JUSTIN FUENTE DISCUSSES COVID-19 SAFETY MEASURES, QB BATTLE

Chris Hirons

August 25, 2020

With Virginia Tech’s season set to open on September 12, head coach Justin Fuente shared some of his frustrations with the COVID-19 safety measures Tuesday morning.

Though the team is still technically in fall camp with the season’s start date pushed back three weeks later than usual, Fuente expressed that his team isn’t as far along as they usually are when it comes to conditioning and team chemistry due to the abnormal offseason amid this year’s pandemic.

“I would be lying if I had said that we haven’t skipped a beat,” the fifth-year head coach said. “We missed all of spring practice; we had a shortened summer. It’s certainly had an effect.”

However, to the benefit of Tech, other teams in the ACC seem to be behind on their fall camp schedule as well. Yesterday, Syracuse head coach Dino Babers told reporters that his team is behind on their “hitting” practice.

The Hokies are set to begin their season at home against N.C. State — who just suspended the school’s athletics programs for an indefinite amount of time on Monday due to a coronavirus cluster within the different athletic programs.

“You walk off the practice field and just wait for the new news to hit,” Fuente said of N.C. State’s athletic suspension announcement. “Opponents and schedules could change; we’ve got to be ready to go with the flow.”

On Friday, Virginia Tech landed a verbal commitment from graduate transfer Devin Taylor—one of last season’s top FCS defensive backs from Illinois State. However, because of safety precautions, Taylor has yet to join the team, even after an initial negative COVID test.

“We can’t bring an outside guy in this quickly,” Fuente said. “We’ll have to get him up to speed once he’s cleared to join us. First, he has to work in small groups, then he can join larger groups.”

Fuente also mentioned that Virginia Tech didn’t have a fair handle on how transfers are able to join the program. He called it inconsistent and wanted clarity on the rules that the NCAA is playing by when it comes to transfers being able to join the team in the coronavirus-era of college football.

“Obviously it's not handled by the coaches,” Fuente said. “It’s handled by compliance, but I think we all just want clarity on what rules we’re playing by. It doesn’t seem intentional, but I’m not really sure how it all works out.”

The Hokies hosted their first two intrasquad scrimmages over the weekend. Fuente hasn’t committed to naming the starting quarterback for week one, but it’s difficult to imagine that redshirt junior Hendon Hooker will ride the pine on September 12, barring an injury or late opt-out. Though, Fuente did mention that Hooker, redshirt sophomore Quincy Patterson and redshirt junior Braxton Burmeister were splitting reps evenly during the scrimmages.

Hooker completed 61.1% of his passes for 1,555 yards with only two interceptions in 10 games (eight starts) in 2019, adding 352 rushing yards and 18 total touchdowns. He completed at least 50 percent of his passes in all eight of his starts, and he didn’t throw an interception until the regular season finale against Virginia.

Patterson showed his true ability as a runner after Ryan Willis went down with an injury during last year’s campaign and ran for 241 yards and two touchdowns in seven games — one of them being a start against Notre Dame, which resulted in a late loss. Patterson only completed 37.8% of his passes last season, showing that he needs to improve his passing ability before being given the keys to the offense.

Burmeister, a transfer from Oregon, was forced to sit out last season after not being granted a transfer waiver by the NCAA. Prior to arriving in Blacksburg at the beginning of last season, Burmeister sat behind the 2020 NFL Draft’s sixth overall pick in Justin Herbert at Oregon for his first two seasons. As a true freshman, Burmeister completed 59.4% of his passes while throwing for 307 yards with two touchdowns and four interceptions.

“All three guys have made good strides towards improvements,” Fuente said. “We’ll start to narrow that stuff down. They all bring different things to the table.”

In a normal season, the Hokies would have played their spring game, had summer workouts and a full August of practice to prepare for the upcoming season. However, with the pandemic, players were unable to practice together which made it difficult to rebuild the chemistry that was lost.

“We didn’t totally start back at zero,” Fuente said. “Guys found ways to get work in and Hendon has continued to build chemistry with the receivers.”

Earlier this month, the NCAA announced that this fall season wouldn’t count towards eligibility and allowed players to opt-out without facing any sort of eligibility repercussions.

To that, Fuente said that it’s “all hands on deck” this season, and that “a bunch of guys” were going to need to contribute in some way.