Coming off a 24-11 loss to South Carolina on Sunday afternoon in Atlanta, the Virginia Tech football team is facing a must-win home game on Saturday night against another SEC opponent, Vanderbilt.
Against the Gamecocks, the Hokies were short some key players, and that included running back Terion Stewart. The Bowling Green transfer missed the game with an injury, although on Tuesday, head coach Brent Pry sounded like he could be an option against the Commodores.
Regardless of whether he's going to be able to play, one thing is clear, Virginia Tech needs to quickly figure things out with their running game against Vanderbilt.
Brent Pry says Virginia Tech's running back room is a "work in progress"
Central Missouri transfer Marcellous Hawkins picked up 58 yards on the ground on 15 carries against the Gamecocks, while P.J. Prioleau and Jeremiah Coney also got carries, but aside from quarterback Kyron Drones and Hawkins, the run game was nonexistent. Pry said this week that it is a work in progress.
"I think obviously, Hawkins is going to be part of the equation,'' said Pry. "PJ (Prioleau) is part of the equation. [Jeremiah] Coney got a few tough yards the other night. Hopefully, Terion [Stewart]'s back this week. So, we're still working in progress there. We're still a little bit by-committee, even though Hawkins got a ton of reps out there, a ton of snaps. That's a good conversation for us this week that started yesterday about the rep distribution in that room. So, it's still a work-in-progress, I'd say."
Truth be told, I'm not sure the Hokies want Drones tucking the ball and running it and taking as many hits as he does. You can't really afford to lose him, running him as much as his body will take a beating every week. I get it, the offensive line is also a work in progress as first-year coach Matt Moore is left rebuilding it on the fly, but still, establishing the run is a must for every team early in the season.
Virginia Tech will figure out the running back situation, and hopefully, it will be better this week, but the sooner they get more production, the better, especially in a must-win game this weekend.