The Virginia Tech Friday Q&A: The Art Of Redshirting

1) In the portal era, do you still hold to “Always be redshirting”? Seems like a lot of guys who redshirt as freshmen might port to a program that promises them immediate playing time, whether true or not. – Spud

Chris Coleman: Yes, I still hold true to that rule, for a couple of reasons. If you don’t redshirt a player, the risk of a transfer is still there, albeit with different players.

For example, let’s say the backup Sam linebacker is a redshirt sophomore who has developed well, but still isn’t quite ready to start. You are worried that if you don’t play the true freshman, he’ll hit the portal after just one season in the program, so you give him special teams snaps over the redshirt sophomore Sam linebacker. The true freshman is happy and he stays, but the redshirt sophomore is mad that he had his special teams snaps taken away in favor of somebody who hadn’t really earned them, so the older player hits the transfer portal.

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