BLACKSBURG — Virginia Tech defensive backs coach Ryan Smith was nervous last fall when Boston College receiver Zay Flowers burst down field on a post route.
Flowers put up a career-high 162 yards the previous week in an overtime win over Pittsburgh. Three of his six receptions went for touchdowns.
Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec thought the two were going to connect again early in the third quarter against the Hokies when he saw Flowers jockeying for position with true freshman corner Dorian Strong deep down the middle.
Strong was thrown into the lineup as COVID-19 bulldozed Tech’s unexpectedly thin secondary last fall. The Hokies thought they would open the season with a veteran pair of All-ACC corners in the starting lineup, but Caleb Farley opted out before fall camp and Jermaine Waller was sidelined with various injuries.
People are also reading…
Smith was worried that his youngest corner would end up on the wrong end of another clip for Flowers’ highlight reel.
Those concerns proved misplaced.
Flowers used his leverage to push Strong back a step, but Tech’s defensive back was undeterred. He flashed impressive closing speed and skipped in front of Flowers to push the ball over the receiver’s out-stretched hands.
“This was a receiver that was just running by people,” Smith said, in an interview with The Roanoke Times earlier this year. “He’s probably one of the fastest players in the ACC and there’s Dorian. He’s in man coverage and really doesn't have any help one-on-one. He’s able to run step for step with him and makes the pass breakup. At that point, I knew he had the skill set to be great.”
Strong broke out a finger wag for his teammates cheering on the sideline as he went to line up for the next play. There was one row in Lane Stadium made of Strong’s immediate family cheering louder than anybody.
"I said whenever you get an opportunity to get onto that field you make sure you don't come off,” Strong’s mother Vera Strong said. “Do your part and stay consistent and he balled out.”
It was a moment that stuck in Smith’s mind when he spoke about the young defensive back’s quick rise from Wise High School to starting defender in the ACC. The COVID-19 pandemic paved the way for Strong’s unexpected playing time, but by the end of the season he had earned every rep that came his way.
“He put himself into position to take off,” Smith said.
Fork in the road
Wise High School football coach DaLawn Parrish had a heart to heart with Strong after the defender’s junior season.
Strong spent his first two years on junior varsity for a Wise program in Upper Marlboro, Marland that developed into a perennial contender under Parrish’s watch. Strong was bumped up to varsity in 2018 and started a handful of games for a 10-2 Pumas team that lost to Quince Orchard in the state semifinals.
The time Parrish spent with Strong that fall convinced him the defensive back was a FBS caliber defender. Parrish certainly had an eye for talent considering his program has sent more than 140 players onto college during his tenure.
Parrish said Strong possessed all the “physical tools” while displaying a willingness to learn and competitiveness that endeared him to the coaching staff, but making that leap would require some sacrifice from Strong, who was basically a part-time player for Parrish up to that point.
Strong’s passion at the time was track and field.
His parents pushed Strong and his older sister Taylor into sports at an early age. They signed Dorian up for flag football when he was 5 years old and his track career started soon after that. There was even a brief flirtation with martial arts for the siblings that lasted about a year.
Strong found immediate success on the track — he had three top eight finishes (100 meter, 200 meter and 400 meter) at a regional USATF Junior Olympics event in 2010 — and that success continued once he got to Wise. He won a pair of state titles as a sophomore on the 4x200 and 4x400 relay teams.
As an underclassman, he prioritized track for three-fourths of the year. Once he started the indoor season in December he wouldn’t rejoin the football team until fall camp.
Parrish always encouraged his players to participate in multiple sports, but he worried if Strong didn’t get an offseason in the weight room with the football team and spend additional time “focusing on his craft” that a scholarship offer might not materialize.
According to Strong’s mother, it wasn’t any easy choice.
"The one thing that would have made a difference was if he got a full ride scholarship offer in track,” Vera Strong said. “I can't even answer what he would have done. His heart was with both. He really loved both."
It helped that Strong’s track coach Derrell Quick was offering similar advice as Parrish.
“I'm a fan of seeing kids take the next step whether it be with me in track or basketball or football,” Quick said. “I think coach Parrish and I got the best out of him.”
Strong didn’t abandon track, but Quick shifted his training regiment to shorter distances to aid him on the football field. It allowed him to put on weight for his senior season — Vera Strong described her son’s metabolism as “just stupid” — and get the practice time he needed to earn a two-way starting job.
“Dorian is the typical old school high school kid,” Parrish said. “The kid did well on junior varsity then goes varsity, starts a couple games then his senior year he dominates. That doesn’t happen very often these days.”
Family affair
Vera Strong remembered it being a hectic week.
Parrish handed her a list of camps Dorian needed to attend in the summer of 2019. Strong’s only scholarship offer at that point was from Delaware State, an FCS school. Teams were reluctant to pursue Strong since he had very little film at that point and were worried about his slight build.
Strong’s high school coach was convinced the camp visits would help Strong raise his profile and show teams what he had been raving about for the better part of six months.
The mini-camp circuit included trips to Maryland, Towson and Bowie State within the same week. Vera Strong, who works in the legal field, arranged for Dorian’s older sister to act as a chauffeur of sorts. Taylor Strong drove her brother all three stops and provided her mother with text updates throughout each one.
“She would be sitting out there in the heat for several hours constantly sending me video clips,” Vera Strong said. “I was at work, but we would be communicating the whole time. She would tell me how good he was doing.”
According to Parrish, the slowest 40-yard dash time he ran at any of those camps was a 4.53. Strong dominated at each stop, but still didn’t receive a scholarship offer from any of the host schools. They told Parrish they would circle back during the season once he had more film.
Virginia Tech didn’t have those same reservations.
Tech coaches attended the Bowie State camp and where they were wowed by Strong’s performance. The Hokies extended a scholarship offer to Strong after speaking with his mother the next day. He verbally committed shortly after that and never looked back.
“Once Tech offered, schools came out of the woodwork,” Vera Strong said. “Some of these schools were the same ones that told him to gain weight. I said, ‘no way. Tech wanted you as you are.’”
That loyalty resonated with Fuente.
“He really made us feel good with how he played his senior year,” Fuente said. “But he shut down his recruitment, he could have got recruited by a whole bunch of other people. It makes you feel good that he stayed true to the place that saw something in him first."
Before heading to Blacksburg, Strong helped Wise go 15-0 and capture the program’s fifth state title. He had 17 catches for 425 yards with eight touchdowns and led the team with seven interceptions on defense. He also returned kicks and punts.
Parrish got a little choked up when asked about what Strong meant to the team as a senior.
“Oh my god,” Parrish said, before an extended pause. “He would do everything you ask. I'm just proud of him. I'm happy for him. Just a young man that trusted the process. We believed in him."
Icing on the cake
Tech’s season came to a close with a matchup in Lane Stadium against Virginia. It was a much anticipated showdown after the Cavaliers captured the Commonwealth Cup in 2019 and snapped a 15-game losing streak in the series.
Strong’s interception late in the third quarter helped the Hokies reclaim the cup in a 33-15 win.
Virginia tried to pick on Strong by targeting him nine times, but the three completions he allowed only went for 19 yards. The interception came when UVa quarterback Brennan Armstrong threw the ball across midfield as if Strong was the intended target.
Smith had an inkling Strong was going to have a big night from the way he performed on the practice field in the days leading up to the game.
“He had arguably the best practice for a defensive back all season,” Smith said. “He had multiple interceptions — might have had three or four — he was just filled with confidence.”
The story rang true for Parrish, who witnessed similar dominance from Strong on the practice field.
"He would put on shows in practice at the receiver position and I would go up to my old coordinator, and scream, why is he not in the game? Why are we not playing him again?” Parrish said, with a laugh. “Just put him in the slot, let him go run by somebody."
Fuente first caught a glimpse of Strong’s confidence in an unlikely moment. Strong got beat by a double move in his first start against Duke — the 41-yard completion to Jarett Garner that helped set up a touchdown — in a moment that probably went overlooked by everyone else in the stadium.
“He got the guy on the ground, didn't bat an eye and played the next play,” Fuente said. “That spoke volumes about him from a competitive level. Those things are going to happen. You got to go play the next play.”
Fuente has seen many first-year players stumble in the wake of a mistake like that.
“He's not scared to fail,” Fuente said. “What happens to some of these kids, is they get scared to get beat by a good receiver or scared to not do well. It hurts their development. Dorian is willing to take those chances to try and improve.”
That improvement has continued and put Strong on track to start alongside a healthy Jermaine Waller. Smith anticipates them making a formidable duo at corner and is eager to see what year two brings for his young pupil.
“He's fun to go into battle with,” Smith said.