ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Despite getting two touchdown passes and a rushing touchdown from quarterback Ryan Willis, Virginia Tech couldn't quite overcome Cincinnati in a back-and-forth affair, falling 35-31 to the Bearcats in the Military Bowl held at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Monday afternoon.
With the loss, the Hokies closed the season with a 6-7 overall record and saw their streak of consecutive winning seasons come to an end at 25. The Bearcats finished with an 11-2 record and became just the third 11-win team in program history.
Tech led 31-28 late in the fourth quarter, but Cincinnati marched 64 yards in five plays and scored on a Michael Warren's 8-yard run to take a 35-31 lead with 1:29 remaining. The Hokies drove to the Cincinnati 48 on the ensuing drive, but on second-and-10, Willis' pass was intercepted by James Wiggins at the Cincinnati 17 with 33 seconds left. The Bearcats then took a knee to run out the clock and seal the victory.
Arguably the biggest play in the game came early in the fourth quarter after the Hokies' Dylan Rivers intercepted a pass and returned it to the Cincinnati 12. The Hokies, who led 31-28 and had a great chance to increase their lead, drove to the Cincinnati 3, where they faced fourth-and-1. Head coach Justin Fuente elected to go for it, but Willis was sacked and fumble and Cincinnati regained possession.
Willis paced a Tech attack that amassed 443 yards. He completed 20 of 31 for 219 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception, and he also rushed for 33 yards and a touchdown. He threw touchdown passes of 21 and 2 yards to Eric Kumah and Chris Cunningham, respectively.
Deshawn McClease rushed for 102 yards on 13 carries as well for the Hokies.
Warren rushed for 166 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries for the Bearcats, who finished with 462 yards.
(12/31/2018) 2018 MILITARY BOWL GAME
GAME NOTES
• For the first time this season, Tech lost a game despite rushing for at least 200 yards. The Hokies rushed for 224 against a Cincinnati defense allowing just 101.8 coming into the game.
• For the eighth time this season, the Hokies finished with more than 400 yards of offense.
• Willis' two touchdown passes gave him 24 for the season – tying for the second-most touchdown pass in a single season in Tech history (Tyrod Taylor). Jerod Evans holds the school record with 29.
• Kumah's 21-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter marked his seventh touchdown reception of the season and the ninth of his career.
• Steven Peoples' rushing touchdown marked his sixth of the season and the ninth of his career.
• McClease's 102 yards were his second-most in a game in his career. He rushed for 124 yards in the Hokies' loss to Oklahoma State in the Camping World Bowl last December.
• The touchdown reception by tight end Chris Cunningham was his second of the season. Seven of Cunningham's 20 career catches have been for touchdowns.
• Rivers registered his first career interception.
QUOTES TO NOTE
Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente
(On what he can do to changes things so that the program won't go through this again)
"I'm not getting into that right now. That's a fair question, but I'm not going into that right now. I think it's important that we do a great job of examining ourselves. We've got to create a culture of unselfishness and discipline, where guys believe in each other and do the right thing and continue to develop these young people. It's up to us to set the stage for that and cultivate that and start Jan. 22."
(On whether the culture is where it needs to be)
"I think it could always be better. My point is that the guys we have, the guys that finished the season, were great examples of it. We were awfully short-handed out there. Awfully short-handed. We can't be that short-handed again next year."
(On Cincinnati's final drive)
"Tackling is a product of technique and execution and physical-ness. We have some guys out there that are playing before they should be playing, and it's harder to bring down guys when you're not as developed. We certainly could be better from a fundamental standpoint. I don't think there's any coach in America that doesn't want to improve there, and then there is a level of aggressiveness that you've got to have to go play defensive football. There are a couple of runs in there … that we should have the guy on the ground and we had a hard time getting him down."
(On his players' responses to coming back after having some time off for Christmas)
"I felt pretty good. I thought the guys laid it on the line today. Again, it's not perfect by any means, but I was never on the field thinking anything other than we've got a bunch of guys out here trying to win the game. So, I felt good about that part."
Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster
(On giving up the big plays)
"It just comes back to execution, and that's part of it … The kids played hard. We gave up a couple of plays, and that's the nature of the game these days. With a group that's fought their tail off … we were short-handed tonight. You lose Ricky Walker early. We needed his discipline and toughness inside there at the end. It was disappointing. We make a play and don't finish – on either side. We didn't respond on either side of the ball, and that's disappointing right there. We had an opportunity to go up two scores, and we didn't, and then we didn't respond defensively. That's kind of how we've been this year, just up and down that way. We had an opportunity to finish, and we didn't do it on our side of the ball."
(On the growth he's seen with his defense this season)
"I have seen a lot of growth, but at the same time, it's been inch by inch rather than by leaps and bounds, and as coaches, you want to be better sooner rather than later. But the one thing this group of kids did was they fought hard to get us to this position, and when everybody was counting us out and writing us off, they persevered and won two games against two really good football teams and had an opportunity to play a good football team today – and had an opportunity to win the game, but came up a little short.
"My hat is off to Cincinnati. They had a great year, but we put ourselves in position to win this football game. In the end, we didn't execute enough to get it done. I appreciate the effort of our kids. I appreciate the effort of our seniors. We didn't have many, particularly on defense. I'm going to miss those guys because we've got a couple that are really special in my eyes, in particular Ricky Walker and Vinny Mihota, who were a big part of the transition. They were holdovers from the Coach Beamer era to Coach Fuente era and really were the glue to this thing a little bit. We had a lot of success, and we just didn't have enough firepower in the end this year as far as leadership, as far as guys with experience ahead of guys that we had to throw to the wolves, so to speak. I saw improvement, and I hope that they group that we had … this will create an edge in our work and preparation this offseason. I hope they'll train agitated and train with a purpose."
UP NEXT
The Military Bowl concluded the season for the Hokies. Fans' next opportunity to see the team play will come at the annual spring game in mid-April.