Hendon Hooker will start vs. Boston College, and other Virginia Tech takeaways

BLACKSBURG, Va. — The quarterback Virginia Tech intended on opening the season with is back in a starting role.

Hokies head coach Justin Fuente confirmed what most everyone suspected after a second-half offensive surge in a high-scoring loss to North Carolina this past weekend: Hendon Hooker will start in Saturday’s home game against Boston College.

“I would say we are always evaluating it,” Fuente said. “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.”

Hooker played one first-half series Saturday at UNC in what was his season debut, spelling Braxton Burmeister for a drive in the second quarter, but took the reins with the Hokies facing a 21-point halftime deficit. With Hooker at the helm, Tech scored 31 second-half points in a 56-45 loss.

Hooker was far more efficient throwing the ball than Burmeister, completing 7 of 13 passes for 136 yards and two touchdowns and adding 29 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. Though Burmeister has been effective with his feet this year, running for 140 yards and two touchdowns, he’s only completed 46 percent of his passes (23-for-50) for 348 yards in three games, with one touchdown and one pick.

To start Hooker had been the plan from the outset, though there have been complicating issues. Fuente named Hooker the starting quarterback on Sept. 9, adding that Burmeister would play in some capacity. Hooker, however, was sidelined for a couple of weeks shortly after that, with an unspecified brief medical scare that was cleared up after more testing.

Still, he missed time, only returning to practice right before the NC State opener on Sept. 26, handing Burmeister the start. Though Hooker dressed for Duke the next week, he didn’t play. At the start of last week, Fuente said Hooker was a “full go” at practice, though he didn’t take full control of the offense until the second half.

“No one really knew how much time I would get, or how much time Braxton would play,” Hooker said after the game. “We kind of just played it by ear.”

The team seemed to respond to Hooker’s insertion into the lineup, just as it did last year when the Hokies turned their season around after the Duke loss, coinciding with Hooker’s ascension into a starting role.

“(He) just kind of has a little presence about him and easily approachable, an easy-to-talk-to demeanor that I think guys feel comfortable with. And then he knows he’s got to prove that on the field,” Fuente said. “And I don’t mean by always throwing touchdown passes. I just mean how you work and how you prepare and he’s done a good job of that as well.”

Here are a few other takeaways from Fuente’s Monday Zoom call with reporters:

1. The Hokies should get some defensive reinforcements back this week, most notably safety Divine Deablo.

Tech was down 15 players last week, though that was an improvement from the first two weeks, when it was missing 23 and 21 players. It was hit particularly hard at safety, however.

Among those who should be back this week is the free safety Deablo, who has missed the last two games. That’s a senior coming back to a defensive secondary that’s been playing freshmen and walk-ons.

“We had some young players out there that played a tremendous amount of snaps in situations they shouldn’t have been in that we really had no other choice,” Fuente said. “I’m hopeful they can recover and play. That does something to a guy when you are a young player and are in a situation like that, not just physically, but mentally. Hopefully, those guys can recover and continue to develop and help us prop that room.”

Though the safeties had their shortcomings Saturday, they weren’t alone.

“Just because you have guys out, it shouldn’t affect how we do our job,” Fuente said. “And you see that so many times. If you think about the first of the Duke game, we had a bunch of guys out, but the replacements were playing fine. It was the guys that everybody knows their names that were making uncharacteristic mistakes, and we can’t have that part of it. So the front six, let’s say, those are steady guys that have played a lot of football that will need to play better, and whoever’s in the back end shouldn’t affect their play. That’s a long way of me saying that we all share in this, and we need to play better up front, as well.”

Fuente said defensive tackle DaShawn Crawford, who has missed practice time and has been slowed by a lower-body injury, is closer to a return too. The D-line’s MVP last season dressed at UNC but did not play, only appearing briefly so far this year against NC State in the opener.

“He’s just been trying to knock the rust off essentially from not practicing for a good portion of time here,” Fuente said.

Backups senior safety Tyree Rodgers, meanwhile, will not play this season while he focuses on academics.

2. Quarterback Phil Jurkovec changes the complexion of Boston College’s offense.

When you think of the Eagles’ offense, you think of bruising runners behind a big, physical offensive line and limited contributions through the air. That’s not Boston College’s M.O. with Jurkovec behind center this season.

The Notre Dame transfer has been a difference-maker for the Eagles, leading the ACC with 295.3 passing yards per game. He’s completing 65.1 percent of his passes and has eight touchdowns to two interceptions.

“He seems to me to be a big, strong kid,” Fuente said. “Like I’ve seen several blitzers bounce off of him. Kind of a Ben Roethlisberger type. A guy that’s so big and strong that sometimes those guys have a hard time getting him down. I’ve seen him throw the old 15-yard in cut all the way across the field on a rope. He seems to have a big strong arm.”

It’s a welcome breakout for a BC team that uncharacteristically has not run the ball well this year, ranking dead last in the ACC with 60.2 rushing yards per game and a meager 1.87 yards per carry.

The Eagles ran for just 30 yards against Pitt last week but won 31-30 thanks in part to Jurkovec’s 358 passing yards and three touchdowns.

“I was a little bit shocked a couple of weeks ago when they only threw the ball — I can’t remember, 17 or 19 times, maybe? — against North Carolina but were right in the ballgame,” Fuente said. “And then last week, as I turn that film on and saw what they were doing and how they were doing it, it makes them awfully dangerous.”

3. The Hokies tried everything to slow down UNC’s rushing attack Saturday, even playing Alan Tisdale as a third linebacker/safety.

Part of the reason Fuente was so complimentary of his team’s effort, even in a losing result Saturday, was that many of the Hokies were put in tough spots.

Out of options at safety and with no answers to slow UNC’s rushing attack, the Hokies tried drawing putting Tisdale on the field with fellow linebackers Rayshard Ashby and Dax Hollifield, a look the team hadn’t practiced.

“I’m sure he wasn’t (comfortable),” Fuente said. “We’re drawing stuff up on the sideline trying to get 11 people out there. 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, and Alan went out there and did the best he could.”

It had little effect, with UNC still churning out yards at will. If Tisdale was discouraged at all, it didn’t show the next day.

“It was kind of funny,” Fuente said. “Alan’s a great competitor, great person, and he and I have a great relationship, and I walked by him yesterday, and he looked at me and said, ‘Why are you so down?’ So, Alan’s fine. He’s ready to go, got a great attitude. He’s going to be all right.”

4. Christian Darrisaw continues to thrive at left tackle.

The junior is starting to generate some NFL Draft buzz, with The Athletic’s Dane Brugler listing Darrisaw as one of five underrated prospects who could push for first-round status in the upcoming draft.

Easy to see why @dpbrugler is hearing 1st Round buzz from VaTech OT Christian Darrisaw.

Massive, mauling OT with good quickness/balance – big but not sloppy

I think Chazz Surratt will be seeing him in his nightmares. Darrisaw did some good work on 2nd/3rd levels in loss vs UNC pic.twitter.com/qk7Sk94XLG

— Ben Fennell (@BenFennell_NFL) October 11, 2020

Fuente’s seen steady improvement over the years from Darrisaw, who’s started from the second he stepped on campus.

“I would say that he’s improved every year,” Fuente said. “The thing about Christian is he has been blessed with great hips and great feet and he’s developed his body into being a strong, powerful body over the years. The thing that gives him a chance to be special is that he’s so very intelligent. He just has a really good understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Darrisaw, who was on Pro Football Focus’ Team of the Week and entered last week as the site’s third-highest ranked run blocker at the position, is quiet, though that’s not a drawback.

“Yeah, he is not the most talkative person. He is one of the most competitive people, though, which I think is awesome,” Fuente said. “One of his years here he played beat up. He had a foot issue that had to get fixed at the end of the year. He never complained about it, never missed anything to my knowledge with it. He’s just a tough, competitive guy that I’m all about those guys. And if they’re quiet, that’s a bonus.”

5. College football didn’t lack in scoring Saturday, something that has surprised Fuente this season.

The Hokies were involved in a shootout with UNC, with the 101 combined points the teams scored tied for the third-most in a Virginia Tech game since 1987.

But there were track meets seemingly everywhere, with Alabama beating Ole Miss 63-48, Texas A&M beating Florida 41-38, Missouri beating LSU 45-41 and Oklahoma beating Texas 53-45 (though that was in four overtimes).

The whole country looks like the Big 12 this year, which wasn’t what Fuente expected given the disruptions to practice.

“It does surprise me,” he said. “I would have thought it would be the other way around. Pretty much every year I’ve ever coached, you go out in the spring, and the offense can’t really make a first down on the defense. No matter where you’re at (as a team), no matter how good or bad you are. It’s just really difficult to get timing, to get execution down. I kind of thought it would look a little bit more like that. If you’d asked me before the season what it’s gonna look like I would have probably erred on the other side. I probably would have said I think the offenses will struggle, not be as sharp.”

Why is that the case? Fuente doesn’t have a good answer there.

“I’m not really positive,” he said. “I don’t know if because the numbers are down a little bit — a lot of teams are down a few guys, or whatever it is, if it affects the defense more. I know that’s what scares me. We talk about the game being safe and being down numbers. You can manipulate it on offense and usually find a way to go out there. But on the defensive side, you’re stuck out there, and you can’t punt. So being thin on that side is really scary.”

(Photo of Hendon Hooker (2): Bob Donnan / USA Today)