J.C. Price humbled by chance to steer Hokies

BLACKSBURG, Va. (WDBJ) - J.C. Price’s first press conference as Hokies football coach Thursday was everything a Hokie fan dreams of. He was engaging and humble, sincere and real. One of his first duties was to take the team over to the April 16 Memorial on campus Thursday morning, something he felt was necessary and pertinent.

“It was something I felt we needed to do to maintain our why,” Price said, “and understand how important this place is and what it means to me and what it means to our team to finish this thing up and go win. There are still things out there that we can do and that was just a reminder of what it means to be a Hokie.”

Price had 17 career sacks and 30 tackles for loss as a player at Tech, graduating in 1996. He’s had coaching stops at places like JMU and Marshall before coming home and this week he’s consulted with plenty of coaching friends on what he’s facing in these next two weeks. Among them, the two guys he played for at Tech, Bud Foster and Frank Beamer.

Ironically, Price will make his head coaching debut against Miami. He was one of the heroes of the 1995 Tech team, the first in school history to beat the Hurricanes.

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