Time away strengthens Garbutt’s dedication to Fuente, Hokies’ team
Defensive end returns after missing much of 2020 season to stay with ill family member
Living without the game wasn’t what TyJuan Garbutt wanted. But he knew he couldn’t devote himself to Virginia Tech’s football program the way he wanted to with everything he was dealing with at home in Fredericksburg.
Now as Virginia Tech wraps up spring practices, Garbutt is back where he feels he belongs — working with teammates and trying to regain a prominent spot on Tech’s defensive end depth chart. After starting 16 consecutive games in 2018 and ’19, Garbutt chose to opt out for more than 2 ½ months of both preseason practices and games last season so he could be home with an ill family member.
Despite being away from the team, Garbutt’s relationship with Tech’s coaching staff only strengthened.
“I knew [Tech coach Justin Fuente] would go to war for me,” said Garbutt, identifying his ill family member only as “Pops” and providing no further details.
“I mean that in all the right ways. Like I tell him a lot, when I meet with him, he helped change my life. I could have been a statistic. I could have done a bunch of wrong things, could have easily gone down the wrong path ... and made a bunch of wrong decisions, and he’s done nothing but support me and continue to let me know that there’s a reason why I was really his first commitment when he took over this job.
“There’s a reason why even though I de-committed and was looking at other places [that] he didn’t just go you know, ‘All right, I don’t want that guy.’ Because genuinely, he came to my house and he knew that I was a good kid, a kid that just kind of needed a chance, a chance to really get around a different environment, a structured environment. I just love that man.”
Garbutt, who admits his grades slipped and that he was in a “dark place” for a while when he was away from the team, said Fuente checked up on him every day during his absence. In early August, when he announced Garbutt wasn’t going to be practicing with the team, Fuente was quick to add Garbutt would remain on scholarship and was staying in school.
Though Garbutt returned to
the team in late October and played a backup role in four games, Garbutt said he was playing catch-up to learn first-year defensive coordinator Justin Hamilton’s scheme.
This spring has offered a chance for Garbutt to get on the same page with Hamilton’s designs.
“From last fall to this spring, it helped me get ready for it and kind of learn the base calls and learn what we’re trying to get accomplished with this defense,” said Garbutt, adding he ballooned to 260 pounds during the pandemic after playing at around 243 earlier in his career. Now he’s down to about 255.
“When I came back last fall, it was all like a foreign language,” Garbutt said. “I wouldn’t say I fell out of love with the game. It was just more of I kind of appreciated my opportunities [upon returning], because you never know when all this can get taken away from you.
“I feel being away from it for as long as I was and having to deal with all that stuff in 2020, it made me really appreciate spring football practices, conditioning workouts, the summer conditioning workouts coming up. It made me realize this is stuff that you love, this is what you worked for your whole life since you were 6 when you picked up the football.”
It remains to be seen what Garbutt’s role will be once Tech gets into preseason practices in August. Amare Barno stepped into a starting role while Garbutt was gone and Emmanuel Belmar was injured, becoming as impactful a defensive end as Tech has had in years. Barno had an ACC-best 16 ½ tackles for a loss and tied for the team lead with 6 ½ sacks,
Belmar, who has been a starting defensive end for 2 ½ seasons, is returning and working his way back to full health. There are also a trio of promising young ends and a few other veteran backups.
At least Fuente knows he’s had his eyes on one motivated experienced defensive end this spring.
“I’ve seen glimpses of old TyJuan out there,” Fuente said Thursday. “I do know that he knows that we love and care about him and want what’s best for him. That it’s not about rushing the quarterback or getting tackles for [a] loss; it’s about making sure TyJuan’s taken care of in the right way. Ty knows that, and it’s been awesome to have him back . ...
“It was hard on him to be removed and then jump right back in, and he was in terrible shape and just trying to find his way. It was a little like that early in the spring too, but I’ve seen it in the last couple weeks where it’s been fun. He’s back there enjoying himself, cutting loose, getting closer to the old TyJuan.”