Virginia Tech Football: Virginia Tech Officially announces new support staff hires
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Early Thursday afternoon, Virginia Tech announced the hiring of six new personnel to its football staff
These roles vary from a number of roles including assistant director of football operations, director of player personnel, assistant director of player personnel, director of recruiting operations, director of on-campus recruiting, and assistant director of creative media.
Below will be an excerpt of each hire from the Virginia Tech Athletics website
Jimmy Laughlin, assistant director of football operations: Arrives in Blacksburg after serving as the director of football operations at Tennessee Tech since 2021. A 2016 graduate of Tennessee Tech with a degree in marketing After completing his degree, Laughlin joined the staff at Gardner-Webb as a graduate assistant, earning his master’s degree in business administration in 2019. Laughlin helped with day-to-day operations, recruiting, gameday and administrative functions. He also helped organize activities for recruits and their families on on-campus visits.
Tolbert Nance, director of player personnel: Spent the last two seasons in the scouting department at West Virginia, first as the assistant director of scouting before being promoted to associate director of scouting. Nance assisted in the evaluation of the WVU roster as well as opponent rosters to identify strengths and weaknesses for each game. He created weekly advance scouting reports and helped create gameplans. Nance also scouted the transfer portal to identify potential roster additions, helping to maintain scouting services and database. Nance spent the 2021 and 2022 football seasons as a recruiting assistant at South Carolina. With the Gamecocks, he worked in advance scouting, all areas of recruiting and served as a special assistant to the defensive coordinator. He also spent time as an intern for the Kansas City Chiefs, scouted for the Scout 33rd Team website, and worked as an intern for the Mid-American Conference.
J.J. Wilcox, assistant director of player personnel: Joins the Hokies after working as a scouting assistant and special teams quality control coach with the Green Bay Packers in 2024 helping prepare game-day strategy for the coaching staff and providing insights on player performance. He held a similar role with the Atlanta Falcons in 2023.
Jordyn Hall, director of recruiting operations: Served two seasons at the University of Pennsylvania as director of football operations. She worked alongside the head coach in coordinating team travel, managing the operating budget, and running all the program's day-to-day logistics. Hall graduated from Penn with her bachelor's degree in international relations, a minor in history, and proficiency in Spanish and Russian. Throughout all four years as a student, Hall worked in Penn's football equipment room and became the head student equipment manager as a senior. In addition to her experience with the Penn football program, Hall spent the summer of 2024 as a logistics intern for the Cleveland Browns, assisting the director of team logistics with training camp and preseason operations. Hall is also an alumna of the NFL Women's Forum from the 2023 class.
Hannah Ross, director of on-campus recruiting: Spent the 2024 season as the director of on-campus recruiting at James Madison where she was responsible for coordinating and managing all on-campus official and unofficial recruiting visits, including game day visits by prospective student-athletes.She coordinated recruiting correspondence with prospective student-athletes, high school coaches, junior college coaches and other appropriate entities.Ross also developed and maintained JMU's prospective student-athlete databases while collecting transcripts and assisting with admissions and onboarding processes for signed athletes.Ross joined the Dukes after spending two seasons with the Louisiana Tech football program (2022-23). Starting while an undergraduate student, she was a student intern before being elevated to director of on-campus recruiting during the 2023 season.
Donovan Mousel, assistant director of creative media: A 2024 graduate of Nebraska, has been a creative media assistant with the Cornhuskers’ football program since 2022. In that role he assisted with the advancement of Nebraska’s football brand identity by creating both printed and digital media and developed social media strategies to engage recruits and the fan base. Mousel also prepared graphics for use on social media platforms and the university website while photographing live action at football practices and games.
Related Links:
Virginia Tech Football: ACC Transfer Portal Rankings has Virginia Tech listed among one of the best
Field of 64 Projections: Virginia Tech Still Projected As a No. 2 Seed Heading Into May
Connor is a recent graduate from the esteemed Sports Media and Analytics program at Virginia Tech. He first found himself writing for recruiting database Rivals.com for just about two years before moving to Virginia Tech On SI. Connor has interviewed some of the highest-ranking members of Virginia Tech Athletics and looks to one day be a full-time writer covering Manchester United, his favorite soccer team.