Tech freshman Coale to start 12th game against UVa

BLACKSBURG — Danny Coale was prepared to follow his brother to Virginia, but a trip to Virginia Tech in the summer of 2006 changed his mind.

Coale, a Cavaliers fan growing up, fell in love with his favorite team’s chief rival while visiting for a one-day camp. As luck would have it, the Hokies offered him a football scholarship, and he didn’t think twice before accepting.

“I didn’t really know much about Tech,” said Coale, now a Hokies starting wide receiver. “I had never taken a visit down here and never really seen it.

“When I came down here for that camp, I really didn’t know what to expect, but when I saw it, I fell in love with it. I remember telling my dad, ‘If they offer, this is where I want to go.’”

The 6-foot, 203-pound Coale, a redshirt freshman, leads Virginia Tech with 27 receptions. He is one catch shy of matching the Tech freshman record set by Eddie Royal in 2004.

He is expected to make his 12th straight start Saturday at noon when the Hokies (7-4, 4-3 ACC) host the ’Hoos (5-6, 3-4) at Lane Stadium.

The Coale family now flies a split Virginia Tech-UVa flag outside its Lexington home. Coale’s older brother Kevin played lacrosse at Virginia. His younger brother Ryan is a big Tech football fan.

And father Jimmy Coale is the strength and conditioning coach at VMI.

So is the family divided like the flag?

“I wouldn’t say that,” Danny said, adding that the family pulls for Tech in football and UVa in lacrosse.

Coale could have accepted scholarship offers to play lacrosse at Virginia or Johns Hopkins, a couple of programs that have won 13 Division I national championships between them, but his first desire was to play football.

He went on the summer camp circuit following his senior year at Episcopal High School, a boarding school in Alexandria. He visited Wake Forest and Vanderbilt and Virginia. It wasn’t until he made it to Blacksburg that he really felt at home.

It made him wonder why all those years he pulled for the Cavaliers and not the Hokies.

“I think it was more that I didn’t really know that much about Tech,” he said. “It was just kind of foreign to me.”

All those years cheering for the Cavs, and now he’s playing for the other side.

Excluding offensive linemen, Coale is the Hokies only offensive player to start every game this season.

He has a catch in all but one game, including a career-high four for 59 yards Nov. 13 at Miami.

And he’s a go-to quote. He hasn’t missed many of Tech’s weekly news conferences this season.

When Hokies coach Frank Beamer decided to make only two players available to the media this week, he chose senior defensive end Orion Martin to represent the defense and Coale to represent the offense.

“He’s smart, dependable and tough,” Beamer said. “You just like the guy.”