, speed, anger, intensity. Short and small but fast as crap. was rarely denied. a privilege to watch him play.
00-05 – post MNC
LB Vince Hall
from within mins of where i live and grew up. my mom even taught him in h.s. likable guy on and off the field. smart, in position, got it done, then got it done some more. that knee injury robbed him a chance to be a short, slow but getting it done NFL linebacker. between him and Brandon Flowers, best instincts i have ever seen from a VT defender.
06-10 – ACC power
RB Ryan MF Williams
Take Lee Suggs hole hitting ability, added to Kevin Jones’s speed then add a lil quickness and better vision and you have the most talented rb ever to land in Blacksburg. I love defense (would have been Cody,) so for him to make the list … once in a lifetime kind of guy. Another good guy off the field.
Ben Taylor
He was a great linebacker on the field and good guy off the field. I think he is often times forgotten, due to the linebackers that have come after him, but he definitely was a key defensive player on the NC runner up team. LIke I said though, he was a good person off the field too, and that’s the kind of thing I look for at Tech.
by THEFightin'Gobbler on Jul 9, 2010 9:55 AM EDT reply actions
Vince Hall (period, the end)
Alec: Chris, did you really buy a $1400 toilet?
Chris: Yeah, it's great. It's Japanese and has those little warm water jets that clean the undercarriage.
Eric: Chris, it's a toilet, you shit in it.
Jim Pyne
Unanimous All American Center, one of only 4 numbers to be retired by Tech in 100 years.
And don’t forget Jason Worilds . . . “Hey, my should popped out. Can you pop it back in so I can get back out on the field? Thanks!” and don’t forget the broken finger that no one noticed for a couple of quarters. Finally, the blood running down the arm caught someone’s attention. Oh my!
That was Cam Martin
I’m pretty sure the broken finger was Cam Martin.
by chicagomaroon on Jul 9, 2010 6:39 PM EDT up reply actions
Bruce Smith
You all are showing your lack of age. Bruce was awesome! And went on to rep VT in the pros. He embarassed the frig.
Bruce Smith is a god on the football field!
But, I thought he was a given and the discussion was everyone else!
Chris Ellis
Sorry. Guess I was wrong on the QB from Louisville. Was a riot to watch live. All I really distinctly remember from that game was how terrible the referee’s calls were. The ruffing-the-passer penalties were the only thing that kept that game close. Our defense was dominatiing.
Xavier Adibi
An absolute freak, in every sense of the word. He had cat-like quickness and hit like a mack truck. He and Hall made the best linebacking duo in the country. I still rock the #11 jersey to Hokie games.
Cornell Brown
Key to building defense in early 90’s.
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