Big, physical, fast? Sure, Virginia Tech head coach Brent Pry would love to see all of these attributes in his starting mike linebacker.

But his quarterback of the defense needs to be one thing above all else: authoritative.

“I’d love to have a guy where he could say the wrong thing and the other 10 guys will do it without question,” Pry said. 

The Hokies are in an unfamiliar spot heading into 2023, earnestly searching for a successor at the mike linebacker position for the first time in a while. Tech’s had little drama at that spot going back eight years, transitioning with little turbulence from Andrew Motuapuaka to Rayshard Ashby to Dax Hollifield, who was a mainstay in the position his final two seasons. 

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