Virginia Tech football: Hokies round out strength staff with a familiar name

School is back in session. The early enrollees are in town, and Virginia Tech’s new strength and conditioning staff is complete.

Last month, Virginia Tech announced the hiring of Dwight Galt IV as the school’s new strength and conditioning coach. Galt comes to Blacksburg from ODU, where he spent the past three seasons in the same position. Before that, Galt worked at Penn State as an assistant for seven years under his legendary father of the same name.

Now, Galt has hired his staff.

On Monday, Virginia Tech announced the hiring of four new members to the strength and conditioning staff:

• Greg Allen
• Jarrett Ferguson
• K.J. Florence
• Matt Greenhalgh

Allen is a West Virginia native who spent the past six seasons at Old Dominion and earned a promotion from Galt in 2019. He has a long history of working with multiple sports, with football as his primary focus.

Ferguson, well, you know that name. A standout fullback for the Hokies from 1998-01, Ferguson is back in Blacksburg. Ferguson previously worked on Tech’s strength and conditioning staff for 13 years, leaving in 2018. The Goodview, Virginia, native founded Steel Train Performance in Moneta after he left Blacksburg and also worked as the strength coach for his alma mater, Staunton River High School.

Ferguson was a popular player in Blacksburg, playing on Tech’s 1999 team that played in the national championship game. He was a seventh-round draft pick of the Buffalo Bills in 2001. He began his coaching career at Ohio University in 2004 and then spent two seasons at North Carolina before returning to Virginia Tech in 2007.

Florence comes to Blacksburg from Ole Miss, where he spent the past two seasons as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Rebels. He spent the 2019 season at Marshall and is a graduate of ODU with a Master’s degree from Georgia. He’s a Virginia Beach native.

Greenhalgh spent the previous four seasons at Georgia Southern. He played college football at Rhode Island from 2008-12.

With the students back in town, these new coaches are already at work preparing for spring football.