By Marty Gordon
NRVsports@mainstreetnewspapers.com
When Notre Dame’s Tony Pride took the field Saturday against Virginia Tech, his mother wondered what he would have looked like in burgundy and orange. See, it seems Pride was destined to be a Hokie, but everything changed in a hurry.
Tony Pride,Jr., from Greer, S.C,, had originally committed to Frank Beamer and his staff to attend school in Blacksburg. But when Beamer announced his retirement, the former four-star defensive back changed his mind and decommited from the Hokies.
He initially received 13 scholarship offers, but everything had been trending Virginia Tech’s way. Then-defensive coach Torian Gray was his main recruiter and had become a family friend, especially to Pride’s mother, who took the lead on her son’s college decision.
Reports showed he was leaning toward the engineering program in Blacksburg, but his path to college football took a hard right. The coaching faces changed, and Gray headed to the University of Florida as an assistant coach.
Now as a projected NFL draft pick, Pride Saturday was on the field against a team he could have been playing for against the Irish.
On a side note, his parents and he were glad to be at the game Saturday. Six months ago Pride’s mother, father and he were headed to South Bend from their home in Greer when their car was clipped by a recreation vehicle in the other lane of a Kentucky highway.
All three were able to crawl out of a wreckage that no one should have survived. This summer, the Pride told media representatives he was thankful to be alive and back on the field of play.
Tech fans are just left to wonder what could have been.