Danny Rocco helping read the pulse of Virginia Tech football (copy)
BLACKSBURG — It wasn’t an uncommon sight throughout the spring for Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Ty Howle to ask Danny Rocco a simple question. It could be asked the moment players began trickling in for the day’s practice, during one of the 15 practices or even in the comfort of a meeting room.
“What’s your pulse?”
No, Howle wasn’t checking on Rocco’s vitals. Instead, it was a question to gauge how an individual offensive player was doing or how the unit as a whole was performing.
Virginia Tech senior defensive analyst for offense Danny Rocco follows an offensive group during a spring practice in Blacksburg.
Rocco spent 19 seasons as a head coach reading the pulse of an entire team. He learned how to gauge when to push, when to encourage, when to reign in the intensity. It’s something that Howle, entering his first season as an offensive coordinator, wanted to tap into as he installed the offense over the spring.
“When he’s at practice, he sees things, maybe it’s body language, maybe it’s this guy needs a little pat on the butt or whatever it is, he’s been trained to see that for 20 years,” Howle said. “So for me, it’s I’ll ask him all the time, ‘What’s your pulse? What’s your pulse with the staff? The pulse with all of it?’ He’s had to manage a wide array of things, so he helps me from that standpoint trying to manage a whole unit and whole offensive staff, and he’s had a ton of experience doing it.”
Rocco, after three seasons leading the VMI football program, is entering his first season with the Hokies as the senior defensive analyst for offense. It’s a role different than his previous coaching responsibilities since he is part of the offensive meeting room and providing insight with how Howle moves forward with his game plans.
Danny Rocco, shown during a 2025 summer practice at VMI, spent three seasons leading the Keydets.
“It’s probably a concept that is very wise. You have people in a room that have a slightly different perspective,” Rocco said. “Now, I’ve been a head coach for 19 seasons. I’m not like fresh out of being a defensive coach, per say. I’m a defensive-minded guy. It’s kind of the idea that you have a different perspective maybe on how the defense is evaluating the offense, what the defense is keying, how they’re putting together their game plan, things like that. It’s just a different, fresh set of eyes.
“I’ve been really, really well-treated by the staff and obviously Coach Howle. We’ve created a really good culture in the offensive staff room. Coach Howle’s done a great job just with the dynamics. We all speak freely. We all have the freedom to be able to offer ideas. I think that’s been real valuable and it’s allowed us to move forward I think at a really rapid pace.”
Rocco served as a defensive analyst on James Franklin’s staff at Penn State in 2022. That role meant working with the defensive staff in analyzing opposing offenses’ strengths and weaknesses and helping formulate plans on how to attack.
His role at Virginia Tech allows him to bring his defensive mindset into the offensive meeting room and help the offensive coaches understand what defenses are trying to do each play.
“It’s great. As an offensive guy, you’re always studying defense,” senior offensive analyst Warren Ruggiero said. “It’s always nice instead of having to run down the hall and ask this defensive coach this, that and the other thing, to have Danny just right there is certainly invaluable. He’s got just tons of experience on the defensive side of the ball and special teams. That’s been great. That was really the design of the staff I think when Coach Franklin put it together.”
Rocco built his reputation as a defensive guru working for Al Groh at Wake Forest, Virginia and with the New York Jets; Bill McCartney at Colorado; Dave Rader at Tulsa; Tom Coughlin at Boston College; John Mackovic at Texas; and Ron Vanderlinden at Maryland. Strong defenses were his priorities as a head coach at Liberty, Richmond, Delaware and VMI.
Danny Rocco (right) and his Delaware coaching staff celebrate after the defense recovered a second-half fumble against Virginia Tech in a 2017 game in Blacksburg. Rocco, who spent five seasons leading the Blue Hens, is entering his first season as a senior defensive analyst for offense on James Franklin's staff at Virginia Tech.
Rocco and Ruggiero, as senior analysts, will study the opposing defenses and present how those defenses will attack and where Howle’s offensive game plan could exploit weaknesses.
“We’ll try to be able to present a clear picture as to who this team is, what it is that they do well, and what it is maybe that we can take advantage of,” Rocco said. “For Warren, it might be real specific things as he kind of dives into the menu of the playbook. For me, it might be more general things, things that I recognize structurally that maybe we could attack defensively or ways that we can create numbers advantages with formations and things like that.”
Rocco, Ruggiero and senior defensive analysts Brian Crist and Josh Conklin take notes nearly every day and they share their notes with Franklin. It isn’t uncommon, according to Rocco, for those senior analysts to share their insights with the staff or the team before players and coaches go to their respective meeting rooms.
“In the offensive room, again really, Warren and I’s experiences are so uniquely different. Warren basically has done that job before as a coordinator, so he see things in a way, he anticipates things in a way that I don’t,” Rocco said. “He’s got a great check-and-balance kind of system in place. Then I do think holistically, as a head coach for 19 years, we kind of, and again not being attached to a specific position in the way where like you’re emotionally attached to that position, you have a different perspective in how you see the dynamics within the unit, the dynamics within the position groups and things like that.”
Rocco’s role isn’t tailored to the offensive room. He said he is part of Franklin’s leadership council, which is why Howle often checks in with Rocco to get the pulse of the offensive unit.
His head coaching experience plus one year spent working for Franklin has helped Rocco find a balance being on the leadership council.
“As a head coach, building your culture is categorically important in being successful, having different thoughts and ideas with all that,” Rocco said. “Being at Penn State, I was able to really take in the dynamics, and I really took them to VMI with me, to be honest with you, the core values and things like that.”
Virginia Tech senior defensive analyst for offense Danny Rocco talks to offensive players during a March 21 practice in Blacksburg.
Rocco will be part of Franklin’s game management team during the season. He said there are a few staff members that will be involved in analytics, game day decisions, clock management and officials. That group meets during the week to break down the upcoming game, analyze how it could play out and the decisions that might need to be made based on the situation.
“I really appreciate this opportunity from Coach Franklin,” Rocco said.
Damien Sordelett (540) 981-3124
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