PRESSURE FOR BOWL PILING UP
25-year streak in jeopardy as injuries hamper comeback hopes
BLACKSBURG — As Virginia Tech prepares for an all-important stretch to determine whether it will play in a bowl for a 26th consecutive season, it’s apparent the Hokies’ dire injury situation won’t be getting any better.
Tech coach Justin Fuente said Monday during his press conference ahead of Saturday’s game against Miami (5-5, 2-4 ACC) that starting defensive end Houshun Gaines will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury. Barring the addition of a 12th game to replace Tech’s cancelled contest against East Carolina, the Hokies must snap a three-game skid and beat Miami and Virginia to get bowl eligible.
“(Gaines) plays extremely hard and will be missed,” said Fuente, whose team will kickoff Nov. 23 at 3:30 p.m. against U.Va., as was announced Monday. “He’ll be very quickly on the road to recovery and we look forward to having him out there next year.”
Though some five-win teams may be able to reach a bowl that can’t find a six-win team to fill a spot by having strong Academic Progress Rate numbers, Tech (4-5, 3-3) is virtually assured of not having a good enough APR score to get into the bowl mix as a five-win team.
Tech is 23rd among Football Bowl Subdivision teams with four or five wins in APR scores, based on 2016-17 football APR results. In the last three seasons, only four teams with five wins participated in bowls — none last season.
With the stark reality that five wins simply won’t cut it, there’s growing pressure for Tech to try to pick up a 12th game. Marshall, Southern Mississippi, No. 9 West Virginia, No. 12 Central Florida, Appalachian State and North Carolina are all still without scheduled 12th games, but there are obstacles if Tech is trying to schedule almost any of those programs for the first weekend in December.
Marshall, West Virginia, Central Florida and Appalachian State have all achieved the six-win minimum for bowl eligibility. West Virginia may be playing in the Big
12 championship game the first weekend in December, and Tech has already played and beaten UNC this season. Plus, UNC and Appalachian State are likely seeking home games to replace those that were canceled because of Hurricane Florence.
“We've got interest in all of the scenarios. …There's a lot to all that, and (Tech athletic director) Whit (Babcock) has done a great job of keeping me up to date to what's going on, and we're continuing to work our way through it,” Fuente said. “Do we have interest? Certainly. We have interest in all the potential scenarios of what could happen and all the moving pieces that come about that don't have anything to do with the football team, but have everything to do with everybody on the outside.”
After Saturday's 52-22 loss at Pittsburgh, Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster said on the team's postgame radio show Gaines, who leads the team with 4½ sacks, had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. With Gaines out, Tech listed redshirt freshman Zion Debose on Monday as a first-team defensive end along with redshirt sophomore Emmanuel Belmar, who sat out the Pitt game with an undisclosed injury.
Against Miami, which has lost four consecutive games, Tech will replace Gaines with its 20th different starting defensive player this season. On Tech's twodeep this week, there are four redshirt freshmen — Debose, second-team ends TyJuan Garbutt and Nathan Proctor and second-team defensive tackle Robert Porcher — among eight possible defensive line spots.
Five true freshmen — linebacker Dax Hollifield, linebacker/nickel back Nasir Peoples, strong safety Chamarri Conner and cornerbacks Jermaine Waller and Armani Chatman (Bayside High) — and redshirt freshman linebacker Rico Kearney also populate second-team spots in the back seven of Tech's defense. Redshirt freshman Caleb Farley has started all season at cornerback.
Fuente added he doesn't know if Tech will have running back Deshawn McClease (Oscar Smith), who also sat out at Pitt with an undisclosed injury, will be ready to go for the Miami game. Fuente said Monday if he had to guess at that early stage, he'd say McClease won't play.
“I do think that it's a good example of the toll that can be enacted on your team when you talk about offenses that go as fast they can every single snap, the strain that puts on the defense or when you're not as good defensively as you have been, the amount of snaps that they have to play can lead to a couple situations like this,” Fuente said. “So, certainly we've had our fair share.”