Virginia Tech football: Two legendary Hokies named greatest to ever wear respective jersey numbers
· Yahoo Sports
While we await fall camp, there’s still time to debate some fun lists. ESPN recently produced a fun college football list, naming the best player to ever wear every jersey number from 0-99. It’s a hard list to narrow down. Heck, a few years back, we did our own list here at Gobbler Country, naming the best player in Virginia Tech history from 1-99.
It wasn’t easy. On some days, we profiled multiple former Hokie greats.
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So with ESPN’s list, how many Virginia Tech legends made the cut? Two. You’d be shocked to know that Bruce Smith wasn’t one of those players. That’s right, the legendary Hokie was among three runners-up, with Bryant McKinnie taking the top spot for the greatest No. 78 in college football history. Remember, rankings are subjective. Nothing against McKinnie, but not sure how Bruce Smith isn’t the pick here.
Oh well.
Who were the two Hokies? Unsurprisingly, Michael Vick is the winner for the No. 7.
It’s almost impossible to look back at the numbers now and understand just how special Vick was at Virginia Tech. His career totals — 3,074 passing yards, 20 touchdown passes — would hardly warrant a second glance for a single season of production in today’s game. Even his rushing totals — 585 in 1999, 617 in 2000 — aren’t exactly eye-popping. But Vick played with such electric athleticism, made so many genuinely incredible plays and completely changed the concept of what a quarterback could look like in an era before the Air Raid and spread offenses took hold that he seemed more like an alien than a football player. To truly appreciate Vick’s greatness, you had to be there. But to understand his impact requires nothing more than to scan the landscape of today’s game and see how many QBs have followed the path he blazed to help turn the position into something it had never been before.
The three runners-up were John Elway, Patrick Peterson and Byron Leftwich. This was the right call. While Elway’s greatness is unmatched, unless you were alive in the Vick era, you do not understand his impact on college football. Numbers don’t tell the whole story. Vick, like Elway, is a former No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft.
Who is the second Hokie great?
No. 56 Corey Moore.
While Michael Vick was shredding defenses, Moore at just 6-0, 225, was destroying offenses with 166 tackles, 35 career sacks and 58 tackles for loss, becoming the first player to win both the Lombardi and Nagurski awards in the same season. He was just the second unanimous All-American in school history. His number was retired by the Hokies in 2010 and he was enshrined in the CFB Hall in 2023.
This one was much easier. Moore and Vick were record-setting teammates from 1998-2000, with Moore twice being named an All-American and setting a Big East record for sacks in a single season. Moore was also a two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year and winner of the Nagurski Trophy and Lombardi Award
What do you think, Hokies? Think ESPN got this one right?