Wyatt Teller Dishes on the Death of the "Bun of Disgust" and the Birth of "The Fool's Hammer"

The Hokies' top OL talks mullets and provides the backstory to "The Fool's Hammer".

[Mark Umansky]

Cheryl Teller doesn't use the Internet too often, but word of her youngest son's madcap mullet eventually reached the Teller household.

And with that, the most popular hairstyle in Blacksburg was no more.

"My mom said 'cut the mullet,'" laughed Wyatt. "And she wasn't joking, so I cut the mullet and that was that."

Freshman quarterback Jack Click did the honors while offensive tackle Wade Hansen — a beard enthusiast in his own right — managed the photography of the somewhat tragic event. But if you ask Wyatt, he still doesn't quite understand what all the hoopla was about.

"It was basically a whole ordeal, I guess. They thought it was hilarious. Everybody was snapchatting it and everything, putting it on Twitter and Facebook and all that stuff. It was just hair," Teller joked.

But the disappearance of the infamous mullet, or "bun of disgust" as Teller described it, was not the only offensive line mystery solved at Tuesday's media availability. Teller also revealed the origin of the meat tenderizer that he was seen clutching on the sideline against Furman.

"The Fool's Hammer, is what it's called. Fools was a thing that got started way back when and Augie...said it's the Hammer," said Teller.

There is more to this hammer than meets the eye, though. Inscribed across the silver shell are motivational sayings like "Beat UVA" and "Pound it Out," a constant reminder to the offensive line of the bulldog mentality they embrace.

"It's funny, but it's something that actually does symbolize how hard we're working," Teller admitted.

Where does one find a meat tenderizer with motivational Virginia Tech slogans already carved into it? Well, that's where Tony Conte comes in.

"Augie's dad actually did the whole thing," Teller said of the custom work from the elder Conte. "It's really impressive actually. When he first pulled it over, I thought 'what the heck is that.' It was crazy."

But "The Fool's Hammer" would be meaningless if the Hokies offensive line wasn't producing on the field. Thankfully for Teller, the hammer's current owner, that hasn't been an issue thus far. While Teller earned rave reviews from offensive line coach Stacy Searles on Monday,, Wyatt credits his fellow linemen with doing a majority of the brunt work.

"I really do feel like having (Eric) Gallo and everything with that and having good guys around me, every good play I have it's someone else helping me out," said Teller. "Half the knockdowns or half the pins I get, you see someone chip him, get him off balance, and then I finish or someone else finishes. And it's not just me who's having amazing numbers. It's a lot of people. I think Augie (Conte) finished with like 4 pins, like 12 knockdowns. So we're winning contact and that's how you win games."

One of the sole blemishes of an otherwise impressive offensive line performance through the season's first two weeks was the communication mix-up that led to a broken collarbone for starting quarterback Michael Brewer. And while Teller says the group takes "100 percent accountability" for Brewer's injury, he's also confident it won't happen again.

"From there (Brewer's injury) on out, we were really focused on protecting the passer, not only just blocking your guy but protecting the passer," said Teller.

And after the licking Brewer took, the offensive line now takes exception to even the smallest blow to their quarterback.

"I think sometime during the game someone poked or cheap-shotted Motley and four of us jumped up and said something to him," said Teller. "We're not gonna get a penalty or anything like that, but we said something like 'treat our quarterback right.' It's just a mindset."

Additional Quotes

Scot Loeffler

ON BRENDEN MOTLEY'S PERFORMANCE AGAINST FURMAN:

"My assessment after the game, I think, was dead on in terms of I don't think we saw the field as well as we should have in the first half. In the second half, we did a much better job and made more plays. It was exciting for him to rebound off that first half. It was exciting for him to get a little momentum, a little confidence. It was great for our team."

ON SOME EARLY MISTAKES BRENDEN MOTLEY MADE:

"The first play of the game, for example, they went to Cover-2 on us which they haven't shown a snap of two-deep on first down at all. And we were throwing a smash route and he worked it as if it was free access Cover-4 and didn't see it. Then during the two minute drive, the throw that we made to Cam Phillips, the ball should have actually been to Isaiah. So there was some things like that, the details, a lot of things that probably the fans don't see, but that we see that needs to get corrected when you're playing a really good opponent."

Sam Rogers

ON CONFIDENCE IN BRENDEN MOTLEY:

"I don't think it shook our confidence at all, because we already had confidence in him. I'm just happy for him that he has that confidence now, that he's able to say 'I was able to go 90% in the third quarter, I was able to do this kind of stuff.' Just for his own psyche, I'm just happy for him."

Kevin Asante

ON DEPTH AT WR AND HIS PLAYING TIME:

"I'm just concerned about just playing because anything can happen, so I just got to make sure I'm ready and the backups have to make sure they're ready. We're all just making sure we're just getting better each and every day. It's not really an individual thing. It's just a whole team thing...No one expected Brewer to go down, you see Motley stepped up. It's just really like everyone step up."

ON NEEDING THE ENTIRE WR CORPS:

"It's just next man up. In reality, we're gonna need everybody in the receiving corps, everybody. Believe it or not. We're gonna need everybody. It's really just be ready."

Wyatt Teller

ON THE DAILY LIFE OF "THE FOOL'S HAMMER":

"We literally just keep it here. During the game we run out with it and that's basically the most play it gets. For the most part it's just in the locker room."

ON STEPPING UP AS A LEADER WITHOUT MICHAEL BREWER:

"Brewer's a great player and he was a great leader. So now having a great leader just being on the sidelines and you don't get to talk to him every other minute, you gotta pick up your leadership and everything like that. You've gotta be a leader not only to other people but to yourself."

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21st century QBs Undefeated vs UVA:
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“I remember Lee Corso's car didn't get out of the parking lot.” -cFB
TKPC #666 ...man that was long wait...

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"I'm too drunk to taste this chicken" - Colonel Sanders via Ricky Bobby

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Wet stuff on the red stuff.

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"I liked you guys a lot better when everybody told you you were terrible." -Justin Fuente