BLACKSBURG — Virginia Tech center Johnny Jordan has homework to do before the season-opener against Old Dominion.
Jordan will spend time researching the Monarchs’ defensive line in the next few days to make his trash talk a little more potent.
“I’ll try to find something that will get under their skin,” Jordan said with a smile.
Jordan inherits the role from Brock Hoffman, who provided the Hokies with a fiery presence up front in recent years.
“I still did a fair amount while Brock was here, we were kind of a one-two punch,” Jordan said. “That’s mainly fallen on my shoulders, just kind of messing with people.”
The one-time Maryland transfer will also take over for Hoffman as the team’s starting center.
While he spent the 2021 season working at all three spots on the interior of the line — he played 436 snaps with 245 of them at center, 80 at left guard and 111 at right guard — he’s spent the entire offseason snapping the ball for the first – team offense.
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Jordan, who was a fifth-year senior last season, successfully applied for an extra year of eligibility. The new staff welcomed Jordan with open arms after losing three starters (Hoffman, Lecitus Smith and Luke Tenuta) to the NFL.
He’s provided valuable leadership to an offensive line with six true freshmen and three other redshirt freshmen with little game experience.
Jordan has plenty of that (40 career games played), but he also has been through a series of coaching changes — he’s had five different offensive line coaches and six different head coaches (including interims) — so he knows a thing or two about picking up a new offense.
That will come in handy with Tech looking at a first-year starter at left guard whether Jesse Hanson or Braelin Moore is in the lineup. Hanson is a fourth-year junior, but only has 28 career snaps of experience while Moore is a mid-year enrollee who spent spring camp working at defensive tackle.
Tech coach Brent Pry said both will play in the opener.
Braelin Moore’s older brother Kaden will start alongside Jordan at left guard, where he started all 13 games last season.
Jordan described the Moore brothers as “maulers.”
“They are great to be around and great to play next to,” Jordan said.
Jordan hopes Tech’s offensive line can guide the team to another bowl appearance. The veteran’s first postseason appearance came in last year’s Pinstripe Bowl, but that didn’t go the way he wanted with a 54-10 loss to his former team.
“I’d love to win a bowl game, that would be a huge thing for me,” Jordan said. “I’ve only been to one, [so] that would be a huge accomplishment for me and kind of be the icing on the cake of my career, but honestly I’m really just focused on the team and having the best year we could have, getting coach Pry off to a great start with the VT fans.”
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