Virginia Tech, Maryland seek to post winning season
NEW YORK — Virginia Tech and Maryland have a tie to break in the Pinstripe Bowl.
Both teams are 6-6 and the one that walks off the field Wednesday at Yankee Stadium with the victory will end with a winning record — and a bit of a fresh start headed into 2022.
“We haven’t had a winning season around here in a long time and the fact that we’re having an opportunity to play a meaningful game in December with that on the line, a chance to have a winning season, to me shows that the progress is being made with our program,” Maryland coach Michael
Locksley said.
Locksley can appreciate the opportunity as much as any other coach: He won only six games combined at Maryland in two-plus seasons heading into this year.
“By no means is 6-6 the landmark that we want to have,” Locksley said. “But to be able to take this step in year three by becoming a bowl-eligible team is invaluable.”
Maryland is trying for a winning record for the first time since it went 7-6 in 2014. The Terrapins haven’t won a bowl game since 2010.
Virginia Tech is trying to send off interim coach J.C. Price with a victory before he yields to former Penn State defensive coordinator
Brent Pry. Price, who will stay on as an associate head coach and defensive coach, replaced Justin Fuente in November and led the Hokies to a bowl game with a five-point win over Virginia in the season finale.
“Everybody is excited about coach Pry and the direction and the vision he has and the direction he is going to take us,” Price said.
The vendors at baseball games used to cry that fans can’t tell the players without a scorecard. So perhaps it’s appropriate to find one for Virginia Tech at Yankees Stadium.
Hokies — make it, ex-hokies — used Twitter over the last month as a transaction wire to announce they would leave the program.
Quarterbacks, wide receivers, defensive lineman, defensive ends, all bolting for the transfer portal or declaring for the NFL draft. It will lead to a bit of a makeshift lineup in the Pinstripe Bowl. Junior quarterback Connor Blumrick, a transfer from Texas A&M, gets the start.
“I wouldn’t say that we’ve had any more optouts than anybody else in the country,” Price said. “I think that’s just the nature of college sports right now.
Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa set school single-season records with 308 completions and 3,595 yards passing.
He has completed 68 percent of his attempts for 24 touchdowns. The Alabama transfer — younger brother of Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa, earned All-big Ten honorable mention honors and finished second in the conference in passing. After setting the school’s single-season passing record, Tagovailoa said he would return next season.
“What we’ve found is, we’ll go as far as Taulia will take us,” Locksley said. “I really like the way he has developed for us throughout this season. Really, 16 games into a career and being able to rewrite some of our record books with a record-breaking year this year, and then to have a chance to continue to build on it playing in this bowl game, it’s been great.”
The Hokies have a special bond with the Yankees following the April 16, 2007 shooting on the Virginia Tech campus that left 32 dead. The Yankees made a $1 million donation to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund.