1) Rank your top three football assistants and say why. — HokieR

Chris Coleman: My top three are based on each coach being balanced between pure coaching and recruiting. Both are important. I always lean towards coaching, but the absolute top coaches on a staff have to be good at both.

1: Considering his importance as an in-state recruiter, Fontel Mines is No. 1 on this list. He’s done a great job recruiting the Richmond area for the Hokies and has contacts in other areas of the state as well. He also did very well in transfer portal recruiting. You can also see the development of some of the non-transfer guys. Stephen Gosnell, Xayvion Turner-Bradshaw and Tucker Holloway are all better players than they were a year ago. If Tech’s top three receivers (including Ali Jennings) all decide to return, I would expect somebody behind them to leave. That won’t be Mines’ fault; it’s just part of what you have to deal with if you are in a crowded WR room in an offense that is run-first.

2: Shawn Quinn is my No. 2, and he gets the nod over my No. 3 because he’s been here for two years instead of one. As a coach, Quinn helped Keonta Jenkins transition from safety to star linebacker, where he’s been one of Tech’s more consistent defenders in 2022 and 2023. Caleb Woodson also played a lot here as a true freshman and held up fairly well. That’s a good coaching job. As a recruiter, Quinn does a great job in Northern Virginia with guys like Woodson, but he’s also Tech’s lead recruiter in Tennessee, where he’s played a big role in landing guys such as Ayden Greene and Mose Phillips.

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