Blacksburg, VA — Even though Bud Foster is no longer with the team, the bread and butter for the Virginia Tech Hokies has always been their defense and that is no different with 2nd year head coach Brent Pry running the show.
One guy who’s in a tight battle with Jayden McDonald to start at linebacker is Tennessee High alum Jaden Keller, who has since changed his number from #52 to 24.
Last season Keller played in 11 games, making 2 starts, recording 25 tackles and 13 solo….While he had a great spring Keller has to prove it all over again with less then 3 weeks before the season kicks off against Old Dominion.
“Learning my game will I’ve become more comfortable with, you know, what are my safeties doing? What is my D-line doing? So I feel more confident speaking up and getting the defense on the right page because at the end of the day, the mike, you know, right. Controls the defense. So we’re all looking for you like whenever something like that or whatever the wrong call comes in.
So I just think the confidence, you know, confidence building confidence is a mike linebacker, just learning the defense, not only your position but whoever, everyone around you, your brothers around you. I think that’s what helps you play a lot faster and a lot more vocal. We did that in our linebacker room and I think we all have ballplayers, so I just think that’s a big problem for defense as they’re trying to scheme for linebackers, which linebacker is going to be and I think all linemen, all of our linebackers have very strong, strong strengths and weaknesses.”
Keller made his first career start, against West Virginia setting a career high with seven tackles .
