Virginia Tech running back Jalen Holston adjusts his helmet at practice earlier this month. This is the fourth straight year Holston will be in the mix for the starting job.

BLACKSBURG — Virginia Tech running back Jalen Holston never knew what to expect on Saturdays last fall.

Holston was widely considered one of the top workers on the team over the last three years. It was that work ethic that helped him get back to the field when he suffered a season-ending ankle injury in 2019.

The previous coaching staff told Holston he was doing everything right, but he didn’t have much of a role last season and went six straight games at one point without a carry. He took to social media after games and vented some frustration over the lack of playing time by retweeting fans suggesting the coaching staff should give him a look.

“The frustration came from just all I’ve been through and putting in all the extra work with the injuries,” Holston said, on Wednesday. “In practice, everything was going well for me, but then it came to game time, it was a different game plan than what I expected, what I practiced. That took into account a lot of the frustration for me.”

This is the fourth straight year where Holston will be in the mix for the starting job, but he’s still never carried the ball 15 times in a single game. He admitted he’s been longing for a more extended opportunity to show what he can do.

“It was hard to deal with,” Holston said.

Holston credited his teammates with helping him through the last few years, and helping him understand there would be a “light at the end of the tunnel.”

That light came in the form of a new coaching staff led by Brent Pry, who hired former Louisville assistant Stu Holt as his running backs coach. Holston took some time before the winter semester, began to contemplate his future and did plenty of research on the two new coaches as he weighed entering the transfer portal.

“Nowadays it ain’t nothing to get on Google,” Holston said.

He also spoke to former Appalachian State running back Darrynton Evans, one of Holt’s former players. The positive feedback he saw and heard was encouraging as were his initial conversations with the coaches. Holt opened a dialogue with Holston where the two spoke openly about his decision-making process.

What ended up convincing Holston to stay?

“Ultimately I made a commitment here, my heart is here, my family loves me being here,” Holston said. “It’s just when I’m here people see a light in me I don’t see. There’s something special here that’s always kept me here. I want to be here.”

And he’s happy with his decision three practices into spring camp. He’s the veteran in a group of nine running backs competing for playing time — he’s carried the ball 226 times for 914 yards with eight touchdowns — and has enjoyed the new staff’s focus on competitiveness.

“We start off practice with competition drills,” Holston said. “Yesterday was linebackers versus running backs. First day was receiver versus corners. He really instills the competition and competitive mindset in us.”

Holston jumped to the front of the line and won an angle tackle drill going head-to-head against Chamarri Conner. The running backs were the overall winners in the drill as well.

“We’ve always had that little, when the pads come on you know, to be the best you got to compete against the best,” Holston said, with a smile. “I like to go against guys that like winning as much as I do.”

One of Holt’s main points of emphasis to start out camp has been teaching his group to be better finishers. All the running backs are instructed to run five yards past the last defender, which means the yardage can quickly add up if you have back-to-back reps.

“It’s not new, but it’s a mindset they want to instill,” Holston said. “You have to finish and expect to score every time.”

If the coaches catch anyone not putting in that effort, the whole room has to do five fingertip pushups at the end of practice. There’s also other demerits like fumbles (10 pushups) and missed assignments (five pushups). There are also ways for players to bank pushups — winning that drill at the start of practice, as an example — that count against any of those miscues.

Holston said he’s enjoyed every minute of it.

“Right now, I’m having a lot of fun,” Holston said. “It surprised me that I was gelling with the new staff so much. It’s always a worry because you weren’t recruited by those guys. They don’t know you just like you don’t know them…but they are teaching us how to work and we are having fun with it.”

Long list of Hokies work out for NFL scouts at Tech's pro day. Page B5.

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Virginia Tech running back Jalen Holston adjusts his helmet at practice earlier this month. This is the fourth straight year Holston will be in the mix for the starting job.

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