Virginia Tech to face a slew of players on Walter Camp Player of the Year Preseason Watch List

Monday, the Preseason Coaches Top 25 Poll was released and Virginia Tech was snubbed and came in as the third team out receiving votes. Later in the day, the Walter Camp 2024 Player of the Year Preseason Watch List was released and the Hokies did not have any players on the list. It did, however, have four players from teams that Virginia Tech is playing this season.

The list included Stanford wide receiver Elic Ayomanor, Georgia Tech running back Jamal Haynes, Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord, and Miami quarterback Cam Ward. The latter two of two of the better transfer QBs into the ACC with McCord coming over from Ohio State and Ward bypassing the NFL Draft and transferring from Washington State.

Virginia Tech will see Ward first in Week 5 when they travel to South Florida for a Friday night game on Sept. 27 against the Hurricanes. Ward isn't the only key transfer that Miami as coach Mario Cristobal also brought in Oregon State running back Damien Martinez also is joining Ward.

Virginia Tech will travel across the country next week on Oct. 5 to play first-year ACC member Stanford and Ayomanor. Last season as a freshman he caught 62 passes for over 1,000 yards and six touchdowns.

The Yellow Jackets and Haynes visit Blacksburg on Oct. 26 and they will be a big test for the Hokies defense with Haynes and quarterback Haynes King leading the offense for head coach Brent Key.

McCord is the final Walter Camp Player of the Year Preseason Watch List member Virginia Tech will face on Nov. 2 when they travel to New York to play the Orange. Syracuse is beginning the season under first-year coach Fran Brown and McCord is a veteran signal-caller who is perfect to come in and help Syracuse have a bounce-back season.

Overall, there are a lot of talented players in the ACC that are going to test Virginia Tech beyond these four players, but these are four of the better players Chris Marve will have to game plan for in 2024.