Virginia Tech Football: Hokies 2024 ACC opponent loses head coach to the NFL

There has been a big turnover in the college football coaching ranks over the last couple of months. As the calendar gets ready to turn to February, there is one more coach on the move from the ACC and it just happens to be an opponent for Virginia Tech in 2024.

Pete Thamel of ESPN reported that Boston College coach Jeff Hafley, who just took the Eagles to a bowl game for the third time in four years, is leaving the school to go to the Green Bay Packers to become their defensive coordinator. The team confirmed it Wednesday night.

Hafley is no stranger to the NFL as he spent seven seasons in the NFL as a defensive back coach for the San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2012-18. He then went to Ohio State to become their defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach in 2019 before landing the Boston College job.

Why make the move from a Power 5 head coach to a coordinator position in the NFL? A source told Thamel he wanted to get back to "coaching football.''

“He wants to go coach football again in a league that is all about football,” a source told Thamel. “College coaching has become fundraising, NIL and recruiting your own team and transfers. There’s no time to coach football anymore."

This decision is a strange one and leaves Boston College in a tough position entering February, needing to find a new head coach. They are coming off a season that ended with a Wasabi Fenway Bowl victory over SMU in December and added some interesting pieces in the transfer portal.

Virginia Tech rolled to a 48-22 win over the Eagles on Nov. 11 in Boston and is scheduled to host them at Lane Stadium on Oct. 17 on a Thursday night in what is their ACC home opener.