Ali Jennings, after starring at ODU, seeks success at Virginia Tech. ‘I’m here to make plays for y’all now.’

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ali Jennings started his media session Thursday at ACC Football Kickoff with an apology.

“First off, I want to say I’m sorry to my coach and my teammates now about that last year,” Jennings said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Jennings didn’t do anything wrong last year; rather, as an Old Dominion wide receiver, he helped upset Virginia Tech in the first game of the 2022 season.

In the Monarchs’ 20-17 win last year, Jennings led the Monarchs in receiving with five catches and 122 yards.

Looking back on the game, the Richmond native believed he played with an extra chip on his shoulder.

“The previous staff didn’t offer me,” Jennings said, referring to Virginia Tech. “I grew up in Virginia, I always wanted to come to Virginia Tech and me not getting an offer kind of felt like a slap in my face. So I always told my family if I ever got to play them they would have a problem on their hands.”

Even though his 2022 season was cut short due to injury, Jennings finished as Old Dominion’s leading receiver with 959 yards and nine touchdowns. Those numbers were good enough for third and first in the Sun Belt, respectively, and helped him earn a first-team All-Sun Belt nod.

Jennings joked that after he transferred to Virginia Tech during the offseason, his new teammates gave him a hard time for playing a key role in the upset.

“They were like, ‘Man you didn’t have to do us like that. You didn’t have to go that crazy on us,’” Jennings said. “I was just trying to do my job. My team asked me to go make some plays and that’s what I tried to do. (I was like,) ‘It just so happened to be against y’all, but I’m here to make plays for y’all now.”

Since his visit to Blacksburg during winter break, Jennings said he’s been accepted with open arms by the program and has found its environment to be “addictive.”

“When you walk in the facility and everybody is greeting you and you see how high-energy everyone is and how much everyone enjoys being around each other, it just hooked me,” Jennings said. “That was one of the big things I wanted to go to when I chose my new school. When I was there, I was like, I don’t want to leave this place. And it was close to home for my family to come see my games, so that was definitely big for me.”

Virginia Tech has a shot at a rematch with Old Dominion on September 2, and this time Jennings will be donning maroon and orange.

He still has great relationships with his former teammates and although Jennings tried not to think too much about the game now, he knows his excitement will grow as it gets closer.

“It’s still all love for those guys,” Jennings said. “It was all love when I had to leave the team, everyone understood. But, it’s still hard to make those kinds of decisions especially when you build a home with guys for a few years like that. I can’t wait, it’s gonna be a fun game.”

This won’t be the first time Jennings has played at the Power-Five level since he started his college career off with two years at West Virginia. After playing in Conference USA and the Sun Belt with ODU, he feels like there will be a smooth transition into ACC competition.

After missing the last three weeks of last season with an injury, Jennings has worked hard to get back to full strength, saying Thursday he’s as strong and as fast as he’s ever been.

“He’s a worker and he’s earned the respect of everybody on the team and his staff,” Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry said. “He was not entirely healthy in the spring. I gave him credit because he just kept battling. He needed to get the reps, he needed to get the work (and) shake off a
a little rust. He wasn’t 100% until the summer. So I’m excited to see him working with a full tank.”

Jennings said he’s already fitting into offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen’s new system.

There are some similarities between Virginia Tech’s system and what is being run at ODU, Jennings said, since Bowen coached with Monarchs’ head coach Ricky Rahne at Penn State. Jennings is also reunited with wide receivers coach Fontel Mines, who coached the ODU tight ends in 2021.

“I like everything that Coach Bowen is about,” Jennings said. “He is aggressive. He is very smart. … It’s going to be exciting to be in it, and hopefully, we make it exciting for everyone to watch because we have a lot of good players, returning players and new guys. The receiver room is insane. This is the deepest receiver room I’ve ever been in. It’s going to be fun, and it’s going to be — I feel like it’s going to be pretty hard to stop us.”

Michael Sauls, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com, (757) 803-5774