Virginia Tech moves Braelin Moore to offense, plus more Hokies roster intel from Brent Pry

BLACKSBURG, Va. — When Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry looked at Braelin Moore as a defensive tackle, he envisioned him starting at some point during his Hokies career. But when he looked at the true freshman as an offensive lineman, the ceiling got a whole lot higher.

“I think he’s got a chance to be an all-conference offensive lineman before he leaves here,” Pry said during a Friday interview, his first with beat writers since the end of spring practice.

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It makes sense then that the 6-foot-3, 290-pound Moore, who graduated high school early and enrolled in January, officially made the switch to O-line not long after spending his first spring in Blacksburg at defensive tackle, where he’d gotten some second-team reps in a depleted group.

He joins his brother, promising sophomore right guard Kaden Moore, who started all 13 games last year, in an offensive line group that needs the help. Pry said the Hokies feel good about going six deep on the line right now, not accounting for the younger Moore, who’s new to the position.

But the decision was made with Braelin’s long-term outlook in mind.

“It was just about Braelin and his skill set and what he did well and what he didn’t do well enough,” Pry said. “He’s never going to run enough to make enough plays on the perimeter to be a guy that is an all-conference (on defense). You’re always going to want to run better. But on the offensive line, he runs great.”

Pry said he reminds him a bit of PJ Mustipher, a 6-foot-4, 329-pound defender at Penn State.

“Who’s a hell of a D-tackle,” Pry said. “But in the end, he’s probably an All-American offensive lineman. So you draw from experiences. So I’m excited about Braelin.”

Pry envisions Braelin, who played on both sides of the ball at Freedom High in Bethlehem, Pa., as an interior lineman. Touted 2022 signee Gunner Givens, who like Braelin was mentioned as an offensive lineman during the recruiting process but began as a defensive tackle once he enrolled at Tech, will remain on defense for now.

Here are a few more Hokies roster updates of note:

• Defensive end transfer Pheldarius Payne is in Blacksburg and part of the roster after wrapping up his undergraduate degree at Nebraska in the spring.

Pry said the 6-foot-3, 260-pound senior, who had 40 tackles, 4.5 tackles for a loss and three sacks the past two seasons with the Cornhuskers, has a chance to start for the Hokies, or at the very least be in a rotation of ends that includes TyJuan Garbutt, Cole Nelson, CJ McCray and others.

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“He’s an old head who’s athletic, brings pass rush,” Pry said. “Just another guy to put into the mix there. If we end up needing a swing guy in pass situations that can play down inside and make sure we’ve got four guys on the field on third down who can rush the quarterback.”

Pry initially recruited him as a member of Penn State’s staff when Payne was playing at Lackawanna Community College in Scranton, Pa., and said the Nittany Lions would have taken him there if not for a shoulder injury he later had fixed.

• Wide receiver DJ Sims, who went into the transfer portal briefly this spring before pulling his name out, remains on scholarship but is no longer a member of the football team and will not count against the Hokies’ numbers.

The move is part of little-known NCAA bylaw that allows first-year head coaches to remove players from their 85-man scholarship roster but keep them on scholarship as long as they stop playing, like a medical disqualification without the injury aspect. USC’s Lincoln Riley did it with 10 players on the Trojans’ roster this offseason. Sims is the only player for whom that’s happened at Tech.

“DJ initially was going to enter the portal and then decided not to,” Pry said. “And he wanted to stay at Virginia Tech and he’s still done that. … You don’t want to do it if you can help it, but that was the family’s choice. Just told me he didn’t want to play football very badly.”

• Pry said the Hokies initiated freshman defensive lineman Rashaud Pernell’s separation from the program last week. The 2022 signee out of Highland Springs, who was the No. 17 player in Virginia in 247Sports’ Composite rankings, re-opened his recruitment after Virginia Tech let him out of his letter of intent.

“Just didn’t feel good about it right now,” Pry said, not getting into specifics. “Just didn’t feel good about bringing him in. So, good conversation with the head coach at Highland Springs and we wish Rashaud a lot of luck, and I’ve recommended him to a couple places that have called, but he needed to do some things before I was comfortable with him being here.”

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Pernell was the second member of the 2022 signing class who didn’t work out. Linebacker Reid Pulliam was not on the team’s roster heading into spring practice after enrolling initially in January. Though there was initially a chance for him to return to the team, Pry said Friday that he won’t be back.

• The roster movement leaves the Hokies with two open scholarships to work with, Pry confirmed. (Punter Peter Moore, whose status was often debated here and never made public previously, was put on scholarship before Pry arrived.)

Pry said the Hokies are looking at junior college and transfer portal possibilities right now at receiver, cornerback and on the defensive line.

“We’ve got a pretty good plan for both the spots,” he said. “I think we’ll be in pretty good shape. I expect to be at 85 by Sept. 1.”

Interestingly, given the dire depth on the offensive line, that was not a position Pry thinks Tech will address through the transfer portal this summer.

“I think that’s a concern,” he said. “There’s nobody on our radar right now that you feel like, ‘OK, he’s got a solid chance of coming here.’ And that was part of the conversation too with Braelin. Like, where is our need? This guy can probably help us.”

Pry noted that he’s excited about some of the incoming freshmen offensive linemen, particularly Johnny Garrett, a tall, lean tackle from the Boston area.

“Mature, athletic, smart, long, gained tremendous size over the last couple months,” Pry said. “We may be young still, so it’s still a concern, but I think there will be some good candidates.”

Pry said Garrett and Xavier Chaplin will start out at tackle spots. Brody Meadows, who was here in the spring playing guard, could end up at tackle as well. Johnny Dickson is an inside guy, probably at center.

• Though Moore was the only post-spring position change, Pry said you could see some of the sam linebackers Tech slotted this spring — Keonta Jenkins, J.R. Walker and Keli Lawson — work in at the mike and will spots.

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While Dax Hollifield is projected as the starting mike, Pry said the will spot, where Alan Tisdale has been a two-year starter, is more of an open competition, with redshirt freshman Jaden Keller in the mix. (Fellow freshman Will Johnson suffered another shoulder injury in the spring that will carry over some into the fall.)

“We’ve had our sams become our mikes in nickel. We’ve had our sams become our wills in nickel,” Pry said. “You just want to be as athletic and as fast as you can when you go into your nickel package.”

• One other roster note that was expected, given the circumstance: Former Hokies linebacker Isi Etute, who was recently acquitted on a second-degree murder charge, officially put his name in the transfer portal Friday.

(Photo: Courtesy of Virginia Tech Athletics)

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