Here come the Hokies in their first game of the season tonight under the lights of Lane Stadium as they host an ACC opponent to kick off the season.
By Marty Gordon
Virginia Tech will take the field tonight against an up-and-coming North Carolina State team, with lots of changes to deal with. The biggest might be the uncertainty of who Coach Justin
Fuente will have available to play.
Earlier this week, he was scratching his head when he said the Hokies would not have a full roster and hoped they would be able to play. Fuente was honest with the day-to-day changes associated with COVID-19.
“I think we’re all living in a test-by-test world,” Fuente said earlier in the week. “We’ll see as they come. Hopefully everything works out fine, and it all works out. I’m not trying to raise alarm, but I’m also just being honest with the situation we’re in. We’re trying each day to see where it’s at, and hopefully we’re on the right side of where this thing is trending. I’m not positive one way or the other where we’re at, and I’ll know a little more as the week goes on.”
The university has not said how many football players or student-athletes have tested positive for the coronavirus over the past few months, but the number of overall students has been steady. Everyone involved admits it has been tough to stop the spread.
Daily and weekly testing for both the football team and the students in general continues. But at the heart of the problem is the “contact tracing,” and in most cases a large number of players have been in quarantine because of just being in contact with someone who tested positive.
Linebacker Dax Hollifield told reporters on Tuesday people have been going down right and left. He admitted that players knew it was coming. They just didn’t know when and how many.
“We have a row with the linebackers, and I’m the only one in that row and I’m like, Whoa. Well, this doesn’t look really good,” he said.
Just like others during this pandemic, Hollifield said the group is learning to handle it.
“If you’re still in, you’re still playing. You’ve got to go out there and do the best job you can,” he said.
It’s weird, according to the defensive leader. “You are not really sick or anything and they call your name. You tested positive, you have to do this, this and this and can’t be around football for two weeks.
“It sucks. It really does. It’s the way we have to do it. It’s the world we live in right now, so you’ve got to get through it.”
Tech is not the only team being affected by COVID-19. NC State had to cancel one game earlier this month and faces a lot of questions about who they will on the field tonight.
The Wolfpack enter the contest 1-0 after their 45-42 victory over Wake Forest last Saturday night.
Virginia Tech opens its fifth season under head coach Justin Fuente tonight. This is the third straight year the Hokies will open the season with an ACC opponent after two straight road openers at BC (8/31/19) and at FSU (9/3/18).
Tech owns a four-game winning streak vs. NC State, but this contest will mark the first clash against the Wolfpack under Fuente. The two teams haven’t met since 2015, and NC State hasn’t won in Blacksburg since 2004.
State finished the 2019 season with a 4-8 mark and is seeking to snap a five-game ACC losing streak.
Fuente’s 33 wins are the most accumulated by any Tech head coach in his initial four seasons with the Hokies. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney is the only active ACC head coach who can top Fuente’s 33 wins in his first four full seasons at an ACC school.
The Hokies haven’t played their opening game this late since opening the 1950 season vs. Quantico on Sept. 30
Lane Stadium has been good to the Hokies over the years, but things are again a little different this go around with no crowd and maybe the lack of a true home-field advantage.
Virginia Tech is 4-0 in home openers under Fuente and has won its last three ACC contests at home. Tech went 6-1 at home in 2019, marking the third time in four seasons under Fuente that VT has suffered only one home loss.
KEY SCORING STATS ON HOKIES, WOLFPACK
- VT is 23-5 when scoring 30+ points under Fuente.
- NC State is 7-23 in ACC play when allowing 30+ points under Doeren, including an 0-6 mark in 2019.
- VT owns a 28-2 mark under Fuente when leading at the half.
- VT is 31-2 when holding opponents to 21 points or less dating back to the start of the 2015 season (6-1 in 2019).
- NC State is 2-25 under in ACC games under Doeren when scoring 21 points or less (0-6 mark in 2019).
- VT has won 25 straight games when limiting opponents to 17 points or less (6-0 in 2019).
- NC State is 3-20 under Doeren when scoring 17 points or less
In other news, defensive coordinator Justin Hamilton and his wife celebrated the birth of their third child last week, but he didn’t have time to celebrate too much, as he continued to prepare his defense for his first-ever game as the defensive head man. Fuente tabbed him as Bud Foster’s replacement last December.
The Tech alum and former NFL player also has some new faces on the defensive staff., which includes former Minnesota head coach Tracy Claeys (linebackers), longtime NFL coach Bill Teerlinck (defensive line), Tech All-American and 12-year NFL veteran Daryll Tapp (co-defensive line) and Virginia native Ryan Smith (cornerbacks).
Tech’s defense returns six players who started all 13 games in 2019: linebacker Rayshard Ashby, linebacker Dax Hollifield, defensive end Emmanuel Belmar, safety Divine Deablo, defensive tackle Jarrod Hewitt and cornerback Chamarri Conner.
Those six players accounted for 22.5 of Tech’s 38 sacks and 48.0 of Tech’s 83 tackles for loss in
Five players with 50 or more tackles 2019 are back: Ashby (120), Deablo (84), Conner (68),
Hollifield (67) and linebacker Alan Tisdale (52).
Last season, Tech led the ACC in red zone defense (78.8 scoring pct.) and ranked sixth among Power Five squads. Tech allowed 23 TDs on 42 opponents’ red zone possessions, good for a 54.8 red zone touchdown percentage allowed.