Photo courtesy of Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech's Danny Coale has a team-best 25 receptions this season for 279 yards in 10 games.

BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech was the only major college football program to offer Danny Coale a scholarship.

The Lexington native has proven to be some catch for the Hokies.

In an offense that has been running short on steam all season, Coale has been one of the Hokies' few reliable sources of fuel and energy, leading the club in pass receptions (25) and receiving yards (279). Those are modest 10-game figures for sure, but significant considering Tech's passing attack has been mostly grounded, ranking 111th in the nation at a paltry 126 yards per game.

"Surprised? I think if someone had told me coming in that I would be an older guy, that would be surprising," said Coale, a redshirt freshman who ranks as an elder statesman to true freshmen Jarrett Boykin and Dyrell Roberts, the Hokies' other two primary wideouts.

"It's a heck of an opportunity for me. I found myself in my position and it's a good position to be in. Football is a waiting game, a lot of people sit around and wait their turn maybe a year, two years, and fortunately for me, I got the opportunity early on."

Coale and the two freshmen were forced to speed up the learning process after the team lost projected starters Brandon Dillard (Bassett) and Zach Luckett before the season started. Dillard suffered a season-ending injury (ruptured Achilles' tendon) during summer workouts and Luckett was indefinitely suspended from the program for a violation of team policy in mid-August.

"Both were unfortunate things," Coale said. "The rest of us have had to pick it up and take up the slack. I think as a group we've come a long way, but the most exciting thing is we've got a long way to go."

One of only four offensive players to start every game, Coale has caught at least two passes in every contest except one -- the Sept. 6 meeting with I-AA Furman in which the Hokies threw for a season-low 68 yards. Eight days ago in Tech's 16-14 loss at Miami, he matched his season high with four catches for 59 yards -- all coming in the first half.

The 6-foot, 203-pound Coale has been senior quarterback Sean Glennon's post-workout catcher since early September. The two routinely pitch-and-catch for 15-20 minutes following every Tech practice.

"You've got to love the kid," Glennon said. "Danny wants it so much, and he's willing to put in the extra work. He's always where he's supposed to be, he catches the ball, he's been productive, and that's what you want."

Coale, whose father, Jimmy, has been the strength and conditioning coach at VMI since 1979, grew up in Lexington. He went to school there until the ninth grade, when he transferred to Episcopal High, a private boarding school in Alexandria. Coale was so proficient in lacrosse at Episcopal, that he had scholarship offers from perennial national powers Virginia and Johns Hopkins.

Despite that his older brother, Kevin, was on UVa's lacrosse team, Coale decided to take a shot at football instead. He went to numerous football camps in the summer of 2007, including Virginia, Vanderbilt and Tech. UVa and Vandy both expressed interest in him, but Tech was the only one to offer a scholarship.

"I found it interesting that the most common question that Dan received when he was at Virginia and Vanderbilt was: 'Well, Danny, we're really impressed at what you did, but who is recruiting you, who else is on your radar?'" said Kevin, who graduated from UVa last spring.

"And what they were looking for was for top teams within their conference. And he never got that question at Tech. They wanted to see what he was capable of. And one they saw that, they had all the info they needed."

Coale has responded by becoming the Hokies' most consistent pass-catcher.

In a stat one won't find in Tech's weekly notes, Coale this fall has set an unofficial school record for most appearances by a freshman at the Hokies' game-week Tuesday news conferences with the electronic and print media. Only seniors -- defensive end Orion Martin and left guard Nick Marshman -- have pulled more yeoman's service than Coale in front of the Tuesday media corps.

"Many guys his age wouldn't want to do that -- they'd want to take a nap or something," Martin said.

"That shows you something. Not only is Coale a solid player, he's a responsible guy He's just a first-class guy, the type of guy you want around your program. He's somebody the media trusts, the coaches trust and the players trust him."

Parked in a chair at this Tuesday's media session, Marshman said: "Yeah, good, ol' 'DC,' that's what we call Danny. You know the coaches trust him, or he wouldn't be in here almost every Tuesday. You don't want a bunch of loose cannons in here. Well, you don't have to worry about that with DC. He's just as solid and dependable here as he is on the field."