Of the 22 transfers the Texas Tech football team added since last season, offensive lineman Will Jados and wide receiver Reggie Virgil are the only two who came from the same program.
Jados spent four years, Virgil three at Miami — not The U; the other one: Miami in Oxford, Ohio. The two speak fondly of their days with the RedHawks, who finished each of the past four seasons in bowl games, including 11- and 9-win seasons the past two years.
Even with all the winning they were a part of, it was reinforced for the pair last week that they’re in a whole different world. At Miami’s Yager Stadium, which opened in 1983 and has permanent seating for 24,000, the list of the top 10 attendance figures tops out at 30,087. Tech reported double that and a few more for the Aug. 30 season opener at Jones AT&T Stadium.
More than just noticing the pageantry, Virgil was wowed.
“We get to talk about the little stuff,” Virgil said on Tuesday, Sept. 2, “like how we both come from lower-level places and we come to a bigger school, and we both still get the same opportunity of starting together. It’s real cool. And now it’s like full-circle. We play another MAC school, so it’s really cool.”
Tech (1-0) hosts Kent State (1-0) at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. No one can tell the Red Raiders or their fans more about Kent State than the former Miami guys.
Jados, the Red Raiders’ 6-foot-7, 305-pound left guard, grew up in Westerville, Ohio, two hours from Kent.
“Funny enough,” Jados said, “my wife is actually in a master’s program online at Kent State. … She’s studying epidemiology, which is like the study of infectious diseases and stuff, so she’s definitely got more of the brains than I do.”
Other than the COVID-interrupted season of 2020, Miami and Kent State have played every year since 1955. They’re , Mid-American Conference rivals.
Last year, in a 34-7 Miami victory over the Golden Flashes, Virgil caught a 69-yard touchdown pass. In his recollection, RedHawks quarterback Brett Gabbert was late on the throw, a safety broke for the ball and missed, “and then it was off to the races.”
Plays such as that one are exactly what attracted the Tech staff to Virgil when his name popped up in the portal last December. Tech coach Joey McGuire has billed him as a deep threat and said Virgil’s speed is as good as any receiver’s he’s had in his fourth year in charge of the Red Raiders.
In Tech’s season-opening 67-7 rout of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, the first points came with Virgil catching a 9-yard touchdown pass from Behren Morton. Dating to last season, he’s caught a touchdown pass in eight of his past nine games. A new sight to Tech fans, the norm for Jados.
Last year, Virgil had eight receptions of 30 yards or longer, five going for touchdowns.
“We would always start out with just a deep ball to Reggie,” Jados said, “and it worked way more than it probably should’ve, and it was awesome. So, yeah, that was really fun to get Reggie his first touchdown as a Red Raider.”
These days, their interactions are less awkward than one of their first, which Virgil recounts in an amused manner. Virgil grew up in the Orlando, Florida, area. In his freshman year at Miami (Ohio), he got thrown together with Jados for a trip to the doctor.
The big, bearded, red-headed Midwesterner and the newcomer from the Sunshine State.
“He was driving a big ol’ truck, some rims on it,” Virgil said. “He’s got a big, cool truck. I didn’t really know him, but we both had to go to the doctor. We both had to get MRIs, so they just sent us. They were like, ‘You can ride with Will.’ “
The two got to know each other and then became buddies, Virgil said. Last December, they committed to the Red Raiders two days apart. Virgil pledged first and said when he saw the Red Raiders had offered Jados a spot, he encouraged his teammate to join him in Lubbock.
“We always talk trash to each other,” Virgil said. “I always pick on him and stuff — he’s so big — so it’s funny.
“And then every time I score, he’s always excited and happy for me. He loves when they call deep shots for me, because he knows it’s going to be a touchdown, he always tells me.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Will Jados, Reggie Virgil keep up their bond as Texas Tech football teammates
Reporting by Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
