Photos by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech center Ryan Shuman likes how the throwback-style T-bar mask covers his heavily scraped-up helmet he wears in practice and for games.

Ryan Shuman became Virginia Tech's starting center at the beginning of last season and regained his position this fall, after skipping spring drills as he recovered from offseason knee surgery.

BLACKSBURG -- So what kind of guy is Ryan Shuman?

Well, take a peek at his Virginia Tech football helmet. It reveals a load about the Hokies' 6-foot-3, 300-pound senior center.

"I look at Shuman and his helmet kinda sums him up," receiver Danny Coale said. "You don't see that too often anymore. It's something from back in the day."

Old school. That's Shuman. And that's his helmet, the only one on the squad equipped with the outdated "T-bar" face mask.

"Two years ago, I went in the equipment room and I saw it," Shuman said. "I said to myself, 'Man, I've got to put that on to wear around.' It started as a joke. But I just started wearing it and I haven't changed it since.

"Old school? Exactly. It's tough. And nobody's tough enough to wear that except me."

By the way, Shuman was laughing when he said it.

Of course, he's been having a lot of chuckles lately. He enjoyed a bunch last Saturday night in Tech's 35-30 victory at Nebraska, where he repeatedly put Huskers' defenders on their backs and planted them like corn into the Memorial Stadium turf.

"I was throwing some people around, I guess," Shuman giggled.

Shuman finished with seven knockdown blocks and led an improving offensive line that helped Tech's offense produce a season high for points and total yards (377). The Hokies ran for 206 yards in the ambushing.

"I think we played physical," Shuman said. "They knew we were going to run the ball and we knew we were going to run the ball. It's a humble feeling when they know we're running the ball and we're still moving the ball.

"We executed a little bit better, we stayed on blocks and we played faster. They were a lot better than I thought they were going to be. They fought. I think [North Carolina] broke down a little at the end of the game [a 20-17 Tech win on Sept. 20], kinda quit on themselves."

Shuman could have quit, too. He underwent microfracture surgery on his left knee after last season and missed all of spring practice last April. He ballooned up to 325 pounds at one point, but a rigorous summer of walking the steep steps of Lane Stadium and a lot of time running in the giant sand pit that lies adjacent to the Hokies' practice field solved any weight issues.

"Yeah, man, the beach ... the Virginia Tech beach is unforgiving," said Shuman, flashing the wit that keeps his teammates in stitches at times. "But it helped get me back, so I can't hate it that much. Not much scenery, though. The Virginia Tech beach is not as nice as other beaches."

Now that his knee problems are history -- he had the meniscus removed in the same left knee after he was hurt at Clemson in 2006 -- and he's cut weight, Shuman said he's moving well.

"It was a long road back. I was worried that I wasn't ever going to be the same," said Shuman, who started at left guard as a sophomore before moving to his more-natural center spot last season.

"I had my doubts right up to camp [Aug. 3]. Then camp came around and I felt great. The knee got looser and looser and I started moving better and better."

Shuman comes from a football background. His father, John, is the head coach of the postgraduate football team at Fork Union Military Academy, a prep school that has been a major talent factory for years for top college programs. The elder Shuman was a three-year starting tackle at VMI, where he won the Southern Conference's Jacobs Blocking Trophy as a senior in 1979.

When asked if his father ever had seven "pancakes" in a game, Shuman said: "Oh, yeah, probably. He was a player. All I know is he was pumped at Nebraska, he was pumped at UNC."

Sure sounds like it. The old man said he had a ton of fun.

"Just to watch the whole team and how they came out and just played their game, and get [Nebraska] behind, and just take it to 'em was unbelievable, John Shuman said. "Then watching your own son have a proud day. We were up there just chomping at the bit as we were so proud. It was an unbelievable trip and an unbelievable win."

The elder Shuman has tried to schedule his team's games so they don't conflict with him making it to all of Tech's games. He even named an "interim coach" so he and Ryan's mom, Patricia, could make the trip to Lincoln last week.

"They've made it to every game this year," Ryan said. "Shoot, my mom is the biggest critic. She will tell you. She's on my case about everything -- from school to how I play or how on one play where I didn't do something. She knows what's going on."

Patricia Shuman said her critiques help "make sure that Ryan doesn't get too big of a head."

Now that would be a problem since Ryan swears he can wear only one helmet -- the one with all the paint scrapes from endless battles in the trenches and the old Model T cage.

"Man, we've got to put that thing on the front page of the newspaper," Shuman said, laughing. "It's great. It's mean. It's tough. "And know what? I'm stealing it, too. I'm taking it with me when I leave here."