This season was a unique one for college football teams in terms of scheduling. Each team got two bye weeks with Thanksgiving being so late this season. Virginia Tech had their first bye on Oct. 12, one week after they traveled cross-country and beat first-year ACC member Stanford, 31-7 on Oct. 5 in front of a small crowd.
This past weekend was the Hokies' second bye week and it came at an odd time with just three weeks remaining in the regular season. At 5-5, you could say that the bye week came at a good time for several reasons. The biggest reason would be to give Virginia Tech’s injured players an extra week of rest with one win still needed to become bowl-eligible for a second straight season. Tuesday, head coach Brent Pry met with the media and gave injury updates on some key players as they prepare for an ACC road game at Duke.
Brent Pry gives injury updates ahead of Duke
In the last couple of weeks, the big questions were what was the health status of key Hokies? Quarterback Kyron Drones, and running backs Bhayshul Tuten and Malachi Thomas were injured in the last couple of weeks. According to Pry, all three players are questionable for Saturday night in Durham, N.C.
All three players did not practice last week during the bye week, which wasn’t surprising, but this week, their health should become more clear with practices and how much they participate. Drones was injured ahead of the Syracuse game on Nov. 2 and Tuten went down with an ankle injury the week before against Georgia Tech. Thomas was injured between Syracuse and Clemson.
Drones and Tuten played against Clemson, but neither was very effective and it makes you wonder why it took so long for the coaching staff to go to backups against the Tigers. UCLA transfer QB Collin Schlee played in the fourth quarter against Clemson, but he too was playing injured after an injury the week before against the Orange.
Still needing one win to become bowl-eligible, the Hokies are going to need all hands on deck against Duke and the following weekend against Virginia. As the game gets closer, we should be getting a better idea of who will play and who won’t.