Virginia Tech has their offensive line coach in Ron Crook of South Dakota according to Doug Samuels of Football Scoop.
Sources: Virginia Tech expected to land veteran offensive line coach Ron Crook https://t.co/HN4bNq4Pee
— Doug Samuels 🏈 (@CoachSamz) March 13, 2023
Crook comes to Blacksburg after spending a season on staff at South Dakota. Prior to that, Crook was the offensive line coach at Cincinnati from 2017-21 coaching that unit on the Cincy team when they reached the CFB Playoff in 2021. He also was the OL coach previously at Harvard (2003-10), Stanford (2011-12), and West Virginia (2013-16).
The arrival of Crook at OL along with Elijah Brooks at RBs likely points to the following offensive staff setup.
- OC/QBs: Tyler Bowen
- RBs: Elijah Brooks
- WRs: Fontel Mines
- TEs: Stu Holt
- OL: Ron Crook
Crook may be an underwhelming hire in some ways given the reputation of Joe Rudolph, but he still looks like a quality hire. During his time at Cincinnati, Crook had 6 different offensive linemen earn All-AAC First Team honors with 2 becoming NFL Draft picks. He also has had some success with transfer portal OL including standout OT James Hudson who he brought in from Michigan.
Crook is not known as a spectacular recruiter, but should have some similar Rust Belt recruiting ties that could be valuable in places like West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky that are within the 6-hour footprint. That also should help replace what Tech lost in those areas on the recruiting front with Rudolph's departure for Notre Dame.
We will have more as this story develops.
