Bryan Randall will have quite the second weekend of September.
First, and foremost, he’s getting married. Second, he’s being inducted into the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame.
A graduate of Bruton High School, Randall earned ACC Player of the Year honors in 2004 when he quarterbacked the Hokies to the conference championship in their first year of membership. He and five others will be inducted Sept. 11 and recognized the following afternoon during Tech’s home game against Furman.
The other inductees are:
*Roscoe Coles, a Virginia Beach native who in 1975 and ’76 became the first Hokies tailback to rush for more than 1,000 yards in two different seasons. A former coach at Kecoughtan High, Coles is an assistant principal at Enterprise Academy in Newport News.
*Quarterback Will Furrer, the Hokies’ No. 5 career passing leader (5,915 yards). He played from 1988-91 before a seven-year NFL career.
*Two-time All-America wrestler Sean Gray, who from 1997-2001 set school career records for wins (133) and pins (45) that still stand.
*Dr. Duane Lagan, the last team physician to serve all of Tech’s varsity sports. He worked from 1989-2003.
*April Byrd Mosley, a seven-time Atlantic 10 champion who still owns school standards in the long jump (20 feet, 1.5 inches) and triple jump (42 feet, 5.25 inches), and who as a senior in 2000 won the triple jump at the Penn Relays.
Randall enrolled at Tech the following summer after an acclaimed football and basketball career at Bruton. He started for the Hokies as a sophomore in 2002 and threw for a Big East-record 504 yards and school-best five touchdowns in a triple-overtime loss at Syracuse.
As a senior in 2004, Randall threw for 2,264 yards and 21 touchdowns, while rushing for 513 yards and three scores. His 39-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Eddie Royal lifted Tech to a 16-10 victory at Miami in the regular-season finale, clinching the ACC title.
As the Hokies nursed that lead late in the fourth quarter, Randall converted a third-and-10 with a 12-yard strike to tight end Jeff King.
“He plays his best when the game is on the line,” Tech coach Frank Beamer said of Randall during the 2004 season, during which Randall won a postgraduate scholarship.
Randall graduated atop Hokies career lists for total offense (8,034 yards), touchdown passes (48) and passing yards (6,489). He still ranks second in touchdown passes to Logan Thomas, and third in total offense and passing yards behind Thomas and Hampton High graduate Tyrod Taylor.
Randall now plays for the East Division champion Philadelphia Soul (15-3) in the Arena Football League. He’s played in eight games as a backup, with four touchdown passes and no interceptions.
Philadelphia opens the playoffs next Saturday at home versus the Cleveland Gladiators.
Randall has played for several other indoor teams, including the Richmond Raiders, Pittsburgh Power and Laredo Rattlesnakes. His wedding precludes him attending Tech’s Hall of Fame weekend events.
Then-Hokies quarterbacks coach Kevin Rogers said in 2004 that Randall would be “forever remembered here as a walking advertisement for Virginia Tech” and “a guy of strong moral fiber and an incredible leader. What more could you ask for?”
Teel can be reached by phone at 757-247-4636.
