Hokies rout wolfpack in unconventional season opener

Chris Hirons

September 27, 2020

BLACKSBURG - On the first play of Virginia Tech’s 2020 season, running back Kahlil Herbert received a handoff and ran between the guards for a 13-yard gain.

In a normal year, the focus on that particular play would have been on Herbert, who transferred to play a graduate year in Blacksburg. Instead, the focus was on the quarterback who handed him the ball: Braxton Burmiester.

Hendon Hooker would have been the one to hand the ball off to Herbert in a normal season, except the Hokies’ quarterback was out due to quaratining from COVID-19, along with other unspecified medical issues.

“Hendon’s going to be back with us on Monday,” head coach Justin Fuente said. “Our trainer and our doctor have been really remarkable through this, and I’m really appreciative to be a part of it.”

Virginia Tech 45-24 routed NC State in Lane Stadium, handing the Wolfpack its first loss of the season. For the first time since December, the Hokies were able to sniff the football field.

An offseason described by social-distancing, coronavirus testing, opt-outs and schedule alterations, along with replacing a 33-year stable on the defensive coaching staff in Bud Foster, was anything but normal.

“We got off to a good start,” Fuente said. “I feel like we kind of lost our wind; it’s what I was worried about. We haven’t played and practice has been limited for the past several weeks.”

Twenty-three players and two coaches were held out of Saturday night’s game due to injury or virus concerns, whether it was testing positive for the virus or contact tracing.

Among those held inactive were Justin Hamilton, who replaced Foster as the defensive coordinator this season; Jermaine Waller, who was projected to take over the starting cornerback role after Caleb Farley opted to sit the season out and focus on the draft; Oscar Shadley, the long snapper; and Hooker.

Even with 23 players out, Virginia Tech didn’t fade with the pre-game adversity and maximized every opportunity presented to the team. Brad Cornelsen’s offense couldn’t be stopped as it averaged over 8.53 yards-per-play and ran through the NC State defense — literally.

The rushing attack picked up 314 yards on the ground, manhandling the Wolfpack’s run stoppers. It’s only the third time that the Hokies have run for over 300-yards in an ACC game since the team joined the conference in 2004.

“I’ve been pleased with [the run game for some time],” Fuente said. “It wasn’t until yesterday that we had all of our pieces together. Given the circumstances, I was pleased, and there’s tons of stuff we need to get better on.”

Playing on Saturday seemed anything but a given; even during the waning hours before kickoff. The path to Saturday’s game, for both programs, was a treacherous journey for the past month.

In mid-August, the virus hit NC State’s entire athletic department, prompting a shutdown of all athletic programs. This forced the football team to cease operations for four days. As a result, the original opener, set for Sept. 12, was pushed back to Saturday night’s date.

While the Wolfpack had problems with attempting to control the virus among its athletes, Virginia Tech dealt with the same trouble with its football team. Tech was forced to postpone its game against Virginia on Sept. 19 and shut its program down for four days, too, because of a backlog in testing and a rise of cases within the program.

And yet, fast forward to Saturday night’s pounding of NC State, it seems as if a college football season will be played.

The Hokies ran the ball 41 times, averaging nearly eight yards for each touch, against a Wolfpack team that gave up 42 points in a thrilling win over Wake Forest last week. NC State looked tired and somewhat lackadaisical from the get-go, surrendering 17-points in the first eight minutes.

Kahlil Herbert led the charge for the Hokies' run game, picking up 104 yards on six carries. Averaging over 17 yards per touch, he found his way into the endzone on a 37-yard elusive run.

Tré Turner, Quincy Patterson, Jalen Holston, Raheem Blackshear and Burmiester all received carries too. Five of the six, the only outlier being Blackshear, tallied more than 40-yards each and averaged at least 4.7 yards per carry. Blackshear also contributed to the winning effort with a touchdown in the middle of the first quarter to put the Hokies up 17-0.

As dominant as the run game was, the passing attack was just as efficient. The reps were split because of a hand cramp to Burmiester, which Fuente said was mangled and curled up. Burmiester said his cramp made it impossible to open it to grip the ball. Post-game, he told reporters that his mom brought packets of mustard down and ate the mustard to get rid of the cramp.

Passing-wise, Patterson arguably had the stronger game. In six attempts, Patterson completed four passes for 75-yards, including two touchdowns. Burmiester also threw the ball well, accounting for 106-yards on seven completions, which was good for a 63.6% completion rate.

“I was surprised at the time when I came in,” Patterson said after Burmiester’s cramp. “I mean, I wasn’t going to be surprised to be put in the game, but for the situation [with Braxton’s] injury, yeah, I was surprised.”

The key to the offense’s success? The offensive line.

Throughout fall camp, Hokie running backs raved about the holes that the offensive line created. One running back said that the holes are so big “you could drive a car through it.” The line turned into a brick wall all night, only allowing five tackles that resulted in negative yardage — including only two sacks.

“It was awesome,” center Brock Hoffman said of his debut. “It was really fun out there, competing with all the guys. Since I came in a year ago, I’ve been trying to implement this edge and nastiness to us.”

As quick as the offense hit the gas, the defense refused to use the brakes. The secondary, which had depth concerns even before coming into the game with Waller out for contract tracing reasons, stepped up in a big way as Brion Murray and Divine Deablo reeled in two interceptions.

The secondary had some major questions after Farley opted-out early in camp and following rover Devon Hunter’s arrest and subsequent suspension. Those questions were pushed off for at least for another week after the two interceptions, and freshman Keonta Jenkins, who replaced Hunter, led the team in total tackles with eight.

“There was some miscommunication,” Divine Deablo said of his connection with Jenkins. “But it was never a miscommunication that would have cost us the game.”

With NC State starting quarterback Bailey Hockman at the helm, the defense had a field day. The defensive barrage lasted until Devin Leary replaced Hockman in the third quarter.

Even with most of Leary’s time under center coming in garbage time, the redshirt sophomore torched the Hokies secondary, throwing for 165-yards and a touchdown on 16 attempts.

Tech’s front seven raised eyebrows when it came to the pass rush, totaling six sacks and seven tackles-for-loss, all while mauling NC State’s offensive line in the process. Justus Reed, a seventh-year player, who transferred from a small FCS team, Youngstown State, made his presence felt with his return to Power-5 football. The former Florida defensive end led the team with two sacks, after recording 12.5 of them in 12 games last season.

Though Virginia Tech pummeled NC State all the way back to Raleigh, it wasn’t all sunshine and roses for the Hokies. The team knew it would be in a rough shape conditioning-wise because of the lack of live game-reps and many of the players cramped up throughout the game, including Burmiester’s deformed hand cramp. Postgame, Fuente mentioned that Blackshear had been cramping up throughout the game, which was why the Rutgers transfer didn’t see the field in the second half.

“I was really worried about our conditioning and it was pretty evident,” Fuente said. We got out there and got rolling pretty quick and then it was like we were out of breath on both sides of the ball.”

The lack of conditioning wasn't the only thing that affected the Hokies - not having Justin Hamilton affected the team before the game. It was supposed to be Hamilton’s first game as the defensive coordinator since former defensive coordinator Bud Foster retired at the end of last season.

Fuente said that he was ready to go last night, until either a positive test or contact tracing, forced him to quarantine starting on Saturday morning. He said that both Hamilton and the players were disappointed that he would be watching from his couch, rather than on the sidelines.

“We didn’t find out until our pregame meal, really,” Reed said. “It surprised us, but you know it’s kind of the next man up. It’s still the same game. We just have to get out there and execute.”

Linebackers coach Tracy Claeys has been in quarantine since last week and Fuente knew ahead of time that Claeys was bound to miss the game.

Even though Hamilton’s situation was a surprise, Fuente said the team practiced the situation of switching defensive coordinator duties with cornerbacks coach Ryan Smith in its second scrimmage in August. Smith was the acting defensive coordinator during Saturday night’s emergency switch.

“He [Smith] did a great job,” Fuente said. “We practiced this in our second scrimmage. He’s got a bright future in this game; he’s really sharp, prepared, and he stepped up to the plate and did a fantastic job.”

With the virus going around the football program, there wasn’t much to get excited about in recent weeks. Even after the game, Fuente and his team went back to the locker room in the practice facility to celebrate the win instead of the locker room under the stadium.

“It’s weird,” Fuente said after the win. “It’s cool going to the locker room in the stadium because it’s pretty instant. By the end, everyone was happy, but mostly, just tired.”

On a night that swallowed the richter-scale level of the crowd noise in Lane, the stadium was eerily quiet with the marching band and cheerleaders off in the distance at the baseball stadium.

Looking at the final score, the small crowd didn’t affect the way that the Hokies played tonight. The defense fed off of the offense’s early jump and vice-versa. It was evident early, and throughout the game, that Tech had been itching to get back on the field after all the cancellations.

In other words, the Hokies brought their own juice.