Super Bowl champion Bruce Arians returns to Virginia Tech for MTSU game

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians will return to Virginia Tech this Saturday for the Hokies’ matchup with Middle Tennessee, according to the Hokies’ Twitter account. Arians will lead the stadium yell coming out of halftime, too.

Arians played at Virginia Tech as quarterback and started his senior season for the Hokies in 1974. The Hokies largely operated out of a wishbone formation, and as a senior he held a 44.9 completion percentage, while throwing for 952 yards, three touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also ran for 243 yards and 11 touchdowns, which set a then-program record for most quarterback rushing touchdowns in a season.

After his Virginia Tech playing career, Arians began his coaching career in 1975 as a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech. After working three seasons for his alma mater, Arians moved on to assistant coaching roles at Mississippi State, as a wide receivers and running backs coach, and Alabama, as a running backs coach under Bear Bryant. He received his first head coaching opportunity at Temple, where he coached the Owls from 1982 until 1988.

Arians has since served largely NFL coaching roles, save for one more stop at Alabama as the offensive coordinator in 1997. Most recently, Arians was the head coach for the Arizona Cardinals from 2013 until 2017, and he is now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach, where he’s been since 2019. Arians and the Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV last season, defeating the Chiefs 31-9.

The Virginia Tech Hokies started off their season last Friday on a very positive note, upsetting the No. 10 North Carolina Tar Heels 17-10, after which fans stormed the field in Blacksburg.

“We got a great group of kids and they’ve been through a lot,” head coach Justin Fuente said after the game. “They got grit, they got resiliency, they got each other. They played their tails off tonight.”

The Hokies leaned on their defense all night long. They held UNC to just one touchdown and forced three interceptions from quarterback Sam Howell. None were more critical than Chamarri Conner’s pick with less than a minute to go.

Conner’s interception effectively ended the game, though North Carolina still had three timeouts. Virginia Tech’s Tre Turner finished things off for good with a 12-yard run as the Hokies ran the clock down.

“[The defense] put out an incredible effort,” Funete said. “I felt like we didn’t play very many snaps on defense in the first half. I feel like we took every snap of defense in the second half. They rose to the challenge every single time, it was fantastic.”

The upset was the first time Virginia Tech had beaten an AP top-10 team with someone other than Frank Beamer as head coach since 1964. The Hokies defeated No. 10 Florida State that season.

North Carolina was picked to win the Atlantic Division in the ACC preseason media poll and face Clemson in the conference championship. Virginia Tech was projected to finish third in the division.