Hokies’ Hoffman, Burmeister bonded during a long pause
All the late nights Brock Hoffman and Braxton Burmeister spent talking, dreaming about what might become reality when they finally got their chances at Virginia Tech, propping each other up when they got low made the waiting bearable.
Now, the pause in their college football careers is over.
When they put their uniforms on Saturday night for Virginia Tech’s season opener against North Carolina State (1-0, 1-0 ACC), they could both be more than just guys interminably waiting their turns on the sideline after sitting out last season as transfer athletes.
Hoffman will likely be Tech’s starting center, and Burmeister is expected to be in a timeshare with fellow quarterback Hendon Hooker. Shared patience has forged a deep bond.
“That’s my best friend,” said Hoffman of Burmeister, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound redshirt junior who transferred to Tech last year from Oregon. “Honestly, me and him went through those tough times together, and that made us really, really close.”
Hoffman, a 6-3, 317pound redshirt junior, became the national poster boy for the NCAA’s oftencurious evaluations of waiver requests from transferring players.
After he was denied his waiver, which he requested on the heels of transferring from Coastal Carolina in large part to be closer to his ailing mother in Statesville, North Carolina, he received support from national media outlets and college football
pundits. ESPN anchor Scott Van Pelt devoted several minutes of editorialized air time to boosting Hoffman’s case.
“Of course, it was frustrating seeing cases across the country get passed and seeing mine not (get passed),” said Hoffman, who added Tuesday his mother is “really good” after having brain surgery, and she’ll be in attendance for the season opener.
“Honestly, I’m thankful that it happened because I feel like I’m a better player now preparing for my junior year than I was last year.”
Burmeister also had his waiver request denied last year by the NCAA. A La Jolla, California, native who was considered by many analysts as one of the nation’s 10 best dual-threat quarterback recruits in the class of 2017, Burmeister started five games as a true freshman at Oregon and played in four more games behind Justin Herbert in the 2018 season.
Coming more than 2,800 miles east from Eugene, Oregon, to Blacksburg only to find out he had no shot at getting on the field right away could’ve given Burmeister every right to sulk. Instead, he
immediately took a different approach.
“Once my waiver got denied, I kind of flipped my mindset and really took pride in scout team and realized that was my way to get the defense ready to go,” Burmeister said. “So I think just doing that and taking every day and just getting better at my skillset and the little things I needed to improve on.”
Hooker and Quincy Patterson both came into the offseason with ample experience last season at quarterback for Tech, but Burmeister took advantage of opportunities and, ultimately, moved ahead of Patterson on the depth chart.
“I feel like just making plays when they’re open to be made,” said Burmeister regarding what gave him a leg up in Tech’s quarterback competition behind Hooker. “Taking care of the ball when I need to take care of it.”
Tech coach Justin Fuente complimented Burmeister’s speed and athleticism last season while he worked with the scout team. On Monday, Fuente confirmed plans to use both Hooker and Burmeister this season — even if Fuente and offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen are still figuring out how.
“It’s going to be all hands on deck, so we’re going to need everybody to try to find a way to have success,” Fuente said. “I would say how that looks may change from day to day based on the information we have.”
Burmeister said he and Hoffman, who credited Burmeister’s West Coast-infused healthy eating habits with improving his own nutrition, used their scout-team experiences as motivation.
“He’s one of my best friends and we really kind of went through the whole process together and pushed each other,” Burmeister said. “Even though it’s not competing with a quarterback, we competed with each other to see who’d have better days on scout team.”