Hokies moving forward with Hendon Hooker as starting QB this weekend against Boston College
After watching Hendon Hooker provide Virginia Tech’s offense a spark in the second half Saturday in the Hokies' 56-45 loss at North Carolina, coach Justin Fuente declared Hooker the starting quarterback moving forward.
Of course, that’s barring the unforeseen – and the unforeseen is already the undisputed champion of the 2020 season.
“I would say we are always evaluating it,” Fuente said Monday regarding No. 23 Virginia Tech’s quarterback situation. “Hendon will start this week unless things change, I reserve the right in 2020 to adapt if we need to. That’s the plan for now.”
Virginia Tech will look to bounce back Saturday against Boston College (3-1, 2-1 ACC) with Hooker under center to start for the first time this season. Braxton Burmeister has started Tech’s first three games.
Playing in his first game this fall at UNC after sitting out against N.C. State and Duke, Hooker got in for one first-half drive in Chapel Hill. He played the entire second half and helped Tech (2-1, 2-1) amass 305 yards in the final 30 minutes (Tech had 495 yards for the game).
Hooker was 7 of 13 passing for 136 yards and two touchdowns. He added 29 rushing yards, including a 5-yard touchdown run. Burmeister completed 7 of 15 passes for 79 yards and ran for 51 yards.
Though he missed two weeks of practices with an undisclosed medical situation, Hooker wasn’t willing after the UNC game to discuss it. He said he didn’t know how much playing time he’d get against North Carolina.
“No one really knew how much time I would get, or how much time Braxton would play,” Hooker said after the loss at UNC. “We kind of just played it by ear. That was it.”
Hooker was 6-2 last season as Virginia Tech’s starting quarterback. While he’ll look to get comfortable again as a starter, it remains to be seen how Tech recovers from one of its worst defensive efforts in decades.
Fuente indicated depth-chart issues created by lack of practice time for players returning from coronavirus quarantining produced significant problems at UNC. He said there was at least one example of him seeing a player for the first time in 10 days at Friday’s walk through before the UNC game after the player had just returned from quarantine.
Missed tackles and players forced to participate out of position – linebacker Alan Tisdale played safety late in the game – contributed to Virginia Tech surrendering 656 yards, which was the most since it gave up 833 yards in 1973 against Alabama.
“We’re drawing stuff up on the sideline trying to get 11 people out there,” said Fuente, whose team was missing 15 players against North Carolina because of quarantining or isolation resulting from coronavirus positive tests and contract tracing, injuries and other issues. “It was like eighth-grade football. That’s what it was. So, I hate it for our kids, but that was the situation we were in.”
Norm Wood, 757-247-4644, nwood@dailypress.com
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