Veteran Virginia Tech safety Nasir Peoples has announced that he will use his free COVID year in Blacksburg and return to the Hokies for the 2023 season.
— naspeoples (@naspeoples) December 7, 2022
Peoples is the second Hokie who has chosen to not only use his free COVID year but also do so at Virginia Tech and publicly state his intention to do so, joining LB Alan Tisdale.
This comes after Peoples was a full-time starter for the second-straight year at safety putting up 61 tackles in 11 games this season including a career-high 4.5 for loss plus 1 pass breakup. For his career, Peoples has 151 tackles including 7 for loss with 1 interception, 4 pass breakups, and 1 fumble recovery.
There's no doubt that Peoples is a big addition for a Hokies' secondary that loses a pair of veterans in Chamarri Conner who is out of eligibility and Armani Chatman who has entered the transfer portal. His leadership alongside Dorian Strong will be valuable for the secondary next year that is full of talented young players with current projected starters Mansoor Delane and Jalen Stroman plus top backup Cam Johnson leading the way.
Peoples may not have as high of a ceiling as a Jalen Stroman, but he also provides a high floor and a consistency at safety. We saw the impact of having talented veterans earlier this season when Alan Tisdale's return brought consistency at will LB before Keli Lawson broke out at the end of the season.
We will have more as this story develops.
