Former Virginia Tech football coach Justin Fuente putting the headset back on

When former Virginia Tech football coach Justin Fuente agreed to part ways with the school late in the 2021 season, he hasn't been heard from much. He was offered an assistant coaching position at Indiana in 2023, but he declined.

After nearly four years of sitting back out of work in college football, the former Hokies boss is returning to the game, but not just to the sideline. He'll be working up in the pressbox this fall and will be heard on the radio.

Former Virginia Tech football coach Justin Fuente returning to the college game

Fuente is returning to the college game, but not on the sideline with a headset. He'll be wearing a headset, but he'll be in the press box this fall as the radio color analyst for TCU games in the Big 12. He has a history with the program, working as an assistant coach from 2007-11 as the running backs coach and part of the 2011 team that went to the Rose Bowl.

“The current state of things I am not super interested (to coach) in,'' said Fuente.

After leaving TCU, he went to Memphis as the head coach before coming to Blacksburg from 2016-21, and when he left, the program was not where it was when he took it over. He lagged in recruiting, mainly in the state of Virginia, where power programs from around the country were coming in and taking the talent from the Commonwealth right out from under him. That is something current head coach Brent Pry is trying to fix. He saw it when he was the defensive coordinator at Penn State prior to being Fuente's replacement.

In the current state of college coaching and dealing with the Transfer Portal, NIL, revenue sharing, agents, and opt-outs, it's no wonder he doesn't want to get back into coaching; however, his tenure and the rough ending at Virginia Tech also have something to do with it. You could make the case, as his tenure was winding down in Blacksburg, that he wasn't super interested in coaching either. Maybe the right headset is on him now.