Hooker, Herbert, O-line run Eagles into ground
Hokies keep tapping into prolific rushing attack to seal victory
BLACKSBURG — Of all the complications Virginia Tech endured in the early weeks of the football season, the status of quarterback Hendon Hooker was the most troubling and, rightfully, the most private.
Boston College can attest he’s doing just fine.
No better way to confirm his return to full health than to
introduce him Saturday night as another potent element of No. 23 Virginia Tech’s already well-established ground game in a 40-14 mashing of BC. With Hooker and relentless running back Khalil Herbert playing behind an offensive line replete with long-needed bullies, Tech (3-1, 3-1 ACC) is flirting with a potentially historic rushing season.
After giving up 350 rushing yards Saturday night — the third time Tech has gained 300 or more rushing yards this season — BC (3-2, 2-2) won’t argue with the suggestion Tech is onto something big
Hooker’s career-high 164 rushing yards on 18 carries and Herbert’s 143 yards on 18 rushes put them in a category Tech hadn’t achieved in a decade. They’re the first two Hokies to run for 100 or more yards since Oct. 2, 2010, when running back Darren Evans had 160 yards and quarterback Tyrod Taylor, a Hampton High graduate, had 110 yards in Tech’s win at North Carolina State.
As for any lingering discussion over who should be Tech’s starting quarterback and if a rotation with Braxton Burmeister might be most effective, it’s safe to assume it’s a dead issue.
Even as Tech (3-1, 3-1) salted away the final minutes with a comfortable lead — after scoring 37 of the game’s last 44 points in the closing 2 ½ quarters — Hooker stayed in. A 17-yard run with 2:20 left for his third and final touchdown on the ground offered a near-perfect cap to Hooker’s evening.
“Always good to finish it off with a touchdown drive, and that’s
what we were trying to do,” said Hooker, who sat out Tech’s first two games and missed significant practice time after dealing with what the ACC Network reported this week was a career-threatening medical situation that put him in the hospital while he awaited the results of tests.
“I’ll stay out there all day if they let me.”
Not to be completely overshadowed by his quarterback, Herbert continued his early-season career revival tour since transferring from Kansas. He’s the first Tech player with 100 or more yards in four consecutive games since David Wilson rushed for at least 100 in seven straight games in 2011.
Already having run for 1,248 yards as a team, Tech is on pace for 3,432 yards in 11 games, which would eclipse the program’s single-season mark of 3,076 yards in 11 games during the 1975 season. Yes … there’s a long way to go.
A trip to Wake Forest next Saturday bodes well for Tech
continuing its ground-based onslaught. Wake Forest has the second-worst rushing defense in the ACC (198.3 rushing yards surrendered per game) and just gave up 218 rushing yards in a win against Virginia, which came into the weekend running for only 139 yards per game.
Could another 300 be on tap for Tech?
“Kind of our mindset in the game is we want to hit that goal at some point,” Tech center Brock Hoffman said regarding 300 rushing yards. “We’re not sitting there looking at the scoreboard, ‘How many yards do we have?’ But I mean, when we do a little sideline huddle and we look over there, like, ‘All right, 288, let’s go run, let’s get our 300.’ That’s kind of our goal.”
Three things we learned
Though it only forced three turnovers in its first three games,
Tech’s defense can be opportunistic. Cornerbacks Brion Murray and Devin Taylor each collected an interception of BC quarterback Phil Jurkovec, who passed for 345 yards, and Tech scooped up three fumbles, including a pair on BC’s first two possessions that stopped the Eagles’ progress inside the Hokies’ 30-yard line on each drive.
“I felt fortunate to be (leading 17-7 at halftime) because of those two turnovers,” Tech coach Justin Fuente said.
Cornerback Jermaine Waller, who played for the first time this season in Tech’s 56-45 loss at North Carolina, was one of 13 players Tech was missing (including starting right tackle Luke Tenuta for a second straight game) against BC because of coronavirus quarantining, injuries. and other issues, but Fuente is optimistic he won’t be out long.
“First of all, this is not what kept him out for a long time throughout the offseason and fall camp,” Fuente said. “He desperately wants to play. … I think he’ll be good to go this week — I think.”
Perhaps the elephant in the room is the state of Tech’s passing game. Tech has passed for 181 yards or fewer in three games this season, and Hooker was 11-of-15 passing for just 101 yards and a touchdown against BC. Wide receiver Tre Turner leaving the game in the first half Saturday with an injury and not returning didn’t help.
Once in a generation
How rare has a running day like the one Tech had Saturday been for the Hokies in conference play?
Tech’s 350 rushing yards were the most it’s amassed against a conference opponent since 2000, when quarterback Michael Vick, a Warwick High alum, ran for 210 of Tech’s 420 yards against then-Big East foe BC.